Kieslowski's films interest me A LOT Capo, but sadly I have yet to see one of his in a store.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - (Gilliam;1998;USA) - ***1/2
Hunter S. Thompson under an alias goes with his lawyer to Las Vegas on a drug crazed adventure into the "American Dream."
A great film that Gilliam deserves a lot of credit for being able to bring to the screen. This along with Dead Man is Johnny Depp's best role. Del Toro is also strong in his role. A hilarious film and very well written. (due to Thompson) I can't wait to read the book.
#15

Thanks for the recommendation Mick. I'll look for those to see if I find any of the two.
It's been a long time since I watched an Iranian movie, let alone one of Makhmalbaf's. The last one was Kandahar. Did you watch that one Mick? And if you did what did you think? Unfortunately, I've not seen Sib.
Makhmalbaf is one of the best directors, he often uses regular people in his movies and brings out the best in them. Sometimes, these people become even famous actors and actresses after his movies. Bearing in mind all the problems that a filmmaker would have to go through to be able to screen his/her movie here, his critical view of Iranian society has caused him many problems from government and conservative right. His daughter, Samira seems to be following her dad's job quite well from what I've heard.

Basic Instinct (92/Paul Verhoeven/US, France) 8/10

A well-made erotic thriller. A detective is trying to find murderer of a retired rock star. A controversial movie which has many things in common with Vertigo.

Actually, Afi, it was Samira who directed Sib. Her debut (made when she was a teenager), using leftover film stock from her father's Sokhout of the same year. I'll be seeing Mohsen's A Moment of Innocence later tonight probably. Other than that, I've not seen any Iranian Cinema; but I have seen Samira's opening segment of 11'09''01 - September 11 (2002).

Thanks for reading,
Mick

I actually have been looking for 11'09''01 since your review but couldn't find it yet.

Makhmalbaf's work is not very popular here. The best popular movie from Iranian cinema that I can recommend and I think you might like it is Rang-e khoda/Colour of God by Majid Majidi. This picture is very beautiful and touching. Let me know if you get around to watch it.

Batman - (Burton;1989;USA) - ***1/2
Driven by the murder of his parents, a disguised man issues justice upon Gotham City's criminals, and a new villain appears: The Joker.
Burton made one of the best comic book movies here. The best thing is the art direction, which gives off a gothic feel that is needed to the city. Many of it's aspects are great, with only a few minor problems with the entire film. This also has an excellent performance from Jack Nicholson, who adds his liveliness to the film. Michael Keaton is great as the Batman. The music is also admirable.

I got to the last 20 or so minutes of Casino, and the DVD froze.

Anything odd on the disk?

I didn't notice anything odd. The DVD worked fine the whole time, up until about the 158 minute mark. It froze, and jumped to the next scene. So I went back to the previous scene, and it did it again. Now I go to play it, and I can't get neither damn scene on the entire DVD to play!

Meh. The same happened to me when I bought Dr. Strangelove, which froze 15 minutes into it. They allowed me to bring it back and get another copy. (Spin Street)

The Deer Hunter

I had only seen this once before. It was better the second time I will admit, and while I think it is a great movie I also think it is pretty overrated.

10/10

12 Angry Men - (Lumet;1957;USA) - ****
One man tries to convince eleven other jurors that there could be a reasonable doubt in a murder trial.
The whole film is one big debate, and it never gets boring. I loved it even more with this second viewing. Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb are excellent in this film. The other cast members are also strong and Lumet's direction is top notch. One of the most important American films morality-wise. Racism, hypocrisy, character depth. Everything needed is here. Lumet's best from what I've seen.
#71

Lost Highway
(1997/David Lynch)
**** out of *****
[First Viewing]

A jazz musician suspects his wife of cheating on him, but neither are prepared for what happens next.

Lynch's surreal and pornographic universe is exploited to great lengths in "Lost Highway". Fans of Lynch, and mainly "Mulholland Dr.", will love it. Everyone else beware.
I can only begin to understand this film, but I imagine the key is in Fred's quote, "I like to remember things my own way .... not necessarily the way they happened."
The cast is excellent, but Robert Blake takes the cake as one of the scariest characters in film history.

I never saw an ECW show on TV and I was curious to see what the hype was about so I rented The Rise & Fall of ECW and just watched it. It was a lot longer than I expected (close to 3 hours) so I was happy that it finally ended but a great show with interviews from most of the old superstars. I didn't get the special features disc with the matches but the program itself was very informative

Noon va Goldoon/Moment of Innocence **** (1st Time)
1995, Makhmalbaf, Iran/Fr/Switz
A former policeman decides to collaborate with the film director who, in the 1970s, stabbed him as a teen, to depict the event again.
A poignant, wonderfully done and metaphorical drama; clever
intertextuality throughout.

Mick

Huh, A moment of Innocence is Noon va Goldoon? Why they change the name this much, the original name means Bread and Flowerpot.

The Horse Whisperer (98/Robert Redford/US) 6.5/10

A beautiful picture if you like country life and horses.

The Apartment #93 on the AFI Top 100 List

All I can say after watching this movie for the first time is WOW! This was an excellent movie and is the first movie on the list that I am actually thinking about buying. I'd never seen Jack Lemmon in his earlier days and I'm glad I did. This movie was very good

Dr. Zhivago
9.5/10

Watched it once again yesterday. David Lean became one of my fav. Directors only after seeing this and Lawrence of Arabia. This man was a genius.
Dr. Zhivago is a beautiful epic with a great cast, plot, score and everything what makes a masterpiece. Omar Sharif is great so is Julie Christie. Even if the movie's long with its 192 minutes its never boring. This has to be my fav love story ever in a movie. Even if its not ONLY a love story. Can't wait to see "The Bridge on the River Kwai".
How do others rate David Leans work?

Mission to Mars - *
Saw it because it had Tim Robbins and director was Brian De Palma. Total crap.Big joke of a movie.

I have a lot of Lean's work unseen in my room. I've seen Dr. Zhivago, a sweeping epic which is beautiful to look at but is too slow and overlong. Lean's best work that I've seen is Brief Encounter (1945), a sophisticated romance that has been much repeated and never surpassed; a small theme is given much depth by the two leading performances, the writing, and the technical wizardy of Lean. Modest, British, Masterpiece.

Irishman, I also have The Apartment in my room. I love Wilder. One of the finest directors ever.

Mick

Trzy kolory: Bialy (94/Krzysztof Kieslowski/France, Poland, Switzerland, UK ) 8/10

White as doves, wedding dress, snow, a statue and last but not least the second color of French flag that represents equality. Obsession with a woman to the point of doing anything to get even with her. This movie does not have the heavy atmosphere of Bleu, it is much lighter and even has some fun parts which makes it more entertaining.

OH TOO BAD!! THE SECOND PART OF CASINO IS AWESOME!!

Totally.

Wow, my local film critic gave the same rating for BATMAN BEGINS that I did: **** out of 5.

I just saw Batman Beings today as well. I thought it was very good. Not as "great" as others have said in the past, but easily better than Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Katie Holmes was good but nothing spectacular and did anyone else feel that Morgan Freeman was a bit out of place? He was good but it was just like, "what's Morgan doing here?" Bale did a great job but I didn't like the fight sequences because they were too fasted pace and the shots were too close up. I will however be purchasing it on DVD and I also felt that Cillian Murphy did a very good job as Dr. Crane/Scarecrow

A Place In The Sun #92 on the AFI Top 100 List

This movie was good as well but not as good as last night's (The Apartment). This was my first Liz Taylor movie to see and at the end it was pretty depressing. Fairly interesting to see if the main character would get away with his crime

Batman Begins was great, I just saw it last night. The action scenes annoyed me since you really didn't know who was doing what most of the time.

also if you go to Loews Theatres you receive a book about batman with your ticket (not sure if they do it in other theatres but 3 groups of people from my job went to 3 different Loews and got it) DON'T READ IT before the movie! I read parts of it before the movie started and even though it's not a spoiler it does give away information which would be better if found out during the movie.

Another thing about the movie that I didn't like was that the story was changed from the original 4. I won't give away any specific examples but I was upset that they didn't stay true to the originals

yeah I agree with that Irishman, although I only saw 1 part where the story changed, if there are more can you pm them to me?


** POSSIBLE SPOILER **

The other thing I didn't like is that the ending doesnot really leave room for another movie.

Trois couleurs: Rouge (94/Krzysztof Kieslowski/Poland, France, Switzerland) 8.5/10

The last installment of trilogy, Red stands for fraternity in French flag. A humane look into life and destiny and what brings us all together. Very emotional, although not as much as Bleu. Liberty is what everyone is looking for and equality and justice is everyone's wish but put yourself in other's shoes once in a while. Just beautiful.

SPOILERS
How so? I thought it left it open perfectly for The Joker's intro into the movie (plus as they said the Scarecrow was never caught). I told my friend about this last night and he got all over me for it but I am used to the story of Jack Napier (aka The Joker) killing Bruce Wayne's parents and not some other bum in an alley. That's what I had the biggest beef with was the change of story. It really wasn't true to the original 4 and he said there were many origins to Batman, which I thought was horrible. I mean, how many different origins are there? How many different origins does Superman have!?