L.A. CONFIDENTIAL - Masterpiece - *****

A really captivating drama set in 50's Los Angeles with three cops of different degrees of professionalism tied together loosely in an investigation into the heart of the city itself. This movie sadly and wrongly lost to TITANIC in 1997 for Best Picture and Director Oscars.

Still, a fierce Russell Crowe before his fame as the Telephone Tosser of New York.

So, Ronnie, did you like Kim as well?

LA Confidential is a movie I've never gotten around to seeing. That and Le Samourai are 2 films that I need to see before I see anything else.

2046
Wong Kar-wai 2004 France/Germany/Hong Kong/China (2nd time)
Returning from Singapore to Hong Kong in the late 1960s, a writer of futuristic erotic novels tries to forget a past love affair.
A poignant hymn to cinema, memory and love; as aesthetically phenomenal as anything made in the medium.

Red Eye **

A predictable and cliche movie that was only enjoyable by the performances of Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy. Cillian REALLY stole the show and I think he actually did a better job than he did in Batman Begins. One of the reasons that I didn't enjoy the movie was for the way the movie ended. Not to give too much away but it felt like I was watching a Scream movie all over again.

PS - Capo. I just got 2046 from Blockbuster Online. Glad you enjoyed it. I hope I do too

I'm confused, isn't 2046 a sequel? I've been interested in it for some time but I don't know if I should see the first film.

Man, I still can't stress how much you have to see Fight Club... It is Fincher's best film, and if you enjoyed The Game, chances are you will like Fight Club. Another great film by Fincher is Seven, starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and (one of my favorite actors) Kevin Spacey.

Ya, Fincher rocks. Now if he would just make another damn movie, I would be groovy. I mean, who does he think he is, James Cameron?!?

SEVEN - Masterpiece - *****

Influential, for better or for worse(note all the lousy serial killer flicks that have flooded the market over the years. Though I guess keeping Ashley Judd working isn't so bad) masterpiece that along with SILENCE OF THE LAMBS helped to shape up modern thoughts on human-based "evil" in horror cinema, at least in America. Superb work from Brad Pitt before he got preoccupied with being a movie star and Morgan Freeman, reliable as always. Check out the great cameo at the end.

THE GAME - ****

Entertaining paranoia/conspiracy/mystery in the tradition of Hitchcock, but only for the bigger and more expensive descendents of MTV. Speaking of which, what happened to Michael Douglas anyway?

FIGHT CLUB - ****1/2 (Check out my Review! )

A near-masterpiece of a motion picture where truely the cult novel from author Chuck Palahnuik is transfered onto a steroid-pumped roller coaster ride that also tries to be itself a meaningful film to Generation X(though Gen-Y seem to respond quite well to the movie too). Truely Pitt's last great movie as an actor it seems before he started being quite generic with later works(SPY GAME, OCEAN'S 11, you name it). Oh and did I forget Edward Norton? Funny that many people didn't realize that he came back into cinemas in 2005 in that of the small yet punchful role of the leper King of Jerusalem in Scott's much wrongly maligned KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.


PANIC ROOM - **1/2

For a movie with thrilling direction and atmpospheric cinematography, the screenplay is shit. Really, Fincher turns what could have been an awful movie into just a mediocre forgettable picture. Now if Fincher would make another damn movie someday....

NOTE - Now why did I dare not mention ALIEN 3? Those that have seen it, well you all know why. (I.E. - It sucks)

Fincher's Zodiac is coming out later this year, about, you guessed it. The Zodiac killings, which also inspired Dirty Harry.

Cool news DV. Thanks!

BTW, I've got a new column coming soon....yes, another one. Wha, you wanna fight about it?

I'd like to see you review a movie like Last Days. I can't picture it being in the same tone as your others.

After this annoying week of exams and hours of studying every day, I'll try to fit in a movie or music review. Taxi Driver or Elephant possibly.

The Man *

I didn't think a movie could be worse than Martin Lawrence's Rebound which I viewed recently but I was wrong. How could Samuel L. Jackson fall so far so fast?

The Constant Gardener * 1/2

The story was boring, slow and not very interesting to me

The Brothers Grimm *

Laughable. That's the only word I can use to describe this piece of sh*t. Do NOT watch this movie unless you are in the mood for torture

A sequel, of sorts, to In the Mood for Love. Wong Kar-wai described 2046 as the drug to feed the addiction from his 2000 film. Both are masterpieces.

Night of the Living Dead
George A. Romero 1968 US (1st time)
A group of people in Pittsburgh become stranded in a house when unburied corpses come to life.
Always worth watching due to its influence and odd effective moments here and there, most of which involve the sherriff in charge of the rescue mission; otherwise, its interest does not go beyond the now-dated premise of evil winning over good.

Hostel ** 1/2

I was actually kinda disappointed that I didn't like this movie as much as Wolf Creek but it was definitely good. Not a lot of gore until the end and A LOT of nudity. It'll probably make some money as Quentin Tarantino's name is attached to it

Private Parts (1997, Thomas) ***1/2

The story of the rise of America's favorite Shock Jock Howard Stern, from his childhood in Roosevelt, New York to his hiring at WNBC in New York.

A very good and very funny movie about Howard's life. Paul Giamatti is very good in one of his first 'big' film roles. Howard does a very good job of portraying...himself, but that doesn't matter, he still is very good. Richard Portnow is very funny and enjoyable as the elder Stern, "I told you not to be stupid, ya moron." This movie is definitley in my top ten favorites ever.

Pig Vomit: "You're the anti-Christ. You know that, Stern?You are the mother-fucking anti-Christ!"

I finally got my hands on a few good oldies that was long on my to-see list, it has been a wonderful week.

The Big Sleep (1946/Howard Hawks/US)
I absolutely loved it. I just can't believe this movie has been made in '46, it doesn't feel that old. For one thing I found this movie to be superior than its time and even far better than the following movies made in 1960. Or maybe I'm too much blind when I see Bogey on the screen!?

-Is he as cute as you are?
-Nobody is.

If you think you'd hate arrogance, you might need to check it twice. It depends on who is being arrogant, or NOT!

The Apartment (1960/Billy Wilder/US)
One of the better romance/comedies great for the holiday season. I in particular loved it better than Some Like it Hot.

Psycho (1960/Alfred Hitchcock/US)
Aside from Anthony Perkins' performance, this movie didn't live up to the hype I was hearing about, nonetheless, I still found it to be a great movie. Quite a challenge for its time in regards to shooting some of the scenes. I guess that's the way to rightly put it.

The Star Boarder (The Landlady's Pet)
George Nichols 1914 US (1st time; DVD)
A boardinghouse tramp finds himself the focus of the others' jealousy because of his flirting with the landlady.
Exaggerated Chaplin farce, with little of worth to be found.

A Busy Day
Charles Chaplin 1914 US (1st time; DVD)
A woman is jealous of her husband's flirting; but she gets her comeuppance in the end.
Early Chaplin short in which he plays a woman. Unfunny stuff.

Caught in a Cabaret
Mabel Normand 1914 US (1st time; DVD)
A waiter rescues a woman from a thug, and, when invited to her home, pretends he is a Greek ambassador.
Odd moments here and there, though decidedly not in Chaplin's best vain.

The Pillow Book
Peter Greenaway 1995 France/UK/Netherlands (1st time; VHS)
A Japanese woman, obsessed with calligraphy on, and in a way as, flesh, searches for the perfect calligraphy lover, and seeks revenge on a publisher.
A shapeless form (that is, a carefully constructed piece of Cinema) which may be proof that the medium, in its purest form, is not quite as commercially enjoyable to the masses as the populists may like to think; as a multi-textured, technically accomplished work, it is an original, demanding aesthetic treat.

Cry Wolf **

A pretty lame high school movie about a prank that supposedly goes wrong. Not a lot of killing nor suspensful at all. Pretty disappointing

BROTHERS GRIMM - **

Celebrated visualist filmmaker Terry Gilliam tries to go for a mainstream hit-movie sort of picture, but instead encountered one hell of a production hell(to give one an idea, he took a 6 month break inbetween shooting and directed another picture inbetween it). Not to mention the Weinsteins fired his cinematographer, and other wranglings that leave a movie that isn't terrible and is charming of sorts in a fantasy sort of way, but this isn't BRAZIL nor TIME BANDITS. Nope, this is a movie that one will forget watching almost immediately, and will only matter seriously to the director's fanbase. In other words, its like Martin Scorsese's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD.

Wasn't Gilliam's artistic vision ridiculously limited by the producers?

Lets just say that after awhile Gilliam basically washed his hands of the picture after the Weinsteins maintained their position of meddling in the production, and Gilliam isn't exactly the sort of chap that takes authority like that kindly.

The Truman Show
Peter Weir 1998 US (1st time)
A life-insurance salesman finds out he has been the subject of a twenty-four-seven reality TV show for all of his life, and tries to escape it.
A tremendous satire on the world's growing obsession with reality TV, and how the media in general effects and controls our lives; it benefits greatly from Carrey's humour, and has a disturbing, "open your eyes" tone to it throughout.

Elephant
Gus Van Sant 2003 US (2nd time)
An ordinary day in an American high school turns into a disaster when two friends go through with their plan to randomly kill their fellow students.
A powerful, multi-character drama which, when viewed, is immediately excellent, though one is not necessarily sure why. Shot in long-takes, with the camera tracking from behind its characters through empty hallways, it is a haunting depiction of human tragedy.

Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee 2005 US (1st time)
1963 Wyoming: two cowboys spend a summer working together, and end up falling in love.
At times this looks like a ravishing epic. The same cannot be said, however, for the content; an exhaustively long film which, ultimately, makes a mountain out of a molehill. The problem is not in the subject matter or central relationship, but in the schematic way the narrative treats it.

Wow, 0 stars for Brokeback. I really liked it.

Glad you liked Truman Show though, thats one of my top 20 favorite films.

Ya, ELEPHANT is quite a minimalistic picture that I believe really gave Van Sant some career respect after that whole mishap with his PSYCHO remake. ****/5

BADLANDS - Masterpiece - *****

Terrence Malick's reputation was made pretty much with his directorial debut, which still amazes the optical senses over 30 years later. Featuring early career work from Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and many narrative and musical cues that would resurface 20 years later in TRUE ROMANCE, quite a picture that actually details a story about two murderous-headline-grabbing kids in love about the now cliche and boring angle about the "media sensationalism", which now I am convinced is a lazy plot trick in many weak pictures(like say 15 MINUTES) that which is a claim to say something "smart", when its not.

Truely a movie that cinema lovers have to see sometime...

Did you not want to rate or did you forget to rate this movie? Or is it really a zero star(i.e., a no-merit) movie in your opinion?

FOUR BROTHERS - ***

Entertaining revenge/action yarn that basically is the urban rap retelling of the old school western THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER. Still, a Mark Whalberg "action" picture that didn't make me grit my teeth or be bored with insanely stupid plot bullshit. No, Solid filmmaker John Singleton dishes out a box-office hit that actually is much better than its lousy marketing would suggest...believe it or not.

Lord of War ***

A more interesting movie than I anticipated. Nicholas Cage was his usual great self and it was nice to see Bridget Moynahan in another movie.

SVSG, I gave Brokeback Mountain no stars.

Which means, on the face of it, a routine or worse picture.

83 pages and I think this is my first post in the thread.

Kikujirô no natsu, 1999.

A young boy, growing up only knowing his grandmother sets out to seek his real mother. Within a few moments he's already come across trouble with bigger boys until a lady, a friend of the family intervenes. She orders her idiot boyfriend, Takeshi, to accompany the boy on his journey for safety.

Another Beat Takeshi classic. Takeshi, known more recently for his dark humour in his violent films goes back to his comedic roots for this one. For the majority of the film it works. I literally found myself creased in laughter. One excellent scene in which Takeshi is gambling all his and the young boys money at the races. It's just genius as it provides laugh after laugh and builds momentum for an incredible, I guess what you'd call a, punchline.

Sadly the last 35 minutes of the film lacks plot and whilst there are still humerous moments you're left wondering where the film is going.

This will be one added to my DVD collection ASAP.