Last Film You Watched

[Ian]

All time classic film.

[fish]

Winner of "best film" at the 2008 Stockholm Film Festival was "Frozen River", a US independant film written and directed by first timer Courtney Hunt. It just played on the World Movies channel and I thought it was excellent.

Grim story about two women, both deserted parents living in poverty in a small town on the US border with Canada.
Great performance by Misty Upham as Lila Littlewolf, a young Mohawk woman living in a caravan in the tribal area and trying to regain custody of her one year old son. Melissa Leo is also excellent as Ray Eddy, white, fortyish and trying to raise two sons age five and fifteen. Both have menial, low paid work and are forced to try to make money somehow, just to survive.


Their fight for their own and their childrens' well being is central to the film and is not dissimilar to Moodysson in that it does not judge them, it merely presents their lives for us to form our own opinions.

Excellent film, highly recommended.

[Ian]

Saw Back to the Future 3 again last night. The weakest of the three (the Doc/Clara romantic subplot really weighs it down, I find) but still great fun for the most part. 2 is still the best, though.

[snaps]

Watched ''Thirteen'' again (2003). I really can't recommend this film enough. It really does represent what American movie-making can do well when it sticks to familiar context and culture. Blue-collar Social Realism tied to a good dramatic plotline, and without the need for a huge budget. It couldn't really fail. The masterstroke was that Nikki Reed DIDN'T play herself in this autobiog of a troubled year in her life, but played the manipulative Evie instead. She co-wrote the script with the film's Director, Catherine Hardwicke. The MC, ''Tracey'' was played excellently by Evan Rachel Wood (Golden Globe nominated for the part) , already a seasoned actor, but giving the film credibility of being played by someone of that age. a very emotionally challenging role to play. Hollie Hunter provides the counterbalance as Tracey's mother, (and nominations for Academy award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe). There are other good cameo roles too like Deborah Kara Unger. The music is well chosen and the theme tune is brilliant kind of retro-hippy like Tracey's mother. A longer instrumental version of the tune appears on the DVD as the background to the ''extras'' section. Well worth a listen.

[fish]

Saw the 2007 German rom/com film Keinohrhasen (Rabbit Without Ears) today. Stars Til Schweiger as Ludo and Nora Tschirner as Anna. Schweiger also directed and co-wrote it.


Ludo starts out as an insensitive, womanising jerk of a paparazzi reporter who is taken to court and winds up having to do community service in a pre-school daycare centre run by Anna.


Anna used to go to school with Ludo and remembers him as bit of a bully for the cruel jokes he played on her. She decides to get her revenge.

Obviously being a romantic story this is heading in only one direction, and it gets there. A bit formulaic but a pleasant enough film although I did keep wishing Ludo would get run over by a car or something.

Ludo did get on well with the kids though. There was a definite connection there, although that's hardly surprising when you find out that four them were his own in real life. I wonder who did the casting.



Schweiger also played Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz in Inglourious Basterds, while Tschirner has appeared in over 20 films and TV shows in the last decade.

Now as someone with a bit of German blood in my veins I can say that the German sense of humour is not the easiest thing in the world to spot, but, the closing scene where Anna and Ludo are going to catch a taxi is one of the funniest things I have seen in a very long time.

[fish]

Watched "The Girl Who Played With Fire", as you would expect.

snapsie, I agree with pretty much everything you say, to me the film just felt...empty. I admit I haven't read the books, but I suspect I would dislike the films even more if I had. You could really feel that they had left out a lot of important stuff.

This is also the reason why I'm actually a bit curious about the american remakes - maybe, I'm just saying maybe, they'll be able to pull it off better then the swedes. Fortunately, they have at least stated that it will be new films based on the books, rather than exact remakes of the films.

Oh, and about the bisexual nature of Salander - watch film number two and you'll complain no more

I did enjoy this film, except, I wish it had gone on for another hour to fill in all the missing gaps.

Unlike "Dragon Tattoo" which seemed to tell a complete story, "Fire" seemed to be saying "that's all you get for now, we'll tell the rest of the story in "Hornets Nest". So from that respect I can understand Triddy's "empty" comment. Also some aspects of the violence and even the sex were a little on the gratuitous side, but overall didn't detract from the film. A big plus was the continued development of the Lisbeth character and why she became the woman she did. Noomi puts in another outstanding performance.



Another plus was seeing what happened to Papa Olof in the decade since Agnes ran away with Elin. Ralph Carlsson's character is not such a nice guy this time. Another illusion spoiled.

I trust that "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest" will tie all the loose ends together so that the trilogy as a whole will become the classic the story deserves.

Oh, and I will buy the books and think of Noomi when I read them. She will always be Lisbeth Salander.

[Ian]

Saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night. Very good, on the whole. Not an instant all-time favourite like LTROI was for me, but still a good gripping thriller. Long but I never lost interest or got bored, with some chilling moments and good twists. Almost certainly going to have to invest in the sequels now (when I can afford it, that is)!

[fish]

Watched "Avatar".

Spectacular special effects. All the CGI were really well done.

The story I thought was somewhere between "Alien 2" and "Dances With Wolves", but unfortunately not as good as either. Not a really bad film but I just couldn't see anything at all redeeming in the hero, nor could I form any sort of emotional bond with any of the other characters. Basically I found them bloody annoying.

The motives of the business owners were never revealed either, I mean how do they expect to make a profit by destroying a planet, and why would you put someone in charge who was unable to control the scientific and military wing of the enterprise. As for the indigines, what's the good of a technology that allows you to bring back people from the dead but not the intelligence to use it on your own people? Duurh.

The producers should remember the three golden rules next time they make a film.
Story.
Story.
Story.

[Ian]

That was pretty much my reaction too, fish.

[fish]

Just as I'm starting to miss all the snow in Åmål one of my all time favourite films is on one of the movie channels.

1999 film "Snow Falling on Cedars" stars Ethan Hawke as Ishmael Chambers and Youki Kudoh as Hatsue Miyamoto. Excellent supporting cast too, including Max von Sydow as the lawyer Nels Gudmundsson and Reeve Carney and Anne Suzuki as the young Ishmael and Hatsue. Directed by Scott Hicks from the novel by David Guterson.

Takes place in the 1950's with flashbacks to the 40's. A fisherman dies at sea and a man is on trial for his murder. Ishmael runs the small town newspaper where the incident occurs. Hatsue who is married to the man on trial had a relationship with Ishmael when the two were growing up.

Deals with Japanese migrants in the NW US at the start of the US involvement in WW2, the internment of Japanese born US citizens, the remaining prejuduces after the war which come on show during the trial and all the while tells the unresolved love story between Ishmael and Hatsue.

Superb cinematography, every bit as good as Avatar but this time simply relying on nature and the skill of Robert Richardson who won a stack of awards for his work on the film.

Slow moving, thought provoking, beautifully developed characters.

If you only like fast paced action films then don't bother with this one. It's slow deliberate pace matches the almost claustrophobic weather during the trial, but as a thinking person's film it's brilliant.

[triddy]

I did enjoy this film, except, I wish it had gone on for another hour to fill in all the missing gaps.

Unlike "Dragon Tattoo" which seemed to tell a complete story, "Fire" seemed to be saying "that's all you get for now, we'll tell the rest of the story in "Hornets Nest". So from that respect I can understand Triddy's "empty" comment. Also some aspects of the violence and even the sex were a little on the gratuitous side, but overall didn't detract from the film. A big plus was the continued development of the Lisbeth character and why she became the woman she did. Noomi puts in another outstanding performance.

Yeah, that sex scene in the beginning made me blush like a little prudish girl I just had to look away for a second

The motives of the business owners were never revealed either, I mean how do they expect to make a profit by destroying a planet, and why would you put someone in charge who was unable to control the scientific and military wing of the enterprise. As for the indigines, what's the good of a technology that allows you to bring back people from the dead but not the intelligence to use it on your own people? Duurh.

The producers should remember the three golden rules next time they make a film.
Story.
Story.
Story.

I agree completely, of course the story is not supposed to be the important thing in a film like Avatar, but all visual effects in the world couldn't fill all of the gaps and questions that were left unanswered. I think they took some things too far, and left too many other gaps empty. And couldn't they at least have tried to at least come up with one character that wasn't so stereotypical that you feel like you are watching a children's movie?

[Ian]

I did enjoy this film, except, I wish it had gone on for another hour to fill in all the missing gaps.

Unlike "Dragon Tattoo" which seemed to tell a complete story, "Fire" seemed to be saying "that's all you get for now, we'll tell the rest of the story in "Hornets Nest". So from that respect I can understand Triddy's "empty" comment. Also some aspects of the violence and even the sex were a little on the gratuitous side, but overall didn't detract from the film. A big plus was the continued development of the Lisbeth character and why she became the woman she did. Noomi puts in another outstanding performance.

Yeah, that sex scene in the beginning made me blush like a little prudish girl I just had to look away for a second

Oooh, DEFINITELY getting the sequel now!

[snaps]

Got two for a fiver off the market. ''Twilight'' (not a bad turn around from being overpriced in the shops to ending up on a market stall a year later) Must admit I only got Twilight cos of a certain female lead, but still fell asleep before the end, but I was vewy dwunk. Also got ''Runaway Train'' which is effing brill!!! Object lesson in film-making. You DON'T necessarily need a complicated plot to produce lotsa tension. Just get the ingredients right (This is like Shawshank, which is also good, but without the morality call) and engage superb actors.

[Rebecka Fan]

Death at a Funeral. Hilarious!! A must see!!

[Ian]

You mean that absolutely ridiculous remake of a Brit movie that's not even three years old yet? I think I'll pass, Kyle, no offence.


Saw Kick-Ass at the cinema today. Absolutely uproarious!