Last Film You Watched

[snaps]

''Jennifer's Body'' OMFG let's make a movie mmm Teen - High School plus current bankable interest in dark fantasy/ paranormal romance. Formulaic sh*t which rips off every halfway decent film. Let's splice in Ginger Snaps with a touch of Water Lilies etc ad nauseam. F*ck plot inconsistencies and cardboard characterisation. The most glaring anomoly? The roadhouse fire. Any self-respecting indy band would have been fighting the flames to rescue .. no, not people .. but their equipment. Let's throw in everything .. even a bit of pointless defloration and a touch of lezzing off. No wit, no humor. WTF let's throw in animatronics, cgi, and prosthetics to make up for the limp plot, like it hasn't been done before. I'm sick and tired of watching REALLY bad films that insult the audience. This makes Cherry Falls look positively cerebral.

[Ian]

It's Megan Fox, isn't it? That should have been warning enough, snapsie!

[snaps]

It's Megan Fox, isn't it? That should have been warning enough, snapsie!

I did think Amanda Seyfried was a biiiit haawwwwt though I must have something about girls in specs

[snaps]

Watched ''Angus, thongs, and perfect snogging'' under pressure from the (un)stable girls. Not bad actually. Straightforward without being simplistic, funny, and well acted and directed (Gurinder Chadha, who also did ''Bend it like Beckham'' ) Filmed in Eastbourne and Brighton, which is reason enough to watch. Sort of hetero ''Sugar Rush''. It co-features Yorkshire lass, Eleanor Tomlinson another excellent reason to watch

[Ian]

Iron Man 2, at the cinema this afternoon. Pretty good, though not quite as good as the first one, and the final showdown is a little underwhelming to say the least.

[snaps]

GLORIOUS '39 (2009): Rating by Snapsie = ****

Very Good. Directed and written by Stephen Poliakoff (The Lost Prince, Shooting the Past, Friends and Crocodiles). Britains foremost writer/director of dark mystery/ intrigue in historical context).

Star studded cast, young and old, led by Romola Garai, with Bill Nighy, Jenny Agutter, Julie Christie, David Tennant, Juno Temple, Christopher Lee, Corin Redgrave, Hugh Bonneville, Jeremy Northam etc.

The Indian summer of 1939 and war is declared on Germany. Knee-jerk paranoia by the government brings in immediate draconian measures: suspension of habeas corpus, summary arrest, internment, censorship, evacuation, closure of schools, theatres, cinemas and BBC TV. As far-reaching as anything that might be expected under Nazi occupation.

But what of the increasingly quiet ''appeasement'' faction? But who are they and how extensive is their network. Outside the formal political circles they include aristocrats keen to cling on to power, privelege and prosperity. They also harbour well-meaning people with horrendous memories of the carnage of World War 1. But the circle extends to outright Nazi sympathisers in the police, military, civil service, military and intelligence establishments.

Overnight they have become potential traitors and collaborators, but how will they react? Will they acquiesce and become patriots, ready to turncoat on their fellow travellers or at least submit to silence. Or will the die-hards be driven underground into subversion? Coercion, blackmail, abduction, and assassination have now become the currency of communication.

Against this backdrop the human story is played out of Anne, a film actress and the adopted daughter of an apparently liberal-leaning wealthy aristocratic political family. Anne becomes increasingly convinced that her family is somehow engaged in the intrigue. But which members, and on whose side are they playing? Or are her notions fuelled by boredom, an overactive creative mind, or possible mental instability inherited from her hazy origins? The story gathers pace. Events are matched by the psychological decline and isolation of Anne, leading to its truly hair-raising Hitchcock influenced denouement.

Although this is a fictional story, it is based on the reality of one of the least edifying periods of British history. The shady facts and truth about those dark times from September 1939 to May 1940 have long since been buried and concreted over by the Establishment in ‘the national interest’.

A definite must-see film of great originality and seat-gripping tension.

(Review by Snapsie)

[Ian]

Sounds interesting, snaps!

Rented Sherlock Holmes and Zombieland last night. Thought Holmes was crap; turned it off after half an hour. Downey Jnr. (who I normally like) totally miscast too. Zombieland was better, an amusing enough watch on its own terms, but Shaun of the Dead it was not.

[fish]

GLORIOUS '39 (2009): Rating by Snapsie = ****

I hope that's not 4 out of 10.

The rating it got elsewhere weren't that great so I was prepared to give it a miss, but I think I might try to find it now.
Thanks.

[fish]

Flicking through the movie channels earlier and found "But I'm A Cheerleader" about to start.
Watched it.

My initial reaction was that it was just too stupid to be allowed to survive, though I stuck with it till the end hoping it would improve. The story remained as bad as ever but the introduction of Clea DuVall as the character "Graham" showed that even the worst script can benefit from someone with talent reading the lines.

(My apologies to anyone who liked Cheerleader.........but really. )



Clea also played "Georgina" in "Girl Interrupted" in the same year (1999).

[triddy]

Oh yeah, I saw some clips from that one on youtube a while ago, didn't even think it was worth mentioning here... The idea of it is fun, but it really turned out to be like a parody of itself in a way. "To stupid to be allowed to survive" is a very good way of describing it, in fact.

But I had no idea that girl was in girl interrupted, it raises my respect for her a little (emphasizing a little).

[Rebecka Fan]

Hannah Montana: The Movie. No joke. I actually like it.

[Ian]

Hot Fuzz. Great fun, though not in the same league as Shaun of the Dead.


"Cheerleader" was vaguely watchable but yes, deeply stupid. To me, Clea Duvall will always be the girl who turned literally invisible due to being metaphorically "invisible" to her friends, parents and teachers in season 1 of Buffy!

[fish]

Elegy.


Made in 2008, stars Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley as Consuela Castillo and David Kepesh.
From the novel by Phillip Roth.
Directed by Isabel Coixet.
Drama.

A commitment phobic, aging, college lecturer begins an affair with a student some thirty odd years younger than he.

Outstanding performances by Kingsley and in particular Cruz.

I kept thinking "is this really as good as it should be?", and finally came up with the answer "no".
The David Kepesh character seemed to have little to redeem himself, in fact I wound up not caring if he was happy or not.
Consuela Castillo on the other hand was a complex, basically nice, vulnerable young woman. I cared for her, even though Cruz is far from a favourite actress.

The screenplay by Nicholas Meyer may accurately draw on the novel but in the end, despite the talents of both Cruz and Kingsley, the film delivered much less than I felt it promised.

5 out of 10.

[bruno]

Iron Man 2: good (First was better, imho)
Prince of Persia: hmmm....

[Ian]

I agree about Iron Man 2, bruno.

Prince of Persia looks like one to avoid.