Hi to everybody...here's a quick reminder...tonight on BBC4 at 10.30 is the second of the Spanish horror films...tonight it's 'A Christmas Tale'...
The one last week was very good 'The Spectre'.. well made, well acted and very watchable...and spooky too.
Far, far superior to the one I unfortunately mentioned as having five stars so should be good, namely 'The Last Winter' with Ron Perlman...a more than missable film alas!
So, if you get a chance, video it or see it and let me know what you think...LOL...big hugs....
PS...don't forget Battlestar Galactica tonight at 9 on Sky One too...

Hi to everybody...tonight we decided to watch The Proposition, a film I recorded during the week. It had Ray Winstone and Guy Pearce in it. A British Western it was called on a par with The Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood.
It was atmospheric in a stifling way, and the tension in it was tangible the whole way through it. If you don't like violence and blood, this is not a film for you. It's bloody, very violent and brutal, but that's not to say that it isn't also a well made film. It is. The rawness of Australia mid nineteenth century or thereabout is there against the backdrop of the Australian outback with its starkly beautiful scenery. The characters are rough and coarse, while Ray Winstone's character is at odds with his fellow militia men. He being married to a beautiful woman played by Emilie Watson, and they are both trying to live in a refined way and he is trying to bring a bit of civilisation to an otherwise extremely savage place. There is also the conflict between the aborigines revealed as well with some working with the white man others not, and justice is swift and immediate.
The story is basically about four Irish brothers, the eldest being a real killer, one brother (Guy Pearce) tires of it and takes the youngest brother and leaves his other two brothers who go into no man's land to hide out after committing an atrocity for which they are being hunted.
Ray Winstone captures Guy Pearce and the youngest brother, and realises that he is never going to catch the eldest brother without help, so he propositions Guy Pearce...he has nine days to kill his brother and then he will grant him an amnesty along with his brother who he keeps in jail as a hostage and who will hang on Christmas day if Guy Pearce does not return.
The story is about what happens after that. This is not spoiling the story for you. I've merely set the scene...
If you get a chance to see it, it's a film I can recommend but not for the faint hearted...LOL...

Hi to everybody...with nothing better to watch, I decided to watch 'Fracture' last night with Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling...I'd read an earlier review, which wasn't very complimentary, however, I must say that it held my interest all the way through and the resolution at the end made it a worth while watch.
Wasn't entirely sure Ryan Gosling was right for the part of the young ambitious prosecutor from a poor background about to move on to greater things, but in the end, he pulled it off. I think he just looked a bit too young and untried to me when he was supposed to have won 97 cases in a row...and never lost one...hmmm...fair enough...and was unable to see why his new employer was so quick to bed him unless she fancied a bit of rough every now and then. Reminded me too much of Rodney in 'Only Fools and Horses' so I was a bit biased...LOL...In the USA, I doubt whether most people would know who I meant, but, over here in the UK, most people would...
The story line was good enough to keep you wondering right to the end how it was going to be resolved and Anthony Hopkins played the murderer very well with his cold, calculating expressions mingled with malicious humour. It's not two hours wasted if you do decide to watch it, and that's the most relevant bit I think...can't stand sitting through a film then realising it wasn't worth it at all...this is...

Alessandro Baricco (novel)

The book has to be better, doesn't it? I watched this last night. It is a quiet story of a faraway love. The backdrop is beautiful and the actors fine but it never captured me totally. I kept drifting off during parts of it and that's a really bad sign. If you want a romance and you are in the mood for something very gentle and pretty, go ahead.

Well, I got a look at this one last night. It's never a good thing when a movie is over marketed and this one most certainly was. It was good but not great and I enjoyed it. The movie follows a teenage girl through her pregnacy along with those she meets and those who support her. Certainly it's worth the watch but just know that it will never live up to the over saturated hype it received.

This DVD was given away free with Saturday's Guardian and is the original black and white version in Japanese (well it is the Guardian after all) and all the better for it.

The story is pretty well known, atomic testing wakes the ancient reptile Gojira from the depths of the Ocean, Gojira goes nuts and eats Tokyo and its up to a band of scientists to save the day.

OK its full of dubious science but the film does make an interesting document of 1950s Japananese society and its reaction to American culture as well as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and oh yeah it has a rubber monster, c'mon what more do you want?

This arrived yesterday with two other and as I suspected once I was done viewing it, I could not watch anything else. Based on the novel by Khaled Hossein, this movie will leave you thinking with it's themes of fear, courage, lost friendship and redemption. It has a twist I never suspected and the movie held me from beginning to end. It has subtitles and the cast is made up of those you may not know, at least for the most part. Sometimes I find this refreshing. If you have a chance please give it a watch.

Hi to everybody...have just watched 'One Nite in Mongkok'....directed and written by Tung-Shing Yee and staring Cecilia Cheung, Daniel Wu and Alex Fong....it all takes place on one night in the most crowded place on earth....Mongkok...a police team set out to find an assassin who has been brought over from mainland China to assassinate somebody who he has yet to find out from his employer who it is. They have to find him to prevent gang warfare breaking out...it starts off very oddly and you might be tempted to say this is rubbish and give up, but don't, because it suddenly takes off and you're thrown into a gritty, very tough story with a surprise ending...won't give it away, but it's well worth seeing though not for the squeamish or faint hearted... Big hugs...

POW, Stephen Brooks (Oliver Reed) is assigned to work in a Munich zoo, where he becomes the keeper of Lucy the elephant. After a heavy bombing raid on Munich, it is decided by the Zoo's director to transfer Lucy to a safer location in Innsbrook. The journey must be done on foot, so Brooks is accompanied by two German soldiers and a female cook. Brooks however has other plans. To follow in the footsteps of the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal lead Lucy over the Alps, to Switzerland. Along the way, Brooks frequently runs into an American saboteur named Packy (Michael J Pollard) with his team of misfits and often ends up involved in the war he's trying to escape.

"Hannibal Brooks" is on paper, a bizarre film that straddles several genres. It is a post modern war film, with contemporary dialogue from the time. One minute there are actions scenes and the next humour and pathos. I often wonder how this concept was sold to the financial backers? It may also come as a surprise that this film was directed by Michael Winner! Yet it works. "Hannibal Brooks" is as implausible as it is inoffensive. The Bavarian landscape is beautiful. Oliver Reed gives a superb performance, despite the improbable story and disproving the old saying that actors should never work with children or animals. There is also a pleasant soundtrack by Francis Lai. But Lucy the elephant is the real star.

"Hannibal Brooks" is however currently unavailable on DVD. There was a R1 Japanese version which is now deleted. There are some DVD-R copies on E-Bay, taken from TV broadcasts. The film is shown occasionally on the National Geographic channel on Sky.Catch it if you can. It's a enjoyable family film that despite it's shortcomings is perfect Sunday afternoon viewing.

XoD.

"Awake" is a psychological thriller directed by Joby Harold. It is a "high-concept" movie that deals with the universal fear of hospitals, surgery and "anaesthetic awareness". Despite it's basic premise, "Awake" features several plot twists that takes the film in an direction that the viewer may not have anticipated. The film shows signs of being influenced by the works of Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan and the Italian "Giallo" genre.

Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) is a young industrialist, with a heart defect. Secretly engaged to secretary Sam (Jessica Alba), Clay worries about their future. He shares these with his heart surgeon friend, Dr. Jack (Terrence Howard) who urges surgery. On the very night of his secret marriage, a heart donor is found, and Clay is rushed into hospital. His controlling mother (Lena Olin) wants her choice of surgeon to handle the transplant. Once put under general anaesthesia, Clay finds he is fully awake, but unable to communicate. With the heart transplant procedure beginning, Clay must endure the agony. But with all his senses working, he soon learns that greater threats lie ahead.

"Awake" with its intriguing premise, unfolds quite rapidly. This moves the film along at a fast pace, but potentially at the expense of character development. Both Alba and Christensen give adequate performances, but the film is carried by the Olin, and Howard. I got the feeling that there was a lot of dialogue removed from the final cut of the film.

The despite horrific idea of "Anaesthesia Awareness" it is explored with a degree of subtlety. The scenes of surgery are unpleasant but not excessive. Writer/director Joby Harold decides to employ several plot twists that require increasing levels of suspension of disbelief. It is here that opinion divides. Some critics felt that there was simply to many indulgences that strain credibility. There is also at a certain point a change in approach that takes the film into a different genre. There are also several technical mistakes that are obvious even to the casual viewer of any TV medical drama.

In more experienced hands, the scares would have been harder and the performances stronger. Yet despite some shortcomings, I still enjoyed "Awake". It reminded me of film noirs of the 50's such as "DOA" and also of the "The Twilight Zone". In a time of increasing commercialism, at least we have a film that tries to approach its subject with a degree of creativity. "Awake" does not justify the critical battering it has received and I would recommend it to those with a forgiving nature and a liking for more traditional thriller.

XoD.

Hi to everybody...have just watched Lucky Number Slevin for the second time and I enjoyed it again. Paul McGuigan directed it and Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Lucy Lui, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley made up the main cast of characters...
I had left enough space between each viewing not to recall the whole story so it was still fresh to me second time around, with surprises coming as the story unfolded...
Basically, without spoiling it for anybody who has yet to see it, it's a revenge tale and the story gradually reveals what happened in the past and why the things that are happening now are taking place...
I can recommend it...it's well paced, violent but again it's in context, and, as quite frequently happens in films today, you are left on the side of people who are essentially cold blooded hit men...which is a very weird feeling morally...LOL...Enjoy it if you do bother to see it...

Quite frankly, i was very disappointed by American Gangster. Gangster epic-lite, with very little violence, sex, hardly any hard drug use on screen and only fleeting use of expletives. Scenes too close for comfort to Goodfellas, Serpico and The Godfather didn't help either. Crowe is alright as the cop and Washington reprises his Malcolm X role, toning it down slightly to add a sense of pretentiousness to the affair - although neither are really given any meaty material to deal with. Large sections of the plot are washed over with the briefest of montages and voice-overs while quite dull sections are drawn out to inordinate lengths. I expected this to be effing awesome, i wanted the violence of Casino with the sheen of The Godfather; the action of the The French Connection with the excitement of Ronin. I got nothing. Just clichés compounded by stereotypes in a a mix that never for one second works satisfactorily. Yuck. Mr Scott you should retire, now.

4/10

This is delightful lightweight story of the life of Beatrix Potter. It was a good choice for pre bedtime as it was peaceful and pleasant. It mixes some occasional animation with the story as she draws her animal characters. Everyone knows her books but I knew little to nothing about her. This is not a serious biography but it does shed some light on her life. It's well worth a watch.

Hoping for a stirring romance I finally settled down to watch this the other night. Anyone who reads my blog knows I am a hopeless romantic and I believe in soul mates though we often don't find them.
That said, this was one of the worst movies I have had the misfortune to watch. I kept pressing onward thinking it had to get better. The individual performances of most of the cast were excellent. The story however, felt as if it had no direction. It was funny and then serious, the main character portrayed in a way that made me want to hit him upside the head with a two by four.
It came full circle with an ending that made you wonder how you found yourself there at all.
Skip it.