9 - 10 Minute Tales - A series of 11short, silent films (each about 10 minutes long, as the name suggests) that were shown on Sky over Christmas, that I finally got around to watching in February. Some well-known names in there, most of the films were set at Christmas, some had a bit of sadness, most had a bit of happiness. Think it might be ( Read more... )

13. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. A very odd film, looney-toons-ish in some ways, disturbingly surreal in other ways, often just very funny: "We could live underground and make clothes out of bacon!" I liked.

14. Sleep Dealer. Low-budget Mexican cyberpunkish sf film, with pretty much the strengths and weaknesses you'd expect from that ( Read more... )

20) The Fall - Stunningly constructed visually. It is a shame the pacing is slightly off or this could have been a classic.

21) 3 Iron - My first exposure to Ki-Duk Kim was Bad Guy which was both a bad film and a bad place to start. I was persuaded to try this and it is a lot better, although not without its flaws. Next is Spring, Summer, Autumn, ( Read more... )

7. A Prophet. My primary reaction was: god, it goes on a bit. My secondary reaction was: it gets progressively less interesting as it becomes more obvious how conventional and familiar its overall shape is. Some good performances, though.

8. Precious. Irresistable Force meets Immovable Object: The Motion Picture.

9. The Wave. Film of a YA novel ( Read more... )

12) Land Of The Dead - Witless gore crap.

13) Coraline - Interesting use of animation but the story still isn't there.

14) Goldmember - As the film acknowledges it is the same old jokes but they carry them off with a knowing panache. Good use of Beyonce's breasts in a supporting role too.

15) Up - Another masterpiece from Pixar. I actually cried ( Read more... )

1. The Damned United. A good film, though slightly overshadowed by lack of historical accuracy, and Martin Sheen didn't convince me as Clough.
2. Atonement. A rare case where the film is almost as good as the book. Pretty much everything about the film was pitch-perfect; apart from the ending. I understand why they changed it, but it didn't work as ( Read more... )

1 - The Time Machine - a recent adaptation with Guy Pearce, this felt both melodramatic and rather boring, with sluggish pacing and some not-very-good acting from the whole cast, including Pearce - who is normally more reliable.
2 - Daybreakers - What happens when vampires take over the world, and humans start becoming extinct. Went horribly ( Read more... )

Here we go again:

1. The Fall. Extraordinarily beautiful film about storytelling.

2. From Russia With Love. Continuing my education in Bond; I really liked this one, it's all the better for being relatively low-key.

3. Citizen Kane. No, I'd never seen this, either, although the identity of Rosebud had been spoiled for me by Peanuts when I was ( Read more... )

1) Switchblade Romance - I've no idea why they changed the name of this in translation because High Tension, the original, captures it perfectly. Unfortunately it goes a bit to pot after the big reveal.

2) Dear Wendy - Lars Von Trier only wrote this but he is written all over it. An inscrutable yet still offensive allegory of America.

3) The ( Read more... )

Belatedly, the fin al films of 2009...

45 - The Forbidden Kingdom - Jet Li and Jackie Chan should make for a decent amount of kick-ass action, but this is a woefully poor film about an American kid who finds himself magically transported to ancient China in order to restore the soul of the Monkey King, with the help of a drunken warrior and ( Read more... )