[Duma]

awesome! didn't know they where making a film of this - tis my favourite of his books.

[lorentz]

And what's wrong with people getting spanked on chemicals on celluloid anyway?! As long as the plot's decent (check), the dialogue's good (check), it's well shot (check) and the characters do something for you (check). F and L is a great film and an
Awesome book.

Tsk... Kids today! Dunno their born!? When I were a lad drinking and tokin' done the park etc etc....:D

[Houdini]

The Rum Diary.  Bemused me why he couldn't finish (rewriting)/publish it years ago.  It's well formed and sits better than some written at the time.

Also, Depp and his people have purchased the rights to Shantaram with a film to follow in '08.

[SA Chris]

was it not the hobbit animated film? i could be wrong, hazy memory.

Definitely lord of the rings (well the first half anyway). There used to be this tiny little art house cinema in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, that showed loads of cult films. I saw this there, as well as Clockwork Orange, long before it was unbanned.

They apparently ran out of money on the film because the filmed some of the scenes and then painted each frame by hand to give it an animated film. For some reason they ran out of cash? 

[moose]

a few "heads-up" from last night's perusal of TV quick:

for fans of anime: My Neighbour Totoro is on Film4 at 5.35pm tonight (and again midweek).

for anyone who liked 'City of God': Carandiru is on BBC4 10.30pm on saturday.  Very good drama set in a Brazillian prison, fairly harrowing overall but with plenty of humour along the way (Brazillian max security prisons seeming to freely interact with the outside world, withtheir own completely open economy and an open door policy regarding the entry of family and hookers etc).

Buffalo Soldiers on C4 10.30pm sunday - funny and fairly amoral tale set in a US base in Germany. well worth seeing.  Vaguely remember it having it's faults / lapses that prevented it from being an unsentimental classic (it's perhaps more Kelly's Heroes than Catch-22... but then again... I do really like Kelly's Heroes anyway) - but some good comically corrupt laughs - well worth seeing.

[r-man]

was it not the hobbit animated film? i could be wrong, hazy memory.

Definitely lord of the rings (well the first half anyway). There used to be this tiny little art house cinema in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, that showed loads of cult films. I saw this there, as well as Clockwork Orange, long before it was unbanned.

They apparently ran out of money on the film because the filmed some of the scenes and then painted each frame by hand to give it an animated film. For some reason they ran out of cash? 

That's the one. It's called rotoscoping - also done with the recent A Scanner Darkly, and many Disney films.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscope

I thought the reason the second part was made was a box office flop. Apparently not:

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is the title of an animated film produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi, and released to theaters in 1978. It was an adaptation of the first half of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Although the film received a mixed reaction from critics, it was a box office success, and sparked new interest in Tolkien's writing, although a planned sequel that would have covered the remainder of the story remains unproduced to this day.

Damn! Why did they not finish this?!

In 2006, Bakshi stated that if he were given the opportunity to finish The Lord of the Rings, he would.

I wish they'd give him a chance. Apparently it didn't please Tolkien fans because so much was condensed, but from what I remember (long time since I've seen it) it was much more atmospheric and magical than Peter Jackon's attempts. Quite dark, too.

[Paz]

Moose was very prompt with his heads up, but in case the name doesn't ring a bell, My Neighbour Totoro's the one with the Catbus!!:
 

Drop everything!  Go home now!  Gather the family around the fire with Cocoia, marshmallow's and shit.

Or alernative use sky plus if you're a jammy bastard. 

[SA Chris]

For those who missed them , looks like More4 are doing double bill of Dogtown and Z Boys and Riding Giants next week. Both worth watching.

[lorentz]

Just been to see Deja Vu with the g/f. Denzel Washington stars, directed by Tony Scott and produced by jerry Bruckheimer of CSI fame. Hadn't heard anything about this film before watching it (although I saw a trailer for it when watching casino royale - Looked a bit dull). I was very pleasantly surprised by it.

Starts out like a film-length episode of CSI and then goes somewhere very unexpected. I'll not say another thing about it, but go see it. It's very good, in my opinion. Certainly kept me on the edge of my seat and guessing til the end credits rolled. Perfect for those dull, damp days post xmas and pre new year.

[Yossarian]

hidden - brilliant and mysterious french screw avec your head stuff with daniel auteuil and juliette binoche. very highly recommended...

the proposition - nicely filmed but rather hollow olde worlde australia thing with ray winstone trying to catch some nasty irish people. quite brutal.

finally watched infernal affairs 3 - even more bizarrely complicated that 2. maybe i should try to figure it out a second time.

[Krank]

Riding giants is awesome, its got laird hammilton on the millenium wave at chopu if im not mistaken. its gotta be the heaviest wave ever

[SA Chris]

I think it's Teahupoo, unless Chopu is the Bastard Child of Teahupoo and Chopes.

But yes it is class.

[Richie Crouch]

Went to see 'Pan's Labrinyth' down the FACT in town the other week and it is a cracking film - I thought it would be a kids film but definitely not ^^

[Krank]

yeah sorry its teahupoo it translates to "breakin skulls" or somethin like that.

[Falling Down]

After the 'My Neighbour Totoro' recomendations on here I set the digibox to record it and got around to watching it the other night.  What a fantastic film! absolutely brilliant and it left a warm feeling inside....

[unclesomebody]

I watched Rocky Balboa lastnight, after being spurred on by two things. 1. It was Rocky. 2. A film review said that the film was very bad on paper, but suprisingly good in the flesh. Having now seen it, I am not so convinced. It was good to see Rocky in action, but it was pretty appalling really. So many redundant character, introduced then just left out the story. No character or theme was developed throughout the film. The final fight came and went just like that. Now that I write it, I am actually really dissapointed in the film. It's worth watching for the sake of completing the Rocky series, but it's nowhere near the glory days of the first couple. Stallone is an old man, a ripped old man, and on the back of this, i'm slightly worried what the upcoming Rambo IV will be like.

[dobbin]

Went to see 'Pan's Labrinyth' down the FACT in town the other week and it is a cracking film - I thought it would be a kids film but definitely not ^^

what a fab film. I loved this, but it is quite harrowing. I am reading it as 'little girl invents fantasy world because horror of spanish civil war too grim to bear, even though fantasy world is full of horrible things its better than the horrible things real people do to each other'. Go see, its good. Since then seen Happy feet - light hearted, amusing, Holiday - pretty shite to be honest.

[Paul B]

I watched Rocky Balboa lastnight.....

That sum it up? A rather old looking bloke training, check out the silhoutte when he runs. After someone posted all of the training scenes earlier I found this one and it looks like utter shite, they should have stopped after clubber lang.

[Daniel]

Saw Apocalypto last night.. Was very impressed. Good story, well done, and very unusual. Best film Ive seen in ages.

[andy_e]

Went to see 'Pan's Labrinyth' down the FACT in town the other week and it is a cracking film - I thought it would be a kids film but definitely not ^^

Brilliant film, makes you think!

[Falling Down]

Watched Grizzly Man last night on DVD (haven't looked back through the thread to see whether this has been discussed before) which was much better than I had expected. Warner Herzog is a brilliant director and has made a really fascinating documentary that's neither sensationalist, overly sympathetic or judgemental... well worth a watch.

(Plus there's a brilliant extra on the DVD on the making of the soundtrack with Richard 'Fairport..' Thompson, Jim O'Rourke and Henry Kaiser.

[Houdini]

To answer the question of the thread title, no.  But I did watch Martin Scorceses' Gangs of New York last night, which was excreable without exception.  Not even Day-Lewis' performance stopped me from falling asleep.

[Monolith]

Falling Down - I saw Grizzly Man a few months back. Didn't you think Herzog was a bit eerie? I spent quite some time trying to master an impression of him from the scene where he is listening to the tape. The whole thing weirded me out actually.

Pan's Lab fans, aye it was an incredible production. Wasn't too keen on the bottle smashing in the face scene. I think there's some new technology to produce such graphic depictions as Irreversible has a scene exactly the same but with a fire extinguisher. Really does make you wretch.

Watched My Architect the other day, a film about architect Louis Kahn. Very much recommended.

[andy_e]

Wasn't too keen on the bottle smashing in the face scene.

Ditto, but I had heard about this scene beforehand so I was able to look away in time...

[Yossarian]

for all (?) you biking fans - overcoming. really great film following the csc team in 2004. much better than road to paris (which was a bit dull, apart from the paris-roubaix bit). great footage of various nasty crashes, bjarne riis saying "fuck" a lot and lots more besides... highly recommended.