[magpie]

I'm assuming this is a remake of the John Wayne version? Be hard to beat the original.

No idea, like I said it's not a genre I watch or even really pay attention to, it is indeed the Coen brothers though. And excellent.

SATC 2 is one of the worst films I have seen for some time, even the clothes and shoes didn't save it and that's coming from someone who watches an awfully lot of really shit films.

[Adam Lincoln]

Girl with the dragon tattoo. Really good. A tiny bit different to the book. Quite graphic in a couple of places. The two others in the trilogy should be good too.

[T_B]

Another vote for The King's Speech. I was blown away by all the performances, but Firth really was incredible. 10/10.

[Fiend]

King's Speech, not my style of film but objectively a very good one, and one I enjoyed. I never think in terms of actors / performances, but this had some strong characters in and was well filmed and very well put together, running a good gammut of emotions, with a general air high quality and pleasing air of tally ho upper class Britishness.

[The Sausage]

Not sure if it's been mentioned before, but saw the Akira Kurosawa classic "Ran" at the weekend; Ran means 'chaos' apparently. It's based on a parable about a Japanese warlord, but has very striking similarities with King Lear.

It's set in fuedal Japan, and the costumes, sets, battle scenes and atmosphere are sensational. Primarily though, it is a great story, and beautifully and dramatically told. I couldn't recommend it highly enough.

[moose]

Saw Ran recently myself for the first time - on a new Bluray DVD version that looked lovely.  I second the recommendation -  don't be put off by the length, as it doesn't outstay its welcome. 

I reckon Kurasawa must have the most consistantly brilliant back catalogue of any director.  The likes of the Seven Samurai, Rashoman, Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Throne of Blood are all acknowledged classics.  But, even more"minor", non-Samurai works are really good.  I recently got round to seeing "Ikiru", although I'd heard it was very affecting, I was unprepared for how funny it was.  It's the story of a office drone who, on finding he's dying, tries to get a kids playground built.  Despite age and cultural distance its barbed view of council jobsworths and passing-the buck cultures was spot-on.   High and Low was good too - although the thought of Kurasawa making a a kidnap drama / police procedural based on anEd McBain book still seems odd !

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Enjoyed Micmacs tonight. By Jeunet who did  Amelie although probably more reminiscent of his earlier Delicatessen. All good.

[Jaspersharpe]

I've recently seen:

Let The Right One In - As previously recommended on here, it's very good and is more a story about people / relationships than a vampire film.

Blades of Glory - Fucking hilarious. Both me and Mrs S were properly lolling all the way through. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

The Fighter - Great film. Watched this last night and was really impressed. Even Mark Wahlberg is quite good in it and Christian Bale makes a very convincing crackhead but the female performances steal the show, particularly Melissa Leo as the nightmare mother. Highly recommended.

[tomtom]

Blades of glory is hilarious. Totally daft

Saw Salt at the weekend... Fairly good run of the mill thriller. A bit over hollywooded but fine for a non thought provoking DVD night in.

[slackline]

Watched Nattevagten (Nightwatch) the original version of the film in Danish again last night (was only £3 to buy and enjoyed watching it on rental years ago).  Brilliant film    Got Kærlighed på film (Just Another Love Story), by the same director Ole Bornedal, at the same time for about £3, yet to watch it but will report back when I get round to it.

Fuck going to the cinema at £7/person when you can get great films on DVD for < 50% 

[SA Chris]

Yeah, but you don't get to spend a fortune on shit popcorn and watered down drinks.

[slackline]

I occasionally treat myself to some of these accompanied with a glass of ice that I let melt...

[Jaspersharpe]

Do you invite some random strangers round to walk about in front of your tv and talk / unwrap sweets / eat nachos / get calls on their super loud pink LG phone with Black Eyed Peas ringtone while you're trying to watch the film (whilst banning yourself from having a beer for the duration)?

[slackline]

Usually its just the cats making a fuss for more food or the wife walking out muttering something about "fucking stupid subtitles".

[SA Chris]

Do you invite some random strangers round to walk about in front of your tv and talk / unwrap sweets / eat nachos / get calls on their super loud pink LG phone with Black Eyed Peas ringtone while you're trying to watch the film (whilst banning yourself from having a beer for the duration)?

You also need to make the carpets nice and sticky (ooer) to get that full multiplex experience.

[Jaspersharpe]

The more I think about it, the more I realise why we never go.

[BB]

The more I think about it, the more I realise why we never go.

Don't get me started on the fucking 3D tax they've introduced!

[slackline]

The more I think about it, the more I realise why we never go.

Don't get me started on the fucking 3D tax they've introduced!

Why 3D is dead in the water

The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the "convergence/focus" issue. A couple of the other issues -- darkness and "smallness" -- are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.

But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focused and converged at the same point.

If we look at the salt shaker on the table, close to us, we focus at six feet and our eyeballs converge (tilt in) at six feet. Imagine the base of a triangle between your eyes and the apex of the triangle resting on the thing you are looking at. But then look out the window and you focus at sixty feet and converge also at sixty feet. That imaginary triangle has now "opened up" so that your lines of sight are almost -- almost -- parallel to each other.

We can do this. 3D films would not work if we couldn't. But it is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, difficult. So the "CPU" of our perceptual brain has to work extra hard, which is why after 20 minutes or so many people get headaches. They are doing something that 600 million years of evolution never prepared them for. This is a deep problem, which no amount of technical tweaking can fix. Nothing will fix it short of producing true "holographic" images.

Maxivision48 sounds interesting

[Will Hunt]

Went to see Black Swan a couple of nights ago. Very good indeed but quite dark and disturbing. Not for the faint of heart.

[BB]

Went to see Black Swan a couple of nights ago. Very good indeed but quite dark and disturbing. Not for the faint of heart.

 

Compulsive viewing, but very disturbing in places.

About five or ten minutes in, I thought my Mum would like it having been pro ballet dancer in her youth. 30-40 minutes in I'd dramatically changed that view!

[Fultonius]

Had some films through the door from LoveFilm the other day – Team America and The Secretary.

The former was as expected – humorous, clever, entertaining etc.

The later was not the Saturday night sit-in-with-the-GF light entertainment we were expecting! It was good, if difficult viewing. It explores some odd themes, but does so in a way that doesn’t seem to glorify it, or make too much of a moral statement. Well acted and directed. As she’s a fairly new GF, I did have to explain that it’s not my usual type of film, and no, I’m not into spanking…

[Rocksteady]

Went to see Black Swan a couple of nights ago. Very good indeed but quite dark and disturbing. Not for the faint of heart.

Ditto. Was impressed with this film. Can't say I enjoyed it but thought it was very good.

The shaky camera, Natalie Portman's portrayal of paranoia, the oppressive classical music, and the sound effects that let you hear her breathing and footsteps the whole time add up to an extremely tense film.

I had to go home and watch cartoons for a bit afterwards to chill out!

[Paul B]

The later was not the Saturday night sit-in-with-the-GF light entertainment we were expecting! It was good, if difficult viewing. It explores some odd themes, but does so in a way that doesn’t seem to glorify it, or make too much of a moral statement. Well acted and directed. As she’s a fairly new GF, I did have to explain that it’s not my usual type of film, and no, I’m not into spanking…

James Spader plays the role well and continues a similar charachter into Boston Legal (seres). This was on again the other day and looked very dated.

Went to see Black Swan a couple of nights ago. Very good indeed but quite dark and disturbing. Not for the faint of heart.

I still can't decide if this is worth seeing at the cinema, it seems to get mixed reactions.

[Duz]

Anyone seen "A serbian movie"?

Wrong, just plain wrong, wrong in an irreversible way but way wronger.

 

[Clart]

Just watched Troll Hunter, a Norwegian film in documentry style. Definately worth a go for something a bit different. Further details here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1740707/