[DDDDAts all folks]

Kick Ass 2 and it was no where near as good as the first.

[Crudblud]

I agreed to go and see Disney's new movie Frozen not knowing it was a two hour-long musical. Someone else paid for me so whatever. It's a typical Disney fantasy with princes and princesses and talking snowmen and trolls and castles and songs about true love and following your heart and all that crap, it delivers on the comedy front with the usual tight slapstick and one-liners, and the visuals and animation are top notch. If you like Disney's Aladdin type stuff this is going to be right up your alley, and it comes with a cool short called Get A Horse which combines Steamboat Willie era animation and modern CG in some pretty inventive ways, it does get a little redundant before too long, but while it's good it's good. Overall, Frozen is a highly competent and tight piece of work that doesn't feel half as long as it actually is.

[Ghost Spaghetti]

Apparently the fairytale Frozen is based on actually featured a female hero trying to rescue a platonic male friend. it's a shame they went down the traditional Disney route.

I've been watching Prison break lately, while I loved the complex plan and trying to wok out what the symbols meant as they were introduced, I really wish they didn't have the ridiculous presidential conspiracy in the background - I don't care about the misadventures of the lawyers, I want to see Scofield try to avoid being shanked as he creeps into an intricately designed area of the prison.

The second series started well but the damn conspiracy is starting to take up too much screen time again. Agent mahone was a great character in his own right - and watching the cat-and-mouse between Scofield and him would have been really interesting to follow. Why did they have to over-complicate his character?

[Crudblud]

Apparently the fairytale Frozen is based on actually featured a female hero trying to rescue a platonic male friend. it's a shame they went down the traditional Disney route.

Actually, the old Disney formula has been spiced up with a few subversions and twists. It's not groundbreaking or anything, but it's certainly different enough to make it stand out among the Disney princess back catalogue.

[Saddam Hussein]

Apparently the fairytale Frozen is based on actually featured a female hero trying to rescue a platonic male friend. it's a shame they went down the traditional Disney route.

I've been watching Prison break lately, while I loved the complex plan and trying to wok out what the symbols meant as they were introduced, I really wish they didn't have the ridiculous presidential conspiracy in the background - I don't care about the misadventures of the lawyers, I want to see Scofield try to avoid being shanked as he creeps into an intricately designed area of the prison.

The second series started well but the damn conspiracy is starting to take up too much screen time again. Agent mahone was a great character in his own right - and watching the cat-and-mouse between Scofield and him would have been really interesting to follow. Why did they have to over-complicate his character?

I loved that show, but alas, it succumbed to sequelitis very quickly.  They should have just kept it to two seasons and toned down the conspiracy subplot a good deal - it had to be there to a degree, of course, because you can't beat the classic story of the innocent man in jail - but it's way too complicated, and the writers just kept pulling more new dimensions and motivations for them out of their asses as the show went on.  As a result of all this stretching the plot out, the latter two seasons aren't nearly as good as the first two.  They're not all bad, admittedly - the characters are still great, the cast is still great, the directing is still great, etc. - but it's just unrecognizable as the show it was when it began.

[Crudblud]

Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
Cameras mounted upon a fishing trawler are submerged in gull-blanketed waters, splattered with fish guts, buried under piles of catch, and other fun things in this intense, wordless, non-narrative filmic essay on the harshness of life at sea.

The Third Man (Carol Reed)
Like when I watched 12 Angry Men, I'm left writing a review of a film about which no more can really be said. A well beloved classic of film noir and deservedly so.

Frozen (Chris Buck)
Surprisingly good Disney musical, offering enough twists to their usual formula to make the usual tight visuals, gags and songwriting more than just a case of going through the motions.

Westworld (Michael Crichton)
Proto-Terminator in which mustachio'd vacationer does battle with bald android gunslinger. Great fun from Crichton, who apparently has a thing for deadly theme parks.

Caligula (Tinto Brass)
Disowned by writer Gore Vidal and lead actor Malcolm McDowell, among others, Caligula is an ever escalating orgy of madness that transcends its obvious and manifold flaws to become a grand and absurd comedy. Features a notable performance from the late Peter O'Toole as the wretched Tiberius.

[Ghost Spaghetti]

but it's way too complicated, and the writers just kept pulling more new dimensions and motivations for them out of their asses as the show went on.

This. A thousand times this.

A perfect example was an episode last night.

[spoiler alert]

Link's Dad reveals that there's a super-secret file which will clear his son's name and the doctor, Sarah, must possess it. Cue The Company kidnapping Sarah and torturing her to get the file.

All this would be fine if, two episodes ago, Agent Kim wasn't berating Kellerman for wasting time using Sarah to get to the escapees. He was told to leave her alone and focus on Link's son. I don't mind writers adding ridiculous plot-twists (especially in this show) but at least make them coherent with the rest of the series.

[Crudblud]

Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
I first saw this some years ago and was totally perplexed by it. Seeing it now with fresh eyes I feel like it makes a lot more sense and actually contains, as Lynch insists, a linear narrative. With this clearer perspective on the narrative I was able to sit back and enjoy Lynch's mastery of atmosphere, suspense, abstraction, character development and overall direction which have come together to form one of his finest works, and a definite masterpiece of modern American cinema.

[Saddam Hussein]

Are you a Lynch fan in general, Crapblood?

[Crudblud]

Are you a Lynch fan in general, Crapblood?

I count several of his films among my favourites, including Wild at Heart which is my absolute favourite film. So yeah, I guess I am.

[Foxbox]

Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
I first saw this some years ago and was totally perplexed by it. Seeing it now with fresh eyes I feel like it makes a lot more sense and actually contains, as Lynch insists, a linear narrative. With this clearer perspective on the narrative I was able to sit back and enjoy Lynch's mastery of atmosphere, suspense, abstraction, character development and overall direction which have come together to form one of his finest works, and a definite masterpiece of modern American cinema.

So glad to hear this, I completely agree. It was my second and third viewings that solidified Mulholland Dr. as my favorite film (now tied with The Master, of course). It is such a beautiful, and heartbreaking film. At this point I am usually in tears by the ending, even though it's still hard for me to describe what the film is in words.

[Foxbox]

Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)
Woah. This was a wonderful film. An incredibly captivating film about 4 completely different recollections of the same set of events. At first the films feel so simple, but the nature of truth becomes more complicated and intruiging as it moves from one story to the next. The cinematrography was also great, helping create the perfect mood, especially during the sequences in the woods. What really stuck out to me though, was the editing, and the way it was used to explore each story.
I was greatly impressed by this film, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing Kurosawa's other work.

[Crudblud]

Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
A really good recent Woody Allen film starring Owen Wilson... who'd-a thunk it? The typical Allen formula is given a strange new twist that offers up some of his smartest writing in a good while, well performed by a solid cast taking on some very big characters.

[Crudblud]

Lost Highway (David Lynch)
Following on from my success with Mulholland Dr., I decided to rewatch another particularly enigmatic Lynch feature in the hope that it too would make much more sense. This time around I was able to let the analytical part of my mind relax and just roll with it, and the narrative seemed to flow a lot better even if I didn't necessarily understand what was going on much of the time. As with Mulholland, the power of the atmosphere is constant, but as dark as that film gets, this one is almost pitch black all the way through to me. I thought it was a masterpiece the first time I saw it, but now I am sure of it.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman)
I wonder why I didn't see this a long time ago, but I'm glad I waited, as I don't think I would have been sensitive or patient enough to really get into this as a teenager. I would have missed the warmth and humour of the characters, the more subtle elements of their interactions and relationships, and the wonderfully balanced ending, which is both sad and joyful, but without falling prey to the bogus sentimentality it so easily could have. Like so many films I love, it walks a tonal tightrope with, perhaps not exactly surety, but determination.

[rooster]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Miloš Forman)
I wonder why I didn't see this a long time ago, but I'm glad I waited, as I don't think I would have been sensitive or patient enough to really get into this as a teenager. I would have missed the warmth and humour of the characters, the more subtle elements of their interactions and relationships, and the wonderfully balanced ending, which is both sad and joyful, but without falling prey to the bogus sentimentality it so easily could have. Like so many films I love, it walks a tonal tightrope with, perhaps not exactly surety, but determination.

This one I did see as a teenager in a film class. I remember becoming pretty emotional at the end. I've been wanting to go back and watch it but it affected me so much the first time that I'm kinda scared.

[Crudblud]

Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
Cronenberg is well known for his special effects creations like the living typewriters from Naked Lunch and Seth Brundle's gradual transformation into The Fly, but here the effects you don't see are at the centre of the drama as Jeremy Irons acts opposite himself in dual lead roles. A lot of people paint Cronenberg as an expressly cerebral filmmaker who gives little attention to emotion in general, and yet his remake of The Fly and this film are shining counterexamples to that assessment, not to mention The Brood, a heartfelt nightmare inspired by his divorce and resulting custody battle. I love Cronenberg's work in general, as you may have guessed, but this one is my favourite overall.

The Elephant Man (David Lynch)
A lot of people have made a meal about how this film is "different" from much of Lynch's other work, comparing it more to his Disney-funded The Straight Story than something like Blue Velvet, yet it contains many of his typical themes; the rot lurking beneath the polished surface of polite society, the confusion and misery of the downtrodden and misunderstood, deep emotional trauma, protagonists not in control of their own lives even at the best of times. Throw in the characteristic "body horror" and black and white industrial photography of Eraserhead and as far as I'm concerned it's very much a Lynch joint, and one of his best.

The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
Back with the other Dave, and this time he's joined by a psychic Christopher Walken in this adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Is it faithful? I don't know! I haven't read anything of his besides The Stand and The Dark Tower. It plays much more as a supernatural thriller than a horror film, and is full of that smell-it-a-mile-away Kingian cheese that I love when it's handled well, which it is here. Walken steals the show with his classically bizarre line delivery, but credit should also go to Martin Sheen, who gives a wonderfully big performance as a corrupt politician, and Herbert Lom in his understated role as Dr Weizak.

[Snupes]

The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
Back with the other Dave, and this time he's joined by a psychic Christopher Walken in this adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Is it faithful? I don't know! I haven't read anything of his besides The Stand and The Dark Tower. It plays much more as a supernatural thriller than a horror film, and is full of that smell-it-a-mile-away Kingian cheese that I love when it's handled well, which it is here. Walken steals the show with his classically bizarre line delivery, but credit should also go to Martin Sheen, who gives a wonderfully big performance as a corrupt politician, and Herbert Lom in his understated role as Dr Weizak.

O: As a huge Stephen King fan, I am interested.

[Vindictus]

The Hobbit 2 was a considerable improvement over the first, mostly because it jumps straight into the story instead of spending 40 minutes sitting around. The action scenes, especially the barrel scene, were fantastic, and the dragon was some damn fine CGI. It did drag for some bits (although I barely noticed) and the Tauriel love triangle was a bit grating, but overall it was pretty good. I'm not sure whether I liked how they ended it, but I definitely want to see the next one.

[Saddam Hussein]

The Hobbit 2 was a considerable improvement over the first, mostly because it jumps straight into the story instead of spending 40 minutes sitting around. The action scenes, especially the barrel scene, were fantastic, and the dragon was some damn fine CGI. It did drag for some bits (although I barely noticed) and the Tauriel love triangle was a bit grating, but overall it was pretty good. I'm not sure whether I liked how they ended it, but I definitely want to see the next one.

I heard it was mostly fanfiction that had nothing to do with the book.

[beardo]

Christopher Walken is great in everything.