h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I watched Sicko last night. Pretty much what you'd expect: patronising, subjective and selective. Still, it does provide a timely reminder that, for all its faults, the NHS is a great thing and rather than slating it every five minutes our press should probably be trumpeting it. Big money wants the NHS gone and little by little we (in the UK) are playing right into their hands.

Tried to watch "HP: Order of the Pheonix" but it was so bad as to be unwatchable.

I swear that the acting has got so much worse since the last film. I thought child actors were supposed to improve as they grew up.

I gave up after 40 minutes.

Spiderman 3



Special effects (especially in Blu Ray) were v good, particulalry Sand man.

But omg, far too many characters, and far far too long.

Not helped by some abysmal bit-part acting: a French maitre d' straight out of Pink Panther, and the most unconvincing doctor ever on the big screen.

I saw SM3 with Not Him in Edinburgh: it sucked, especially the Saturday Night Fever pastiche.

The company was good though.

Well I've seen Stardust due to the excellent reviews here.

I'd still like my spanking though


It was, as has been suggested here several times, excellent.
... and I'd forgotten how foxy Michelle Pfeiffer could be

Really I'd add my voice to those before - go and see it. It's the best thing I've seen at the cinema for a good long while.

Going tomorrow with mum, boyfriend and best mate Cant wait!!!

Another voice in the 'Stardust is brilliant' chorus.

It was absolutely delightful. Al Pacino was incredible and it was such a treat visually.

Whilst Al Pacino's cameo role was excellent, I preferred that of Robert DeNiro. Certainly it was more memorable

SM3 <>

That was the best bit! T'was Bruce Campbell AKA Ash from the Evil Dead films.

God bless the young Sam Raimi and god bless his dentist also.

Who was also the wrestling announcer in SM1 and the theater guy in SM2. Seems he´s not very good at holding a job.

He was also the last face of Darkman

Last weekend I went to see Ratatouille (rat - a - too - ee).

I presume that the bit in brackets is to help audiences in its country of origin know what to ask for when the get to the ticket window.

That was the only bad thing about the film, though. The quality of the animation & CGI was great, but it's the story that makes it what it is...your everyday story of a rat with a burning ambition to cook.

Later today, it's Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Probably a chick flick.

RF

Have decided to take rest of night off and go see Stardust. Back soon...

Sunshine. Disappointed by this 'cos I was really looking forward to it.

SPOILER WARNING

Ignore the premise that the sun is dying and they need to send a manned ship carrying a huge bomb to restart it. It doesn't make any sense, but it's not really important to the plot.

It starts off OK, with some great visuals of the sun, but quickly descends into a hopelessly contrived and cliched series of unfortunate accidents and nail-biting situations that gradually make their mission harder and harder and of course kill off the crew one-by-one. I managed to identify each of these situations as originating from 2001: A Space Oddysey, Event Horizon, one scene from the new Battlestar Galactica and a couple I reckon came from Red Dwarf .

My personal favourite hopelessly contrived situation was the oxygen shortage that meant not all of the seven crew could survive the few days needed to complete their mission - despite the ship allegedly carrying food for three years, and despite the ship being the size of Manhattan and apparently full of breathable air.

Nothing original really.

"The General", 1927. A great silent film starring Buster Keaton as a U.S. Civil War era railroad engineer in the South. His train, "The General", and also his girlfriend (inadvertently) are stolen by Northern troops (based on a true story). He takes off in hot pursuit using other locomotives, hand carts, etc. Pandemonium ensues. After getting his locomotive back, he is chased back to the South. More pandemonium.

In his early 30's at the time, Keaton is great as the deadpan protagonist, doing stunts that made him the Jackie Chan of the day. Many of these were on moving locomotives, no camera tricks or doubles I think. The American Film Institute's (AFI) latest list puts this one at No. 18. Best of all, its in a box set at Half Price Books for $8, with five other silent classics.

Saw Ratatouiee yesterday. Excellent. Very Funny

time to get the old vhs or dvds out...

And now for something completely different.

It's been years. I'm glad I stuck it on. I giggled myself silly and it was comfy (well, as comfortable as MP ever are) like old shoes

The parrot, the twits, the fatally dangerous joke, and of course the crazy animations...

Has anyone seen 'Heaven' starring Cate Blanchet. It was on really late last night on telly. An amazing half English, half Italian film, very poetical and strange, involving a cabineri (policman) who aids a woman (Cate Blanchet) who has planted a bomb and accidently killed the wrong people, she meant to kill a drug dealer. It also involves a beautiful idea to do with helicopters. Very hard to explain, the impression of the film unless you watch it and get the emotion from their strange and touching relationship. Most def. a from me. I reckon it gets into my top 40/ 50 all timers.

I watched Children of Men which some people on here seemed to wax on lyrically about. I really can´t see what was special about it. A premise which could have been used for something interesting, is instead just used for a simple story about people smuggling.

Watched Apocalypto last night. From a standard Holywood plot it produces something truly stunning.