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

Hmm...I like some of Temple Of Doom - the railway chase in particular - but that screechy woman is *really* annoying.

I personally rate them:

1: IJAT Last Crusade
2: Raiders Of The Lost Ark
3: IJAT Temple Of Doom

I watched Atomised on DVD a couple of days ago. Not worth the effort, IMHO. Yes, it followed the story faithfully. The uninterestingness of the characters is part of the point of the novel, and that's really difficult to get over in film, without ending up with a really boring film. Which is what happened.

RF

A little off topic, but ...

I just finished my first ever day of shooting a live (short) movie, with a mostly amateur company. (I have done animation previously.) It was a practice for an upcoming contest, but we did all the steps. Story ideas, script writing, recruiting cast (half a dozen via an acting website), equipment gathering, prop gathering, location approval, food and drink, vehicles, etc., etc. Editing pending.

Show business is hard. Be kind to filmmakers.

I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral (got it as a present, along with Notting Hill)

Stop it. I've just had my breakfast.

RF

RF, a whole country (being careful not to post spoilers) are complaining about their portrayal in the new Indiana Jones movie. It's quite obvious on the BBC news front page, if anyone wants to go seek.

Indeed so. A tad touchy on the subject, aren't they? "We didn't try to provoke a nuclear war...*in 1957*!"

RF

i watched Sweeny Todd today

very good

for dark gothic you can't do better than team johnny depp tim bourton and helena bonham carter, unless of course you add christina ricci or winona ryder

the one thing that was missing in my view was the courus:-

"attend the tale of sweeny todd
who served a dark and vengefull god
he shaved the faces of gentlemen
who were never seen or heard of again
did sweeny,
sweeny tod the deamon barber of fleet st."

I watched about half of The Lives Of Others last night. This was the German film that won the "best forrin film" oscar a year ago, beating Pan's Labyrinth.

I can't for the life of me see why. It's utter shite. Then again, the oscars were never about what is actually a good film, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Anyway, my advice is to leave this one on the shelf where it belongs.

RF

"Sukiyaki Western Django". I grew tired of waiting for a US release (they say that version will be cut by about 25 minutes anyway) and purchased an Asian copy.

I'm glad I did. The only drawback is that the copy I purchased doesn't have English subtitles, and while the dialog is in English, some of the actors are difficult to understand. But we got used to that.

We liked it. I found myself chuckling out loud at some parts, and the action sequences were fun. Four stars!

I want to see that! Is there a django entry?
A30777465

Buzzin.

I don't think The Lives of Others is better than Pan's Labyrinth but I did like it. It was pretty slow to get going but worth it in the end.

I watched The Cottage. A bit of an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Shaun of the Dead maybe but funny in it's own way. More than a few laugh out loud moments and fairly good performances across the board but let down, as always, by being a bit slow and diffuse and having a monster which did provide a few scary or gross moments but was a too blatant and knowing pastiche of TCSM, Deliverance, Tool Box Murders etc, etc. Not having any lips = Scary

I watched most of National Treasure 2 this afternoon. Not one of Nicholas Cage's finer moments.

Whereas I, RF, thought Das Leben der Anderen was rather brilliant.

Takes all sorts
(were you watching it in German?)

I don't think it's available dubbed. I saw a subtitled version.

I think it could be one of those films (like Die Welle) that is really powerful in German - but translated starts to lose some of its point.

I thought it was powerful enough but took ages to get going. It aslo looked bleak, which was needed for it to work, but the initial combination of bleak and dull could put people off. The meat of the film was only in the last two thirds. It got more interesting exponentially. I thought Pan's Labyrinth was a bit lumpy.

I think a lot of the point of Das Leben der Anderen was the bleakness. I've spoken to people who grew up under that regime and they all seem to "get it" more than the rest of us.

Mind you, language can do that. I saw Schindler's List once in English and then once in German. In English it was morbid. In German it scared the pants off me.

It was subtitled. I watched the first 1 1/2 hours of it, and it bored the pants off me. If a film can't get going in that time (most Hollywood ones are either reaching their climax, or, indeed, over, at that point!) then it's not really working.

Yes, I can kinda figure out where it's going, but I can't be bothered watching them labour through it for another hour to get there.

RF

I've still not seen Schindler's list, for shame. I've *been* in das boot from Das Boot though and I've ridden on the flying dog thing out of The Never Ending Story.

I'm not insane. I do know it's a puppet.

RF I think it's one of those films you either watch or you don't. I don't think anyone's life is the poorer for not having seen it.

If I weren't so obsessed with that type of thing I wouldn't be interested either.