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

"The Machinist", which tarantoes mentioned (or did he? ), absolutely brilliant film BTW, reminded me of the film that I actually have seen RECENTLY...

The film "Brothers" also partly deals with the issue of one not being able to leave behind the things they've done, but it deals with a number of other issues as well.
One of the best, if not THE best performance by Tobey Maguire, though he played his "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" role pretty well, too.


Another animated film that I would recommend is The Triplets of Belleville...

The Next Three Days. In a word, brilliant, and I'm not a Russell Crowe fan!

I have now seen the film "Brothers" and although it was interesting and reasonably well acted and worth watching, for me it wasn't really convincing. I thought the character played by Jake Gyllenhaal was okay - but the other main characters were generally rather too distant/remote, i.e., I didn't think there was enough character development. Also some of the plot features didn't quite work for me. I checked rotten tomatoes afterwards and it seems I'm in a minority of 39% from 148 reviews, so TasteofGreen is in the majority. Something like "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989) starring Tom Cruise and directed by Oliver Stone was much more realistic, convincing etc. Since that was based on a real life story I suppose that is to be expected.

Interestingly the elder daughter in Brothers, played by Bailee Madison is certainly a star to watch out for in the future, although some of the intense scenes seemed out of place within the film for that character(I blame the screenplay/direction). She was in a very interesting little film called Bridge to Terabithia (she played the younger sister of Josh) which I watched over the christmas period. That film surprised me as it was much better than I thought it was going to be - it was very convincing and quite delightful (but sad). The adapted screenplay of the film was by the son of the author of the book of the same title - and it was actually based loosely on his own personal childhood experiences. I think this close connection to the story really showed in the film.

Set out to see The King's Speech this evening...but it was sold out! So went for Season of the Witch instead.


OK it'll not win any awards, the variety of accents was irritating, but the scenery was stunning (mostly Hungary I believe), good costumes, and a reasonable enough plot. Even pedantic moi was able to zip it for an hour an a half!

Best line: "We're going to need more holy water!"

"it seems I'm in a minority of 39% from 148 reviews, so TasteofGreen is in the majority"
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"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to reform." [Mark Twain]


Tarantoes,
I never said it was a "perfect" film, just the one I watched recently... Last night I saw a better one, "The Town", directed by Ben Affleck, who is turning into quite a director I must add. I have also seen his first film "Gone Baby Gone" (his brother Casey Affleck plays the leading role). I'm not sure if you would like them, but I'd say they are both very convincing.

I hate this new version of imdb. I'm going to see the Sophie Marceau film "Vergißmichnicht" on Thursday, but, even on the imdb.com, if I look at it here in Germany, it only gives the German title (it does that with all films now, which makes recognising films really difficult). The original French title of the film is "L'age de raison", I found out after a few clicks in imdb. Now that's just weird - that was also the French title for the Bridget Jones film, "Edge of Reason".

It is indeed annoying.

Do you think imdb spoke to their users before making the change (or since)? If they did, why did they go ahead and make the change?

I'm off to see 'The King's Speech' tonight. I'll report back later.

I took the family to see the latest Narnia at the weekend to celebrate my birthday. It is very good, and not only as a family film. The best of the three, so far. I must admit that it is the only one I have seen at the cinema and that I did fall asleep when watching the second one (Prince Caspian), which must be some sort of indicator. My only complaint about the third one was that it was in 3D with no option to watch it in 2D. The 3D effects weren't that stunning and it just left you out of pocket (an additional £6-7 for the family), uncomfortable (2 pairs of glasses) and I find the rapidly moving pictures feel 'clunky' in 3D compared to 2D.

The King's Speech will be one I certainly won't go and see dubbed into German!

The Sophie Marceau film, which I saw this evening, was very unusual, the story wasn't much, but it was a very moving one, and SM was very good at the physical comedy. As far as I could tell from lip-reading the original French, the German dubbing was well translated and also smoothly played/spoken.

It is about an ambitious businesswoman who starts receiving letters she sent herself when she was 7, talking about the things she does and who she played with, including her bosom friend and childhood sweetheart, Philibert. She finds the child in her, has a reunion with Philibert, and realises that her hard businesswoman life is not really what she wants after all. Blah Blah corny, but the end is a nice surprise and one or two things don't turn out the way they would if the film had been made in Hollywood. Still no idea what the English title is.

I saw Young Victorian(2009) recently (on DVD), which I can recommend. I found it endearing and on the whole reasonably accurate - but not totally. I wish we didn't have semi-historic films which distorted history (I think it must be laziness). But it was good as a film - and I thought the acting quite wonderful (Prince Albert, Victoria, Lord Melbourne ...).

This reminds me of another semi-historic film seen a while ago - Mongol (2007) which documents the early years of Genghis Khan. I thought this was also excellent as a film - breathtaking landscape/cinematography, excellent character development, convincing. It is supposed to be the first of a trilogy. I would say Mongol was overall the better film (for me).

Just got back from the Green Hornet. It took ages to get going (Seth Rogan just saying random stuff and gurning isn't as funny as he thinks it is) but once it did, it was a good laugh.

Made the mistake of going to see it with a friend who is convinced 3D is going to work and consequently wants to see every film in 3D. I don't want to see any film in 3D because it's usually bad - in this it was absolutely awful.

Plus, it had Cameron Diaz in it and I didn't like her before she had far too much plastic surgery. Now she's starting to look Michael Jackson-esque.

Sex and drugs and rock and roll. What a Friday night!

Seriously, Andy Serkis is stunningly good as Dury, nicely directed.

"two letters from Iwo Jima" - very good film, didn't desrve to be the B side.

We're going to see 'The King's Speech' tomorrow morning. We've booked

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I've now got this bizarre image of Seth Rogan just spending the first hour of the film doing a bad stand up routine.

'The King's Speech' lives up to the hype. Highly recommended

We've had two films from fatso recently:

Eagle Eye: A thriller starring Shia LaBeouf, which focuses on the information age. Pure drivel. Avoid.

Nine: chick-flick musical based on the Broadway show, apparently, with Daniel Day Lewis and loads of famous women starring. All good performances and if you're into this kind of thing, you'll enjoy it. I enjoyed it more than I though I would.

RF

How to train your dragon.

Very good, lovely visually, but I was a bit puzzled as to why all teh grown-ups spoke in Scottish accents, and all teh teenagers sounded American.

Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World

Loved it.

The characters sprang straight from the pages of the book, it was visually stunning, and there was plenty of take the p potential for DH (who also enjoyed the film - his only gripe was that the use of music by Vaughan Williams was anachronistic )

Mol

Thanks to Mr Flying Ostrich I've watched a documentary film called The Butch Factor, which looks at masculinity and gender identity amongst gay men.

It's been a very interesting watch, given me lots of food for thought and I can recommend it highly.