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

Apollo 13 (which we watched this afternoon) prob also hits Great and great. I still find it pretty tense even knowing they get home safely (I assume that doesn't count as a plot spoiler seeing as it was an historic event).

Anyway, last night we finally got to see The Boat that Rocked. What a fab film. Really, really enjoyed it. I do like Richard Curtis.

Tonight we have Frost/Nixon lined up to watch. But I may have to save this just for myself. DH is already calling it 'Parky/George' and making out it's about an interview about the king's speech impediment (another film I suspect I will be watching on my own).

Mol

Just got back from the Coen's "True Grit".

It really is a spectacularly good films. Up there with the very best Coens. Also, I'd say it holds it's own against the best of Leone, Ford and Eastwoods great westerns.

It is a fantastically beautiful and well shot film, so please, please go and watch it in the flicks if you get a chance. What I want to know is how the blooming heckfire do the Coens remain so solidly ace after so long. Blood Simple was 25 years ago and they are still cracking out super classy films like this bad boy.

Go to the cinema ASAP and watch this, That is an order people!



FB

Also another thing to not is the quite remarkable performance by Hailee Steinfeld.

Given she was up against Bridges, Damon and Brolin and she is a novice it was amazing the way she was able to give such a powerful central performance.

I might well go and see it again whilst it is still in the flicks.

FB

Hereafter. The reports I heard on this would have put me off but this morning it was the only choice left we hadn't already seen. It was very good Matt Damon was brilliant as the gifted phychic trying to ignore his gift, and the lives of those affected by death were portrayed very movingly. The young lad who lost his twin brother had me welling up a few times

The real-life disasters were breathtaking, especially the opening of the Boxing Day tsunami. Oh and if anyone wants to know the rest they can ask me on my PS, as I don't want to be shouted at here.

You'll love this if you loved "Ghost".

10/10

GB

I don't know what films they were all from, but I just saw lots of snippets from classic horror movies and some very filthy films at Rob Zombie's performance at the Brixton Academy.

I also finally got around to seeing Inception t'other day at the sinny and wasn't disappointed. In contrast to say Tron Legacy which I saw a few weeks ago which was disappointing despite not expecting something with the intelligence of a Darren Aronofsky film... And it just so happens he has one out which is my next target.

hors dourves obeyed sir!

And yes, True Grit, the modern version is awesome, a brilliant piece of work and that's coming from someone who rarely 'gets' Cohen bros films.

Get thee to the cinema and see it indeed.

T'other half reckons the John Wayne version is still better but I can't stand the guy, never could so I can't compare as I"ve never seen it.

Oooh, catch up time!

Black Swan - enjoyable if not totally comprehensible. As a ballet fan, the dancing was superbly done.

Tangled - the Disney retelling of Rapunzel. HUGELY enjoyable, would definitely watch this again, fun for all the family. And Max the horse/dog is completely adorable.

Paul - very clever, very amusing, I smiled most of the way through. Lots of references to classic sci-fi, and a great cameo from Glee's Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). Certainly not the greatest movie of the year, but worth seeing.

We saw the Jennifer Aniston rom-com "Just Go With It" - plastic surgeon's dowdy assistant (Aniston) turns into a swan to snag her boss. Great small part with Nicole Kidman as old school friend of Aniston's, and the "talent contest" was Some very funny moments so worth the trip on Wednesday date night.

Bicentennial Man is on BBC2 at 1pm today,

Paul: ignore the critics sneering reviews...it's superb. Whole cinema gaffawing all the way through...sci-fi refs (one where only myself and a guy behind laughed but is in a major sci-fi movie) but most people will get and if you don;t it doesn't spoil the film, low brow humour (and why not).

My teenage son loved Paul so much that he's asked for the DVD for his birthday this month. I'll watch it then

The Gifthorse

"On The Beach" (1959, b&w post nuclear war star-studded film) which I'd not seen before, which seemed a better bet than Bicentennial Man which I had.

Why did they feel the need to create the whole score around "Waltzing Matilda" even when they were in the States? Kind of spoiled it. Best line (visiting submarine Captain to Ava Gardner's girl-from-the-farm character) was "Is the offer to spread some fertilizer still open?"

I guess whoever wrote the score had read the book. Nostalgia for an Australia that may or may not exist any longer ran all the way through the book, even when they weren't anywhere near Oz.

That's still no excuse for the corniness of having Waltzing Matilda all the way through, mind.

Do mini-series count?

I'm 3/4 through the first season of 'The Sons of Anarchy'

It is about an outlaw biker gang, and is much better than I expected*




*Apart from the laughable scenes of motorcycle riders who are so tough they blast down the road mostly not wearing goggles

We went to see The Adjustment bureau at the weekend. Yet another quasi-adaptation of a Philip K Dick short story. Slightly supernatural, not really sci-fi as some are calling it. It involves a lot of running (Matt Damon is good at that), sometimes down corridors (see Nicholas Craig acting masterclass), but was generally quite good. It's a rom.

RF

Saw Liam Neeson in "Unknown" last night. It was between that and the Eagle of the Ninth, which we both wanted to see, too. May still do so. Anyway, "Unknown" was OK. Not a waste of time, but if you've seen the Bourne Identity you've seen it really. The story made sense and the people were credible.

The whole film takes place in Berlin. Some of the attempts at portraying Germany were still toe-curlingly embarrassing. It's not as if there had been no one around to consult. Bruno Ganz is in it, but he's Swiss, so he doesn't count.

Watching it in German, I was never sure who was speaking English or German. For example, the professor who developed the wheat didn't look or act German at all.

That was my other option instead of The adjustment Bureau, so I'm glad I went for that instead. You probably get as annoyed about watching portrayals of Berlin as we do with "impossible London" portrayed in many films...

Anyway, to the reviews...I watched Whiteout (HI preferred to give it a miss). This is a film (not giving out too much of a spoiler here, it's in the advertising blurb) about a murder in Antarctica, just as winter is about to set in. It plods along, borrows a bit from a film here, a reference there (shades of Alien at one point), but doesn't really get going before it finishes. The McGuffin is stupid, and it all seems fairly pointless, really. Avoid.

RF

The Rite. Some "jump" moments (surprised I'm still shockable) You'll enjoy this if you like films like The Omen and films starring Reuter Hager.

I saw a trailer for that. I wouldn't be surprised if all the juicy bits weren't already in that trailer.

I think I'd go for the Matt Damon "The Plan" given a choice, or even "Hereafter" which I haven't seen yet.

Forgot to mention that after seen the Liam Neeson on Sunday (dubbed, with hubbie) I went to the cinema straight away again on Monday with a friend and saw "Black Swan" in the original English. It really gets under your skin. Am still thinking about it nearly a week later.