Past couple of weeks I've watched...

Wolverine and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I'm going to say the same thing I said after watching Monsters Vs Aliens. Visual and audio effects, music, cinematography, all nailed in modern flicks.

What is invariable missing is STORY. Both these movies had bloody great big holes in their narratives. Was watching the extras on 'Revenge,' and George keeps making jokes about how the script isn't done, or ready, or 'hay it's finally here!'

You don't reckon!?!
It was bloody obvious that the script was the last thing that anyone thought about.
I guess it doesn't matter cause both these flicks were for the fan's who would have sucked up any old slop.

Other Films I saw were...

La Spagnola
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290867/


Somersault
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381429/
Both of which I really enjoyed. they were small stories, but riveting stuff.



Ice Age 3 is coming up and I've got a bad feeling bout this one.

Really enjoyed the first, thought the second was OK, but I don't know bout this last one.

Last weeks DVD's were...

American Gothic
Loved it when I first saw it in the nineties. I didn't realize that Sam Raimi was involved.
The series starts a little slow, but properly kicks in round the forth disk.
Looks like Twin Peaks had a bit of an influence.
Kinda weird working through the disks and watching the format get whittled at by the film makers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gothic_(TV_series)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111880/




Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Classic!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Killer_Tomatoes
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080391/

Was watching last week...

Party Animals
 Likable cast, and I dig stories about politics. Good cinematography with lots of tracking actors down corridors, and regular use of depth of field to separate characters from busy backgrounds. 

Good pedigree too.

Six degrees of separation for Party Animals...

1. This Life (same producers) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Life
2. Ultraviolet (writer worked on This Life and Jack Davenport appears in both)
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_(TV_serial)
4. The young guy, who is the new Doctor Who, is one of the Party Animals.

Devil Wears Prada
Gave it a go cause I couldn't find anything else in the library at the time. Ok show but it bent my sense of reality big time. That Anne girl has a smile like a crocodile.

Planet Terror

Needed to watch this again to wash DWP out of my brain. This Grindhouse hommage double feature is 'the bomb'!

Frost/Nixon

Was good but I don't think it deserved the acclaim that it attracted.

Must be American navel gazing again?

This weeks movies...

Sweety
One of Jan Chapmans first flicks.
I really liked the weird little shots throughout it. Reminds me of David Lynch.
Lots of 'normal type people' tested by extreme events.

I Robot
Aussie director and I remember it being OK.
It's still OK.
I'm kinda getting sick of seeing Will Smith in films. Getting as bad as Tom Cruse (or Tom Hanks) in that he is in so many films that I don't see the character anymore, I see Will Smith being chased by aliens or shooting gangsters or giving away money.

The new Star Trek thang
It was a good ride. Bit boring cause you know that there is going to be a happy ending.
Nother 'time travel' type script device which really gets on my tits. Such a unimaginative and overused device to use in a Star Trek flick.

That said, they deliberately mention a parallel time stream, and make no effort to put history back on track, so I reckon the studio is using this movie to completely reboot the franchise.

They re-wrote Trekkie history so that they can take liberties with the characters and the environment.

There will be a lot more product (I heard rumours of a new TV show) arising from this little maneuver.

Went to see this cause I've been following the career of J.J. Abraham. Liked Alias when it was on the tele.

Ages back I heard that John Cussack agreed to do Con Air, so that the studio would sign off on his personal project Gross Point Blank.

I reckon J.J. has done that same thing with this flick. Possibly so he could make Cloverfeild, or maybe there is something else up his sleeve???

Moulin Rouge
We had a class recently where we were asked who hadn't seen this flick. I was the only one to put up my hand, so I thought that maybe I should make an effort.

I'm I the only one that found the adapted songs really distracting? I spent a few seconds at the beginning of each piece of music wondering where I had heard the song before. It was like a cinematic trivia night.

I don't mind musicals, and I think it's a shame that new songs weren't written specially for this show.

commercially it's genius. No need to wonder if the audience will like the songs or not.

Also, it's set in Paris, but where were all the Froggy accents?
The art design, and the music arrangements were inspired.


Last King of Scotland
Ok film. I remember when when I was a kid, and Uganda and Amin were always in the news.

This weeks movies...

Like Water for Chocolate
Used to have the book at one time and I think this was one of the first cinema flicks I saw with sub-titles?

Haven't seen this in a looooong time, so I decided to do this flick as a school exercise.
Still a great movie but the soundtrack has turned out to be really disappointing.
Like someone bashing out cliques on a Casio keyboard.

Other great food type movies... 
Tampopo
La Grande Bouffe 
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover


Run Lola Run
Great electro sound track

Jamon Jamon
Most memorable 'scene I seen' in ages is two guys (one being Javier Bardem) striped off naked, and fighting a bull in the dark.
Also Penelope Cruise has very nice breasts. In fact, every woman in this flick has lovey bosoms. This also includes a couple of the guys.


Ten Canoes
Great Aboriginal flick.
Like the mini doco's on how to build a canoe and spears.

Edward Scissor Hands
Never seen it before.
Don't know why I got this out.
I think someone at school mentioned it.
It's ok.

Last weeks DVD

• Planet Earth (BBC doco)
• Mon Oncle (French, almost no dialogue. Very twee.)
• Fast Food Nation (Based on the book)
• Planet Terror (Rodriguez again.)

 

This weeks DVD

• Aliens 3
• The Barbarian Invasions (Jesus of Montreal was probably the
  first time I realised that I could enjoy movies with sub-titles. This is by the
  same director.)
• Scent of Green Papaya (bit slow but interesting.)
• Out Foxed (doco on Rupert Murdox’s Fox network)
• The Realm of the Senses (mind blowing Japanese film.)
• Kenny (Oz mock-u-mentry bout a portaloo serviceman.)

This weeks movie is some more Time-lapse of the weather...

East syd timelapse 2007

DVD's

The Triplets of Belleville (Wow!)
Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman movie which is slow moving but riveting. Reminded me of the French interpretation of dangerous liaisons ‘Les Liaisons dangereuses’ (Where I first ‘fell’ for Jeanne Moreau) and the women in the flick were all Tippi Hedren type stunning.)
Arrested Development first season (Surprisingly good.)

‘Bitter sweet’ is a strange term. I feel that some people don’t appreciate the concept as well as others.
If you are looking for some ‘humanity’ in your DVD collection, I can recommend these flicks (interestingly none are American ;-)

Happy Times (China. A Cinderella type story, but sooooo NOT.)
Bread and Tulips (really sweet Italian movie with Bruno Ganz who was in Wings of Desire.)
Closely Observed Trains (Czech film. Wow, it’s really slow moving like the Ingmar Bergman movie above, but riveting)

East Sydney timelapse

This weeks DVD

• Closely observed trains (Czech film)
• Last Exit to Brooklyn (made by
  Germans)
• Lost in La Mancha (Amazing doco bout
  a movie that didn’t get made.)
• Cinema Paradiso
• Eraser Head (Dave Lynch is another hero.)

Sydney Story City Life: Video three

DVD view

 

• Bread and Tulips (really sweet Italian movie with Bruno Ganz
  who was in Wings of Desire.)
• Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker (Chinese period piece bout
  a guy who woes a girl who owns a fireworks factory.)
• The Birds (I’d never seen it before.)

Sydney Story City Life: Video three

Last weeks DVD

Luc Besson collection. Nikita, Atlantis, Subway, Le Dernier Combat (A lot of people reckon this guy is more ‘style over substance’ but I like his stuff.)
Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban (Never seen a HP movie before so why not.)
Pret a Porter (The money spent on ‘talent’ must have given the Producer heartburn.)
Excalibur (I thought this was a terribly sexy movie when I was a kid. Guy’s in decked out in full suits of armour hip deep in lakes fighting each other, and shagging princesses. (Jean Luc Picard makes an appearance))
Once upon a time in Mexico (Rob Rodriguez is a bit of a hero of mine.)
Who killed the electric car (Nothing like a good doco.)
The Piano (One of my fav’s of all time.)

Video two in the series...

Sydney Story Home Life: Video two

I like to get my DVD’s from the local library.

Libraries tend to have a more interesting collection of titles then the local video shop.

This weeks rentals….

• Lord o the rings, the second one (my mate has gone to Africa and I’m babysitting her DVD collection. She has LOTR one and three.)

• Red Dwarf III (Brit sit com)

• Desperate Teenage Love Dolls (underground cult type thing that was a little TOO Cheap.)

• Spirited Away (if you haven’t seen it, you have missed out big time.)

• Proof (Ozzie movie from the early nineties, where Agent Smith express’s more then one emotion.)

• Dead Man. (Jim J. art house flick)

This is a stream of consciousness vid featuring Syn city.

Sydney Story Park life: Video one