What makes you happy ?

Good film. No sex, no violence, none of the stuff I usually like, but it’s a good film. 3rd Edward Norton in about 3 weeks. I’ve even told Jacq she might like it. It was another 5 quid bargain bucket film and well worth a viewing. imdb

Also watched one called Unknown and this was pretty dire. I’m sure on paper it worked very well. As a book – a short story – it would work well. One of the psychological genre, but conveying that through the screen is hard enough at the best of times. The cover says it’s a cross between Memento and Reservoir Dogs. So that’s a lurcher / mongrel then. One to not be watched again.

Lastly Casino. Not so great. All the usual ‘Mob’ characters in but the mix didn’t do it for me. You think Pesci and De Niro give the Cosa Nostra a cut? After all, without them their roles would be even more limited. It’s just shy of 3 hrs and I thought it rambled.

Oh yes – The Bourne Ultimatum. Didn’t like it as much as 1 and 2. It felt more of an add-on than something in it’s own right. The cover says “Move over 007, Bourne is back”. Well with Daniel Craig now next to M it’s Bourne in the backseat for me. Can anyone fight for as long as he and not break into a sweat? In Man with a Golden Gun there is a scene with 2 japanese girls and Bond fighting off a horde of young martial arts students. That looked ridiculous and Bourne seemed to just fall into that. The ending was really poor.

This week: Crash, 28 Weeks later, Blade Runner (Final version) and if I can, The Good Shepherd.

Deserves the 18 cert. A hard film, more than NBM even. See the words under the red stars in the image? Accurate they are.
imdb

Watched Casino Royale last night. Great film. I remember when it came out Gary saying it was a damn good film and I really enjoyed it. Opening sequence was excellent. Lots of running – like it was the mark of a new guy. The airport part was the only – for me – typical bond bit and whereas Connery / Moore would have had the witty remark I preferred the silence. The love interest? Predictable – all part of the “shag’em and shoot’em” routine. It seemed more substantial than previous offerings in the 007 stable and is more than welcome because of it. Very watchable film.

So continuing in my ‘not romantic’ category, another 3.
Natural Born Killers. This is becoming better each time I see it. Some of the imagery loses me but it’s one I could watch again (and again).

True Romance. Seen for the first time last night while working. I got it from HMV – one of these “You’ve spent over 20 quid have one of these for a couple”. Loved it. Really want to watch this again. Great cast, it caught my attention several times to the detriment of the answer I was typing (everyone did get answered by 11pm when support closes so it’s not holding things back in the slightest – I start earlier. Just like tonight).

Green Street. I knew there would be echoes of I.D. in this but this is by far the better film for me. Much harder, more real. I have Animal Factory as another to still be seen which is compared to this on the dvd cover.

So no disappointment there at all. Syriana and Blood Diamond joined the ‘to be watched’ list. And I need to buy Pink Floyd’s The Wall again on DVD – or blu-ray. A new TV we ordered a couple of months ago is being delivered next week (I think) and if ever a film needed a big screen, it’s The Wall. Might save Brazil and Apocalypto for that too.

Checking the films that I call ‘mine’ I do actually really have a romantic type of film. Family Man. One downstairs (so it’s more J’s than mine) which I like is It Could Happen To You. And of course I class Leon as being all about love.

DVD’s yet to be watched:

Apocalypto
Twelve Monkeys
the good shepherd
Crash
The Big Lebowski
Three Burials
Apt Pupil*
Matchstick Men
True Romance
Brazil
Animal Factory
reservoir dogs*

* I don’t recall enough to be able to say I’ve seen it

Films I have not watched to the end despite starting more than once:

Fight Club
I just don’t get this film at all

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
I think it’s Sean “Just one accent” Connery that ruins this one.

Bringing out the dead
If I don’t get Fight Club then this is even further way. I really want to watch it too.

Blues Brothers 2000
No. The first was unique maybe.

Nikita
Transparent plot.

Any given Sunday
I don’t know. Must try again…

Summer of Sam
It gets just plain boring.

The downstairs toilet is being fitted and today it seemed like the house was at the dentist with some serious drilling going on. So working / playing down there was impossible. Into the ‘office’ to work then.
First film – Men of Honour (imdb). Standard Hollywood stuff really. I’ve not seen many with Cuba Gooding Jr in (the Jerry Mcguire film with Tom “Saving the world with every toothy smile” Cruise is the only 1 I recall) but De Niro gave what seemed a pretty regular performance. Nothing great, nothing dire. So it was mildly diverting. I think J might like it for the ending alone.

Onto this evening:

I want to sit and actually watch this properly again with no noise, no distraction. Superb in every respect. Right now there is nothing I can fault it on. My regret is that I hadn’t sat and watched it before. My non-regret is that I know when I do sit and watch it I will be nothing less than drawn into the film. It works for me in some way which doesn’t matter here but it does – maybe that’s why I like it. The films I watch while I work rarely actually stop me working but this did. Really great film.

Good but not quite very good. I’d not read the back, not read imdb. I just went on Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and the stars. There was one incredibly contrived line early on which was completely un-needed and didn’t just set the scene it laid out the entire damn plot – which was annoying.
It said it was based on a graphic novel and I can see that. It probably worked very well as such (must have done I suppose to be translated to a film) but this was more to the shallow end of the film pool. Apart from that one line – and one scene with the son that seemed to exist only for a followup (again a contrivance) – there was nothing actually wrong with it It was 6 quid. Good but not great.

A History of Violence (imdb)

So… continuing in my series of “Films I didn’t see until the DVD was less than a fiver (but not because I’m cheap just that I don’t get around to watching them that often)” we now have American History X.

Superb. I couldn’t shake the T2/John Connor connection throughout but an excellent film. I would have liked it to have been longer. I think some more could have been made/seen about Cameron, some neighbourhood history maybe. And the period following release was quick, covered a lot of ground in only a few hours but deeper it could have gone. But it kept my attention throughout which is no mean feat.
And I didn’t see that ending. I know I should have done and it left me wanting to know what then happened, which ways were turned. Very good film indeed.