Venkman

History of Violence

I saw this one already on DVD and it held up very well the second viewing, too. The staircase sex scene is still puzzling, as does the last scene feel detatched, purposefully I presume.

Whilst kind of a slow-paced film, I like its sober style with our most inner instincts creeping through more and more as the picture unfolds. Great film with top-notch performances, yet I still haven't read the source material- Should I?

It's certainly a good read, but in a sense I actually prefer the film for what it excludes and changes. I love this film for its tone and pace and definitely the performances. A really good adaptation and something Lady Venkman really really liked as well which sort of surprised me in terms of it having 'violence' in the title but she thought it was great.

I realise I haven't yet jumped on the In Bruges bandwagon. Fantastic film. Perfect. Lovely and a melancholy. Brendan Gleeson has long been a fave of mine but Colin Farrell and (especially) Ralph Fiennes were fantastic too!

I definitely agree about it being oddly marketed. I think that's why it took me so long to see as my first reaction was 'oh great another film about fucking hitmen and they've got a comedy dwarf'.

Wrongo. :mong:

I always assumed his Jennifer Aniston years were some kind of Kaufman-esque prank :-)

But I do like a little dark comedy, especially with a light touch. Definitely not their best by a long shot (although I'm sure we'd all argue about which those were ) but it was nifty and deftly done.

Plus, I'd had a shit day so it was exactly what I needed which probably helped!!

Burn After Reading - yeah, granted I missed the boat slightly on this one but that was a lot of mean fun. Very nice, nihilistic caper that felt nicely covert and suburban and even quite credible in its silliness.

I thought most of the performances were great but Frances McDormand was the stand-out. Why isn't she in more non-Coen stuff too? Is Joel very possesive?

Anyway, a lotta fun and some classy contrivances.

B

Nice review, Greg - I don't think I've seen Dracula this side of the millennium so you've inspired me to check it out again!

Josh - I think your review of The Day the Earth Stood Still is pretty identical. Saying 'Keanu was the best thing in it' sounded like a back handed compliment when I said it too but he was. The film just felt like the studio had gone 'oh yeah, let's remake that sci-fi classic' but then, after it had all been filmed, suddenly realised what the original film was actually about and quickly added some CGI and re-shoots. Pointless misfire. What a waste.

Am finally watching Burn After Reading tonight. I was really intrigued then really put off by the trailers and then audience responses. I wonder if it's all part of the Coens' plan though - they do something that achieves wide acclaim (No Country, the double bill of Fargo/Lebowski) then quickly make an O Brother or a Burn After Reading to keep the mainstream en garde.

(if it leads to them making their next incarnation of The Man Who Wasn't There then I'll be happy too!!) Right...suppose I should actually watch the film before making any more sweeping generalisations

Christian - not saying they're a patch on the books, but we recently had David Peace's Red Riding Trilogy made as TV movies over here which were pretty good. Lots of top Brit actors (as well as Sean Bean) and some pretty cool production values (and only semi-dodgy sideburns) made them very watchable - very nicely and unrelentingly made.

They're on DVD here and I gather will be heading your way sooner rather than later! Worth a watch imo.

Just watched Nic Cage in Knowing. Now, first things first, it's a silly film that takes itself a bit too seriously but I do think that sometimes audiences can be a bit shortsighted. When the premise is that an odd girl hears whispering voices that compels her to write down a sequence of dates relating to giant catastrophes, who did the audience really think was giving her this code?

That being said, my main problem with this film was that - for the sort of film it was - Cage didn't really have a clear journey. He had the dead wife, lack of faith, estranged family and awkward relationship with his son - but he never really got the journey that found himself fulfilling what he was lacking through all the weird events.

Also, it's not so much the plot or revelations here that didn't work so much as the self-indulgence and curious self-importance of the bigger moments. I'm not saying it has to be tongue in cheek hokey, but the film didn't have to smack you in the face with serenity once any kind of drama had been concluded (it was billed as a sci-fi but definitely marketed as a thriller). You could have ended the film at least five minutes earlier and not lost anything.

But Proyas is a spectacular visualist in places here. The plane crash sequence done as one shot actually brings real emotive horror to the scene when Nic Cage, some patches of grass and a couple of extras are the only things that aren't CGI.

This is a good story but it could have been scripted much better and directed differently. While we did like it, I'm glad I didn't see it at the pictures. It's easy to see that if you're not willing to go along with it, the natural response would be to laugh at it.

So, quite nice but a shame it couldn't have been much better. If they'd wanted to take it that way, this could have been the Sci-Fi version of [ Spoiler : Se7en ].

C+

Oh, Josh - I'm so sorry to hear that.

Was just loaned the first few books of DMZ - I thought it started really well but slipped down a notch with each book (and have heard the 4th one is balls).

Also loaned first book of JMS' Rising Stars which I really enjoyed. Despite feeling like I'd read a lot of the big plot points before, I really liked the writing and how each issue had a proper beginning, middle and end and gave us backstory in an interesting way. The writing was the star much more than story but I am intrigued to read more.

Really pleased to see Mark & Malin enjoying 100 Bullets to the end a few posts ago - felt like I was on my own in that respect in the single issue thread when it ended!

I've been having a bit of a Stephen King phase over the last year as I never read them when I was younger when all my friends seemed to. Have read Needful Things, The Dark Half, Tommyknockers and Cell over the last few months and just finished From a Buick 8 which I loved but can see why a lot of people don't. It was just good and weird! Want to read his Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection of shorts next and have ordered it through the library. Looking forward to some short stories!

Also recently read the first three of Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas series. Really enjoyed the first one and the third one (Brother Odd). The second one is worth a read but feels like it comes out of nowhere.

Quite creepy to read in the small hours, Abhi - but generally they're good fun with Odd's narration being a real delight that I would recommend to everyone.

About to start Debatable Space by Phillip Palmer who taught me on a course recently so I wanted to check it out.

Yeah, I can see why a lot of people don't like Pushing Daisies but I always blame those people for the world sucking

It is very stylised but it really is very funny in amongst the cuteness. Even the cynical can latch onto the show's secret weapon, grumpy private eye Emerson Cod (plus Anna Friel is adorable).

Not for everyone, but if you can cope with the style then there are some genuinely original and fun whodunnits among the pie-making and quirkiness.

Hope she likes it.

Wow. Just saw the special edition of The Mist - ie. it's exactly the same only its in glorious black and white!

I loved the film first time I saw it (in colour) but it really gives it that heightened reality of the B-Movie which I absolutely adore along with the hokey small town American of any of Steven King's work.

I still give this film extra points for being quite low budget (for something with big monsters in it anyway) but it's still the human horror that makes this such a good film in my eye.

Criminally underrated - a lot of monster fun with the horror of tryin to protect your family at the centre but with some pretty cool monsters too!

EDIT: Although I do now need a hug!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnywaaay...

Re-watched The Prestige last night. Still a film I seem to like more and more each time. I still love the revelation at the end of what Tesla had done and - while I can see that that would alienate some folk - I love it.

Still love the final shot. Still think Michael Caine steals this one. Still think Wally Pfister deserved to win the Oscar!

I am making a batch of sort-of lasagnes* while watching a double bill of the original Taking of Pelham 123 and now North by Northwest.

Seriously, I haven't felt this blissful in a loooooooooonng time!

*They are 'sort-of' lasagnes as they don't have any tomato or cheese in them. But I am using lasagne so technically it's a lasagne and I'm too at peace to fight about it.

The Unwritten #4 This series continues to be the freshest read I've experienced in a long time. Mike Carey kept Tommy being pursued by genre conventions just the right side of clever-clever and kept it scary rather than funny. But (and it was close) this issue belongs to Peter Gross whose pacing and layouts are really had a sense of horror atmospherics about them.

But in amid all the torture porn, they also set up some real tantalisers (a still warm coffee cup springs to mind!). Im with Balthy that this is my favourite ongoing of the moment and in a long time too. The most appealing thing is how each issue has its own beginning, middle and end but with enough hooks to keep you going.

Brilliant.

Following on from the discussions on LEGION in the Angels with Dirty Faces thread - I'm going to declare a guilty love for 'films released in Winter that aren't playing to the Oscar crowd'

I'm looking at you, lazy horrors, frothy comedys and shoddily CGI'd action. Mwah x

And I still love Captain Scarlett!

I think there are some amazing bits in all of the films. But Episode 1 fails as it doesn't actually have a clear protagonist which is why it drifts along from (some admittedly good) moment to moment. We don't meet Anakin 'til halfway through, Qui-Gon-Jin fulfils the mentor's functional structure before then dying. Obi-Wan has about six lines and Amidala is too busy pretending to be Keira Knightley while the Empire do their evil tax returns.

I actually thought Jar Jar was going to have more of an arc where he starts off like a wobbly racist but then ended up leading the Gungans to victory at the end. But he still keeps pratting around while his brethren are dying. And then gets medals. Nice.

But that's not to fault how much I quite enjoy it. You put Ray Park in anything and I'm hypnotised. The double-ended light sabre is the best weapon in film since they invented the light sabre! And I definitely think it was John William's most original work in years (his 'Duel of the Fates' still makes all seven of my arm hairs stand on end).

My two pennies.

No, I remember the betrayal of the Jedi (plan 42 or something was it?) was tragic and epic. It was all we talked about on the way out of the cinema until one of us snapped and raised our fists yelling 'noooooooooooooooooo'.

Dear George Lucas - dialogue not your strong point.

Dear Venkman - above comment thoroughly redundant.

That's promising. Not just because I like Frank Daranbont's character work and his scary work, but I really like the notion that this could start a trend of comic book series being adapted as series rather than as films.

Although there's a lot of potential there for drawn out story telling too. Still this 'un could be good!

I do have one question: what is a plimsoll?

It's a kind of cake.

(shhhhhh)

Oh alright, it's a kind of flat, light, comfy footwear which I think most of us Brits will have memories of wearing for PE lessons at school but are now more fancily done and a trendier item

Old school plimsoll.

http://www.acasports.co.uk/images/products...19_plimsoll.jpg

Trendier plimsoll

http://modculture.typepad.com/photos/uncat...ed_plimsoll.jpg

We're finally catching up with the second season Deadwood season 2. Two thoughts strike me -

1. The writers/directors/actors can make so much of a character exhaling in this show.

2. I wish I could unwatch/delete from my brain all of the metal being inserted the wrong way - the VERY wrong way - into Al as a medicinal practice

Breaking Bad does sound great too. Must find a way to get to see it (which simply looks like finding a cable package with the FX channel on it - curse you, Murdoch!!)

"No mate, I don't sleep with a teddy anymore, I used to"

 

VERY DISTRESSED LOOK ON HIS FACE

 

"No, thats no good Tigger. We have to find someone for you to sleep with"

 

Amen little guy. And good luck.

 

Awwww, brilliant! ...But if you *were* to sleep with a teddy which one would it be??

Just missed most of but caught the final final moments of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid on channel 4. I hereby declare my undying love for Steve Martin. And yes, I take the bad with the good. Because the good was that good.

Finished The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Best sci-fi war novel EVER. Can't wait for Ridley Scott's adaptation, years away thought it is.

This is one I must check out.

Quick question: A friend of mine is really into Americana so for her upcoming birthday I want to get her 'a great American novel'. Which are the best ones in your opinion - rather just the revered ones. Cheers

I am now getting incredibly nervous about the little online puzzle story I wrote which will be running next week. High ambition + lo/no buget = ...I don't know what.

I've posted in the Voices of the Forum section down below but wanted to do a brief shameless pimp up here as I hope some coffee break sized vampire story beats spread across next week might be up your street.

http://hellblazer.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=8171

If you do drop by, hope you don't think it's shit!

How does someone make it to adulthood without having seen ALIENS?

You can't even call it adulthood until you've seen ALIENS?!?!?!