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Howl was very enjoyable, and Submarine was even better than last time.

And you're right, the guy in the Beetle is his actual son

I enjoyed it and actually found the ending quite emotional, which is pretty out of character for me

lot of SLAM PUNCHES too

as i begin to trawl through all the art house films i have bought and never watched.

I have about 10 films from the film of the year thread that i want to see too...

most people I know say it drags on forever but the driving around to the Ethiopian music is the best!

I watched Moneyball which I liked very much, Aaron Sorkin did a good job again but this story did have many underdogs triumphing so it was probs a lot easier to make a film of in comparison to the shower of douchebags involved in Facebook.

Also I watched Altered States which was very good. The transformation bit was thrilling. I kind of expected it to be more enlightening than something like The Fly or Vampire's Kiss but it wasn't. Some far wilder images + ideas though and the sound and music was AMAZING. Lost out on an Oscar thanks to The Empire Strikes Back :/

I thought it was slightly overrated at first and now I think it's quite underrated, easily one of the best British films I've seen in awhile.

whilst hungover yesterday

it was really sad and upsetting

it was....alright? not completely irritating as films of that kind usually are

it was pretty good. cast aquitted themselves well. central villain plot was really stupid in a COMIC BOOK MOVIE kinda way. thought it was gonna drag but it didn't feel that much longer than it should've.

Awesome, Coens at the peak of their powers. Why Gabriel Byrne didn't follow this by conquering Hollywood and then the world is a mystery.

enjoyed it a lot but the tone wobbled from super bleak to laugh out loud funny... the end boss vampire was lifted out of a completely different film: I'M YOUR GOD NOW!! and the helicopter scene too! amazing. apocalypse road movies are the best.

the hunter guy was good
godfather from generation kill was in it. that's not his real voice.

it's surprisingly okay to watch, even if it's all nonsense. That scene in Dubai where Cruise scales the building is seriously scary, would love to see that in Imax. Did he genuinely do that himself?

Had the exact same pros and cons in the first one. Pros being RDJ and Law's chemistry and the fight scenes, and the cons being how overly and unnecessarily complicated it was.

it was shit

Two Mizoguchi films, Miss Oyu and Ugetsu Monogatari, they were good, bit Ozu like

Take Shelter, which was half good and half nonsense, I think Jeff Nichols doesn't really have much to say underneath the surface

Bottle Rocket, which has all the attributes of his later films but not quite as good

Band of Outsiders, not really a big fan of Godard but this was fairly enjoyable and I love the dance scene that Hal Hartley ripped off

Margaret, which is very good, on the same level as You Can Count On Me, his earlier film, Anna paquin is excellent

voila

was pretty good but shoulda been longer

Don't really like comic movies or anything similar, but liked how everything was filmed/arranged. Still not bored of Michael Cera movies. Think I fancy him or something.

Bronson - what's this film trying to do exactly? I prefered the book. Tom Hardy is, though WONDE... etc etc

Beyond a reasonable doubt (1956) - nice idea, but very much of its time. Comes across as pretty staid and stagey now, without much Fritz Lang panache.

The Class - v. good. Drew me in utterly. Think I would have appreciated it even more if I were a teacher.

Rio Bravo - fantastic. Glad I finally got round to watching it. Particularly like the five minutes of Dean Martin singing for no good reason.

The Leopard Man - Jacques Tourneur sure knows how to use shadows. Best B-movie director ever? Some amazing scenes in this. Gutted I forgot to watch I walked with a zombie and Cat People, which were also on over Christmas. Annoying that the BBC has so many great old films in its archives, but only bothers to show them over Christmas and New Year. Bring back moviedrome?

The Red Balloon - proto-UP about a boy and a red balloon. Probably utterly charming. But I drank too much port and slept through it.

The Godfather - why can't Pacino always be this good? Actually, has ANYONE ever been this good? Maybe not. First time I've seen this since watching the Sopranos. Makes it even better somehow.

Seriously.

Howl is excellent, though, definitely my film of the year 2k11 behind Drive.

Saw Pickpocket by Bresson recently and it was exceptional, a wonderfully slow burner. Almost as good as L'Argent.

and it was fucking ace

was dubious as to whether a film about baseball could hold my interest, but it's always fun to route for a team of underdogs no matter what the sport is. Also Andy from parks & rec was in it. Pretty good

and it was the best fim of the 00's all over again.

Rare Exports - excellent. In a way a bit like a Finnish Gremlins.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - see my post above. Thought it was brilliant as popcorn entertainment goes.

I Love You Philip Morris (re-watch) - brilliant film. Sweet, silly and hilarious.

Source Code (re-watch) still really liked it. Decided the ending did work in a strange way.

Casablanca - obviously an absolute classic. I forget how great the dialogue is.

one of the best individual performances ive seen in a long time by javier bardem, great film overall. brilliant use of music throughout, tiny bit overlong

1) Broken Flowers: Alright. A slow burner. Bit of a cop out ending.

2) Dean spangly: Fucking amazing. To make a film about a man who thinks he's a dog emotional and have such grativas is proper great

3) Mad Max III: Not as good as I remember. Master Blaster sucks.

The former was atrocious. The references were obvious. It was like a watered down version of an already tired idea. Paul wasn't even rude. Never want to see it again.

C&A was better. Hardly dynamite but I suspect I'll watch it again in 2 years time on itv.

We Need To Talk About Kevin - basically just the Omen. The fact that he was so scenery chewingly evil meant i found it quite difficult to believe in his character, or even see where he was coming from.

4bia - pony Taiwanese compilation horror. Avoid

A Lonely Place To Die - great set up for a movie that turned out to be pretty rubbish when you worked out where the storyline was actually going. Main guy is good at creepy intensity, Melissa George is hot

Detective Dee & The Mystery of the Phantom Flame - frankly bizarre Chinese blockbuster where the key theme was, even though the Emperor was terrible, it was best for them to stay Emperor because it's a difficult time so just shut up. Propaganda for the Chinese government basically

From Beyond - guy from Reanimator creates a machine that makes your pineal gland grow, which in turn allows you to see all these bizarre creatures floating around you, which in turn try to eat you. Like Videodrome meets Bad Taste, with a brain chomping final reel. Barmy

Kill List - i thought it was brilliant. It's nice to have a film that takes you to unexpected places, and doesn't feel it needs to explain every single moment, whilst chucking in a few red herrings along the way. Will definitely look out for his next movie.

La Zona - Spanish film about a group of privileged people hiding away from the violence outside, but in turn becoming monsters to protect their own status. This movie has a lot of great ideas, and i found it pretty moving in the end

Sennentuntschi - a Swiss horror fairytale with a fantastic lead performance from the Sennentuntschi.. innocence and unknowing malevolence all rolled into one

Bedevilled - on the one hand, you could see this as just gender revenge porn.. and the men are uniformly hideous. On the other hand there's something about the central relationship between the pleasant doormat and her cold, selfish childhood friend that worked really well. I think the slow build up of oppression and violence makes the ending almost surreal

The Innkeepers - well, i thought it was pretty scary. Some cheap shocks but there's enough tension and dread in there, as well as a couple of likeable central performances

Cold Fish - i sometimes find Asian cinema a little difficult to swallow, since nobody could be as bonkers as some of the people that litter their films. But there's a really bonkers fella in this, and a really, really bonkers ending. I enjoyed it

Somebody bought me it for Christmas, I had extremely low expectations, watched it last night, ended up being a passably decent way to spend a boring Tuesday night. First 45 minutes is a pretty good mockumentary about small town preachers and exorcisms, exposes the tricks of the trade, well acted on the whole. Has a couple of cheap, but decent, jolt scares in the middle section that follows. Gets bogged down in some rapid fire expositional dialogue thereafter which, I can only assume for running time issues, looked and sounded very much like it had fallen victim to time-saving post-production looping (characters mouths not visible during conversations, over-prevalent dialogue in the sound mix). Has a very, very silly and completely out-of-leftfield ending. Wraps up in 80 minutes, including credits.

My issue is always, with these found-footage horror films, that they can rarely sustain the verisimilitude of that conceit. The final act always blows the internal reality, like in The Last Broadcast, which jarringly switched to a 3rd person perspective after the last killing, or in this, which, unlike the title card in The Blair Witch Project (which I think held its nerve relatively well) never explained why an initially well-edited documentary, replete with on-screen titles and the like, suddenly starts including long, unbroken, shabby takes and video interference, but still has a musical score and evocative establishing shots etc. until the end. Best not to overthink it, I guess.

:'(

and it was GREAT

Beginners - very nice. enjoyed all the performances especially by guy off er. 7/10
rise of the planet of the apes - animation is incredible and the acton is impressive but the plot is a bit meh. forgone conclusion entirely. 6/10
The Proposal - funny and sweet plus has canadian jokes and malinn akermann. 6/10
National Lampoons Christmas - never seen before - watched drunk. funny but amazng that leonard from bbt is in it. 7/10

looking forward to my flight home tomorrow as long as they have added some films.

108 minutes of karaoke with a small hint of film...and a 'film'' that's completely unashamed of being an extended karaoke. 'Mamma Mia'' has my support.

FUCK. YEH.

always wary of films with such great soundtracks. sly marketing gambits, with designs on my disposable income. this was excellent, though.

Eisenberg, the thinking person's one-trick geek pony. Hader, never not funny. Stewart, pretty enough to fulfill the role as object of the affection to distract from her wooden acting and the fact she could never pull off 'subject'. Reynolds, nice and understated.

oh, and starting and almost finishing with the fuckin' Mats, I couldn't not love it. LLLLLLOOK ME IN THE EYE AND TELL ME THAT I'M SATISFIED...

shame they indulged the music nerd fantasy at the end, mind. kept a decent grip on reality for the most part. how about dignified rejection for once?

what you think it would be really, nice effects. I fell asleep at the end so missed the 'best bit' apparently.
also, why put a monkey in a jumper? very odd

Blue Valentine - :'(((((((

then

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - :'))))))))

...and it was just like 21 Grams - a hollow, morose gritfest which meandered along in overtly brutal fashion whilst, ultimately, saying absolutely nothing about the things it seems to want to be about (the complexities of faith, family, mortality and the human soul).

Whilst I find the films of Innaritu (sp) to be largely vacuous as films, I have to concede that the acting in them is always, always exceptional. As a vehicle for Bardem - Biutiful is flawless. He is absolutely staggering in it. Much like Watts/Penn/Del Toro were in 21 Grams. But as a whole, I don't think he's the filmmaker for me...

Goon - surprisingly good 7/10

127 Hours - Alright. I guess in a story about a guy trapped in one place you need to do things to keep it interesting, but the hotch potch of styles and effects just jarred for me. However THE scene managed to be incredibly horrifying without showing a great deal, and that takes great skill. Still, 6/10

Catfish - Perhaps the best use of integrating digital media into film I've ever seen. However, it was SO fake. Come on there's no way that was real. I didn't buy it at all, which hampered how much I appreciated it. 6.5/10

Philadelphia - Can't believe I'd never seen this before. It was a bit 'Are you listening audience?' preachy, but it was great. I love Denzel, even if he's playing a homophobe. Didn't know it was a court room drama, love them. The opera scene was fucking weird though. I like how Denzel politely excuses himself after it, cos that's exactly how I felt. 8/10

Pretty far ferched but terribly exciitng - 8/10

it was good! not amazing, but amusing enough, I enjoyed the literary references to Don Juan and Lolita

Twin Town: Quite funny, a bit dated though.
The Artist: Was very good. Quite cleverly done, a note perfect homage to the end of the silent film era. If it wasn't for the style of film I doubt I'd have been interested in seeing it. The story is a bit pat.
Colin: Moody horror film. Too much handycam for my taste, but was diverting entertainment for an hour and a half.

Rewatched the last half of Mission Improbably: Ghost Protocol. I've found it funny that the two best action films of 2011 came from franchises no one really gave a shit about anymore (the other being 5 fast 5 furious).

actually pretty good, I was expecting it to be very annoying and twee. It was the usual dross for a storyline but it was lovable and identifiable and a good fun watch. But would I see it again? I'm not sure.

7/10

Quite glad I watched it in the cinema rather than on dvd- with it being a 'silent film', it was quite nice hearing the audience laugh..
Thought it was very well done though, as a poster above said, the storyline is quite cheesy, but it was very enjoyable.

good so far. start was confusing (thought that was supposed to be a young Mortensen) and a little stilted (that little blonde girl can't act for shit, yo). getting better as the tension and intrigue build. nice and sinister, uneasy.

but...

'they both work for a...Carl Fogarty'.

...that's not Carl Fogarty.

it was superb

Fucking hell, Kaufman.

Might go kill myself, now.

And so is Broken Flowers, it's Jarmusch on autopilot doing the same tired Jarmusch schtick he's been doing since Stranger Than Paradise. I can't think of a more dated, predictable director.

Lovely film, could do without the second bar scene. Peter Dinklage is superb.

Don't Look Now - 100 minutes of meh followed by a ludicrous, terrifying ending.

Much hyped, didn't live up to the idea that it's almadovar's horror film. Quite creepy central conciet that I can't really talk about as it would be a major spoiler. It was good, creepy, but not a horror, had quite a lot of tit in it, with whoever that actress was, being generally very very pretty and having an absolutely fantastic bum.

Also has antonio banderas in it not being a cat.

HUZZAH!

6/10

I know that this shouldn't really be here.

Very dark and seedy, too many torture and rape scenes for a Sunday afternoon with a hangover but definitely worth a watch.

The main kid in it was very good, a lot of early reviews of the film compared him to a young heath ledger which I can sort of agree with.

which was both interesting and very sad to watch, although well done Bob

Arriety - lovely stuff. Watched with our 6 year old. Was nice how much he enjoyed it despite it having no superheros or associated action figures.
Source Code - Solid sci-fi until the stupid bullshit coda. Where exactly is this new reality hosted? Should have ended on the freeze frame.
Vicky Christine Barcelona - First recent Woody I've bothered with in ages. Pretty good.
One Day - wifes choice obvs. Not read the book but felt this could have been done so much better. It all had a RomCom/Richard Curtis gloss to it.

Got Biutiful at home but someone up there has reminded me that it's the same guy what done 21 Grams and Babel? GREAT. Another Earnest-a-thon.