"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

QUOTE:Cruising It became clear pretty early that this was less of a serious movie and more of a "I'm a vanilla guy and I've heard about this new thing, and it scares me". Had it been made today, it would probably have been about "that darn internet the kids are always on with the pedophiles", or "a slasher movie about rainbow parties". But debauched homosexuals are much more intimidating. The killer is lifted directly from Psycho, just replacing one parent with the other, and when the movie ends we are left with the possibility that Al Pacino did catch "the gay". In its defense it did feature one of the biggest "what the hell?" moments I've encountered:

Hahaha, I remember seeing this movie in Westwood when it first opened. Haven't seen it since. One thing I remember most clearly about it was the score -- very attention grabbing and fresh. Haven't seen it since -- what was it? -- the early 70s?

Just watched a fun British horror film called "Severance" that I enjoyed. They called it a cross between The Office and Deliverance. I liked it but had to fast forward through some of the more brutal torture scenes near the end. It was too close to bedtime and I didn't want any lingering imagery to bleed over into my REM.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Yeah, I watched this recently too.  It was fun, mostly.

Lovefilm have sent me Zodiac and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead so I'll be watching them over the weekend.  It's taken a whole week for them to arrive so they had better be good! 

~ 'I will give you my finest hour, the one I spent watching you shower' ~

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

About Children of Men, Booth. Did you check out the featurette about how they filmed some of it, especially the 360 filming of that one sequence from inside the car, that was really fascinating how they manufacturd that device in order to get the effect they were looking for.

Finally going to watch The Lives of Others later...      

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

The Lives of Others = I don't know - a little long and draggy for me. But I loved the "Making of..." extra on the DVD. The writer's interview was fascinating.

I watched some Israeli movie whose name escapes me. It was difficult because you have to read the movie. Knowing only one word of Hebrew -- shalom -- means that I had to read every word. And the movie was wordy. While reading it's hard to watch the movie. I didn't like it much. The concept was that a group of IDF soldiers have come under the thrall of a radical rabbi who speaks cryptically about restoring the Temple in Jerusalem. The THIRD Temple. So these guys are planning to blow up the mosques in Jerusalem. Yada.

Just checked my Netflix account and see the movie was Time of Favor (2000) with this synopsis:

Winner of six Israeli Oscars, including Best Picture, Time of Favor is a taut thriller about the tense relationship between the orthodox nationalists and the military. Both a politcal-psychological drama and a love story between a passionate woman and two best friends, this profound film raises important questions about faith, duty and love for oneself.

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

~ 'I will give you my finest hour, the one I spent watching you shower' ~

Watched The Wizard of Oz yesterday after Christmas lunch with my family.  I seemed to be the only one speaking along with the dialogue.  Hmmm...

And Casino Royale, the first Bond film I've seen in maybe 10 or so years.  They've improved a lot!  I've always found Daniel Craig rather dishy and in this he looks fine

~ 'I will give you my finest hour, the one I spent watching you shower' ~

Last Kiss

Drama with a very negative view on marriage as seen through a few different relationships.  Ultimately though, not bad at all.   6.5/10

I finally got around to watching Garden State a couple of nights ago. I thought it was a swell little movie, eclectic and thoughtfully put-together. A little precious at times, and some of the comedy clunked a bit, but that didn't bother me overall.

Ian Holm did a great job with what was little more than a stern-dad cameo. I liked Zach Braff from the early Scrubs days, so I was rooting for him with this, throughout the Braff-lash (or Zach-lash, whichever variation you prefer). Natalie Portman's character drew an arc from annoying to charming with only a fraction of the overused movie tricks usually dedicated to that purpose.  Peter Sarsgaard is exactly the right amount of dangerous for his role.

Have people said "Grosse Point Blank without the gimmick" yet?

Superbad

- I put this on because my wife wanted to watch something, and I was tired and ready to sleep.  I expected a non-funny, crappy movie.  While it was very crude, it was also surprisingly funny - I love the cop characters in particular.  7.5/10

Breach

- Based on a true-life breach of national security in the US involving the FBI, this was a well acted spy drama and very watchable.  7/10

25th Hour. With every film I watch of Spike Lee's, I like him more and more, and I like Terence Blanchard less and less. (I'm not watching them chronologically, though, so maybe that's unfair.)

Sometimes I still have a tough time with his didactic flourishes -- the mirror sequence is right on the edge for me -- though I think it's more about the jarring breaking of voice than the technique itself. (You know when Albert is setting out the Windom Earle evidence on the table, and suddenly his voice changes and he sounds like he's in a studio performing a radio play?) However, having Brian Cox step-out like that at the end was terrific, like a father telling his son a bedtime story.

EDIT 1:  my roommate watched Inside Man this evening, and overhearing the music reminded me how much I liked Blanchard in that, so maybe I'm just being snipey.

EDIT 2: the ranting-at-the-mirror scene I thought was so quintessentially Spike Lee was apparently from the book..

Atonement

This was well acted, well filmed, beautifully made, and had a decent story.  And yet for all that it seemed to have something missing - some minor ingredient that made it seem incomplete to me.  I felt they didn't finish the film off well - I'm not saying I didn't like the ending, more how it was directed I guess.  It tried to be a Titanic, but just didn't get there for me.

That said, the Academy are bound to love it - there's no actor with a strange accent or mental illness, but it should pick up in several other categories...

7.5/10

Sherrybaby

Definitely confirms Maggie Gyllenhaal as one of my favourite actresses right now.  She is excellent in this.  It's not a fun movie by any stretch of the imagination but it's worth seeing it for her performance.

~ 'I will give you my finest hour, the one I spent watching you shower' ~

Factory Girl

I wasn't expecting very much from this film but I really enjoyed it.  Great performances and a good script.  And I have to say it - Sienna Miller is really very good in it.  Really (at the risk of sounding like the director in Mulholland Drive).  This is the first time I have seen her in a serious role and I was impressed (Casanova is a sweet film but it doesn't ask too much of her).

~ 'I will give you my finest hour, the one I spent watching you shower' ~