Page 1 of What I watched this week (w/e Sunday 17th July)

On DVD:

Taxi Driver - Robert De Niro is like a coiled spring, putting in an awesome performance in this masterpiece by Martin Scorsese. :D

Raging Bull - Beautifully directed and with brilliant performances from De Niro, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty, Scorsese's biopic of middleweight world champion Jake La Motta is a tour de force. :D
Commentary 1 - The Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker commentary track was obviously not recorded 'live' and is made from interviews but it is interesting and well delivered but with a little too much dead air. :¦
Commentary 2 - This is a busy commentary, recorded 'live', featuring DP Michael Chapman, producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, actors Theresa Saldana and John Turturro, sound editor Frank Warner, musician Robbie Robertson and casting director Cis Corman. Each has something to say, most of it interesting and relevant, and it helps that a subtitle appears to identify each speaker as they switch around. :D
Commentary 3 - The 'storytellers commentary' is also recorded 'live' featuring writers Mardik Martin and Paul Schrader and the 80 year old subject of the film, Jake La Motta, in conversation with his nephew Jason Lustig; Martin and Schrader talk about the writing process, from La Motta's book to the involvement of Scorsese and De Niro and their involvement. La Motta responds to questions from his nephew and his answers cast much light on him as a person, a fighter and the accuracy of the film - he even tells some good jokes as De Niro is on screen telling bad ones and overlaps De Niro with the famous 'it was you Charlie' speech from On The Waterfront. :)

Psycho - The original and best serial killer movie is brilliantly directed by Hitchcock and features very good performances by all the cast. :D

Omen IV: The Awakening - This made for TV fourth instalment in the Omen franchise takes The Omen and turns most things around; the antichrist is a girl, the sceptical parent is the mother but, as it was co-directed by the steady hands behind Halloween 5, most of the other ingredients are left in but the result is a sloppy and predictable mess. >:(

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban - After Chris Columbus' two paint-by-numbers films, someone at Warner Bros. must have made the decision to make a proper film rather than a visual adaptation of the book so Alfonso Cuarón was hired. I don't know why Columbus was moved from the director's chair and into a producer's role but it really did the franchise a favour; Cuarón has made a rich film, far darker than the other two, and brought better performances from Radcliffe, Watson and Grint than Columbus managed in two attempts. :)

Twin Peaks Commentaries - The commentaries on the seven episodes are all delivered by different people so nothing is repeated and you are given insights into different aspects of creating the show: writing, direction, filming and set design. :)

The Sea Inside - The most brilliantly moving and compelling drama that I can remember seeing; Javier Bardem plays Ramón Sampedro in this true story of how one man fought for his right to die with dignity. I found a certain resonance with this film as Ramón Sampedro is a tetraplegic who, like me, suffered his injury by miscalculating a dive into the sea but this is where the similarity largely ends; Sampedro considers his life to be as far removed from life as it could be and more akin to a living hell which could only be solved by euthanasia. Bardem's performance is quite extraordinary and his portrayal of a tetraplegic is as close to the real thing as you will find, the supporting cast is solid and the direction and score (both by Alejandro Amenábar) are brilliant. :D

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster - Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky followed Metallica between 2001-2003 as they recorded their new album without bassist Jason Newsted. The long recording of the album saw James Hetfield enter rehab, the band undergo therapy and nearly tear itself apart as the three remaining members and manager Bob Rock bare their souls to the cameras. :D

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Tim Burton's began his life as an animator at Disney and it is clear that animation is close to his heart in the tale of Jack Skellington, the king of the pumpkins and star of Halloween town who decides to understand Christmas and play Santa to the children of Christmas town - a move that doesn't go all too well. The stop/go animation style works perfectly and is brilliantly done and the cast, led by Danny Elfman in a rare vocal role and Catherine O'Hara acquit themselves well. :)

The Hours - With the novel 'Mrs Dalloway' as a basis, The Hours tells the story of a day in the lives of three women from different generations: Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughan. Nicole Kidman deserves her Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf but must have really had strict competition from Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep; Ed Harris, Jeff Daniels, Miranda Richardson, Claire Danes and Stephen Dillane are all wonderful as is the supporting cast, direction, screenplay and score; the film is easy to watch despite the challenging subject matter. :D
Commentaries - Both commentaries are interesting although the second, by director Stephen Daldry and novelist Michael Cunningham is better delivered and has less dead air than the commentary by Kidman, Moore and Streep. :)

Futurama Season 1 - Matt Groening proves that he is a man of many ideas, creating a new animated show whilst still retaining an involvement in The Simpsons. Season 1 is not the best of the 4 seasons but is still very funny, beautifully animated and always rewatchable. :)

Futurama Season 2 - Longer and funnier than season 1, the characters are more developed and new ones add to the universe of the year 3000 (in the mind of Matt Groening, anyway!). :D


On cable:

Boxing - The return of big time boxing to ITV saw a glimpse of the massive talent that Amir Khan has and a disappointing British heavyweight title fight whilst Sky showed live coverage of Bernard Hopkins vs. Jermaine Taylor (plus undercard). :)


At the cinema:

The Descent - Better than the first time I saw it, The Descent retains the ability to shock you and squeeze the breath out of you in equal measure. :D


Downloads:

Family Guy Episode 408 - Peter opens a tab at Goldman's pharmacy which he uses to acquire vast amounts of pharmaceutical items not realising that you have to pay a tab when the owner asks for their money; Meg is jealous of Neil when he loses interest in her after finally getting a girlfriend so Peter decide to kill two birds with one stone. :D

The 4400 Episode 205 - This season is shaping up very well indeed; each new episode is as anticipated as the last. :D


My Top 20 Horror Movies ---- My DVD Collection

I must say that I read this piece every week and appreciate your comments Wossname. I also like the fact that you have a very varied amount of viewing, from the very new, the foreign and the classics.
Appreciated.

I`m amazed at how much stuff he watches, do you have a job, a girlfriend, social life, maybe a dog to walk ;)

I didn`t get to watch much last week, because I was re-sorting my DVD collection, from reloacating my horror collection in to a new book, so my action/kung fu/gangster/war/western movies could expand. But anyway here`s what I got to watch last week.

Thriller: A Cruel Picture - Not as shocking as I expected, it`s a Swedish film, about a young woman who gets kidnapped and sold in to prostitution, it`s starts of slow, and the only thing that made me squint was when the bloke sticks a knife in her eye, which according to IMDB they used a real corpse for that scene.

The sex scenes were very graphic with close up scene of penetration and in one scene someone actually ejaculating. The violence however were very tame compared to a few other 70s violent flicks, but I have to say that the girl with one eye (which was a direct inspiration for Tarantino's character played by Darrel Hannah in Kill Bill), is super cool, and even though the fight scenes aren't that great, the way they position themselves are super cool, and I wouldn`t be surprised of the Wachowski bros were inspired for some of their scenes for the Matrix movies.

For a low budget exploitation flick it is a good film, I wasn`t disappointed in it, but at the same time I wasn`t overwhelmed, but it was entertaining to say the least.

Smokey and the Bandit - Very funny film best line was from the Sheriff to his son, `there is no way that you came from my loins. I`m going to go home and punch your mamma in the mouth.`

Smokey and the Bandit II - a bit cheesy, and not as good as the first, but still enjoyable, the final cop cars versus lorries sequence is incredible, more for the fact that it was all real and nothing CGI in them, unlike Michael Bay`s car chase sequences.

floyd


***BRAND NEW UPDATE*** GET YOUR SUMMER DVD BARGAINS!!!!

DVD collection

Quote:
do you have a job, a girlfriend, social life, maybe a dog to walk Nah, too much trouble and very time consuming! ;)


My Top 20 Horror Movies ---- My DVD Collection

Yes.....I particularly like the commentaries on the commentaries :B I`ve never really bothered with them before but I`ll have to give em a go.

I`ve only watched this week:

Master and Commander: Similar to Gosford Park.....interesting period detail but virtually no story whatsover :¦

Treasure of Sierra Madre: Not as good as I remember.Very poor,abrupt ending. :¦

Iron Chef - Curry Powder Battle: This is Takeshi`s Castle crossed with Ready Steady Cook.Bonkers but interesting :)


Pool is the game of the Gods.

not much this week - - too hot for DVD watching

Macabre (1980) - debut film from Lamberto Bava son of the great Mario. Horror thriller that is quite slow paced but gradually builds up nicely to its gruesome climax - strong characterisation for a change and good performances too. A woman has a torrid affair but when her lover and young son are both killed she spends a year in a mental institution. On release she returns to the scene of her illicit meetings, a boarding house run by a blind young man. Just who is she making love too up there in her room and what exactly does she keep locked in the icebox. Throw in her nasty little daughter and you have one of the better examples of the giallo genre.

Phenomena (1985) - not seen this film since the old cut video version which was called Creepers. This widescreen complete version is almost like watching a new film. A young student arrives at a girls finishing school in Switzerland and with the help of a crippled entomologist played by Donald Pleasance she helps to track down a local serial killer. Like most Dario Argento films you can ignore the plot deficiencies and concentrate on some of the superb visuals. Good soundtrack although the heavy metal numbers are a bit off putting. Reminded me a bit of Suspiria in parts

Blood of Fu Manch / Castle of Fu Manchu (1968) - a couple of films from the Fu Manchu series with Christopher Lee as the master villain. Pretty average fare directed by Jess Franco. Castle is the better of the two with Fu Manchu planning to turn the worlds oceans into ice. Lee has very little to do but look menacing and Richard Greene as Nayland Smith lacks any real panache. The earlier Fu Manchu films are better and Franco just cannot direct decent action sequences.

Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959) - a really entertaining horror mystery dealing with an ancient amerindian curse, shrunken heads and decapitations. A ripping yarn and very enjoyable.

Playtime (1967) - this was Jacque Tatis "Citizen Kane" - it took him about 3 years to make and almost bankrupt him. A wry look at modern life in the big city where people work in large impersonal offices and live in apartments like shop windows. It is all very clever but just not that funny. The best scene revolves around a restaurant that opens but is not quite ready for customers yet. Over long and Tati is only on the periphery a lot of the time so does not really get to do many of his comic routines.

Andy

Johnny Suede - review disc...I loved this when it was released. Kind of Lynch meets Tarantino. Brad Pitt is really great with his po-faced pout and ultr-serious comic demeanor. Nick Cave is so bad though that he`s just ...well, BAD. (Liked the guy in The Birthday Party ...). But overall it seemed a little contrived in hindsight - almost a homage to Eraserhead. Have to watch with audio commentary yet before posting a review proper... :)

Kojak Series 1 Disc 3 - 4 episodes where everybody calls each other `sweetheart` and it sounds tough. Jolly good actually...review to follow. :D

Beyond the Valley of the UltraVixens - Meyer had completely lost his marbles by the time this stylised surreal-erotica graced our screens. Review to follow! (The audio commentary had a little bit `too much information` for my tastes about his relations on set with Kitten... :p )

Read or Die Volume 2 - second outing, this time with one daughter in tow. She loved it!

And that...I think ...was that!

The Descent - SPOILER:
Terrifying until the Creep-looking flesh-eating mole-people turned up and then it lost its specialness for me - they weren`t frightening at all. I`d have preferred the team just lost in the caves. The ending was really good, leaving it ambiguous as to what really happened and how much of it was in her imagination, and how she was still stuck there with no hope of rescue.

The Vanishing - Dutch/Swedish/Whatever original. Turns out the film I was thinking of when I got it wasn`t the remake of it, but I`m glad I got it anyway. It`s an interesting film placing much more emphasis on the methods and day-to-day life of the kidnapper than the efforts of the hero, which was very effective, I found myself thinking I would have got in the kidnapper`s car - even when I knew he was a kidnapper which is never in doubt - because of seeing what a nice husband and father he seemed to be!

The Bad Seed - cracking and very brave film for the era about a little girl who kills a classmate on a school picnic. It chickens out on it`s bravery by have a tacked-on ending where justice is done, but the rest of it, having a mother dealing with a remorseless and devious killer, is brilliant. The acting is wonderful, the cast had played the roles for a long time on broadway (the production having a better ending).

Dodgeball - I bought it after reading a thread on here, and I absolutely loved it! I don`t normally like daft comedies, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it is and how funny. I immediately re-watched it and it hadn`t lost too much of the fun from the first time round. Well worth the £4 bargain price!

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This item was edited on Thursday, 21st July 2005, 12:34

The original `The Vanishing` is a thousand times better than the crap Hollywood remake, as is almost always the case with quality foreign films remade.
U should give some more a chance.U might be pleasantly surprised. :B

Quote:
U should give some more a chance.U might be pleasantly surprised.

I often do prefer the originals! :D

What I meant in my review was that I thought that "Breakdown" (which I remembered a little bit of the other week) was called "The Vanishing"... I`d got my kidnapped girlfriends muddled up! I haven`t seen the remake of "The Vanishing", but I have it waiting to be watched and compared. :)

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