Page 1 of What I watched this week (w/e October 8th)

On DVD:

The Simpsons Season 8 - Extra Features - With commentaries on every episode from a variety of contributors as the director and writer of each episode usually appear together with producers, Matt Groening and even John Waters and Kelsey Grammer, they never become boring as the number of people ensure that the commentaries are never `samey`. There are also interesting features on animating the show, building a real Simpsons house and numerous deleted scenes with optional commentary. :)

Arsenic and Old Lace - Any film that is written by Julius and Philip Epstein, directed by Frank Capra and stars Cary Grant has a slim to none chance of being poor and this is proof that with the right cast and crew, you can`t go wrong. `Arsenic and Old Lace` is a superb screwball comedy with almost everyone involved on top form. :D

Rosemary`s Baby - The film that started arguably the greatest era of horror films is a superb demonic fable with a terrific performance by Mia Farrow and ranks as one of Roman Polanski`s greatest achievements. :D

Kingdom of Heaven - Having re-watched the director`s cut, my initial enthusiasm for the film was tempered by the terrible performance by Orlando Bloom who may be pretty and able to pull in the female audience, but has all the range of emotions of a siege tower. I can`t think of many actors who are in the age range (DiCaprio, Wahlberg, Damon?) and would be able to put in a performance which the film deserves, but there must be someone better than Bloom. Still a great film though. :)

Princess Mononoke - The environmental and pacifist message is too overt to be a subtext or allegory of the film yet this stands as one of Miyazaki`s best works. :D

Infernal Affairs - Watched in preparation for seeing The Departed tomorrow, this Hong Kong crime thriller is a taut and beautifully acted film. Scorsese`s remake has a lot to live up to. :D

Left Luggage - What could have been an interesting and thought provoking film about identity and alienation within the Jewish community in 1970`s Antwerp is spoiled by the over reliance on sentimentality, poor characterisation and a woeful performance by Laura Fraser. :¦ Full review here.

The Grudge: Director`s Cut - It`s strange that one of the weaker Asian horrors should provide one of the better re-makes. It helps that Takashi Shimizu has made so many `Ju-on` films that he knows the subject matter like the back of his hand. Although an enjoyable film with plenty of well-worked `jumps`, this is a pale shadow of the Japanese original. Check the site for a full review of the disc this week.


Cinema

Hoodwinked - This film tries to follow the same format as `Shrek` i.e. `debunking` fairy tales but, with a quarter of the budget, terrible animation and nowhere near the flair and energy, it just feels flat and actually dragged during its 80 minutes. :(

World Trade Center - A most unusual Oliver Stone film as he doesn`t try to score political points but just gets on with the job of telling the true story of two policemen trapped in the debris of the WTC. Stone could easily have gone for over-sentimentality and even made a mawkish film, but he walks the tightrope with the skill of a seasoned filmmaker and creates a fine film. :)

Television

Friday Fight Night - As I expected, up a weight and against a quality operator, Lee Haskins had his moments but was too small and simply not strong enough to compete with Tshifhiwa Munyai and was stopped.

F1 Japanese Grand Prix - What could have prolonged the intrigue in the Drivers` Championship for another race was spoiled when the unthinkable happened and, for the first time in six years, Schumacher`s engine failed enabling Alonso to pick up all ten points. A repeat of Monza in a fortnight would make things interesting!

NFL Sunday - Although the first game was a blow-out, I am glad that I chose Chicago`s defense for my fantasy team. The return of TO to Philadelphia is making things interesting in the second game.

David Beckett

Bit of an anime week this time...

Major (Season 1, episodes 1-24 of Season 2) - A sports anime? A baseball anime? It turned out to be terrific entertainment. I found myself enjoying the exploits/learning cycle of Goro Honda and the teams he played for far more than I should have. It is very simple entertainment, and occasionally predictable but it pulls it off so damn well. One of the best animes I`ve seen this year. It`s a shame no-one`s licensed it and the fansubbers haven`t got round to the last two episodes of season 2. I await the licensing and DVD release eagerly.

RahXephon - Starts off in a w***y, artsy, self-indulgent manner but there`s more than enough of a story to hold it together in spite of that. By the time I got halfway through it really started to pay off story-wise. By the end it was s***ting on Neon Genesis Evangelion(ignore the comparisons, they`re bugger all alike really) from an extremely large height.

Millenium Actress - It`s Satoshi Kon. Another excellent film, as expected :D

City of Men - only the first couple of episodes but it seems every bit as good as City of God was so far.

Prison Break - I`m trying to watch season 1 again before I start season 2 but of late I`m only getting through one or two episodes a week. It`s a bloody good TV show but I don`t really feel like marathoning my way through it at present. So I`ve now finished disc 1 in 3 weeks. Still, at least I know I won`t have a massive break for season 2.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5 An excellent season, where everything is back on track after the okay previous season, this season had a fantastic main baddie called Gloria, I can`t think of one episode that I didn`t like, everything clicked in to place. :D :D :D :D

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6: After 4 good seasons, this is the poorest season of the series, you could really tell they were stretching for the main baddies, which just happens to be three nerds, I felt they could have focused more on Willow turning evil, like the Star Wars prequels, where she starts of good, but then evil slowly consumes her, and a lot of the characters were just spare parts for example Giles, who basically leaves half way through.

The majority of the episodes were more Dawson's Creek than Buffy, and it felt like the writers just threw a demon in for the last ten minutes of each episode just to keep the monster fans happy, but it didn`t fit well with any of the Dawson Creek style stories, and it only started to pick after the last four episodes.

I watched a documentary and Joss did say that a lot of the fans was disappointed with season 6 and wanted the next season to lighten up, and get back to the original Buffy.

floyd

Quote:
World Trade Center - Stone could easily have gone for over-sentimentality and even made a mawkish film, but he walks the tightrope with the skill of a seasoned filmmaker and creates a fine film
Thanks for that. I now just might go and see it after all. The Trailer just looked and sounded terrible, sentimental and horrendously mawkish music.

Quote:
The Trailer just looked and sounded terrible, sentimental and horrendously mawkish music.

Same thoughts here, I might go give it go aswell now. I remember seeing the reviews from AICN a while back saying how good it was and then seeing the trailer and thinking I`ll swerve the cinema release.

My DVD collection

"Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue."

This item was edited on Tuesday, 10th October 2006, 08:58