It looks to be built upon a foundation of cliché and broad stereotypes, but if you liked Borat I suppose it's worth a look. I'm just a little bored with Brunoesque characters these days, it's been done to death. Making homophobes feel uncomfortable is liking shooting fish in a barrel with your penis. And taking the piss out of the behaviour of celebrities is something I've never given too much of a fuck about.

Haha! Sigged

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Hahaha kewl!

Yep, you should be honored. You're above Bob now haha. His bad English is always amusing, but your quote made my day

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Maybe some of the film geeks here can help me out...
I remember seeing this horror flick about some type of ghosts in the computers, sucking the will the live out of people. Suicide rates go crazy all over the world, dumb chick runs down corridor, wait till monsters are almost through the door. But it had a pretty cool atmosphere and was generally well made, as I recall. Does anyone here know the name of the movie I'm thinking of?

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just saw dr seuss' horton hears a who. sickening animation and terribly funny when on pot

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Ghost in the Machine?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107009/

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I`ve watched a few scenes from "Bruno".
Not funny at all. Especially the scene where he went to this evil fest. The guys there aren`t nazis, just normal skinheads.

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Yeah there are many skinheads that aren't racist. The film This is England shows the difference between the racist and non-racist skinheads.

(Terrific movie by the way)

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Yup big differnence between BONEheads and SKINheads

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Great fuckin' movie. I love Shane Meadows' work. Thomas Turgoose has a great career ahead of him, if he wants to continue acting that is. Stephen Graham totally surprised me with his performance as Combo, I had seen him in other films and didn't think much of him, but fuck me he had a powerful presence in This is England.

On some occasions I get labelled a skinhead, and when I do it's always a skinhead of the Nazi variety (people don't seem to bother themselves with the effort of making a distinction). I vividly remember standing in the centre of Belfast about 7 years ago, waiting for someone to come out of a shop, and a guy walked by with a friend who was Asian. The Asian guy and I made eye contact, and he immediately looked away (I was actually gonna nod "hello" to him, as I tend to do when someone looks at me haha, but I missed my chance). I sensed the tension, and when I looked over my shoulder he was pointing me out to his friend and saying something, and they both looked at me and saw me looking at them. I know in their minds that all of this was just confirmation that I was a Nazi hahaha. I hate that shit. But I'm not even a skinhead in the way the kids in This is England were; I just happen to have a shaved head and I like wearing boots, but besides that there's no other link that I'm aware of. Skinheads have a certain lifestyle and philosophy and behaviour that I don't ascribe to. I also dress in black (although it's always jeans and a plain t-shirt) and I sometimes get called a Goth because of that, too. I think people are generally just lazy in their perceptions, like I was just now when I said that people are generally lazy in their perceptions.

Haha Very true.

I used to have a good friend named Matt Friesen (common last name there?) And he used to be a really nice guy, until he got involved with this group of racist skinheads, and after that he would always be bragging about his parents being from Germany and such, and how the Germanic race was the most powerful race in the world and that Hitler was right all along etc. Me and my friends just thought it was some silly phase/identity crisis he was going through... until one night when me and him were talking on MSN and he made a comment about my girlfriend not being white, and I told him to fuck off and never come near me or speak to me again. A few months later he was driving home drunk and got in a car accident, which caused severe brain damage. Apparently his head is really fucked up now and he can hardly remember anyone he knew before. Sometimes I do believe in karma

Oh, by the way Gomli, I wasn't trying to say that all German people are like him, I was just trying to say that he was an idiot and actually believed what these skinheads told him. From what I've read, Germany is a very tolerant country now

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Great movie indeed! They show it every so often on one of our television stations. I've seen it a few times now. Stephen Graham was great in that movie, as was Thomas Turgoose (Shaun).

That's pretty ridiculous that you were labeled as a skinhead. I mean, can't a white guy be bald anymore without being considered a racist? That's sad. Surely they would have noticed that you weren't wearing skin-tight blue jeans, combat boots and suspenders haha.

Christ, I get pissed off when people label me as a goth just because I wear black jeans and metal t-shirts, have dark hair, and a very pale complexion, but that's just the way I was born (and I don't always wear metal t-shirts). I think people assume that I dye my hair black, but I don't, it's just naturally very dark, so I guess it kind of looks black unless I'm in the sun, then it just looks dark brown. Either way, I was born with this complexion and hair colour, so fuck them for assuming what I am I don't act anything like a goth, I don't hate the world or act sad all the time just for the hell of it. I'm actually a fairly outgoing friendly guy once I get to know people.

I don't really consider myself to be part of any "group" of people anyways, I'm just a guy who started listening to metal when he was very young

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Yeah Friesen is a common name! Especially for the people here in North-Ger.
Man that thing that happened to your friend is fuckin scary...So he can`t remember his former ideology? That would be "good", of course.
And I understanded what you were tryin to say I know that you guys know better about my country than most other people around (I can only hope)
And yeah, most germans are tolerant. We just can`t be intolerant anymore because of our horrible and abhorrent past. Most dumb-nazi-scums here will get fuckin smashed down to the ground until they stop to defend
Actually we got at about one AntiFa organisation in nearly every city here

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Are they just as ironically fascist as they are in Belgium?

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Haha, been there, done that.
No, that isn't the one I'm trying to remember. The ghosts are native, so to speak, to the internet. One very important detail I recall is red tape, the ghosts couldn't send their signal through red coloured things, so people try to protect themselves by putting red tape across every wall, floor and ceiling. Sheit, it's driving me nuts.

Edit - Ha, got it! Pulse, it was. Not the best, but I kind of like it.

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How about this one?

Kairo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286751/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairo_(film)

It was remade under the name Pulse, which seems to differ significantly from the original:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454919/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_(2006_film)

That's the closest thing to your description I could come up with haha.

EDIT: FUCK, you got there before me hahaha.

By the width of a hair. I actually haven't seen Kairo, but I think I'll give it a try one of these days.

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More I think. Only against those fleshhat-bastards. But I can`t say how belge guys are going nuts about this subject

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Just watched Clockers again for the first time in about 10 years, one of the most underrated movies ever. Harvey Keitel is consistently awesome.

Fuck, I just reminded myself - some CUNT is remaking Bad Lieutenant, and Nicholas Cage is gonna be in the lead role. Fucking bastarding crap-cakes on a twat with extra cunts. Cage is the most worthless hunk of shit actor I've ever seen, it's like watching a semi-retarded man in a Peter Pan play.

I caught most of "La Strada" last night with Anthony Quinn so I got my dose of culture. He certainly was a bastard in that. It was an interesting flick though. Gelsomina and I had a few things in common. That was kind of bizarre. I'm not sure how much of the beginning I missed, but I'll watch that if I see it somewhere again.

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Here's the trailer for the new Bad Lieutenant movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s043quEQ9FY

Is this a fucking comedy? What the FUCK is going on? This trailer reinforces my previous comment about Nicholas cage - he's a talentless wanker.

I loved Abel Ferrara's comment about the butchery of his original film, though:

"As far as remakes go, … I wish these people die in Hell. I hope they're all in the same streetcar, and it blows up."

Couldn't agree more.

Does anybody know if The Stand (Stephen King) is any good? I've read some good reviews and want to rent the DVD... but is it really worth the 6 hours of viewing time?

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I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but I do remember that the acting and cinematography were on par with that of a TV movie (which is typical of 99% of Stephen King movie adaptations haha). That said, if you enjoyed the books you'll probably enjoy the movies; if you're indifferent to Stephen King or his novels you probably aren't missing much. If you only intend to rent it I suppose you won't really be losing out too much if it turns out to be shit haha.

Speaking of ridiculously long movies, has anyone seen Philosophy of a Knife? 5 hours of utter pretentious horse shit. If tries, transparently, to pretend that it's not an exploitation movie, and I think this is why the gore suffers and the focus is primarily on a wanky soundtrack and half-hearted acting. It's about the atrocities committed in Unit 731 in Manchuria by the Japanese during WW2, and if you've seen "Men Behind the Sun" you'll know all about it. The latter film is much better, although it does have a few obligatory exploitation movie animal killings (a live cat thrown into a room with hundreds of rats, for instance), but more interestingly it features a genuine autopsy of a 5-year-old boy. SCORE!

Well I do love most Stephen King movies; Stand by me, It, Misery, The Shining, Dolores Claiborne, Carrie, and The Mist were all terrific movies in my opinion. The only two that have disappointed me so far were Rose Red and Desperation.

Yeah it does seem like it would be pretty good... from what I've read anyways. It wouldn't hurt to rent it, the video shop I go to only charges two dollars for an old film haha (about a pound I guess).

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I don't mind his movies, and most of the ones you mentioned were great films (how could you leave out The Shank??), but the guy has written more books than I've had psycho-evaluations, 99% of which have made their way onto screens of varying sizes, and the vast majority of them (The Stand, The Tommyknockers, The Langoliers, etc.) look like they were made on a $30 budget by a group of rejects from B-Actors Anonymous haha. That's not to say they were bad films, but they leave a lot to be desired and watching them is a labour of love fuelled by a determination to "give them a chance" most times.

I think the guy is undeserving of his horror icon status - most of the books I've read and the movies I've seen are anything but horrific haha. That's not a criticism of the subject matter, just people's perception of it.

THE SHANK!

I've never seen The Shank... never even heard of it haha.

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The Shawshank Redemption

Oh haha I've never heard it referred to as "The Shank"
Yes, I have heard of that one, but still haven't seen it. I should probably rent that one too

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You haven't seen it?? Fuck me, forget everything else you had planned for today - go to the video store, rent it and watch it 8 times.

Fuckin' watchin' The fuckin' Stand when you haven't even seen The fuckin' Shank! GEE WHIZ!!!

Haha Yeah my girlfriend gives me shit for the amount of epic films I haven't seen. I've always been more into unusual cult films though.

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Same here, but there are certain "epic films" which are worthy of their status and are essential viewing for anyone who appreciates film, and The Shankmeister of Shankster Dame is one such epic

Speaking of cult movies, ever seen Freaks? The Tod Browning classic from 1932? It was banned for many years because it featured actual "freaks", but the ban was lifted a while back. There's one scene in the film where a man with no arms and legs lights a cigarette, and thinking back to the first time I saw the film (on TV) I'm convinced that I had seen him roll the cigarette too, but the DVD I have doesn't show that part. I did a little research and found that all commercial releases (thus far) don't feature the rolling segment (and that I hadn't dreamt the scene), and I don't know why it was cut because that's surely the most impressive part of it!

Anyway, worth a watch if you haven't seen it

omg, YES! In fact, long time ago I posted about it and I think PST' enlightened us more about details of the movie. It's probably in this very thread somewhere. Definitely worth looking into. I think it was played around Halloween here. That's one of those I'd watch 100 times.

We started watching Rose Red at Bob's last time we were there and had to leave before it was over. I was glued to it. He bought it for his girlfriend because it's her favorite movie. When Bob said he lived close by where the actual house is I could have strangled him for not going for a tour and for us not knowing about it when we were out in Washington. Darn kids.

I've been in several situations to see Carrie, but never did see all the movie. The first time was when it came out at the drive-in and I was with a guy who wouldn't quit combing his darn hair! That was a one and only date. The other few times I was just occupied doing my usual house/kids routine.

Stand By Me is one of my favorites. I love that one.


EDIT: Page 88 of this thread is the bit about Freaks if anyone's interested. I'm a darn good researcher.

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PLUG IT UP! PLUG IT UP! PLUG IT UP!

Haha the first time I saw Carrie I laughed so hard at that part... still do! It never gets old

Stand by me is a wonderful movie. I could watch that over and over. I think I've seen it about five times already. Cory Feldman was such a great actor... now he has that stupid reality show

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Good ole brat pack. What was he about 12 in that? lol
I was about 17 when I saw Carrie.

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This is a bit of a weird one - Martin Scorsese and Robert Deniro are planning a sequel to Taxi Driver, and have been doing so since at least 2005 [1|2]. I'd heard something about this before and assumed it was a very weak/silly rumour, but Deniro has mentioned it on Inside the Actors Studio and in an interview with the New York Post, and apparently Scorsese has mentioned it as well, so I don't know what to think now. The last time I heard about it I was of the understanding that Scorsese would "never make a sequel" to any of his films, but not only is Taxi Driver 2 under consideration but Goodfellas 2 is also a possibility. Both sequels plan to drop in on the main characters many years after the original stories, and in Henry Hill's case it will examine his ups and downs with the law during his time in the witness protection program.

Assuming all of this to be true, I don't know how to feel about it. On the one hand, if the film is directed by Scorsese and the lead character's role filled by Deniro, there's not much to complain about. But on the other hand, with the fucking mind-numbing climate of remakes we're currently suffering could this be Deniro's way of cashing in on the craze, but a little more subtlety?

To be honest, I'd have preferred a prequel to Taxi Driver. I'd rather know what made the man than what he's getting up to in his 60s.

In other news, the Hellraiser Blu-ray (for us in the UK/Europe) has been brought forward to the 20th of this month after having been pushed back 2 or 3 months every time the alleged release date drew a little closer. Hopefully this date will stick! A Taxi Driver Blu-ray wouldn't go amiss, either, but there's scant info about it on the net.

I recently bought Unforgiven on Blu-ray, and watched it again last night. Great film. I'd definitely have still paid for that whore.

Blitz...I really like everything Stephen King makes so I'd definitely check that movie out. I'm jotting the name down to pick it up when I have the chance too!

I did end up renting The Shawshank Redemption and The Stand. Both terrific movies! If anyone here hasn't seen The Stand, go rent it... NOW!

If you're referring to The Stand, you should go check it out for sure. If you like King's work, you'll love this. It is 6 hours though, so you'll probably have to watch it in fourths like I did

Welcome to the forum

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The Stand was an awesome movie. The first part of it, when the disease was just taking over was amazing. The rest of the movie was good, but the first part was outstanding.

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Yeah I felt the same way. The first half was incredible, and the second half was still good, but not as gripping as the first half. Overall it was fantastic though. Stephen King FTW!

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Hi everyone!Did anybody see District 9?

I've watched a few films in the past month or so.

The Hills Have Eyes - Quite good, had some pretty damn nauseating scenes. The whole thing was really quite good IMO.
The Hills Have Eyes 2 - A load of bollocks, the whole goddamn thing. Boring as fuck compared to the first one.
House of 1000 Corpses - Pretty fucking boring the whole way through, except for the crazy clown guy, he's the only character that made the film worth watching.
House of Wax - I had no idea that Paris Hilton was in this, and found out a few minutes into the film, which kind of pissed me off (If I had known, I wouldn't have rented it). The film wasn't too bad though. I had a good lol at the scene where the guy finds his friend covered in wax and starts peeling it, but skin comes with it and he's like "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" yet he peels more

Oh, and I watched Falling Down again... that film never gets old

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Yes, I was actually really impressed with it.

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I'm dying to see District 9 and Inglorious Basterds

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I saw District 9 the other day (fanx, UseNet!). Wasn't bad! It was leaning a little too far towards the realm of comedy for me, though. There were a few niggling problems with it too, such as the aliens speaking their own language and the humans speaking earthling, yet everyone understanding each other. But then you have to ask yourself, "is that the biggest problem this film has, or would the fact that there's an alien race living in a refugee camp in Africa trump everything else?" I have a similar problem with Fight Club. [Spoilers ahoy!]

If Tyler Durden doesn't exist, and is basically just the other guy's alter ego, how the fuck is he dragging himself by the hair several feet off the ground, backwards, towards the end of the film when the two are fighting it out? You see it happen through the CCTV in the car park. Being mental doesn't endow you with the power to suspend the laws of physics, ya fucker!

I finished watching The Thing on Blu-ray again about an hour or so ago. It's one of the few films whose special effects/acting still hold up well 20-odd years later. Massive respeck to John Carpenter, especially when you consider the absolute shit he has been responsible for ever since.

I got the impression that the mutual understanding was due to the fact that the aliens and people were living in the same area for 30 or so years and had had heavy contact with one another. Also, it wasn't as though every human could understand the aliens; the only ones we see them interacting with are people at the company that specifically deals with them, and military with the same task.

I had way more trouble with the fact that the aliens could eat human and cat food despite their having evolved in incredibly different circumstances. But most sci-fi films involving aliens make a similar mistake. I tend to give sci-fi as a whole a pass on certain aspects of realism, since it would be too hard, and take too much time, to have the shit work out realistically (as far as it can in a sci-fi setting). Though you have to give out brownie points whenever people do bother doing the research.

As for Fight Club, I tend to think that we're only really given Norton's character's viewpoint, and even things like the CCTV are just to show how he's experiencing the event rather than how the event is actually happening. It would normally be an 'objective' viewpoint, but in this case I think it's just a throwaway joke. The standard use isn't the only use.

And The Thing is definitely awesome. I saw it on 35mm a few months back and John Carpenter just owns the 'scope format. Really, very few directors in any genre have ever used it as well. Too bad he went from being one of the most skilled directors on the planet to, well, you know what happened.

I'm still hesitating over seeing District 9 and Inglorious since everybody fucking loves them... I've been let down too many times with hyped up films (Watchmen, Iron Man, blah blah) I'm still one of the few who wouldn't fuck Tarantino in the ass, too.

And... is there a new member that isn't spamming? I'm confused.

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It wasn't so much the fact that the two species were able to communicate quite well that bothered me, it was because they were speaking two different languages in the same conversation. It'd be like having someone speaking English, then another character understanding it and responding in French, and vice versa, presumably without either of the two participants in the conversation having more than one language under their belt. If both species learnt each other's languages they'd surely stick to one or the other during any given conversation. Unless, of course, it was intended to be some sort of device by the writer/director to underline the social barriers separating the two species.

You raise an interesting point about the aliens' dietary habits. It reminds me of an extremely brief fable from someone I can't remember: "If a lion could talk, we could not understand him". The humanesque nature of the aliens in films like District 9, Alien Nation, and so on, always exists in spite of this wisdom, and I don't think film-makers expect anyone to notice such things, which is the position I've taken on the Fight Club CCTV thing - I could accept your analysis of it without any qualms if I was sure that this was the director's intention. I've read Paul Kane's "The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy" and the entire book appears to be one long example of the ambiguity under discussion: he finds things in Hellraiser which I'm almost certain were not put there by anyone but himself. For instance, he talks at length about Freudian father-daughter relationships and attributes a sense of seemingly undeserved, space-filling gravitas to certain scenes and directorial decisions, all of which can be made to fit by willing minds/eyes. It's sort of like personal interpretation of lyrics - my interpretation could be incredibly profound while still being "incorrect", but I wouldn't want to give the credit for my interpretation to the writer. Mmm, not sure how much sense all of that made...I'll try and sum it up thusly: I'm always weary of giving too much credit to artists who could very well have cocked up and got away with it only because the fact of it being art means that cock-ups are always last on the list of possible interpretations *inhales*

I think one notable exception to John Carpenter's post-The Thing repertoire of mediocrity is Big Trouble in Little China. Every time I see that move I feel like I've been fed a satisfying meal.

Joe, D9 is quite a good film, just don't go into it expecting something earth shattering and you'll be grand The Basterds looks interesting, but I've never been a huge fan of Tarantino anyway, so I'm trying not to get overly excited about it.

trying to read this thread without any spoilers for D9 is near impossible

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I don't think much has been said which hasn't already been revealed to you in the trailers We didn't even mention the part where the mother-ship opens up and a giant pink dildo comes out and fucks earth!

haha well i dont know what was really said cause as soon as i'd start to read something that's a potential spoiler, i'd skip to the next section

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I just assumed that they weren't physiologically capable of speaking the others' language, and therefore had to continue on as they did rather than exclusively in one language or the other. It didn't really seem possible for humans to make the noises that the alien language involved, and I would assume that the reverse would also be true.

As for reading things into films: it really depends on how far you go to do it. In my case with Fight Club, I'm reading the use of the technique that makes the most sense, given how the rest of the logic of the film works, rather than the use that is most standard. Since David Fincher is a (moderately) unconventional director, I think it's fair to reason that he'd use a standard technique in an idiosyncratic way.

It's probably similarly fair to use Freudian relationships to discuss a film: even if the writer/director didn't sit down and decide to include something fitting a Freudian schematic into the film (and it's likely in many cases that he did, since Freud's ideas are so widely disseminated), the fact that the writer can't help but be influenced by Freudian schematics, due to their ubiquity, makes it fair to use them in a reading of the film. I tend to dislike Freudian readings, but they have their place and their use.

But mostly, as much as I enjoy the detective game of trying to suss out the original intent, I don't really care what the artist intended. Sergei Eisenstein described being able to direct the viewer's reactions like a pool cue, in the hands of a skilled player, directs the cue ball, but there's a reason nobody since then has really believed that. Once the work is out there, it's out there, and while I think a given work can only support a certain number of interpretations, any reading that doesn't contradict the text and can be supported by reference to the text should be considered a legitimate reading. There's a lot of shit out there that's just wild theory-matching and bullshit, but I think the only thing that should disqualify a reading is that it can't be supported by the finished work, not whether the author explicitly intended that such a reading be possible.

The pink dildo scene was breathtaking.

I think I understand what you mean; whether or not the Freudian angle was intended the fact of it being so ingrained in our psyche means it will most likely find a way into the work, consciously or not. It's a psychological fingerprint that all of us would leave behind in some way, regardless of our level of talent. And as a sort of u-turn on the issue I actually prefer when it's "organic" in this way and not crowbarred in! For me that's when the artist really reveals themselves, when they're not running down a check-list of things they wish to have associated with their work, such as "must give a nod to Freud here, want to avoid looking too much like Scorsese here", etc., and instead just lets the chips fall where they may. This is one of the reasons that Tarantino doesn't sit well with me, because almost everything he does is a "nod" to someone haha.

Fuck me I hope that doesn't happen. Why do people need feel they need to re-paint masterpieces! It isn't like the paint is melting - leave it be.

Just saw Inglorious Basterds a couple of days ago and it was pretty fucking tits. Classic Tarantino piece that revived my faith in him as I wasn't crazy about the Kill Bills or Death Proof (his work with Hostel, too, which I don't understand why anyone would want anything to do with that film). Christoph Waltz, who plays the villain, is like Gary Oldman on speed and is the best villain I've seen since.. shit - I don't know. I could have sworn he was in Das Leben der Anderen but it looks like I'm wrong now that I've looked it up so he's a totally new character to me.

I also saw Woody's Whatever Works before I left. It's a solid Woody film that's worth seeing but it doesn't stick out as anything special among his huge catalogue.

And fuck Freud.

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I'm hoping that the quote I've read from Scorsese is the truth of the matter, in which he stated that he'd never make a sequel to any of his films. The policy of never doing a sequel is debatable, but when it comes to Taxi Driver I don't think there are many people alive who'd want to see that.

I was a late-comer to Woody Allen, and I'm a huge fan, but I find that I tend not to enjoy the films he doesn't appear in nearly as much those in which he does. I think Sleeper was the last one I saw, good shit Diane Keating is a little irritating, though.

I didn't realise he had a new one out, and I guess Larry David will be an adequate substitution for Woody this time around! Which reminds me, the new series of Curb Your Enthusiasms starts this month!

Ahhh without Freud there'd be no Woody Allen!

I saw Reservoir Dogs finally. It was pretty good, but I don't think I'd give it a 95% like it says on Rotten Tomatoes... again, I think too many people just want to suck Tarantino's dick

I made it through the whole thing, but Pulp Fiction was better.

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I was too, and he quickly became one of my absolute favorites. Although I'm the opposite! I strongly prefer the movies that have Woody on the screen. I'm not near as crazy about his early slap-stick Chaplinesque comedy movies as I am about everything that follows (post-Sleeper). If you haven't seen any of these, I recommend you see them asap: Stardust Memories, Deconstructing Harry, Annie Hall, Match Point, and Crimes and Misdemeanors. Just off the top of my head those are my particular favorites (with no real order except for the first two titles) but he's really made quite a lot of great films.


Nooo no. Without Ingmar Bergman there'd be no Woody Allen!

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I think I preferred Pulp Fiction, too. Anything with Samuel L. Jackson in it gets my vote!

No, no, that's what I meant, I prefer the ones with Woody as a main character Everything the guy says just cracks me up. Have you heard his standup? I have it downloaded if you want it

I think I've seen all of the movies you mentioned, but not in a while. This conversation is putting me in a Woody mood (ha) so I must dig out my collection!

Hahaha

Aaah, sorry - I read that sentence wrong. Yeah I've seen some of it - its funny but I can't really get too much into it, much like his books.

I'm pretty good at putting men in a Woody mood.

I'm with Pulp being better than RD. But honestly, I'm putting Inglorious Basterds right up there beneath Pulp.

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Woodiness is next to Godliness

That's a pretty glowing review from a self-confessed Tarantino fan. It must have been good! I'll have to watch it when I get the chance. That is, when a decent copy turns up on UseNet haha.

I watched The Breakfast Club on TV the other day. That's like the fifth time I've seen it But it's a fucking classic and it never gets old.

Too bad Judd Nelson never had much of a career after that, he was great in that film.

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Oh come on! You can spare a few of those funny sounding bills to see it in the theater. Watching a movie on your computer sucks.

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Haven't seen it, but I will now

The cinema experience lost its novelty for me many moons ago, curiously enough around about the same time that mobile phones became popular.

My local theatre is a shit-heap, to be honest. I much prefer watching movies on my tiny monitor whilst perched gingerly upon my rickety chair than to spend extortionate amounts of cash to gain entry to a typically Northern Irish attempt at keeping up with the rest of the developed world, i.e. a shitey fucknut of a tiny-screened cinema which houses grazing cattle who munch loudly in my ear and think whispering is "talking at any volume, but very carefully".

Plus anxiety etc.

I always buy the DVD (or the Blu-ray, these days) for films I enjoy when they come out, though. I'm not a total skinflint!

Good! Everybody has to see it at least once

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I'm just about to crank it up now, followed by a Hitchcock classic that I haven't seen yet either, Rebecca.

I watched the Grindhouse films again earlier. I found them marginally less enjoyable than I did the first time I saw them, which wasn't a lot to begin with haha.

Only movie I`m waiting for is "2012"
2h of watching the world going down is fucking great

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Just watched "Brother's Keeper" for the first time. I'd been searching for it for fuck knows how long and it finally turned up on UseNet the other day. It's a documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky about the trial of a man accused of killing his brother. Very moving, on several levels.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103888/

Looking For Eric - v good newish British film - about football, work and how shit life can be!

I'm just about to sit down to watch Leon on Blu-ray. It's the extended version. I've seen this one before, and the 23 minutes of extra footage makes it feel like a very different film, and in my opinion an infinitely better one. Plus I think I'm developing a sort of John Hinckley Jr. obsession with Natalie Portman. The older version, of course.

Alright, the younger version too, but I can assure you it's totally platonic until I see her in films in which she's 16 or older.

14.

Does it really matter how much younger I go at this point? Fuck it then, 12.

My only real criticism with this film is where the hell does Mathilda get the bra from when she's dressed up as Marilyn Monroe? This conundrum keeps me awake at night and in the bathroom during the day.

Anyway, enough of this bollocks, I'm off to watch LEON!!!!!!!!!

ZombieLand was great!

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I love Leon The Professional, great film. And I'm unashamed to have a thing for the young Natalie Port.

I saw Zombieland last night. It was pretty funny, although not as funny as Shaun of the Dead, but it was up there.

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Oh I'm with you on both of those!

Want to see Zombie Land

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I was just watching "Return of the Living Dead." Fucking CLASSIC.

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I never even laughed during Shaun of the Dead, guess you had to be British.

Speaking of zombies anyone watch Dead Snow?

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I watched that movie from beginning to end and did not give a shit. If you like humor AND action watered down by crappy British actors performing scripts written by boring British writers (I just happen to have some British ancestry in me btw), then this POC is just for you!

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Yeah Jean Rèno is a great actor in my opinion!

I watched a very disturbing film yesterday. A bunch of old ladies made a calender with pictures of theirselves naked. So the whole thing got noticed all over the world and they ended up in Hollywood where the made a commercial for washing-powder. And for a short scene (about 20 secs long) they sat at the pool with Charlie and Scott from Anthrax AND they were introduced : " Hey gals! Look Who I met at the bar! This is Scott and this is Charlie, they got a band called Anthrax!"

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Shaun of the Dead was good, but it wasn't hilarious. I probably prefer Zombieland

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To be honest, I thought Shaun of the Dead was a bucket of shit. Simon Pegg is funny as hell in TV shows but in movies he's almost duller than the concept of dullness represented through the medium of brown wool. The movie wasn't funny or scary, at least one of which must have been essential given that it's a comedy horror. I didn't give a fuck about the characters and wasn't even convinced enough by the zombies to want to see the leads torn apart by them. Indifference is a word I'd use, given that it's one I'm quite familiar with.

I'm not sure if I'll even bother watching Zombieland. I probably will out of boredom and the fact that I've pretty much exhausted my Gary Glitter's Hottest Home Movies collection.

I heard that The Godfather is seeing a new cinema release at some point in the near future. I'm not sure if it's worldwide or just in Europe/UK. Not even The Godfather could entice me into that moron enclosure called my local cinema, though. And, if I'm honest for a second time in one post, I'd have to say that it's probably one of the top overrated films of all time. A great film by any measure, but fuck me...

I didn't get to watch Leon last night, my PC's Blu-ray capability was slightly hamstrung by virtue of the fact that my pirated Blu-ray software required an update to play the disc, which isn't as easy as it sounds when doing so would reveal one to be the byte-thieving little cunt that one is Got it sorted today though. LEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNN JENKINS!

Wait, what? What the fuck does that have to do with anything? And whereabouts in you?

Zombieland was okay. It's fun to see a movie that runs purely on the rule of cool, but it wasn't really anything special or hilarious. It may have been funnier if most of the jokes weren't telegraphed.

The Godfather restoration/re-release already happened this side of the pond, Paddy. The other side can just choke on our smegma. It'll be on Blu-Ray soon enough if you can't fathom the idea of being in a dark room filled with strangers who would be offended if you tried to fuck them before the lights come back up.

And yes, it's monstrously overrated, but it hit that niche of quality and accessibility that means it will remain that way for a good long while now; most better films are more obscure, and most films of a similar or lesser level of obscurity just aren't as good. Still, are the first two Godfather films the best films of all time? I'd have to say it's not even close.

The Godfather films are shit. That's right, I said it.

You can say what you want, nobody here actually values your opinion.

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I didn't see what Req said and assumed you where talking about Dystopia

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eh, same person

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Saying that a movie sucks without presenting an argument as to why is pretty uninteresting. So thanks for your uninteresting opinion, you presenter of 'controversial' opinions! We totally values as a person, whoever you might be (seriously, who said that? I don't bother to see who posted what. Was it one of the people we don't like?)! Thanks for sharing!

Seriously, just explain why you think the Godfather movies are shit. That would make for a conversation. I'll explain why I think they're just okay if you do.

what

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Given that I had to go door to door in 2002 telling everyone in the neighbourhood what I was and where I was doing it, even turning up at the cinema these days is an unwritten/unvocalised acknowledgement that they have entered into a contract with my penis. Said contract states that said penis may rub against them an hour into any film which I find is dragging or makes too much use of flashback sequences as exposition. I won't even tell you what happens when there's an unexpected cameo from Wesley Snipes.

The Blu-ray is already out, or is this a more recent attempt at it? The current one didn't fare too well with reviewers; apparently it looks/sounds only faintly better than the DVD.

Ghostbusters deserves an academy award in the category of sweet awesomeness.

Venkman. VENKMAAAAAN.

Although it did win a couple for special effects and music. Maybe I'm just being greedy. Or maybe I'm right and also not fat? Answers on a postcard to the usual address.

EDIT: Just watched Leon - the bra comes from a package of clothes/disguises you can see briefly during a montage. I feel so much better about all of this now that we've talked it over.

Yeah, I guess it makes sense that it's out on Blu-Ray before you've even gotten a chance to see it in theaters. The whole thing is just an attempt to make The Godfather look more like it was 'intended' to look, and while I trust that FFC's more of a perfectionist than a money-grubber, as opposed to Spielberg and Lucas, it just doesn't seem worth it to me to pay money to watch a movie that already looked just fine look slightly finer. If it were only out in a shitty pan-and-scan version, then by all means, please release a restored edition with my compliments. But it already looked good. Gordon Willis's cinematography looked great, the soundtrack sounded just fine, we don't really need it enhanced. I'd rather that money and time be spent on getting some of the other films I like more, of which I have much shittier copies than have been available of The Godfather Trilogy, out in acceptable quality.

I also have an issue with how films in general are 'enhanced' for DVD and Blu-Ray, since there seems to be a standard of plasticine prettiness that often disregards what the actual cinematography looks like in favor of what most audiences have been conditioned to believe is a 'good, clear' image. It's similar to the record of loudness war, which has totally fucked up audio production.

+1

Case in point - Star Wars. There was a much raved about remastered VHS that came out over here (and I'm guessing over there as well) which basically looked like the end product of letting a CGI nerd "work over" the original prints at his/her leisure. It lost about 30% of its...I'm resisting using the word "charm" here, but you get the idea haha. It felt cheap and hollow, like I'd been sold a hot dog at a gourmet restaurant. Not to say Star Wars is a hot dog of a movie, but the promise of it being an even more exhilarating experience than the original release(s) is a hot dog filled with more salty ring-nuts than a McAnus.

I'm far from the Hi-Def freaks for whom the most important thing is the best equipment and highest quality visuals (I mostly watch movies on my CRT PC monitor!), but I do feel that there's a more engaging, intriguing feel to the Blu-ray transfers I've seen so far, so much so that it's usually a significant gain over the DVD version. I've heard people say watching Blu-ray is like watching the movie happen through a window in real life, but I wouldn't go that far. I would say that I definitely feel like I'm responding to the films differently, in a marginally more "satisfying" way. When I go back and watch the DVD version of some particular film after having watched the Blu-ray the difference is noticeable enough that it's on my mind fairly constantly throughout the viewing.

At the same time I wonder about the resistance to Hi-Def transfers (not necessarily "restorations" in the Star Wars sense), given that the resistance is coming from people who have no qualms about using DVD over VHS, or VHS over Betamax haha. That said, there are certain films for which the older grainy look is integral to the intended experience. Taxi Driver, for instance. I'm not sure how I'll feel about seeing that on Blu-ray. Time will tell! I think it's out in the U.S right now, but the UK/Europe version seems to be dragging its heels, as usual! Hmmm, I smell cheese.

lol paddy there is a reason why the uk/europe versions of things like films (& games) appear to drag thier heels & i'm surprised you don't know why!!!

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Is it because you live quite near the coast? The captains of cargo vessels approaching the Irish sea are known to behead chickens and rape virgin chimps in an effort to appease your wrath, most of the time dying of fear in the process, so I don't really hold it against them if I have to wait a few extra months for a Blu-ray

lol paddy you're closer to the coast than me mate!!!

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But they know I'm not a threat; I depend on them to ship in my cat stomping pornos.

Can't see what the worry is, you know the rule - you want it, it's on the net. Plus, try and convince me that you don't have some domestic production in that genre as well.

So, can anyone recommend some good horror? Zombie movies, splatter and monster-jumping-out-of-the-closet stuff is out, I want something that seeps in and messes with your brain. I seem to have run out of good ones!
Speaking of which, there is a game out, or rather interactive movie, called The Path by Tale of Tales. Pretty horrid once you start getting into it, and it has that quality I like - a minimum of violence, but still makes you twang like a violin string.

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Oh man I love the older zombie films
Some of the newer ones aren't too bad either. I thought the Dawn of the Dead remake was pretty fucking good. I watched Land of the Dead last night, which was pretty dull, but still a bit better than some of the other excrement they make these days.

Speaking of zombies, I just bought this book today

On my way to the bookshop some girl wearing a Suffocation shirt walked past me. She couldn't have been more than ten. Haha, that was peculiar.

I'm sure many of you will hate me for this, but I'm going to have to agree 100% with Requiem. I watched The Godfather 1 & 2, and I thought they were absolute fucking rubbish. The acting was decent, but I thought the story was just so poorly written. I can't even be bothered seeing the third one, because if the first two were soporifics, I'm pretty sure the third can't be any better.

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I definitely lost respect for you, Blitz. Not only for hating on the Godfather, but for agreeing with Req about anything.I get it though, it's cool to hate on things that are popular. I get where you're coming from

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Haha, I'm not hating on it because it's popular. There are many popular films that I love. I just didn't see anything in the Godfather, I didn't see why it was such an epic film. I really don't mean any offense to anybody that enjoyed this film, I'm just saying that not everybody will love the same film, even if it is very popular. We all have our own tastes Mine are just odd sometimes haha.

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I finally watched Taxi Driver today because it was on youtube. Been meaning to watch it.

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That's a pretty damn good film. DeNiro is awesome.

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Does he do what he always does?

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That's where he first solidified what he does. So yes, but better.

Not liking The Godfather is perfectly fine. Nobody should be offended that you don't like a movie they like.

I'm not saying that Blu-Ray shouldn't be better vs. DVD. I'm saying that even on DVD, on a Hi-Def TV, the image was made 'clean' and 'clear' in ways that betrayed the actual filmic image, and once audience are used to that I wouldn't be shocked to see Blu-Ray images being even 'cleaner' and 'clearer' while moving further away from the intended image. It has to do with the fact that most DVD/Blu-Ray standards have very little to do with the standards of the filmmaker has when selecting film stock, filters, etc.