EDF Cinema

[Brendan]

lol.>:D

[char1ie]

Hmmm, is that the third time we've had that joke on the EDF? And I'm sure it was funnier both other times.

Charlie

[mockney piers]

Plane films

Bourne ultimatum: More of the same, but as slick and compelling as ever.

Invasion: Pointless remake of bodysnatchers with happy ending - blurgh

Shoot 'Em Up: Ultra comic book violence with strangely british script, Clive Owen anti-hero (cool), Paul Giamatti (great bad guy) and Monica Belluci (sigh)

Transformers: Predictably dull even by standards of a film based on a toy. Cripes on the love interest mind you.

[East Dulwich Angst]

Two great films on tv tonight

O Brother, Where Art Thou? 10 o'clock chnl 4 (I love this Coen bros film)

& Pan's Labyrinth 9 o'clock film4

[Keef]

Couple of recent things I've seen.

A guide to recognising your saints which I was really looking forward to watching, but just found so bleak, and didn't like the way it was filmed. Disapointed, but will read the book and see if that's better.

Outlaw, which was recommended to me... Not the worst film I've ever seen, but not at all great! Again, disappointing.

Letters from Iwo Jima, bloody good! Very understated, and well made, I really like the way Clint Eastwood directs! Only slight critisism would be that the subtitles aren't great and you get a lot of "indiscriminate chat", when they are quite clearly saying something, and I feel you might lose out on things because of that. Still would recommend it though, and I really am not usually a war films kind of guy!

[mockney piers]

Really want to see letter from iwo jima, something to fill the january void.

Mrs Mockney and I caught The Kite Runner at Brixton last night and both enjoyed it. You can detect the blodged of hollywood that being a dreamworks film has added, but still retains much of the foreign film feel. Worth a watch for sure.

[Keef]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> I figured we've the two music threads, at least two footie ones, a gaming thread, but so far no film one.

>

> Soo, thought I'd kick it off after having seen This Is England last night. Gripping, powerful, understated and brilliantly

> acted, this is by Shane Meadows who gave us Dead Man's Shoes which isn't for the faint hearted but well well worth a watch.

>

> Anyone seen it, or anything good of late?

Finally got round to watching This is England last week, and it was bloody great! I was worried that it would just be about loads of thugs, and overly violent, but the violence is minimal really, and it's not really about all that. Would basically agree with everything Piers said above, and add that there is some lovely comic relief and touching moments from the girlfriend character.

Also saw the third and thankfully final Pirates film. Totally carried by Johnny Depp, and frankly, even he looks bored of it. Nothing much in the way of story line, and not really any good action of humour either. The worst of the bunch, and a shame, because I genuinely liked the first one.

Next film I have coming from Lovefilm is Ten Canoes which I'm rather looking forward to. Still waiting to see Tell no one, and have even read the book for the third time in preparation. From what I hear it sticks to the story very well.

[citizenED]

Had an indifferent start to my LoveFilm subscription. Hot Fuzz was poor - the History Boys, unexceptional. Best was Little Miss Sunshine. off-beat US movie - a kind of quirky road movie full of interesting characters.

[Ladygooner]

Saw Tell No One and The Kite Runner last week - both excellent. Currently watching Blood Diamond - better than I thought it was going to be. Agree with Keef about This is England - great acting from the young skinhead

[SeanMacGabhann]

Haven't seen History Boys but I enjoyed LMS -

Hot Fuzz I watched a couple of days ago and really enjoyed - it's had a bad rap post-Shaun but I thought it were very good

Yarp

[mockney piers]

I loved Hot Fuzz, but then I'm a complete Spaced idiot, so they'd have to work hard to upset me.

Agree about History Boys, it didn't feel right in a grange hill-esque environment and it didn't make the leap well to celluloid.

Award laden as the cast were, perhaps it may have benefited from a cast who didn't know the material so well.

Had a chat with the lead boy in the Canning about film piracy, bizzarrely one evening. Nice lad.

[embellina]

I saw Black Book last week (set in nazi-occupied Netherlands). Just before a trip to Berlin which was possibly an ill-timed screening, but really enjoyed it. Well, I say 'enjoyed' but it's kind of hard to enjoy something about genocide. Was gripping, though, lots of twists and turns. Definitely worth watching.

Other foreign language films I thought were great have been Goodbye Lenin and a Spanish film Nine Queens. That one's really clever.

I surprisingly enjoyed Atonement too, even though Keira Knightley and her pout can be extremely irritating.

Plus:

The Departed

Little Miss Sunshine

Hotel Rwanda (bit Hollywood though, as I think someone may have already said)

Match Point

Eternal Sunshine

Lost in translation

Anchorman

And what's the Will Ferrell one where he's being written as a character in Emma Thompson's novel? Hilarious, in a downbeat way. Although I think it's unlikely he and Maggie Gyllenhaal would hook up

[SeanMacGabhann]

That Ferrell/Thompson one is on my pre-recorded planner. I wasn't going to watch it but you have piqued my interest embellina - recommended then?

*edit* - just had a look up on the usual places and found this snippet from The Observer

"it is also worth noting - and this must be some kind of a cinematic first - that the surnames of all the characters are borrowed from celebrated thinkers associated with mathematics from Blaise Pascal through David Hilbert to MC Escher and Francis Crick. This goes way beyond Harold Pinter naming the principal characters in No Man's Land after early 20th-century cricketers"

I think this may just be the ticket for this evening

[embellina]

I enjoyed it - found it quite odd most of the way but really watchable. Quirky is a bad word to use but it was a bit quirky (in a good way, not an inaccessible one). I had heard mixed reviews of it beforehand so maybe it was my stubborn streak liking things other people hated! All in all, I'd say give it a go

[applejck]

Recently saw South Korean modern masterpiece 'Oldboy' on channel 4 at a ridiculous time of night. The films plot is quite ingenious with full of unpredictable twists and turns that is almost unfathomable for the viewer to comprehend. Also, just a word of warning there a quite a few scenes in the duration of the film which are severely gruesome and abhorrent which may leave some viewers feeling quite timorous, though fortunately these scenes are ephemeral so the film stays on track. Overall, this is a phenomenal film which truly exemplifies the art of Eastern cinema, so the West has a lot to live up to in order to rival brilliance such as.

[Keef]

Ladygooner Wrote:

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> Currently watching Blood Diamond - better than I thought it was going to be.

I watched that last week too, and thought it was really good. Shows things that we don't like to see, but that are happening all the time. Also, as grim as it was, it didn't glamourise the violence. Only problem was that, like Hotel Rwanda, the ending was a little too neat, and too happy... Typical Hollywood influence.

CitizenED, I only just got round to watching Little Miss Sunshine, having been bought it for my birthday months ago. Absolutely loved it!

I thought Hot Fuzz was pretty crap when I went to see it, but then I thought Shaun of the dead was crap when I saw it in the cinema, and then grew to love it, so maybe the same will be true of this... I think it helps to smoke first ;-)

[Brendan]

I watched I am Legend last night and couldn?t help noticing that the themes run parallel to those in 28 days later. I know I am Legend was originally a book (one I have not yet read). Could it be that 28 days later was inspired by it or intended to be a spin-off? Or are they just general post-apocalyptic/zombie film similarities.

[mockney piers]

I guess it's just a theme people are interested in visiting. Think Day of the Triffids which marginally predates it, or even Robinson Crusoe (headhunters/zombies/thing under the bed...you know).

Almost watched it this weekend, but didn't think the missus would go for it at all, she has a knack of falling asleep in cinemas, so went with subtitles so you have to concentrate more.

May buy Pan's Labyrinth on DVD today if it's cheap.

[Keef]

They showed Day of the Triffids on BBC 3 last year. Such a classic!

[East Dulwich Angst]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> May buy Pan's Labyrinth on DVD today if it's cheap.

?5.99 @ play.com

A good place to find cheap dvd's is @ http://www.find-dvd.co.uk/

same for cd's http://www.find-cd.co.uk/

& games http://www.find-games.co.uk/

Just enter title & away you go!

[capt_birdseye]

We've just cancelled our Lovefilm subscription after the 3 month free trial expired. In that time we had 1 disc not work and 2 go missing in the post. That didn't inspire me to continue with the subscription I must say. Are the Royal Mail particularly adept at losing obvious DVDs?

[Keef]

We've been members about 3 years. Never had a faulty disk. Have had about 5 disks never get back to Lovefilm, but they have always sent us a new disk as soon as we've reported it missing. They have said they will send us a form to fill out about where we posted them and stuff, but have never actually received one of those (maybe the posties look out for them).

All in all I think they're pretty good, but don't blame you for not carrying on if that was you experience in 3 months

Watched Ten Canoes the other night which was great. Was based on an Aboriginal story, and co-directed by an Aboriginal gu who still lives as traditional an Aboriginal life as possible. It was beautiful to look at, had some nice light moments, and was just very interesting in terms of learning a bit about a culture which is in many ways forgotten.

Just got Tell No One in the post, so will be watching that keenly either today or tomorrow. Hope it lives up to expectation, and will report back.

[capt_birdseye]

We've filled in one Royal Mail form already and are awaiting the next. I guess we'll wait a couple of months and try someone else's free trial!

[fish]

Keef Wrote:

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> They showed Day of the Triffids on BBC 3 last

> year. Such a classic!

Those Triffids scared the life out of me, when I was a lot younger.

[Keef]

Watched "Tell no one" over the weekend, and it was bloody great!

It was interesting watching this French film, as I had read the very American book 3 times, and had a real picture of the characters in my head, and could almost see it as a film. Then to watch the understated French style was very different, and I felt like I was watching a French re-make or something.

Changes to the actual story are minimal, and only serve to save a bit of time, or else it would have been a very long film. All the important stuff and characters are there.

Clever story, clever re-write for the screen, clever script... All round good stuff! (tu)

For the record, Mrs Keef who hadn't read the book also thought it was very very impressive, but then she loves all things French so....