Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jun 19 2023
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Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

Traffic (2000).

Watched this again after a decade-long hiatus. I didn’t like it at all, mainly because I wasn’t really paying attention. I knew something was wrong with my approach, mainly that one should actually concentrate on the potential cinematic treat instead of fiddling with an iPhone.

The documentary triumph of it stems undoubtedly from the director’s expertise behind the camera, a rarity in that the helmsman can indeed operate one. The colour schemes for the narrative strands make sense, and nothing about it feels dated at all, even if seeing Catherine Zeta-Jones in a movie is a strange experience. I genuinely forgot she was ever in films.

A message movie and an education piece which works as a thriller.

And stay off the crack.

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Jun 14 2023
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Art, Documentary, Uncategorized, United States

Arnold.

I personally find him extraordinarily inspirational.

His ego must be bananas but it’s justified – he started from zilch and made it to the summit through body and mind. I would buy him a pint. I’d vote for him also. 

Despite some big boo-boos that he openly admits to, he remains the definition of hero. 

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Jun 12 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized

Ripley’s Game (2002).

This is the John Malkovich Show.

He is so perfect as Ripley, camp and creepy and always funny, you almost wish he could de-age a wee bit in 1999 and play the eponymous nutjob in The Talented Mr Ripley, which is a belter in its own right.

This film is just great, a thriller which is amusing, and a proper character piece. It’s about how little innocuous things lead to grand dramas, and how petty acts have far-reaching consequences. And how Ray Winstone really should not have an earring.

A riot of a movie.

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Jun 05 2023
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Architecture, Art, Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Technology, Uncategorized

Melancholia (2011).

The personal narratives – mega meltdowns – linked to an Extinction Level Event (ELE) is a lofty ambition but the director cannot be faulted for his audacity, and this film has a preternatural quality from the start with its striking opening and inspired use of Wagner (Tristan und Isolde).

We also have an acidic Charlotte Rampling, a plastered John Hurt, and Kiefer Sutherland doing his best ‘Fuming Mode’ in quite some time. There are scenes of such awkwardness in the first act that it’s a genuine feat to have put them together in rapid succession. Then we get all apocalyptic and it somehow works. There are so few movies like this, one toils to put it in a category.

It’s fucking depressing but in a good way. 

Further reading/viewing:

https://slate.com/technology/2011/11/lars-von-trier-s-melancholia-what-are-the-chances-of-a-planetary-collision.html

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May 29 2023
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Cinema, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

Look Who’s Talking (1989). What the fuck have I just watched?

Classic songs you’d expect in a Scorsese movie ruined by their despairing accompaniment to threadbare scenes of Travolta and Alley mugging it, that’s Look Who’s Talking (1989) summed up.

I don’t get the point of any of it. It’s coarse, crude, cheap, and frankly just a minging watch. How is the interior monologue of a baby amusing? Oh, Bruce Willis does the voice of the critter. What genius! 

A movie that can’t decide if it’s family fare or an R rating, it’s somewhere thrashing in the middle, daft and pointless. I suppose this got Travolta through his ‘wilderness years’ as it beguilingly scooped up a fucking fortune. But audiences know nothing.

I watch a lot of shite. I seem to enjoy it.

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May 22 2023
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Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized

Red Sparrow (2018).

Riotously entertaining if totally ludicrous and unnecessarily graphic in its violence and shagging. This is preoccupied with sleazy old men and delectable items of the flesh plucked to seduce them. It’s awkward to watch and I suppose that’s the point of the honey trap premise, which is apparently a widely-practised tactic by intelligence services.

There is nothing complicated here and it doesn’t really matter what city the characters are in. I don’t think I can recall a spy thriller with such a nonchalance as to its locations, which are without distinction.

But whatever, it’s just high trash with a cast who seem to know what it is.

Enjoyable hokum. 

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May 15 2023
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Art, Cinema, Construction, Crime, Film, Uncategorized, United States

Bugsy (1991).

Warren Beatty was/is a movie star powerhouse, combining glamour looks and supreme acting talent, a 2 in 1. His notorious obsession with control over projects is confusing here, as he didn’t direct this. Anyway, he is magnetic as always, charming and unnerving and frequently hilarious. From his tantrums to his child-like enthusiasm and naïveté, he is totally credible. I suppose that’s acting.

An impressive movie if not quite great, its best attributes are the pacing and the fact it trusts its audience. There are none of the usual biopic pitfalls of the lengthy exposition which explains everything, and the schematic insertion of historical facts for the audience.

A glossy borderline melodrama which does it just the right way. Worth a watch for Beatty.

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May 08 2023
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Architecture, Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

That poster.

Whiplash (2014) is a cracking movie, eh. I would say … draining. It promotes a bit of an American Dream fallacy, though, namely that hard work = success. Nonsense. I could work like a sheep dog for 19 hours a day for seven years trying to fathom how the Tim Robbins character managed to escape Shawshank State Penitentiary yet perfectly place the poster (from the assembly point of the tunnel he dug) back on the cell wall … and still have no answers.

It makes no sense.

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May 01 2023
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Uncategorized

The Pale Blue Eye (2022).

I had no idea who this guy is but he walks off with the movie, such is the sincerity and charisma he brings to this role, a proper oddball who is strangely captivating – for his way with words, demeanour, and winning IQ.

This character, Edgar Allan Poe himself, requires a couple of spin-offs. The movie was good, if nothing special. But it’s elevated by Harry Mellor, who is apparently in Harry Potter films.

I’ve never seen one. They look shite.

Apr 24 2023
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Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

Red Dragon (2002). Shame.

This was pathetic from the very first second, the opening a superhero movie-style newspaper headlines montage to make up for the lack of a well-written exposition.

It’s so dull, the script going like this:

Character one: “Something is happening.”

Character two: “What is happening?”

Character one proceeds to explain what is happening and then reeling off a line with a time and date of an event in order to segue to the next scene.

What else? No one in it appears to be affected by anything that happens to them in a case of ordinarily excellent actors phoning it in. It is so badly edited, cut to the max in desperation yet still dull. Framing is without purpose. Music is better suited to a two-hour sequence shot of a pigeon napping. This movie is an abomination. 

Watch Manhunter (1986) instead.

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