expatpaul @Filmaster

Battlefield Earth (michuk)

You did well if you watched it all the way to the end. The screening I went to had a break half way through. We walked out... and went to the pub. The film is utterly boring. So much so that I had - and still have - absolutely no interest in knowing what happens in the second half.

The Fall (2006)

That was disappointing. Visually the film is gorgeous but neither the narrative nor the characterisation were strong enough to hold it all together.

Barry Lyndon (Stain)

> Seeing it on the real screen *always* makes a difference. :-) Very true. And watching it on a VHS tape is certainly not the best way to appreciate any of Stanley Kubrick's films.

Barry Lyndon (Stain)

I imagine seeing it on a big screen would make a difference. Normally I am quite a fan of Kubrick's films but this one simply didn't work for me.

Battle Beyond the Stars (Stain)

Seven Samurai. IN SPACE. What more could anyone ever ask for.

Barry Lyndon (Stain)

I'm not a huge fan of Barry Lyndon and it's probably my least-liked of Kubrick's films. I found the whole exercise painfully slow and the characters uniformly unengaging.

Horton Hears a Who! (Stain)

Like a lot of CGI animations, Horton feels a lot like two films crushed together. In one film we have a mind-boggling concept wrapped up in typically Dr. Seuss language and a charmingly absurd sense of humour. In the other we have Jim Carrey making endless pop-culture jokes, most of which will make no sense in five years time. But the Seussian part is so good that it almost completely outweighs the clumsiness elsewhere.

Harrison Bergeron (Stain)

Harrison Bergeron was a very good adaptation of the Kurt Vonnegut short story - and one I enjoyed so much that I even managed to track down a copy of the film on VHS. The film's ending does diverge somewhat from the original but it does work well in its own right. There is another version of this, called 2081, which is either about to be released or has just been released which - I am told - is a lot closer to the short story. I shall be interested to see it.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

Sub-Lynchian culinary nightmare for pre-teens. Surprisingly dark for what it is if a bit dialogue heavy given the film's target audience.

Surely this was written by a Daily Mail journalist! (mattmakins)

I've not seen Eden Lake, but it does strike me as the sort of film that says more about the scriptwriters prejudiced than about anything happening in the real world. I would take issue a bit with the claim that these films encourage a section of the population to emulate them. I saw some research a while ago which suggested that sociopaths (and I use the term advsedly) are able to distinguish between fiction and reality and are more likely to be inspired by the lurid reporting they see in the

Battle Royale (turin)

I found this to be a pretty powerful film, and one that has a lot to say about just how low populism can take a society. That said, not long after seeing the film I read the book on which it is based - and there is a whole lot more depth in there that didn't really make it onto the screen. It may well be a cultural thing - Japanese directors probably don't make the same assumptions as European audiences. There are a lot of ideas in this film and the book makes explicit what the film hints at

Reviews of the Past: 300 - The Best Preview of a Video Game Ever (Pippin2010)

I went through three reactions when I watched 300. Initially the film really annoyed me. The characters are all appallingly two-dimensional and the slow motion and stop action shots that you refer to made me think that Zach Snyder is more interested in showing off his technical prowess than in actually telling a visual story. By the mid-point of the film, I was utterly bored. I didn't care about the characters, I didn't care about the events, I didn't care about Sparta and I didn't care about

Viewing(ish) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb for the AFI Project (Pippin2010)

You're welcome (and yes, I am a Paul in real life). I've just re-read my comment - I hadn't realised quite how bad my typing has become.

Viewing(ish) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb for the AFI Project (Pippin2010)

Dr Strangelove is probably my favourite of Stanley Kubrick's films - it is packed with jokes and does qa great job of pointing up the absurdity, not so much of war itself as the military and political thinking behind it. You do need to be paying attention, though as many of the jokes are simpky thrown out leaving you to make of them what you will. The film certainly holds up to repeat viewings and I find that every time I watch it there is something else to find in it. Do watch it again. You

The Wolf Man (michuk)

It's not a good pedigree when you look at Joe Johnston's back catalogue. I was hoping that Del Toro would be worth watching in spite of the director, but it doesn't sound like this is the case. I shall probably wait for the DVD before I check this one out.

The Wolf Man (michuk)

That's a shame - I was quite looking forward to this film. But the reviews in general don't seem to be very positive so far.

Road to Victory (2007)

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Road to Victory (2007)

One of the great strengths of independent film – possibly the greatest strength – is that the lower budgets and greater creative control enjoyed by the film-makers in this sector allow for some genuinely

Early (Very Rough) Review: I Finally Saw This (Pippin2010)

I agree with Michuk. The French film industry is certainly capable of making utter tripe, most of which goes no further than France. Amelie, though, is an utterly gorgeous film. I saw it several years ago and was utterly captivated. The plot is pretty slight but this really doesn't matter because the characters are so well drawn and likeable.