I liked When the Last Sword is Drawn, and found it poignant, funny, powerful and gut-wrenchingly sad. So I disagree with you on that,  it's not a film to watch for its action, which is typical of every chambara film ever made, and is still pretty good. It's certainly more melodramatic than Kurosawa, but I think that if you liked those old films you might like this as well.

Yet another movie that I discovered only thanks to FIYH (it was mentioned in one of the commentaries).

Charlie Wilson's War is an interesting look at the Soviet-Afghan conflict, amusing and depressing at the same time. Pretty solid writing and acting (Philip Seymour Hoffman's character is particularly adorable). Don't miss it.

Yeah, my previous post is a case of really weird timing. I had no idea that he passed away today (I just learned that from the news).

I'll miss you, Phil. You were awesome.

Just watched Homefront, not a bad action movie written by Stallone and starring his mate Jason Statham. It's nice to see Winona Ryder again, even if it was a nothing role. Made me realise that even after 25 years I still have a bit of a crush on her.

Last edited by Jimmy B (2014-02-03 00:11:04)

This is one of those things I love the internet for, I found out about this through a podcast about 6 years ago where they interviewed the director.

It was a script written by the guy who wrote loads of old twilight zone episodes and that Star Trek with Spocks beard and apparently there was some interest in the script but nothing came of it so his son ended up making it on HDV cameras.

It's not for everyone but those who like it will really like it

I have never come across Reindeer Games. I shall have to give it a watch. I absolutely love Ronin, such an excellent film in all areas, but in particular the direction and attention to subtle details in constructing scenes, and using the less-is-more principle. Thanks for the tip.

The Master (2012) - 8/10

Not my favourite Paul Thomas Anderson film, but despite being fairly episodic in structure, and with a very loose narrative in general, this is superb filmmaking and for me a very riveting movie. The use of music means that moments without dialogue still have a rhythm to them. It has a focus on emotional depth for the main character. Everything else does seem superficial, what our main character doesn't see or hear or experience, we don't know too much about as an audience. With lesser actors this would be pretty hard to sit through, but considering the actors they do have, I can't fault PTA for it one bit. Joaquin Phoenix needs to be seen in this.
Contains several mesmerizing scenes, and most of the film has a tension and air of unpredictability that keeps me glued.
The cinematography is stunning, beautiful movie.

The Suspect (2014) - 5/10

This was one of those "pick a film at random" viewings.
Guy get's arrested on suspicion for bank robbery, but not all is as it seems.

Starts out pretty bad, but gets better and better, while the annoying elements at least become less grating, if only because you get used to them. Really bad score and music, I think this would have played alot better without it.
Can certainly be missed, but it has atleast one or two good ideas, and a twist or two that are hard to predict. Ultimately first time writer/director (per his IMDB) Stuart Connelly doesn't really pull it off, and some moments are kind of "...eh...". Overall though not terrible by any means.

Zero Effect (1998) - 6/10

Had this in the queue for a while.
Bill Pullman plays Sherlock Holmes under a different name. That's basically the film.
It has a unique way to it. Has a feeling of noir despite being quite bright and daylight-y overall, with voice-overs, briefly referencing previous cases the detective has worked on.

Worth seeing for Pullman alone though. He basically plays a quirky guy who switches from asshole to savant, charming to unremarkable, and he really gets those different character traits across directly to the audience, and the movie doesn't just rely on other characters reactions to sell his abilities. From one scene to another Pullman really feels like a different character.

Reindeer Games (Dir. Cut) (2000) - 6/10

Per recommendation from Squiggly.
Above-average thriller. Ben Affleck gets mistaken for guy who worked at Casino, and Gary Sinise and small crew forces him to help them rob the place, despite not really knowing anything about it and having to pretend to be the other guy to avoid being killed.
Uneven both in film structure and characterization, with Affleck's character feeling sometimes a bit too on-the-ball for someone who is just winging it, and the movie isn't very layered or deep.
Still, above-average direction by John Frankenheimer, often classy use of deep-focus and tightly framed camera work, and some old-school action.
You can never really take it as seriously as for example Ronin (same director), but as a thriller it held my attention firmly.

Also Charlize Theron at times very naked.

And Affleck aswell, if that works for you.

It felt to me like a low-budget indie flick with some known names. It relies on the story and characters to make the film work, and it feels kind of rough around the edges and yeah, like you said, you don't really know where the movie will end up at all once you get into it.

I found this unremarkable when it came out. I just saw it again on VOD and liked it a lot better from my couch. Blanchett and Sally Hawkins are great together. The story is kept simple in a very un-Hollywood way that either works or falls on its face. There's something like a critique of American materialistic attitudes and class divisions, but it's a shallow critique: the movie's real theme is "Cate Blanchett can act." Her best scenes are shot in such a way as to ask implicitly "Is she sensational, or what?" We knew that. Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not as much humor as you'd expect, either.

The Devil's Carnival (2012)

Oooo boy...where do I even start with this? Well...

The Devil's Carnival is about an hour long musical by the same creative team behind "Repo! The Genetic Opera".

And now that I've lost half of you, I'll continue to lose the other 90% of you.

I've been trying to figure out how to describe this thing...and the best I can come up with is what would happen when you slam together Moulin Rouge, the hell scenes from Monkeybone, throw in a little Carnivale and tell the guys who made Repo! they can go full dream logic. It's out there, waaaay out there, it's bizarre, weird, and holy shit did I love it.

The basic premise is something along the lines of the gateway to hell is a Carnival (Hence the title), we follow 3 lost souls down where they become the subject of the Devil's fables. Reliving their transgressions, poked and prodded, and laughed at by the denizens of hell they are tested to see if they will continue their faulted ways, and if they fail sent to the true hell. (I think...)

Yes I did say this was a musical earlier, although it takes a full 10 minutes to get through each souls death scene, into the Carnival where get some music....and whooooboy what music it is. I will say this, the actual songs, for the most part (the Devils number at the end is AWESOME) are not nearly as memorable or singable as Repo!. But I don't hold that against it, the entire tone of the movie is just batshit, bizarre dream logic meant to confuse and torment you (Hey, it's hell, whattya gonna do).

Obviously the music is all very dark creepy Carnival styled, the costumes/character design are all goth/alt/scene/carnie-horror-show-amazingness, and it almost never pulls any punches with what it's trying to do... in short, I love this...thing...so hard.

It's definitely not for everyone, but if you're in, you're all the way in.

As a side note, and I say the same thing about Repo!, I think this thing would be a PHENOMENAL stage show, I would love to see it.

I will always have a special place in my heart for Twilight since it brought us this:

You do realise that your score of 7/10 for almost every film you've reviewed has become a bit meaningless right?