Films you've seen lately

[Beef Oven]

Many thanks for your reviews Caliban - they're going on the list - and I agree with RM about the opening of Inglorious Basterds - quite chilling.

I find that the best time to go to the cinema is an early showing, particularly on a Monday when the tickets are cheaper and the show sparsely attended. This strategy won't suit everyone, I realise

Are you in this picture Amsy? Maybe not, it looks like a late showing

[Nick Armstrong]

I watched Inglorious Basterds on TV the other night. That opening sequence with the French farmer (?) has to be one of the tensest episodes in the entire history of cinema...the SS captain ...perfect casting/acting. If Django is like Blazing Saddles with gore then I can't wait!

Like Ammy, I agree about that first scene of IB.... and if you like that, you really do need to get to 'Django', because Christoph Waltz who played the SS captain is the key character in the new film, albeit not the title character. He steals the show over and over again, with a similar mix of apparent civilisation and good humoured courtesy but with steel (and lead) just underneath... although he is able to bring extra facets to the character in the new film. You can't take your eyes off him for a second, it's absolute magic!!

[Belgrove]

Lincoln is Steven Spielberg's least characteristic film. Despite its epic feel and sense of historical sweep, it is in fact a chamber piece, for it concentrates on the last few months of Lincoln's life and the political manoeuvrings required to pass the thirteenth amendment of the US constitution that put an end to slavery. It is acted out in dimly lit rooms in a nascent Washington DC. The civil war is the proverbial elephant in the room, although we hardly see anything of it. We learn that Lincoln deliberately prolonged the war in order to get the amendment passed before the peace negotiations commenced.

Daniel Day-Lewis's portrayal of Lincoln has been widely feted as being of Award calibre, and so it should be. It convinces totally and has that special quality of drawing attention away from everyone else when on the screen, not through showy acting but sheer magnetism. He is a character of biblical weight who even speaks in parables, a complex man who considers the issues deeply before acting, but who is not beyond striking his son, buying votes and displaying an awesome temper. It is a very moving portrayal of one of the most humane of men which does not flinch from showing the warts too.

But the film is rich with other performances, Tommy Lee-Jones as the Republican senator who spearheads pushing the amendment in the House, and who is passionately opposed to slavery, for very private reasons. I could go on, but the entire cast is without flaw.

The script is highly literate and intelligent and the direction by Spielberg is very restrained but superbly paced, a political thriller. The back-story is handled without appearing like a history lesson. The Gettysburg Address is covered with enormous skill after the event but in a way that both informs and propels the story forward. It's a film for grown-up's that treats it's audience with intelligence.

The Amendment itself is one of those proclamations written in the best of plain English. It says what it does, in terms that is intelligible to all, and we have Lincoln to thank that it has done what it says.

[gingerjon]

Just back from the kino after taking in Wreck it Ralph with the kids. Not *quite* as good as Toy Story 3 but certainly the equal of the first two. A very smart film that doesn't put a flaw into its created world, allows human emotion to come in without being overdone, has an excellent plot and some great characters. Go after half term, without children, and enjoy ...

... unlike Hotel Transylvania which I can confirm despite having a much smaller running time and a superficially better premise feels like one of the longest films to sit through in cinema history.

[Stephen Smith]

I agree "Lincoln" is a great film in all respects. I'll be buying the DVD, and meanwhile am tempted to see it again, if I can face the popcorn munchers.

[MrGongGong]

I'm looking forward to this

http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=36056

but not likely to be in a cinema near me
but on DVD soon

[Richard Tarleton]

I've lost the desire to see Argo after reading in today's ST about how the British are treated in the film. In the film, one character says: "The six of them went out a back exit. Brits turned them away. Kiwis turned them away. The Canadians took them in". In reality the Brits did no such thing. British embassy officials named Martin Williams and Gordon Pirie played a crucial role in the initial rescue. Their wives initially gave the fugitives food and lodging. The gate guard at the British compound, a Pakistani named Iskander Khan (who had been a driver at the Tehran conference in 1943) refused the Iranian militants entry. The Ambassador was in England when the crisis broke but returned as soon as possible. Only later were they transferred to the care of the Canadians, when it was clear the British compound was too dangerous.

Ben Affleck has defended his film as "the poet's truth", which apparently excuses the filmaker from having to "[go through] the niggling details....I was setting up a situation where you needed to get a sense that these six people had nowhere else to go". But why, if that is not what happened?

Why do the Americans do this? In U-571, an American captures the first Enigma machine. The trouble is, this is probably the version of history Americans believe.

[Thropplenoggin]

I've lost the desire to see Argo after reading in today's ST about how the British are treated in the film. In the film, one character says: "The six of them went out a back exit. Brits turned them away. Kiwis turned them away. The Canadians took them in". In reality the Brits did no such thing. British embassy officials named Martin Williams and Gordon Pirie played a crucial role in the initial rescue. Their wives initially gave the fugitives food and lodging. The gate guard at the British compound, a Pakistani named Iskander Khan (who had been a driver at the Tehran conference in 1943) refused the Iranian militants entry. The Ambassador was in England when the crisis broke but returned as soon as possible. Only later were they transferred to the care of the Canadians, when it was clear the British compound was too dangerous.

Ben Affleck has defended his film as "the poet's truth", which apparently excuses the filmaker from having to "[go through] the niggling details....I was setting up a situation where you needed to get a sense that these six people had nowhere else to go". But why, if that is not what happened?

Why do the Americans do this? In U-571, an American captures the first Enigma machine. The trouble is, this is probably the version of history Americans believe.

The 'never let the facts get in the way of a good story' approach. Just look at what that tomfool James Cameron did to this poor chap's reputation in Titanic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McMaster_Murdoch

[Belgrove]

The Place Beyond the Pines is definitely worth a watch. The film is essentially about actions and their consequences over a seventeen year span. The film restarts twice, which wrong-foots the viewer, but there is a thread, or more accurately a dormant high-voltage cable, that connects the episodes which, when finally flicked into life, generates the resonances and inevitability that one usually associates with classical theatre. To provide specifics of the plot would spoil your enjoyment, but it is ambitious, skilful film-making and story telling that taps into several movie genres, and pulls them all off. A large ensemble cast is immaculate, and often moving.

[kernelbogey]

A Last Quartet - see my post no 6 here.

[Flosshilde]

The Place Beyond the Pines is definitely worth a watch. The film is essentially about actions and their consequences over a seventeen year span. The film restarts twice, which wrong-foots the viewer, but there is a thread, or more accurately a dormant high-voltage cable, that connects the episodes which, when finally flicked into life, generates the resonances and inevitability that one usually associates with classical theatre. To provide specifics of the plot would spoil your enjoyment, but it is ambitious, skilful film-making and story telling that taps into several movie genres, and pulls them all off. A large ensemble cast is immaculate, and often moving.

I was thinking of seeing this, but then I heard an extract on the radio. The lead actor's voice was of a type that I can't believe exists in real life - lowish, somewhere between tenor & baritone, possibly - & whispery/husky/gravelly. I always find it difficult to hear & understand what's being said (it's difficult enough at the best of times in Hollywood films), so I've decided to give it a miss.

[amateur51]

I was thinking of seeing this, but then I heard an extract on the radio. The lead actor's voice was of a type that I can't believe exists in real life - lowish, somewhere between tenor & baritone, possibly - & whispery/husky/gravelly. I always find it difficult to hear & understand what's being said (it's difficult enough at the best of times in Hollywood films), so I've decided to give it a miss.

This sounds like a candidate for a genre of fillum that's known as The Mercan Skoola Mumblin

[Flosshilde]

Although apparently his abs are worth seeing.

[Belgrove]

The lead actor's voice was of a type that I can't believe exists in real life - lowish, somewhere between tenor & baritone, possibly - & whispery/husky/gravelly...

Sounds like me!

[Flosshilde]

Do you have the USA accent as well? That makes things really difficult