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I didn't watch graveyard of honour. In the end I watched the 2 hour documentary that came with street trash, listened to the gamespot podcast, watched a few youtubes, and then pathetically crawled around last.fm looking for new friends.
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quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: As opposed to what? 'The Rapey Nerd' or 'The Abuser', or the dozens of other non-real life names you've given various partners on here over the last few years?
Er. Ok. Point taken. I don't know what happened there. It was like I forgot... everything. I malfunctioned or something. It was wierd. Sorry everyone. Sorry Boy Racer. Sorry TMO.
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not...
You reached over with your hand and knocked my Jap over
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quote:Originally posted by Roy's shirt:
quote:Originally posted by herbs:
"Mr Herbs" is twee,
Mr Herbs is only twee because Herbs is quite fruity already. Mr Herbs sounds like an ultra-camp Mexican hairdresser.
Looks like Mr Herbs has been a naughty boy anyway spanky spanky (WS)
quote:Mr Herb is shocked when he discovers Tina is panty less.
Spanky get back here now young lady!
Tina I am shocked. Herb draws back his red paddle and lets if float through the air until it contacts Tina's bare bottom. Crrrrrrrrrack. Then two more had swats follow. Craaaaack, Crrrrrrrrrack.
Now young lady go stand in that corner and hold your skirt up so we can all see just how naughty you are.
I will have to mention to Prof Mantis about the uniform checks.
Spanky, just where did you think you were going young lady?
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are you attending spank school, not? Is this what you do when you're not dreaming about BAPE customised adidas trainers and pro-skateboarding?
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Oh guys, it says there are way more female members on that board than male. That's why not is turning to another board instead of here. Now I'd think we'd better make up for this by getting Jimway to write some kind of shockingly brutal spank slash about Mr. Racer spanking amp so hard she falls out of her galoshes.
[ 12.10.2006, 05:44: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Is London schizophrenic?
I think the desire to attack Boy Racer was so strong that it just overcame all reason. I can't be the only one to have suffered from this, surely?
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quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: I was somewhat puzzled by her comment about H&M having been made before she was born?
Harold and Maude was made in 1971. If she was born later than 1971 (say 1972, for example, or 1973), then it's evident Harold and Maude was made prior to - or "before" - that date.
H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
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that does look good. one of my richards wants to go and see this and i was a bit meh, but it sounds like an early viewing is definitely required. what with this and prestige in the offing over the next couple of weeks i think that the film offerings are definitely picking up a bit again.
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quote:It was alright. I'm not a big Bond fan but Daniel Craig is a double-hard bastard and a good casting choice I reckon. I don't fancy him though - he was so built up he looked like a Ninja Turtle. The Bond girls weren't up to much either really, a bit Solange Knowles...
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Watched Infernal Affairs last night, and while it was a diverting hour and a half it did struggle to make any impact at all, given the vast superiority of The Departed. Still, it's a good deal flashier than the American film, faster cut and faster moving, so more than likely will have a greater appeal for people who like their movies to resemble shiny MTV videos and to carry a steely 'cool' in place of emotional involvement.
The plot... I think everyone must know the premise of the film by now - mole in the police force is pitted against a mole in the triads. Infernal Affairs doesn't really use the premise to explore much new territory. All the way through I had Nicholas Cage's line from Adaptation echoing round in my head. "Furthermore you explore the notion that cop and criminal are two sides of the same person - see every cop movie ever made for further evidence of this". The Departed wisely steered clear of this tired territory, using the premise to uncover clear differences between the leading characters and identify indestructible kernels of 'self' that provided identity beyond the role-playing their social roles forced on them and ultimately arriving at a clear morality in a world wear morality would - on the surface - appear to have disintegrated.
But. Anyway. Infernal Affairs. One thing you notice is that it gets stuck right in there, burning right into its premise in a matter of minutes. While it hits the ground running, that pace comes at the expense of character and context. A curiously tension-free drug deal occurs early in the film but doesn't carry any weight as a result. It just kind of happens, and then moves on. It does provide a show case for some 'cool' ideas, though - stuff like communicating through morse code, and the way that the spy picks up on it is pretty good. Also, it's followed by one of the best scenes in the film, where the gang leader and the police chief square off against each other. It would be tenser though, if the villains villainy had been established by something more convincing than the fact he runs a valet car parking service.
Moments of that quality do seem to crop up every now and then, giving the film the appearance of being essentially a bag of ideas. Some work, some don't, all contribute to the idea of a movie that's not quite realised, that's undercooked. The boss tells the undercover cop "I trust you the most", but it's meaningless because we've never seen their history together. These tell-not-show moments crop up quite regularly, like the creators kind of knew what they wanted the relationships between the characters to be but couldn't think of a way to dramatise them. Actually, more likely couldn't be bothered and just sort of trampled over them in a bid to keep things moving. Still, the overall effect is less hard-boiled, more half-baked.
Actually, speaking of hard boiled, there were a couple of moments that really made me wince - suprisingly for a film that's been so praised for it's style and originality. There's a scene near the start where the police chief gives a present to the undercover (begging to come in from the cold), who has forgotten his own birthday. Incredibly this scene is lifted precisely - and I mean precisely - from Hard Boiled, even down to featuring the same actor in the undercover cop role. The only difference is that here he gets a watch instead of a cigarette lighter. The other moment that made me cringe was during a death scene, where a main character stares aghast at his dead friend and some winsome Chinese pop plays and it flashes back in black and white slow motion to the two of them in happier times. That was quite embarrassing and made me wonder what kind of uber-cool Hong Kong action film rips off death scenes from 80s episodes of Neighbours.
Overall, though it was pretty interesting, if not thoroughly fleshed out. I understand that the sequel revisits the characters before the events of this movie in order to put a bit of meat on the bones, which suggests the filmakers kind of recognised the dearth of things like character and motivation which undermine the many good things about this decent little thriller.
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I feel the same way as Thorn- genuinely amazed that anyone could think Infernal Affairs was in any way equal to The Departed.
Scorsese took the main plotline (which is of course a great idea) and added meat and seasoning in the form of character and context, for example I really liked The Departed's sense of place- the story was so strongly rooted in the cultural clashes of Boston.
The Departed also wins in terms of script, supporting cast and score.
Basically, watching Infernal Affairs made me want to go and see The Departed again.
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To provide a simple answer to the question, I am rather looking forward to The Last King of Scotland. I have read that Forest Whitaker actually sounded Ugandan after he had undergone all the voice training to perfect Idi Amin's accent.
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I was lucky enough to catch a preview screening of Pan’s Labyrinth, the new film from The Devil’s Backbone and Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro, on Sunday morning.
Set in Fascist Spain around the end of WWII, this is a sumptuously dark and earthy story of a young girl’s escape into a fairy tale world, away from the bitter realities of her everyday existence, inparticular her mother’s marriage to the sadistic Captain Vidal (the brilliant Sergi Lopez, essaying another great monster, after his vicious alcoholic Concierge in Dirty Pretty Things).
It’s packed with beautiful and brutal imagery in almost equal measure, at once a fabulist thriller and a steely examination of dogma, those who seek to enforce it and those brave enough to face up to them.
Utterly riveting and thoroughly satisfying.
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I want Benway to see The Departed now. I’m not sure I’m up to the job of refuting Thorn and Veep’s assertions as to it’s superiority over Infernal Affairs.
But here goes anyway (spoilers ahoy):
I really wanted to like The Departed, and I did to a degree. However whilst it delivers some choice lines (particularly to Walberg, Baldwin, and Nicholson) I thought The Departed’s script was overlong and overcooked. You say meat, I say flab.
Leo scowls and twitches instead of acting, which admittedly isn’t much different from Tony Leung’s frowning smoulders, but made less enjoyable viewing for me.
I felt a good deal less empathy for Damon's character than his counterpart in IA, and though I’m hard placed to identify exactly why I think it’s down to subtle changes in the nature of that character.
The shrink being with both guys seemed contrived.
The amount of time the big boss is on screen. Nicolson was big. But good? Appropriate? Do you really need to have a villain murder someone on screen in order to feel a sense of his dangerousness?
The loss of the shock of how the boss meets his end. The end of The Departed, undermined most of the set up from the original story, the whole point of the end of IA being that he survives but has to live with himself.
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