Russian Ark - An impressive undertaking that looks good. However, the novelty wore off and it did not hold my attention. It made 90 minutes seem like much much more.

Cache was really pretty good. Not overwrought in the slightest.

Oh lol I missed that! Spealing iz Reely Harde.

Oops, I forgot The Seventh Continent. OK, maybe I blocked it out.

While it ended strong, nothing, and I mean NOTHING could have redeemed the first ninety minutes of this film. One gets the impression Haneke believes more in his techniques than in his ability to employ them properly. He holds some shots far too long, he adds pointless character interaction, he seems fixated on things that are frankly not that interesting.

We know he is trying to tell us that the couple have a mundane, not fulfilling existence, that they are finding life tedious. That doesn't mean the film should be tedious, though. Their humdrum life doesn't need to make the viewer's life humdrum. It was interminable.

I've been avoiding Haneke movies b/c I didn't care much for Funny Games (both), Cache, or Code Unknown (which I remember NOTHING about though). Maybe I'll check out another one. I can't say exactly what I dislike.

I saw Splice tonight. it was ok. great idea, but missed the target a bit

Agora (2009) - dir. by Alejandro Amenabar



Set in the 400-500 AD, this movie is the story of Hypatia (played by Rachel Weisz), a philospher/teacher/mathematician in the Library of Alexandria. Religious differences between the ancient Romans ("pagans"), fledgling Christians, and Jews are constantly flaring up and threaten the stability of the city as each respective group competes to achieve political control through the use of violence. Although a member of the waning Roman aristocracy, Hypatia tries to sequester herself from the religious fighting by remaining neutral and advocating for tolerance. Of course, such a thing doesn't really work as she constantly finds herself in the midst of the political infighting due to the fact that her former students (one a Prefect, one a bishop and one a former slave who has become a member of a Christian street gang) have gained positions of prominence after the Roman empire fell and split into two halves. Due to her advanced knowledge and wisdom, she becomes an advisor to the prefect and the forum.

I really enjoyed the portrayal of ancient life and the constant struggles and squabbles that it depicted between competing religions (although it was a bit too obvious that the director was trying to draw parallels to our own turbulent times). No one religion is portrayed as holier and "better" than any other as each is quite willing to engage in violence and brutality in order to gain control over the others. Rachel Weisz acted beautifully in this role, and I would recommend that you see simply for her alone. There were a couple of quirky things that the director did (i.e., he seemed to love these long sequences where he would pull out the camera farther and farther back so first you had the character, then the town, then the country, then the hemisphere, then the planet. I'm not quite sure what he was hoping to accomplish with this (maybe to suggest how we're all one and in the end, all our squabbles are petty?) but it got to be an annoying device as he repeated it a couple of times throughout the movie. It was definitely disrupting to the action and pace.

Get Him To The Greek: was Fing hilarious. Went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. I probably laughed more during this movie than Knocked Up and Superbad. I thought it would be the same recycled comedy but it was definitely a movie of its own.

Let me save you some trouble. With the exception of The White Ribbon, which I have not seen yet but am really looking forward to seeing, you will not enjoy The Time of the Wolf, The Seventh Continent, and very likely will not enjoy The Piano Teacher. I suppose there is a chance you might get a little something out of this last one, but if you didn't enjoy Cache or Funny Games, I find it impossible you might enjoy the other two.

One of his techniques is the preference for the long take over montage because the long take is less manipulative according to Haneke. He also has certainly learned from Bresson, especially when he lets the camera linger. I'm not sure, though, that the long take does completely what Haneke says it does.

Saw Get Him to the Greek last night. Amusing enough to watch - though I left irritated that the fat lead guy's bitchy girlfriend. Some high quality partying scenes.

It's ironic, though, because the long takes ultimately come across as manipulative to me.

Of course, sometimes, he uses the technique masterfully. I mean, the end of Cache is wonderful, and to hear you tell it, so is the end of The White Ribbon.

I suppose it is a director's job to "manipulate" us, and if, as you say, Haneke is trying to be conscious to avoid doing so (as with montages), then I think it might be exactly this conscious effort that turns it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I'd like to hear your take on The Seventh Continent. I was only really moved in any way at the end when , and I thought the text on screen at the end was inexplicable, about how .

In fact, this ending felt similar to this:

Humbert Humbert died of coronary thrombosis in prison awaiting trial for the murder of Claire Quilty.

See what I mean?

Rampage

This is the 2009 Uwe Boll movie. I knew nothing about Boll before watching this other than I'd heard he'd made a bunch of legendarily atrocious movies. But I noticed this movie played in some festivals last year and thought I'd give it a try.

And it's a pretty extraordinary. Arthouse thriller-horror I would call it, a dizzying rush of violence that hits you like a freight-train crashing through the screen. But unusually for a movie like this, it has a cracking script, great improv-style performances and a very charismatic lead actor. And it is photographed beautifully - dark, deep colours, nice use of shallow depths-of-field in the shots and energetic hand-held cameras...very lovely to look at in its own gory way.

I'd also mention the wonderfully creepy atmosphere throughout which leaves your jaw open and belly tight with anxiety. By the time you get to the (kinda) twist in the final reel it's a nice surprise to come across the unexpected nuance and it lifts the movie up another notch. You could also say the movie is a commentary on violence in America blah blah blah. I guess it is very good on that stuff, but I still think it works much better as a film artefact to be enjoyed on those merits.

It's probably a good thing you don't see movies like this every day, but it's also a good thing this one was made. Thrilling.

(Please do not look at the poster or trailer before viewing. Neither in any way represent the movie).

i'm assuming you're joking since you're talking about a Uwe Boll movie. but i'm definitely going to see this now just to see if it either is actually good, or if it is actually so bad that you made this sarcastic post to trick people into watching such a pile of crap. I'm expecting the latter, but i love watching truly awful movies, so either way I should be entertained.

Harry Brown

It's set in England and is about an old man (Michael Caine) who decides to take justice into his own hands after his best friend is murdered by street thugs.

It's been compared to Gran Torino (a film I also liked) but I found this one to be much more enjoyable. Great acting, many intense scenes and thoroughly entertaining throughout, I highly recommend it to anybody who likes these kinds of movies.

One of my favourite movies of the year. 9/10