My vote for best film I saw this year was Dredd. Proof you can make an engaging, exciting action film which makes sense and has a strong protagonist without it being three hours long.

In the year I decided to return to the cinema I rarely saw anything that was really exciting or elevating. But I was surprised how dull and bloated some of the blockbusters turned out. Prometheus followed by Dark Knight were my main disappointments.

I saw some older films. Salt with Angelina Jolie was surprisingly fun. The Proposition with Guy Pearce is an outstanding Aussie Western which does bring me back to Django - it probably isn't as funny but I'll bet it's more powerful. It even survives having Ray Winstone.

>> ^kymbos:

Guy Pearce is the best. Otherwise, I have no idea what most of you people are on about. Is this some kind of cult book being made into a film, that has you guys shitting all over something that looks pretty good?


Weyland-Yutani was the company Ripley worked for in the Alien movies. They were the shadow company responsible for terraforming the planet where the Aliens were discovered (by Humans, anyways) and the creation of the android Bishop. They also played some smaller role in the shitty AVP/Predator movies.

This video is a promo for the movie Prometheus, a prequel of sorts to the Alien franchise. It's going to be pants creaming.

>> ^kymbos:

Guy Pearce is the best. Otherwise, I have no idea what most of you people are on about. Is this some kind of cult book being made into a film, that has you guys shitting all over something that looks pretty good?


I agree. I think this was a very well delivered monologue. I wouldn't call it hammy. I wouldn't say the special effects held it back. I'm intrigued about the story and the character.

Guy Pearce is the best. Otherwise, I have no idea what most of you people are on about. Is this some kind of cult book being made into a film, that has you guys shitting all over something that looks pretty good?

>> ^NaMeCaF:

>> ^quantumushroom:
He didn't rip his face off and reveal he was a robot? UNIMPRESSIVE, SIR.

Heh, I was expecting something similar. I thought another Guy Pearce would walk out and reveal the one who had just been talking was a robot.


Dems is all robots? Aww, hell no!

>> ^quantumushroom:

He didn't rip his face off and reveal he was a robot? UNIMPRESSIVE, SIR.


Heh, I was expecting something similar. I thought another Guy Pearce would walk out and reveal the one who had just been talking was a robot.

Needs a tag for Guy Pearce...

>> ^budzos:

>> ^buzz:
The problem with Guy Pearce is that you never know whether the film is going to be absolutely awesome (Memento for instance) or an absolute steaming pile of gangrenous, maggot ridden, shit... (errr, lots of his other stuff)

This looks like maggot shit to me. I'm turned off by any scene with a guy being unfazed by a series of merciless punches to the face. That shit will scramble your eggs. It takes me right into "this is a silly movie for Buffy fans" territory.


Found your comment funny, but don't forget that some films are good because of blatantly over trumped characters. I mean, i fucking love Starship Troopers, and it's crap in theory. Overly stoic hero - could work. Arny's pulled it off many times.

>> ^buzz:

The problem with Guy Pearce is that you never know whether the film is going to be absolutely awesome (Memento for instance) or an absolute steaming pile of gangrenous, maggot ridden, shit... (errr, lots of his other stuff)


This looks like maggot shit to me. I'm turned off by any scene with a guy being unfazed by a series of merciless punches to the face. That shit will scramble your eggs. It takes me right into "this is a silly movie for Buffy fans" territory.

The problem with Guy Pearce is that you never know whether the film is going to be absolutely awesome (Memento for instance) or an absolute steaming pile of gangrenous, maggot ridden, shit... (errr, lots of his other stuff)

Noomi Rapace (original G.W.D.T. trilogy), Guy Pearce (Memento, LA Confidential), Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba (the Wire), Logan Marshall-Green.

Really excited about Noomi, Guy and Charlize being in it.

Hello! Just back this minute from seeing the film. I have a few comments to make which may involve SPOILERS.

SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS


Hmmm.

The short review is - what a load of disappointing and quite frankly tedious crap.

Oh Nolan why are you getting worse with each film? Who honestly thinks LDC is an actor with enough charisma to hold a film like this? He really wasn't enough for this role. Why the fuck does Nolan insist on having that thuddingly monotonous soundtrack pounding over virtually every single scene of dialogue? Why not give the actors some space instead of making it feel rushed and forcing them into layering soundbites for only the sake of exposition? Why not make this about the performances rather than worship the god of pacing? (it certainly didn't feel like 148 minutes I'll give him that).

Sorry, that girl he hires? Where was that maze she designed? Oh fuck that, we want a shortcut now. And why is Leo's dad (Michael Caine again for some reason) offering up students to do dodgy work? And what was she studying? Extraction 101? What world is this that dreams can be hacked in this way? This is never explained. Should we expect to see the flying cars out the window? Has cancer been eradicated in this world? How many other people are doing this shit?

And Leo with a bad case of dead wife syndrome (DWS). You know if you want to keep pulling that trick you might want to make it better than it was in Memento. Which is hard to do. Mainly because Guy Pearce is a better actor who makes you feel something about his character. Sympathy, disgust, shock, whatever. Something. LDC is like balsa wood in comparison.

But maybe I'm being too hard on Leo. Maybe the problem is with the script. I was surprised to find I had no problems following what was supposed to be a twisty, layered plot. I didn't see multiple plots criss-crossing and tying my mind up in knots - you want that? Try a James Ellroy novel. I still find Memento a mind-bending watch. The dream within a dream scenario is as hard to imagine as a box within another box. And here that's all that Nolan is concerned about. He loves the techie aspects of this. How does box C behave in box B. Oh B is jiggling about so C is getting all shook up. And do we get to care much about the inception itself? Nope. I thought this was a big missed opportunity to play the complex mind-games required to crack the subject. But in between explosions there wasn't much time for that.

Nolan has become a slightly more sophisticated version of the recent fanboy directors. But he's still thoroughly crass and obvious and doesn't have the talent to explore the spaces between what initially seem like promising ideas. But dreams? Hell, I enjoyed the more straightforward japes of Dreamcape and that was a long time ago.

But I am surprised that so many love this - I'd ask that you think about the characters. State what was memorable about them and what made them interesting. What did this film actually say that was of substance? Strip away the artifice and what are you actually left with?

I saw Total Recall, again, a few days ago. It was better than this.

Ooh, this is a wicked book, and it looks like a faithful adaptation. With a Nick Cave soundtrack, and with Guy Pearce!

Can't wait.

If you liked this clip, you might want to take a look at this very good movie:


Memento (2000)

'Memento chronicles two separate stories of Leonard (Guy Pearce), a ex-insurance investigator who can no longer build new memories, as he attempts to find the murderer of his wife, which is the last thing he remembers. One story line movies forward in time while the other tells the story backwards revealing more each time.'