Film Shapes

I think I'll jot down a few thoughts on films I see at the cinema throughout the year. Here we go. I saw The King's Speech at the Windsor Theatre in Nedlands (?) on Jan 3 on a rare trip back to Aus. I went with my wife, Liam and Satomi on a pretty warm afternoon. The cinema was full of oldies, possibly attracted to the regal theme, maybe to the discount prices, so getting a couple of choc bombs took a bit longer than planned. I must admit, I had high hopes for this film and I wasn't disappointed. It's well written, tightly-paced and nicely underplayed by the leads. The scene where Logue (Geoffry Rush) calls Perth crowds 'enthusiastic' went down understandably well. Firth is very good, Rush also, and the rest of the cast chip in with solid support, especially Michael Gambon as King George V, domineering father of VI. I thought the best scene was where Mrs. Logue comes home to find the King and Queen in her house. Helena Bonham Carter plays this really w...

This looks tasty. Some of the films in competition for the Palme d'Or include the latest efforts from Aki Kaurismaki, Lars Von Trier, Pedro Almodovar and Takashi Miike. There's even an Aussie film in the running! http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/inCompetition.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/08/cannes-2011-top-10-preview Cannes runs from May 11 to 22. A great antidote to the Hollywood blockbusters. Finding somewhere to see them in Japan will be the tricky part.

Recently, I've had the displeasure to watch a couple of warmed up turds trying to pass themselves off as films and this got me thinking about my least favourite movies. So here's a short list of crap (just a top two at the moment - the rest in no particular order). 1. Grease - I have to thank my sister for years (?) of torture via the VHS tape of this abomination. 2. Moulin Rouge - Two minutes in and my finger was hovering over the stop button. Didn't get any better. Ghost - Soppy, quasi-religious tripe with annoyingly poor actors. The Hotel New Hampshire - I vaguely remember this as a boring mess. Wolf Creek - No redeeming features (except maybe the landscape for masochistic tourists) and just nasty. The Expendables - Colour-by-numbers plot, shit acting (of course) and an ugly sense of nostalgia. Battlefield Earth - Not sure if this counts as I could only get halfway through. Babylon A.D. - Derivative crap with a wooden lead and a cliched ending. ...

This is worth a peep. http://asa10.eiga.com/2011/series2/ Last year, Toho Cinemas here in Japan showed some classic films on their smaller screens and they're doing it again in 2011. I only got a chance to see one last year ( 12 Angry Men ) but I'll be trying to fill my boots this year. Some of the gems they'll be showing are: The Magnificent Seven , Sunset Boulevard, The Thomas Crown Affair, Alien, The Graduate, Taxi Driver, Shane, The French Connection and The Hustler. They even have a few non-English language films but that's me buggered as they don't show English subbies. Enjoy them if you can - they only show one a week, at 10am.

I've noticed that The Green Lantern is upon us soon. As that's the name of my favourite comic book hero and my favourite Muttonbirds song, I'm hoping it will also be my favourite comic book film adaptation. High hopes, I guess. The trailer looks formulaic, which should be expected, and the villain is that fey prat from An Education . Ryan Reynolds (who looks a bit like a mate of mine called Rewi) is probably OK for the part. He did well in a box underground for 80-odd minutes in Buried, but I reckon many could have played that role. The trailer also seems choc full of CGI, which is starting to wear thin but I guess without it, The Green Lantern would look pretty crappy. I imagine a Super Hero movie without CGI would be something like a Sweded film from Be Kind, Rewind or a ride at Pissweak World (from The Late Show). Nice. UPDATE (Oct 2011): Saw this the other night. Hmmm. Not as bad as some have suggested but it just seemed very.....empty. Shod...