What was the last movie you saw?

[Jestak]

Tonight I watched Jean-Luc Godard's Détective, a film that's almost impossible to follow but still held my attention. The plot is intricate and, somewhat like a Robert Altman film, links several stories, but, as I said, it was hard to keep track of everything. It's set in a Paris hotel, and among the guests and staff we will see Nathalie Baye, Claude Brasseur, Jean-Pierre Leaud, a young Emmanuelle Seigner, and a very young Julie Delpy.

[funkidiva]

Gulliver's Travels with Jack Black. This was a funny, short, well acted, amusing film. Very entertaining and easy to watch. Interesting film sets and costumes too. Gulliver is the mail man at his workplace and doesn't think he amounts to much. He gets his chance to prove himself by taking a trip abroad and writing it up for a newspaper. However it is to the Bermuda Triangle which is where his travels start as he ends up in a far away place full of little people.

[Jestak]

Sidney Lumet passed on last weekend after fifty years of making movies. His final film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, is proof that he retained his touch to the end. We begin with a crime: a man sticks up a suburban jewelry store, and the elderly woman working alone in the store manages to pull out a gun. The exchange of shots leaves him dead and her on life support. We learn that the store belongs to a couple named Charles and Nanette Hanson (Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris), and that it is Nanette who is clinging to life. We further discover that the robbery was masterminded by the couple's two sons, Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke), two very different men who are equal in their desperation. Lumet spares neither characters nor audience as he slowly peels back the layers of the story and looks intensely at how a terrible crime occurred, and at how the three men affected deal with the aftermath. Finney, Hawke and Hoffman all give excellent performances, supported by Marisa Tomei and Amy Ryan in a small role. A very dark film but a good one.

[roo-roo91]

hp7 pt1.
got it on dvd day one, watched it day one.

[Jestak]

Tonight I watched Kenneth Branagh's excellent film version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. This was the first film to present the uncut text of Hamlet (or any of Shakespeare's plays, I believe), and is one of the best films based on Shakespeare ever made, perhaps the best of all. Branagh directs and takes the title role, as Olivier had done before, and does both splendidly. His supporting cast is outstanding. Derek Jacobi, a noteworthy Hamlet himself once, portrays a regal Claudius, with Julie Christie as his queen. Kate Winslet as Ophelia shines in her mad scenes. Also of note are Nicholas Farrell, a superb Horatio, Charlton Heston as the Player King, Brian Blessed as the Ghost of Hamlet's Father, and Billy Crystal, of all people, terrific as the First Gravedigger. The film is also a visual feast. Blenheim Palace, the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, was used to film the exteriors (the current Duke has a cameo role). As it's uncut, it runs about 4 hours, but it never lags noticeably; I was riveted from start to finish.

[funkidiva]

The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon. This was a very good film. Different to what I expected but very good and worth a watch. I thought from the clips that it was to do with politics, which it is slightly (Matt Damon plays a politician), and maybe framing him for something, but it isnt. Its about a couple who want to be together but "other forces" are keeping them apart. Despite these "other forces'" best efforts the 2 people keep bumping into each other and will not give their love up. Exciting slightly supernatural thriller I guess.

[Jestak]

Shadow of the Thin Man was the 4th in the Thin Man series, and the last directed by "One-Take Woody" Van Dyke. By this point in the series the plots were becoming rather cliched--the first time I watched this one I picked the murderer before the beginning of the by now inevitable "gathering of everyone involved" scene. However, the interplay between William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora is as snappy as ever, and there's the usual rogues gallery of amusing supporting players. Among them are a young Donna Reed, and Stella Adler, more famous as a stage actress and acting teacher, in one of her few film roles. Asta the terrier contributes once again to solving the mystery, and Nick, Jr., has grown up enough to have a few lines of his own.

[Jestak]

In 1950, Walt Disney made his first live-action movie, an adaptation of Treasure Island. It's reasonably enjoyable, although the story is simplified and Disneyfied compared with the novel. Robert Newton is appropriately hammy as Long John Silver while Bobby Driscoll, best remembered as the voice of Peter Pan, is Jim Hawkins.

[funkidiva]

TT3D - I saw this film last night which is about the Isle of Mann TT motorbike racing and it was in 3D. It featured Guy Martin who is a brilliant funny character who has never yet won a TT race but has been close many times. The slow mo racing shots were brilliant and the film had ups, downs, laughter and tears. As a fellow biker I loved the film and thought it represented biking very well.

[Jestak]

16 Blocks is a very nice little thriller that grew on me as I watched it. Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is a badly burned-out NYPD detective, with a bad leg and a serious alcohol problem. One day, his lieutenant gives him what seems like a simple job--pick up a witness named Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) at a nearby lockup, and escort him 16 blocks to the courthouse to testify for a grand jury. But there's bad news--Eddie is going to testify against some bent cops, including Jack's old partner Frank (David Morse), and they aren't about to let him get to court. Richard Donner tells the simple story very tightly, and Willis and Mos Def are both very good, developing an edgy chemistry as the movie progresses.