asajoseph wrote:

It was decent, but fairly predictable. Never oscar material,

It was far less predictable, and better than The Fighter to name one.

I saw How I Ended This Summer last night. Great flick. Two men, the Arctic, and a serious communication problem. Taut and strange with a lot of nice shooting of the landscape and their interactions with it. The most authentically "Cossack" film I've seen.

Sure, but the acting was much better in the Fighter. I think it made up the numbers in a few categories (it was a poor year), but it was fully deserving of the two it won.

Loved Shutter Island. But I have to say that Inception really was something else, I remember going to the loo in The Royal festival Hall after the film finished and I felt like I could have been dreaming. Also, Shutter Island seems a bit... telegraphed on second viewing.

Inception was incredible, I think it might well have cleaned up had it been released later in the year.

The acting in The Fighter was Good Acting, not good acting. That's how I felt about it.

Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I saw it because I seem to have the lowest opinion of it going around (not just on here either).

Heh, funnily enough that's how I always feel about DiCaprio

I thought Melissa Leo was well deserving, myself. Christian Bale was, well.... Probably slightly better than Geoffrey Rush (both pretty good performances). Haven't seen any of the other films to comment.

I tend to agree with you, overall, about the Fighter, I just thought it was a fairly good film with a couple of really good acting performances, telling a fairly generic story. It didn't disappoint me as much as 127 hours.

I enjoyed 127 Hours once I mentally filed it as a Danny Boyle film. It's just a massive Boyle-fest.

asajoseph wrote:

Inception was incredible, I think it might well have cleaned up had it been released later in the year.

Disagree with you that Shutter Island was only 'decent', but completely agree about Inception. Simply an awe-inspiring film.

Going to the cinema for the first time in a while tomorrow, anyone have something to recommend?

Outside of the oscar movies, Rango came out today and is supposed to be exceptional and I would recommend Confessions if you are lucky enough to have it screening near you.

Confessions sounds interesting, will try and watch that eventually. True Grit and The Adjustment Bureau look good too.

I thought Adjustment Bureau looked good, but everything I've heard about it suggests it's rubbish. Been told by a new different friends that Just Go With It is very funny/good too.

Have any of you seen a film called "Rec."?

I was told that it was genuinely terrifying

I've heard that said about so many films that are not remotely scary but this is supposed to be the real thing.

Rec was recommended to me but I'm yet to see it. Another I need to get round to watching!

Went to see adjustment bureau tonight. Load of tosh.

"City of Ember". I had the preconception that it was a crappy kids' film for some reason but it was an excellent piece of retrofuturistic sci-fi. Loved the way they'd actually handcrafted most of the world rather than just smearing everything with CGI effects. Felt a little bit like del Toro but even more like Jeunet's "City of the Lost Children".

Damn Klaus: I was a heartbeat away from selecting that on the hotel TV system instead of Losers the other night. And Losers was C-R-A-P.

Rec is pretty good. But there's a lot of hysterical screaming from one- admittedly attractive- woman. Gets a little annoying, The Innocents is far scarier.

Ron Burgundy wrote:

asajoseph wrote:

Inception was incredible, I think it might well have cleaned up had it been released later in the year.

Disagree with you that Shutter Island was only 'decent', but completely agree about Inception. Simply an awe-inspiring film.

It's probably because I'm the only person in the world who just doesn't get the DiCaprio hype - as Burnwinter put it in relation to the Fighter, rather well I thought, it's always Acting with a capital 'A' with him. OTT gurning at the camera doesn't quite cut it for me. Not that he's that bad, and if anything he's got better - there was a period where I found him completely unwatchable. But I tend to find that he gets roles in great films, rather than make films great himself.

Shutter Island was decent (not poor), but you could just see the twist coming a million miles off (they practically give it to you in the trailer for chrissakes!), and it felt like you'd just seen all the themes a hundred times before.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm arguing about it, so much of it is a matter of opinion and taste that there's nothing wrong or right about any of it. I guess I can just understand why the Fighter got a couple of Oscars and Shutter Island got nothing.

RocktheCasbah wrote:

Rec is pretty good. But there's a lot of hysterical screaming from one- admittedly attractive- woman. Gets a little annoying, The Innocents is far scarier.

Thanks, will check them both out then.

I agree, apart from his performance in This Boys Life, I had little time for DiCaprio until I saw him in The Departed.
I really felt and feared for his character all the way through the film.

I think the problem with quite a lot of his earlier performances was that even in his 20's he looked like a teenager.
He needed to age.

The Departed was all about Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg for me. Oh and Jack Nicholson. But Leo Di was pretty good in it as well, I'll give him that.

Then again, compared with Ray Winstone's accent in that film, you could have had Keira Knightley playing a mafia don and been convincing.

I absolutely loved that climactic scene in the car, with the Dropkick Murphys belting out towards the end.

Scorsese thinks that Di Caprio is the best actor of his generation. Cant say I see it myself.

He was very good in "The Aviator" and "Gangs of New York" too (which - and I know that no one will ever agree with me on this - is also the best film Scorsese has ever made). He just was a bit unfortunate to play against Daniel Day-Lewis who chipped in with his best performance ever in the latter one. I liked Leo in "Catch Me If You Can" as well.

I think "Gangs of New York" drew some kind of line in his career. Prior to that he wasn't very good, I'll give you that. "The Beach", "The Man in the Iron Mask", "Gilbert Grape", that horrible Baz Luhrmann version of "Romeo & Juliet"... he made a lot of tripe where he in addition seemed out of depth for the kind of characters he was trying to portray. It's like he's been growing up as an actor for the last decade.

Day Lewis has been brilliant in so many films. Can't beat 'there will be blood' for me. I kinda liked Gangs of New York too, but it felt a bit hammy at times. Loved In the Name of the Father, but that wa all about Pete Postlethwaite.

Yeah, he's the best actor of his generation for me. Hardcore method actor. Apparently he learned how to talk real stockbridge dialect when he made "The Last of the Mohicans". I think Pete Postlethwaite might've been the only one to ever steal a scene from him.

I don't think DiCaprio is the best actor of his generation, but he's up there for me. I think he did a great job in Catch Me If You Can (as Klaus said) and was very good in Gangs of New York, despite playing second fiddle to Day-Lewis. Nobody's mentioned his role in Blood Diamond - he was very impressive. He got a bit of stick for his Zimbabwean accent, but trust me, it's one hell of a difficult accent to perfect, especially for non-Africans. Overall it was a great acting performance.

I liked him in The Departed too, and I'm quite embarrassed to admit I haven't yet seen The Aviator.

Oh, and for the record, I think he was well above average in both Shutter Island and Inception. Inception is a bit of an enigma in that it's an exceptional film, but extremely plot-centric, which makes it more difficult for actors to shine. It's no co-incidence that it got no acting nominations at any major awards ceremonies.

Ron Burgundy wrote:

I don't think DiCaprio is the best actor of his generation, but he's up there for me.

I was referring to Daniel Day-Lewis in my post above.

Edit: I just realised that it might not have been directed at me!

asajoseph wrote:

I absolutely loved that climactic scene in the car, with the Dropkick Murphys belting out towards the end.

That was excellent stuff alright.
I could do with listening to that tune now, really ear bleedingly loud.

Klaus wrote:

Ron Burgundy wrote:

I don't think DiCaprio is the best actor of his generation, but he's up there for me.

I was referring to Daniel Day-Lewis in my post above.

Edit: I just realised that it might not have been directed at me!

Haha, yeah - was referring to Scorsese's claim. Day-Lewis is one of the greatest of his generation for sure.

Blood diamond was a very good film, I thought, especially as I had very low rxpectations

watched next three days today. thought it was a brilliant film. paul haggis a great director and he is able to portray intensity and emotions really well on the screen. terrific film.

Speaking of Leo and Scorsese, I saw Shutter Island a couple of days back, it's a bit wierd and confusing at times, but decent film.

In acting circles isn't kenneth Branagh supposed to be the best of his generation? I'm sure I've read that about him quite a few times. Kind of like the Messi of actors-pure genius.

It's simply not the case, though. Branagh might be a great Shakespearian and a great technician - I absolutely love him pretending to be Woody Allen in Celebrity, for instance - but he's only a fraction of the screen actor that Day-Lewis is.

As for The Departed, good movie but I'd plump for Infernal Affairs. Love the guy that plays the Di Caprio role in the HK version to pieces.

Klaus: what the fuck are you smoking? The Baz Luhrmann adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is superb, probably the best Shakespeare adaptation since 1990, with the possible exception of the Ian McKellen version of Richard III.

Brilliant set design, brilliant editing of the play, and brilliant performances from Harold Perrineau, Paul Sorvino, and Pete Postlethwaite as well as career highlights for John Leguizamo and Claire Danes. It's seriously good, even if Di Caprio's performance goes off a cliff after the tension increases and isn't that good to begin with.

Personally, I can't stand that adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. But then I'm not a massive fan of the story.

Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet is superior to them both.

I thought Romer+Juliet was a horrible movie, like everything else Luhrmann has ever done.

It's certainly true that Day-Lewis is brilliant in pretty much every role he does. Wish he'd work more, but then maybe the time he gives himself between movies is one of the reasons he's so good. Didn't he take a year or two out of acting to become a bespoke shoe maker or something? Thought i read that.

Of the leading actors Johnny Depp dissapoints me. I really thought he'd be something special a few years back, he was brilliant in Donnie Brasco, but he's become a bit of a charicature of himself these days. Silly accents and even sillier movies. Then again, maybe me having a pop at Depp is similar to that bell boy who caught George Best in bed with Miss World and asked where it all went wrong....

Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom isn't bad, but I doubt you'd have seen it? Everything else he has done I acknowledge to be pure shit - in particular I hate Moulin Rouge - but I have a huge soft spot for that version of Romeo and Juliet.

Whereas Branagh's Hamlet, though a glorious curiosity, is a miscast bloated vanity piece, and half of its interest lies in its absurd cameos (like that Depardieu one!) and its "put in everything plus the kitchen sink" ethic. I much prefer the earlier Branagh versions of Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing.

There hasn't really been a good Hamlet that I've seen, even the Olivier one's a bit off and obviously the Mel Gibson one is pretty durn average.