Ironman is still on and your nephew is still young .

Tonight was Hancock.

The jury's out on this one which went from the sublime (Will Smith) to the ridiculous (very peculiar angel thing which I respect you all too much to start explaining), and back to the sublime which is Will Smith in a rather fetching leather (sigh) costume.

There were a few laughs, but making the badguy become a good guy is always a bit fraught in the lol department. Some very unexpected attempts at Deep And Meaningful.

One of those ones where you're wondering what's going to happen next - and then afterwards wonder why you did.

Nah. Mama Mia over the weekend when all self respect will go out the window and I'll be singing along to every single tune. Did I have a best friend who had a three cassette collection of everything that Abba ever did? Did we sing into our hairbrushes and make up our own dance routines? In the days of unlimited duration phone calls did we sing songs down the line - muchly Abba?

Aahhhh. Those were the days.

Went to Prince Caspian last weekend. I was a huge childhood fan of the Chronicles of Narnia and am an admirier of CS Lewis.

It was pretty true to the spirit of the series and to the book itself. For anyone who has read and enjoyed the Chronicles, it is a must see and will be thoroughly enjoyed.

For anyone who hasn't (like my girlfriend) your enjoyment will be based on the kind of film that you enjoy. If you enjoy a bit of magic, a story which isn't too heavy but puts good up against evil with an inevitable victory with some mishaps in between you will enjoy it. If you dislike anything which is fantastical, you probably won't.

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Tomorrow evening I am going to 'Wanted' - I have no idea what it is about.

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Friday evening will be back to the cinema with the girlfriend again. This time we are going to Mamma Mia. We were staying on the small Greek Island where it was filmed last year - Skiathos. We got up really close to the actors during filming and persuaded the security guards to let us wander around the sets when they weren't. That is half the reason we are going but hopefully it will be enjoyable. Who can argue with abba??

Yep, Mamma Mia is a must-see I reckon.

Hopefully it's already been and gone, but if it's still around, don't waste your Euros on The Happening! It truly is just about the biggest pile of **** I have seen in many a year.

A film I saw earlier in the year is Savage Grace with Julianne Moore - an actress I rate quite highly - and Stephen Dillane, rem. him? It's an unsettling film in some aspects, well I found it so, but worth a go anyway. Based on the true story of the family heirs to the Bakelite fortune. I think it goes on general release this week.

Wanted - don't go. Terrible, terrible film.

Highlight was Angelina's ass... and I don't even find her attractive, much to the dismay of my friends.

Saw Caramel last week. It`s about a beauty shop in Lebannon. It`s in French and Arabic for those of you who dislike subtitles. `Twas alright. Was with the girlfriend. Sex and the City was sold out, thank God.

anmajornarthainig wrote:

Saw Caramel last week. It`s about a beauty shop in Lebannon. It`s in French and Arabic for those of you who dislike subtitles. `Twas alright. Was with the girlfriend. Sex and the City was sold out, thank God.

Not on general release?

My sister went to see Mamma Mia, it was great apart from Pierce Brosnan singing I'm told.

cactus flower wrote:

anmajornarthainig wrote:

Saw Caramel last week. It`s about a beauty shop in Lebannon. It`s in French and Arabic for those of you who dislike subtitles. `Twas alright. Was with the girlfriend. Sex and the City was sold out, thank God.

Not on general release?

Very limited release only a couple of cinemas across the country. Check it out when it comes out on DVD though. It`s not amazing or anything but I`ve seen a lot worse. It`interesting to see another aspect of Lebannon rather than just the political turmoil. One of the things that amazed me was how many of the characters were fair skinned and red-haired.

Watched the garage last week, and have watched it three times since. I never realised that Pat Shortt could be such a good actor, though not surprised that it is the physicality of the persona that makes it. The ending is inevitable, i knew it from the blur but it really is a thought-provoking piece of work, if you can forgive the shmaltzy symbolism at the end.

Wall-e... fantastic!!! Such a good movie, you all must go to it and I'm not even going to spoil it by reviewing it, don't want to give the story away

Just watched John Hustons Moulin Rouge which is a very beautiful to look at life of Toulouse Lautrec in gorgeous ageing Technicolor.
Jose Ferrer est magnifique.

I saw Gone Baby Gone recently. It is a good film, definitely worth seeing. It also leaves you with a question about what is right or wrong.

I read the book by Denis Lehane, though I'm not sure how closely related they are. The plot of the novel was gripping - though the relationship between the two detectives annoyed me. Usually when I start with a detective character, I'm inclined to read all the books but I haven't been wildly anxious to go back to this pair.

From your brief description of the film it resembles the book in that it doesn't provide the easy neat answers that a lot of crime fiction does and that can only be a good thing. It does make you question to what extent you'll push yourself in a desperate situation. We none of us know that side of ourselves until faced with it.

Double bill tonight : Hancock and Batman - both excellent.

Hancock was the B movie in that set there and as such was a really good surprise as it had me laughing fairly early on and nearly the other thing at the end. Nearly.

The Dark Knight is a different superhero movie and probably derives from the late 80s graphic novel "Arkham Asylum" by Frank Millar (300, Sin City) which does a great job of persuading you that people deserve to be terrorised and that the hero is only getting in the way of a good old bit of deserved terrorism, murder and torture among other evil. I don't know if it was Heath Ledger's role or his performance that gave the film that same theme but go see it and tell me if I'm projecting that meaning onto it - almost Gotham and Gomorrah, the righteous punishment of the wrongdoers.

Harvey Two Face brought a disturbing philosophical element into the whole thing too so the next film should be troubling as well.

Great technology and not over the top - we see the reason for Batman's comic-book "white eyes"
(and the motorbike - swoon)

Has anyone been to see Sex and the City? I am going to it tonight. Just need to know should I bring a book.

johnfás wrote:

Has anyone been to see Sex and the City? I am going to it tonight. Just need to know should I bring a book.

By all accounts you should bring something to distract you from the nauseating pseudo-intellectual glamour cak that will be streaming from the silver screen. You could sneak out and into the X-files which you might find a bit worthless too unless you are an xfan. I'm predicting they will create a series of xfiles films until December 22nd 2012, the date when the alien invasion begins. (there were no aliens in this one though - it was more crime/horror)

johnfás wrote:

Has anyone been to see Sex and the City? I am going to it tonight. Just need to know should I bring a book.

It is very good of you to go, johnfás, I hope you get loads of brownie points for your trouble. I would say take drugs before you go, if it wasn't illegal and unhealthy. Please let us know how you get on.

Personally, I'd love to see it.

cactus flower wrote:

Personally, I'd love to see it.

Why don't you go ? I'm sure there's a cinema in a town nearby where no one knows you. It's not so hard to disguise yourself either.

Just back from Sex and the City. It is on at 20:15 each evening in the Ormonde in Stillorgan if anyone is still wanting to go to it.

It was better than I had expected. Certainly a chick flick, but there were some very comical moments. It was far more thought out than alot of films in the same genre. Strange sort of experience though, I found myself giggling out loud at the complete opposite times to the majority of the audience.

johnfás wrote:

Just back from Sex and the City. It is on at 20:15 each evening in the Ormonde in Stillorgan if anyone is still wanting to go to it.

It was better than I had expected. Certainly a chick flick, but there were some very comical moments. It was far more thought out than alot of films in the same genre. Strange sort of experience though, I found myself giggling out loud at the complete opposite times to the majority of the audience.

Fair play bud - wouldn't be my first choice of viewing tho - but Im pretty sure it was well written and smart - My Ex was a complete addict for it - can remember watching out of the corner of my eye while pretending to be asleep and secretly waiting for the moment her guard was down and I'd get the opportunity to nick back the remote - never happened tho - I would have faced castration in nano seconds had I interfered with her viewing. Still tho - its quite entertaining as along as you dont take it too seriously , dont think too deeply and just go with the flow on it.

Still beats my evening out fishing on the Barrow - 2 sucidal trout no bigger than my thumb and a rake of Dace (foreign invader species - probably introduced by some well meaning vandal - major pest species as they compete directly with trout - there will be blood over this!) and 2 thunderstorms and downpours -and the dog capsized the boat at the weir - at which point I pulled out a hamlet ,tried to light it with wet matches, said "fuck it" and called it a night.

the joys of country life.

Certainly wasn't my first choice of film either - the girlfriend wanted to see it!!

Although she did feel that it wasn't too appropriate for her 15 year old sister who had been to see it a few weeks back.

I went to see the Dark Knight there on Friday.

One of my favourite films is the first Batman, with Tim Burton directing and Jack Nicholson as the director. I wasn't too impressed when I heard that Heath Ledger has apparantly outshone Nicholson as the Joker. As much as I wished Ledger andf his memory well, I didn't want him doing it at Nicholson's expense. So it was with a heavy heart that I watched him romp away to become the best villain of any of the Batman films.

Still, I have to say Nicholson was a better Joker. Ledger was a better villain by far, but Joker was always more about the character than about the villainy. I think Hedger lost sight of this slighty and emphasised the villain side, which is no bad thing really. He did come close to the Joker on a number of occasions, especially at the hospital. But for a man who allegedly had no plan, he was chock full of them, really elaborate ones.

Two-face was my favourite villain as a child, and I was horrified when the character was butchered in the third Batman film. Played by Tomie Lee-Jones, he was a simple, cardboard cut-out villain, a henchman really. Here we see the opposite, which isn't right either. The depth and tragedy of the character is emphasised, but there is no villainy.

I don't know if Bale is any good as Bruce Wayne the strange fellow who lives in a creepy mansion with his Butler and obsesses about his dead parents. But he's certainly good as Bruce Wayne the playboy millionaire.

Edo wrote:

johnfás wrote:

Just back from Sex and the City. It is on at 20:15 each evening in the Ormonde in Stillorgan if anyone is still wanting to go to it.

It was better than I had expected. Certainly a chick flick, but there were some very comical moments. It was far more thought out than alot of films in the same genre. Strange sort of experience though, I found myself giggling out loud at the complete opposite times to the majority of the audience.

Fair play bud - wouldn't be my first choice of viewing tho - but Im pretty sure it was well written and smart - My Ex was a complete addict for it - can remember watching out of the corner of my eye while pretending to be asleep and secretly waiting for the moment her guard was down and I'd get the opportunity to nick back the remote - never happened tho - I would have faced castration in nano seconds had I interfered with her viewing. Still tho - its quite entertaining as along as you dont take it too seriously , dont think too deeply and just go with the flow on it.

Still beats my evening out fishing on the Barrow - 2 sucidal trout no bigger than my thumb and a rake of Dace (foreign invader species - probably introduced by some well meaning vandal - major pest species as they compete directly with trout - there will be blood over this!) and 2 thunderstorms and downpours -and the dog capsized the boat at the weir - at which point I pulled out a hamlet ,tried to light it with wet matches, said "fuck it" and called it a night.

the joys of country life.

Bad luck with the fishing. Bloody dace, I hope you got plenty of them. I read somewhere that some English anglers (angling writers!) were caught with a tank full of fry ready to release. Blasted invaders.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Double bill tonight : Hancock and Batman - both excellent.

Hancock was the B movie in that set there and as such was a really good surprise as it had me laughing fairly early on and nearly the other thing at the end. Nearly.

The Dark Knight is a different superhero movie and probably derives from the late 80s graphic novel "Arkham Asylum" by Frank Millar (300, Sin City) which does a great job of persuading you that people deserve to be terrorised and that the hero is only getting in the way of a good old bit of deserved terrorism, murder and torture among other evil. I don't know if it was Heath Ledger's role or his performance that gave the film that same theme but go see it and tell me if I'm projecting that meaning onto it - almost Gotham and Gomorrah, the righteous punishment of the wrongdoers.

Harvey Two Face brought a disturbing philosophical element into the whole thing too so the next film should be troubling as well.

Great technology and not over the top - we see the reason for Batman's comic-book "white eyes"
(and the motorbike - swoon)

Ahh the motorbike is right - magic!! And Heath Ledger was superlative. I liked Christian Bale too.

Thought of you Audi, when the Joker spoke about rules and anarchy, injecting a little chaos into people's routines. It certainly does go a bit deeper than the usual action film - lots of questions to be asked about who, if anyone, deserves to be mistreated over others, and I think it also questions the role of the masses more than these flicks usual do. The people of Gotham City were a character in themselves.

The technology got the balance just right - pushing the imaginative boundaries but still believable. And there were some great, great action scenes.