Just saw a film that some of you may be familiar with, but which I knew nothing about. "Cass", the true story of Cass Pennant, was very engaging with its treatment of violence and race relations in London circa 1970's. What a story, Spammers vs. Gooners with the weapons graduating from fists to bats to knives to handguns. The main character goes from a bullied immigrant to an ass-kicking hooligan, only to walk away from the violence and write his autobiography. This movie had the power of a punch in the mouth, but nuance to make the viewer consider the concepts of hatred and retribution. Maybe some of you knew this man. I wonder if anyone can recommmend some other good movies on this subject...

i'm sure this has been asked before. the obvious one, even though it only begins with the ICF, is Rise Of The Foot Soldier, mentioned not so long ago. i also recommend The Firm starring Gary Oldman. not to be confused with any other movies of the same name, it's this one:

The Firm (1989)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095158/

The Football Factory isn't bad, but avoid Green Street and Awaydays.

Not films, but books, so maybe shouldn't be in here, but it follows on from what ThunderDan and Stride were saying:

Jimmy Boyle's A Sense of Freedom - his autobiography - about growing up in Glasgow Gorbals, where he became a violent criminal sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of another leading gangland figure. Sent to the special unit in Barlinnie prison, he learned to write and became a sculptor and novelist. I think a film was made of his autobiography, but maybe it was just a TV film.

No Mean City - a fictitious but said to be very accurate account of Glasgow gangland in the twenties and thirties - centres around Johnnie Stark aka razor King. An excellent read.

Edited August 15, 201015 yr by moi

A Sense Of Freedom (1979)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194350/

it's available on DVD but according to one of the reviewers on IMDB it's been dubbed. to make it easier for Americans to understand, presumably.

another classic "bad guys gone good" movie, and this is one i know is available very cheaply on DVD:

McVicar (1980)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081144/

A Sense Of Freedom (1979)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194350/

it's available on DVD but according to one of the reviewers on IMDB it's been dubbed. to make it easier for Americans to understand, presumably.

another classic "bad guys gone good" movie, and this is one i know is available very cheaply on DVD:

McVicar (1980)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081144/

Dubbed?? So they no longer speak Weegie? How ridiculous is that! They could have used subtitles if they had problems understanding it. WE have to struggle with increasingly unintelligible American mumbling, but we don't expect it to be dubbed into Oxford English!

i know, it's unbelievable. even if the original was that big a problem for the Yanks or whoever, they could have simply added a second soundtrack. from IMDB:

I was so disappointed when I put this disc into my machine. The dialogue is dubbed in Standard Scots!! Even though in many cases it's the original actors supplying the dialogue, it still sounds very strange. Native Scots will find this difficult to watch due the strange accents. Accents that sound very unnatural. Accents that are neither Kelvinside nor Morningside. I have not made it to the end of this DVD because the dubbed soundtrack is so annoying and off putting.

and from Amazon:

This is and always was a powerful film, great scottish actors and scenery.My only gripe was the wattered down Glasgow Dialect, I saw the original film back in 79 when the accents were left alone so this version was somewhat spoiled for me.

however, there's also a 5-DVD Peter McDougall set available, which as far as i know contains the original soundtrack:

LINK

i know, it's unbelievable. even if the original was that big a problem for the Yanks or whoever, they could have simply added a second soundtrack. from IMDB:

They do know about this invention called "closed captioning", don't they?

I went to see inception yesterday,great watch,would definately recommend to all

Thanks going out to Moi and Stride. I'll queue up The Firm and Rise of the Foot Soldier. Hopefully they'll present the directors' original product, as dubbing is a form of cheating. to me anyway.

Small Faces

That is another movie set in Glasgow, think in the 70's. Pretty brutal stuff about the Glen and the Tongs, two gangs from some of Glasgow's less than desireable areas.

Small Faces

That is another movie set in Glasgow, think in the 70's. Pretty brutal stuff about the Glen and the Tongs, two gangs from some of Glasgow's less than desireable areas.

I thought the Tongs were Chinese...or am I getting confused with something else? (quite possible, believe me!)

Just watched 'The Hours' for what must be the 5th or 6th time and it is quite possible I will never tire of watching it. It is a film I feel we are lucky was made during our generation (despite the fact I find reading Virginia Woolf a little like battling to reconcile spending one hour of my time digesting 19 seconds of someone else's indulgence).

I thought the Tongs were Chinese...or am I getting confused with something else? (quite possible, believe me!)

You are both correct and incorrect at the same time. The Tongs, I believe, are a Chinese-American organization. However, the Tongs I speak of are indeed a Glasgow gang, prevalent in the 60''s and early 70's in the lovely district of Galton (known for the Barras). You can still see areas around highrises that have TONGLAND graffitti over them. There were a few girls that used to hang around them, mainly to smuggle knives and hatchettes in to bars. one of the girls wrote an autobiography called "Handstands in the Dark"

I don't undestand how someone can calmly walk into a creek and drown, with or without weighting.

I don't undestand how someone can calmly walk into a creek and drown, with or without weighting.

Are you talking about Virginia Woolf?

I did watch Avatar last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can only imagine what it must have been like on the big screen with 3D specs! I was fascinated by the new language they'd invented, and would like to know how they set about inventing a fictional language. I love science fiction, so I readily accepted the basic premise of the film.

Apart from the comparisons already drawn with Pocahontas/John Smith, there were other resemblances sprang to mind. Many years ago I read a series of books called The Dragonriders of Pern, by Anne McAffrey. The way the riders bonded with the declans (the flying banshees) reminded me very much of the relationship between dragons and riders. The way the Navi greeted each other by placing the hand on the opposite shoulder reminded me of the Bushmen of the Kalahari in the Gods Must be Crazy.

I loved the floating islands in the Hallelujah mountains - I'd like to see it with all the 3D effects for those scenes alone.

I could have done without the sloppy love stuff, though!

Avatar 3D is really fantastic!!

I've just re-read the book "Mandingo" by Kyle Onstott, first time I've read it in over 20 years, absolutely brilliant, and so this morning I decided to re-watch the movie.

I watched "Mandingo" in the cinema when it was first released in the early 70's, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would have enjoyed it even more if Susan George had got her kit off more often, but this is a cross which us film critics often have to bare.

It's still a powerful film, set in the deep south (Alabama) before the American Civil War. Although James Mason & Susan George are good, surely a cast from the deep south would have been more beneficial and authentic? The beautiful Brenda Sykes (over)played a slave wench, and Ken Norton as the Mandingo 'Mede' was pretty lame, but all in all it's a very good movie. This was about the 5th time I've watched it, and it still has an effect on me - I blame Susan George ;)

I've just re-read the book "Mandingo" by Kyle Onstott, first time I've read it in over 20 years, absolutely brilliant, and so this morning I decided to re-watch the movie.

Kyle Onstott & Lance Horner wrote an entire series of deep south/slave trade novels. the one i remember and which i might still have here, is Falconhurst Fancy, Falconhurst being the name of the plantation and a "fancy" being the name for a "high yeller". i don't think that one was ever made into a movie. which is a shame, Susan George would have been absolutely ideal for the female lead...

I don't undestand how someone can calmly walk into a creek and drown, with or without weighting.

That is exactly what she did in real life (it wasn't fictionalised). I guess if the river is deep enough and you are entirly committed to dying then the survival instinct is not strong enough for you to struggle.

(Apologies to those who hate it)

I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on the car journey home from my grandparents'. It's a cracking film, I didn't like it originally and thought it was the weakest of all the adaptations, but this one is actually the most faithful to the book and I loved it.

Just watched "The Ghost Writer" and though it started a bit slow it turned out to be a very good movie.

Ewan McGregor really is a good actor.

The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler.

Decent movie to be honest, not one of the best movies you will see but if you are bored enough and want to see a good family/comedy movie then yeah give it a shot.

It's about American Football so if you are into that then it gives you another reason to watch it :D

The Longest Yard is one of the few Adam Sandler films I can sit through, even though I watch it for the supporting cast! The other films being Happy Gilmore and Funny People. Although, I have to say I've only seen the first hour or so of Funny People, but it's brilliant so far.

Yeah I dont like Adam Sandler but this movie was one of his best.

Totally forgot about Happy Gilmore, thinking about watching it now as I need a good laugh :D Probably his best movie!

Watched "The A-Team" tonight. I thought it would be pretty bad, but I must admit that I was wrong.

The cast was great. Nobody can replace Mr T so I give the guy playing BA an okay for trying. He wasn't as bad as I thought.

Neeson as Hannibal was great. He looked the part.

Cooper as Faceman was perfect as well. Good actor and also good looking. Can't ask for more than that.

Copley as Murdoch is a gem. I must say that Copley is a brilliant actor and he really seemed insane as Murdoch. Brilliant!

The rest of the cast was good as well, though I didn't quite like Alba as the cop (or whatever she was). She just doesn't suit for that part. It felt more like they wanted some hot girl for the part as the cop so they picked Alba. I would have settled for someone slightly less attractive but looking more like a cop.

Another bad thing was actually the beginning. I thought the whole "how they met"-thing was quite bad. I thought they met in the army and became a team there. But here we see Hannibal escaping in a kinda stupid, though perhaps cool, way and then he just happens to stumble on BA whos out driving his car in the middle of nowhere. And they go and rescue Faceman who apparently have f*cked the wrong woman and is in deep s*it. And then they need an helicopter and finds one and also mad Murdoch in a hospital (he's there because he's mad, but I can't see why they keep the crazy people at a regular hospital - did I miss something?)

I've seen the show on tv but can't remember if they ever say how they all met so maybe the movie is right about it, but I felt it was unnecessary.

They could have made the movie shorter by just stating that they met in the army and became a team of friends.

But then of course we would get a few less explotions and stuff like that. And we can't be without that, can we?

Anyway, apart from that the movie was good. Really worth to see, especially if you liked the tv-show.

Just watched Grown Ups, pretty funny film.

Anyone got any really good movies for me to watch?