So, I went to see J. Edgar today, and wished I hadn't bothered. It leapt backwards and forwards in time with dizzying abandon. A potentially very interesting story was at times painfully turgid.

The aging process for Hoover and more particularly his friend Tolson at times made them look like wax dummies. Judi Dench played her part (Edgar's manipulative mother) very well.

Hoover's obsession with communism and his incredible personal hubris came over well, but aaa in all I found the film very disappointing and i will be amazed if it gets any oscars.

In fact, it highlighted for me how good the George Clooney film (IdesOf March) I saw at the beginning of the week was.

My girlfriend is a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan, so we are going to have to see it at some point. I heard from reviewers that I trust that it was pretty bad for a movie with Academy Award aspirations. That's too bad.

My girlfriend is a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan, so we are going to have to see it at some point. I heard from reviewers that I trust that it was pretty bad for a movie with Academy Award aspirations. That's too bad.

I'm afraid she won't find him very fanciable in this!

I'm afraid she won't find him very fanciable in this!

Haha! She does think he is very attractive, but she also thinks he's the best actor out there right now. The consensus I have heard, moi, is that Leo puts in a performance that will get him an Oscar nomination (maybe a win, but that would be because of his past body of work as well) but the movie will not be up for anything else because of the way it was edited, the story, etc.

Haha! She does think he is very attractive, but she also thinks he's the best actor out there right now. The consensus I have heard, moi, is that Leo puts in a performance that will get him an Oscar nomination (maybe a win, but that would be because of his past body of work as well) but the movie will not be up for anything else because of the way it was edited, the story, etc.

Yes, that's about right! Not even sure if his acting is good enough. His voice never seems to change, so whatever he looks like the voice you hear is still Dicaprio.

So, I went to see J. Edgar today, and wished I hadn't bothered.

I'm a big fan of Eastwood the director. But for me his best movies have also starred him. When he's not in them, his movies often feel flat. He's a very efficient director, not a lot of retakes. Not sure if that's the problem or not. But he managed to suck the life out what should have been a very emotional Changeling (wasted Jolie, I thought) and Invictus was much the same. I got the same vibe from J. Edgar and haven't gone to see it.

(I did think Letters From Iwo Jima was outstanding and I also enjoyed Hereafter.)

So I saw "Warrior" tonight....and "Exit Through The Gift Shop" earlier today.

I knew I'd love "Exit" and I did. Just a really entertaining 90 minutes, highly recommend.

I really want to see this. I fear there's a whiff of hypocrisy about Banksy (an anti-establishment recluse who craves publicity and art sales) but he's an interesting man.

cowboys and aliens - the title tells you everything

good fun action film, although i would have liked to have seen james bond and indiana jones kicking arse on screen together alot more ! the director seemed to keep their characters very seperate for some reason

Can't remember if I posted my notes about this film here. If I did so now, I'm afraid people would again accuse me of not being able to enjoy a brainless movie!

I'm a big fan of Eastwood the director. But for me his best movies have also starred him. When he's not in them, his movies often feel flat. He's a very efficient director, not a lot of retakes. Not sure if that's the problem or not. But he managed to suck the life out what should have been a very emotional Changeling (wasted Jolie, I thought) and Invictus was much the same. I got the same vibe from J. Edgar and haven't gone to see it.

(I did think Letters From Iwo Jima was outstanding and I also enjoyed Hereafter.)

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil was brilliant!

A lot of people I know did not like "Gran Torino", but I thought it was fantastic. I think a lot of the criticism came from the Asian actors, who were all amateurs from what I read. "Invictus" was ok, I never saw "Million Dollar Baby" because the press decided it was ok right around Oscar time to give away the ending, and "Changeling" just didn't look my type of film.

"Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Hereafter" are both on my Netflix queue though!

Seriously though, I can't recommend "Warrior" enough. Still thinking about the ending today and what a sobbing idiot I was, sports movies always get me like that!

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil was brilliant!

Hated it!

A lot of people I know did not like "Gran Torino", but I thought it was fantastic.

I agree. Love that film. Million Dollar Baby is a punch in the gut. Every once in a while you're watching a movie and you realize how much you're enjoying it. That was me for the first half of MDB. It's very, very good. But it not emotionally flat!

OOOOHH! We're going to have to agree to disagree again!! Why did you hate it?

I thought Kevin Spacey was brilliant! And the Lady Chablis!

OOOOHH! We're going to have to agree to disagree again!! Why did you hate it?

I thought Kevin Spacey was brilliant! And the Lady Chablis!

I felt it rambled, lacked focus, was shapeless, didn't have much (if any) dramatic tension or energy. It just sort of went on, until it ended. To me, a pretty good example of the problems Eastwood sometimes has when directing movies in which he doesn't act.

I felt it rambled, lacked focus, was shapeless, didn't have much (if any) dramatic tension or energy.

Midnight in the Garden... was a big best-selling novel which rambled, so I would say my man Clint can't be faulted for that. Yes it was odd, but also brilliant. Don't overlook White Hunter, Black Heart or Mystic River. And I would heartily recommend Million Dollar Baby even if you know the hook at the end. I find his pacing very distinctive, longer cuts which pull emotion from the actors, along with strong character development.

I might have to give J. Edgar a miss, since I don't care for Leonardo DiCaprio in anything. I don't want to see him playing Howard Hughes, much less JE Hoover. Who's he going to portray next - George Washington? Come on, now. The only time I enjoyed his work was in Gilbert Grape, due to him playing a mentally impaired teenager, which was amusing. If Wayne Rooney or Stephen Hunt were actors, I'd want them playing that kind of role, too, unintentional comedy gold for a hater like me. I sat through Titanic mainly because I knew eventually DiCaprio was going to get his hair wet. Catch Me If You Can rang true because he fooled everyone, which he seems to have also accomplished in real life.

Midnight in the Garden... was a big best-selling novel which rambled, so I would say my man Clint can't be faulted for that. Yes it was odd, but also brilliant. Don't overlook White Hunter, Black Heart or Mystic River. And I would heartily recommend Million Dollar Baby even if you know the hook at the end. I find his pacing very distinctive, longer cuts which pull emotion from the actors, along with strong character development.

I might have to give J. Edgar a miss, since I don't care for Leonardo DiCaprio in anything. I don't want to see him playing Howard Hughes, much less JE Hoover. Who's he going to portray next - George Washington? Come on, now. The only time I enjoyed his work was in Gilbert Grape, due to him playing a mentally impaired teenager, which was amusing. If Wayne Rooney or Stephen Hunt were actors, I'd want them playing that kind of role, too, unintentional comedy gold for a hater like me. I sat through Titanic mainly because I knew eventually DiCaprio was going to get his hair wet. Catch Me If You Can rang true because he fooled everyone, which he seems to have also accomplished in real life.

Actually his next role is the role of "Jay Gatsby". I'll give you one guess what the title of that movie is...

Not a fan of "The Departed" or "Inception"? Maybe I let my love of the whole movie cloud my judgment towards Dicaprio's performance, but I've always found him to be a rather good actor. To each their own, though.

Edited January 13, 201214 yr by ace

Midnight in the Garden... was a big best-selling novel which rambled, so I would say my man Clint can't be faulted for that. Yes it was odd, but also brilliant. Don't overlook White Hunter, Black Heart or Mystic River. And I would heartily recommend Million Dollar Baby even if you know the hook at the end. I find his pacing very distinctive, longer cuts which pull emotion from the actors, along with strong character development.

I might have to give J. Edgar a miss, since I don't care for Leonardo DiCaprio in anything. I don't want to see him playing Howard Hughes, much less JE Hoover. Who's he going to portray next - George Washington? Come on, now. The only time I enjoyed his work was in Gilbert Grape, due to him playing a mentally impaired teenager, which was amusing. If Wayne Rooney or Stephen Hunt were actors, I'd want them playing that kind of role, too, unintentional comedy gold for a hater like me. I sat through Titanic mainly because I knew eventually DiCaprio was going to get his hair wet. Catch Me If You Can rang true because he fooled everyone, which he seems to have also accomplished in real life.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was also a true story, thoiugh I think in the real life murder, he was tried several times.

Forgot to say too that the use of Johnny Mercer's music was inspired.

Titanic was totally sick-making. Blood Diamond was crap. The Beach was absurd.

Edited January 13, 201214 yr by moi

Titanic was totally sick-making. Blood Diamond was crap. The Beach was absurd.

I haven't seen Blood Diamond, but The Beach is better than Titanic, that's for sure(even if it's one of the worst Danny Boyle movies). I remember the scene in Titanic in which they are in the car with the steamy windows and it was supposed to be super romantic, but I couldn't stop laughing at how tacky it was. When the hand touched the steamy window, it was more like a scene from a cheesy horror movie than a romantic historical drama.

I have Blood Diamond and haven't watched it yet, was actually going to watch it over the weekend!

Watched 'Crimson Tide' last night, which was typical Hollywood pap!

Watched 'Crimson Tide' last night, which was typical Hollywood pap!

I don't remember too much of it as it's been a while since I've seen it. I saw it in the cinema when it came out and I remember being glad that I didn't have to pay for the ticket. Back then one of the local cinemas regularly handed out free tickets to their press pre-screenings. I guess there weren't that many journalists in my old home town back then, so they'd rather have just random people in the seats and hope that they would say good things about the movie to their friends.

I don't remember too much of it as it's been a while since I've seen it. I saw it in the cinema when it came out and I remember being glad that I didn't have to pay for the ticket. Back then one of the local cinemas regularly handed out free tickets to their press pre-screenings. I guess there weren't that many journalists in my old home town back then, so they'd rather have just random people in the seats and hope that they would say good things about the movie to their friends.

I had seen it previously a few years back, and for some reason I thought it had been fairly good, but got about 20 minutes in last night and thought my god this is bad, then continued to watch it!

I might have to give J. Edgar a miss, since I don't care for Leonardo DiCaprio in anything. I don't want to see him playing Howard Hughes, much less JE Hoover.

The movie didn't quite work, but DiCaprio was really excellent as Howard Huges. I wasn't a fan of his and actually dreaded the prospect of this fresh-faced kid trying to protray an adult. But he was really good, gave the role a weight and authority I had thought were beyond him.

Edited January 13, 201214 yr by wxwax

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Gary Oldman

John Hurt

Colin Firth

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

Something's missing. But what?

It's a challenge to figure out what it is that is noticeable by its absence, when the heart of an enterprise is being low-key.

The style in which one tells a John Le Carre story has become a filmic trope. I think there'd be an outcry if the director didn't follow in the footsteps of Richard Burton's 1965 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and the BBC's George Smiley sagas, with Alec Guinness. If you do Le Carre, then you must be deliberately undramatic. If the style had a color, it would be grey. There are no traditional heroes. There's only daily, grubby life. Glamor need not apply.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy hews closely to the Le Carre trope. Perhaps too closely. Director Tomas Alfredson dutifully sucks the life out of everything. It's almost as though his obsession with the look of his film -- which is a non-look, if you will -- has taken over.

I hate to do comparisons. Every work should stand or fall on its own. But when I try to explain what's missing from such a deliberately low-key presentation, I can't help but think back to my very old memories of Alec Guinness' BBC productions. For they were every bit as flat and grey. And yet, my memory is that they somehow managed to create an air of tension, of paranoia -- yes, of drama -- even as they made every effort to give the appearance of being undramatic.

That's a hard trick to pull off. Tomas Alfredson isn't up to it. I think he finds the visual language perfectly. But he doesn't really grasp the dramatic language.

What we're left with is a film that is two-thirds George Smiley doing his discovery, in the manner of a legal team seeking information. And then abruptly Smiley takes action, suddenly displaying knowledge which we the omniscient audience have figured out, but which he has never been shown to have acquired. There's a bit in the middle that's missing. That would be the bit where Smiley processes and assembles. It's reduced to a minute or so of him thinking.

The result is a film that's as dramatically uneventful as it is visually flat. Things happen, but when there's tension, it's momentary. There's no overall dramatic arc that carries us through.

In a film that is so studiously plain, the performances aren't really work talking about. As someone said of porn star Sasha Grey when she starred in Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, how can you tell if someone's a good actor when the role asks them to be expressionless? Gary Oldman is reliably inexpressive. His under-suspicion cohorts do a good job of selling visual red-herrings about their loyalty, or lack thereof. John Hurt's rather good as the paranoid spymaster. Svetlana Khodchenkova is gorgeous.

But this film isn't about the acting, really. Maybe that's part of the problem. It's so much about its style, that the story never really ignites.

Edited January 14, 201214 yr by wxwax

Watched "War Horse" last night and was quite disappointed. At 146 minutes it's a long movie and it really drags on. Could have been made shorter.

Also, I think I would actually have prefered more unknown actors in it since the movie is mainly about the horse and not the other characters.

But the acting is good enough and it's not a bad movie. Technically it's well made with some really nice shots and scenes.

As for "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", I really liked it.

Ok, I obviously haven't seen this one, but Wes Anderson is one of my favourite directors at the moment, so here we go:

Some interesting new faces and some old "regulars" from previous Wes Anderson movies. I'll definitely go see it when it comes out.