Archive for Whatever Comics Forum for Whatevercomics.co.uk Discuss comics. Air your points of view. Fun for all the family!
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Reaper
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This weeks movie viewingsI'm going to try and do this on a weekly basis but finding time seems to be hard. Anyway some reviews for you all.
Starting off the batch is No Country for Old Men.
The latest offering from the Coen Brothers who have produced some pretty great films in the past and a couple of not so greats. In short No Country for Old Men is a return to form for them after The Ladykillers which is very good to see.
The story based on a short book mainly revolved around three characters Lewellyn Moss a welder who comes across a drugs exchange gone wrong in the Texas desert and ends up going home with two million dollars. Anton Chigurh is a hitman/bagman dispatched to find the missing money and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell the man who is trying to work out what is going on.
As I mentioned in the Oscar Nominations thread Javier Bardem is fantastic as the simply insane Chigurh, he's a hard character to pin down. He hates rudeness and is incredibly hard to sympathise with because of his viciousness but it's easy to be impressed with his ingenuity.... I'd certainly hire him.
One of the standards for Coen films is that they look great, they're filmed exceptionally well and something that is becoming somewhat rare is that the Coens are auteurs, you can spot a Coen brothers film by its style and the structure of the story. In this case while they follow the book practically to the letter (they deviate from it very rarely I'm told) which is pretty unusual I'm sure you'll agree and that atleast will keep the fans of the book quiet. While the fact the Coens have their own style sometimes their style can make the film feel a little disjointed and No Country for Old Men does suffer from this, however due to how closely the film follows the book its difficult to decide where to place blame as such. The ending particularly reminded me of A History of Violence for it's abruptness.
Though they are minor gripes, the general excellence of the film, script and actors more than outweighs any of it.
5/5
Lust, Caution....
Talking of auteurs Ang Lee the director of Lust, Caution is another fantastic mastercraftsman, the problem with Lee is that it's far more difficult to pin what you could use to consider him an auteur. Yes his films are beautiful to watch and the performances he gets from actors are undeniably great (Brokeback Mountain), but there isn't a particular one thing e.g Doves and John Woo, that you can say 'Yes thats an Ang Lee film'. Instead we have to guess and go on the fact that they're just well directed and hope it's not a mistaken Ridley Scott film.
Lust, Caution is another slightly controversial film from Lee, not only does he like to transverse the genre and film types he does seem to attract some controversy. Brokeback Mountain upset a lot of people in the Bible belt of the US and Lust, Caution has had a few people upset due to its graphic nudity. However the amount of nudity in comparison to the length of the film is fairly minimal but then this is a long film and is the one area where it tends to fall short. A long film is not a problem but it shouldn't feel long, for me Titanic wasn't a long film because it didn't drag, while Lust, Caution doesn't drag you can find yourself getting a bit fidgety and wondering how much longer is the film.
The thing that ofsets all this is the power of the performances and of the story and the end is surprising to say the least. It's a slow burning story but you do understand and feel for all of the characters, even some of them with much shorter screen time than Tony Leung. The lead actress Wei Tang is pretty much unknown before this and it has to be said its a brave role to take, she has more screen time than anyone and doing such explicit and sometimes violent sex scenes must have been fear inducing.
The performances from all alone are enough to warrant seeing the film, the sad thing is that due to its subtitles more people than not will be put off as they have to read while watching.... (it's not that difficult!).
4/5
Man on Fire
I've seen it before a few times but watched it on saturday and feel it needs a short mention. Good Tony Scott action film with Denzeeeel Washington in the lead as an alcoholic bodyguard to a young girl who is kidnapped. He in standard action movie style goes on the search for revenge. If you haven't seen this give it a watch, its very well made and I can find few faults with it.
5/5
Thats all folks 
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Batmanuel
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Great.
Movie Reviews,
and from someone who i know,
and reasonably trust the opinion of, keep em coming old bean.
and i say reasonably only for one reason...
| Quote: | | Titanic wasn't a long film because it didn't drag, |
No it just bloody well sunk 
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Reaper
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ha! I knew that would spark a few comments 
Thanks though, I'm going to try and get it all regular like, just getting used to this working full time lark.
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Xeall
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like the reviews, didn't do my gaming one this month as only burnout warrents a mention. Glad to see we are building up a regular review scene on the forum........all by anti SHRA people, is there a link here?
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Web of Fear
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Yet to see No Country, probably the only one of this year's big Oscar contenders I'm interested in.
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CatFang
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Looking forward to seeing No Country For Old Men very much.
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