Weekly Collection of Random Film Thoughts

• RIP Elizabeth Taylor, you were brilliant in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. 

• I've recently installed a soft that will allow me to take screenshots of films, I don't know why I didn't get this before, but at least I have now so I'll be including some more original images in my reviews from now on instead of finding them on the internet.

Here's an example from one of my favourite films:

Ran - 1985, Kurosawa

• The news of an upcoming film based on the Spook series of books written by Joseph Delaney (film adaptation will be called "The Seventh Son") is somewhat worrying. I'm a fan of the books, they aren't masterpieces of literature but they are better than a lot of fantasy books of the moment, and I think they would make excellent films. But the casting of Jeff Bridges as the Spook is a mistake and I'm sure it's only the first of many. I think this will turn out to be the new "Eragon".

• I recently got hold of a Japanese film called "Shikeidai No Elevator" released last year, what is intriguing about this film is the fact that it is a remake of Louis Malle's 1957 masterpiece Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud. The problem is I have no English subtitles for it and thus I haven't been able to see it yet.

•  Happy Birthday Quentin Tarantino, I can't wait for your next film, if it really is a Western then I'm sure you'll make something brilliant.

•  It's taking me longer than I thougth to work my way through Peckinpah's filmography, maybe because I don't really want to watch films like Convoy and The Osterman Weekend, but I must in order to complete my post on him and his work, it should be ready sometime this week. 

• There seems to be an alarming number of SciFi films being released this year and over the next couple of years, I'm not much of a SciFi fan, so I can't say i'm looking forward to many future films, especially when one considers all the superhero films being released, for I'm also not a fan of the superhero genre at all. Still at least the lack of interesting releases gives me more time to catch up on the various classics and international films I have yet to see. I am looking forward to the Tintin film though, I've read all the comic books when I was younger, and I think Spielberg is the only one that could have directed the film adaptation suitably, so I'm glad he did, also the casting and the motion capture techniques he's used are most interesting, definitely my most anticipated film of the year.

• 
  

CS reviews A Screaming Man, an African film, that reminds me I need to see more African films.
Suspend Your Disbelief counts down the best Gary Oldman Good Guy Performances.
Banacek reviews The Lady In Black, a Giallo film, another genre I am unfamiliar with. But then again, I'm not much of a B-movie fan.
Andy reviews a bunch of films from last year, including 127 Hours, Best Worst Movie and more....
Limette strays from her usual area of expertise (Bollywood) and reviews Spike Lee's Inside Man, a film which I greatly enjoyed.
The Movie Snob reflects of the ridiculous MPAA rating system in the US.
Stevee reviews The Ghost Writer. Which is yet another film I haven't' seen.
Nick reviews Platoon at Random Ramblings of A Doorknob. This film is a masterpiece.
Brent reviews American Soldiers: A Day In Iraq, and it sounds absolutely atrocious.
Paul reviews the Spaghetti Western Django. 
Liam reviews the Exploitation film Caged Heat.
Nathanael reviews Pale Flower, a film I'll definitely be checking out.
S.M Rana takes a look at three of F.F. Coppola's masterpieces.

Woah, that's rather a lot of links, I think I'll leave it at that for this week.