Weekly Collection of Random Film Thoughts

• Are there any directors who have never made a bad film, who have constantly kept the same consistent quality or even constantly increased the quality of their films? I can't think of any, but if one counts young directors, I would have to propose Edgar Wright who has directed three films all of which are excellent, and Boon Jong Ho who has also directed three film which are also all excellent. Now I know they are young and have many, many years of film making ahead of them but I still think those two can be relied upon to produce great films and regular intervals for many years to come. At least I hope so, for if not them then who else?

• You may have noticed the banner I've added to the top right hand side of my blog, it informs of an upcoming LAMB Spike Lee blogathon and I've decided to participate, I'm currently working on my review for one of his films. I am also workign on another review destined for a another blogathon, the Movie of The Month also organised by the LAMB, the movie is Black Dynamite, which I will be rewatching and reviewing, it's a hilarious film!

• Also coming up is the delayed  look at some Chris Marker's work, a Sam Peckinpah post in which I will review all his films and more....

•  I  heard that Stallone will not be writing or directing The Expendables 2, this is great news because I really hated the first one and most of the problems stemmed from the poor writing and terrible directing, I thin the sequel will be way better especially if Bruce Willis has a bigger role and JCVD is featured, I kind of hope JCVD plays some sort of European villain.

• Speaking of JCVD, Jean Claude Van Damme for those who don't know, I would highly recommend the film of the same name, it features his best performance and is very entertaining.

• I just happened to be thinking about Adaptation the other day and listened to the opening monologue, it is excellent so well written and perfectly delivered by Nic Cage, I know some monologues get a lot of attention such as Quint's in Jaws, but this is one that deserves more praise, in fact the whole film deserves more praise, it's one of the best of the last decade. I really must review it someday!

• Another film I must review is Scorsese's underrated Bringing Out The Dead, also starring Nic Cage in another terrific performance, in fact maybe I should do a series of reviews showing how great an actor Nic Cage can be...Now that's an interesting thought.

• I was also considering initiating some kind of Blogathon dealing with Samurai films, it won't be any time soon because of the Director's Chair and Movie of the Month events that are taking place now, but I'll start to prepare it and I'll let you know when I'll start, if any of you might be interested in participating in something of the sort, let me know...

• I was wondering if any of you download films from torrents? I would have thought more people would but I was surprised to notice that many of you still buy, rent or watch at the Cinema. I personally download pretty much everything I see,  for nowhere near me has such a complete collection of films than there are online. So does anyone else download?

I've decided to include a selection of links from the past week that I particularly enjoyed reading, I will do this every week from now on. Of course they are all film-related.

Jason Soto at Invasion Of The B-Movies takes a look at The Hills Have Eyes and compares it with the remake, which one is better?
Fletch at Blog Cabins lists an entertaining selection of aspects that annoyed him in Nic Cages latest film, Drive Angry.
The Great White Dope continues his list of The Worst Movie Posters Ever and it's hilarious!
The Movie Snob reviews Terry Gilliams film The Fisher King.
Take a look at this fascinating and insightful interview of Oliver Stone, which deals mainly with his film Alexander, it makes me want to see the film again, posted at the most excellent blog Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule.
Bonjour Tristesse continues with the daily reviews of International and arthouse films, Twilight Samurai is a film I must get around to watching!
Stevee Taylor reviews The Messanger, another film I've been meaning to watch.
Andy lists the worst films he saw last year as well as the films he's looking forward to this year at Ramblings of A Minnesota Geek.
Nathanael reviews the classic Scarecrow, and makes me want to watch it as soon as possible.

That's pretty much all for this week.