End Of The Week Post

Films Watched this Week:

Road To Perdition - 2002 directed by Sam Mendes
7/10
A well made but forgettable film. Tom Hanks was rather miscast in the lead role as a ruthless hitman, but then again I've never really been a fan of his work.
While I'm on the subject of performances, Daniel Craig was pretty bad, very unconvincing with a terrible accent. Paul Newman was of course excellent, but the big surprise for me was Jude Law, I've never liked his work before, but here he was perfectly cast and did a great job as the extremely creepy and rather pathetic killer.
I thought it was well directed, and the story was interesting enough, but it just failed to make much of an impression on me. It failed to draw me in and left me detached and only semi-interested throughout, yet I appreciate the skill with which it was made.



Blueberry AKA Renegade - 2004 directed by Jan Kounen

5/10
I wasn't expecting much from this, even if Cassel is one of my favourites, and Kounen did an alright job with Dobermann, in fact there were many reasons for me to like this film, I am a fan of the comics upon which it is very loosely based, Ernest Borgnine is in it, as is Michael Madsen. But it ended up being an overlong mess.
Some interesting ideas were evident throughout but this really isn't a good film at all. It's plot makes little sense, Cassel's performance is probably the worst I've seen of his work to date and the film as a whole is just pretty tedious.
Sure there are some cool landscapes shots, mixed in with stylish camera work (sometimes too stylish) and some creative CGI. Also, Juliette Lewis is her usual awful self, I have yet to be impressed by a performance of hers and thought she was particularly bad in Cape Fear.
Anyway, not a good film, but has elements here and there that prevent it from being a really bad film.


The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1975 directed by Jim Sharman
9/10
Possibly the best definition of a Cult Classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a film I knew I would have to see some day, but I wasn't really looking forward to it.
But now that I have finally seen it, I'm glad I did. I actually think it is a very good film as far as entertainment goes. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed watching it. Tim Curry gave a wonderful performance, the rest of the cast were great as well, the references to all those B-movie, Horror films and Scifi's were great and the musical numbers were crazy.
But when I read around a bit about this film (IMDb mostly) I was surprised to read that many people thought it was complete garbage, I don't think it's anywhere near being a great film, but I can't see how you couldn't enjoy it. It's frankly quite hilarious and a great parody. 


A few thoughts:

• While listening to the latest LAMBcast, I was surprised to hear that my blog had been nominated for Best New Lamb. So thank you everyone who voted for my blog!

• The Silent Marathon is almost over, just one last film to go, it's been very interesting and has had it's ups (Faust, Jeanne D'Arc) and downs (The Last Laugh, Arsenal). I still look forward to ending it though and getting back to some more varied posts, I've got loads of ideas that have been gathering up for weeks now!

• I'm taking part in a couple of blogathons which might be of interest to you, there is Michael Parent's Most Influential Directors event which is easy to do and open to anyone.
• And there is also Nathanael Hood's Roger Corman Blogathon, open to anyone, but only one review per film of Corman is accepted, so if you're interested hurry on over to his blog and claim your film!

• The Cannes Film Festival is coming to a close, it's been an interesting festival, and a few films have got me interested, such as The Artist, which I had never heard of before it was screened and very well received at the festival. But to be honest, I think the Palm D'Or will go to Malick this year.

• I am also rather excited about the news of a new Jim Jarmusch film being made, a vampire film with a pretty cool cast. I know Jarmusch isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm a fan of his work and am interested in seeing how he handles a vampire film.

• As for the other current releases and upcoming films, well none of them interest me much, maybe I've spent to long in Silent film land but most of the upcoming films look pretty boring. The Dark Knight Rises fails to excite me as I was indifferent towards the first two films, same goes for Harry Potter and others. However there is a notable exception, Tintin. I'm a fan of the comics and the film has gt the best possible creative team behind it so I'm really excited for it. Plus the teaser was great, just how I imagined it would be.

Time for a few links:

Dylan from Blog Cabins and Kai from The List, have recently announced the launch of their new site Man, I Love Films.

A very recent blog has attracted my attention not long ago, Feminising Film.
The first review is a most interesting post on The Killer Inside Me.

The Film Connoisseur has an interesting post full of great concept art, check it out!

Andy Buckle continues his exploration of the Films Of David Cronenberg.

Custard reviews Fido, a film I've never heard of before but sounds very enjoyable. As well as presenting his latest FRC Icon, Alan Rickman!

M. Hustfader review Priest, in a very amusing fashion.

Stevee reviews the remake Let Me In. A remake that surprisingly surpasses the original in my opinion.

Jesse reviews Howls Moving Castle, a film I've been meaning to see.

James reviews the Invisible Man - 1933.

Discuss Predator -1987 over at the Paracinematic Cinephile blog,

Andy takes a look at the Pirates of The Caribbean films in anticipation for the latest addition to the series.


And finally, in a very unexpected turn of events, Dylan from Blog Cabins and Kai from The List have unveiled their new site Man, I Love Films.