What I've been watching

The Departed (2006) is the latest film from the masterful Martin Scorsese. Of course it's a wonderful piece of cinema, what else would you expect from him?. It is probably his best film for quite some time (that's not discounting his most recent films I'm just saying how much I loved this). The cast are all great but extra word should go out to "mad" Jack Nicholson as the crime boss Frank Costello and Mark Wahlberg (with films like this and I Heart Huckabees) he's more than made up for Planet of the Apes). Highly recommended. Rent (2006) is a limp musical based on the original Broadway production. I don't know something just didn't click for me- the music was bad it sounded like musak-, the performances where pretty good though in places such as Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel. I'd never seen the original production so maybe I'm missing something. Give it a miss P.S. any film that features BOTH Rosario Dawson and Sarah Silverman and I'm saying give it a miss, they must be something wrong. Dead and Breakfast (2004) surprised not that it was anything special, in that it surprised me that it was a lot better then I thought it would be. There's enough blood to satisfy the blood lust crowds and actually as some funny little moments. The cast features David Carradine, Erik Palladino (formerly Dr. Dave on ER), Bianca Lawson (formerly Kendra on Buffy. I also remember her from Saved by the Bell: The New Class), Jeremy Sisto (Spoiler: He seems to die in every horror film I see him), Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) and Oz Perkins (son of Anthony 'Psycho' Perkins). Not groundbreaking or life changing but recommended.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977) is "classic" grindhouse horror - not a piece of art but a piece of enjoyable cinema- Wes Craven as directed some good and some duds in his career and this thankfully falls in the good category, if anybody as seen the remake and not seen this- it pretty much follows the same pattern, including the dogs called Beauty and the Beast and the order of the family's demise. Watch it for Michael Berryman. Watch it for a funny 70s moustache. Watch it to be on edge. Recommended.

THE TV SHELF

What I'm watching at the moment in rotation to each other:

Ali G in the da USA (I believe titled Da Ali G Show in America)

French and Saunders at the Movies

The Addams Family Volume One

Party of Five Season One

My So Called Life: Complete Series

How I Met Your Mother Season One

Bask in the loveliness of...

Rosario Dawson

Film Now

Had a pretty quiet day, not doing much next couple of days either, handed in the final cut of a short film on poverty and money issues I was making for work and deserve a couple of days off at least.

Finished watching ER Season Six today, in which I've spread out watching over the past week, it's probably the last truly exceptional season of the series (even though many of the later seasons are well good), I call it an exceptional season because of many a thing such as Alan Alda's guest arc, Corday and the serial killer, Two of the Goonies appearing, the two parter Be Still My Heart and All in the Family which involve the staff having to treat two of their own, Carter's drug problem, Mark Greene and his dad, the farewells of...SPOILER ALERT Jeannie and Hathaway- which includes a cameo from George Clooney and much, much more, love this series, going to be staring on ER Season Seven ASAP.

Some of the film's I've watched the last week or so include But I'm a Cheerleader, starring Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall, which sees Lyonne as a cheerleader whose family and friends believe she is a lesbian and send her to a rehab camp for homosexuals, the film which could have been so much i.e a biting satire but just feels flat for some reason despite good performances by them both aswell as RuPaul and Melanie Lynskey. Clerks II is very funny in most places if sometimes not feeling like a proper sequel to the original, the original characters are still funny and there is welcome support from among others Trevor Fehrman and Rosario Dawson, recommended. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny is another film funny in places, as not a particular fan of the Tenacious D "sound" I probably viewed this film differently to a lot of people (I do like the presence of Jack Black and Kyle Gass) and some of the musical numbers feel like I've already seen them in School of Rock for some reason, full marks for Tim Robbins cameo. Slither is a loving b-movie tribute starring Nathan Fillion (of Firefly fame) and Elizabeth Banks (the sex freak in 40 Year Old Virgin) which takes a little bit to get going but is super fun once it does, suprisingly dark in places. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion stars Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow as two former high school losers going to their high school reunion (as the title does suggest!) is midly to averagely funny and the two leads are very likeable at times, not life changing but a good way to spend 90 minutes. Today I watched Brewster's Millions, the 1985 version starring Richard Pryor and John Candy, a film I watched fairly regularly as a kid, Pryor as to spend $30million in 30 days to inherit $300million from his kook of an uncle, likeable film thanks to the lead performers, I think it's a tad underappreciated. That's all thart comes to mind.

Current TV Shows in Rotation: M*A*S*H Season Ten, Amazing Stories Season One, ER Season Seven, Charmed Season One.

Planned Watching?: Streets of Fire (1984), War of the Worlds (2005), Stir Crazy, Throw Mama From the Train, The Way of the Gun, Batman Returns, Everyone Says I Love You, Time Bandits and The Elephant Man

Sin City: Extended and Recut

Take this for what it's worth: this was my favourite film so far of 2005, granted I haven't had chance to see that money (there wasn't much disposable income for 2005 because of saving for Holiday) but the film in my opinion absolutely brilliant- arguably the most loyal the original comic book adaptation since Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik in the 60s, every stunning frame of Sin City comes straight from the comics by Frank Miller (who co-directs with Robert Rodriguez).

The film concentrates on three of the stories "That Yellow Bastard", "The Big Fat Kill" and "The Hard Goodbye" (renamed from Sin City), all three stories are terrific and amazingly shot mainly using blue screen (cars and buildings where added on later) and features some brilliant performances- recommended are Devon Aoki, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson and best of all in an amazing comeback turn: Mickey Rourke- the once faded 80s star not only takes the film from everybody else who builds a new career on it. Also look for Quentin Tarantino doing a spot of guest directing and more then one top action sequence.

There are people out there who didn't like this film (my brother for one), I found this bewildering- this film was one of the fresh, most innovative films to come around for a few years. This set comes with graphic novel copy of the Hard Goodbye and the extended version is in four stories (There is a bookend for the movie) which you can watch as self contained little movies (R1 only/R2 expected)

*****