Lawrence of Arabia

What I can say about this that hasn't been said already?

Oh well - great cinematography, at times Shakespearean, at times Biblical, good choice of scenery, epic battles.

Only things I didn't like so much is that O'Toole plays him rather dandy-ish, but he's reputedly a homosexual, and the bombastic score, even if that's common to movies those times.

Mine is the 216 mins version, 70mm fitted to TV (disappointed it's not letterboxed) with Spectral Recording (no idea what that is).

Two thumbs up!

Saw the rest of the films on my "The Whole World Anti Terrorism War Movie" DVD comp that I bought about a few years ago.

World Trade Center

This is a bit disappointing. Was expecting a movie detailing what it was actually like in the chaos during 9/11. Instead, it's about bonding between two police officers downed in the rubble and what their immediate families went through. Which would have worked on a personal level were it not for the fact that Nicholas fucking Cage plays one of the police officers. Prone to histrionics and over-emoting, I swore that when he started screaming, I'd thought he was gonna shout "Arrrggghh! The Beams! Oh No, Not the Beams!". As a whole, it doesn't really work and it feels like too much mawkish sentimentality. The only bit of heroism comes in the end in the form of rescue workers. It might have been better had the religious card been played more - shots of Jesus and the Marine who found the policemen as a sort of calling. But oh well, as Rammstein once sang - "We're all living in America".

Children of Men

This one feels a bit forced to me. All the shots of the pregnant girl in a world of infertility is supposed to provoke awe and wonder with the bombastic stringy music but I refused to be moved. What I do like about it is the interplay between Clive Owen and Michael Caine in the beginning. Also, the long one-take shot of Owen running through a battlefield is nice, with the blood-spattered camera lens. And any movie with a King Crimson song can't be all bad. Plus the cover of "Ruby Tuesday" only shows what a great song it is. Otherwise, a pretty futile exercise even if Cuaron did direct my favourite film in the Harry Potter franchise.

Most Wanted

Total pile of crap. Another "patsy trying to clear his name in a conspiracy" movie. This is also another Keenan Ivory Wayans vehicle but there are no jokes and he plays it po-faced throughout. The best bit is the recreation of Beatlemania as there is a huge reward on Wayans and a whole crowd of people wanna claim that reward. Otherwise, the sniper scope looks like a 3-year old's drawing and Jon Voight and Robert Culp are basically hamming it up for what it's worth. Zero point five out of ten.

Kurtlar Vadisi Irak (Valley of the Wolves - Iraq)

Based on the popular "Kurtlar Vadisi" TV series in Turkey, this one is a slamming of American foreign policy in the Iraq war and recreates some of the controversies during "The War Against Terror" - the hooding of Turkish soldiers for interrogation, the organ transplant trade scandal, the massacre of a truck-load of prisoners and the wedding party massacre. Unbelievably weighted towards three Turkish secret agents who are near-superheroes, I still quite enjoyed this somewhat, even if it is Anti-American, Anti-Christian and Anti-Semitic, as alleged. The suicide bombing scene is brutal and gritty. It doesn't hold back on the war is hell angle, although I doubt the Americans in Iraq are as villainous as this movie claims.

Batman : Gotham Knight

Another one of those projects where they ask Jap animators to do a compendium of stories based on a popular American character or movie.

Unlike "Animatrix" which was heavily stylised, the animation here is pretty sub-standard and I don't like the heavily shaded artwork much. There's also too much disparity in the art for all seven stories, and Batman looks totally different in each episode and Bruce Wayne even looks Jap in one segment.

There are recurring characters in all the episodes and the main plot interweaves, though the story in each segment is stand-alone.

I generally don't like the "dark" tone at all, there's no humour whatsoever. Why can't they at least balance it with some light-hearted fun? The villains are also second stringers - Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Deadshot. No Joker, Two-Face or Catwoman....

Crap. I should've bought that "Brave and The Bold" movie, which had the campier Batman.

DVDs:-

Black Dynamite

Got this mostly on B.D.'s post where he extracted some of the script. Well, I'm no expert on blaxploitation, having only seen "The Return of Superfly" but this one is a much better parody than stuff like "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" which wasn't that much funny. I loved Michael Jai White's perennial stoned deadpan expression. I loved the way the "crackers" are acting as if it was the 50s. I love the cosmic axioms the pimps and hustlers spout. And I especially love "don't interrupt my kung-fu". I, however, don't dig the ending with that Tricky Dick turkey. It's just too silly and overblown. And it is also a bit short. However, I have seen the deleted scenes and all of them didn't work, so it is a blessing that it was so short. Cool beans!

Der Untergang (Downfall)

Got this on Herm's recommendation. Only realised it was the source of many a youtube hilarity after having read its English title. It's kinda alright but not really THAT good. Bruno Ganz's portrayal of Hitler is pretty one-dimensional as he reacts to the Russian invasion - "oh, I'm delusional", "oh, I'm gonna throw a hissy fit", "oh, I've got nowhere to turn" and "let's kill some traitors". It all bloody revolves around these four responses for an hour that I felt relieved when Hitler dies. Otherwise, pretty accurate I guess as it's all from the horse's mouth - Fraudl Junge was his personal secretary during the last few bunker months.

Survival of the Dead

Watched this some time ago but waited until I had more DVDs so's I can lump them all in. This is pretty bad. It links to Diary as a group of opportunist mercenary soldiers featured in one scene there gets the entire movie to themselves here. The problem is, the story is pretty limp - Romero's pontificating about war when he doesn't really understand its dynamics and O'Flynn and Muldoon's feud just ain't that interesting. The gore also is either comical or retreads from past films. There's also too much CGI. The absolute nadir of the Dead series.

Merry X'Mas Mr. Lawrence (REWATCH)

Watched this last time as a barely teenager. Didn't get the sexual repression angle then. As a whole, though, I found this one to be more homo-erotic than overt gay stuff like "Sebastiane" which just bores me with horse-hung dicks and tanned buttocks. On the negative side, Bowie just has too much of an air of self-importance to carry out his role well. Fun seeing him in a public school uniform, though. Ryuichi Sakamoto's eyeliner is distracting. Tom Conti is very good, though, whatever happened to him? And Takeshi "Beat" Kitano is just credited as "Takeshi". He doesn't look a day older now then he was then, though.

CD:-

The Essential Judas Priest

My cassette player's wonky so I got another Priest compilation. It doesn't exactly duplicate my cassette comp ("Metal Works 73-93") but there are some overlaps. Problem is, the comp doesn't really keep up with the high standards of the opening track "Judas Rising" (from "Angel of Retribution"). The last six tracks of disc 1 is a blitzkrieg, though, with the anthemic "United", the oversexed "Turbo Lover" (though Halford is probably singing about turboing some guy's rectum) and the deliciously cacophonic "Painkiller", amongst others. Disc 2 has the exciting "Exciter" and the brilliant non-generic power ballad "Before the Dawn". Still, there are also rote metal crud like "Hot Rockin'". Doesn't deter my love for the Priest, though.