True Grit (remake)

What do I like about this is the bleak atmosphere. I went in expecting lots of the usual bizarre Coen Brothers comedy but there's just not enough of it. Jeff Bridges I suppose played Cogburn closer to the US Marshall character the book's character was based on, but he's not a damn bit likeable, unlike the lovable warhouse in the John Wayne original version. The only redeeming bit is the final act of valiance near the end, but I still don't like him. The girl playing Mattie Ross is a bit too sweet and fey fo the role and displays none of the spunk of Pamela Brady in the 1969 version. I suppose I shouldn't compare, and I know I shouldn't have watched the Wayne version before this

Good points - this is about the only Matt Damon role I like - sinister paedophiliac undertones (watching Mattie as she sleeps, the glee in the spanking scene), ambivalence about the quarry, the love-hate with Cogburn, the Southern stoicism. LaBouef comes across now as a pretty complex character, unlike Glen Campbell's portrayal who was a one-dimensional fodder for the Duke to bounce off. Love the bearskin doctor but there's only a few minutes of him. It's still very authentic to Frontiersland, like out of a Cormac McCarthy novel. I only wished the Coens made it more their own film, instead of being mostly literal to the book. 7.5/10.

Let Me In - okay, curiousity got the better of me and I checked this one out for a lark. Hammer Films, huh? Now that's a name I haven't heard in ages. It's structured more like a traditional horror film, with a detective and the caretaker looking more like a bogeyman. Also emphasises the vampire's feral sides whereas the original is ambivalent whether she really is a vampire or just suffers from porphyria. And thx for making the boy androgynous and a pervert and a thief and a coward. Now I CAN really emphatise with him. The girl's more of a girl. The bullies are more menacing although the lead bully looks like a young Brian Wilson.

The sequencing of events is changed and there is further elaboration of the plot. I don't like the colour scheme - colourful and saturated whereas the original was heavily contrasted greys. The music also tries too hard to evoke an atmosphere of horror whereas the original's just dangles ambiently. Recommended if you haven't seen the original but not really if you have. Makes me more depressed than the original, though. File under "B" for "Bloody unnecessary remakes". 6/10

Let The Right One In - After all the hype, I decided to check it out myself. And yeah, it deserves the hype it got. Atmospheric and creepy, and quite possibly the most realistic interpretation of vampires as seen through a kid's eyes as it could get. And no, I'm not checking out the American remake, Let Me In. I found the mutilated organ flash scene creepily erotic. As subtle as it gets. My only problem? Its dialogue is dubbed in English and my copy doesn't have the original Swedish voices. This generation's Vampyr or Martin, easily. 8/10

The Bird with the Crystal Plummage - Dario Argento's first outing as an auteur in this giallo (whodunnit slasher). The cinematography's excellent, the plot has more than a few nods to Hitchcock, the editing top-notch, and the suspense? Hitchcockian, I would say, dear old chap. The titular character plays a very small, if decisive role, in the movie, and I thought the killer would be some sort of character in an Opera who dresses like the title. Argento would never scale these heights again, and it's great what some semblance of restraint can do for him. As with the above, no Italian dialogue. Boo hoo! 7.5/10