Movies for 2011 - Part 1

[dalekboy]

While I'm still coughing, and flat out looking after two children and not doing much of anything else, a lot of things improved in the last days of 2010, including my movie watching. So here's the list of flicks watched to date. Eighteen so far, so rather pleased with that.


1st January
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

2nd January
The Island at the Top of the World

3rd January
Aliens Directors Cut

4th January
Edge of Darkness

5th January
Porco Rosso

6th January
Vertigo

7th January
Star Trek - The Motion Picture

8th January
The Triplets of Belleville
The War Wagon

9th January
M

10th January
Spy Kids

11th January
Pandorum

12th January
El Mariachi

13th January
The Magnificent Seven

14th January
The Three Caballeros
The Scars of Dracula

15th January
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Sorcerer



It was nice to finally see The Island at the Top of the World after all these years. I remember the ads for it in comics when I was a kid, and I've always wanted to see it. Not a great film, but it has some nice touches - notably Vikings who speak a Norse sounding language (with no subtitles), and plenty of helmets, none of which have horns.

Edge of Darkness was good, but not as good as the original, partially because it seemed as if Gibson had completely forgotten how to act. Porco Rosso was even better than I remembered. Vertigo was good, but Jimmy Stewart's character becomes disconcertingly creepy towards the end. Star Trek - The Motion Picture is a better film than its reputation suggests - when it originally came out they wanted the visuals to be real Big Screen lift you out of your seat wonder - unfortunately while the visuals still hold up rather well, I can see that the film's pace hurts it.

The Triplets of Belleville was a delight once again, and I was annoyed that it didn't get the Oscar for Best Song because it obviously lost out to the Academy playing catch-ups and giving it to the boring one in LoTR - Return of the King instead.

The War Wagon was fun, and John Wayne wears a pink shirt for most of the film, so that's going into the Lex Colour Defense Arsenal - "John Wayne wore pink, dammit!"

It was fabulous to watch M again at last. Slow build, but very much worth it for the last 20 minutes. Bugger me but Peter Lorre could act!

Sorcerer was another film I had waited a long, long time to see and knew nothing about. If you can get through the first hour, and get past some of the glaring inconsistencies, it becomes quite a nice tense film based on the book The Wages of Fear. As for why it's called Sorcerer, well, William Friedkin is a pretentious wanker sometimes.

Comments

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

One of the trucks is called Sorcerer, but if you blink you'll miss that. Apparently he called the film Sorcerer because of the 'evil wizard of fate.'

I think it would be a better film with that first chunk trimmed. It's very uneven. Some characters get all of a minute, while others get ten. Knowing nothing about the film, it made the first half hour feel really unfocused.