Infernal affairs (2002)

"A story between a mole in the police department and an undercover cop. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop." (IMDB)

A bit of a surprise this one as it was a solid crime thriller which although being influenced by western films did succeed in keeping it's HK film identity. :)

The main reason I picked this up were Andy Lau and Anthony Wong who's acting I enjoyed but the whole cast are very good.

Remade as "The Departed".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxIVUnfwuHM

I found The Departed inferior.Infernal Affairs is superb:)

I'm thinking about taking a look at the whole trilogy one of these days... ;)

Part 2 and 3 are less good but still enjoyable

Ah,thanks for letting me know. :)

No priority anyway as there are plenty of more interesting older HK films to watch. ;)

I have that knocking around somewhere, haven't seen it yet. I'll see if I can find it after the footy.

Thanks for the reminder! I had totally forgotten about it.

Recent viewings:

http://memento.app1.srv.letterboxd.c...0-222-crop.jpg http://memento.app1.srv.letterboxd.c...0-222-crop.jpg http://memento.app1.srv.letterboxd.c...0-222-crop.jpg http://memento.app1.srv.letterboxd.c...0-222-crop.jpg http://elephant.app1.srv.letterboxd....0-222-crop.jpg http://psycho.app1.srv.letterboxd.co...0-222-crop.jpg http://elephant.app1.srv.letterboxd....0-222-crop.jpg http://elephant.app1.srv.letterboxd....0-222-crop.jpg http://memento.app1.srv.letterboxd.c...0-222-crop.jpg http://psycho.app1.srv.letterboxd.co...0-222-crop.jpg http://memento.app1.srv.letterboxd.c...0-222-crop.jpg http://memento.app1.srv.letterboxd.c...0-222-crop.jpg

Have you seen the bonus films with HPH yet, Bizzare?
Both Incident and Fragment are acctualy rather fun.

I'd love to know your thoughts on Beatrice Cenci,Byleth and Zinda Laash (The Living Corpse). ;)

Not yet!

They're both on my radar, though.

Hope you enjoyed The Killers and Arsenic and Old Lace Bizarre_eye.

Two must have's for the collection in my opinion.

I'd seen Beatrice Cenci for the first time a few years ago and couldn't remember much about it, so thought I'd give it another go. For Fulci, it's actually very tame and plays out like an oppressive period drama tinged with tragedy. It's an okay watch (mainly for Thomas Milian, and the very pretty Adrienne Larussa), but not one I'd recommend very highly.

Byleth is another I hadn't seen for a while, and again one I remembered little about. In fact, there were a number of crossed wires in my grey matter concerning this and Beatrice Cenci; which is why I most likely decided to watch them back to back (well, that and both hardboxes sit next to each other on my shelf ;)). Whilst both use the period setting and gothic atmosphere, Byleth is a lot more erotically charged than Beatrice is. The film is also quite dreamy in places, which adds to the interesting atmosphere. I slightly preferred Byleth over Beatrice, but whilst neither were in any way 'bad', I wouldn't recommend either very highly.

The Living Corpse (AKA: Dracula in Pakistan) started off well. The black and white cinematography is excellent (I watched the Mondo Macabro DVD, which aside form a few judders due to print damage makes for an impressively crisp transfer) and the suspense is built very nicely. However, as you approach the 30 minute mark, the inevitable happens. The fact that you are watching a Bollywood style (not true Bollywood, as this film was made in Pakistan and not India) take on Dracula becomes all the more apparent and the singing and dancing breaks out. I'm not oblivious to Bollywood film stylings, and how dance and music is an integral part of their cultural heritage in regards to film making, but it completely de-railed what up until then had been a genuinely interesting and suspenseful little film; Bollywood has its fans, but I am just not one of them. This 'nonsense' then plays out for most of the middle portion of the film, and I was almost ready to right the damn thing off, as you jump from one bemusingly random dance number after another, but I persevered and the film thankfully fell back into the boundaries of (near) sanity at the end.

Overall a very interesting experience, and one I'd certainly recommend. There will be many who will be able to stomach the music and dance routines much better than I (and I don't mean to come across as close-minded or insulting in this micro-review), but for me these perpetrated the 6/10 score I'd give this film over the 8/10 score I had in my mind before that sitar started furiously strumming ;)

Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic, and one I never tire of. I'd never seen The Killers, and was a tiny bit underwhelmed to be honest after hearing a lot of great things about it. Still a solid film, and Lancaster is on top form: 7/10.

I love Winter Light. I must watch it (yet) again soon.

I actually prefer the Don Siegel/Lee Marvin version of The Killers. Ruthless film and too strong for TV at the time. I had the Criterion set and I'm really hoping it gets a BD upgrade but I think AWE have now released that version on it's own.

I think with the classic noir films it is true they don't always grab you, however the more viewings you give them the more the subtle nuances come out and make you appreciate the films.

Perhaps. It just seemed a bit 'all-over-the-place' for me, plus didn't engage me as much as other noir films have done. Films like Double Indemnity, The Killing, Scarlet Street, and The Secret Beyond the Door all managed to grab me from the initial viewing.

That's fair enough.

Not every film from a genre will appeal to everyone. :)

Arachnid - 2001 Spain d: Jack Sholder

The first Fantastic Factory film to let me down. Usually I'll enjoy any old toss if it has killer critters in it, and this does have a few moments, but it's pretty much a disaster. The script is critically under-developed and the characters lazy, tedious cyphers. Some of the shot set-ups are just rubbish and the whole thing falls short of even the most mediocre SyFy channel monster features. Alex Reid was quite foxy in her youth though.

Very disappointed indeed.

Yellowbrickroad - 2010 US d:Jesse Holland, Andy Mitton

A thoroughly hateful film. A bloated, amateurish, Sixth Form film project of an effort that should never have got past the morning after it was no doubt concocted by stoned people egging each other on, thinking they were creating great art. A pretentious, angering mess. This is what happens when film students watch David Lynch then don't bother to develop their tiny fraction of a half decent idea before traipsing out into the world and filming it.

Dreadful.

Didn't think it was that bad. Deeply flawed perhaps and very uneven, (as one previous poster noted it certainly tails off a bit in the second half) but to give it an out of 10 rating (which I normally hate doing) 5/10.

I watched the Dark star blu-ray last night. The carpenter cut, which is around 20 minutes shorter is a much better experience, I always liked the film but I did think it had a tendency to drag a little. The feature length making of is very good as well, though some of the interviews seem to be conducted over the phone!

And?? did you like/hate/care less about them??

;)

Something about it just jarred with me. The dull look, the lifelessness and humourlessness of it, the dreary am-dram acting, that all the characters were knobhead douchebags I couldn't give a damn about...technically it was mostly adequate, I wouldn't say it was badly made, I just hated it. It was a similar empty "Emperor's New Clothes" thing to The Blair Witch Project for me.

I was furious at it after it finished! :lol:

Ha haha. Mates have RAVED about this one. I must remember to quote you the next time i see them. This is the same couple who wouldn't watch The Host after i'd given them Bunman to look at;):pound::laugh: silly bunts!!

I recently watched my DVD of La Setta. I know many seem to like this movie but i found it quite boring. I waited, i waited and i waited but nothing really happened and the story was too slow to get my fully attention.
But because of the increased tempo at the last 15 minutes or so i manage to see the whole thing without falling asleep or start to watch some porn instead like every man does when he's bored ;)

I downloaded (yes im not gonna say 'rented') that yellowbrickroad movie again last night cause I saw it in this thread. Well I didn't know I had already seen it until I watched a bit. I thought this movie was really whack, to be honest, and so I went on to watch "Atrocious" (Atroz), a spanish 'found footage' bla bla... Though very unoriginal (as expected), I thought it was quite amusing. Just about 70 mins so not too long either. :dance:

I think that's one film that could definitely do with the Shameless/Arrow treatment.
Not the greatest PQ on the Italian DVD tbh.

Jaws - 1975 Us d: Steven Spielberg

To see this on the cinema screen was an honour. A genuine modern masterpiece and Spielberg's greatest achievement by some considerable amount.

From it's early, Hitchcock-like scenes of suspense, through the Altman-esque overlapping dialogue to the plain brilliant B film style final act out at sea this is an amalgamation of most of the best aspects of Hollywood story-telling. Plus it's a monster film.

Some occasional, understandable focus issues with the Panavision rigs out at sea on tiny boats, this is a glorious piece approaching flawlessness.

You MUST catch this at the cinema. You simply must.

I must say I share your opinions on these. :nod:
Btw you should really check out Drakula Istanbul'da which is a much much better Dracula film (I do realize that The Living Corpse is not really a Dracula film btw )
It's available fansubbed on youtube (don't forget to click the cc button for the subs).

I'm going to go and see it tomorrow. Can't wait.:dance:

I'll have to check it out - is it completely devoid of singing and dancing though, b?! :fear: ;)

I like singing and dancing. Especially dancing. Maybe I should check out the one that perturbed you, BE?

There is a short dance routine in there I seem to remember but it's functional. ;)

Btw I wish someone would restore this film properly. :pray:

"The 1953 Turkish film Dracula in Istanbul was the first to link historical Vlad with fictional Dracula: it was also the first since 1922's Nosferatu to show the Count with fangs."

"Drakula İstanbul'da (Dracula in Istanbul) is a Turkish 1953 film version of Bram Stoker's original novel Dracula.

The screenplay was based on a 1928 novel by Ali Riza Seyfi called Kazıklı Voyvoda ( "Impaler Voivode"), and is more or less a translation of Stoker's novel, but there is no Renfield character and Güzin, the "Mina" character, is a showgirl given to performing in revealing outfits. Drakula/Dracula is played by balding Atif Kaptan. Both the novel and the film make an explicit connection with the historical Vlad the Impaler, the Prince and three-time Voivode of Wallachia."

"This was only the third film version of the novel"

It was my reaction to watching The Living Corpse (AKA Dracula in Pakistan) - see a couple of pages back. As I said in my short review, it is a film I would recommend as it is genuinely interesting, but for me, the Bollywood style dance routines completely de-railed the story and spoilt what could have been a very nice little film! ;)

Yeah, so, I think I need to buy this. :lol:

Functional dancing... Is there such a thing?! ;)

I've had a quick look on Youtube and it does look interesting. Completely agree with you on the restoration issue; the quality is pretty shocking.

However, it's still watchable and has English subs, so that's all I need to be able to watch it! Tonight's viewing is now sorted ;)

"Annie Ball (Güzin) gives three impressive dance sequences that call to mind the American musicals of Betty Grable or Vera Ellen. Her flimsy attire hiding no secrets as she enthusiastically throws herself into her routines." :)

But they are functional and not too long...and they add some spice.

Btw I always wondered who Annie Ball was and why she appeared in many Turkish films?
Did they import her for the more risky stuff?

I've never heard of her either, but according to IMDB she's starred in a total of 9 films from 1953 - 1966:

Annie Ball - IMDb

Not so special for people outside of Germany perhaps, as we have a pretty late start of the film in September, but I am so flashed by the film, I post it here that I was fortunate to get the film at our weekly sneak preview yesterday - oh, what film? The excellent The Cabin in the Woods. I really think that this is a milestone in the genre, it combines good references and quotes to many well- or less-known films of the genre, fair acting, a well-working story with good twists and an welcome ending (no spoilers from me ;)). I can hardly await rthe BD release of this, I hope it will be treated well, becauswe there is so much that shouts out for bonus material throughout the film...

No less than 10/10 for me!