damages, season 3 (glenn kessler)

i wasn't very impressed, to be honest. i liked the first two seasons when i watched them, but this all felt rather repetitive, more of the same... and i couldn't care less for any of the characters. i found the flash-forwards 'trick' that worked really well in the first seasons quite simply tedious. still, good(ish) quality tv, the script is ok, it's only 13 episodes and it's all well done. but they should stop here, though.

Rating: 6/10

indiana jones and the last crusade (steven spielberg)

not as bad as i remembered. not at all. it's actually rather enjoyable, isn't it? i mean, it's nothing like the first one, or even the second one, but still... great fun! i'm not a big fan of the light entertainment that the father/son dynamics provide, or even for the appearance of young indy, but the action is great fun and everyting with nazis and the holy grail is really exciting. so yes, thumbs up again for indy!

Rating: 8/10

the hidden fortress (akira kurosawa)

even though i was a bit put off by the over the top expresionistic acting (especially the princess') i really enjoyed this film. it's full of adventures, thrills, humour and fun. i love how it tells the story through the perspective of two 'minor' characters, who are both catalists for most of the misfortunes and provide the comedic overtone. apparently lucas found inspiration in here for his 'star wars episode iv: a new hope', and if you can really see it how, especially in the two 'droids' wandering in the desert and the use of the frame wipes. on top of that, you have of course the typical epic japanese theme of honour (or its absence). all in all, much more fun than you would expect.

Rating: 8.5/10

kiss of the spider woman (héctor babenco)

i liked it when i first saw this in my early teens and i liked it again as an adult. both performances are outstanding (no wonder hurt got an oscar for this, but julia is equally amazing). i love how both characters evolve, in a kind of sancho and quijote way, where at the end of the story they've influenced each other so much that they are no longer the same person. i would have liked molina to tell more films (in the book there are five, i think whereas in the film they focus on a long one and the short story with the spider woman), but porobably it's because i really like 'cat people' and i felt disappointed it never made it into the film version. maybe there were some problems getting the rights for it... or they just wanted to focus on the nazi-propaganda story to have some parallelism with valentín's political activism. Anyway, all in all, a fantastic story.

Rating: 8.5/10

raiders of the lost ark (steven spielberg)

i felt so happy when i found out they were showing this last friday. the perfect night in! i enjoyed every single moment once again. i admit a huge percentage of my opinion is based on nostalgia, but i bet everybody is with me in thinking this is an amazing film. it's fun, it's full of adventure... and it has one of the sexiest protagonists in film history (i still can't decide if i prefer the cheeky adventurer or the shy lecturer... do i really have to choose?). this and the star wars trilogy are definitely the films that define my childhood. and i know i'm not alone!

Rating: 10/10

das experiment (oliver hirschbiegel)

i found the first hour really tedious, to be honest; i wasn't very impressed by the acting, the direction or even the script itself. really cheesy modern flim noirish, especially the love story, which, by the way, is totally pointless. it doesn't add anything to the main story. the character of the girl (apart from being annoying) is only there to provide a love interst, as if we couldn't enjoy a film where the protagonist didn't have a love interest. even her role in the grand finale is redundant, any of the inmates could have done it. nonetheless, if you manage to endure that first hour, at some point half-way through the film everything starts to go belly up and (finally) they manage to grab your atention. everything after the pissing on the head is interesting. i know they had to provide a setting and a background first in order for the story to develop, but it just took them too long. don't get me wrong, the actual sociological experiment is incredibly interesting, but i just don't think the film is very well executed.

Rating: 6/10

mc5 - a true testimonial (david c. thomas)

my opinion is 100% biased, so stop reading if you have problems with that. i love the mc5 and i really enjoy watching music documentaries, so this is the perfect combination for me. obviously, i couldn't care less about seeing wayne kramer or rob tyner as old men, but i loved hearing them tell the stories of their good old days with the band and john sinclair and the white panther party. if to this you add amazing footage of them onstage (including fred sonic smith's spaceman suit), the joy is complete. a must for any music lover.

Rating: 9/10

waltz with bashir (ari folman)

even though i've never been a big fan of war movies (with the exception of kubrick's 'paths of glory'), i have to admit that this documentary really worked for me. the visual side is really beautiful, all the different animation techiniques work really work together and they fit the narration perfectly. and then, of course, there's the story, a man's 'journey' (i hate that word) of self-descovery trying to find out what his mind is blocking. really powerful. and the last scene creates a rush of emotion that runs through the viewer's body, everything becomes even more real.

Rating: 8/10

the holy girl (lucrecia martel)

lucrecia martel is fast becoming my favourite filmmaker of the 21st century. i love all her three feature films. i'm going to try and find her shorts now. even though i still prefer 'the headless woman' and definitely 'the swamp', i felt absolutely mesmerised by the pace, the tranquility, the filmography, the sense of dramatisation that this film oozes. on top of that, all the actors are top notch, especially carlos belloso, his character is so believable. and the end! the end is probably my favourite part. you spend the whole film very slowly  building up this tension, this feeling of unease, sensing something bad is going to happen... and when it does, the film finishes right before the grand finale. it takes a lot of guts to do that, and a genius to do it so elegantly and make it work. just brilliant.

Rating: 9/10

opera (dario argento)

i remember hearing about this film when it was first released. it looked amazing. i loved the imagery, i even had a small poster on my wall when i was a kid. but somehow i never watched it until now, not sure why. i guess at the time i was too young to be allowed in the cinema to see a film like this, then i never came accross the vhs... and then i suppose i kind of forgot about it. i'm glad i've seen it as an adult, because i think i've enjoyed it more than i'd have had in my early teens. i love the photography aspects more than the gruesomeness, simply brilliant. it has some beautiful scenes too, very lyrical, very argento. and all the sets of the actual opera are incredible, i particularlly like the one with the stairs and the big window behind them. and the crows!! everything with the crows is amazing!!  nonetheless i found some bits of script rather poor, but let's just forget about them, shall we? an enjoyable film, all in all.

Rating: 7.5

paris is burning (jennie livingston)

i couldn't help thinking of ms honey sweetcheekz when watching this. the combination of fashion, attitude and music is just awesome. they all looked amazing! i love the balls they celebrated, and the outfits.... nyc in the 80s must have been incredible. those kids surely know how to throw a party. i didn't know voguing started being a kind of duel on the dancefloor, a real duel where people set their differences... dancing! how cool is that? still, i simple have no time for bitchy queens (all the 'shading' bit and stuff). it doesn't matter how fantastic you look, the minute you start bitching like that you loose all the cool points, i'm afraid. but, all in all, such an enjoyable document of an era.

Rating: 7/10

psychoville (reece shearsmith and steve pemberton)

i liked it even better on the second viewing. the humour is just so spot-on. 'i done a bad murder' and 'fuck pig' are two phrases that will make tv history. all the characters are just brilliant. obviously, i have my favourites (the serial killer mother and son combo), but all have their strengths. i particularly like the hitchcock homage, but most of the episodes are really high standard. i have to admit i felt a bit disappointed by the open ending, i'd have prefered a more solid grand finale, but hey, i guess they just wanted to leave doors open for a possible second season. pity they didn't include the hallowe'en special in the dvd extras, though.

Rating: 8.5/10

afterlife, season 2 (stephen volk)

what a disappointment, to be honest. still enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but nothing like the first season. maybe my expectations were too high. the main theme was annoying (everything with alison's mom haunting her) and the individual stories are not that interesting at all. moreover, you spend half the time shouting "fuck off, robeeeeert!", whenever he opens his mouth. still, the series really picks up at the end and the two last episodes are really good, back to season 1's standards. the series also has two of the most annoying female secondary characters in film history, you just want to slap both jude and barbara. so yes, now that i think of it, it inspired some kind of aggresiveness in me. maybe it's a ghost haunting me, with an unresolved issue. yes. and the issue is "watch better programs on tv!"

Rating: 5/10



the devil's paintbrush (jake arnott)

entertaining and easy to read, it makes a good holiday book, but it's not incredibly well written. even though it features aleister crowley, the occult, victorian britain and homosexual relationships in the army, the story failed to grab me. i felt kind of detached from it all. but maybe it was because i was feeling rather ill when i was reading it. nonetheless, i can't blame only my illness, as i felt more or less the same when i read 'the long firm'. so maybe there's something in arnott that just doesn't work for me... oh, and no, the devil's paintbrush is not satan's cock. damn.

Rating: 5/10

summer wars (mamoru hosoda)

how cool is that rabbit avatar? especially in the first scenes, without the blond hair? he looks amazing!! everything in the film does look amazing, to be honest, i love all the cute avatars in that virtual world. however, my favourite bit of the story is the non-virtual realm, the family reunion to celebrate the matriarch's birthday. the family politics and tensions and the wee love story with the teenagers complements the more sci-fi part of the plot very well. it's also great that everybody chips in to fight the baddie; even though the boy is the obvious protagonist in the real world, most of the combats are managed by other more secondary characters. basically, hugely entertaining. and it looks awesome.

Rating: 8/10

legion (scott charles stewart)

the word 'bad' doesn't even begin to describe this. it's awful. i only wanted to watch it because it's paul bettany as an angel covered in tattoos. and in the first scene he cuts his own black wings and sews his wounds in front of a mirror. all smeared in blood. i mean, wet dream. but after that first scene, that lasts, like, 2 mins max, the rest of the film is pish. really horrible. boring, wanky, risible, doesn't make sense... i don't even want to dedicate to it more time than it deserves. oh, i forgot, the scene with the demon grannie is funny, but i don't know if it was intended that way.

Rating: 1/10

cain's book (alexander trocchi)

even though i've never cared much for beat writers or junkie stories, and would have never chosen to read this if it hadn't been for my bookgroup, i really got into it at the beginning. i quite liked the style it's written in, and the characters... but then i got bored. it was just meeting person after person, dipping briefly into their lives and then forgetting about them. which is ok, but i wanted more of a story connecting all the characters. but i liked the whole atmosphere, and how junkies weren't glamourised or victimised at all, it was all very matter-of-fact: for them getting a fix was like going to the cornershop to get some eggs. and the book as a whole is way better than most bukowski, keruac and the like.

Rating: 6/10

jeeves and wooster - the complete series (clive exton)

what ho! well, this dvd boxset has certainly provided some delightful entertainment in my household. we´ve savioured every bit of it. thank you so much, mr christopher, for letting it us borrow it. what can i say? it's so funny. i love both fry and laurie, they are so well cast, but also all the secondary characters (tuppy, aunt delia,  fink-nottle,. aunt agatha, spode... i love them all!). and the use of the language is so rich (i know we probably have to thank mr p.g. wodehouse for that, but it's such a joy to hear). there are episodes in the first two series that are definitely some of my favourite moments in all tv history. they should have stopped after season 3, though, as the last series is really not up to the standard. oh, and, i warn you all: jeeves has become my ultimate fashion icon, he´s just awesome. i also want to speak like him, but i guess that will take me quite some time... oh well. toodle-oo, guys, i'm going to practice my newt dance.

Rating: season 1: 10/10
           season 2: 10/10
           season 3: 8/10
           season 4: 6/10

Average rating: 8.5/10

taxi zum klo (frank ripploh)

again germany, again gay story... i'm getting repetitive, i know. at least it's not the 1930s? anyway, this didn't really work for me. i agree it might have been really shocking when it was realised back in '81, but i guess nowadays we've been exposed to too much. i have to find something more than the shocking factor in a movie in order to like it, i'm afraid. i'd liked it more if they had explored their relationship instead of staying in the surface. nonetheless, the film is autobiographical, so maybe it just stayed superficial, who knows; maybe he just did things he felt like doing without really caring about his partner and quarrelled afterwards instead of talking things through. he was just a dick. but i liked the trashy humorous scenes, like the one at the doctor's waiting room, very john waters or early almodóvar...

Rating: 5/10

nanny mcphee and the big bang (susanna white)

i never thought i'd say this, but... i loved it!! it has the right feeling, the right atmosphere, the right humour... basically, if you liked films like mary poppins, you'll like this. it's so much fun. i'm dying to see the first one now! and not even that annoying maggie gyllenhaal managed to spoil it. i want a scratch-o-matic. and a black crow called mr edelweiss who likes eating putty from windows. my only criticism (apart from that gyllenhaal woman) is that they go a bit over the top with the cgi, especially in the final scene with the harvest, but, hey, i guess they couldn't help it, it's probably there for the kids. i'll watch this again, i have no doubts about that.

Ratiing: 9/10

the cave of forgotten dreams (werner herzog)

really interesting, the notion of it all leaves you in awe, how these images were produced more than 30,000 years ago, the skill they show, the range of movement, the variety of fauna... simply amazing. and, as mr shanks said, they don't seem to be first drafts, they probably were rehearsed before, done several times before they decided to paint them on the rock... and the techniques were most likely passed on from generation to generation. still, i found i was feeling more mesmerised by the facts than by the actual images. good thing is, though, herzog doesn't talk as much as in 'encounters...', i always find him a bit annoying after a while. so that's a plus. and the music is incredible, probably my favourite part of the film! but, still, totally recommendable, just go and see it, you won't regret it.

Rating: 7/10

galaxy quest (dean parisot)

does this qualify as a spoof? i guess it does. but it's done with so much respect and love for the genre that i think it should actually be called a tribute. it's so much fun... but it's also exciting! it works in many levels, not only as a 'parody' but as an adventure movie in itself, the plot is actually rather good. the fact that it's full of good actors obviously helps, too. oh, and sam rockwell should always sport that sexy moustache. thank you simon for almost 'forcing' me to watch this.

Rating: 10/10

skeletons (nick whitfield)

i really liked the idea: some sort of exorcist that literally frees you of the skeletons in your closet. and i also like the atmosphere, half comedy, half creepy eerie story, as well as the relationship between the two main characters, who seem to work well together and kind of care for each other without really knowing much of the person they work with. i found the rest, especially the big final case, a bit predictable, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the film as a whole. not amazing, but well worth a watch.

Rating: 7/10

sweetgrass (castaing-taylor)

A film about shepherds and their sheep, and their last journey through some american mountains in search of some green pasture during the summer. with almost no dialogue; only the constant baa-baaing of the animals. you would think you'd be bored after minute 5. quite the contrary. i felt completely mesmerised by this unsentimental epic trip. i love how not everything is nice here. for example, they portray the cuteness of the first steps of lambs together with the crudeness (and stupidity) of tail-docking. without any judgement; the images speak for themselves. still, i'd have liked the two final explanatory paragraphs to be at the beginning and not at the end of the movie, in order to have a better idea of what you are watching. but, as i said, i found it totally hypnotic, i loved it.

Rating: 8/10

christopher and his kind (geoffrey sax)

i enjoyed this, but not sure if for the right reasons. it ticks loads of boxes for me: 1930s europe, nazis, hot gay sex and literature. and i like the story itself... and matt smith's almost absence of eyebrows. so yes, i enjoyed it, but i found it all too glamourised, everybody and everything was too pretty and clean for me, to be honest, but i guess that's the only way of showing it on bbc1 on a saturday evening.

Rating: 7/10