peteg's blog 2008-08-03-Wanted.autumn

Trainspotting

Christmas came early to me. This movie remains as good as ever, closely observed and subtle with the sledgehammer. Watching it made me keenly aware of how long it has been since I've seen a truly excellent movie for the first time.

Gonzo: The life and work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

There's an interview with the director at Salon.

The X Files: I Want to Believe

Man on Wire

Quantum of Solace

In a massive cinema at Greater Union on George St, with Jen.

How to lose friends and alienate people

Casino Royale

All Quiet on the Western Front

Rule Number One

Heaven and Earth

McCabe and Mrs Miller

Leavened by some well-used Leonard Cohen songs, especially The Stranger, perhaps the pick of his pre-hoarse years.

Burn After Reading

At The Ritz.

State and Main

After Hours

Body of Lies

At the Verona with Jen.

The Color of Money

Pulp Fiction

The Bridge on the River Kwai

I remember Kyle going on about this many years ago...

I ♥ Huckabees

Thanks, Tim!

Ace in the Hole

Wall-E

At The Ritz with Jen.

Happy-Go-Lucky

A new Mike Leigh effort, something of a return to his late-80s / early-90s efforts without much bite.

The Sting

Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Lawrence of Arabia

Colonel Brighton: Look, sir, we can't just do nothing.
General Allenby: Why not? It's usually best.

Waltz with Bashir

At the Verona with Jen.

Married Life

Crank

Persepolis

Rear Window

Clubland

Tropic Thunder

At The Ritz with Jen.

Run Fatboy Run

Iron Man

The Bank Job

The Simpsons Movie

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

Worse than the original?

A Passage to India

If...

Wanted

At The Ritz with Jen. What a turkey. I'd prefer less blood, better editing and more action. Arnie is sorely missed in this genre.

The Trials of Henry Kissinger

Well made and quite depressing. You can watch it at Google Video and there's a somewhat pointless official website.

Vertical Ray of the Sun

I did not understand this movie.

The Dark Knight

At the 8:30pm session with Jen at The Ritz. I'm glad we didn't try the 9:30pm session, we would've fallen asleep.

Bomb Harvest

Great story of an Australian bloke doing his bit to reduce the unexploded ordnance in Laos. Pretty funny, and oh-so-familiar when the rice wine comes out.

Into the Wild

Even better than I expected. The lead actor was pretty amazing when he wasn't trying to be a younger Leonardo DiCaprio. Adroitly directed by Sean Penn.

21

On the plane from Singapore to Sydney on the lower deck of the A380. This possibly-interesting topic of taking the luck out of some forms of gambling is ruined by hum-drum angst and clunky plot twists. Watching Spacey pull out some worn-out maths novelties was tedious beyond belief. I only managed to watch half of Run Fatboy Run, a more promising proposition.

The Painted Veil

Land and Freedom

Another Ken Loach effort, quite similar to the later The Wind that Shakes the Barley, about a revolution gone sour. The inspiration is clearly George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.

By the way, it seems that the complete works of George Orwell are available at that website. Never be bored again.

Good Night, and Good Luck

Thank You for Smoking

Carlito's Way.

It's a Free World

Clearly Ken Loach saw Dirty Pretty Things and thought he could improve it. I don't think this movie needed to be made.

Riff Raff

A quite funny early-90s Ken Loach effort. Some of the actors reprise similar roles in Trainspotting (Swanny and Begbie in particular). Structurally it is similar to My Name is Joe by the same director.

The Hard Word

Happy Endings

Amazing stuff, the Dirty Three's Indian Love Song accompanies one of the early scenes, and — I think — Rude (And Then Some Slight Return) a bit later. Somewhat less agreeable on the second viewing.

Twelve Angry Men

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Garden of Buffaloes (aka Buffalo Boy)

Another Vietnamese classic on Darren's recommendation.

Cyclo

On Darren's recommendation. Umm, yeah.

A Quiet American

Yep, this was as bad as I remember. The book is much simplified upon and the plot twisted to suit this shallower medium; indeed, by making Phương fluent in English the French colonial overtones are largely relegated to the heavy-handed police inspector. This is one clunky adaptation.

Kes

Another Ken Loach classic, and once again one needs a keen ear for the accents of northern England.

Memento

I must have seen this at the cinema back in 2002 or so.

Hal Hartley: Surviving Desire.

2001

The Black Dahlia

Lust, Caution

I don't rate Ang Lee; Hulk was absolute rubbish, and perhaps Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was as good as I remember people saying it was, but I don't remember. I didn't see Brokeback Mountain.

This one is pretty good though, a Sergio Leone camera-work and spaghetti-time effort, at first blush similar to the contemporary Zwartboek. The lead actress is luminous and quite dextrous in her various roles. It was also great to see Joan Chen play such a major part.

Hal Hartley: The Book of Life

The Age of Innocence

Control

I guess this movie had to be be made, after 24 hour party people. David Bowie's Aladdin Sane makes a welcome appearance (and noise) in the opening scenes.

As you'd expect from Corbijn, the cinematography is beautiful, with many segments being moving photographs (where the camera has a fixed focus).

I quite enjoyed it after waiting more than six months to see it, though as a biography it felt a bit hollow.

Mulholland Drive

Not David Lynch's finest. I enjoyed the linear-plot bits, and there are some beautifully shot scenes... but as I recall from seeing it in the cinema so many years ago, it's not a patch on Blue Velvet.

The Secret Life of Words

Chinatown

Matrix Revolutions

The Matrix Reloaded

Withnail and I

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Offside

Once Upon A Time In America

The Boondock Saints

The Matrix

Royal Tenenbaums

Kyle used to go on about this movie. I sort-of get it now.

No Country for Old Men

At the surprisingly packed 9:10pm session at The Ritz. This struck me as what True Romance might have been like if it had been made by Sergio Leone.

There will be Blood

Born on the Fourth of July

That about wraps it up for Monkey Magic.

What a fantastic TV show it was. One can tell the cast and crew got bored towards the end of the series as they crank up the ananchronisms and general pointless mayhem. I can't believe I didn't get into Kung Fu movies after being brought up on this.

I have the vaguest memories of reading the book. From the defunct reading list:

Monkey - Wu Ch'êng-ên: Mostly read in inter- and cross-continental transit, July 2004.