The Screening Room (original) (raw)

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The Screening Room

lokicarbis	"Moon" is, in many ways, an ambitious failure. This is not to say that it's not a good film. The problem is that it's two halves of two good films, instead of one great film.( Spoiler-rich environment withinCollapse )(Leave a comment)

35mmhalide	I'm thinking about seeing Twilight in two weeks when it comes out on the 21st. If you saw my previous LJ post, it plays into my "interests". :-)There definitely seems to be a lot of atmospheric cinematography that I always appreciate.Current Location: Westwood, CaliforniaCurrent Mood: excitedCurrent Music: Harvester of Sorrow (Leave a comment)

juzbunny

Rampantly silly, this homage to violence, adrenaline and sex seems cheesy in the afterglow. Angelina Jolie is exquisite as usual, but a little wasted for a parsity of plot. (I start to want to label movies the way we do the diving at the Olympics - double twist, pike) Violent, somewhat sexy, but a little too up itself. The Stephen Segal (in his day) of comic book movies.( Plot? You want plot?Collapse )This is a good beer and popcorn movie. Can't wait for Burn After Reading and In Bruges. Just the thought of these babies makes me happy.Current Location: homeCurrent Mood: happy (Leave a comment)

mordwen

Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) is a classic high school loser in New York who sells dope to supplement his income and help his struggling parents out. It's summer break between high school and college, it's the early 90s, and the soundtrack is classic 90s rap. Luke is seeing a psychiatrist, Dr Squires (played brilliantly by Ben Kingsley) and -- surprise -- selling him dope too. Squires is in a loveless marriage. His wife Kristin (Famke Janssen, looking hotter as she gets older, and playing cold and bitter very well) and step-daughter Union (played with surprising alacrity by Mary Kate Olsen) at first seem peripheral but when Luke falls in love with Union while Squires falls out of love with Kristin, a strange bond forms between the two men, culminating in a terrific and emotional scene set against the gorgeous backdrop of Fire Island.A strong film, with good performances, but one that didn't leave a lasting impression so much as a sense of nostalgia for a time past. 3 and a half stars.Tags: alternative, music (Leave a comment)

mordwen

Visually stunning, the town of Bruges in Belgium is an unlikely star for a hit-gone-wrong tale, but that's exactly why this film works so well. Our two anti-heroes are hitmen -- one from the UK, one from Ireland -- who have been sent to Bruges by their handler after a hit goes terribly wrong. Ray, played by Colin Farrell, thinks the place is a shithole. Ken, played by Brendan Gleeson, is quite charmed by the medieval sights.Ray soon finds ways to entertain himself, hooking up with a woman he meets on a movie set who is not all she appears to be. The star of the film is a dwarf named Jimmy (played by Jordan Prentice... we spent a little bit of the film wondering why Peter Dinklage suddenly looked so much younger; easy answer: it wasn't him). None of the characters in the film have a moral high ground to speak of and in fact, much of the humour comes from absolutely outrageous lines that you can't quite believe you just heard uttered. I won't spoil the best, but Ken's "Two manky whores and a racist dwarf? That's it, I'm going home!" is a classic example.In the end, the film has drama, timing, pathos and a twisted idea of honour and principle. Its exploration of what 'honour' and 'principle' mean in an upside-down world may in fact be its crowning achievement; it slides this awareness under the radar while you're laughing at the terrible, politically incorrect things these characters are saying to each other and wondering how they manage to have some sort of code at the same time.The ending certainly doesn't leave you with a smile. It's a tough, gritty end, a sort of rough justice in which no one comes out unscathed.Brilliant piece of film-making. See it. 5 stars.Tags: crime, drama (Leave a comment)

» Be Kind Rewind - MosBlack Surprised Me!
Be Kind Rewind is a sweet, funny, cockle-warming movie sure to make you smile long after you’ve left the theater. **( MosBlackCollapse )**Feb. 22nd, 2008 @ 11:35 am(Leave a comment)