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Ben said:
Slayed said:
And I still maintain Helena Bonham-Carter can't sing.

Ahhhh, but she doesn't HAVE to! It's not an operatic, beautiful role. It's a lot more about emotion and performance that role in terms of voice. Which Helena has coming out of her ears. If she had been cast in Phantom, yeah, that wouldn't work. But, in Sweeney, I think having someone that misses notes actually WORKS. I mean, just look at the people that play her on stage, wonderful actresses with great voices (well, minus Pattie LuPone who is crap), but, even they "sabotage" their voices, for want of a better term.

But, I do love her to pieces <3

Still crap though ;)

Batman Returns - I had forgotten how AWESOME this film is! It's Burton through and through, with some amazing performances and a real ability to keep you watching. I think it's probably my second favourite Batman film that has been made (so, better than Begins, but Dark Knight still wins). 9/10

Michelle Pfieffer in that movie is HOT, like I mean WOW, *droools*
Never mind the rest of the film!
 
Just watched Blood Diamond on DVD.

I thought it was really good. Shocking at how stupid the whole situation is, kinda angers me. It was directed really well and some of the shots are beautiful.

Rating: 4/5
 
Sky've been having a Coen Bros spazzout recently, so I thought I'd catch up with them.

Fargo

Love this. Love how it unfolds. Love the dry comedy, the acting. Steve Buscemi is great, and Frances McDormand plays the best heroine I've seen in ages. The accents are utterly hilarious. I shouldn't laugh at Canadians but :lol:

8/10

No Country For Old Men

This completely blew me away. I thought The Mist was impressive for having very little music and was fairly tense throughout. This had me on the edge of my seat for at least half the movie. Loved how it unfolded. The cinematography was simply magnetic, I wouldn't've stopped watching even if I'd (for some bizzare reason) wanted to.

It was a bit like The Prestige every time Javier Bardem was on or just off screen. You watched with a morbid curiosity as to what he'd do next. I want to know how he kept his hair like that. And that silencer was huge.

Tommy Lee Jones was as good as ever. He was a nice way of explaining certain plot points, but didn't seem of much use otherwise.

9/10

The Big Lebowski

I loved how this kept spiralling into madness. Started off obscure but fun to watch, descended into brilliance and insanity. Jeff Bridges was superb as the passive hero, just going with the flow. Steve Buscemi! He did nothing, but ! nonetheless.

8.5/10

Raising Arizona

Really funny at points. Probably the most traditional of them I watched. Had a clear moral story, definite ending. None of the principal actors died. Felt like it was for a less mature audience, though I could see their madness blooming occasionally. Music was amusing and fitted brilliantly. Nick Cage was actually really quite good in this role, worked out well. No Steve Buscemi though, missed not seeing him :p

7/10

You know, I think I rather like the Coen Brothers. Rather a lot. Yes.
 
^^^Agree with you on Blood Diamond, solid film.

^^LOL!

^Well since you even managed to enjoy Burn After Reading, I'd say that's a yes :p.

The repetitive randomness of their films is starting to get to me now though.

Ben said:
Ahhhh, but she doesn't HAVE to!
The clue's in the word "musical". If she wasn't married to the director, it would never have happened (she's still a great actress though, Fight Club <3).
 
^Every time I've seen you've posted in here I come expecting to read your review on how much you love Rec.

Sit down and watch it now! :p
 
^Well, no, because it was Sondheim she had to impress. Sure, Burton may have been a foot in the door, but if she hadn't impressed Sondheim (notorious about film adaptations of his work), she wouldn't have been allowed to do it.

But, just because she's in a musical, doesn't mean she has to be perfect. The music is only one aspect of it, and hitting every note doesn't matter when you've got the character nailed like she did. I'd have rather had her missing a few notes here and there than someone perfect at the singing who is lifeless in the role ;)

Plus, she was a better singer than Depp.
 
Slayed said:
Ben said:
Ahhhh, but she doesn't HAVE to!
The clue's in the word "musical". If she wasn't married to the director, it would never have happened (she's still a great actress though, Fight Club <3).

No Mark, no! She has character songs, if they were sung beautifully, it wouldn't work!
 
Ahhhh, but she doesn't HAVE to! It's not an operatic, beautiful role. It's a lot more about emotion and performance that role in terms of voice. Which Helena has coming out of her ears. If she had been cast in Phantom, yeah, that wouldn't work. But, in Sweeney, I think having someone that misses notes actually WORKS. I mean, just look at the people that play her on stage, wonderful actresses with great voices (well, minus Pattie LuPone who is crap), but, even they "sabotage" their voices, for want of a better term.

TOTALLY agree with you there, Bennyt Wenny.

It annoys me when people in musicals always have perfect, elegant voices, reaching and nailing every single note they're asked to hit. Which like you said, works in things like in Phantom, but we're all not great singers, and in Sweeney they were meant to be regular people living a normal life, so why should they have fantastic voices anyways? I'm sure all of us here don't..
 
Uncle Arly said:
No Mark, no! She has character songs, if they were sung beautifully, it wouldn't work!
I've never said she had to sing perfectly - but being able to sing AT ALL would have helped!

Ben said:
Plus, she was a better singer than Depp.
Good grief, you're tone deaf then.

LiveForTheLaunch said:
so why should they have fantastic voices anyways?
Because they're starring in musicals? Because if they expect me to pay to see them perform they shouldn't make my ears bleed?
 
Slayed said:
Good grief, you're tone deaf then.

Well... no, I'm not. I don't need to post my musical curriculum vitae, but, I'm certainly not tone deaf. She just has a voice which suits the character perfectly. She acts it perfectly. I mean, if someone as anal as Sondheim approved... It isn't Phantom. She's not supposed to be perfect. She's supposed to be Mrs Lovett. And that, she aces.

Anyway, I watched Sunset Boulevard this evening. I'd seen the musical before, which sticks close, but, this was still brilliant. It's not a film many people here will have seen (it's OLD! it's black and white! there's no explosionz!), which is a shame, because it's brilliant. It's all dialogue and mood, and it's great. 9/10.
 
Said it was good didn't I Ben? :)

Well, watched Madagascar 2 last night. I thought the original was poor to middling (the penguins being the only highlight). Number 2 milked the cash cow as expected. The kids like it, they have no taste. 2/5
 
Lol at Mrclam's post.


Watched Eragon on DVD last night.

Blimey, I can see why critics slated it. I don't know what it is but it just feels flat even though it has all the right ingredients for that type of film. When a character dies its hard to sympathise with the other characters as it just fails. The battle sequence at the end was good though and the last clip made it obvious what would happen in the sequel (Eragon did terrible at the box office, sequel no more :p). It's a shame they had John Malkovich and hardly used him.

Rating: 1/5 (for the battle scene)
 
Well, watched Madagascar 2 last night. I thought the original was poor to middling (the penguins being the only highlight). Number 2 milked the cash cow as expected. The kids like it, they have no taste. 2/5

OMG I love Madagacar, as well as the second one! I thought they were both awesome movies, and were both hilarious.

King Julian <3
 
Just watched The usual suspects on DVD.

It was ok, gets better as it goes on. It takes too long to get going I think. The twist at the end was quite good but because it has been copied so many times it doesn't quite have the effect that it probably did on original release.

Rating: 3/5
 
^That is a bad, bad film. So over-rated.

I just watched Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. I don't know if anyone else has seen this, but I hope to God some of you have seen the TV series...

I just finished the TV series after this hot guy leant me the DVDs (region one, since it's unavailable here, so even though I would recommend it until I'm blue in the face, you can't actually see the second series very easily!), and this is a "prequel" film. I'm also being educated in Lynch, so, it was a nice kill-two-birds-with-one-stone sort of moment.

Anyway, it's quite good if you like the show. If you haven't seen it, you'd be like "uh... what the hell?" and it would ruin too much of the mystery of the show for you. This is the problem I had with it. It showed too much. It's supposed to be a mystery, that's how Lynch wanted it, but, alas, Americans are dumb and wanted all the answers. It's still good in a bizarre, surreal way only Lynch seems to be able to make work, but, as an overall film and addition to the TV show, it falls short.

It's also missing Lucy and Andy :( Who are ace.

7/10
 
I saw Usual Suspects one night, 11:00 p.m. showing at the Odeon in Hanley. First week of opening.

I knew nothing about it, but it was the only film with seats available.

So we watched it and it was mind blowing. The film was totally unlike anything that had been around (well, mainstream that we'd seen) before. The story, the captivating characters, the plot, the direction then the twist.

It really was something incredible - at the time.

I watched it a few months ago. As much as I remember how fantastic it was, it was such a shame to see it again. It's lost everything that made it good because it has been superseded time and time and time again (mostly by Fincher :lol: ).

So it's certainly over rated now, but for those people who saw it on release, and haven't seen it again - they're going to rate it very highly until they do get around to that second viewing.
 
Watched the comedy classic Airplane! on DVD.

It's brilliant, every comical line is so perfectly timed and after like my 50th time of watching it I'm still noticing little comical hints here and there.

Rating: 5/5
 
Ben said:
Plus, she was a better singer than Depp.
Slayed said:
Good grief, you're tone deaf then.
Ben said:
Well... no, I'm not.
Lol, my girlfriend agrees with you Ben, and I can't call her tone deaf because she's a qualified music teacher :lol:. Dammit!

I finally caught up with Knowing. It's a good story with an interesting angle which gets completely derailed by an unnecessary additional plot element.

Shame, since it's a well put together film, with good attention to character and some really visceral action sequences. The acting's mostly alright (if a little ropey at times), but that extra plot just leads to clichéland. 6.5/10
 
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