I agree with you that the POW camp and the prisoners' ordeal was (from what I know) realistic but I just thought the film - i.e camera work, acting, dialogues, sfx, character development, etc - was not well done. Much prefer 'Merry XMas Mr Lawrence' as a POW film (second only to Missing in Action. just kidding) even if it is not too realistic.

Yeah, I did try and get a life once but gave that up

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

Tim Burton fantasy-adventure. A fun watch but doubt I'll ever re-watch this one.

Cosmopolis (2012)

Not sure how I feel about this David Cronenberg film -- will need to re-watch someday. Was tired when I began watching but the dialog, novel setting for much of the film (luxury stretch limo in which a young multi-billionaire is making his way across a congested Manhattan) and my growing desire to see where the film was going kept me alert & engaged. When the screen turned black at the end my reaction was "WTF did I just watch???" With an overall 5.0/10, imdb raters appear to be equally divided between this one being either a cinematic masterpiece or a pretentious piece of crap.

Headhunters (2011)

Norwegian crime-drama that imo would have benefited from better editing. A heist goes wrong for an executive recruiter who supports his opulent lifestyle and statuesque trophy wife by stealing valuable artwork.

The Silent World (1956)

Pioneering Jacques Cousteau/Louis Malle nature film that won the 1956 Palm d'Or and the 1957 Oscar for Best Documentary. Recreational diving would likely have been in its infancy then so audiences must have been wowed during the film's theatrical run.

Some exceptional underwater footage but I was also fascinated by the dive gear. Divers used a 3-tank configuration with a twin-hose regulator mounted on the frame, with only narrow shoulder and waist straps to secure the apparatus. Buoyancy compensating vests had not yet been invented so one sees the divers continually finning to control depth. No gauges other than wrist-worn depth gauges -- one diver mentioned he only realized his buddy was experiencing oxygen narcosis at 200 feet when his buddy's regulator whistled signalling less than 5 minutes of air remaining. That left insufficient time for decompression before surfacing and the diver had to be placed in a (very!) rudimentary decompression chamber carried aboard the Calyso.

I like Cronenberg, but your are correct, this movie is a "pretentious piece of crap"....He has his good ones and he also has his bad ones...

Loved this movie. It's great.

Festival Express - It was okay. Not nearly as good as other concert films I've seen and own...

The Handmaiden - Didn't' like this one. I like his other movies, just not this one...

Wasn't Cousteau a co-inventor (or co-developper) of some diving equipment (Aqualung or something) still used nowadays? Also one of his sons or grand sons just released a film of the marine depths that had a short theter run here, Did you get it in your part of the world?

The Year my Parents Went on Vacation (2006)

Sad Brazilian film (that was nominated in the Oscars that year) about the 1970 year where the nice military 'junta' that was in power started rounding up communists and such scum to have some of them 'disappear' mysteriously (and yet Brazil just reelected a right wing ex-military) We follow a young 12-13 year old boy whose left-wing parents left him in a rush at the door of his grandfather's appartment building and went 'on vacation' (for his safety we presume). But a few hours earlier the old man had died so the boy is taken under the wing of the old jew living next door while everyone tries and find what happened to the boys parents without telling him about the political repression and dangers.
Nice coming of age film with historical charged undertow. Reminescent of "Cinema Paradiso" but with less cheese and more humour and fun.

The Mirror (1975)

Very poetic and (too) complicated Tarkovsky film. Beautiful images but I didn't undertsand much. I usually love his slow-cerebral films but this was beyond my scope.

IP Man 2 (2010)

Started out rather nicely but halfway through turned into a silly Rocky-4 East vs West (with west - British rule - being the baddies) match. First one was worth a watch but this was rather sad (apart from a few good fight scenes)

Le nom des gens (2010) «The Names of Love»

Really fresh and nice french comedy about a young free-spirited woman who has decided to sleep with right-wing men in order to convert them. Her theory being that at the moment prior to orgasm they are more receptive to her left-wing ideas and will eventually come to see the light. Won a prize at Cannes for its original script I think.
I can't believe it is rated R in the USA. Mainly because there is an hilarious scene where the girl is getting out of the shower and due to a series of phone calls and rapid serious events causing her distraction she goes out of her appartment totally naked and walks on the street and in the metro before realizing she has nothing on. It is avery innocent 'full frontal' clip with no sexual context and that makes it a R? You have horror films and action films with people being getting blown up or dismembered on screen that get PG13! You guys should get your prioritiies right! Shouldn't peoples' on screen violent deaths be more troubling to the average person than a nude woman in a natural humorous context?

I liked it. There are haters of what I would call the later Cronenberg psychological dramas (Spider/A Dangerous Method/Cosmopolis/Maps to the Stars).

I'd always put off watching it since I don,t like Pattinson as an actor, but now witheveryone here talking about it - for or against - I will definitely check it out next time I come across it. That's why I like threads like these...

Blood & Bones (2004)

Fairly good japanese film taken from autobiographical book looking at the history of a family of Corean immigrants in the 1920s up to the 1960s. Kitano plays mean wife-beating, cheating, violent Korean man and we see the story told from the pov of his son. It was nice to learn a bit about the historical and social situation of some immigrants in Japan, even if it's just a glance at one particular family and neighbourhood.

Coeurs (2006)

Later day film by Alain Resnais (one of his last I believe before he passed away a few years ago). Nothing spectacular but watchable stories of and about love. I like the fact that ++SPOILERS++ it all ends up badly for all the protsgonists. Very depressing endings to all the stories but it worked well.

L'atelier de mon père (2008)

After the death of her fairly well-known local artist Edmund Alleyn, his filmaker of a daughter goes to his secret den/studio and tries and get a portrait of the man he was. Not too sirupy nor too insightful. Watchable but felt more like a cathartic personal piece for her than a great art documentary for us.

Sherlock Season 4 (2017)

The weakest of all seasons so far. All the scripts were too complex, full of twists after twists after twists with counter twists and always an improbable yet spectacular resolution, The writing felt forced ("now, how can we be super-clever and lose the audience for effect") and the many surprises too improbable.

After the Last Round (2009)

Superb documentary about the aftermaths of boxing. What happens to retired boxers and how many suffer from complications (to downright dementia or paralysis) and what sort of life they get once the spotlights are off. Very sad at times but well documented, looking at the for and against camps when it comes to boxing. Very enlighting and full of food for thought.

Don't remember much about this one. Just that it launched Lambert's career which in itself was a big mistake

I loved A Dangerous Method and Map to the Stars​​​​​​​...for what it's worth...

It had a cast loaded with stars but bombed.

Maybe if they did not go overboard with the comedy it might have worked but then what do you expect with Seth Rogan as the lead.


2011 Cameron Diaz












Saw it again maybe thinking I did not appreciate it the first time but still a average movie.