It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
@MajorDSmythe, I just watched the movie. Thank you, as usual, sir, for the excellent suggestion. ;-) After The Yakuza, now this film! Didn't know what I was going to see so a lot came as a total surprise. It almost feels like a version of J&H that Hammer could have done in the final years of its 70s horror phase. ;-) It's not a "great" artistic achievement, but an enjoyable film in a twisted way, like you promised.
And before that, I saw
CYPHER
(Vincenzo Natali - 2002)
From the man who brought us the original Cube came Cypher, another science fiction paranoia film which tends to provide more questions than answers. Starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu, Cypher tells the story of a company man who gets selected by his superiors to perform corporate espionage. Very soon, however, he discovers that not a single story he's told is without lies and not a single person he encounters is completely reliable.
If you like superclean worlds hiding a more mysterious side, Cypher is the film you've been waiting for. Like the more suspenseful parts of The Game, Dark City and Cube, Cypher makes you gradually more distrustful towards the people our main character meets. The look of the film is particularly helpful in setting the right mood because the world looks incredibly pristine and sterile. Almost everything is grey or black or perfect white. Virtually every shape is symmetrical, cut out with mathematical precision. Not until the third act, when the truth is slowly revealed, do we see warm colours, timber and less geometrically precise curves. As such, the stylistic choices of this film are part of my love for it. I simply love the way it looks.
Cypher was never a big hit. Apart from Natali not being the biggest name out there despite Cube's underground successes, Cypher was also the type of film sent to festivals instead of to theatres. Through Cube and my interest in its creator I learned about Cypher and decided to watch it. Not expecting too much from a film of so little fame, I was quite pleased but I also understand that my taste for these cold, aseptic science fiction mystery thrillers is one I share with a minority of people. Furthermore, some folks may be disappointed with the climactic reveal of the film, but I think the fun is in what comes before. Lastly, Northam and Liu are very serviceable.
I'm not sure this is a movie I can recommend since it really depends on your taste whether or not you will enjoy this. All I can say is that I have a good time with Cypher, time and again.
True, it's never going to win best horror film awards. But strictly in terms of showing us Hyde's evil nature, I think it is one of the best adaptions. Other versions might be better made films, but when it came to Hyde, they either didn't have the guts to push Hyde this far, or they couldn't have gotten away with it in the time the film was made in. Could you imagine filmakers of those early adaptions trying to film the rooftop scene from Edge Of Sanity? The film would be banned, the prints would be burned, and all involved would be locked up in prison.
The Youth (2014). Very different from all the other fIlms in this marathon, because this time the film is cut in 4 distinct parts/segments, each with new actors/characters and unconnected plot to the other segments. But with a common theme: how young people deal with violence in today's world.
All the actors make a stellar job, the 4 stories are very interesting. I don't know what it is about asian cinema, but even young actors deliver stunning performances in these films. My personal favorite segments would be a tie with the 2nd and 3rd, but the 1st is still marvellous, and the 4th very good too. In conclusion: another splendid crime film from South Korea.
I'll post the next reviews tonight for the pleasure of @Creasy47, @DarthDimi and other afficionados of asian cinema!
I'm currently re-watching my favourite Charlie Chan movies. In no particular order.
They look so great remastered and all.
I then continued with the sequel, 'Another Public Enemy' (2005) Another fine film, but slightly disappointing if you compare with the original. Most of the humour and face-slapping is gone. This time, the main characters (played by the same actors) are all prosecutors. So it is sort of a loose sequel. But, the film is still quite watchable on its own.
Brilliant heist movie 8/10
This is the film that made me trust John Logan. Sorry that didn t work out as expected.
And I am happy as can be that we will get a John Wick 2 in a couple of years :D
Batman Begins is one of my Top 10 movies of all time and it's not that easy to get into that Top 10.
The Dark Knight was very, very disappointing for me. I like it a bit more nowadays but still feel The Joker is badly overacted by Ledger and it is almost ruining the movie. One of the most overhyped movies ever in my opinion.
The Dark Knight Rises on the other hand is the perfect and proper sequel to Batman Begins. The structure of the movie is very similar to Batman Begins and who can argue with Anna Hathaway as Catwoman and Tom Hardy as the baddie.
Easily one of the best movies of this decade so far.
*I have an extra movie to watch that I somehow include in the Bat-movie-universe.
Catwoman with Halle Berry. She's hot as hell but that's about the only good thing about it. I probably will drink some before watching it
Pretty sure the only stuff he wrote that is actually in the movie is some Commodus dialog. Supposedly his last work on THE AVIATOR was done in 1996, so I don't know how much of THAT movie is really his, either.
He is the sole writer on STAR TREK NEMESIS and BATS, though. Take that for what its not worth.
Really? Thanks, didn t know that.
That movie industry has its codas when it comes to credit given for collective efforts. It is all about work contracts and deals with the unions.
I'm not sure where I put it in my Neeson ranking list. Spontaneously I'd say No 5.
I'm glad to see that Non-Stop is in your Top 3 @DaltonCraig007 I go so far and say it is my favourite Neeson film at the moment.
The writers guild has a thing 'protecting' the first writer hired, which requires the rewriters to contribute a lot more percentagewise in order to get credit, and even then there are a lot of suspect decisions. Walter Hill and David Giler ABSOLUTELY should have gotten co-screenwriting credit on ALIEN, not original writer O'Bannon alone. His script reads JUST like something I wrote in high school, painful dialog and characterization, whereas the whole feel of ALIEN verse comes through in the Hill rewrite.
One of Logan's early works also has a bit of a suspect history. A Washingon political guy got recruited to produce for Oliver Stone in the 90s, and had shepherded a pro football movie script through to completion and was waiting to get it to Stone when his office nemesis (no pun intended) read it and had 'his' writer (Logan) right something along the same lines very quickly. Stone got the Logan script first and it turned into ON ANY GIVENS UNDAY, while the actual 'original' script never went anywhere. The politico guy's book (can't remember the name of it, this was practically the only interesting part outside of the JFK section) doesn't come out and say Logan did anything wrong, but the way it is laid out, there seems a huge question about it anyway.
I haven't watched any movies lately other than those in my Bondathon, so hopefully I can wrap this up shortly and get back to my big list of movies to watch.
But anyway, if you like Neeson then it is an absolute must-see.
I have watched watched Everly, I enjoyed it. It wasn't constant action, there were a few pauses along the way. And Salma kicks ass too, she notches up an impressive kill count for just one film.
Directed by George Lucas
The film that terminated the deal between WB and Francis Ford Coppola was Lucas' remake of his own student film. A cynical Orwellian take on consumerism and life in general in the early 70s, THX is a visual experience which some find confusing and others praise for its experimental creativity. While Kubrickian influences cannot be overlooked, THX may have been slightly too 'niche' for its time. The WB execs didn't understand it. The audience didn't understand it. Fortunately, Lucas quickly became mister American Graffiti and eventually mister Star Wars. Perhaps that helped to save the film from total oblivion.
Robert Duvall, Maggie McOmie and Donald Pleasence star in this chilling vision of a bleak dystopia. Lalo Shifrin's dark score underlines the constant tension our main focal point, THX (Duvall) experiences. Will he be able to escape the world he's told is the only habitable one?
If it sounds a little like Logan's Run, let us then not forget that Lucas' student film, Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, was made around the same time the novel "Logan's Run" got published. So rather than claim someone stole from someone, let's just agree that in those days many folks had real fears of a 1984 scenario on their mind. While I think Logan's Run has more interesting and fleshed out characters and 1984 pushed the political issues further, THX is perhaps the more successful story in terms of getting the social criticism down. Don't expect mister Star Wars to make you feel great when you're watching THX 1138 or even after you've watched it. This film will depress you, a characteristic of 70s movies in general. But it's definitely worth watching. I too think of Lucas in Star Wars terms first and foremost, but ironically the man who brought us one of the happiest feel-good movies of the 70s started out with one of the darkest movies of the 70s. Are we indeed stripped of all individuality? Judge for yourself.