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
______________________________________________________________
Good day! Don't forget to be awesome!
Saw that in the cinema many years ago. Remember it as a very good film with some unpleasant scenes.
Charlie Chan in the Secret service (1944) in which Charlie Chan is played by Sidney Toler and he investigates the death of an inventor who was working on a new design for torpedo's. Chan with the the great one-liners (no Moore style) that sound like great Chinese proverbs but are just funny. Mantan Moreland takes care of the the funny sidekick. "Can I go home I forgot something?- What did you forget?- To stay in this morning."
This is what you get when I do not have to go to work and all the kids are at school and the missus out to work.
---
Annihilation (2018)
Not sure about this... Some interesting stuff in there, so I'll need a rewatch.
Men, Women & Children (2014)
Jason Reitman's drama about how online addiction affects lives of various families. Kinda meh.
Passion (2012)
Brian De Palma's so called "erotic thriller" (neither erotic, nor thrilling) with Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace. Bad.
Strigoi (2009)
A young man called Vlad returns to his home village in Romania after working a while abroad, and it starts to seem that things there aren't quite right...
I think I was either smiling or laughing most of the time while watching.
What We Did on Our Holiday (2014)
The title suggested something horrible, but since I quite like Rosamund Pike, I decided to take the risk anyway. And it was worth it, as this was not terrible at all. I quite liked it.
The Jacket (2005)
Adrien Brody as the lead, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson, and Daniel Craig supporting. A re-watch. I didn't remember much anything about the story. Not bad.
Oceans 11 (1960)
I found this pretty boring.
The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby (2014)
Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy as a couple trying to fix their lives somehow after a loss. Okay.
Gamines (Sisters) (2009)
I'm having a look at Amira Casar's filmography, so... This is a story of three sisters as kids, and as adults, and their mother, and the absent father. I liked it.
Oscar et la dame rose (Oscar and the Lady in Pink) (2009)
Amira Casar, again, though her role in this is small. I'm glad I didn't know what the movie is about at all, I wouldn't have expected to enjoy it. But I did, very much.
Elysium (2013)
A friend was visiting and picked this, which surprised me since she doesn't care for Matt Damon anymore than I do. She likes sci-fi, though... which this barely was, just a video game style boring as hell action romp with some embarrassingly bad dialogue. We both agreed this was bloody awful.
Playoff (2011)
Danny Huston plays an Israeli basketball coach, who takes a job coaching in Germany from where his family (sans father) had escaped about 40 years before. Amira Casar plays a Turkish muslim woman who has come to Germany (with her daughter) to look for her disappeared husband. They were both very good and I liked this a lot in general.
Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas) (2012)
I knew Amira Casar's role in this was small (it was, in fact, tiny), but it's not like I'd let that stop me anyway, and besides: Mads Mikkelsen as the lead, he's always a pleasure to watch. I guess whoever came up with the English name for this movie wasn't very smart. I mean even if the protagonist's name wasn't deemed enough for the English language audiences, was it really necessary to go to such lengths to give the movie such a clumsy name? I liked the movie, though.
El Olivo (The Olive Tree) (2016)
Recommended by a friend, but did nothing for me. Not bad, but not particularly interesting, either. Loved listening to Spanish, though. (Should watch more Spanish language movies, I guess.)
Good choices. I love the Monogram Toler films with Mantan Moreland.
I need to replace my copies of the classic Mummy films as well. All 3 Lon Chaney ones are fun. Tom Tyler was excellent as well.
Shutter Island is a neo-noir film with psychological thriller and horror elements, directed by Martin Scorsese and representing the man's fourth collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio. This is a movie I've wanted to see for a long time, and just a short time ago I found a blu-ray copy of it on sale in a bargain bin. I knew my chance had come to finally pop it in and give it a viewing.
I'm almost hesitant to really talk too much about this film, simply because it really is one that everyone interested in seeing it should go into blind to get the best experience out of it. This is true for any movie in my eyes, but especially those with mystery and "shock" elements that should not be spoiled or even implied to virgin viewers of the film in question. After all, there is a tangible consequence in watching a mystery movie when the mystery at the heart of it all has been spoiled for you. With this in mind, I'll give my general impressions on this film without going deep into discussion as I think it's vital to go into it as blindly as possible.
Shutter Island started out very engaging to me, as the atmosphere and imagery of the eponymous island were haunting and mysterious from the very beginning. True to its name, "Shutter Island" seemed just that: an ominous piece of land truly shuttered off from the rest of the world, like it had something to hide. It's easy to tell quite quickly that things aren't completely on. The movie kept my interest for a long stretch, but I must admit that by the mid point I was starting to get the same sensation I had while getting through Blade Runner, where I could feel my mind slipping from the narrative and it took extra effort for me to push myself up in my seating position to stay engaged. That being said, unlike Blade Runner, Shutter Island did manage to redeem itself at the end and impress me enough to view it as a solid film, if imperfect in spots. There's a lot in the film that passes you by or simply registers as very unimportant, but context is everything in mysteries and how the movie connects what seemed like disparate elements at first was impressive.
Watching this film funnily made me think of two very iconic Jack Nicholson-starring movies that both typified the kinds of genre elements Shutter Island was gunning for, those being Chinatown and The Shining. Like Chinatown, this movie is a neo-noir that, despite being made decades after the period where noirs were most popular (the 40s and 50s), the narrative takes us back in period piece fashion to that exact time just as the 1974 Polanski classic takes us back to the 30s. I always find it an engaging exercise when neo-noirs rewind the clock like this, paradoxically representing a film created after the noir period of filmmaking while still placing its characters and plot inside the very decades that the genre was at its peak of cultural importance. And all the common tropes of the noir genre are at home in this movie, from a cynical and troubled protagonist to the element of rain that never seems to stop pouring from a weeping sky throughout. I'm kind of interested to see how the film feels in black and white now, as beautifully colored as it is, simply to place it even more in the realm of the noir pictures it is capturing the mood of. For my next viewing of it I may just do that.
And like The Shining, the big premise of Shutter Island involves watching a man's mind become gradually more assaulted by the horrors and haunts he sees at a remote and "spooky" location that seems to be more than meets the eye. While I don't think Shutter Island has anything on the Overlook Hotel, the film's focus on madness and how humans can be driven to it is perhaps its greatest asset and most interesting element. It's engaging to see DiCaprio's Marshal character cross paths with those who are considered criminally insane, and the movie explores the pitfalls of madness wherein those seen as crazy aren't believed even when they're speaking the truth. I was quite impressed to see just how much focus the film had on mental health, criticizing how the mentally ill were treated in that time period as it quietly advocated for rehabilitative treatments with a focus on helping, not punishing the distraught. Seeing the film in the context of our current and more aware time regarding mental health is interesting, as you see how far we've come from the lobotomies and electric chairs of previous decades and how we've pursued more humane solutions to dealing with mental health complications.
One element of Shutter Island that may be a critical point for some viewers is the heavier use of effects than is common for the neo-noir genre, or for a film that is transporting you to a bygone age. Upon looking up some of the set photos from the film, I saw just how much of what is in the film is simply computer generated. The effects can often be very easy to spot, and this may take those out of the film who are bothered by seeing the actors in front of a green screen or surrounded by computerized rain or landmasses. I certainly would've preferred to see the movie shot more naturally on location, though I can sympathize with how hard it likely was to find a location that had all the production team needed to complete their shoot, necessitating some of the effects work we can see. Most of the film is shot "for real," however, including some of the coolest and most haunting sets I've seen in a while, including cell blocks, infirmaries and stone prisons, so I don't mean to make the effects sound pervasive. And, in a way, the computerized effects of Shutter Island connect to the most prominent themes of the film itself. While watching the film you will wonder just what is real and what isn't, what things are lies and what is true as DiCaprio's Marshal faces the case before him. So, these obvious bits of effects may have been an intentional choice on the part of Scorsese and his team, just another part of their manipulation of the audience as they make us question the worth and reality of what seems artificial to our eyes. I can appreciate that.
As a last critical point, I will speak on the central mystery of Shutter Island and how the mystery being cracked after the first viewing may cause some viewers to never return to the island again. The dilemma with movies like Shutter Island is that these stories are inherently driven by tricks and mystery that compel the viewer to wonder what's going on from start to finish, using all the red herrings and blind alleys in its arsenal to manipulate our perceptions and color our expectations. A common criticism I hear about movies of this kind is that, once you've seen the film and discovered the tricks, it becomes hard to enjoy the film again since the jig is up, so to speak. I hear complaints about this phenomenon most prominently with films like Memento, a narrative so driven by its wacky non-linear structure and twists that it becomes uninteresting to watch again and again for some who feel the tricks are all the film has to offer.
I don't share these opinions, however, and I think that Shutter Island is very rewatchable, even despite its own bag of tricks. Without saying too much, you can only witness just how clever and well crafted the movie is once you've reached the credits and, as with any good mystery, part of the fun in seeing it again is seeing how the story was weaved into the film while also spotting all the times the filmmakers played with your perceptions. The first raw viewing you have of films like The Maltese Falcon or Chinatown may always remain the most profound you have, but I don't think the enjoyment of a mystery is tarnished the moment you've "cracked the case" or seen how the puzzle pieces form together. What always remains fresh is seeing how the mystery looms over the characters and captures them blind in its shadow, and it's always fascinating to see how a great yarn is spun throughout a solid film by a strong script. I think Shutter Island fits into this category as well, with characters engaging enough to watch over and over as they face their conflicts inside a mystery that is at times beautifully developed in shocking and artful ways. These elements make it evergreen.
I don't think Shutter Island is a film easy to recommend, as it won't be for everyone because of some of the psychological elements in it. For fans of noir films like myself, you may enjoy it and you may not. It's important to note that the film's mystery elements becomes less important than the psychological emphasis it places on the events, so if you're expecting a whodunit or anything close to it you may be disappointed. As with many mysteries, including the aforementioned Chinatown, there is a mystery at the heart of the film but the most engaging element is how everything outside of that mystery is affected, namely the main characters. It is the human struggles of these characters that remain most consistent, and less the questions they find themselves asking about their case.
Fans of films with psychological themes may get the most out of this film, as its chief strengths are its atmosphere, mood and exploration of mental health, trauma and madness. But, to clarify, I wouldn't call this a horror film, as it doesn't insult its own story or viewer enough to pack its run time with jump scares or cheap shock value. Instead of being horror based, I would instead simply call it a "haunting" film. Some of the imagery it expresses is chilling and striking in its content, as you see the kinds of acts man does unto man in stark and uncensored detail. I'll leave the context of these images a mystery, as I think they hit harder when you don't see them coming.
The movie very maturely grapples with violence and mortal horror in a way that is quite artful and powerful from my perspective. It doesn't hold back, but the purpose of its volatile and stirring images is never to shock a viewer raw or toy with them for kicks. Instead, these elements present the real horrors of life and are there to make you think and wonder about your own feelings on issues of morality and goodness, as well as what could be the cost of living in a particular time and place. There is no fantasy to the violence of the film, it's all stuff we see every day, and that should be as horrific a notion as anything else it presents. For viewers who don't mind facing some of this content respectfully but honestly delivered, I invite you to take a ferry to Shutter Island.
Kiss Kiss... Bang Bang (1966):
Giuliano Gemma (Ringo, One Silver Dollar, Day of Anger) stars as a former British spy, Kirk Warren, who is dragged out of execution at the last minute by the head of the British Intelligence in exchange for a special assignment he's required to take up on. Warren is known for trying to manipulate his allies and enemies to benefit from the goods in the play, such as trying to rob them from a million dollars. His mission - should he choose to accept it, and he will! - is to steal a secret chemical formula from a highly secure facility in Switzerland and prevent a certain Mr. X, a mysterious figure of terror, from getting his hands on it. While on the surface, Warren seems to oblige his employers, he plans to steal the formula for himself instead and sell it to the highest bidder for one million dollars. A scheme that would have him compensating over the failure of his previous attempt at getting his hands on that much amount of green.
The film at first pretends to look like a serious James Bond knockoff, but manages to deliberately taking a piss on the culture of spy craze by offering a logic-free comedy while at the same time injecting original ideas, incorporating elements of heist capers in the process. It's written by Fernando Di Leo (a director later in his career who influenced both John Woo and Quentin Tarantino) and Bruno Corbucci (yes, the brother of Spaghetti Western legend, Sergio Corbucci) who, more or less, had fun trying their hand at something different. Giuliano Gemma also seems to be well-entertained by giving a funny performance you can't help but laugh at (in a good way), while Spaghetti Western beauty (that I keep mentioning for the third time by now!) Nieves Navarro thrives in her image of an ultimate femme fatale by surprising everyone around her. Overall, a highly entertaining film you must not take seriously in the slightest that places very cringe-worthy humour in almost every scene I could go by the expression "It's so bad it's good!".
It s a good one. Shame about the horrendous villain.
Which one ;)
Just watched Captain America Civil War I think this film is great, a good balance between reality and fantastical. This film is my second favorite Marvel film.
Pick one.
What a great little film. I admit I couldn't get into the TV series but the film is an understated gem.
David Goyer
You really want Scorpio to get a kick-in from Harry dont you..and he does.
Man this film looked awesome, Scorpio is a piece of... good acting from Andrew J. Robinson
He was seriously mad eh ? shooting a priest or a *******...
Its the fact he keeps getting away with it and even gets beaten up to frame Harry that makes you so determined to back Callahan !!
Brilliant film...i love all the Dirty Harry's....i mean,its Clint !!
Bluray Boxset arrived today I grew up with Clint's films, got five days off now so a Dirty Harry binge watch for me, Tightrope arrived today also, I'll watch that between Sudden Impact and Dead Pool.
God you are a lucky lucky chap...if only !!
Malkovic is a brilliant villain (Bond quality) in that.
Agreed. Superb scene. The character work in this film is really good too. They're all interesting.