* Did you watch a film last night (on Blu or DVD), and what was it? *

[cjfrbw]

Watched DVD. When Roman Polanski isn't roofieing 12 year old girls, he makes a movie once in a while. Of course, all the stars and artists vividly defend him, though it is only as long as he roofies the daughters of ambitious, peasant stage mothers, and not theirs. Of course, he fled to France, where roofieing 12 year olds is laughably chic.

"The Ghost Writer" is a decent thriller, and the style hearkens back a bit in appearance and pacing to the magnificent "Chinatown." The threads unfold, but then it is always too late, and tragic denouement a la Polanski bites. Not a great deal of violence in this one, but plenty of tension. McGregor's character keeps doing things that seem outlandishly dumass and risky and you have to ask "why the hell doesn't he leave well enough alone", especially because his predecessor died under mysterious circumstances. You just can't keep the dodos from walking down those dark alleys alone in the movies.

Gorgeous cinematography. Enough twists to keep things interesting in a faux-America New England produced presumably somewhere on the French coast.

Ewan McGregor is a writer hired to tail a Tony Blair-like British Prime Minister played by a chilly Pierce Brosnan and complete the autobiography unfinished by the recently deceased ghost writer. Facts emerge to pique his curiosity as the Prime Minister undergoes protests and press scrutiny over alleged human rights violations. Things get complicated, then scary.

Check it out.

 

[NorthStar]

-- 'The Ghost Writer' is a good flick by Polanski (got the Blu).
It is intriguing, captivating, and with great camera work and sceneries. ...A good storyline. :b

Polanski is one of my favorite movie directors. His private life (Sharon Tate, Charles Manson, teenager's affair, USA laws, etc.) are other subjects for other movie directors. :b

Polanski is a 'polished' director, in the direct sense of that term as for his moving pictures projected on the screen (clean and precise), and the ambiance running in his films is unique to him. ...A mix of suspense/horror/drama/tension, and equilibrium in a pleasurable discomfort kind of way.

 

[NorthStar]

Last night :: Revisited ::

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* Better this time around? ...Maybe, maybe not.
Different? ...Yes.
Why? ...Different state of mind.
For the better? ...Yes.
Why? ...My own feeling & disposition.

Conclusion: Good replay value.

Technical aspects:

Stylized picture (coloring) is just fine.
Audio also is just fine; with great LFE on occasion.

Cinematography: just fine (some cool shots).
Acting is cool; pleasant to watch the interaction, the action, and with the locales too.
{Produced by Luc Besson, with his 'signature' touches, and the music too, very good.}

--> I totally disagree with this reviewer's take on this flick (you can click on the picture cover).

___________________

***** I've been watching quite a few flicks in the last week or so, but I did not post them.
Why? ...Time and feel. But there were some great revelations on Blu, among them 'Lawrence of Arabia', and 'Empire of the Sun', and 'Patton' newly Remastered version, and 'ParaNorman 3D', and 'The Expendables 2' - first ever Blu-ray with an 11.2-channel DTS Neo:X audio soundtrack (not discrete though; only 7.1-channel discrete DTS-HD Master Audio).

 

[cjfrbw]

I liked "Colombiana", too, but my taste in Bee movies is a bit on the low brow side. Who could resist a paranoid revenge flick with a hot looking, cold blooded killer with a hooker's heart of gold?

Of course, splattering the bad guys is always justified. I liked the dweeby, clueless boy toy love interest, too, who never realizes what he is strapping on whenever he beds this babe.

Kinna in the vein of Geena Davis in "The Long Kiss Goodnight" but without the amnesia.

 

[NorthStar]

Last night :: Revisited ::

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[NorthStar]

Last night :: Revisited :: AZ goin' ::

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[NorthStar]

Last night ::

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* The audio soundtrack (DTS-HD MA 5.1), in particular the music score is recorded quite high on this one.
I enjoyed it (luv Bane); an interesting flick, a great picture (love those IMAX scenes), and great sound too.
- The picture was perhaps too contrasty (I had to change my Gamma level), and with inaccurate skin tones (a little too reddish).

I still prefer Batman 2 ('The Dark Knight') with the Joker.

 

[cjfrbw]

Extensively reviewed by Bob already: http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...t-was-it-*&p=125326&highlight=grey#post125326

Well, not really, he gave it a line or two.

Decent survival (??) flick although the survival part is dubious. Interesting because Liam Neeson seems to be channeling his grief over his own loss of his wife to accidental death a few years ago.

He doesn't suffer in a grand, sleek way like a thespian, but more like a wounded snotty, confused, stumbling human being. He goes from closing in on suicide to holding on to life tenaciously after an accident (plane wreck) and a vicious onslaught of nature (bitter Alaskan cold, hostile wolf pack). He goes from confident predator (animal control/wolf hunter for work crews) to vulnerable prey of a wolf pack after the plane accident with a handful of other survivors. Who needs alien monsters when you are being hunted by a wolf pack in the Alaskan widerness?

When he demands an answer from God, there is no answering service and no return call, just the beautiful, empty treacherous environment, so he says, "never mind, I'll do it myself."

The other surviving characters from the plane wreck broadcast their "dead meat" status with varying swan songs of idiocy or philosophizing, an annoying Hollywood dirge. The CGI wolves look like they were borrowed from a werewolf film. Hollywood still has a lot of work to do on its CGI dogs to make them look real. However, it is pretty cool when you can't see them when they surround the human prey, just the fog fountains of breath as they bey and howl.

Awesome, bitter, beautiful scenery in the snowy wastes and mountains of Alaska.

Watched DVD with Sony OLED glasses.

Check it out.

 

[NorthStar]

Last night :: Revisited ::

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[NorthStar]

Last night ::

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* Huge Terry Gilliam's fan here. ...ALL his flicks, and this one big time included.

 

[NorthStar]

Last night :: The 3D version :::

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* It was ok, but nothing to lose sleep over.
That 3D version is not what some reviewers said it is; it is much less spectacular, ty very much.
I disagree with that particular reviewer (just click on the picture cover),
and I also disagree with other reviewers from other sites (High-Def Digest & AVS).

Kids love this flick, I believe, but for me, as an adult/kid :b , it's fine, but not one of my favorite Disney PIXAR movies.

* I will watch the 2D version of this Blu eventually, and I got a very strong feeling that I will prefer it over the 3D version.
And I'm very familiar with this flick as I also have the 2-Disc Collector's Edition on DVD.
As a matter of fact I own every single DVD and Blu-ray releases by Disney PIXAR, up to now.
And same with all the Blu-ray 3D PIXAR movies.

'Monsters, Inc.', 'Ratatouille' aren't in 3D yet. ...Same for 'Wall-E', and 'The Incredibles'.

________________

For me, from my own set of eyes; movies that were originally filmed with 3D cameras are much better looking than converted ones, like 'Finding Nemo' for example (conversion).

 

[NorthStar]

Last night ::

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It was ok.

 

[NorthStar]

Last night :: Revisited ::

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* FACT: Since then, April 20, 1999, in the USA, 31 more mass shootings have happened!
...Many of them in schools, with children as the fatal victims.

This Documentary is excellent, and it reflects a truth about America, etc.
...I just had to revisit it. ...America's deep love affair ....

** Did you know that the sales of guns is the most lucrative business in the World?

 

[NorthStar]

Last night ::

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* Luv this flick. ...Based on an amazing true story.

 

[NorthStar]

Last night ::

-----------------------------------------------------And ::

-- ----------------------​

 

[cjfrbw]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy



I know a lot of guys here didn't like this one much, but I was surprised that I did (and my wife did, too!)

I am a sucker for good cinematography, and this one is really neat, but needs hi def and a large screen (I watched on my 120 inch screen with Sony VPL VW200).

It seems that cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema took a page from Janusz Kaminski's efforts on "Saving Private Ryan", and it looked like he used lenses without coatings to get a kind of bilious sepia tone to recreate the era. Maybe it's a Polish thing. I saw a Kaminksi film a few years ago that was in Los Angeles in the summer and managed to make it look like Poland in the dead of winter.

Smiley looks at a dark green painting inherited from his dead boss in a green frame on his green wall, as if peering into its bitter soul and dark recesses will reveal all of the dire three dimensional chess of the spy games to him.

Anyway, the movie is a masterwork of olive drab, muddy browns, washed out reds, orange saffrons, and gray, to suggest the era and the murky subject matter.

Those familiar with the novels and the BBC series have nothing to fear, the movie is sufficiently different to maintain interest.

The characters don't betray the typical "brilliance" of the top spy guys in any kind of obvious way, except to toss off the occasional polyglot bon mot in Hungarian, Russian or French in a way that makes English seem like an annoying convenience.

The viewer wonders anyway if they were so effing brilliant that they couldn't find a mole in their midst. Of course, that speaks to the British class system as much as anything else, where the public school types and aristos all stick up for each other through thick and thin. After all, generations of depraved, psychopathic behavior honed to fine art and garlanded with excellent manners shouldn't be held against one.

The acting choreography is excellent, as might be expected from the stellar British cast, but the plot does tie things up with a neat big bow of fulfilled vindictiveness and vengeance that I don't remember from the other versions.

I also miss the ritual of Smiley practicing trade craft to remain an anonymous phantom while traveling the cities of Europe on his explorations. This movie's Smiley is a solemn, domestic spider with a staff.

Great period reproduction that makes the 50's and 60's look primitive by today's standards, where the brains were everything because the computers weren't.

 

[A.wayne]

HD SATELLITE , total recall ..

 

[NorthStar]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

View attachment 7097

I know a lot of guys here didn't like this one much, but I was surprised that I did (and my wife did, too!)

I am a sucker for good cinematography, and this one is really neat, but needs hi def and a large screen (I watched on my 120 inch screen with Sony VPL VW200).

It seems that cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema took a page from Janusz Kaminski's efforts on "Saving Private Ryan", and it looked like he used lenses without coatings to get a kind of bilious sepia tone to recreate the era. Maybe it's a Polish thing. I saw a Kaminksi film a few years ago that was in Los Angeles in the summer and managed to make it look like Poland in the dead of winter.

Smiley looks at a dark green painting inherited from his dead boss in a green frame on his green wall, as if peering into its bitter soul and dark recesses will reveal all of the dire three dimensional chess of the spy games to him.

Anyway, the movie is a masterwork of olive drab, muddy browns, washed out reds, orange saffrons, and gray, to suggest the era and the murky subject matter.

Those familiar with the novels and the BBC series have nothing to fear, the movie is sufficiently different to maintain interest.

The characters don't betray the typical "brilliance" of the top spy guys in any kind of obvious way, except to toss off the occasional polyglot bon mot in Hungarian, Russian or French in a way that makes English seem like an annoying convenience.

The viewer wonders anyway if they were so effing brilliant that they couldn't find a mole in their midst. Of course, that speaks to the British class system as much as anything else, where the public school types and aristos all stick up for each other through thick and thin. After all, generations of depraved, psychopathic behavior honed to fine art and garlanded with excellent manners shouldn't be held against one.

The acting choreography is excellent, as might be expected from the stellar British cast, but the plot does tie things up with a neat big bow of fulfilled vindictiveness and vengeance that I don't remember from the other versions.

I also miss the ritual of Smiley practicing trade craft to remain an anonymous phantom while traveling the cities of Europe on his explorations. This movie's Smiley is a solemn, domestic spider with a staff.

Great period reproduction that makes the 50's and 60's look primitive by today's standards, where the brains were everything because the computers weren't.

---- Very nice review! Thanx for taking the time and making the effort, I truly appreciate that. :b

 

[NorthStar]

Tonight ::

--

 

[NorthStar]

-- View attachment 7098

You know what? I liked it. :b ...Very polished picture, colors, and cool special effects.
...And the girls are cute and nice to watch.