My Favorite Movies

REVIEW: http://www.psychoholiday.com/uploader/files/200/4155.doc

Stanley Kubrik's peak of career. A twisted and brilliant look at youth, society, law and the government. Even those worried about the violence should watch, a compelling and intelligent masterpiece. True to the trailer's flickering promises, it's funny, satiracle, and even thierty odd years after it's release manages to still shock and contemporise.

Amazing film, massively watchable, well directed and well acted, with a brillaint twisting storyline. A director-typical "sledgehammer" of an ending, one of Brad Pitts few on screen flashes of brilliance, and the expected perfection from Edward Norton.

Shane Meadows of "A Room for Romeo..." once again plays with audience expectation, and by building up the safe pretense of comedy he manages to make his trademark grim finale all the more powerful. An excellent revenge story.

"Why do I have to be 'Mr.Pink'?"
"Because you're a faggot, alright?"
Quentin Tarantino's best film ("blasphemy!"). An umlimtiedly watchable film that really does never get dull.

Massively watchable tribute to modern media.

Francis Ford Copella's gangster epic that defined a genre. Brilliantly rich storyline with some unbeatable career-peak performances.

Poignant view into the life of a child growing up in the violent slums of Rio'. Some of the best direction of camera I've seen. A film Hollywood would never dare make.

Brilliantly cliche and OTT, with some of the funniest violence ever. The 21st century equivalent of a fairtytale.

Stanley Kubrik once again gives other budding directors a masterclass in how suceed in every genre. Beleivable represntation of the Vietnam war to the point of horror/hilarity. It even comes with Kubrik's trademark "ape man look" (Think the 'droogs' from 'Clockwork, or Jack from The Shining.)

Absolutely genius "pioneering" from Stanley Kubrick. Unconventional, underplayed and microdramatic, this is one different-ass film. The final fifth of the film being just flashing lights adds to the absolutely ingenius "you make it what you want" ending. And as for the "Dawn of Man" montage, something about how it's done is literally laugh with joy/animal pride, as is the fascinating conversation between two astronaughts as "HAL" watches. It's gripping, memorable stuff, partly down to it's effortlessly epic "underplaying" and hyper-realism. Space is silent, and dialogue remains formal and minimalist throughout. It's like a massively interesting school lesson where all the big issues of teh future are dealt with maturely, with a little abstraction at the end to keep things "high".

Ultra-violent and methodical slaughtering of children was never more fun than in this 100% pure and "focused" action. More mental stuff from our over-the-east friends in Japan.

A brilliant piece of story-telling. One of Tom Hank's few bearable performances.

A Masterclass in book/film conversion. Tim Robbins delivers a career-best performance creating one of the most empathetic characters of, at least my own, cinema history; "Andy Defresne"

Instant classic. In a brilliant and unexpected suprise Scorsese totally U-turns his trademark "theatre-simple" direction and progressive narrative in favour of more flashy and, it must be admitted, 'Hollywood' editing and directing. This may sound like a bad thing, but it most definately isn't. Marty crams every second of the film with energy, and the first violence-pumped hour is some of the best "gangsterage" I think I've ever seen. Even for someone who has seen the film of which this is a remake, every plot twist (and true to the 'origional' there are bucket-fulls) isn't so much 'delivered' as 'fist fucked' straight into the viewer. This is not Scorcese trying to teach us a message or explore some big issue, this is pure entertainment, and the layers and layers of lightning fast double-crosses and double-bluffs rack the tension sky high. Leonardo DiCaprio jumps a million miles over his poster-boy image into a genuinely amazing twisted and violent undercover cop, torn to shreds with stress. Matt Damon perfects the "clever guy" act he's been honing for years with the instant monster slime-bag police rat. And of course, nobody does crazy like Jack Nicholson, and probably the only fault with this amazing film is that nowhere near enough tome was spent on the spectacular sink into insanity his mob-boss character has. Overall, a great great film.

Martin Scorsese best film to date, all his trademarks and signatures are there (including the amazing soundtrack and identifyable characters, and oh yes, the violence).

A great cinematic exploration of a brilliant character, De Niro delivers a career best as Travis Beckle, who's growing distance from society is only going to end in bloodshed. Just watched thsi again, absolutely fuckign legendary. Now that I'm familiar with it (=fanboy levels of nerdgasm knowledge about every second of film) I just can't help smilign throughout, I'm guessing old people get the same watching old tapes of the moon-landing. Genius, start to finish. At first I hated the ending, now I wonder how I could have been so blind. Everything is perfect, everything is memorable and painstakingly, fatally predictable.

Still brilliant, althouh loses some of it's earlier charm with the whole "legit" theme.

First of all, don't let people tell you it's a 'stoner-flick'. Stoner-flick usually denotes a film so simulataneuosly jeuvanile and crude that only "the influenced" will enjoy it. 'A Scanner Darkly' is not this. It's a massively entertaining, mind-blowing roto-scoped adventure. First of all, the rotoscoping. Yes, it is clearly a "gimmick", and yes without it this would be half the film it is now, but anybody who's ever animated using rotoscoping, or even used flash, will immediately recognise and respect the tradmark visual signatures in this. Such as whenever a camera turns angle or spins, and items crudely try and follow, ultimately high-lighting how 2D and drawn they are. It is beautiful little moments like these that to the artists eye make this amazing to watch, as although some of the scoping was obviously done automatically, there are many elements you can tell are "hand-made" and (Nike style "sweat-shop" methods or not) this is massively impressive. Where the film could easily have laid back after being rotoscoped and allow itself easy-sucess, it decides to go even further and add more icing to the cake. The plot is of course of the Phillip K. Dick novel, and loyally this film dives head-first into the recurring theme of mistaken or hidden identity. Not only do the main characters take a skitsophrenia-indcuing drug throughout the film, but the main character is double posing as a drug dealer who is really a policeman / a policeman who is really a drug dealer. That, AND when in the station he has a suit which keeps his identity constantly hidden and changing (in another dumbfoundingly painstaking effect) make for some very confusing "who was who when and what did they say to who?" moments. It is, as it sounds, very difficult (read: almost impossible) to understand, and though 90% of the population will no doubt bitch "waaah i dont get it", this, for me, was part of the allure, as coupled with the visuals the incomprehendible plot just totally built a dream-nightmare atmosphere (as was obviously the intention). And as for anyone planning on watching it stoned, good luck. The final ten minutes are mercifulyl useful, and anybody who watches the last few moments of the film and still doesn't get it must truly be stoned. Or a retard. So, if you can stand to watch a film in rotoscoped style (why the hell wouldn't you?) and can stand to go most of the film not knowing clearly what is happening, at least in a "what side is he on?" sort of way, then definately, DEFINATELY, go for this film.

Brilliant, if sometimes flawed, violent orchestra.

Brilliantly impish dark comedy, with twistedly comic characters pushed to the limits of credibilty by the falsified "Based on True Story" introduction.

David Fincher of 'Fight Club' once again proves he truly knows how to deal with his characters, Se7en has that sickening, grey/green realism rarely seen in film. And, true to form, Fincher continues his trademark of knouckout endings.

Larger than life gangster epic of comic-book-character proportians. A violent gangster film not weighed down by any illusions of reality.

Relentlessy pounding German film, breath-taking and exhilerating.

Suprisingly brilliant, a clever and meaningful film. Even Jim Carrey works.

Off-the-wall, un-genred film with one of Brad Pitts brilliant, pre-mainstream performances.

I would advise to anyone with a half-decent brain. It's not as smart as it thinks it is, but still pretty good.

Brilliant brilliant brilliant black comedy satire on the idiocy of the "Mutually Assured Destruction" (suitably shortened to M.A.D) philsosphy of the cold war. Stanley Kubrick does it again, and Peter Seller's delivers not one but three amazing performances, the literally pussy-by-name pussy-by-nature president Merkin, the obscure ex-nazi Dr.Strangelove and the unfortunate empathatetic middle-man Capt. Mandrake The end of the world has never been so funny. "Protect our bodily fluids!"

Spielberg's greatest moment, a masterpiece everyone should see. The brilliant use of black and white, (though not nearly as 'orgional' as it would have you beleive) is still a landmark in film making.

Brilliantly inventive modern zombie flick. And it's English. The best capture of the true "zombie sitaution" emotion that I have ever seen.

Classic British black humour.

Massively artistic, tasteful and yet excessively violence. Very classy. The under-rated finale to an epic trilogy, fans of the book won't be dissapointed by the faithful recreation of atmosphere.

Brilliant brilliant brilliant. It's a zombie-comedy-horror that manages to maintain all three genres at 100%. A portrayal of the English everyday life that could put Shane Meadows to shame, thansk to some instantly recognisable characters. Part of what holds this film to tightly in place is the constant, dry self-references. "Next time I see him, he's dead!", "Now I'm not gonna say if you lover her let her go...but I will say this...it's not the end of the world..." and "If you want to act like an animal why don't you go live in the shed!" to name but a few.

If anything the narrative presentation was worse than 'Fekllowship, but none the less a once-in-a-lifetime film.

The first, and most atmospheric, of the epic trilogy.

Massively watchable 70's chase film, those smart enough to see past the 1979 hair styles will find a lot to watch, a nice modern adaptation of classic Greek mythology.

Very interesting and innovative "told backwards" story. Slightly anti-climactic, but very well driected, some great performances and a western narrative that (finally) credits the audience with some inteligence.

Seriosuly killer film. The only major bad point is it's too short, at just under 1 and a half hours long I felt a little short changed, I could have watched this for 3 hours. And from hesring about how much was cut from the novel to this film adaptation, 3 hours wasn't going to be too much of a push. It's a shame people had such short attention spans back then.

Half an hour too long, but brilliant none the less.

Brilliantly un-PC, the kind of anti-political correctness that makes South Park or Cubr Your Enthusiasm so amazing. Some amazing comic scenes, already set to be a classic comedy, I can confidently say when I'm a 50 year old reminising about "the good old days", I'll be mentioning this in the same breath as 'Blazing Saddles' and 'South Park: B,L&U'. Some really really brave moments, Sacha goes to extreme dangers for our entertainment, and it pays off.

Hilarious. Really really funny. And for once it's on purpose. One of a total I could coutn on one hand that realises how funny even the most depraved acts of violence can be. The following is a list of just some of the highlights; hired goons cleaning up after a massacre, slipping and landing in a pile of intestines. A man's face being cut off and sliding down a wall. A man being hung by hooks in his skin, then getting boiling chip-fast poured into his wounds. A man cutting his own tongue off as a bizarre, uncalled for sacrifice. A man getting knitting pins stuck under the skin of his cheeks and eye-lids, then having his head cut off and stuffed into an empty TV. I could on, but part of the fun is "Shit!, what'll they do next!".

Satisfying. A clever, gritty and challengingly honest and truthful film about rascism (which you may have noticed is a hard thing to come by). A definate bonus was the decision to portray life from the point of a Neo-Nazi, and thus letting us watch and hear the frighteningly solid-sounding teachings he experiences. The logic of white supremasists is for once protrayed not in either good on bad light, just as it, and we as the audience are credited with enough intelligence to decode ourselves what we choose to accept. Until, that is, the slightly dissapointing final 20 minutes. The ending is great, just the set up is a little dry. However, overall a very interesting and genuinely challenging film. It might not be quite the classic it is hailed (mein fuherer) as, and certanly without Edward Norton it would fare half as well, but none the less a definate great film. Give it a go.

A very intelligent, pre-6th sense outing from M. Shalaywhateverthefuck. Very clever (in a kind of stupid-conecpt done suprisinly well sort of way), with some great direction (one the awkward first 20mins were over, the film "found it's feet"). Some pretty good performances, all finalised and definatalely "cheery-on-the-cake'd" by what I beleive is one the best pay off lines of a film, EVER. As always witht his guy's films, stick around for the punchline and it's more than worth the wait. The difference between this and say, The Village, is that with this film, the build up is also fun to watch.

Very effective and affecting Vietnam "epic". A genuinely absorbing film, where a girl my fall in love with 'Bridget Jones', us men can empathise with the ever brilliant Robert DeNiro. Some of the tensest moments I've ever seen on film, the Russian Roulette scens do not dissapoint, and also serve as a massively important backboen to the themes of teh whoel film. However, if you want big-set peice battle Vietnam film, this is not for you. The characters earn their connection with the audience through the sections before and after the war (which is itself rather skipped over), make no mistake, this is a film about the effects of war back at home. But a fucking genius one at that.

Suprisingly clever and dark comedy, despite the less than thrilling "blurb" description. This is the perfect antithesis of a road movie, with a cast of instantly recognisable and satisfying beleivable characters. Don't be fooled by the family-film lies on the front cover, this a definate dark comedy of suicidal scholars, dead body smuggling and borderlien paedophillic children beaty paegents.

"'Fight Club' meets 'Memento'" is the promise on the box, and in a lot of ways this is true. The perfectly post-modern setting, interesting cinematography, constant dark tone and twisting storyline all fit the bill, as does the warped and outcast protagonist. However, in the whole "cult film" category it seems a bit lacking, as it also does in comparison to the films 'Fight Club' and 'Memento' that it is so readily compared to. The final twist is unexpected, only becuase it's so (dare I say it) bland. The whole dual-narrative (this makes sense if you've seen it) angle is poorly dealt with, and though some may say a montage ending explaining in flashback "how it really happened" is cliche, well it worked in 'Fight Club' and 'Memento' and feels sorely missed here. Overall, if you're a fan of this ind of film, the post modern narrative-twister, you'll enjoy this, but not as much as you'd like...yeah you guessed it...'Fight Club' or 'Memento'.

The old haunted house story brought forward to a post-modernistic stylised horror. Not exactly scary, but one hell of a film.

Stylish and quirky, Jean Reno plays the ultimate concentrate of his on-screen persona. 100% sucessful in that it's fully enertaining, with a suitably surreal performance by Gary Oldman he would repeat for the same director in 'The Fifth Element'. See the film that started the Hitman video game series. Also an interesting insight into realistic portrayal or 13 year old girls before peadophillia became the new heracy.

With three cinema powerhouse performers, Antony Hopkins, Edward Norton and an excellent Ralph Fiennes, Red Dragon is a very interesting prequel to 'lambs' with some well dimensioned characters.

The funniest film I've ever seen. e.g "Good morinin' ma'am, and isn't it a lovely mornin'?"
"Up yours, nigger!"
Be sure to see the full version. Easily Mel Brooks' best film, completely annuling him for the painful "Robin Hood".

One of Speilberg's few victories of film-making. Proof he is talented.

Stan, Kyle, Kenny and of course Cartman at their best.

What at first seems slow and underwhelming is, with retrospect, very clever and effective. The everday lives and lack of event in the kid's lives is shown perfectly, with the same morning relived from different perspectives. And in a first for me, the film doesn't make any outward effort to enforce it's ideas with narrative, instead a dream-like repetition of events is shown allowing the audience decide what it wants to think. The only set back is, though perfect for the build up and establishment, the fractured-timesacle jumps and "loops" feel very intrusive on the final scenes. I personally would have enjoyed it a lot more if only the ending had been left "all in order".

Interesting comedy-drama with some good (if a little old-hat) messages. presented with a very un-hollywood moderation. Endearing.

Completely Independant cinema that doesn't try to be more than it is.

Very suprising, different to how I imagined it would be, in both good and bad ways. The first half of the film is classic, the brutal story of the unnamed tribe and their suffering is executed brilliantly, with some great visuals and ideas. There is little I can say that doesn't take from the effect, but rest assured these characters suffer and it is damned interesting/dark viewing. The second half is also, on its own merit, very good. A nice adventure-esque hunter-becomes-hunted chase, with the arduous villains being slain one by one. However, this second, action-driven half does conflict with the first act, and seems to totally reverse the characters. This really is the only major flaw, and as fun as the action may be, it just constantly nags away with the slight confusion of how exactly it ended up coming to be.

A suprisingly watchable film. The slacky-informal style and quick-witted characters, alogn with ironic juxatposition of music, make it clear why people call this "the birth of independant cinema".

A very interesting film. The concept and tension at the start are interesting, and though the middle section does lag slightly in pace and focus there are more than enough redeeming factors. The character by Edward Woodward is so conflicted and disagreeable, his heavy-footed orthodox Christainity really makes you wonder if you should be supporting his bigotry at all. That is, of course, until the brilliant finale, which is delivered with such grim and painful dragging of feet, it really works as a wrap-up and ultimate punch-line to the film.

An extreme pleasant suprise. Ten times better than I had ever imagined it being before watching. We all know the basic plot- Kevin Spacey is a 40-something office-job Dad who becomes infatuated with a teenage friend of his daughters. What I didn't see coming was how flat-out hilarious and instantly likeable Spaacey's character was, playing the "bored nerd" who finally lets himself go to levels of dark sarcasm and flat-out comic genius to levels indictive of Edward Norton in 'Fight Club'. Infact 'Fight Club' is very much an ideal, is somewhat abstract, point of comparison, just for this swap the fighting with teenagerish behaviour and drugs. So overall, a great film with a very good backdrop of interesting, humorous and solid supporting characters, with Kevin Spacey totally tieing the film together with a dazzlign lead performance.

A great, if a little flawed, film. Great (not good, great) points include that- it is a film of the album, in which the narrative of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' is used both as a plot and sountrack (there is no dialogue, we get the awesome Floyd telling us the entire plot). On this note another great bonus for me was hearing extended cuts and rehashes of the classic songs by the creators themselves (plus a few new, movie specific songs- OMFG). Another key point of interest is of course the infamous animation, particularly the instant classic 'Trial scene'. The payoff when 'The Schoolmaster' drops down, and in brilliant old-school animation flails angrily declaring his hatred for "the little shit" is up there on my list of "awesome film moments". I'm also a sucker for "gang momentum" on screen (the basic concept of lots of people fighting/rioting/something on screen is old-as-days but still works for me) so the frequent riot scenes, angry smash-rampages and post-tragic-ironic neo-fascist marches all work . However, the downside is, fun as the violence scenes were, the animation just blitzed almost every second of live action. As soon as the war and rioting stopped for a bit of plot I was begging for the animation to come back (sorry Bob). It is obvious that animation is the medium for capturing Roger Water's ideas and vision, and this film doesn unfortunately have the fingerprints of Alan Parker all over it, as a director who didn't know when to keep his greasy fingers out of somone else's artwork. So, a great film, if only let down by the fact that Parker now and then seems to try and "take over" with some not-as-good live action.

The more Rodriguez I see the less and less sure about him I am. This whole "ironic" skit is still fun, but a few cracks are starting to show. El Mariachi with a budget, this film does have some nice comic moments and of course amazing action scenes. It's just, the cheesiness. I really really cannot decide if Rodriguez is just a guy whole loves to make action films and relish in "delightful" cliches, or just a moron. But yeah, ignoring my hang-ups with the director, this is definately an enjoyable film, especially with the both brilliant cameos from Tarantino and Buscemi. It's a shame they weren't in the film more (maybe we could have cut some of the close ups of Antiono Banderas weird-shaped face).

Not quite worth the hype. Granted, for a film made with $7000 (which is about £3500, woohoo for coversion rates!) it is impressive, and corners are cut to really keep the film together. However, some of these corner-cuts are unfortunately very visible and not very forgivable. Obviously a director who really loves film (duh), it is a bit obvious at times that Rodriguez is trying to "tribute" a few too many styles and methods he's seen, as not all of it works. So, and okay film with some quite big holes and few intruding faults.

Sucessful "buddy" movie about a group of kids on a trek to see a corpse. Realistic in it's ageless portryal of twelve-year old friendship and with some genuinely funny and classic moments. Interesting to see some of the starts too at this age.

Innovative blend of film-noir, taken to the bizarre setting of a high school. But it definately pays off, and the brilliantly OTT dialogue, instantly recognisable characters and general, endless array of film noir "tributes" quickly establish the suspention of disbeleif and allow for a fun and different film experience. The only majot problem would be that, given the budget and low sound quality, some of the rapid dialogue was easily missed, and given that this is essentially a fast-paced crime drama, this realy hinders understanding of the film.

Shockingly dull. When I heard "DeNiro, Norton, Brando" I, of course, assumed I was in for one hell of an energetic spy-heist type movie. But what instead followed was a drab "drama thriller" so unbeleivably by the numbers and ordinary I had trouble staying awake. The first 20 minutes of DeNiro showcase jut about the laziest performance he has ever done, and I never unstood until this movie when critics said "the actor just looked bored with the part". DeNiro looks more set to fall asleep in this film than I was. Then we meet Brando's character, and the term (sorry for this) "fat, washed out past-it loser" kind of sprung to mind. He doesn't act as so much just, well, "talk" the script. Which is, by the way, so riddled with cliches you can tell what everyone is going to say a good 40 minutes before they say it. Thankfully, Edward Norton picks things up a bit, and it is obvious that out of the entire cast he was the only one ballsy enough to put some effort in. The result is a somewhat confused film. DeNiro's character is obviously supposed to be the hero, the "retiring theif" on one last job (see what I mean about cliches? They actually use the line "It's never one last job." Ugh.)but given how yawn-inducing and grey his performance is, I was 100% routing for Norton's character, who I think we might have supposed to have hated. So when the totally uninspired and immedietly obvious "twist" (I use the term VERY loosely) ending arrives, I was extremely dissapointed. The parrallel of Norton's character putting all the backwork into the robbery then getting conned strangely echoes him putting the most effort into his perfomance and being equally conned by the writing. Overall, a barely worth-reviewing film, it's only he efforts of Edward Norton that save this from being the heap of shit is so frequently totters on.

Suprisingly funny and satirical, a nice comment on the whole TV-Star thing, with great over the top characters and great overkill acting. And the fake TV-Documetary "scan lines" theme works well. Yes it's light, a little thin on point and very hit and miss, but fun-not-stupid film that does what it set outs to do (incidently not much). The only real problem is: Over the top characters? Mockumentary? Black Comedy satire of TV Star personas?TV scan-lines? Late 90's? This has "Natural Born Killers rip off" stamped all over it. And given it came out exactly one year after, it should be treated as a possibilty. But questionable plagarism aside, a nice lightweight film.

A (slightly, not amazingly) interesting concept that could in teh right hands have made for a great film. But so many stupid blunders trip the film up and ruin it's obvious potential. The major error of course was the acting and writing. The locked in a maze of cubes idea could have been suprememyl tense if the characters weren't such irritatingly predictable (You know in a film when theres a dramatic pause, and you know exactly what line is coming so it's not as dramatic as it should be, yeah that happens a lot) cliches. Even the actors are terrible, and giventhe script so flat Sameul l. Jackson wouldn't even "cool it up" the hiring of no-brainer wannabe actors was just silly (yes I know they had a low budget, hence don't go to crappy acting schools if you want an actor). On the subject of budget, it is covered very well actually (LOL SAME SET DIFFERENT LIGHTING LOL). Precisely. So yeah. surrealism and solid concept are a nice start, but this film should stand as a lesson that "no matter how good the plan is, you give it to a retard to carry out it'll just get fucked". Okay that's not a famous quote I made it up.