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Adaptation 7/10 felt a little dated on second viewing and certainly not a classic as I had vaguely thought previously. Nic Cage tries hard in two roles but often feels much less natural than in other roles. Donald Kaufman isn't quite as funny as I remembered and Charlie can get irritating. Both their hairs are exactly like pubic hair. I really dislike Meryl Streep in this but both Chris Cooper and Brian Cox are very good. This is definately worth watching if you haven't ever seen it before but don't expect to be floored by the cleverest movie ever made.
The Machinist 8/10 really pissed me off for the majority of its length because of how dour, and serious, and humourless (and so well-suited to Christian Bale) it is - and I was getting ready with a 5 or 6 out of 10 score - but it completely pays off in the last 15 minutes. The box said it's like Fight Club and Memento, both of which I know I should like but don't, so I wasn't expecting to feel rewarded afterwards. It was totally rewarding and I kept thinking about it all day, so it's totally recommended. It would be a 9 if it wasn't such a slog to get through.
Rob Roy 9/10 was something I had on VHS for years but never watched, so I stuck it on this week and I totally loved it. It's like a cut-price (but still studio Hollywood) Braveheart with guns. Liam Neeson is a duller-witted but strong as an ox William Wallace, and is wronged by a much better bunch of baddies than there are in Braveheart: Tim Roth is a revelation, wringing every drop of dastardly out of his role and John Hurt camps it up outrageously whilst managing to stay credible. These two have some lines that are far, far better than you'd expect from a film like this and pretty much all of the dialogue is superb - very rare for a period piece. There's an offhand, flippant quality about this film that was brilliant and feels much more immediate and real than Braveheart's earnest, almost endless and ultimately rather insincere pomp. If more people had seen it I think this would be almost as classic and well-loved as Prince of Thieves.
The Electric Cowboy 7/10 is another that had been glaring at me from the shelf for a long time. It's a modern semi-Western from 1979 starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. Redford is a former champion Rodeo cowboy gone to seed, sold out and pissed up, whoring himself to advertise a breakfast cereal. He's required by his employers to ride a prize racehorse out onto a stage at Las Vegas for PR purposes but instead rides off into the desert because he's had enough of sucking corporate schlong. Redford may not have much range (imagine him as a baddie!) but he has massive personality and magnetism. This film would probably have bored me stupid without Redford in it, but I was glued and solely because of him I cared about what happened to his character and the horse.
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