oliver9184

The Hills Have Eyes II (2007) 5/10. Dumb, violent and not scary. National Guardsmen /women are on exercises in that part of Nevada where some A-bombs were tested after WWII. They get picked off one by one by deformed cave people for no better reason than because it's a horror movie. Seeing bad things done to the well-equipped but inexperienced National Guard brought to mind Southern Comfort, and because there's a lot of female action happening in caves The Descent occurred to me too, but this falls way short of those two films.

Paris, Texas (1984) 6/10 -SPOILERS- is a strange, slow German/French/British film drama film set in the USA. It was written by Americans, directed by a German and acted by Americans (Harry Dean Stanton in the lead, and Dean Stockwell), Europeans (Aurore Clément, Bernhard Wicki) and a European-American (Nastassja Kinski). The story is: a separated family is incrementally brought back together after the father is found wandering in the desert four years after vanishing. It's strange and a little unsettling to see European filmmaking sensibilities applied to such an inarguably American setting as the dusty plains of Texas. I can't think of any other films that start this slowly but then actually get even slower as they wear on. Everybody's acting, including the child's, feels heartfelt and sincere but there's just so much of it - and the straightforward not exactly predictable but surprise-free story doesn't seem to justify such wordiness. Things reach a frustrating head near to the end when, on a strange artificial set, Harry Dean and the estranged mother of his child both deliver a huge monologue to each other, which are emotionally charged but I found wholly tedious to sit through.

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) 7/10. Loveable walking hardon Andrew Dice Clay is Ford Fairlane, Rock N Roll detective, in L.A. who gets mixed up in a trashy bad taste 80s/90s plot about kidnapped musicians, blackmail, and special CD-ROMs containing secrets or incriminating things. There's a very unconvincing Koala who meets a sorry end and a hilarious graveyard chase in a hearse in which a (hot female) corpse somehow accidentally gets from the coffin into the front passenger seat and into a compromising position with Ford (who loves it of course).

True Grit (1969) 6/10. As this was remade last year by the blasted Coen Brothers, to predictable acclaim, I knew I'd need to see it sooner or later. I prefer later: because those brothers make films that are always smart and worth watching but usually without characters to like or care about. 1969's True Grit has an old John Wayne wearing an eyepatch and drawing out his lines as slowly as ever. This delivery sometimes grates, because it sounds anything but natural, during talkly exposition scenes early on but it's worth it to see him shouting "FILL YOUR HAND YOU SON OF A BITCH!" at Robert Duvall. That's such an iconic John Wayne line that I'm interested to hear Jeff Bridges's say it- though his Rooster Cogburn didn't win the Oscar like Wayne's did.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) 8/10
New York I Love You (2009) 7/10
The Princess and the Frog (2009) 8/10
Never Let Me Go (2010) 7/10
The Strawberry Blonde (1941) 9/10
The Human Centipede (2010) 7/10
I'm Still Here (2010) 6/10
Green Zone (2010) 8/10
Greenberg (2010) 8/10
The Straight Story (1999) 8/10
The Hole (2009) 7/10
Love Actually (2003) 5/10
Narc (2002) 6/10
127 Hours (2010) 8/10
Empire of the Sun (1985) 8/10
The Road (2009) 9/10
Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010) 8/10
When the Wind Blows (1986) 7/10
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) 10/10
Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre (2009) 5/10
Notting Hill (1999) 6/10
Red Dragon (2002) 7/10
Four Lions (2010) 7/10
Cliffhanger (1993) 8/10
Contact (1997) 7/10
Convoy (1978) 7/10
Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) 8/10
Matewan (1987) 8/10
Best Worst Movie (2009) 7/10
Hero (2002) 6/10
Commando (1985) 8/10
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) 8/10
Catfish (2010) 7/10
Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) 8/10
The Blair Witch Project (1999) 7/10
Cyrus (2010) 7/10
The King of Kong (2007) 8/10
The Indian Runner (1991) 7/10
The Ghost Writer (2010) 8/10
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) 8/10
Bad Ronald (TVM) (1974) 5/10
Tres Dias/Before the Fall (2008) 5/10
Monsters (2010) 8/10
The Getaway (1972) 9/10
Neighbours (1952) 9/10
Mother/Madeo (2009) 9/10
Spider-Man (2002) 8/10
Spider-Man 2 (2004) 9/10
Spider-Man 3 (2007) 8/10
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) 7/10
Legend (1985) 9/10
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) 8/10
Arlington Road (1999) 7/10
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) 8/10
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) 7/10
Benny's Video (1992) 6/10
No Strings Attached (2011) 7/10
Coraline (2009) 7/10
Star Wars (1977) 7/10
Mean Girls 2 (TVM) (2011) 5/10
The Quiet Earth (1985) 7/10
Hachiko Monogatari (1987) 7/10
The Ruling Class (1972) 7/10
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 7/10
City Slickers (1991) 9/10
City Slickers: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994) 7/10