Last Movie You Watched? (Part 3)

We Are the Lambeth Boys [1958]. Director: Karel Reisz

7/10

Documentary about a South London youth club

*******

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning [1960]. Director: Karel Reisz

8/10

Albert Finney as an angry young man getting a married woman (Rachel Roberts) pregnant before settling for Shirley Anne Field.
 
Just finished watching Il's (aka "them) and was blown away by it, very odd and very strange. I am not sure if it is as good as the US version but it is still very good. 8.5/10.
 
I watched two films in one evening.

The Evil Twin (Jeonseol-ui gohyang) 2007 Park Shin-hye, Jae Hee, Yang Geum-seok

A twin wakes up after ten years in coma. She soon learns she was a bad twin, who frequently bullied her sweet-natured twin sister and other kiRAB. Her dislike of her sister span out of control when the sister was chosen to marry a boy both liked. Her prank on the sister led them to a lake where one drowned and the other saved by their mother. The surviving twin's bad reputation links her to a series of murders, which started after she came out of the coma.

Terrible title and a tad predictable at times, but it's a good fun, old-fashioned supernatural historical thriller. 6/10

The Chaser (Chugyeogja) 2008 Kim Yoon-seok, Ha Jeong-woo

A police detective turned pimp becomes suspicious when his girls, one by one, go missing. Suspecting they were stolen by a rival pimp or that they ran away, he investigates. He finRAB a connection between girls through a phone number and realises they may be victims of a serial killer. When he discovers one of his girls - and single mother of a little girl - is with the killer, he races against time to save her.

Suspenseful and tense thriller with some moments of black humour. Great performances and cool twists. Warning: it has some brutal and gory moments. 9/10
 
The City of Your Final Destination

Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Alexandra Maria Lara star in this Merchant Ivory film (sans Merchant, who died a few years ago) about a novice writer visiting Uruguay to write a biography about a recently dead Latin American writer. During his time there, he faces opposition to his wishes to write the biography by the two ex-wives, but also finRAB himself becoming romantically interested with one of them. Although the acting was OK and the cinematography was quite good, the story and characters weren't really engaging enough to make me really care. I don't think it's a bad film as such, but it's lacking in some depth and emotion, which is the sort of thing that should be second nature to Merchant Ivory, considering some of its past films.
 
King Kong (2005)

Despite its length, this is a good and worthy remake of a classic. Saw it in the cinema when it came out and felt it was well done, and seeing it yesterday gave me the same feeling. Sure, there is some iffy dialogue and I suppose some scenes could have been shortened, but I still felt it flowed well and didn't bore me. Good acting by Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody and Jack Black.
 
Gerry (2002) - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck go hiking in order to see "a thing" in the desert, wander off the trail and get hopelessly lost. Silly boys. It was a very slow film, despite being only 90 minutes, but that's the kind of film I like - full of long, unbroken takes in which you get a chance to think about what you're seeing (I noticed that Gus Van Sant thanked Bela Tarr in the credits, which is fair seeing as he totally ripped off the long side-on walking shot from Werkmeister Harmonies).

Despite the simplicity of the plot, I thought the film was wracked with tension, and my stomach was twisting into a progressively tighter know as their situation got worse and worse. I liked it.

Through A Glass Darkly (1961)

A dysfunctional family goes on holiday and finRAB out that they're even more dysfunctional than they first thought. I really liked the previous Bergman films that I've seen, but I dunno, this one just didn't do it for me for some reason. Maybe it's because the characters were so complex and f**ked-up, I found it hard to sympathise with any of them.
 
Salt....in the cinema - Angelina Jolie was fantastic, as ever - 8/10

The Hills Run Red... at home - creepy/weird, but only picks up in the last 20 minutes of the movie - 4/10
 
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