Writers Block.

I have totally hit a wall with my assessment piece, so here are some short reviews of some films I have seen recently, new and old:

Waltz With Bashir - ACE! Looks phenomenal, and I found it refreshing and very interesting. I find it hard to write about things that I love as much as I loved this film (The fact that it was about 2 or 3 weeks ago that I saw it probably doesn't help either). It did that thing to my brain where any analytical parts are switched off and I was just engrossed in it. This and Dark Knight are my favourite films of the year. (Yes, I thought it was even better than The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, which the regular among you may remember me gushing over a few months back)

Rome: Open City - Subtitled back in a time when it was seemingly deemed only necessary to translate the dialogue that's essential to the story, which is disconcerting at first, but once you get used to that it's an interesting account of how Italy was during the second world war, and shows that actually Italians weren't necessarily particularly happy about living in a fascist regime.

Double Indemnity - Micaela made a point when we watched this that it could be seen as more of a comedy than a thriller. Either way, film noir or black comedy, it's a quite good film. Enjoyable but not, for me, particularly memorable. Apart from the fact that the main guy in it looks pretty damn cool lighting matches with his fingernail, and is almost constantly smoking. How times have changed, eh? Oh, and the main woman in it who is supposed to be so attractive that a man is willing to murder for her, isn't actually very attractive at all.

Gommorah - Gom-BORE-ah.

Brazil - Yes, the Terry Gilliam film. Yes, I hadn't seen it until last week. Now, there may well be a backlash against this opinion, but I was disappointed by this film. I love Terry Gilliam's imagination and absolutely loved Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, Twelve Monkeys and work with Monty Python. However, I found Brazil kind of boring. And it was too long. There were some very funny bits and I can't fault the look of the film at all, it looks incredible, but the content of the film is just so overstretched, and I don't think it's anywhere near as profound and meaningful as it thinks it is. If I had a marking system for these films, this would get 3 out of 5. It's alright. If Terry Gilliam didn't have such an incredible eye though, it would have been painful viewing.

In Bruges - Proof that a dreadful trailer does not mean the film is dreadful. Seriously, did you see the trailer to this film? Awful. The film itself though is not only pretty well made but is absolutely hilarious. I honestly can't remember the last film that made me laugh this much. (Actually it might have been Dodgeball. Or Talladega Nights. Not sure though. Has there been something since then?) Colin Farrell is really good in a comic role, and Brendon Gleeson is superb. (I knew I'd seen him in things before, but couldn't remember what. A quick glance at IMDB tells me it's 28 Days Later, an excellent film, and Braveheart, a total sack of shit film.) Really worth watching, and the pretty shots of beautiful looking Bruges are very nice too thanks.

Wanted - Should be really terrible but is FAR TOO MUCH FUN!!

Can't think of any more right now. This was fun though. I will definitely do this again. Whether you like it or not.