^Good, I've been looking foward to Knowing (despite the Cage Factor). I've been deliberately avoiding any kind of spoilers though
.
Update time:
In Bruges
Finally caught up with this. I love watching films with great scripts, it makes things so much more pleasant! Basically a two-hander between Colin Farrell and Brendon Gleeson as hitmen stuck in Bruges; both are great, the supporting cast are great, the dialogue is razor sharp, the swearing is fabulous, and every character is thoroughly reprehensible, lush
.
It does smack heavily of Sexy Beast though, especially Ralph Fiennes's role (good though he is), and also suffers from some odd cliched choices (one more for the "wait until main character arrives so you can say something meaningful with your dying breath" list).
7.5/10, loses out from the Sexy Beast comparison.
Milk
If this had been around before the Oscars, I'd have known Sean Penn was going to win.
Awesome acting by Penn and James Franco, and in fact the whole cast. The film very carefully documents the rise of Harvey Milk, the US gay rights movement and its political and social fight back against those who try to crush them.
Clever use of stock footage intercut with the drama reinforces the reality and impact of events, and shockingly reminds you just how recent it all is. Although it does teeter a bit close to being the gay Braveheart at times :lol:.
9/10, I thought it was excellent.
Watchmen
Where to start :?.
The graphic novel (aka comic) is revered, and I read it beforehand, so I'll start there. Fantastic though some of it is, I feel it tries
too hard to be clever and significant; for me it's a flawed effort.
And therein lies the problem with the film. It slavishly follows the novel, is inevitably forced to drop some of the clever stuff, and what's left is all the flaws magnified and writ large for 160 minutes. It also fails to bring anything new to the Watchmen experience, raising the question, "Why bother?".
Technically it's visually well realised, and some parts are great - Rorsarch and Dr Manhattan in particular - but the dialogue frankly sucks, the women can't act, and it never manages to distill the novel down to a completely effective narrative. The changed ending is also far too clean, the make-up is awful and the comedy Nixon utterly off target.
BUT, if you
haven't read the novel, you may well get much more enjoyment out of the film as you try to work out what the hell is going on with these nutters in this strange new world.
I don't think it will stand up to repeat viewing though - and the idea of the 4 hour version fills me with dread.
5/10 (extra point for trying).