Tim's film topic!

I just saw The Lone Ranger, and though I enjoyed watching it, I can't feel but believing that Verbinski was just trying to come up with a new 'pirates of the Caribbean' in a new setting. Yet he never got close to the genius mix that made The Curse of the Black Pearl so great.

He even put a sparrow on Johny Depp's head, make it more obvious

★★★

I finally saw Requiem for a dream. I wanted to watch it for ages but just never did it. And now I did, I'm frankly not sure where to rank it

So i'll just leave this quote from a review which at least describes my idea behind/need for film sometimes (as you can see by the top 2 films):

"If you believe that cinema is an important tool in helping us understand ourselves and that we will only achieve self awareness by plumbing the absolute depths of despair and self-destruction then you must watch Requiem For a Dream."

Things I done gone and seen recently:

Elysium: my expectations were pretty low going in and it was actually an alright film. Nothing especially smart but looked pretty gorgeous, was basically satisfying if clichéd and a South African villain for a change.

My Name Is Nobody: the spaghetti western Leone produced (directed by Tonino Valerii, IIRC, who was the assistant director on A Fistful Of Dollars) with Henry Fonda and some Italian comedy western star (Terence Hill, I think). A really good, fun film, went a bit too cheesy and nostalgic at the end and some probably will like the accentuated buffoonery less than the subtler versions of the same in Leone's films but brilliantly shot, superb Morricone soundtrack and a really strong Leone-styled (possibly even Leone-shot, maybe) opening. Definitely worth seeing if you're a fan of the Leone films.

Escape From Alcatraz: unusually successful for those films that walk the line between being populist grimdark pulp stuff while having something more to aim at. Siegel's focus is extremely tight, Patrick McGoohan is one of my favourite people, Clint Eastwood is, as always, and I really appreciate that the film is confident enough about itself that it doesn't feel the need to tell you what to feel.

Tsotsi: South African film, very engaging, great music. On the one hand, not really doing anything mind-blowingly weird but on the other very effective at what it does and approaches it from an interesting angle. Also, nice seeing a sorta crime drama set somewhere there's very serious crime problems as opposed to British/American paranoiac fantasies.

Smart People: it was on iplayer. Mostly a bland/bad rom-com, where the two leads aren't really verylikeable or comprehensible and then espouse needy preachy life-fixing rubbish and are suddenly happy. Buuut Ellen Paige was incredible as a supporting character, and the film was worth a watch for that alone.

Night Passage: Jimmy Stewart western. He took the part to show off his accordion skills. What more recommendation could you want. Not a great film but definitely entertaining.

My latest film: (it's dutch)