Scotty©'s Talk

Man on Wire

Philippe is an emotional captivating story-teller.

Upon completing the feat, people kept asking why they did it and with their French ideals they didn't understand why there had to be a reason - it was art, nothing more. I couldn't imagine how a documentary about a tight rope walker would be so entertaining that critics would acclaim it so much I had my doubts, but then, I realized they were right.

Best documentary of 2008.

New York Post | Lou Lumenick
Engrossing and exhilarating documentary.

Defiance

Given this was a true story, without going nuts, there are limits to the variance.

Don't expect any over the top hollywood action. In my opinion depiction of the situation and the battles was fabulously real. Ordinary people, victims of war, rebel against trained soldiers - eventually getting their buttocks kicked - even if some survive, none of them was portrayed as some immortal being. In particular Tuvia Bielski's (Daniel Craig) part, as the leader he breaks down a few times - but fights to live, as this in his opinion is his revenge towards the Nazi occupiers.

The New Yorker | David Denby
Defiance, as it turns out, makes insistent emotional demands, and those who respond to it at all, as I did, are likely to go all the way and even come out of it feeling slightly stunned.

Transsiberian

Although the film itself entails a huge number of incorrect stereotypes, I still liked it. A lot. Mostly because I didn't expect much.

It's probably the most engaging thriller I've seen for 2008, plenty of suspense, fine performances and a story that will hold your interest. It is not particularly original but it's handled professionally. Good score and excellent cinematography to say the least. Too bad it didn't make it to the big screens.

New York Post | Lou Lumenick
Brad Anderson's Transsiberian is a genuine sleeper that jump-starts an almost extinct genre.

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes

The entire film can be forgotten, except for the ending.

The final battle scene is useless to say the least, it felt more like one of those campy Mac Guyver adventures than the faith of the world. On the other hand, the ending is depicted with Caesar's statue, rather than Aldo's, ape and human children sitting aside of each other, treated as equals, which is perhaps the biggest hint.

For me, this put all the series into a new perspective and I fully appreciate it more now. What had previously appeared to an annual rip-off from the 1968's hit movie, Planet of the Apes, turned out to be a well developed storyline with some huge flaws which however can be easily ignored.

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes

Conquest carries on the storyline of the downfall of man and the rise of the apes to power.

It's full of concept/context mistakes that could have been avoided easily.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

By switching the setting of the series from the future to a modern day earth, the producers came up with a fresh approach to the movie.

Beneath The Planet Of The Apes

"We were following Taylor's trajectory, so whatever happened to us must have happened to him."

Everything was bigger and better this time around: bigger sets, more monkey models, a metro station and telepathic mutants than can kill with the power of thought!

...

Not so much better actually. It tries to tell the same story twice as big, but with only half the success.

Planet of the Apes

Philosophical, creative, absorbing and scary. Excellent commentary on religion and just about everything else. I strongly recommend to anyone who has not seen it.

So far I haven't even been able to convince my friends to see it because there seems to be such a strong prejudice against it and some sort of entrenched belief it must be bad; in fact it is one of the finest films I've seen and I can see why it is a classic.

Slumdog Millionaire

Such a shame that I actually had a low opinion about this film, the description on both imdb and flixster sounded way too cheesy.

The storytelling is probably one of the best I have ever seen. Great cinematography, entrancing (if a bit corny) storyline, great acting - although the chemistry between Jamal and Latika was rather dull to say the least.

The narrative is involving and interesting. The interrogation model used to forward the story by dealing with each of the questions he answered correctly was clever.

I even liked the Bollywood song and dance at the end, which is ironic because I don't much like most Bollywood style films, in fact this isn't a Bollywood at all. It kept me awake to say the least.

Congratulations to Danny Boyle, for the marvellous execution, probably the best Independent director out there.

New York Magazine | David Edelstein
The whole thing is irresistibly preposterous.

Slumdog Millionaire

Director:Danny Boyle
Released: 2008
Stars : Dev Patel, Irfan Khan, Anil Kapoor
Genre: Drama/Romance
Country: UK

The story of the life of an impoverished Indian teen Jamal Malik, who becomes a contestant on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to be A Millionaire?", wins, and is then suspected of cheating.

Slumdog Millionire has been heavily praised by critics both here in the UK and in the United States. Mainly due to its unique storyline and beautiful cinematography. Also heavily regarded as one of the best films of 2008. I really have to agree with that and more. Slumdog Millionire suprised me in many ways and is close to as perfect film as you can get.

Director Danny Boyle, whose films I must confess I have not seen a lot of, has been heavily underated both here and around the world. Recently Oscar nominated for his superb direction, I'm 80% sure he'll take home the oscar. The direction in this film is just wonderful to see. Shots that aren't often seen in many American films and ones which really add to the setting of India and give us as an audience a real taste of life in the "slums". What I loved about the opening sequence, or about 50 minutes into the film was that beautiful sequence where the two Brothers are chased by the Police. Added with briliant cinematography and a wonderful soundtrack it was just stunning to watch.

Slumdog Millionire, as I have just mentioned contains some absoulty stunning cinetography, and rightly socar nominated. It's just wonderful to watch a film that really gives us an insight into a world most western people just don't think about or know enough about. The shots of the town, Salim and Jamal lives in added with a touch of great lighting just looked great on the screen.

Slumdog Millionire is definatly not as "feel good" as the film poster makes out. It contains a few gritty scenes, that you will see when you watch them. You don't expect it when you walk in as it has not been advertised that way. In a way that adds to your overall view of the film and perhaps that's why I enjoyed it. Again this is due to the social context within the film. Like I said before, you just don't expect that to happen and a few times in the film, you wonder is that what life is like over there? Well it certainly is. The realtionship between Jamal and Salim is a very close one throught the film. Althought there is some question as to what exactly does Salim get into. Both brothers are left orphans at a young age, and Boyle depicts to us as the audience that many children are like Jamal and Salim. This is evident in the many photos and shots of children in the slums, most of them are orphans and are working for themselves. There is also a little use of documentry like filming in this film, which really does work.

The film tells 2 different stories; one- the story of jamal and the other Jamal and Latika. It's for the rags to riches sotry but also a sublot of romance. What was so engaging is that for many years Jamal was searching for Latika and didn't give up. Most likely a moral message delivered by Danny Boyle.

Acting in this film was done by mainly unknown actors. I think 2 BAFTA nominations for the acting came. It's brilliant to see Dev Patel, known to UK audiences in Skins, suddenly become a huge star around the world. Played the part of Jamal so well and unexpecdily for me as I didn't think someone from Skins could produce such a great performance. Would love to see what he does in the future.

Overall, Slumdog Milionire is every bit as good as everyone says it as and more. Close to a perfect film for me and one of the best film of 2008.

Highly Recomended

9/10