What I Just Watched?

Tropic Thunder (2008), Ben Stiller returns to directing for the first time since Zoolander (2001), here he makes a very funny satire on Hollywood movies and the egotistic actors that inhabit it. It all takes place during the shooting of a big-budget Vietnam War epic, which has been going over-budget, mainly due to a few on-set accidents and it's over-pampered actors, which includes action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), gross-out comedy actor Jeff 'Fats' Portnoy (Jack Black) and intense Australian Method actor Kirk Lazarus (a blacked-up Robert Downey Jr. :shock: :D). In an attempt to save the film, it's director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) decides to shoot the film guerilla style, placing the actors in the middle of the jungle where there are real guerilla terrorists, but non of the actors realise this, thinking it's all part of the film!! It's good to see Stiller back directing, here he's created a very funny film with some funny moments and it's well made as well. He's been able to attract a big name cast for this film, including Nick Nolte, Tobey Maguire, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Voight and an unrecognisable and foul-mouthed Tom Cruise!! :shock: :D It's Cruise and Downey Jr. that are well worth the price of a ticket alone!! ;) 4/5

Brought Cuch,Jr. to this this afternoon.He loved it.Was pretty entertaining really,maybe not as 'cool' as the CN shows and certainly more 'kiddie-friendly' but good fun nonetheless... 6.5/10

Tropic Thunder - One of my anticipated movies of the year, and I'm glad to report it did not disappoint. From the start with the fake trailers (can someone make Satan's Alley, pretty please?) right up to the end and the credits scene, at worst I had a smile on my face. At best I was howling with laughter! I, for once, agree with the majority of online reviews in that Robert Downey, Jr and Tom Cruise ( :faint: ) steal the show. Possibly the comedy of the year, a must see!

The Name of the Rose (1986), based upon Umberto Eco's allegedly "unfilmable" novel. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud creates a visually dark but beautiful whodunnit. Set in a Benedictine Abbey in the 14th Century, unconformist monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery), is asked to help solve a murder which has occured on the eve of an important conference. He and his apprentice Adso of Melk (Christian Slater), investigate the murder, but to complicate matters, more deaths start occuring throughout the abbey. It's a very dark and very grotesque film, but it's well shot, and director Annaud gets good performances from his actors, (one of Connery's better roles), plus, the sets designed by the great Dante Ferretti are mind-blowing and very authentic. Oh, and look out for a cameo from a young Ron Perlman, as the demented hunchback Salvatore. ;) 4/5

Revolver (2005), poor Guy Ritchie was really clutching at straws when he made this confusing take on existence, brainwashed by his wife's interest in Kabbalah. It has confidence trickster and gambler Jake Green (Jason Statham in a dodgy wig), who after 7 years in prison, is out to get revenge on crime kingpin Dorothy Macha (Ray Liotta), but he finds himself working for 2 low-life loan sharks Zach (Vincent Pastore) and Avi (André Benjamin), in which his money has gone into funding their illegal enterprise. There's a good film in here somewhere, but it's all too confusing to make a head or a tail of, it's as if Ritchie has an intellectual, philosophical twin brother, and he turned up to make a film. It's guaranteed to leave you with a big headache, Ritchie bit off more than he could chew with this little experiment, and the sight of Liotta walking around in his underpants is a truly traumatising sight!! :shock: 2/5

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), Woody Allen creates an enjoyable homage to the old detective films of the 1940's, as well as the fast-talking screwball comedies of that era as well. Woody plays insurance investigator CW Briggs, who is non-plussed at having the office where he works at being re-arranged by efficiancy expert Betty Ann Fitzgerald (Helen Hunt), however, at a party, they're both hypnotized by a criminal hypnotist The Great Voltan (David Ogden Stiers), who after the show is finished, telephones Briggs and has him carry out jewel heists on estates for which he designed the security systems for. It's a light and breezy film, not Woody's best film but far from his worst. He does good with recreating the look of New York in 1940, and has a good supporting cast, including Dan Aykroyd, Elizabeth Berkley and Charlize Theron. 4/5

Cliffhanger (1993), one of Sylvester Stallone's best films, post Rocky and Rambo. A very suspenseful action film, and one of the few great action films of the 1990's. Sly plays Gabe Walker, an expert mountain climber and rescue worker, who quit his job after a tragedy. But, he is soon called back to those perilous peaks once again after a heist involving the theft of 3 cases containing $100 million which belongs to the U.S. treasury is lost in the mountains by a bunch of thieves led by Eric Qualen (John Lithgow, with a comedy English accent :P). But, Gabe isn't gonna take any shit from this lot, and tries to ensure they don't get away with it. It's very well made and it's very suspenseful as well, with some of the rock climbing stunts being amongst the most breath-taking ever caught on film, director Renny Harlin also does well with the action as well, it's very violent, but in the long term, it's just a load of big, dumb fun!! :D 4/5

Cobblers with a capital C -5/10 Though 1/10 for Hugh Jackmans comedy hairdo :D

I thought it was absolute rubbish :D

You're not the only one Nicola, it could have been better as well... :P Anyways, here's two better films I saw last night. Basic Instinct (1992), Paul Verhoeven, cinema's most beloved dirty Dutchman, was at the peak of his powers after Robocop (1987) and Total Recall (1990), he was then given an exciting erotic thriller. Set in San Francisco, it has troubled police detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas), who is leading an investigation into the murder of ex-rock star Johnny Boz (Bill Cable), who was killed with an ice-pick during a session of wild sex. Curran's investigation leads him to crime thriller author Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), who was having a relationship with Boz, she proves to be very clever and very cunning. even though Curran believes it was her who killed Boz, they enter into a psychological but erotic love affair, but when a couple more deaths occur, Curran suspects Tramell even more, and his psychiatrist Beth Gardner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who knew Tramell from college, becomes a suspect. The film is famous for the leg-crossing scene, but that aside, it is a very suspenseful and gripping thriller, it still stands up over a decade on. It has the usual touches of over-the-top madness you'd expect from Verhoeven, but it also has touches of Hitchcock about it, (especially Vertigo). Alot of people are quick to dismiss this film as cheap erotica, but they're wrong, it's very stylish and well made. However, Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas would next do Showgirls, and we all know what happened there... :P 4/5

Melinda and Melinda (2004), after a few flops, Woody Allen got his act together, and pulled off a film with a similiar structure to his own Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). It starts off with a dinner between two successful playwrights, Max (Larry Pine) and Sy (Wallace Shawn), who hear a story about a woman called Melinda (Radha Mitchell), who is trying to get her life in order after some troubles. What follows is two versions of her trying to get her life together, as the two playwrights discuss whether it can be a tragic story or a comic story. There's a tragic version where she is a suicidal depressive, who finds brief solace with her old schoolfriend Laurel (Chloë Sevigny), her husband actor Lee (Jonny Lee Miller) and musician Ellis Moonsong (Chiwetel Ejiofor). In the comic version, it has Melinda as a free-spirited neighbour to filmmaker Susan (Amanda Peet) and her stuggling actor husband Hobie (Will Ferrell). After Melinda becomes friends with her neighbours, Hobie finds himself falling for Melinda. It's a very clever film, and the two segments of the film compliment each other, the tragic version is very powerful, and boasts some very good performances, whilst the comic version, (the better of the two), has some of Woody's best dialogue in a long time, and quick appearances from Steve Carell and Josh Brolin. One of Woody's better recent ones, before he went off to London and Barcelona... ;) 4/5

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