Nashville (1975), Robert Altman has always had a taste for making offbeat character pieces, combining the comedic and the dramatic. Here, he sets a gold-plated standard, with a satirical look at the country and western music scene in it's titular capital. This sprawling epic is set over a few days in Nashville, Tennessee. It follows groups of characters performing throughout the city in the run-up to America's Bicentennial birthday, which will climax with a political campaign by the mysterious Hal Phillip Walker. Such stories include reigning queen of Nashville Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley), curious BBC journalist Opal (Geraldine Chaplin), superstar singer at the Grand Ole Opry Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson), married couple Del Reese (Ned Beatty) and Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin), the latter is having a clandestine relationship with folk-rock singer Tom Frank (Keith Carradine). It's a brilliantly realised film, combining Altman's trademarks of overlapping dialogue, improvisation from the actors, (they wrote all their own songs!!) and documentary style shooting. (Altman shot so much footage, that it nearly became TWO films!! :shock:) It's a brilliant cast, and it is a very powerful, with some dark humour throughout, and it's a better film than Short Cuts, and once you see this film, you will become a fan of country and western, bluegrass and the Grand Ole Opry. Plus, you'll want to go and visit Nashville too!! :D One of Altman's very best films, and look out for cameo's from Elliot Gould and Julie Christie as themselves... :D 5/5

Fool’s Parade (1st view) – This 1971 film sees James Stewart as Mattie Appleyard, a man released from jail in depression-Era American after serving 40 years. His attempts to receive pay he earned for working in prison are hampered by prison captain Doc Council (George Kennedy) who wants to see Mattie and two fellow released convicts killed. Stewart is always watchable and this is the case here even though it’s far from being one of his best performances, and Kennedy plays one of the most repulsive and unlikeable villains I’ve ever seen – 3/5 We Dive At Dawn (1st view) – What would British WWII films be like without John Mills? He seemed to have been in every one ever made! In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, The Way To The Stars, Dunkirk, Ice Cold In Alex, The Colditz Story, So Well Remembered, King Rat, Tunes Of Glory, I Was Monty’s Double and this fine submarine drama. He plays the captain of the Sea Tiger, a sub charged with the mission of sinking a German battleship. A lot of the scenarios seemed familiar from many other such submarine films (U-571 in particular) but this is one of the very best of the genre, and pretty much all of the characters seem human rather than caricatures. Being made in 1943, the ending was really never in doubt, but it’s a great ride getting there – 4/5 The Proposition (2nd view) – Not seen this since the cinema, and I probably like it a little bit more second time round. Rarely has a film ever made a time or a place seem so inhospitable. You wouldn’t want to live in Australian outback in the 1880s. Not afraid to show some blood and guts, good performances from all the cast (ray Winstone especially) and an unnerving score. A winner – 4/5

The Fountain (2006), Darren Aronofsky had originally envisioned a sci-fi epic focusing on the quest for eternal life, it didn't quite turn out that way, what he made instead was something smaller and more focused, a sci-fi epic with a small-scale independant spirit. Covering 3 timelines and spanning over 1,000 years, it follows 16th Century Spanish conquistador Tomas (Hugh Jackman), searching for the Tree of Life in the Mayan jungle, in the present day, Tommy Creo (Jackman again), is a scientist doing research, and he is looking for a cure to save his cancer stricken wife Izzy (Rachel Weisz), and in the distant future, Tom (a bald Jackman), is travelling through space in a bubble with a tree heading towards a dying golden nebula in an ecospheric bubble with a dying tree, hoping to rejuvinate the tree back to life. They all have the tree in common. It's a very weird film, and it is quite bleak as well, but it's a film about death, and how it's something we shouldn't fear but come to accept. It's a flawed film, and certainly not for everybody, but at least it's different from all the big-budget sci-fi films that do the rounds. Oh, and look out for Randy from My Name is Earl... :P 4/5

Man of the Year (2006), Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson takes a stab at politics in this dark satire, (falsely advertised as a comedy upon original release), but it does come up as a wasted opportunity. It has comedian Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams), who is successful at hosting a news parody show, who decides to run for President of the United States. However, this year, the votes will be done by computer, but it turns out there's a technical glitch, and Dobbs ends up as the winner of the election!! However, at the company who devised the voting ballots, employee Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) is trying to expose this glitch, but someone doesn't want her to reveal the truth, this means she's gonna have to fight her way to the top to tell the President-Elect the truth. On one hand, it's a funny film, but it's not quite a comedy, on the other hand, it's a paranoid thriller, but it's not quite a thriller. That's the problem, the film can't make up it's mind of what it wants to be. Whilst it is a good idea for a film, and Williams is in his element here. It does come up a bit short. Methinks there's an alternate cut somewhere, where the film knows what it wants to be... :P 2/5 Oldboy (2003), from South Korean director Chan-wook Park comes this dark, brutal, sometimes unwatchable and mysterious thriller which has gained a big cult following and lots of critical acclaim wherever it played. It begins with Oh Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) getting drunk one night and then mysteriously disappearing. Turns out he's been imprisoned in a shabby room, and he will remain in that room for 15 years. When he finally gets out, he wants to know who is responsible for this, and he wants vengeance, he receives help from short-order cook Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), with whom he feels strong affection for, but when he does learn the truth about why he was locked up and what happened to his family, Oh Dae-su is driven to madness. It's a very bleak film with a black splash of pitch-dark humour to it's visuals, but it is very well made, it is also very powerful and nowhere else in the world would you get films like this made, (there's a scene of Oh Dae-su eating a live Octopus!! :shock: And the revelations that come at the end are horrifying.) But, it's an acquired taste of film, it might be hard to swallow at first, but the after-affect is mindblowing!! 5/5

I started to watch Robin Williams in a film on sunday something about hiring a motorhome I forget what it was called now, and switched it off after struggling with it for 40 mins, what the hell has he become! I never liked Oldboy when I first saw it about 3 years ago after reading your synopsis Donnie maybe I will give it another try, but I really hated it. well I finally got to see this : I liked it very much, certainly was biting my nails and peeking behind my fingers for most of it. Some things grated in it, too much shouting and silly scenarios where you think why on earth did they do that, but then that makes a film. Spoiler Dont look if you havn't seen.. I really didn't like that ending it made me feel quite flat and let down almost like it was a quick fix tie up, but probs just me. I couldn't quite go to 4 but an ok 3.5/5 from me ..

Four Christmases - Light and fluffy feelgood christmas film. Some good cameos from Robert Duvall and a woman who I think was in The West Wing and played the press secretary after CJ. The best thing about it though was Reese Witherspoon who is just absolutely adorable. 7/10 I know I have been away and should not come back and moan but... did we not have rules about enormous pictures being posted in every post. No pont being coy I am talking about you Donnie.

I was told that as long as the images are kept within a threshold of 480 by 640 pixels, then that's OK. As far as I can see, I haven't broken any rules... :P Oh, and Madge, that film is called RV... ;)

Lakeview Terrace Good movie with Sam L Jackson back to his old school best. 7/10

Victor/Victoria (1982), Blake Edwards remade a 1933 German film starring his wife, doing what she does best, and winning acclaim and a healthy box-office around the world. Set in Paris, it has struggling, starving actress Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) teaming up with homosexual cabaret performer Toddy (Robert Preston), they come up with an idea to make their fame and fortune, Toddy will represent Victoria as a female impersonator. Basically, a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. :P It's the perfect plot and it works instantly, but matters are complicated when Victoria falls for Chicago entertainments businessman King Marchand (James Garner), who soon finds himself falling for "Victor", but he doesn't really know yet that he's a she!! It's an enjoyable piece while it lasts, though it does resort to Pink Panther style slapstick and farce once too much, but the songs are well staged, Julie Andrews had such a brilliant voice, and it does have some good cameos from the likes of John Rhys-Davies, Graham Stark and Arthur out of On The Buses. :P 3/5 Zabriskie Point (1970), Michelangelo Antonioni went to America with this film, and it nearly destroyed his career in the process, and from what's on display in the film, or rather, what isn't on display, it's lucky he even redeemed himself after that!! :shock: Made at the tail-end of 1960's America, and the Flower Power generation, it follows two students, Daria (Daria Halprin), who's helping millionnaire property developer Lee Allen (Rod Taylor) build a village in the middle of the desert. The there's dropout Mark (Mark Frechette), who's wanted for murdering a police officer and stealing an airplane. WHAT ON EARTH DOES THIS FILM MEAN?? This is what happens when you give an arty, Italian director like Antonioni a blank cheque to make an American film, it is a disaster on an epic scale, but it LOOKS beautiful, it's beautifully shot and it does feature a music score by Pink Floyd and Jerry Garcia. But, it's films like this which would be the death of the New Hollywood era. Consider it as a cautionary piece. 1/5

"In this English-language remake of a deconstruction in the way violence is portrayed in the media, a family settles into its vacation home, which happens to be the next stop for a pair of young, articulate, white-gloved serial killers on an excursion through the neighborhood". Uncomfortable, disturbing and sometimes amusing. Michael Pitt is very good but the creep factor definitely goes to Brady Corbet who plays his equally screwed up partner. It's not an easy film to watch but it is very nicely shot and has some really stand out moments in terms of invention. Naomi Watts is brilliant a usual but Tim Roth annoyed the hell out of me. Not his best role. 4/5

There's no way I could bring myself to watch that,far to disturbing for my tastes. I've read a synopsis of the original 1997 version from the director Michael Haneke that was enough for me,tbh I cant think why anyone would want to make another version but there you go just me again. Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull: Loved the story maybe some of it was a bit ott but then it's Indi we accept that. Cant say I was that taken with Shia he was ok but nothing to make me think he's going to be any great shakes in the future. Wonderful to see Karen Allan again in the role we know her best for. 4/5

The Edge Of Love (1st view) – I often wonder why actors are drawn to projects that seem similar to recent outings. In 2007 Keira Knightley was in Atonement, a drama set in WWII in which the man she’s romantically involved in goes off to fight in the war. This 2008 film sees Knightley in a drama set during WWII in which the man she’s romantically involved with goes off to fight in the war. That’s really as far as similarities go though, as this is more a love square story between Knightley (not bad at all, even if the Welsh accent takes getting use to), Sienna Miller (crap), Cillian Murphy (very good) and, as poet Dylan Thomas, Matthew Rhys (also very good). It’s a somewhat slight story, but it’s enough to keep it interesting – 4/5 Cloverfield (2nd view) – Saw this at the cinema and it was a simply mesmerising experience that literally blew me away. On the small screen it’s not quite the same, but it’s lost none of the excitement. The concept works magnificently and the whole thing is an edge of your seat thrill ride. Bloody fantastic piece of music at the end credits as well. – 5/5 Be Kind Rewind (1st view) – Mos Def and Jack Black create quick, ultra-low budget versions of famous films after all the video tapes are erased in their rental store. A neat idea that that the film unfortunately fails to live up to. The film is best when we see these, often very funny, recreations (Ghostbusters, 2001, King Kong), but the rest of the film is bogged down in a subplot regarding the history of the local community (It’s mentioned that one of the films they recreate is Gummo. I’d love to see that, it sure as hell couldn’t be any worse than the proper one!) – 3/5 The Majestic (2nd view) – In 50’s Los Angles, screenwriter Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is accused of being a communist and is blacklisted. Drunk, he drives his car off the road and wakes up in the town of Lawson, where he is embraced as Luke Trimble, a soldier who disappeared 9 years earlier in WWII. The 4th film from Frank Darabont, this doesn’t live up to the reputation of his prison films The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, but it’s still an honest and worthy effort, and Carrey gives his second best performance. It has a kind of Frank Capra feel to it, and that can never be a bad thing – 4/5 In Bruges (2nd view) – A rewatch of this shows that it’s lost none of its offbeat charm. Frequently hilarious, the laughs are well balanced with a dramatic storyline, and the whole thing ends up being strangely moving. Colin Farrell has never been better; Brendan Gleason reminds us once again of how good an actor he is (and make us wonder why he rarely gets parts as good as this) and Ralph Fiennes as a cockney mob boss needs to be seen to be believed. Superb – 4/5 Gambit (2nd view) – This con film from 1966 sees Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine set about stealing a priceless antique from the world’s wealthiest man, Mr Shahbandar (Herbert Lom). The first 25 minutes or so sees the con in action, everything going perfectly, until it’s revealed that this is only how Caine envisages things playing out. Needles to say, thing don’t go quite so smoothly when the plan takes place. There’s a nice chemistry between the two leads, and Lom also creates a highly likeable character, but there’s litle to stay in the memory once he films has finished- 3/5 Brute Force (1st view) - Burt Lancaster’s second film sees him play Joe Collins, an inmate at Westgate Prison, whose main adversary is the sadistic head guard, Captain Munsey, played by Hume Cronyn. The film sees Lancaster and his cellmates hatch an escape attempt, and though similar situations have been seen in countless films since, the acting on display and the level of violence (it did seem to be quite brutal for a film made in 1947) make sure that this stays both fresh and memorable. The only real downside are the four flashbacks as we see how various prisoners ended up on the wrong side of the law. Small quibble though.

Pom Poko (1994), from Japanese animation creators Studio Ghibli, comes this beautiful looking, but ultimately dark themed allegory on environmentalism, a sort of Japanese Watership Down if you will. The film starts in Japan in the late 1960's, when there was an economic boom and a population surge, to deal with this, New Towns had to be built, which meant forests had to be raized to the ground to make way for these new developments. But, this affects a huge colony of raccoons, or Tanuki, if you will, decide to get a sort of revenge upon the humans, by reviving an old form of transformation, meaning the raccoons can use "illusion science" to transform into almost anything. They use this to transform into humans and other things to try and sabotage the construction of the New Towns. It's a light looking film, but it does have a very dark undercurrent flowing throughout. But, it is a very imaginative piece, and it's fun while it lasts, it looks beautiful and the raccoons are cute as well!! :) 3/5 Silent Hill (2006), based upon the computer games created by Konami, directed by Christophe Gans, (who made Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)), and written by Roger Avary. This creepy but silly horror film has Rose (Radha Mitchell) who is worried about her adopted daughter Sharon's (Jodelle Ferland) recuring nightmares and sleepwalking. She has also mentioned the town of Silent Hill, West Virginia. So, Rose and Sharon drive there, but after a police chase and crash, Rose wakes up to find Sharon has vanished, and Silent Hill is a ghost town stuck in an eerie limbo between life and death. It's a wonder Stephen King never came up with the idea for this, it's his sort of thing, and it would have been better. It's good while it lasts, but it does drag on a bit towards the middle, and Sean Bean's performance as Rose's husband Christopher does seem wasted, but it's one of the better video game adaptations. Oh, and if you're wondering where you've seen Jodelle Ferland before, she was Jeliza-Rose in Terry Gilliam's Tideland... :P 3/5 Clerks (1994), this is where it all began for Kevin Smith, the film that set the ball rolling for his career, gave the world endlessly quotable dialogue. Made for a meagre $27,000, it became an instant cult hit, and remains one to this day. It has Dante Hicks ((Brian O'Halloran), a clerk at the Quick Stop convieniance store, who is asked to work on his day off, (cue the repeated line "I'm not even supposed to be here today!!"), he hates the job and he hates the customers even more. Next door, there's a video shop which Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) works at, he has no respect for the customers either, and he'd rather hang out next door at the Quick Stop with Dante. It's a funny situation because it's true, and even the dialogue sounds believeable ("I'M 37!?" :shock: :D), but most customers are assholes, but it's a living. For Smith, the rest was history, and he's made some equally good films as this, and it introduced the two stoners Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) upon the world. It hasn't been the same since!! :D 5/5 Grave of the Fireflies (1988), from Studio Ghibli, comes this heartbreaking and tragic tale set during the tail end of WW2 in Japan, and how the American bombing affected Japanese lives, based upon a semi-autobiographical book by Akiyuki Nosaka. It has two orphaned children, Seita and his younger sister Setsuko, trying to survive after their mother was killed in the firebombing of Kobe, and their father was killed whilst fighting at sea with the Imperial Japanese Navy. They are sent to live with their distant aunt, who is unsympathetic to them despite all that is going on, so they run away and live in a nearby air raid shelter, but famine sweeps across Japan, and the survival to stay alive becomes desperate and futile. You'd never have thought that Studio Ghibli would have had the balls to have made a film like this, but they did, made by Isao Takahata, (Hayao Miyazaki's right hand man) and placed on a double bill with Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro upon original release in Japan, (can you IMAGINE how audiences must have felt), this is a harrowing and upsetting film, but one of a kind. 4/5