Letterboxd — Your life in film

Fast, furious and vastly entertaining with a majestic performance from Christoph Waltz. It is long and although does not seem too long in the cinema, does on reflection have scenes, like the carriage ride through the plantation, that might have been trimmed or indeed the KKK scene that reminds of Blazing Saddles that could have been chopped altogether. Leonardo DiCaprio is also very good, as is Samuel l Jackson in the most creepy of roles. For me there seemed to…

Watched this again at the BFI Southbank, London in the longer version and have to say that at almost two and a half hours it is too long. The last third from when Crothers embarks on his rescue mission is brilliant and powerful images combine with terrifying music to make it very scary indeed. The fist part where we have the interview and the introduction to the hotel are more or less superfluous and especially disappointing coming after the amazingly…

Prompted to investigate this seeming little film after reading a highly critical piece on this site, which was followed by a vigorous bout of those expressing support and opposition. Always a good sign in cinema! Well, I loved it. Clearly some found it pretentious but I delighted in the believable and funny dialogue and loved the non linear construct imposed by the 500 day counter which is always advising on what day we are in the developing relationship as we…

Not being a fan of Shaun of the Dead, perhaps I should have kept away from this but such is the acclaim in some quarters, I thought I would indulge myself. It starts well enough with an amusing set up and some fine gruesome zombies getting hit very hard. After a while though this begins to pall and one is grateful for the change of pace. Did I say change of pace? The zombies fade away taking our film with…

Really enjoyable and intelligent film. Involving from the start, this is sad, funny, violent and very non PC. For me, the ending was a little too protracted and I would have avoided the false ending that was a bit too melodramatic. But otherwise a joy to watch and very different. Baddies competing in their badness but drawing their own lines they would not cross. I loved it that a guy could talk of all his kills then get soppy over…

Seemingly one of the very few who did not think ‘Shaun of the Dead’ particularly funny, I was not expecting too much from this. How wrong can you be? I won’t go into my reservations about the earlier film but it struck me as a bit juvenile at times, whereas this, despite its slightly off putting title is a very fine piece of comic cinema. It barely puts a flat foot wrong, with its witty and effective soundtrack, its fine…

Surely Hitchcock’s finest film, this sophisticated, dream like swirling concoction grabs you from the start of the hypnotic titles and the opening frantic roof top chase. That slight distance that can seem apparent sometimes between Hitchcock and his actors works in his favour here as we struggle to see our way through this nightmare. For me Barbara Del Geddes’ ‘Midge’ is less satisfactory than the rest because her character seems to not have the same depth or historic connection. She…

Wonderful, beautiful and bloody, this update of the vampire tale has true originality. Worry not about a few subtitles and watch this or regret it. A big surprise for me was just how beautiful this is. Every frame carefully composed and this is not conventional beauty. Indeed some way in there is a breathtaking shot of a small group of snow clad trees, literally sparkling in the sunlight. At this moment I realised that although I had been captivated by…

A very good movie. Economical on style, very few special affects, leaving aside the pioneering steady cam work and an inspiration for film makers for years. It may seem sluggish at first to those used to the breakneck speed of today’s horror comedies. Little humour here though and little back story or any suggestion our killer has been forced to kill by some past traumatic event. He’s just made that way - evil! So we don’t get long build ups…