The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 
I’m practically at a loss for words. Beautiful bleak melancholic portrait of an amiable sociopath and the man who killed him.
Wonderful score, beautiful cinematography with fantastic portrayals of the characters by the two leads make this my film of the year.
Have just finished Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons and I have to say that once you get past the science bit (and Brown has clearly researched the science but has utterly failed to understand it) there is a half-decent plot albeit with a rather obvious twist in the end.
It’s better plotted than The Da Vinci Code as it does actually build to a climax rather than a series of anti-climatic cliffhangers.
The characters are as poorly sketched as they were in The Da Vinci Code though and are little more than stereotypes.
This movie was probably designed to be a wonderful mix of Psycho, Peeping Tom, Wolf Creek and Breakdown but it fails to come anywhere close to any of its’ antecedents. It’s not even the bastard child of those movies it’s the runt of the litter of bastard children.
Don’t bother with this one I found it to be only mildly disturbing and though it’s just 80 minutes long it barely held my interest. It was a very pedestrian example of the genre and they seemed to waste a number of opportunities for shocks along the way.
Most important UK documentary of the decade? Perhaps. Whilst it is not as well made as the Adam Curtis documentary The Power of Nightmares it is very powerful and has a hell of an impact. I only wish more people would see it, but I have a feeling that it will only end up preaching to the converted as those in the know are the only ones that will go to see it.
However if it inspires anyone and moves them to action then perhaps it be said to have succeeded. It made me rethink my decision no to join the march against the War in Iraq, I knew at the time that the government was committed to war and would not be swayed in that by any number of marchers but perhaps I should have stood up to be counted amongst those opposed.
I’m in two minds about it.
Part of me thinks that it was really tedious but another part thinks that it is magnificent extremely well made film. Perhaps it is just that it’s a magnificent extremely well made tedious film.
I will definitely have to see it again and next time hopefully without an audience that is full of teenage boys who were obviously bored out of their minds having been expecting something more along the lines of Seven or something.
It is wonderfully intricate and almost overly obsessive about the minor details. David Fincher the director seems as obsessive about the details of the case as his protagonist Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal).
I think Procedural Harry is a very apt description. In many ways it feels like the cinematic equivalent of something like The Wire and perhaps would have benefited from the wider scope that 10 hours of television gives so that the lives of the characters outside of the confines of the case could be more widely explored.
But then these are not just characters in a film they are real people with real lives they may wish to keep private, nevertheless I would have loved to have seen much more of Mark Ruffalo’s character David Toschi.
I’m almost certain this is a masterpiece but it will need further viewing for me to decide.
Wow the finales to my favourite TV series are just getting better as the week goes on. Heroes was great but I felt a little let down by the rather lame confrontation of Sylar. Veronica Mars was really bloody fantastic but was tempered by knowing that we’d not be getting another season.
Lost takes the prize though. This was an unbelievable double length episode to finish the third season of the show.
I don’t know how but I had an inkling that the flashback was really a flashforward right from the very start with Jack on the plane. Either that or the presence of the beard is an indicator that we are in the Star Trek mirror universe which I guess would fit as the finale was titled “Through the Looking Glass”. Which leads us to Charlie and the events in the Looking Glass station.
The bits in the Looking Glass were excellent. Charlie get beaten by Bonnie and then freaking out both of the women when he explains what he’s doing there and how he’s gonna die and then when that unkillable bastard that is Mikhail turns up he sows dissent between them. I had a feeling that he wasn’t really dead when Desmond shot him with the speargun after Mikhail’s shooting of Bonnie and Greta. Then Charlie died a strangely noble death killed by the bastard Mikhail who I hope has survived the explosion to make it back to the mainland just so Sayid or Sawyer can torture him to death.
What were Bonnie and Greta really doing there? As it was pointed out the station pretty much ran itself without their input!
How and why was Penelope transmitting to the island? Who was she trying to reach? Has her Brazilian team from the second season finale pinpointed the location of the Island?
Goddamit!
They just had to go and pull it out of the bag with the finale of the show and remind me why I love it so much when they get it right that I’m now seriously pissed off that we won’t get a fourth season.
The finale was a good solid episode with a few really bloody fantastic moments.
The whole ‘How do you stop an exploding man?’ thing resolved exactly how I thought it would with Nathan to the rescue, like my friend Trace I saw this happening half a season ago.
Loved it when Ando said Hiro looked badass and Hiro’s response to that. 
Molly Walker’s mention of a man that scares her even more than Sylar. 
Nikki smacking the shit out of Sylar and then Peter presumably absorbed her super-strength was cool and if the blood trail to the manhole is any indication we may yet get the full on Peter vs Sylar showdown we were missing here.
Hiro in 17th century Japan. Hells yeah! 
Cannot possibly wait until the second season. If only I could time travel to the future like Hiro. 
Just WOW! Best episode ever! The last few episodes of the season better be this good.
We’re gonna be having some kinda of showdown between The Others and The Flight 815 survivors for sure when they come for Sun.
I hope we get the explanation for who or what Jacob is too. Also how the fuck does Richard not appear to have aged in 30 years?
I think Jacob in the very brief glimpse that we saw of him looked like Locke but with hair and a bit of a beard. Although given my theorising about what’s going on that is probably wrong and it’s not Locke at all.
I think that Ben became the leader of the Others because Richard recognised he had a special affinity with the island when he learnt that Ben was able to see his dead mother there and by that also have the ability to communicate with Jacob (who or what ever he might be).
I think Ben was able to summon his mother there in the same way that I believe Locke summoned his own father.
Ben fears that the Others may choose to replace him with Locke who seems to have a greater affinity with the island than Ben currently does. Richard undermined Ben’s plan to remove Locke from the group by giving Locke the means to kill his father through Sawyer.
Perhaps Richard is the real man behind the curtain.
Really fantastic movie that was tightly paced and wonderfully directed. A beautifully rendered dystopia. Great performances by the actors and I didn’t even hate Clive Owen in it which makes a change.
It occurred to me also that V for Vendetta should have been filmed this way. Far more convincing portrayal of a future totalitarian British dystopia.
