Last movie watched...

[Professor Bear]

We had this exact same exchange further back in the thread, Joe.  My response then was something about Snake Pliskin being a jerk but we still want to see him come out on top - something along those lines.

In general, though: taste is subjective, and I'm allowed to find Godfather's central conceit dull.

[JOE SOAP]

Francis Urquhart on the other hand...


To paraphrase PKD: 'some characters dominate us completely by charming us constantly'.



It can depend a lot on the Antagonist of course, if V didn't have a fascist totalitarian government to blow up he wouldn't be half as appealing.

[Professor Bear]

Never seen House of Cards thanks to the BBCs love of daylight robbery when it comes to pricing dvds of stuff I've already paid for.

I don't recall it being touched upon in the film, but the fascist leader of Britain in the V comic was kind of sympathetic as there wasn't much doubt that he was part of a generation fucked in the head by what had happened during the war and how they built their state in the aftermath.  In the film I think he was just Space Hitler or something, but the comic had this recurring motif of a kind of lost generation who never spoke about or faced what they did, feeding back into the themes of V where only the young could go forward with building something better.
But the comic didn't have the V-Cave, slo-motion ninja fights, or V declaring his wuv for Evey so their relationship could make proper sense like, so it's swings and roundabouts, really.

[JOE SOAP]

I got the impression the leader was more or less withdrawn or disassociated lost in his techno-fetish, like the fella with his dolls, but there is a tragic sense to all the characters. The film is lazy nonsense - V completing his plan only out of love rather than for any anarchist ideal he spent his adult life preparing for was an insulting sell-out.

[TordelBack]

I'm always amazed how many sensible people think well of the V movie.  Despite low expectations I was still shocked by how poor it was, despite decent cast and design. I'm obviously missing something, because as Moore adaptations go I think I preferred LXG.

[Frank]

I'm always amazed how many sensible people think well of the V movie.  Despite low expectations I was still shocked by how poor it was, despite decent cast and design. I'm obviously missing something, because as Moore adaptations go I think I preferred LXG.

It's perfunctory, apart from the final scenes of everyone being Spartacus. Weird that such a pedestrian film could have such interesting real world applications- it's like finding out that Aung San Suu Kyi was inspired by Dave Lee Travis.

[JOE SOAP]

David Lloyd draws a great mask.

[Beaky Smoochies]

I'm always amazed how many sensible people think well of the V movie.  Despite low expectations I was still shocked by how poor it was, despite decent cast and design. I'm obviously missing something, because as Moore adaptations go I think I preferred LXG.

The Wachowski siblings handed it over to James McTeague, the 2nd Unit director on the Matrix sequels, because they were "pooped" after those two movies, a pity, kinda wish they had taken a break then done ...Vendetta  themselves, it would have been a much better film, methinks...

[radiator]

The V for Vendetta film is bloody awful.

[JOE SOAP]

The Wachowski siblings handed it over to James McTeague, the 2nd Unit director on the Matrix sequels, because they were "pooped" after those two movies, a pity, kinda wish they had taken a break then done ...Vendetta  themselves, it would have been a much better film, methinks...

They wrote the film, they wouldn't have fixed all the bad things in it that they were happy with.

[judgefloyd]

I thought V was okay.  Not perfect; I didn't like Steven Fry's character and certainly didn't think it was as interesting as the comic, but, for me, the story was pretty good, there was some quality acting and the idea of the comic came through okay

[Mudcrab]

Watch Comboys n Aliens last night. Well, that was a hell of a lot better I than expected really, had horrible expectations/memories of Wild Wild West. Daniel Craig was awesome and had a chuckle at whatsisname from Justified.

[shaolin_monkey]

God, I hated Cowboys and Aliens.  I had high hopes, which were dashed mercilessly.

The kids have been on a Studio Ghibli craze lately, so I have seen almost their entire back-catalogue, some several times. Arrietty may be beautiful, but if I have to watch it one more time I'll scream! 

I'm quite happy to sit through My Neighbour Totoro a few more times though, and so far that has been my fave of the lot. Very little actually happens, but it's just delightful. The kids and I howl with laughter every time we see the wee girl discover Totoro for the first time.

Grave of the Fireflies I vetted first, and am glad I did. I found it incredibly upsetting, and no doubt the kids would too.  That one can wait until they're older.

[Professor Bear]

From firsthand experience I know that kids are made of sterner stuff when it comes to that flick.  It's adults that tend to be shattered by it.
Although from a different studio, you might want to grab Princess Arete for them from Youtube if they like Ghibli and can follow subtitled films.  It was never released over here after being deemed "too slow" by potential distributors, but I thought it went by pretty fast and think it probably got passed over in this neck of the woods because the princess of the title is presented just as a clever and curious child rather than the traditional super-capable babe savants you get in Disney films.

[Roger Godpleton]

David Lloyd said he liked the V movie.