General film views

Still pretty busy and couldn't be bothered going to see what's on my local (2012 and Jennifer's Body), both of which I wnat to see but not just now. It's also been bucketing down and I don't want to drown walking to the bus-stop.

I have been watching some DVD's of course, the good and the bad.

My favourite so far is Che Part 2. Saw part 1 but missed the second part as I was skint then bed-ridden when it was in the cinemas. I intended to see it is what I am saying. Part 2 is a terrific film, more down-beat than the first, in that Che is in a campaign that seems under-funded and lacking in manpower from the off and keeps on going, even as his people are knocked off continually by the army. Its a sad film, about the end of a life, of a man wnating to keep going but not recognising the limitations of the situation around him, all contrasted with the success in Cuba from part 1 (although this was also portrayed as a tenuous action for much of the time). The theme seems to be of the tough process of revolution, not the idealism of it's aims, as the characters, while idealistic, have to survive in the real world and keep working, even when it seems absurd. Del Toro is terrific. I am not sure which section I prefer. I really like both of them.

Now to the ridiculous. W is a silly, silly film, even moreso than Alexander, is the Showgirls of political biopics, except Showgirls was better. The one good thing you can say about the film is that Josh Brolin is good as Bush. But he was better in No Country For Old Men and is beaten down by the rest of the film, which goes through his life in terribly written and played broadstrokes, before doing the Iraq war. Now the probloems are legion. First of all Stone lets everyone go Batman And Robin OTT. Everyone is terrible. Its like a panto (Showgirls actually had stupid characters to explain the acting and made more sense that way). Secondly there is no real dramatic structure. It goes back and forward in time but with no reason. Thirdly Stone has no take on Bush. He's just this guy who had lots of powerful friends and was stubborn. Even though I couldn't stand him, Bush seems far more interesting than portrayed here. Its just a wasteful, lazy mess. Stone has yet to make a good film this decade. He seems to be focusing on torpedoing his credibility.

Have seen a few other good films I'll go into detail with later, such as How I Won The War, The Bed-Sitting Room, The Orphanage.

Have also been watching The Simpsons Season 11. Its pretty good so far. I've been avoiding the later episodes as the quality dipped pretty badly after a time but this season doesn't seem so bad. Yet.

Also watched the Dr Who special Water Of Mars, which was not bad but wasn't as scary as it could have been due to everyone running around too much, yelling and shouting, not allowing an atmosphere to settle. Plus the plot was very reminiscent of John Carpenter's very flawed Ghosts Of Mars, with ex-inhabitants of Mars coming back to haunt the humans on the planet. I'm glad the show is getting a reboot as these specials are essentially useless. Instead of having a series of gutsy end of era stories with real stakes being upped, they simply seem content to be the same old stuff with vague additions to the end.

Anyway, I'm off.