Estragon

Just watched "Signs" on BBC2. Had never seen it before, and I'm not massively impressed. Shyamalan has begun to focus so much on trying to produce a sense of suspenseful dread being brought about of nothing ostensibly happening - to the point that he has now made a string of films in which nothing ostensibly happens. This was another. Realised a little to late, the last 5 or 10 minutes uncomfortably ratchets up the confrontation to be completely out of character with respect to the entirety of the preceding film. What started off as quite a promising, offbeat alien movie ended up with a white American man beating up a malevolent extra-terrestial invader with a baseball bat. Pretty shite, and very dated despite it being released only a little over 5 years ago. 4/10

That's a fucking laugh!! Ron, you are without doubt the most offensively vitriolic poster on these boards. The way you carry on about religion and Scottish nationalism to name but two of the issues that you've condescended to give us the benefit of your most definitive of opinions is depressing, and for you to come on here to accuse someone else of sanctimony is nothing short of embarrassing.

I don't post on this thread very often, but felt moved to today after finishing "Mao - The Unseen Story". In the early 90s a woman named Jung Chang wrote Wild Swans, chronicling the lives of her grandmother as a concubine to one of China's pre-unification regional warlords; her mother, as a wife of a medium level official in the Chinese Communist Party; and herself as a woman who lived through the cultural revolution and defected in the the 1970s. It was fucking storming, and ever since she and a Harvard professor have been meticulously researching the life, work, and conspiratorial machinations of Chairman Mao - this is the result. To say this book is amazing is to do it a disservice, it is fucking life-changing. This is from the perspective of someone who rarely reads books of military history, it transcends that genre to become a history of a people's plight told through a biography of the man who orchestrated it. Don't be intimidated by the magnitude of this book, its a hefty old tome as one would expect - but if you only ever read one more book, it has to be this one. Astonishing, heart-breaking, upsetting, dramatic - this book will sear images on your brain for the rest of your life.

Utterly tremendous.

Try "East of Eden", if you haven't read it already. I've read quite a bit of Steinbeck, and consider this truly brilliant.

I understand - however, I would argue that "the line" comes a substantial way before shooting a man in the back from 20 yards.

I think any chance of this thread being awash with messages of genuine concern was destroyed on page one. I think the most relevant issue on this thread now, is to what extent spectators have the right to wax lyrical on the actions of others. hardly

tbh - I don't really know either of you. It just appears, on the basis of this thread at least, that you go out of your way to offend her.

Not particularly - I'd rather you just showed a little more decorum.

Steven, what is your problem man? I don't understand why you have to be so openly belligerent about Sam.

:lol:

It was a dreadful mistake by the parents - one that I'm sure they'll be cursing right now. I desperately hope this wee girl is found alive and well, and I am utterly appalled at the attitudes of some of the posters on here.

I read a book of Carl Hiaasen when I was about 16 - about a black girl who wins the lottery and is pursued by a pair of hapless white-supremists, it was quite enjoyable. Cant remember the title.

Those guys are utter charlatans

I watched a great film called Talk Radio on ITV2 last night. A tremendous thriller about a loudmouthed, Jewish radio phone-in host who incurs the wrath of local neo-nazis. Some fantastic scenes in this film, given the fact I'd never heard of it I was shocked by how good it was. A totally unexpected 8/10

My van exploded

big congrats man - although this was the last birthday you will ever have now. From now on, it will be "a joint birthday" in which your present will be something that Duff Man jr will get a lot of use out of

I think you're thinking of "Stars in Their Pies" - the point where celebrites and fem-dom lesbianism meet....

nice one I watched a couple of dvds last night with my flatmates. Little Miss Sunshine, one of the best, most subtle comedies I've seen for a long time. So many opportunities to slapstick up the plot were refused, it was excellent. Beautifully paced, well-acted and starring one of my favourite actresses in Toni Collette. An excellent film 9/10 I watched Open Water immediately afterwards and thought it was a perfect representation of wasted potential. I'm always interested by films that are predominately a single scene and had meant to watch this one since I heard about it at first. With the exception of some wooden acting, and a few horrendously clunky lines. This was a very good film indeed. Well shot, well paced and the concept was terrifying. An excellent study into paranoia, false bravado, and desperation. With slight improvement to the script and two more subtle actors - this could have been a classic. As it was, it was very reasonable indeed. 7/10

not intentionally - who is it?

Last night I had the dubious honour of watching, what I consider to be, the worst film of all time. Having sat through the original Dawn of the Dead, I was hardly optimistic - but this remake plumbed new depths in the already barren nu-metal/horror genre. In a two-hour long exhibition in how to make a film without the luxury of plot or character, Dawn of the Dead looked tailored explicitly and exclusively to the kind of mangy youth with acne, who passes his spare time leafing through gun catalogues with his abnormally oversized right arm while ranting against the constraints of a comfortable middle class upbringing - a youth whose experience of the fairer sex is anime comics - a sullen faced b*****d who resents the company of people with the emotional intelligence to consign this kind of banal, gratuitous, grotesque exhibitionism to the heap. It's not often that one feels compelled to sit through a film as atrocious as this, not for some sort ironic titilation, but to see how far standards have slipped. This bilge made George A. Romero's 1978 offering look like Hamlet in a glaring indictment of how rotten.com and Papa Roach will eventually kill us all. Lucky to score 0 / 10 - treat with disdainful caution.

I went to see Rocky Balboa at the cinema last night - can't be bothered typing out the same appraisal I did in the film thread. Suffice to say, IMO its the best since the original. A thrilling return to form - 8/10

Is Vincent Cassell in that film? A sensational actor, and apparently famed for his energetic approach to improvisation.

I didn't even know there was a film made of it. Was one of my favourite books as a whippersnapper - I reread it this summer after getting classics of amazon.co.uk for £2, cracking stuff.