Finally caught Kung Fu Hustle...OK, I was told it was a great film, not a mere good one. Still, the knife-throwing bit was funny as hell...

I was watching High Fidelity the other night and suddenly had a horrific realisation - my life is panning out that exact way. Still, stops it being a facsimilie of Shaun of the Dead for a change...

Like 80% of the UK population, caught King Kong the other day - £17 at the Odeon Leicester Square...but I wasn't paying anyway - and it was pretty good, albeit half an hour could've been chopped from the start and it would've been full-paced, rather than waiting to get going. But when it got going, the next two hours flew past.

Also playing catch-up with the films I missed with Howl's Moving Castle. Looked good, but just lacked an edge and the quirky charm of most Ghibli/Miyazaki films, especially Spirited Away.

Now, where's showing Nightwatch in the next couple of weeks?

Recently saw both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. I can't remember being more disappointed with movies I was sure I'd love.

Two strangers meet on a train, spend a night together. 9 years later, two strangers meet up - movie runs *almost* in real time before Ethan Hawke has to catch flight. Could have been beautiful. In reality, both movies, and especially their characters, annoyed me.

Before Sunrise suffers from the improbability problem - how to get two strangers to connect enough to get off a train together and fall in love. Hard to do granted, but it was done so badly it made the entire movie utterly unbelievable. Stemming from this, Ethan Hawke's character is so self-assured as to be completely dislikable from the start. It's the better of the two movies, but it would have been so much better half an hour longer with a more thoughtful brigning together of the characters.

Before Sunset is even worse. They haven't seen each other for 9 years, yet there's no awkwardness, not even any surprise upon meeting again (bearing in mind this wasn't planned). More, there's no small talk - they talk, quite literally and lucidly, about life, the universe and everything. It doesn't have to be all avant-garde and post-modern, but these people's behaviour is so far from human nature as to be almost laughable. Presumably it adds to the romance - look, they're sooo natural together, they're soooo meant for each other - but it doesn't take an awful lot of life-experience to realise that, as one of my tutors is often quick to point out, "chaps aren't like that". As the problems of the protagonists develop they appear increasingly self-absorbed and whiney. Compare Ethan Hawke's compaints about his failing marriage with Bill Murray's in Lost in Translation to see what I mean. Where Before Sunrise left me with a sense of apathy toward the film's only characters, Before Sunset instilled distinct antipathy. They were so dislikable any interest in the "romance" was completely lost on me, and from then on the film became what my girlfriend always said it would be, utterly boring.

I guess they do show just how special a movie Brief Encounter is. Apart from that there's nothing to recommend either.

Memoirs of a Geisha, however, manages to successfully overcome an improbability problem with a carefully threaded story, believable characters and utterly sublime photography. Recommended.

Long time ago now, but I didn't look at my watch once during all two and a half/3 hours of Narnia. Must have been special. I loved it.

Not having seen it myself, i cant comment on Geisha... but this is what a mate emailed:

" i went to see the Geisha film today with the current object of my frustration, Miyo, and thoroughly enjoyed her annoyance at the fact that (as well as the actresses), the dances, and music were Chinese and Japan's proudest female traditional occupation was put across as glorified whore. Very funny indeed. And the film changed the cut of the kimono in order to show more flesh. "

But yeah, Narnia was great fun

Caughts nother slice of J Horror, Pulse, last night - in the usual "Give it a quick one-week cinema release, then flog the DVD and await the crappy US remake" schedule so often seen by Optimum Releasing.

OK in a plot-rips-off-Ring-and-The-Grudge-in-equal-measure kinda way, although the ending made no snese and the plot dynamics were a tad obscure. Still, I was a whole 20% of the audience. Good for spotting the people that won't shut up, I suppose, as well as the weirdness of the Odeon Wardour Street.

Walk The Line is formulaic and predictable. Lazy cycle: hero rises from modest roots, hero descends to nadir, hero rises again. Ray was the same, but Ray had Jamie Foxx and the performance was so good it was a joy to watch anyway. This isn't, it's really quite dull and smacks of laziness.

Disappointed really.

Brokeback Mountain, on the other hand, is easily one of the most moving, expertly crafted, beautifully shot and scored movies I have ever seen. It deserves all the awards it's going to get.

There's a Buster Keaton season on at the NFT until the end of march, so I managed to drag myself from my sick-bed to catch The General. It's a brand new (digital) print, restored from the original negs, and finally seeing it on a proper screen with decent sound (i know, i know, it's silent, but that just makes score all the more important) was quite something. Next on my hit-list: Steamboat Bill Jr.

Saw - very good. Brilliant ending, intelligent horror.

The Shawshank Redemption - one of the best ever.

V for Vendetta - miles better than i thought it'd be. An action movie with a brain. the love interest was lazy and tagged on to the point of being laughable, but otherwise a thoughtful and fucking exciting piece of work.

The Proposition - there hasn't been a good Western in a while, and transposing it to Australia and the harshness of that country being "civilised" (Aboriginies for Indians, essentially) was a neat trick. Ray Winstone and Guy Pierce were good, as was some of the scenery.

I was at the World Premier of X-Men 3 in Cannes on Monday night.

Let me put it this way - if you have less Patrick Stewart to fit in a lot more Halle Berry, it'll backfire slightly...

Just caught Brick (well, not "just", a few hours ago...ah, you know where I'm going with this...) - pretty darned good if you accept it as a film noir, just set in a High School.

Well acted and some good lighting to create the right atmosphere, and surreal enough to pull it off. That, and the annoying Aussie from Lost dies.

Two films seen recently that i've had in my dvd collection for aaaaages but never got round to watching : Lost in Translation (bloomi' marvellous, why did i not see this before!!??) & Sideways (Excellent film - funny, moving, well written... could go on for ages about this one).

Finally got around to watching Sideways the other day (now making it only 19 DVDs I need to find time to watch...), rather good indeed.

Also got the urge to watch Carnival of Souls and The Shining after seeing the new Streets video the other night. Anyone else think he ran out of ideas two thirds of the way through A Grand Don't Come For Free?

I think he ran out of ideas two-thirds of the way through coming up with his stage name...