Just thought I'd report on some recent movies I watched. Since I get them first anyway. :p

Children of Men - Dark, evil, dystpoian future. Set in England, the rest of the world has gone to hell and England itself has gone all Totalitarian. It's been 18 years since the last kid's been born, so it's a rather bleak, dreary, evil future.

Anyway, it's a great movie. You can probably get a better synopsis off IMDB, but the movie is quite good. Highly recommend it. Though, as I noted, it's pretty damned dark and evil.

Pan's Labyrinth - Let me say that this movie is entirely in Spanish with English subtitles. The movie didn't mention it, nor did any of the synopsis I read prior to watching it, nor did the advertisement I saw for it. In fact, the advertisement had an English voice over. So, needless to say, I was a bit perturbed that I walked into a movie in Spanish. I believe several people left, in fact. Now, I don't necessary mind watching subtitled movies, but I'd prefer to be aware of the fact ahead of time, especially when I'm shelling out cash at a theatre.

However, that aside, the movie was pretty good. It was really dark...darker than Children of Men. It's set post WWII in Spain and basically follows this girl as she lives in the screwed up fascist Spain and a very odd (and pretty damned evil) fantasy world. The movie isn't exactly packed with violence, but there is some, and it is GRAPHIC. So don't see it if you're a puss about graphic violence. Anyway, I think it's worth seeing, though not necessarily in the theatre.

Aight...anyone else see anything good?

People walked out of the cinema I dont have much trouble with language. My bro and I to see Fearless once and House of Flying Daggers. Both times they were in Chinese, but that just made the film better.

Havent seen those two you mentioned, but I've recently been out to see Smoking Aces. Not a great film at all. Lots of actors, but the extensive story line is both patchy and unnecessary.

Ah, thanks for the heads up. That looked like it had the potential to be really good... or suck ass. I'll be sure to hold off until it's on DVD or something.

If anything can ruin a perfectly good movie it's dubbing... ugh.

Yeah dubbing turns every movie into a comedy. Me and my borthers often joke about some dodgy Italian dubbed films, like Star Wars.

I saw Blood Diamond on Monday, won tickets for the avant-premiere over here...it was ok, but not great. The acting was good (especially Dicaprio, imagine that!) and the action was brutal....well filmed too.

But the moralizing tone and the obligatory love interest messed up the entire tempo of the movie. It wasn't even subtle...very thick and insisting.

Overall I'd give it a 3/5, for the acting and the filming. So worth your money if you don't know what to go see.

Pan's Labyrinth is pretty kewl.

DiCaprio has actually been doing some ok films recently, The Departed for instance, watched that last term and it was amazing. Last time I watched what I think was a dubbed film was FF Advent Children tho, fairly good tho the fact it wasn't real people may have helped

I saw Blood Diamond the other day too. Overall, I liked it, but it wasn't great. Di Caprio just about pulled his role off successfully, and I give him big respect for getting the S.African accent just about right too.

The plot was kind of simplistic and often dwelled on aspects that were obviously there to "fill the gaps" such as the overly-stated emotional ties between the black dudes family (forgot his name), and the whole love thing too between Di Caprio and that journalist woman who seemed to be constantly dripping in sexual flirtation.

Overall, its very watchable. It raises an important issue while at the same time providing some degree of entertainment.