Leisure

This week, Gemma and I bought a DVD player for a piffling 80 Euros. At last I can watch 'new' films again, as I have been steadfastly refusing to watch any English language film that has been dubbed into Spanish (unless I've already seen it). Now that may sound a little stupid at first, but I'm a passionate fan of the films, and it really pisses me off when I see another release, replete with hardworking actors who have their own voices, butchered in a hangon from the days of Fascist dictatorship here.
It really is cringingly embarrassing to watch a dubbed film, though I imagine Spiderman lost very little.

So I can start again at reviewing films that I've seen (though for Americans, this will be remarkably late: imagine you were reading them a year ago, ok?). I've come up with a revolutionary new technique to grade films, books and albums: they will be marked out of 1. So if I recommend it, I'll mark it 1. If I didn't like it, it'll get 0. Kind of binary, hey?

This week, we've watched about seven or eight movies. Some major releases from the last year, some Oscar winners (like that means anything, unless I happen to agree this year), some culty stuff. So this will be a sort of bumper review session.

Welcome To Collinwood – Fun crime jape. 1
Gosford Park – The sort of film I always enjoy. 1
Catch Me If You Can – Longer than I expected, but ok. 1
The Pianist – Excellent and horrifying. 1
Donnie Darko – Faux philosophical bunkum. Very disappointing. 0 *
The Bourne Identity – Surprisingly good James Bond escapades. But am I the only one who isn't convinced by Matt Damon as an action star? 1
Joan Of Arc – Decent effort at Anglo-bashing. Gratified by repeated use of the word 'fuck'. 1
Gangs Of New York – A masterpiece. Long, enjoyable and several ace performances. 1
Bend It Like Beckham – Boring. Mediocre acting, dull plot. Drama school half term project. Unbelievably sucessful. 0

*Actually, here's a longer word about Donnie Darko. I find that films are often recommended to me because they have some sort of philosophical edge/gilding and the recommender thinks that this will appeal to me. On the whole, it doesn't. It's rare to see a truly decent philosophical film, because what's relatively easy to propse and record in a novel or treatise, is very hard to carry accross into celluloid. Donnie Darko clearly has some sort of philosophical agenda, which taken on its own is a laudable enough feature. But what is it? The clever absence of any explanation for anything in this film must seem to some people as the cryptic clue to an incredible mystery of some sort. I reckon the truth's even more cunning than that. This is a cult-film-by-numbers, and has absolutely no deep meaning, no philosophical grounding, no message. Indeed, Gangs Of New York with its themes of the father/son father/adoptive daughter adoptive daughter/son relationships, as well as the fighting, is a far more philosophical picture; The Bourne Identity has a much more enjoyable fake-mystery in it, plus a great car chase. Joan Of Arc has more impressive visions/hallucinations. The Pianist, naturally, has far far (excuse the tautology, but I felt it necessary) superior acting. Catch Me If You Can again has a better, deeper father/son relationship. Gosford Park has… well, a nicer house.
Donnie Darko is possibly the worst film I've seen this year. Probably, I wasn't stoned enough.