I really enjoyed 3:10 to Yuma. I've been watching Christian Bale since "Empire of the Sun", and Russel Crowe is... well, Russel Crowe. It was also fun to spot the guy who plays Wash on "Firefly" behind some really...interesting....facial hair.

Chernie - I also use the subtitles when I watch films at home, but then again, I really am kind of deaf.

I found it interesting to spot Angel, too from the 3rd X-Men movie. I thought he was pretty grody looking.
:)

I just finished Flags of Our Fathers.
I hadn't seen it before.
I have mixed feelings on it. I sorta liked it, I sorta didn't.
There were some strong performances in it, but the story as a whole seemed disjointed to me. I think it should have been told in a linear manner. Maybe it would have made more sense. But the jumping back and forth was confusing to me.
And, for the record, I didn't hate Ryan Phillipe in this one. He was alright and like iSm was saying to me earlier tonight, he was one of the few likable characters in this film.
The whole "who was in the picture and who wasn't" was also confusing to me. Too much info crammed in in a manner that seemed not well thought out.
I think Letters from Iwo Jima was a far superior film. It also feels like both were directed by two different people, which it wasn't.
Since both were shot close together and by the same director, it would have been nice to see a bit of overlapping between the two films. But there wasn't much except the suicides in the tunnels.
I give it a 2 and a half star rating. I'd give Iwo Jima 4 stars.

Even porn? :)

Porn with French subtitles makes it more ligitimate. ;)

For the record (and not to be disagreeable with the esteemed Mr. Cricket or anything), I found Fags of Our Fathers completely comprehensible, and I LOVED the non-linear storytelling (as I tend to in all films that employ it to good effect, which I believe this one did).

It's inevitable, but a shame, that it must be compared with its "companion" piece, Letters From Iwo Jima ... but I found the Flags themes of propaganda and the nature of heroism, the oddities of created reality and the consequences of inner moral conflict far more compelling than the rather straightforward war drama of Letters.


They were both excellent films. Letters was an intense battle pic, infused with sadness and grief for a "side" we'd been taught to view as "enemy." Flags, on the other hand, played with time and space and reality in a surprisingly interesting way (imo). As I said when the pics first came out, Flags ultimately fell a bit short of far loftier cinematic goals than those of Letters ... but I give it higher marks for the braver effort.



And Ryan Phillipe comes off pretty well in it ... a rare achievement in itself. ;)

Why do I find this typo so amusing?

Sorry, not a typo ... just a bit of enjoyable code for my pal Gemini ... before I went on to ever so respectfully savage his opinion.

Can I just say that Almost Famous is a terrific film. I just watched it again for the umpteenth time. It's infested with intriguing characters, it has great dialogue and cool music. Awesome.

Has any seen the Spiderwick Chronicles yet? I'm thinking of taking myself on a date to see it tonight. Is it worth it?