The 12th Hall of Fame

Yeah, you put it much better than me. I knew i was right

I actually wanted to post that last night when I saw the film being discussed again, but for some reason I couldn't get it to come out right. I guess getting a good night sleep got my brain working again because I was able to word it properly this time haha.

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I know that, i meant yours is the most straightforward and logical.

The story of three friends and their journey, together and apart, heading towards a fate none of them had a choice in making.

The acting was...mixed. I thought Knightly did a good job as Ruth; the insecure girl covering with a prickly exterior works for her. The same could be said when she broke down and was honest with her friends. Overall a good performance.

Garfield came across as wierd to me. He seemed to jump between being sweet and clueless one moment, to emotionally deep the next, only to posses the mental faculties of a nine year old when the scene with the boat rolled around. He leaves his clearly struggeling ex-girlfriend along with his best friend to do a mad-dash run toward a boat, and then with a bewildered/amused expression climb about in it. Seeing as she needed them both for support, why run off? Wierd, as I said.

Mulligan was a bit bland. Allways softspoken, allways demure, it never got past that with her. I'll admit that she was effective when it came to talking with her patients and in the meeting with Ruth. Overall, she was ok.

The story as a whole, breeding humans as little more than walking organ bags to be pilfered from at need, brought to mind the story from The Island. A more emotional, less action oriented version to be sure, but the basics are there. There's even scenes they have in common. When Ruth goes in for her last donation they take her liver and just let her bleed out. In The Island, Michael Clark Duncan suffers the same fate, if again in a more action packed situation. These similarities made me ask why they didn't try to run or oppose their roles in life. I know it's not the point of the movie, but nothing after their appeal for more time? No trying to head for the hills? Just automatic surrender to their lots in life?

After watching the film I red up on the book it was based on and found out that the author's japaneese (they actually made a tv-series out of the book last year in Japan).Maybe this is the answer? As it was originally set in Japan, it's narrative is more in line with that of traditional japaneese customs; more respect of athourity and obeying your elders, towing the company line etc?...or I'm just spouting stereotypes now? Don't really know. Anyway, it might've made more sense in it's original setting.

Overall, the movie wasn't one of my favourites, but not bad by any means. It was good, glad to have seen it. Nice nom, Citizen!

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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?

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Well said, CR.

That's the same thing I got from the film as well.

It was me and Cosmic who said that, Nope said he thought

carey mulligan is a bit overrated though i loved her in shame and think that she has great potentional

We all agree with that, your interpretation seems to agree more with mine and Cosmics though. But yeah i did misunderstand what you meant there.

Yes I assumed most agreed with it,I just quoted that cos i wanted to add the other part lol

Sanshiro Sugata

This was a nice film. I enjoyed it's simple, yet emotional story. I don't care for martial arts films and this is only the second Akira Kurosawa movie I've seen. The other was Rashomon which I didn't like.

What I liked in this move was that the lead Sugata seemed to have a warm, open personality which I didn't expect. He's a nice guy who's the greatest Judo wrestler, and I liked that aspect of it. My favorite part was the romance scenes between him and his opponents daughter and with her father.

Sanshiro Sugata is definitely a lot rougher than Kurosawa's later works, though some of that may be attributed to the film's unfortunate censorship. I wasn't expecting to see much of Kurasawa's signature camera work in the first film he directed, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that is not the case. It's nice to see that, even at the start of his career, Kurosawa had a keen eye for movement and setting a scene with the camera.

While I like the idea of this film, the hints of Japanese Feudalism contained therein, and the visual symbolism (such as the flowers and sky), unfortunately I didn't find it to be particularly engaging. I know nothing about Jujitsu or Judo, what the differences are, or whether or not they were portrayed properly in the film. Perhaps things would be different if I did, but as it stands I did not find the wrestling scenes interesting in the slightest. Since much of a plot centres around the sport, it did drag the film down a little for me. I did however like the rest of what I saw and I'm glad I had the chance to see this.

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This is just a very quick stop by the library today. Got the first four films watched that I said I would watch (I am still waiting on any that I had to request). But I will review them next week. I plan to take full advantage of my 2 hours on the library computer next week to write something out about each one that I've seen now. Also, I want to catch up on the reviews of those movies, too, that you guys have written. I just don't have the time to do so today.

But I am curious about one thing. Where did these children come from in "Never Let Me Go"? How were they created? If there is a very obvious answer, then I will have to admit to my stupidity. But I was taking down my Christmas tree at the same time when the film started, and I don't know if I missed something (because I didn't think I did) while I was doing that.

So I am just curious.

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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

Hey Vamp, I haven't read the book but the movie is an 'alternative time line' or fantasy or hypothetical essay, type movie...There's probably some cinematic term for it that I don't know. But you are right, it doesn't explain the technical aspects of the cloning or the origins of the kids.

Did anyone ever PM you links to those noms? Do you still need them?

Might be remembering the conversation wrong but is it not implied that they are cloned from homeless people, criminals, etc. When Keira breaks down after seeing how beautiful the woman the others suspected she had been cloned from and she said we are cloned from the trash of society or whatever. I might be seriously not remembering that right though.

I sent Vamp the links.