Delila's Reviews

Great review of a fantastic film....

I actually have a screenshot from the film blown up to 12x18 hanging directly in front of me at my desk here at wrok. The very same shot you posted, with the sick shadow work.

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Yup yup yup, Doyle is fantastic.

Sedai - there are so many great photos in the film and everything is so super-vivid.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

Thanks Sammi for a great review

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Much like other Miyazaki stories, Whispers of the Heart features a plucky young heroine in search of her place in the world, a cat-familiar (two, in this case) and a romance with a smart young man. This story has a little more charm and a lot less puke than say, Spirited Away, however, and it's a sweetly entertaining film to spend a couple of hours with. As with all the other Miyazaki stories, the animation is lovely and the voice acting is very well-done.

The story features a girl in her last year of junior high school who wants to be a writer and is a voracious reader. She discovers that all her library books have been previously checked out to the same person - and while insisting that life isn't a fairytale, she happens to meet the very person who checked out all the books, and what do you know but it's a boy her age? It's not hard to see where this goes, but it's a pleasant trip, and a slightly different focus than most 'young love' stories. It's refreshing to see a romance for kids that is based on a mutual appreciation for achievement, rather than the young woman's looks or ability to charm woodland creatures. I'd recommend this film to anyone with adolescent girls in their family.

8/10

Now I know what to buy as a future Christmas present for a certain young lady in my life.

Great review as always - two paragraphs from you gives me much more info about a film than wading through any number of adverbially-challenged plodfests...

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I haven't seen this one yet, nor have I ever heard anyone talk about this one. I love your take on it and will put Whispers of the Heart on my 'Q' immediately! Thanks much!

What's so nice to read about how you recommended this...is that there really aren't enough quality movie's geared towards adolescent or teen girls these days. So thanks again for the heads up.

I've noticed that too, what with having neices now. I've got a short list of movies to send to them, as they get older. Let me know what you think of this movie. I hadn't heard of it either, it was assigned to me in a film exchange. I was anything but thrilled about watching another anime, but it won me over inside of 10 minutes.

If you know the joy of sitting down with a fresh pencil, cup of steaming coffee, cat shoved off onto the horoscopes… If you have never seen The Thin Man, but you know his dog’s name was Asta… If you have known the exultation of filling in that last box… then Wordplay is a film you’ll enjoy, start to finish. Few things seem to hold less potential interest than a film about crossword puzzles, and yet, here it is. And it is interesting and a fun watch.

The hour and a half documentary centers on NY Times crossword editor Will Shortz, but includes input from puzzle makers, famous puzzle fans and puzzle tournament champs. Yes, we’re talking ubergeeks, but charmingly articulate ones – there are several unexpectedly poignant moments as puzzlers explain their love of solving crosswords. There’s also some really interesting insight on how puzzles are made and on what sorts of people are good at solving them.

Director Patrick Creadon’s camera seems to magically be in the right place to capture some of the most dramatic moments in crossword tournament history. Adding a nice dimension (most of the time) is a score by Victor Fleming and Peter Golub.

You’re not going to want to picket the White House after watching this one, but I can guarantee you’ll be picking up a puzzle and a pencil. Or maybe something more daring: ink! 4.5/5

Hiya Sammy... How have you been? thanks for the review!

Great review, Sam! I'm adding it to my Netflix queue right now. I just love these sorts of things.

If I may: how does it compare to something like Spellbound (which I loved)?

Hya Sedai~ I've been good, thanks. Getting better all the time. How's by you?

Hey Yoda~ It's comparable, and since Spellbound came first, I'm sure comparisons will be made and it'll a suffer a little simply by being the second in line. But personally, I got more into this one. The contestants, being adults, are more able to articulate their feelings in the situation.

I just saw this this morning and am pretty damned thrilled with how it came off. As a long time fan of the musical, and after looking forward to this for about a year, I was not disappointed.

The art direction is really wonderful. The palatte of drab stark contrasts and occasional flashes of red, red blood are beautiful and create an otherworldly ambiance. The makeup was especially fantastic. The camera work plays up the extremeness of the situations very effectively.

I knew Johnny Depp sang, but singing Sondheim is another thing and he does it beautifully. He also manages to carry off the intensity of the character with full investment and yet without going over the top. In this role, that is a feat of herculean balance.

I'd heard gripes going in that Helena Bonham Carter's singing was not up to par. I think she was great overall, but that her role suffered the most from the one complaint I have about this film: the phrasing of some of the singing was smoothed out, to the detriment of meaning and humor. Mrs Lovitt is a much funnier character (and therefore much more terrifying) when you can understand everything she's saying.

I guess I do have one other minor quibble, and that was the casting of a boy in the role of Pirelli's assistant. I can see why they did it, but it undermines the meaning of an event late in the plot.

Otherwise, the cast is flawless. Rickman and Cohen embellish their already impressive reputations in these turns and all those introduced here are excellent.

If it's your first exposure to this music, you probably won't walk out whistling any of the numbers. They missed an opportunity by cutting "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" - I'd have put it in the closing credits, at least. But the music is moving, beautiful and effective at conveying both the emotion and the story.

9.5/10 and definitely see it in theaters.

Thanks for the great review Sammy I don't know the show at all but i am not going to miss this one when it comes here

Great review, dearie, as always.

However...I doubt if I'll be watching it any time soon (a first for a recommendation of yours that I've not yet seen but I bet you know the reason) so I hope I'll be excused.

No can do on the excusing, m'dear. The comment most-often seen re this movie is "I am not a fan of musicals, but I liked this one". Have a stiff drink, screw your courage to the sticking point and catch it.

Nebbs - thanks for reading, as always!

great review...we saw it this morning and i have to agree with you on helen bonham carter's voice which the critics panned...we thought her singing was up to par however, as you mentioned, sometimes it was difficult to understand what she was singing...staging and singing were excellent..this was the first time i had heard the music but i had wanted to see the show for a long long time...thanks for the heads up...

Funnily enough 'catch it' is what I think of most musicals...

Get Carter (1971 – Mike Hodges, dir.) stars Michael Caine as gangster cum vigil ante in an action thriller, keyword: revenge. I’m going to say right up front that this kind of story is done better in a recent indie called Dead Man’s Shoes. If you like Get Carter, I’d highly recommend checking out the newer film, which features a more sympathetic protagonist, less extraneous trappings and more English scenery.

So, bad news first: this is the story of a gangster, peripheral to the porn industry and seemingly indifferent to it at the start, but upon learning his own family are involved, and his brother killed in relation to this, becomes a homicidal maniac. Guess what, Carter? Everybody in porn was someone’s baby, once. It’s hard not to see him as hypocritical, given the extremity of his reaction. Toss in gratuitous drug use and a bevy of universally shallow (but pretty!) female stereotypes, and it gets kind of hard to sort out whom we’re supposed to care about.

Those complaints aside though, this is a fast-paced story with some fun moments. There’s an awesome sequence comparing a woman with a racecar that almost makes the film seeing all on its own. Michael Caine did a great job with the emotional life of the character, ranging from vengeance-driven violence to one very quiet moment when he learns that a loved one has been victimized. Overall, Get Carter is not going in my favorites list, but I’m glad I finally sat down and watched this one. For its time, it was no doubt very slick.

3/5

Same here, Thanks for your review

I love Get Carter.

I love the grimy, ale-soaked, nihilistic Northenness of it. I love the barren Tyneside scenescapes, the slew of unsympathetic (but unremittingly human) characters, the fact that Coronation Street's Alf Roberts gets thrown off the top of a multi storey car park.

Most of all, I love Caine's performance. Here is a man finally able to put Alfie to bed.

I'm glad you quite liked it though (I'd expected it to be far from 'up your street') so I'm recommending you also check out Sidney Lumet's The Offence (1972). They're the two best Brit-based crime dramas of the 70s.