Monthly Archives: March 2007

The Reckless Moment (1949)

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2007 #24
Max Ophüls | 79 mins | DVD | 12

The Reckless MomentOphüls’ film noir about a mother who covers up the death of her daughter’s much older boyfriend. I think I’m perhaps erring on the side of generosity with the rating, but it is still quite a good film. Certainly it allowed me to play one of my favourite games: what would I change if I remade it? I had a few quite good ideas, actually. I’m tempted to start writing…

4 out of 5

Postscript #1 (9/7/2014)
The Reckless Moment was probably only the second or third film noir I’d ever seen, and I don’t think I properly appreciated what I was watching. It doesn’t really come across in this ‘review’ (being as it is from the era when I was only providing a couple of lines on each film), but I’ve felt for several years now that the sense of apathy I felt then (which I think is implied) no longer reflects my memory of the film. I would dearly like to get round to revisiting it and form a fresh opinion, but until then this is archived as-is.

Postscript #2 (22/10/2017)
Having finally rewatched it, I posted a couple of brief thoughts on Letterboxd, here.

Fargo (1996)

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Fargo2007 #23
Joel Coen | 94 mins | DVD | 18 / R

Fargo is the latest film to have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry, donchaknow. It’s also 105th on the IMDb Top 250 [it’s now 153rd], and the 21st film from the 1990s. So it’s pretty much a modern classic then.

It is indeed very good; the only thing holding me off giving it 5 is a lack of that Something which leads me to rate so highly after one viewing. Maybe it will go up in time.

4 out of 5

United 93 (2006)

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2007 #22
Paul Greengrass | 107 mins | DVD | 15 / R

United 93It’s very hard to find what to say about this film. It’s a shame the Oscars were too cowardly to nominate it for much; Greengrass probably deserved Best Director for this more than Scorsese did for The Departed (he is, all round, a talented and excellent director). At least the BAFTAs were brave enough to give it to him (cos British is best ‘n’ all).

But the film itself: it is above all affecting; it feels real and true; it is hard to imagine a more competent and respectful film being made about 9/11; it is impossible to imagine one being made about flight 93. This is filmmaking of the highest order. Perhaps most importantly of all, the families want you to see it.

Absolutely essential.

5 out of 5

United 93 placed 1st on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2007, which can be read in full here.

2007 | Weeks 9-11

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My aim is to see 100 films I’ve never seen before by the end of 2007. Simple concept, innit.

Week 8 seems to have been a high point so far, in terms of film viewing. I mean, I saw six films that week! Compared to an average of just over two films per week at the start and barely two per week now. So much for weekly entries, eh. But I’m not doing too badly — not yet a quarter of the way through the year and I’ve passed the quarter point in my total. There is hope yet!

For anyone keeping track, this period covers February 26th to March 18th. I didn’t see many films in week nine (the first, and only, was on Friday), or week ten (the first, and only new one, was on Wednesday), so I decided to put these three together. And here is what I saw…

#22 United 93

#23 Fargo

#24 The Reckless Moment

Johnny English (2003)

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2007 #21
Peter Howitt | 84 mins | DVD | PG / PG

Johnny EnglishAlmost the flip-side of Hot Fuzz’s coin. Johnny English doesn’t quite manage the action sequence thing (though the car chase is quite good), and the humour is a lot gentler. Every joke is sign-posted at least a good few seconds in advance, sometimes several minutes, yet that’s half the fun — you know what’s about to go wrong and that nothing can stop English doing it anyway.

Not brilliant, then, but an entertaining enough bit of nothing.

3 out of 5

Hot Fuzz (2007)

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2007 #20
Edgar Wright | 121 mins | cinema | 15 / R

Hot FuzzHere come the fuzz!

I wasn’t hyped enough about this film to pay £10 to see it a week before release, and instead paid just £3.75 to see it in a big screen with just myself and a friend. Now that’s entertainment.

The brilliance of the situation aside, this is a damn good film. Most of its running time is devoted to high-quality comedy, and then it kicks into a full-blown action movie! Fantastic! I unreservedly recommend this to everyone, and especially to fans of action films and British comedies — do not miss this.

5 out of 5

Hot Fuzz placed 2nd on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2007, which can be read in full here.


UPDATE (16/9/2012)

Having had a rant about current cinema prices on twitter the other day, the fact this review mentions how much I paid back in 2007 led me to look up the current cost of tickets at the same cinema (a branch of a well-known chain).

It’s five-and-a-half years on, so of course prices will have gone up, but nonetheless I have two observations:

1) The cost of a regular (peak time) adult ticket is now £9.
2) The cost of the equivalent ticket to the one I bought is £5.40. That’s a 44% increase. An inflation calculator tells me that my 2007 ticket would today be exactly 20% more expensive.

Make of that what you will.

Blood Diamond (2006)

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2007 #19
Edward Zwick | 143 mins | cinema | 15 / R

Blood DiamondIn some respects this also suffered from hype, though only to a small degree — Jonathan Ross loved it, which is usually a very good recommendation to me; I ‘merely’ thought it was very good.

Its most impressive achievement is mixing important real-life information with a compelling narrative in a way that does not feel preachy. It also doesn’t compromise on its moral messages for the sake of a twist, and has some great action sequences to boot. There are almost as many endings as Lord of the Rings mind.

4 out of 5

Blood Diamond placed 10th on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2007, which can be read in full here.

Nosferatu (1922)

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aka Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens / Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Nosferatu2007 #18
F.W. Murnau | 81 mins | DVD | PG

One of the earliest and most-referenced horror films, and the first screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (faithfully, albeit unofficially).

With such a weight bearing down upon it I found it quite hard to watch it objectively, and so was mainly left with the sense that I didn’t enjoy it as much as Sunrise and that I’d rather like to see a fully restored version. Perhaps Masters of Cinema shall treat us to one soon.*

Whatever one’s thoughts on it, it really is a must see for anyone into sci-fi/fantasy, horror, or (again) the history of film.

3 out of 5

* In the years since this review was written, they have. ^

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

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2007 #17
Richard Eyre | 92 mins | cinema | 15 / R

Notes on a ScandalI hear that this is displeasing as an adaptation. But I haven’t read the novel, so that doesn’t cloud my judgement.

Judi Dench is brilliant as ever in a rare villainous role (the Oscar would’ve been hers were it not for Helen Mirren’s equally brilliant but more obvious turn in The Queen), Cate Blanchett gets to spar with her as the flawed ‘hero’, and the rest of the principal cast are very good also.

It lacks something towards the end, perhaps because it functions better as a character piece than as a thriller, but is still worth a watch.

4 out of 5

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

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2007 #16
F.W. Murnau | 91 mins | DVD | U

Sunrise: A Song of Two HumansMurnau’s first film in America, throughout the decades hailed as one of the greatest film ever made.

Maybe it is, in some respects — for a film made 80 years ago it certainly stands up very well today. It’s helped by being a fable, giving it added resonance for any time period, though probably hindered by being silent (virtually — as one of the first films with a synchronised soundtrack there are some effects).

Certainly recommended to anyone interested in the history of film.

4 out of 5