Animal

Watched Saw 4 last night, surprisingly, it wasn't completely shit. It did at least have some element of plot (unlike Saw 3 which appeared to stick two fingers up at the concept), and by showing Jigsaw's back story they managed to have him in the film a lot, which is handy as he's always been the most interesting thing about it. (And conveniently gets around the fact he's already dead before the film starts.) Pretty gruesome (although nothing as horrible as the 'limb twisting thing' in Saw 3), and generally watchable. 6/10, and at least 100% better than The Dark Shite, sorry, Knight.

Watched Cronenberg's 1986 'The Fly' tonight, for the umpteenth time - still stands up today as a fantastic horror/drama piece, and incredible performances from a tiny cast. Great special effects too, no computery stuff back then, proper SFX artists. Ending is still horrible (yet brilliantly powerful), as is the final third of the film really, it makes me wince and hold my breath far more than all the SAWs and the two Hostels can manage put together, as Cronenberg (as ever) really delivers superb characters and a seriously disturbed (but thought provoking) sexual message. A solid 10/10 from me, I've seen this film time after time ever since it came out on video in 1988 (87? 89?), and it never gets old - pretty much like most of Cronenberg's films really.

It is definately one of those films to watch again and again. I usually watch it once a year, however there was a time we used to watch it on a weekly basis, usually after coming back from The Tardis after an evening on the beer. I agree with Shill - you get more out of it the more you watch it. Great film. I can probably recite the entire script by rote, but it's a film that absolutely never gets tired. It works as a superb piece of comedy but it's also very poignant as well, particularly the ending which is tear-jerkingly sad in a lot of ways. It does have a weakish patch in the final third, but overall that doesn't detract from a remarkably good film, and the masterpiece performances from the cast.

Saw 'Taken' the other night with Liam Neeson in it. It's the 18 cert 'extended harder cut' but you can still see how a lot of the violence is sanitised for the original 15 cinema cert and more significantly the US PG-13. It's a reasonable film, Neeson is a good enough actor to carry it off and it's certainly pretty quick-moving and well put together, but ultimately rather unsatisfying and Hollywoodised, along with the usual crappy pretend technology that's required so the story can at least vaguely make sense. Not sorry I watched it - (unlike, for example, The Dark Knight which is the most overblown and overhyped lump of dog shit ever to offend my eyes) - but it's not one I'll return to.

Its probably a bit over the top, but its a grim ending....certainly makes for discussion afterwards....the rest of the film is pretty run of the mill. It's a brutal suckerpunch of an ending for sure (me and the missus didn't get up off the couch for a few minutes after it finished), although the message you can take from it is essentially positive once you work your head round it, and fair play to the director for sticking two fingers up at the Hollywood machine and refusing to change the ending and taking a big cut in budget in the process. Unfortunately this does mean that some of the CGI is a bit dodgy as they clearly only had a couple of old Amigas to render it on, but the quality of the script, direction, and acting makes it a very worthwhile watch - particularly as the film isn't really about the mist as such, but rather what happens to the characters themselves when the strain starts to show.

Tonight's film was Rise Of The Footsoldier. In summary: Fuck cunt blood violence hammers guns psycho drugs peace ecstasy brutality vague sense of morality very dislikeable characters thumping soundtrack cool Britain 80s 90s stuff oh no please stop sticking the knife through the man's face. Pretty good overall, and I like the way the Lovejoy guy keeps turning up as a gangster and calling people cunts. (See also, Sexy Beast.)

Dead Man's Shoes for me - actually hits a lot harder second time around because you're aware of the twist right from the start, but unlike, say, The Sixth Sense which is a shit film that's totally dependant on its twist, Dead Man's Shoes is five million different types of awesome. (Admittedly most of them quite depressing.) Available for peanuts money from HMV. (Either online or instore.) http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetail...&sku=343452 - Ignore all the slasher film crazy axe murderer nonsense, I suspect the writer and director had very little to do with how the film was marketed. HANDY HINT - It's a terrible film if you're wanting to get your leg over with a significant other afterwards.