Monday, 11 October 2010

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

I saw this film on 11th October at Stratford Picture House

Gekko is out of gaol, hated by his daughter, snubbed by his former colleagues but his prospective son in law fawns on him and he is still an inspiration to almost everyone else although apparently now a profit of doom.

The hero Jake has a touching faith in fusion energy, I don't suppose he ever heard of ZETA, and although almost completely wet behind the ears seems much sought after on Wall Street.

This is sanitised capitalism. Other than the merchant banker who commits suicide because his bank goes bust (he built it so cannot bear to see it go down) very little is shown of the effects of the meltdown. The worst shown to happen is the hero’s mother has to go back to nursing when her property business goes bust because her son can only (!) give her 30K dollars. The American dream continues financial meltdown or not.

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

Thursday, 30 September 2010

Monday, 20 September 2010

Devil

I saw this film on 20th September at Stratford Picture House

I could not work out why everything was shown upside down at the start and the continuing use of odd perspectives throughtout the film did not do much for me. There were some pretty scary and unexpected happenings but I found the eventually revealed plot rather disappointing with a strange morality. But over all it had lots of suspense and I have seen far worse. Almost half the audience seemed to consider attending the film more of a social occasion, a bit like going to see football on a big TV in the pub while chatting to your mates, than as a performance to watch. Surprisingly though this did not spoil the film completely. Worth going to see.

Monday, 6 September 2010

The Last Exorcism

I saw this film on 6th September at Stratford Picture House

Is the girl really possessed? Is the father a nutter, a perpetrator or with a genuine concern for his daughter? Is the son part of the cause of the goings on?
Most of the answers are revealed at the end, unfortunately the hero will never know.

The Girl Who Played with Fire

I saw this film on 30 August at Stratford Picture House

A good plot but not as complicated as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Nor did it have scenes of rape, buggery and torture as unpleasant as in the previous film. So my impression was of a slight watering down. Although the second in the trilogy it was still excellent and shows how good Dragon Tattoo was. See it, don't wait for the DVD.

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Salt

I saw this film on 23rd August at Stratford Picture House

Complete and utter but enjoyable nonsense. The plot was ludicrous but not quite as much as the stunts, jumping between moving vehicles and I lose track of what else that Croft, I mean Salt, got up to.