Atlantic City (6)

Flash Gordon (3)

Waitress (5)

The Nines (1)

Single White Female (6)

Lord Of The Rings (7)

Memories Of Murder (8)

21 (8)

I felt I was "due" a good film and at last, here it was! This story of geeks, gambling and double crossing hit many of the right notes; 8 - I really enjoyed it.

A maths teacher at MIT recognises a brilliant student and invites him to join a small team of similarly bright students to count cards, to win at black jack in Vegas. Their winnings are going well and they start to enter the rich lifestyle of big time gamblers, but they are also under watch by the guys who prevent card counting... usually by a beating. And when the student starts gambling instead of being smart, he loses everything - his graduation from MIT, the money he was saving he enter Harvard and he is out of the team. He convinces them all for one last big win.

This film has so many good elements in it, including good lighting (like the standing at the window silhouette) and filming (great close ups and fast speed motion in the casinos). I even liked the Fight Club style narration and the slightly over-the-top-retro look of Slevin, but maybe that is just Vegas. One big thing I really liked about was Kevin Spacey who I think is brilliant; he is opposite to me of the uselessness of Jack Back. Even the music was just right. And Laurence Fishburne as the casino thug was good as the older guy struggling to keep job his while being over taken by technology.

The double cross while not entirely predictable, was not really a surprise either, and the time twisting was a little weak but it was still enjoyable. And most of the other characters were just window dressing, even the students best friends. Anyway, this film still delighted the inner, and the outer, geek of me.

Be Kind Rewind (1)

Oh my god, I thought that this going to be a light comedy but instead it is idiotic rubbish - I can see better home made stuff on youtube! 1 - I almost gave up watching it.

One of the idiots becomes magnetised (how?!) while attempting to sabotage a substation, but he then demagnetises all the videos in his friend's video store. His friend was only looking after the store while the boss is away, who they don't want to get into trouble with. So they start filming themselves and remaking each of the movies that customers request. They make Ghost Busters, Rush Hour2... and that was as far as I could bare it for the moment.

Luckily, a young woman joins the team who has some sense and surprisingly the films are popular, the customers want more and more. But I didn't want any more; I gave up.

I guess this was born from the youtube genre of re-enacting films with home made effects and props and usually, funny acting. Except it was entirely missing any entertainment, or cuteness, or even just plain fun that I have seen on some of the youtube "sweded". It was typical Jack Black junk and if I had known he was in it, I would never have even started watching it - I can't think of a single film or character, or even line from him that I even remotely liked. The plot is beyond silly, it is just plain dumb, the acting doesn't even get up to primary school play level but the worst of it is that it has Jack Black in it! Be kind, don't watch this film, and if you can, erase this film from any archives.

Forbidden Planet (3)

I was looking forward to this 1956 B-grade sci-fi. Too bad that it turned out to Z-grade and I almost gave up watching it. 3 - don't watch this unless you really have to or are masochistic.

A crew in arrive at the planet Altair-4 to relieve the prospecting party of scientists. But the reception by Dr Morbius is very frosty, "Keep away!". Dr Morbius and is his daughter Altaira, who was born on the planet, are living in comfort but they are the only survivors. All the others were killed by some strange force. Over night, the ships klystron monitor is mysteriously sabotaged and now they can not contact earth for further instructions. A long dead super advanced civilisation called the Krell that used to live on Altair-4 had built a massive machine based on consciousness that can also create and manipulate matter. Including creating monsters from the subconsciousness of Dr Morbius when things are not going his way!

If the story sounds like it is a bit confused, that is because it is. The mission of the crew is either a rescue or relief, the naive Altaira who suddenly starts calling the captain darling is weird, and the mad Dr Morbius who wants to dispense kknowledge but keep it all to himself is just as wacky as the story. The animation special effects of monster and blaster guns, is dire and only just one step above Steam Boat Willie, and then there's also the awful actor interaction. Plus the continuous warbling music and sound effects! The only thing I liked about was the kitschness and the laughably obvious parallels to early Star Trek. Actually, the story has some potential for a much better remake. Probably this film was amazing for its time.

It was a little strange to see Leslie Nielsen as the serious caption, as well as seeing the agent for The Six Million Dollar Man showing Uhura how it's done, including the classic command to "boost the signal". Only watch this is you are into Z grade sci-fi, or want to discover the origins of Robbie The Robot. Actually, I'll tell you so that you don't have watch it, he built by Dr Morbius using Krell technology and has some staggering tech, including matter replication.