Picturenose

Angst Lee
There’s always one, isn’t there? Well, this ever-so ‘umble critic is putting his reputation on the line - Brokeback Mountain really isn’t quite as good as everyone else seems to believe. There, I’ve said it. Accusations of hard-heartedness may follow, but that doesn’t change the fact that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) director Ang Lee’s simplistic, overindulgent work is little more than a competently made ode to nature and male-bonding.

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All bets are on

Having recently watched and enjoyed 28 Weeks Later (2007) - which far outstripped 28 Days Later (2002) in my humble opinion - I got to wondering just why I like the sequel better than the original. I realized pretty soon that it was the mood of the film, alongside some pretty tight camera work. Looking at the credits, I saw the director was one Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, someone I have to admit I’d never heard of. This is not surprising as he’s only made something like four movies. I can’t vouch for the other two, but from what I’ve seen he certainly deserves a lot more work.

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News reaches me that Sienna Miller is to star as Maid Marian in the upcoming re-jig of the Robin Hood story. Huh? A Robin Hood remake, surely not? Speaking to the BBC she gushed: “It’s happening. I just found out. It’s the most exciting news in the world.” She has obviously never won a Nobel Peace Prize. The new thing (also alleged to be starring Russell Crowe) will have the angle of sympathy for the Sheriff of Nottingham, facing a not-so-kind Hood. Well, I suppose they had to make it different somehow…

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Do you remember those halcyon days of the ‘video cassette’? You know, when you used to get a big, bulky package containing, well, a video cassette and, sometimes, if you were really lucky, a card inviting the studio to spam you unto death by snail mail?

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Picturenose welcomes Brussels-based journalist and film doyen Cillian Donnelly to the fold - agree with his choices? Do let us know, won’t you…

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Road to Hell

It would appear that the mud really does stick. Returning from the 2006 Berlinale Film Festival, at which The Road to Guantánamo won the Silver Bear award, two of the actors (Rizwan Ahmed and Farhad Harun) and two of the ex-detainees were temporarily detained and interrogated by UK police. According to BBC News, a Brit bobby asked Ahmed if he intended to make any more political films. The Thought Police are closing in…

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Striking back against the Empire

Ken Loach’s controversial, Palme d’Or-winning study of Republicans v the Brits in 1920s Ireland raised the hackles of several well-known UK critics (who, customarily, didn’t feel the need to actually see the film) as well as Irish commentators. It’s normally a sign that an artist has got something right when he angers both sides of a debate and claims of bias seem moot when a film comprises such lyrical beauty, steadfast portrayals and a marvellous, articulate script.

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Just not happening…
It’s strange - the exalted expectation ahead of every new Alfred Hitchcock M. Night Shyamalan effort seems usually based on amnesia concerning his recent work (which, quite frankly, is amazing, when you consider just how woeful both Lady in the Water (2006) and The Village (2004) were) and a kind of long-term collective eulogizing over how good his first film, The Sixth Sense (1999), supposedly was.

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I don’t like musicals. Really, I don’t. Many people seem to find this in some way strange, or an attempt to try to appear mildly controversial. Let’s face it, if I were trying to be contrary, I could certainly come up with something a little more hard-hitting than that. Nope, I just find them boring and nonsensical. As I am writing this for probably the best film site in the entire known universe, it’d be a good bet I like films - I do. I also like music in many of its shapes and forms. Put them together and I’d sooner stick knitting needles in my face than watch the result.

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A remake to go ape over
Some films should be left alone. Cinematic history is littered with masterpieces whose reputations are unfairly tarnished by the clunkers repackaged for a later generation, remade with little or no regard for the original’s integrity, vision and soul.

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