Glad you enjoyed it mate. Good little film.
Watched Stardust over the weekend (the Neil Gaiman adaptation), and I thought it was really good. Classic family movie in a 'they don't make them like that anymore' kind of way.
Also watched 'A Serious Man' on Monday which was absolutely cracking.
Of course it is, man: it's Paris.
Watched Fermat's Room last night. Very 'Cube' inspired, but good.
Just in case anyone is wondering, the movie Aaron is referring to is actually a spanish movie called 'La Habitación de Fermat' ('Fermat's Room' is the translated title) I watched it this evening and thought it was pretty average. It's better than most movies pumped out by hollywood, but it's still just a pretty average psychological drama at the end of the day.
The fact that it's a foreign movie means that, as english speakers, we're spared the banality of the shitty dialogue (instead relying on condensed english subtitles) and consequently it seems carry more intellectual weight. I'd guess that in our native language this would probably be judged much more harshly.
CAn anyone explain to me what "illegal" things happened with the girl on the boat? Perhaps I wasn't paying enough attention, but I didn't get what sort of activities the girl was implying happened with that dude on the boat in her back story.
One of the things that separates it from your average hollywood movie (and one of the reasons that I think you're being harsh to say that the only reason it's rated is because it's in a foreign language) is that it doesn't feel the need to fill in every gap in the story. The girl on the boat stuff is left to your imagination (it's not explained at any point, you didn't miss anything).
I don't think it was a masterpiece, like you say, it's a fairly nuts and bolts thriller -- but it's very nicely done, there are some fun cinema references (a lot of Hitchcock), and it's really well shot. I didn't find the acting particularly hammy (ditto for the dialogue).
I'd liken it to something like Orphan, which I saw the other week too. It's not exactly ground-breaking, but for what it is, it's really nicely done.
Actually, the Cube comparison that Aaron made is interesting, not because of the obvious similarities (and that goes for Cube, Saw, Exam, the Unknown -- there seems to be a bit of a subgenre developing) but because Cube is a bit more esoteric in it's construction, there really are no 'answers', which I think is a plus, but on the downside, the acting is absolutely appalling. I'd say that in the case of Fermat's Room, the acting is better, but it also spends more time explaining the situation (though I thought it built tension really well early on, and while the 'twist' wasn't exactly impossible to guess, it was satisfying). It doesn't spend so much time explaining it that it turns into 'The Unknown' though, which really is a Basil Exposition hollywood job (but still quite fun).
Is that really any good mate? I think I've seen the trailer about twenty times and every time I want to see it less and less. It looks too quirky for it's own good. Only thing it's missing is Zooey Deschanel.
Got the directors cut of Leon on Blu-Ray which was pretty cool, had a few bits in that I had not seen before.
Watched 3:10 to Yuma last night (the Bale/Crowe one) and rather enjoyed it. The two leads were great, and I thought Ben Foster was superb as well. I love a good Western, and this is a good Western.
Oh, and I watched Submarine the week before last. It's brilliant. Really impressed with Ayoade's direction, and Paddy Considine is absolutely terrific. The whole cast is great, really.
As someone who's not a head over heals fan of Wes Anderson, Submarine felt like the kind of film Anderson's been trying to make all of his career. Top notch.