pacman

Interesting choices. I have seen some, missed most of them. And I agree, there has been slim pickings for the past 20 years. The Aristocrats is one I completely forgot about. I had to look it up to be reminded what it was about. All the controversy surrounding it came back as soon as i read the synopsis. That is another one I will make an effort to see. You're the first person I have ever come across who saw it. I have never had it confirmed whether it was good, bad or indifferent. Thanks for the nod. Wanda is good, Life of Brian is better. IMO. That's not to damn Wanda with faint praise, I really enjoyed it but the Python crew did some great work in Brian. While being crucified, Brian singing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. That still tickles me. Silly I know but we like what we like.

Didn't see that either but I would like to correct that. Though once will be enough, I don't watch movies multiple times unless they are truly exceptional. The last one I saw twice was Gravity, before that I can't remember, too long ago. Best ever? Wow, thanks for the recommendation. It's playing on one of our government funded channels now & it has been highly praised. Maybe they should get you to market it, with a recommendation like that I am sure they would attract a bigger audience. I had every intention to catch it but they put it up against one of the very few programs I watch regardless. Plus I know it will get repeated a few times. Once this channel has bought the rights, they do get their value out of them.

And the answer is - William of Seward. Just kidding, a little joke for JaiDee. Very little joke, sorry. It's Charles II. And his great height proved to be a challenge for his loyal men then they were smuggling him out of England to France. That he came back to claim the throne is another of those stories I love. I knew that one but I guess most here did. The deepest point in the ocean comes up in quizzes regularly. And it's where James Cameron went in a mini sub. That took some balls, one slip up & he could never have returned to the surface.

I get the Brad Cooper reference, he did come across as just a bit too cock-sure when he first arrived. He has lost that in recent movies, I thought he was good in American Hustle. And I like The Place Beyond the Pines, a film I almost passed on seeing. I never saw Silver Linings Playbook, the premise of the film left me cold. I have wondered if I should correct that. I might try & catch it when it arrives on the small screen. Gosling's next movie after The Place Beyond the Pines was Only God Forgives. It was slated by the critics for being derivative & cliched. Very, very cliched from memory. But it's premise intrigued me plus it is set in Bangkok. I saw it & enjoyed it. It has a clunky predictable plot but it does hold the suspense & is very well shot. Gosling is good, Kristen Scott Thomas not so much. She plays the part of his mother, the mother from hell & she hams it up a bit. Without over praising it I recommend it for Dixon to download. It's not Gone With the Wind but I'm guessing he will enjoy it more than that the next time it starts raining. One last thing, if it rains really hard it won't matter, there's hardly any dialogue in it.

Everyone's opinion is as valid as the next person. If you enjoyed those movies it is no one else's business. Good to see a few different choices. I haven't watched one of them. Do you watch foreign films often or just when they pop up on TV? Nobody's Fool? Another one that draws a blank. And you're right about PT Barnum, nice to know you read my post. I think the media adopted his slogan. As for the kids liking stupid shit, so true but so tragic. Some of them will grow out of it, some of them will live their lives without ever having an original thought. I don't go to the places they go. Thanks for posting.

Alpha what? Why don't I know this film? I think if it had a release in Oz (surely it must have), it was on for such a short run that it was gone before I noticed. Every two years? I wish that happened. It's getting worse, there hasn't been anything funny for a long time. As to point two, yes, I agree but not just personal, it's culture based. Have you ever had Chinese humour translated? I have no idea what they are laughing at. I get British humour, it can be very dark, very ironic but I also like much of the stuff on American sitcoms. Big Bang, etc are genuinely funny at times. I don't know why they can't replicate it on the large screen. An interesting list of films, I haven't seen one of them. My fault, when they were released I was working 7 days a week, who had time to go to the movies? As for Gravity, it benefits greatly from being watched on a large screen in 3D. I'm sure the illusion you get of being in space would be lost in any other format.

I took the figure of 30 to 40,000 years from the news on TV tonight. A scientist was talking about how long it would take. I guessed he was talking about "the fastest space craft we have today". It looks I guessed wrong. He must have been referring to some craft of the future. Where do you think I got the figure of 54 billion years to drive there? That bit I did hear. Cheating? How can I be cheating when we are talking hypothetically? The original assumption never mentioned a two way trip, that's true. But it never mentioned it had to be one way either. Two way, two years, I go. One way, one year, I don't. Sheesh, hard crowd.

Mars is a one way trip of 5 years. I don't have an interest in a suicide mission. PDogg was proposing a hypothetical trip to Kepler-186. Kepler-186 is 500 light years away. Going in the fastest space craft we have today it would take between 30 & 40 thousand years. If we could go by car it would take 54 billion years. It's meaningless. Mankind won't have the technology for such a trip for a very long time. Even travelling at the speed of light, there's a chance the planet would be dead by the time we got there. It is in a solar system with a much weaker star than our Sun. But back to the original question, if I could go & come back in a few years, sure, why not?

One year there & one year back? Yeah, you'd have to given the chance. Nothing in life could surpass going to another planet. Not for me at least.

Oh yes, that's right. I remember I posted how good Gravity is & you said you would consider it but you didn't like Sci-Fi. I was fine with that but when you next posted you couldn't watch a Sandra Bullock film I thought "what has that to do with it?" But no one can be made to like something & it only serves to alienate a film further if you felt obliged to watch something against your wishes. Which you wouldn't do so the point is mute. I am older than you & I refuse to give up hope that Hollywood one day will *get it* & the accountants will be overridden by creative people & some good original stuff will start to appear. It's a forlorn hope but stranger things have happened. If the Iranians can make enjoyable movies on a shoestring, why can't the big guns do likewise? They've done it before. I did the same, went to see Hangover II because it was set in Thailand with ladyboys. Beyond terrible. Yet Azza posted how much he liked it. I sometimes feel like a square peg trying to live in a round hole world. However - if Hangover IV came out tomorrow & was declared a work of art, I would put myself through it all again. One will never know if one never goes. We can't expect farm girls with almost no education to appreciate anything more. Making them sit through an art film would be akin to taking them to the opera. My own path to redemption didn't happen suddenly. Though having a series of girl friends who took me to symphonies, ballet, etc was the start of it. What's this I see? You like historical non-fiction? You would like the stories of British Monarchy, they rank up there with the best tales of the last 1000 years. And we have excellent accounts of what happened that have survived the centuries. Pick any period & take a look, it's more bizarre than any fiction & we are still living with the consequences of much of their actions.

At four hours long, Nymphomaniac isn't exactly fast. It does have the feel of a beautifully crafted film though, something Von Trier is known for. And a spoiler alert - it does wander off-topic at some point but it all makes sense in the end. I look forward to your opinion if you can be so kind to post one. Thank you Dixon, it's gratifying to know I haven't posted in vain. As for Soraya M, how can any sane person like it? The scene where the father tells his son to cast the first stone at his mother is completely visceral. Hollywood can only dream of making something so emotionally draining. And I don't mind saying I wept at the horror of the whole thing.

I don't recall the specific reference but I'm sure you're right, that I did suggest keeping an open mind. While I continue to be amazed at how Hollywood can spend so much on such poor results, I never lose hope that they do produce something worthwhile occasionally. If I hated all mega-flicks per se I would have avoided The Return of the Dark Knight that returned the Batman series to something worth watching. Or the revamp of the Bond franchise once they picked an actor who brought the necessary gravitas to the role. I'm sorry if it came across rude, not my intention at all. It was just a reminder that an orchard can bloom from a sewerage pond. I have a suggestion for any Hollywood folks who may be reading. Get Lars Von Trier to direct the next Superman or Batman or Ironman or Spiderman movie. Give him free reign to do whatever he thinks fit. Whatever he comes up with won't be boring. Imagine Superman getting a blow job from a transgendered super villain. The villain is about to detonate a nuke in NYC when Superman flops his dick out which proves irresistible. He is the man of steel after all. As Superman comes he blows the suckers head off. Super powered ejaculate right through the back of the skull. OK, they won't be shooting that scene any time soon but who knows? Maybe in 20 years time things will have progressed to that point. I hope I get a writers credit...

Not a chance! The selections available in Thai cinemas represent exactly what I don't like to watch. If it's the latest Hollywood brain-dead mega-flick, it will be showing everywhere. Something by Pedro Almodovar or Lars Von Trier or Paolo Sorrentino, no way. Surely there's an arthouse cinema in Bangkok catering for expats. I doubt Nymphomaniac would get general release in the US. It's as graphic as most porn movies, way beyond an R18 rating. Oh OK. Dogville starred Nicole Kidman, it won a few awards. I think I would like to see that. Now. Cheers. I guess my +1 is coming.... I am happy that there's someone who agrees with my sentiments. It's quite odd that those of us who like these movies are having most of the say. On film threads elsewhere I am sure we would be the pilloried minority.

Yes RX, it's a vault storing seeds of all the plants in the world. My only difference with your post is I don't think it's in Iceland. Isn't it in northern Sweden? Or somewhere up that way.

Dixon, I commend you for giving it a chance. Most people don't have the patience. I think Nymphomaniac is the first film I've seen by Lars Von Triier. I say I think because a film I looked at on TV may have been his, I wasn't moved enough to bother to check. And I only watched a part of it. But I have been watching a lot of film & I knew it was inevitable I would put myself to the test & go see something of his one day. I read a lot of negative reviews about Nympho before I dived in. 4 hours! Fuck, what was I thinking? But if you never go you'll never know & I did enjoy the experience. But it is a very different enjoyment than one gets from watching the latest Batman flick. There was a film by Von Trier out a few years ago where the sets were imaginary. Rooms were marked off by chalk lines drawn on the floor & you had to imagine someone was walking out a doorway when they are in full view all the time. That really intrigued me & I thought about going to see it. After all, if creativity isn't rewarded where does the next break through come from. Or something like that. I knew of Von Triers reputation as an auteur & of his fan base of cool artiste types. I wanted some of that to rub off so I could drop something clever into future conversations with any arty chicks I might meet. Not very useful down Soi Six I know. Before I got to see it, it was reviewed on TV. The first guy raved on about how daring the concept was. To call a film brave is usually a polite way of saying it stinks but good on him for trying. Anyway he kept going on about it to the point where I was ready to sign up. Then the second guy had a say. I can't recall his words exactly but if I can paraphrase them he basically called it the greatest pile of shit he had ever sat through, that it insulted his intelligence & he sat there praying for his eyeballs to fall out. That was for a film by Lars Von Trier. He's obviously an acquired taste. I can't comment on Melancholia but knowing what I know now I am wary but I wouldn't be deterred. I certainly won't be looking to praise it through some perverse intellectual snobbery, I still know crap when I see it. I mulled over Nympho for days before concluding it was better than good. But I was expecting someone to post they had seen it & hated it or that I was crazy to like it. I will not recommend it, not because I fear a negative backlash but because my film preferences are so different to most people I know. If liking a film by a director considered crazy makes me crazy by default, so be it.

How can they not change everything? What world leader today isn't using an encrypted cell phone to talk on if they weren't already? What is not being sent by courier that was once emailed? As your comment applies to Putin, assuming he has this information he could start leading Obama around by the nose. Only Obama's future actions will give us any guide as to how concerned he is. Regards your hypothetical comment, it would have been strange to say the least had the US not supported the Ukraine. Putin would have expected nothing less, it hasn't deterred him. As to playing "that card" why would you use your Ace over something minor? Putin will choose the right moment to drop it on the US. I'm very familiar with Occam's Razor but it doesn't allow for extenuating circumstances. Or rather it does but chooses to ignore them. Life is not always black & white & given the timing & the addition of Edward Snowden thrown into the mix, I can't help but feel there's more going on than we can conclude. But I do enjoy the exercise of speculating how one event impacts another. Plus history is littered with stories of those behind-the-scenes events that changed the outcome of history. Suddenly Putin is emboldened like never before. He is moving inexorably towards the resumption of lost countries. Why now & what has changed? Yes, he's an opportunist & this will make for a great legacy. But if the US does nothing will history record that Obama was just trying to avoid a war or will it emerge there was a darker reason? I don't know but I won't rule out the possibility.

Moldova is thought to be the next cab off the rank.

Yes I am making assumptions but I base them on what has transpired since Snowden took refuge in Russia. In answer to your first point, I don't know if Snowden is telling the truth but I find it strange that he would have let the files out of his sight. If they were all on one or more thumb drives he could have carried them in his pocket. Why would he risk leaving them somewhere else? I can't confirm he had them but I wouldn't be relying on his word he didn't. And to address your second point, what is meant by "the keys to the kingdom" if the files don't contain some explosive information. There would never be official confirmation that there was incriminating information on the files, the US doesn't want to make this info any more attractive than it already is. By attractive I mean they don't want criminal organisations or Islam extremists or others to come chasing them. Though I guess they already are. As for Georgia, yes, it does show Putin was testing the waters. Whether he was emboldened to have a go at Crimea before or after Snowden's arrival we will never know but it must have seemed a god-send when Edward rolled up. I agree that Putin is being opportunistic but his hand will have been strengthened immeasurably if he now has embarrassing information harmful to US interests. We can only wait & see how far he decides to go but if he strikes no resistance it will be in no small part thanks to whatever is useful on Snowden's drives.

A follow up to the theory I speculated on above. There are 15 ships that have gone all over the search area for the past month. There has not been one skerrick of wreckage found. Not a scintilla of fuselage or baggage or anything that floats from the plane. There have also been 100's of ships, yachts, fishing boats, etc that have criss crossed the entire area - NOTHING! If they find the wreck at the bottom of the search area then there is no cover-up. If it is never found then theory about Diego Garcia looks very good. And if the alleged clean-up by the US navy missed something & wreckage is picked up by a passing boat somewhere near Diego Garcia then all hell will break loose. Three weeks ago I didn't believe it, today I am not so sure.

Here's an interesting take on what's going on over there - Putin has only started his acquisitive actions since he got hold of the stolen files from Edward Snowden. The Russians have been poring over them looking for incriminating evidence they can use against the US. As one US official declared when the files went missing, "they hold the keys to the kingdom". It must be the US government's worst nightmare knowing Russia has this material. Once Putin had what he was looking for, he knew he could act with impunity. First he acquires Crimea, now he looks like taking Ukraine itself. Can you imagine what he could be telling Obama. Something along the lines of "do anything & I'll let the world know what you guys have been up to". Putin has details of American involvement in assassinations, rigging of elections, interference in foreign politics, even the involvement of the CIA in the murder of one of their own Presidents... (IMO) What's Obama going to do? Risk having all that released or stand by & allow Putin to carry out his plan? I bet he does the latter. He can argue he was avoiding war but he has much more to lose. I hope Putin will be satisfied with just Ukraine.

So sarcastic of you seven. I would rather stick pins in my eyes than be made to watch a Sandler movie. Dark & grim is fine if they are well done.

One or two of the two girls left over that policy & went to work at Stringfellows. I'm a bit vague on the details, there was an argument between Alis & the girls & the next thing they were gone. It was something like that. Didn't seem important at the time, I never thought I would be struggling to recall it years later.

Rhode Island?

Faark! Willie is correct. I looked it up because I wasn't sure & when I saw the map I realised I knew it from school days but I couldn't match up the area of coast with the correct country. I could have pointed to it on a map, do I get half a point for that?

These are the recommendations I like. Thanks Hefe, another one to add to the list. Thanks seven, if I had to guess someone saw it I would have thought of you. And thanks for mentioning Melancholia, I will keep an eye out for it. I have heard stories about Von Trier which didn't make me want to rush to see his films. Plus his effort at the Cannes Film Festival last year when he started to praise Hitler & raved on about Nazis, if that doesn't qualify him as mad, what does? When I was talking to the theatre people after the film they said many people had left during the screenings. I don't know what they expected, it isn't as if there weren't warnings about the content. Though some scenes were pretty rough. There are things shown in this film I never thought I would see on screen & I don't think I ever will again. And I agree with you about the ending. I wondered how he could neatly wrap it all up. After 4 hours I thought it would be a shame for it to just dwindle but it doesn't. I never saw the ending coming but it's a stroke of genius. I also have thought about the movie every day since I saw it, it took a week before I decided it was some kind of masterpiece. Others will disagree. WARNING: On a local movie review website there are a number of posted reviews by the public that rate the film 0/5 where the poster has condemned the film in the strongest possible language. I am quite sure they have been written by the "morally outraged" who probably walked out in the first hour.