the raid : redemption

second viewing, with good company this time around too. probably the greatest action movie of this decade.

I had only 100mins left before I had to leave, so I went for the shorter one, which was the 96min English version. I will soon watch the Geman version, not because I expect more of it, but because as the movie started it didn't seem very promising and more like an uninsteresting re-hash of Murnau in the first days of sound cinema. And consequently my attention was not all invested in the movie. But then like an hour or so into the film The Blue Angel started to make a turn towards the surreal, where the guy is stripped of almost all humanity and ridiculed beyond belief. At that point I wished I had paid more attention to the 'first and second acts'. So I'm definitely going to give the film another shot and this time the German one.

Are there any R.W. Fassbinder fans around here?


I went to see that alone. Would have preferred good company, but I still thought it was a great action movie. Two hours of firefights and hand-to-hand combat, interruped every fifteen minutes or so for like one minute of plot expostion and character devolopment. Great structure for an all-out action movie like this one.

just incredible action all around, character development and plot completely minimal and when necessary only. hollywood needs to take many notes from that.

I remember seeing that film with some friends, and it was interesting to note when they would gradually stop laughing at the main character. At the beginning, the tone is that of gentle light-hearted mockery, we don't really consider him as a human being but more as a sort of a clown, a comedic device. What I found interesting is as the film progresses and the characer loses his humanity in the face of the other characters (from clown to slave to animal), the spectator tends to feel more and more empathy towards him, perhaps even guilt from having joined in with the laughter before. Would I have been joining in with the others in that crowd at the end without having witnessed to full extent of his humiliation?
Powerful final shot.

That poor, poor bar.

The Shape of Things is a really savage and great comedy, surely one of the best and most underrated of the 00s. Don't read anything about it, just put it in your Netflix queue.

ain't no netflix in puny belgium

Do the equivalent. See it without reading anything about it.

I usually never read up on any movie I see unless it's here on DDD. Viewings are fresher and I can always change my mind afterwards if I do the reading then.


All I know is Paul Rudd's in it. This probably means I will love it.

Rodrigo Garcia's Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her is an UNBELIEVABLY GREAT film. Where Magnolia uses bombast, hysterics, and sentimentality, Garcia employs delicate precision, measured emotion, and an appreciation for the small resonant details of lived experience. Comes as close as anything I've seen to filling my ideal of what a medium-budget Hollywood-style film would be, if I were allowed to direct one. What a great and surprising and wonderful film to have come across. Now I need to see everything he's done.

This description really makes me want to see this movie.

You should. One of the most powerful viewing experiences I've ever had, for sure. Great film to watch after midnight.

Shaun of the Dead
8.6/10

Hot Fuzz
8.9/10

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
8.5/10