[Stu]

Watched a lot over the weekend :

Gangs Of New York : Pointing out how creepy and fantastic Daniel Day Lewis is is obviously necessary and whilst Leonardo DiCaprio is no slouch either the movie burned me out by the end and I found what felt like a rushed conclusion to be a bit ... shit.

The Damned United : Another part of the random download basket, I assumed this one was a football hooligan epic given it's title but instead it's a rather nice snapshot of the life of manager Brian Clough and his assistant coach - the bloke that plays Scabbers the rat in Harry Potter. Colm Meaney is in it too. He has a habit of just turning up like that. It's an entertaining way to pass two hours.

8MM : I loved it. It got panned but I loved it. It's one of those funny, dodgy films. Nicholas Cage plays Nicholas Cage trying to track down the makers of a snuff movie with the help of a flamboyant, lederhosen wearing Joaquin 'I don't know if I spelt his name right' Phoenix who - no stranger to having a riddiculous name - plays the porn store clerk Max California. There's something about Nicholas Cage's wife and child in it too, and something about a dead girl, but the main thing is that Phoenix helps Cage find a snuff movie production company.

One brilliant scene in particular sees the intrepid duo blend in with the L.A. underworld for a drawn out ten minute romp through an underground illegal porn supermarket in someones basement.

Funny People : This is the one where Judd Apatow dissapears up his own arsehole. Seth Rogan goes with him of course. Two and a half hours for a 'this is my serious comedy movie' disaster that always 'heh' funny and never 'LOL!' funny [apart from the scene where a 'dying' Adam Sandler and Rogan make fun of Sandler's doctor, the actual guy who plays Carl from Die Hard, because he looks like someone from Die Hard - 'I just keep getting the feeling that you're going to be torturing James Bond after this!']

It's overlong and the story looses all meaning about an hour in when you find out that Adam Sandler's character is no longer dying. So you get a decent hours movie, then another 90 minute generic Apatow movie about getting the girl, and dick jokes, and suchlike.

The Book Of Eli : Denzel Washington tries to keep the last remaining copy of the King James Bible from Gary Oldman who wants it for his own evil purposes. That's it. Seriously. It's fun enough though. It's got a nice, washed out, overly orange and brown visual style that you will find either incredibly striking or incredibly annoying. The script was penned by newcomer Gary Whitta who is a video game journalist and this one has 'written by a videogamer' all over it. More than once I felt like I was back in Fallout 3.