Reviews

This was a stunning movie from beginning to end. The concepts are mind-bending and the challenges faced by the characters seem impossible to overcome, it's often trippy and sometimes nightmarish, but we hold on to see if the main character can overcome her problems. I have never seen a children's film before that provides an explanation of the workings of the mind. If more people realised that changing emotions are just conflicting forces in your head that can be personified, then they could handle the challenges of life better. Computer animation is the ideal medium for a story like this, it's an awesome achievement in the truest sense. I don't understand why so many people are down on this film but the public and critics are very positive and so they should be, Inside Out is brilliant in every sense.

Nine films out of ten I find unwatchable. I don't usually appreciate horror, violence or bad language, I find most of the stuff I see clichéd, unrealistic and have to switch off. Cherry Tree Lane was different, I was drawn in very quickly. The scenario is simple as it would be in real life. It aroused feelings of hate and a desire for revenge, which was fulfilled at the end. There was sophisticated use of camera and editing and yet at the same time it's very raw like a student film. I like the way it plays out in real time, that's also realistic. Though the violence happens off camera, it is still very violent. All in all powerful and disturbing. It's a shame we have to live in a world like this but this film reflects it. Okay, that's enough of that, now back to Bambi!

I saw this film by chance a few years ago - I switched on about half way through and was immediately captivated. It is so realistic, and yet it is fantasy. Unlike nine films out of 10 I see, it's not clichéd and made according to formula. It felt like trips I went on myself as a student, or at least what they would have been like if there had been an apocalypse. It's subtle, and many will be unable to appreciate the slow pace - which is actually realistic - it felt like real life. People fed on a diet of quick cuts and endless violence and car chases have become desensitised. They need to get back to basics and watch a slow film like this one. The scene that sticks in my mind most of all is the encounter at the end between the two aliens at the gas station - wow, that turned everything I've ever seen regarding alien movies upside down. What a stupendous achievement to have made this film with so few resources, editing on a PC. I'm so glad I saw it. I turn off most films that pass across the TV screen these days after about 10 minutes, or go into the other room. This one had me spellbound.

I'm really sorry. I so much wanted to like this film. So much has gone into it and the concept is good, but it just didn't work for me.

I found this to be a compact and fanciful story stretched up to intergalactically implausible proportions. It didn't ring true, and it was full of Hollywood formulae, like clumsy cliffhangers. And why did we have to have a Western-style fight scene on an icy planet on the other side of a black hole? There were no punches thrown in 2001.

People will say it was too long but it wouldn't be any better if it was shorter. It is also an unremittingly dark and depressing film except for certain aspects. The brilliant special effects, loud sound track and music served to mask the shortcomings.

On the plus side it is thought-provoking about space and physics, the actors gave everything, especially the main character, he was brilliant - it didn't have George Clooney in it a big plus. The concept is excellent, and it dramatises aspects of Einstein's theory of relativity such as meeting your children who have grown older than you.

I hope a lot of people like it, as I wouldn't want all that effort and commitment to go to waste, so just ignore my opinion! Go and watch it and make up your own mind!

Whats wrong with people? OK, it's not a classic but nevertheless My Super Ex-Girlfriend is an entertaining, engaging movie with an interesting storyline. in fact, the premise is brilliant and could have been done in all kinds of different ways. What is engaging about the movie is that though a super-heroine and her powers are at the centre of the action, the other characters are guy or gal next door. We can all identify with this kind of situation. Many of us have been in it, but we can only imagine what it would be like if the ex- girlfriend had the powers of a super-heroine - or we can watch My Super Ex-Girlfriend. To say this movie is in any way sexist is absurd. More sexy than sexist. The scene above Times Square fulfils a long held fantasy of mine. I loved the New York setting and there are some great views of the city. For me, all the actors were great, especially Uma Thurman. Saw it on Film4 in the UK, 8 Jan 11.

As I woke up, this film was part way through on BBC2 and I was instantly gripped. A man with mental problems lives in a half-way house in seedy, depressing east end London.

As the action unfolds we are puzzled:- the man sees himself as a boy, his mother and father argue, his father goes to the pub at the end of the street, there are are three 'tarts', one of whom appears to be... his mother. What's going on here? Well, we are seeing a view through the mind of Spider, a man suffering from schizophrenia. There is a gap between the past and the present but the two are intertwined...

The portrayal of grimy post-war working-class London is uncanny. It reminds me of trips there as a child.

Stark, slow, unnerving, upsetting, confusing, disjointed, 'Spider' is unlike most films made in recent years, it doesn't adhere to the standard Hollywood scriptwriting formulae, it doesn't try to entertain. Sadly not all viewers will have the vision to appreciate 'Spider' but it really is a superb piece of cinema.

I will just quote an e-mail message I sent to a film maker friend of mine:

I have to tell you about this movie I've been watching on iPlayer. It was on BBC4 last week. Maybe you've seen it, it's For All Mankind about the Apollo missions, produced and directed by Al Reinert.

What is remarkable about it – and has a parallel to your work – is the way it tells the narrative, weaving and compressing all the Apollo missions into one 'storyline' starting on Earth, going to the moon and back again.

There is no narrator, just voiceovers by various astronauts who travelled on the moon, including Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan, and the 'radio' voices of the astronauts and Mission Control from the recordings of the missions.

It is a superb piece of documentary film making. And the way the music is used, I can't find words to describe it. There are tracks from 'Apollo' the album of ambient soundscapes by Brian Eno.

The music that keeps recurring is the ethereal and moon-like 'An Ending (Ascent)' and it is utterly spine chilling particularly at the very end. Phew, it really gets to me!

I'm a great admirer of Brian Eno, and saw him interviewed by Tony Wilson at In The City in 2000.

I think I will buy a DVD copy, as I just want to own it and replay it loads of times!

I think every documentary film maker should watch it!

Thanks,

Aidan

I was extremely disappointed and irritated by this film. Movies should be about being transported into the lives and situations of the people on the screen but that singularly failed to happen in the case of 'Closer'.

The characters and relationships definitely do not ring true at all. It's not a question of not liking the people depicted, though none are likable, especially not the irritating doctor character. It's not a question of finding some of the language shocking - it is no more shocking than you'd see in a TV drama and there is virtually no nudity or sex. It's just that you couldn't care less about the characters as you don't really get to know them. Each one has no feeling of reality, no subtlety and no authenticity. They do things people only do in films, not in real life.

Do doctors really sit and engage in chat room sex talk in a hospital back office before going into the theatre to do an operation? Would photographer Anna have talked to and befriended sleazy doctor Larry in the aquarium... and then married him? Do people really hitch, split, re-hitch, bitch, bawl and spit at each other over who's been doing it with whomsoever's extramarital lover - or just ex, and is not telling the truth? Truthfulness toreal life is something this story lacks completely.

I found the dialogue wooden, the words contrived, the performances staged. Maybe it works better as a play. If so then it has not transferred successfully to film. I found it suffocating to have so many high profile actors together.

You know when a movie isn't working when you start to see the script roll in front of you like an autocue, and when you think you can see the crew looking on as the actors work through their lines.

After wasting two hours and five pounds on this movie I am losing my confidence in going to the cinema, except to see something I have seen before or has been personally recommended to me.