I like Gangster No. 1. I've had Buffalo 66 on me Amazon list for a while now. Midds reckoned it was good too.

I'm not sure that, low budget 'indie' films, in the main, are of exceptional quality or middling anyway Parkster but Buffalo, imo, is one of the few exceptions. I think the film contains one of the greatest endings I've ever seen in any film, Ever. Period. Christina Ricci is beautiful and that Vincent Gallo chap is a good looking chap (not that that has anything to do with it of course).

Anyone know anything about Paranoid Park? Worth going to see or not basically? HF? DJ? Parkajacket?

Cant be that bad then. Just came out yesterday, saw the advert outside the cinema and it looked intriguiging. Might give it a whirl. Only seen a couple of Gus van Sant films (Last days and elephant) and quite enjoyed them.

Not out for another 3 weeks here.

Hostel 2

I loved the first Hostel.  It was a simple premise executed well, unlike that shitty Saw film that was a hugely contrived premise executed poorly.  But I still wasn't that keen to see Hostel 2.  Even people that liked the first one said it was poor, and I agree to a certain extent.  The first half hour sort of drags along because we know where these girls are headed, the same place as the lads in the first film.  There's no tension in their travels until they actually arrive at the hostel and what tension is then evoked is simply from guessing who's going to survive and anticipating the carnage.

The main problem though, I think, is introducing the torturers/murderers as characters.  We don't want or need to know anything about them.  They should be inpenetrable monsters, this is a problem with horror sequels, they always try and study the baddie more, what made Hannibal Lector into what he is?  Does Jaws have a family?  The more you know about the mechanics of the hostel, the less scary it is.

On the plus side some of the torture had me squirming in my seat like I've not done in a long while.  When the lass had the bloke in the palm of her hand (literally) I was doubled over in sympathy for him.  It still has some of the bite of the first one in terms of both social and international politics (SPOILER****New Orleans and Iraq are both covered as well as the standard horror trope of cock teases and whores coming to a grizzly end while virginal innocents win the day***END SPOILER) but it's all a bit more ham fisted in this episode and tacked on to what is basically a carbon copy of part one.  What is especially confused is that unlike part one, the girls in this episode do nothing wrong whatsoever, they're simply prey, so any idea of action and consequence outside of giving up the poon is limited only to the killers.

The fact that part 3 is confirmed is worrying, I really hope Roth takes a completely different approach because the holidaying Americans being killed after getting in over their heads was enough for one film only.  Part 2 passed 90 entertaining minutes but he needs to raise the bar to make it a worthwhile trilogy rather than one quality film turned cash cow.

Watched The Magicians (or whatever its called), thought it would be s*** but it was actually really good.

Over the past week I've watched:

Darjeeling Ltd.: Easily the best from Anderson, whose work I previously hated / despised. This one is fuckin' beautiful though: simple, gorgeous, and with a healthy dosage of film references (Ray, Renoir, etc.) thrown in for film buffs. Lovin' the OST currently, both in my head and on Winamp.

Control: Watching it next week. Will get back on that one.

Its a very sad film but superbly done.

I've just watched '24 hour party people' again on the back of seeing Control the other week, bought it this afternoon. Lots of the same real life incidents in both films.

The Darjeeling Limited.  Wow.  I'm a huge Wes Anderson fan, I know everybody doesn't love him, but this may be his best film to date.  I loved everything about it.  The camera angles, the colors, the scenery, the moving train, the dialogue, the pace of the film, the surreal characters, the opening sequence, the slow motion, everything.  Slightly ruined by the fact that this group of Indian teenagers who clearly saw the word Darjeeling and came to the movie despite knowing barely any English, and jabbering their way through the film. 

Definatley a 10/10 for me and I'll be seeing it again.

28 Days Later - watching this now, seen it so many times, f****** love it, one of my favourite films.
28 Weeks Later - already seen it but ill watch it tomorrow, nothing on the first film but still good.
28 Months Later - cant wait till 2009

You won't be disappointed.