judyoz

Boy, are there some angst-ridden negative comments about this film!! I was quite surprised at the low overall rating given to The Last Airbender, so I read some of the worst, and best, comments before seeing a preview earlier this week.

Having now seen the film I veer very much towards the positive end of the spectrum. While not being a huge devotee of the original cartoons, I did watch a number of them and found them inventive, entertaining and really interesting. But just as with The Lord of the Rings films, which can never fit in all the detail of the books and will change some elements for the sake of cinematic issues (or brevity), choices have had to be made for The Last Airbender ... and some choices are bound to cheese off the cartoon fans mightily.

But this review is for the rest of us, for whom there is the real possibility of going to see this film and departing perfectly happy. The story was engaging, entertaining and (unlike a number of others who have commented) I didn't find it hard to follow at all. Even enjoyed the whiz-bang martial arts and CGI effects, etc - although I have to say that the 3D element really doesn't add much at all. That IS a waste of time, put in place entirely because it's the latest craze.

That said, I'll be doing a birthday party at the local cinema for my 12yo daughter and a group of her friends as soon as the film comes out. I'm confident they'll all have a whale of a time. :-)

I've loved the book of Gaudy Night for years, so when I discovered there was a filmed version I was very enthusiastic and bought it on eBay. Bad mistake. It didn't cost me much but boy did I waste my money. The script is deadly, much of the acting is wooden and a lot of the casting is completely wrong. Peter Wimsey has the right look and dress style but instead of foppish he comes across as camp, while Harriet Vane doesn't appear to be a strong, dependable woman but someone very self-doubting and almost timid. I saw no chemistry between them whatsoever. The actor playing Bunter looks completely wrong and lacks the essential hauteur. While some of the female dons are portrayed well, many of the small parts are attacked with skills reminiscent of The Art of Coarse Acting. And where, oh where is all of DL Sayers's sparkle and wit? The scriptwriter pulls the odd chunk of text verbatim from the book, then proceeds to drown it in long, turgid scenes jammed with his own dialogue. This would be fine if it did any good, but much of what I saw was unnecessary to the plot and wasted good scenes and story lines in the process. So much of this seemed to be going through the motions. It was very sad to see and tremendously disappointing. Perhaps someone will take Gaudy Night on again one day and do a better job??? To be frank, I made it less than halfway through the 150 minutes. I just couldn't bear to watch it any longer.

This is a well-made and thought-provoking account of the fight for freedom in East Timor - as seen through the eyes of "the diplomat" Jose Ramos Horta, criss-crossing the globe and lobbying governments and individuals to take up the cause of his people. The makers had the good fortune to be filming as the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. While there was a bloody aftermath to the vote it proved the turning point in the generation-long fight for independence, and the film captures the historic moment when Horta and Xanana Gusmao (now president) were able to return to their homeland, amid great celebration. There is horror, humour, sorrow and great joy in this documentary, and it's deserved every award it has received.