I spent half this movie trying to think of what it was reminding me of. Then it hit me – 28 Days Later ... it’s the gradual descent into inhumanity of the film-within-a-film documentary crew, the sudden realisation that people basically suck almost as bad as monsters. After my complaints about Jungle Holocaust, my strange, “hey, what’s so bad about cannibals,” thought, it seems here Ruggero Deodato was thinking the same thing too. This is an incredibly grim portrait of how basically animal people can become under the right (wrong?) circumstances. It’s far more visceral than Jungle; and though it seems odd to call it “slicker” ‘cos it’s still delightfully cheap, it is still more proficiently shot, and the music’s really nice. Gotta love the casting of a near totally-flat-chested woman in a role that calls for so much gratuitous nudity too, lol.

If weren’t for the fact that it’d probably be too much of an assault on the senses, I think this would make a great double bill with Last House on the Left. Both movies seem so much on the surface to be pure exploitation but the fact is they’re not. If you’re remotely titillated by what these movies have to offer (and frankly, I think a good majority of viewers would be lying if they said they weren’t) – they expose that part of you completely. “I wonder who the real cannibals are,” is the last line here, and it couldn’t be more succinct. It kind of embodies the movie as a whole – yes, as a line, like the movie it’s incredibly cheesy … but it addresses such an animal thing, and on this viewing at least, this movie just really worked for me much better than expected.

“You can never go home again, Oatman. But I guess you can shop there.”

Too many quotes I could’ve begun with here – but that one’s as good as any. Check them out – just a great screenplay.

A slight diversion from the horror due to disk space being required on the Sky+ box, not to mention the last batch being frankly rubbish, lol. I recorded this last week and only just realised as it began … 10 YEARS, man! lol. Amazing how time flies, and amazing how good this movie still looks and feels.

Midway through the movie, I realised, sure I was enjoying it but it did feel like something was missing – call it a combination of the age of the thing and the fact that it’s one of those movies I watched way too much at the time and which brings back lots of confusing pesky me things, lol. But it’s amazing once we get to the reunion itself at the end, how the mood changes – anchored on that shot of John Cusack looking up at Minnie Driver from feeding the baby with a bottle. Yes, that whole scene is too cute for words – but that shot in particular, the look on his face, is just incredible. Likewise, the soundtrack – which is one of the best ever – is great throughout, but it’s in that last 30 minutes that it just soars. The “Live and Let Die” moment early in the movie is genius (Shrek the Third take note, this is where that song belongs) – but “99 Luftballons” at the end is up there with the absolute great soundtrack moments, floating in as it does over Minnie Driver’s wrecked expression.

This is just one of those perfect movies – if it weren’t for the fact my old DVD was a barebones release, I’d be kicking myself for getting rid of it because it is one to watch on a yearly basis if not even more frequently. It’s a real shame nobody had the mind to put together a 10th anniversary collector’s DVD. Roll on 2012? 17? lol.

I loved this movie when I first saw it. I could see why people were criticising its similarity to movies like Goodfellas and Boogie Nights etc, but there were still plenty of moments where the movie came into its own. I still pretty much feel this way about it, it’s one of those movies that easily makes up for any failings it might have with a handful of simply beautiful scenes or sequences. I love how the look of the film, the colour and everything, develops over the course of the movie.

Johnny Depp is good … not one of his best performances but it’s a pretty difficult character – how likable can you make this guy? Penelope Cruz was more annoying to me on this viewing than I ever remembered. Ray Liotta and Rachel Griffiths are the standouts here. My first impression of Ray Liotta’s appearance in the movie when I first saw it was, “could they force comparisons to Goodfellas any more?” lol, but he’s really pretty fantastic, especially in the character’s later years. Griffiths is most amazing in the scene following Depp’s arrest in their home. Even though what she’s done is unbelievable, I can’t help feeling so sorry for her.

It’s the last half hour that wrecks me and brings the movie up a lot, as Jung goes past the point of no return and beyond. There’s so many images in this section of the movie that kill me – his daughter’s piercing, shaming gaze as he’s arrested once more; her sitting alone with her pink suitcase waiting to go to California; her line in the visiting room, “I thought you couldn’t live without your heart,”; and the final scene when she ‘visits’ him grown up, that reverse angle on their hug is so sad.

I just realised I could sit around quoting this movie forever. As I said, it has it’s little problems, but for me they’re far outweighed. It’s just a beautiful movie with an amazing philosophy in Jung’s voiceover narration – unbelievably sad, but with glimmers of joy. It’s sad that this turned out to be Ted Demme’s last movie, but it’s certainly his best.

I know, it’s hardly the right time to be watching this movie but I’ve been intending to watch it since the beginning of December. It’s one of my favourite Christmas movies, I had it lined up to watch, it was even on TV, but I never got round to watching it until now. Really all I wanted to do was see if the reason I cried last time I watched it was because I was drunk (more likely than ever at Christmas) or if it’s actually a crying movie. The answer – it’s actually a crying movie.

I don’t know if I’m right in saying this because I have odd misconceptions about the 80s and I often rush into saying things like, “No good movies were made in the 80s!” then I realise that loads were… but this movie really seems ahead of its time to me, even the way the Paramount logo sweeps out of view as Danny Elfman’s brilliant title theme plays.

This is another movie like You’ve Got Mail for me – it does everything ‘wrong’ that I hate, yet here and only here, I love it. Bill Murray’s yelling, screaming, speaking to himself while walking down the street… it all just works. I think it’s down to the supporting actors – Carol Kane and others as the 3 ghosts, but Carol Kane in particular, there’s something devilishly thrilling about her kicking and punching and pinching Bill Murray for the duration of her little segment. Then there’s the brother with the perfect life, the threatening new employee with the perfect behaviour (hand on the shoulder, shake so patronisingly), Murray’s secretary and her poor family, dressing the little mute kid up like a Christmas tree, and that little mute kid, the Tiny Tim of this retelling, the reason I cry, his delivery of “God Bless Us Everyone” is perfect, and enhanced by the mother’s reaction. And of course, the beautifully wide-eyed Karen Allen as the ex-girlfriend… she is incredibly cast here, I desperately need to catch up on her other work because she was more beautiful than ever here.

There’s little to say about comedies except all I can say, this is one of the best Christmas comedies there is, up there with Bad Santa and Elf, and I think before those last two appeared last year, Scrooged was probably about all we had.