Saturday 21 August 2010

"Ah-ha!" - Movies you HAVE to watch twice


You know the ones I mean.
I think the first one I saw that made me think OMG - I HAVE to see this again to fully appreciate all the subtle nuances that went into twisting the whole thing up at the end was 'Fight Club'.
Who knew, right?
And the second time round it all manages to make such great sense that you wonder how come you didn't get it the first time round.  But then you're not the creative bod that wrote the thing  are you (um... unless the writer is reading this blog, which I very much doubt, but you know what I mean).?



Who can't admit to having a *hand-head* moment at the end of 'The Sixth Sense'?. Where you think  to yourself "now how come I didn't see THAT coming?!".  Because, as Bruce so kindly shows us in a slightly patronising few frames at the end, where all the subtle little hints had lain in the final twisty bit, you still beat yourself up for not noticing them the first time round.  *Loved* the second time round, and felt slightly smug watching it with someone who hadn't seen it before.  "I'll bet it turns out he's dead" the person said about a quarter of the way through.  And I still had the grace to marry him.  Pah.


'The Others'.  Okay, so I'm still not sure which part of this was the weirdest.  It's a close call between Eric Sykes hoeing Nicole Kidman's garden ( NOT a euphemism, btw - I mean could you imagine that?!) or the idea of taking photographs of the deceased sitting up in their chairs etc - a practise which apparently really happened.  And although it was a bit long and drawn out, the whole turnaround thing at the end more than made up for it.  I had a proper OMG moment.  It spun everything I ever thought about ghosts on it's head and made me re-think pretty much everything.  Briefly anyway.  I don't mean it turned my life around.  It's a film, come on!


'Shutter Island'
I think I must have a secret (not so much now) admiration for the Di Caprio lad.  It's not a lustful kind of thing, because ever since 'Titanic' he's just been a bit too Macauley Culkin-y for my liking.  He's just not rough'n'ready enough.  he's too preened.  Too blond. Too elfin.  I could go on but eventually I'm going to talk myself out of my enduring Johnny Depp crush and that will never do.  He's a pretty sterling actor, Leonardo, I've decided.  And if you like a twist and a turn and a real mindblower of a psychological thriller (there are SO many Hitchcockian film angles that it's a treat to behold) then this is the film for you.  Just fabulous.
And just when you think you saw it coming.  It goes away and then comes back again!  

3 comments:

Lane Mathias said...

I've never seen Fight Club but I now think I should.

I've read Shutter Island and I wonder how I'm going to manage to sit through the film and stay schtumm:-)

Michele said...

I loved both Sixth Sense and The Others- the twist at the end was a definite hand to head moment. And they were creeeeepy!

Keris Stainton said...

The Sixth Sense is one of my all-time favourite films. Before we went in, we were trying to guess the twist and David said, "Bruce Willis is dead" and yet we STILL didn't get it until right at the end.

The thing I love about it is that it's much richer than *just* a twist film. The same few bits make me cry every single time. I love it.

I need to watch it again. I might watch it now.