thylacine666 Reviews

The Sopranos: Kennedy and Heidi (2007) Season 6, Episode 18

Awesome episode

[9/10 · 14 May 2007]

Excellent episode! I was quite shocked to see what Tony did, though by the end of the episode I guess I could see why; I just didn't realise his feelings had soured so much. It's an interesting development to say the least, but I suppose not too surprising considering how close to the end of the show we are.

Glad to see AJ realising how problematic his renewed friendships are too; those horrible little thugs'll end up dragging him to his doom along with them, possibly a much worse fate than he'd face even if he went along the same lines as his dad; these guys are just stupid thugs, and stupid thugs get caught.

A little update for those wondering, the drop-dead gorgeous girl from Vegas is Sarah Shahi (full cast listed on TV.com, so I went through each female whose character name I didn't recognised and ran them through IMDb hah).

Irreversible (2002)

What an experience!

[9/10 · 1 April 2004]

All I need say is WOW.

This is the new Gaspar Noe pic starring my dream woman Monica Bellucci, and her real-life husband Vincent Cassell (he's lucky I like him too or I'd kill him).

This is the movie getting big press over here (the controversial kind), where it just came out 2day, over the graphic nature and excruciating length of the rape scene. THEY'RE NOT KIDDING! Here you have Thylacine, one of the most ardent anti-censorship proponents around, doubting his very position during this scene, and actually having to look away, it was so disturbing and horrifying.

Now don't by any means think that it was somehow titillating; it was sickening and horrifying, and another scene in the film contained violence so graphic it put "Passion of the Christ" to shame - it was literally like a close-in vid of the leadup to an Ogrish pic.

Now you may at this point be thinking a-la "Ken Park", shock for the sake of shock with no substance whatsoever. You'd be very wrong. The film is utterly brilliant. It's told in reverse scene-order, in the same way as "Memento", starting with Vincent Cassell being stretchered out of a club unconscious and beaten to a pulp, and his friend being led out in cuffs alongside, being sworn and jeered at by the patrons. As the film progresses (and the scenes are revealed in reverse chronological order), we see the day in reverse, the film ending at the morning of the day depicted.

Now the start of the film is a TRIP. The camera is swirling and swooping all over the place and you can barely see what's happening, and I was beginning to wonder what the hell was going on and hoping it wouldn't all be like that, but it isn't - give it a chance. To me this is a representation of the madness and psychotic frenzy the main characters are in at this point in the story. You can barely see what's happening with all the swooping and shuddering, and thundering rise and fall of some deep bass thunder overlaid on the scenes.

People walked out during the film, not surprisingly. Interestingly enough, it was all the young people! All those left in the theatre were older (than me, at 25), 40s-50s, including a COUPLE in their early 50s who stayed through the whole thing. RESPECT! THEY recognised it for what it was... a genius crafting a visceral experience, not a blatant attempt at shock. Not ONCE were the violent scenes glamourised or glorified.

See this film. Seriously. I realised towards the end, as skilfully manipulated as I was, through their depiction and conversations that I really cared about these people, and soon had it hit home - I'll never know what happens to them. Obviously we see what's happened at the end of the NIGHT, but there's a long way to go for the characters if they're not totally destroyed. I cannot recommend this film enough. Trust me, I doubt you'll EVER have seen anything so violent or disturbing, but if you believe you're capable of stomaching that to take in an utterly brilliant piece of film-making, get out there and see it. 10/10 (a DAMN rare mark from me).