I saw The Matador and Tristram Shandy today. The Matador was good, but not great. The plot and tone are kind of all over the place,but Pierce Brosnan's performance is fantastic.

Tristram Shandy, though, I loved. It was hysterically funny. Other than that, it's difficult to describe, but I think it would play well with most Buffistas.

[eta: Oh, and after dinner we went back again and saw Roving Mars, which is terrific. If you've followed the rover news as it's unfolded, the movie won't show you anything new, really (though the scenes WITH LORI IN THEM of the rovers being built/tested are extremely cool), but if you like IMAX movies with Buffistas in them, it's definitely worth the 40 minutes.]

Probably a silly question but is Tristram Shandy really based on the novel?

It's based on the filming of the unfilmable novel. So yes and no.

It's based on the filming of the unfilmable novel. So yes and no.

Exactly like Naked Lunch then!

I love Dark City. It's not a great movie, but it's stayed with me.

Patrick Kake. Narnia was very enjoyable to me last night, but when I saw Oreius, I went, "Damn, that's Mauser." Time to re-watch the adventures of Hel, Sarge, Cleo and Mauser, in Cleopatra 2525.

Same as Beverly (as usual) about Dark City.

And it always seems to prompt a discussion about which character was the God analogue.

I loved Dark City. Agreed, it's not a great movie, but a good one, that sticks with you.

And the various little tricks the filmmakers used are amazing. My personal favorite is that, until Jennifer Connelly's character "wakes up," she has no key light. She's lit entirely by fill (not counting her torch-singer segments, which are lit differently for different reasons).

I found Dark City very dull and repetitive. I wanted to like it -- stylistically, it's right up my alley -- but...no. Just didn't click.

And the various little tricks the filmmakers used are amazing. My personal favorite is that, until Jennifer Connelly's character "wakes up," she has no key light. She's lit entirely by fill (not counting her torch-singer segments, which are lit differently for different reasons).

I love learning the subtle filmmaking techniques that can be used to work the narrative. Like the intentional continuity errors in The Stunt Man or the way Phillip Kaufman did innovative sound mixes on The Right Stuff (locust chatter mixed in whenever the reporters surround the Astronaut's wives; the sound of the jets were mostly organic sounds like lion roars which were altered).