One thing that's often overlooked about West Side Story is what a great adaptation of the Romeo and Juliet plot it is. They keep all the good stuff, but manage to eradicate the terrible melodrama elements of the last third of the play. e.g. Why don't Romeo and Juliet just leave together when he's exiled? And the less…

I'm not surprised to see messrs Rimage and Goodballoon railing against Match Point and Scoop. I haven't seen Scoop, but that's because I did see Match Point. If you actually live in the UK it's incredibly grating. Couldn't just *one* of the actors in it have had the balls to say to Woody Allen "Look, um, we don't say…

For what it's worth, Mr Bleaney, I think you're right. You can set an action movie in the UK (e.g. Mission Impossible). British directors can do action (C'mon! Paul Greengrass?). But when you put it all together, (yes, Bond is often an exception) something goes horribly wrong.

Thanks US AV Clubber. I can see why they tinkered with the ending for the US release, as the original ending was a bit "huh?". When I saw it, there was much discussion afterwards as to what the hell was supposed to have happened. Just lopping off the cut back to the cave doesn't sound like a great idea, though.

For the benefit of non-US AVClubbers, what the hell is the ooga booga ending?

Actually, what Goldman said was: If you have a good script and a good cast, you've got a shot at a good movie. If you don't, the best direction and the best editing in the world won't help you. But even if you do have a good script and a good cast, you can still fuck it up…

Good point - it's certainly true that Alex Garland shares the vice, but remember he had nothing to do with Shallow Grave, so I think they're equally to blame. I really feel like they could have come up with something new for Sunshine, at least. But on the whole, I'm in favour of them making their British takes on…

As for Danny Boyle, I don't mind his style so much (Trainspotting was a refreshing change of pace for British films in 1996. In retrospect it's a bit Cool Britannia, though.).
But it does seem like his default ending for any kind of film is "one of the characters snaps and goes on a murderous rampage". Seriously,…

I was going to ask what had happened to Jamie Thraves - he seemed to be on the up around the same time as Glazer. But a trip to imdb tells me he's finishing a Patricia Highsmith adaptation with Paddy Considine as the lead. That sounds interesting.

Well, according to Wikipedia, which is *never* wrong, the current script is a Scott Lang story with flashbacks to Henry Pym. Or a Henry Pym story with flashforwards to Scott Lang. It's not very clear…

Have a look at the Wikipedia article on Ant-Man, it's got some details on the upcoming film.

You know, the Philistines were a highly cultured people. When will this erroneous, negative stereotyping end?

I think the title "Righteous Kill" is off-putting enough for most people, FM. Just awful, and a throwback to bad 90s thrillers to boot.
However, having checked imdb, I see that De Niro and Pacino are playing characters named "Turk" and "Rooster". If they go down the poultry humour route, I'm definitely watching this…

Not a fan of Adaptation, Dan? That was the film that reminded me that Meryl Streep can be about more than the silly accent. Or the twatting about.

Yes, Dracula is a great story, but a terrible book.

I'm pretty sure I saw The Allegation Universe supporting Vampire Weekend last month.

Can it be as good as Javier Bardem's Oscar-winning fright-wig in No Country For Old Men? I'll be impressed if it is.

Don't know about the rest of their songs, but I think that if "I Must Be In Love" had been released in 1963, it would have been a huge hit. The thing I love most about that song is how the lyrics mock the childish rhyming of early Beatles songs (I feel good/bad/happy/sad) but also really do sum up what it's like being…

Overnight (along with Boondock Saints) is coming up on "The New Cult Canon" in a couple of weeks, so I assume they thought it redundant to cover it here.

Donnie Darko/Southland Tales
I'm a bit confused at the end bit - was he saying Donnie Darko was all rented out on DVD, or Southland Tales? I assume they're talking about Southland tales again in the bit about people walking out of the cinema, although that's not clear either.