why are 'british' films shit?

don't think so. 'hot fuzz' was financed by universal (or whoever working title is a subcontractor for). 'lock, stock' *possibly* was done outside of the system, but 'snatch' would have had been done with the US market in mind.

I didn't know that you read The Guardian.

Also, this thread makes me wonder what happened to Peter Mullan? As a director, I mean.

Wot no love for Thunderpants?

(Srsly - it's really good! And Rupert Grint can act his little socks off - far more than the other guy in that slightly more famous series of films he's been in lately).

Maybe this is why?

Too impatient to train as an actor, and having briefly tried the traditional route of castings and pumping connections, Fucilla decided to buy his way in.

Soon Phil Davis, Paul Kaye and MC Harvey of So Solid Crew were on board, too...

Phil Davis' optimism is a joy.

"Sometimes a film looks fantastic. Everyone's excited and talking about the genius of this and that, how it's going to be a masterpiece, and it turns out to be poop. And sometimes the opposite is true. It seems to be a complete nightmare, but then it all comes together. And no one would be more pleased than me if that happened to The Big I Am."

what underpinned Fucilla's ambition, friends and workmates agree, what made him stand out from every other fantasist and wannabe, was self-belief and a monumental ego

errr

Phil Davis, Paul Kaye and Steven Berkoff

Enjoy the work of these 3 dudes

a young thug's brutal coming of age

oh fuck off

The opening sentence alone!

Brixton-born City trader Robert Fucilla had succeeded in everything he had put his hand to, from selling oil to backing British hip-hop acts, and believed his Italian ancestry gave him a shot at being a British Al Pacino.

It's like the only logical response is "Wow, I hate you."

Also:

"Madsen was to wear silver shoes, Berkoff an aqua blue latex suit. All the stylistic things were coming off."

I'm reading this and all "Wait...it's a superhero movie now?"

And a literal LOL here:

Shooting was just days off when Gregory, the would-be joyrider, confessed that he could not drive.

:-D

I'm gonna let this one slide cos I'm a lazy man but srsly guys the next Brit Gangster flick that comes out I'ma beat the director to death okay guyz?

Vinne Jones stars as Noodle, an internet hardman with a brutal grudge against shit british gansgter film directors. Directed by Guy Ritchie.

When I was in a band some dude in the local paper said I looked like Gazza so rong leading man rilly

what are the funniest british movies ever made? it's occurred to me that 'in the loop' might genuinely be the funniest.

blah life of brian blah withnail and i blah ealing blah blah blah.

No way am I pushing a dinghy out into the tsunami-laden waters of ILXors sensayuma. Brian and Grail are v. funny tho. Nuts in May too, tho not properly a movie I suppose.

I have this fundamentalist notion that funny ought to mean "makes you properly laugh til you hurt", tho, so on that level I don't think most funny films are funny.

I agree. Shaun of the Dead is a modern classic, but that's beyond just the laffs.

Maybe not an obvious choice, but there are many moments of sublime comedy in A Room For Romeo Brass. And it's a brilliant film as well.

x-post - damn straight NV, Nuts In May is hilarious.

Well, my favourite movies (the two late Bunuels with long titles) are only occasionally thigh-slapping laugh-till-cry funny, but have a fundamental, all-knowing humour to them, which makes them profoundly funny IMO (the wit of a man who has lived on a mountain for 80 years), but yeah I'm kinda going more for the outright lols here.

In The Loop made me laugh harder than any other British movie ever. And was the most I've laughed in a cinema.

Ooh, would like to see Romeo Brass and Nuts In May now!

Shaun Of The Dead is very good for almost an hour, very lame for 40 minutes imo.

Paddy Considine's debut in ARFRB is completely beyond my pitiful powers of description - if you've not seen it then the dvd is four quid on Amazon at the moment, for the price of a pint it's an absolute steal.

I'm deeply agnostic on SotD precisely cos I think it's free of belly-lols. But I like lots of comedies that don't make me lol, especially old comedies that tend to be excused by the shifting fashions of what's funny.

Simon del Desierto has got Bunuel's best proper lolz I think.

Gregory's Girl still has its moments. I think Britannia Hospital had some rich, bleak lulz but it's been a long time. The Likely Lads is probably the best sitcom to movie conversion but rollicking laughs is never really that show's point.

I've just gone thru a list trying to remember anything else but jaysus there's been a lot of slightly warm feeling minor smirk shite made in this country.

Gregory's Girl still has its moments.

oh fuck I forgot Local Hero!!!!!

altho Local Hero is one of those not-laughing-a-lot-but-very-good comedy movies to which you allude

I like to think of "Comedy" in a broader Shakespearean sense and "funny" in a "I am actually laughing" sense.

yeah, that works. also means that those bunuel movies are comedies. awesome.

(obscure object might well be a tragedy, come to think of it...gah, definitions)

LJ if you get a chance to see Nuts in May you shd also try and find Jack Rosenthal's 70s classic Another Sunday and Sweet F.A. which features the internal monologue of a severely depressed Sunday league referee iirc.

:D :D :D awesome

A lot of Britain's best 60s/70s/early 80s movies were shot as Play for Today made for TV dealies basically.

wait isn't ARFRB about a psycho dude? considine wasn't funny in that, he was terrifying! iirc.

A Fish Called Wanda? Haven't seen it in years though, so maybe it's actually shit.

Don't rate most of Wanda but maybe the Michael Palin (?) offing random pets scenes are good?

Those are definitely the bits that stick in my mind, pretty funny performance by Palin.

iirc 'wanda' is pretty funny.

>wait isn't ARFRB about a psycho dude?

Sure you're not thinking of Dead Man's Shoes? Considine goes full psychopath in that, his turn in ARFRB is menacing at times but not really terrifying.

no im thinking about the one with the disabled kid... it's been a while but my recollection is considine was scary. n e way he is very good.

'hot fuzz' is pretty fuckin funny.

Considine's kid brother in Dead Man's Shoes is disabled. One of the main kids in ARFRB has a bad back, but that's about it.

Jack Rosenthal's 70s classic Another Sunday and Sweet F.A

See also P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang.

'hot fuzz' has its moments but isn't a top-rank comedy by any means imo

xp Although, again, it's not lough out loud funny. Last British film I saw that made me laugh out loud was Oh, Mr Porter!

Next train's gone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBMHU1BJXCw

"I'm Alright Jack" isn't bad fwiw but we're getting into Tweeling territory here

Nothing wrong with that.

Love I'm Alright, it's got some pretty sparky/direct satire compared to a lot of the Ealings plus one of Sellers' toppest performances and one of the saddest lines of all time: "I see from your particulars you was at college in Oxford. I was up there meself. I was at the Balliol summer school in 1946. Very good toast and preserves they give you at tea time, as you probably know."

And obv I will rep for all of the Powell & Pressburger comedy-ish movies above pretty much anything else but again comedy not lollery.

It's a long while since I saw it but I remember it being pretty good (re: IAJ).

AMOLAD is a very good film.

are we ignoring carry on, or

far prefer hot fuzz to shaun of the dead

think it's severely underrated. the only thing i don't like is the big gun battle but considine effing kills it in that film.