I caught the last half of The King and I (the 1956 version) this morning and it reminded me how much I love movies from that time. Though they seem silly, they're just so relaxing... innocent, even.

Night at the Museum....just bought the DVD....such a fun movie!

Heheh, speaking of The King and I ... I had an odd movie thing happen over the past week.

zapppop called me just after seeing 300 for the first time. His roommate, Gemini Cricket, wanted to see it again on Imax for some unfathomable reason :D , and took zapp with him. I got a text after the movie to the effect of, "that was so homo." And the person I was with when I got the text (my daughter, Shanti) got into a conversation with me about how flaming-queenlike the Persian Emperor Xerxes was portrayed in that film.

Even though Xerxes was shown to have nothing but female sex slaves in his rather debauched traveling hareem, it was pretty clear to us that he was as gay or gayer than the typical beefcake-loving fan of the movie 300.


What does this have to do with The King and I? Well, nothing ... precisely. But just after that conversation about gay Xerxes, I come home to find in my Netflix envelope a movie called One Night with the King. It's the story of the Jewish holiday of Purim, and the legend of Esther - who marries the Persian King and uses her influence to save all the jews in Persia from an extinction edict.

Oddly, though ... they changed the King in the movie from Ahasuerus to Xerxes ... the same Xerxes from 300 (though played decidedly less gay, and much more gay-appealing Spartan-bodied) - even though this movie was made about a year before 300.

I just found that a very odd thing to do, and certainly a very odd coincidence. And I found blueerica's noting of The King and I another tiny coincidence when I came to this thread to post about One Night with the King.



That is all.




oh, except that I was also surprisingly entertained by A Night at the Museum ... really a much better movie than One Night with the King.

In keeping with the royal turn of this thread, I finally saw 'The Queen' last night. Liked it, thought Helen Mirren was deserving of her Oscar, but the choice for Philip was odd. (Maybe he was chosen for his name- Cromwell...) I like James Cromwell, but I'm not sure he was right for the part. Charles comes across as odd and wimpy as I expect he is in real life, and the actor who played Blair did a decent job, although they laid on the 'everyman' a bit thick- I mean, does anyone believe Tony Blair does the dishes after dinner?:rolleyes:

I watched 'The Queen' last night too. And I'm not talking about zapppop. :D

I love Helen Mirren. Love love love. She's third only to Dame Judi and Dame Maggie.

I also have the hots for the guy playing Tony Blair.
:)

I like coincidences.

I like fresh maple bacon on vanilla ice cream...

I just saw The Invisible this afternoon. I really thought it was going to be more suspenseful, mysterious and clever. It was ok to good for the first 2/3 but then it just got lame. One thing that saved it was Justin Chatwin. He should be sold with popcorn at the snackbar - yum-mee!

The girl with the beenie, no beenie, beenie with hoodie, hoodie only, hair deal was totally lame.

I have to say all through the movie I was thinking "awesome music". 30 Seconds to Mars, Snow Patrol, Remy Zero, Deathcab for Cutie just to name a few artists. I want to get the soundtrack.

I expected to review The Invisible for MousePlanet but then they decided not to do press screenings. So I just assumed it would be crap. I like that they still put together the press publicity package though I'm not sure who will be using it without screenings.

Second time this year Disney has skipped on screenings.

We're in a lull at work so I skipped out for two long lunches this last week and saw:

Vacancy - Not particularly scary or suspenseful and really serving no purpose. But I did admire it for its simplicity and straightforwardness. It does not try to be bigger or more important than it is. Plus I love Frank Whaley for some reason. Luke Wilson looks like he's on some kind of steroid treatment that has put on 30 pounds of water weight. Getting very chubby in the face.

Next - I think Philip K. Dick is the teflon of book-to-movie adaptations. No matter what things are going to slide and a great movie is impossible. Sure there have been a couple decent ones (Blade Runner, Minority Report) but most suck outright. The idea of Nicolas Cage being able to see and respond to events 2 minutes in the future is intriguing but is inconsistently implemented and beyond a few sight gags and Groundhogs Day option examinations isn't really explored. Jessica Biel is pretty though. Sadly , Julianne Moore just completely fisfired on this one, completely overplaying her tough-as-nails FBI agent role.

Ad then it wraps up with the ultimate, rightfully, derided movie ending.

If you have any interest at all in either, wait for DVD.

One I wish I hadn't waited for DVD for was Notes on a Scandal. I finally saw it, and I loved it.

Judi Dench should stop playing agreeable, cheeky old dames and take on much more total evil bitch roles. She was fantastic!

The story moved right along at a perfect clip, the script was clever, and the music by Philip Glass was beautiful and haunting.


As I understand it, the piece was adapated from a novel told entirely in first person, as diary entries. As such, I think they did a great job adapting it to film and retaining a sense of that. Voice-over was the obvious choice, and they didn't overdo it. Mostly, though, they got that first-person feeling by keeping the camera on Judi Dench's character (whereas a lesser director might have thought the effect could be best achieved by sticking to her P.O.V.). And, well, since Dench was an absolute malevolent marvel to behold, the choice was excellent all round.

We saw Blades of Glory today, and I was surprised by how funny it was. It's been a long time since I've heard so much laughter in a theater audience, and it kept up pretty much all the way through the show. Maybe it's because we're a skating-obsessed town, but it really was hilarious. One of the actors, Craig T. Nelson, is from Spokane- he used to hang out with my former stepdad years ago.

Who here thinks Hot Fuzz will make it (in theaters) until the end of May... I'm waiting to see it with the boy, at his suggestion. To be fair, the movie has done very well in the U.K.

Your opinion is vital.

;)

Where?

Unless it catches fire on word of mouth it'll pretty much be out of first run theaters by the end of May. It'll probably be starting to kick around second run by then.

It didn't open wide but the second weekend upped the screens by 50% and the per screen average dropped to a pedestrian $3,700.

There are going to be quite a few big opening action movies opening in the next month, all fighting for screens and, to a large degree, the same audience.

You might be able to find it (and maybe word of mouth will kick in), but I wouldn't count on it.

To give a sense, my local multiplex s currently showing 21 different movies. Only three of which have been out for six weekends (which would be necessary for Hot Fuzz to make the end of May). Wild Hogs and 300 are hits. Meet the Robinsons is only getting afternoon screenings for the kids. And it isn't nearly so crowded now as it will be in a month.

Alas, Spider-Man 3 does not deserve its own thread. :(


A very mixed bag, I found it to be a crappy film that was highly entertaining. Too many villains is the first problem, a somber story involving Mary Jane soap-operatics is the other.

The mid-section, though, of bad Peter Parker loving the dark side of Spider-Man, geeking out throughout Gotham in the series' funniest interlude ... was almost worth the price of admission for the laughs.

Ultimately, though ... the film falls flat after that. The fight scenes were too frenetic, trying so hard to top efforts from the previous films that I felt like I caught A.D.D. just watching them.

There were some entertaining performances though. James Franco was yummy as Harry Osborn, Topher Grace fun as Edie Brock / Venom, and Bryce Dallas Howard redeeming herself as Spidey's new love interest, Gwen. Thomas Hayden Church was appropriately meloncholy as The Sandman ... but of all the multiple villains, his was the part that should have been cut. Unlike the other characters, he had zero to do with the plot of the film ... and after a big set up for his character, he disappears till the overblown and unaffecting big showdown that was a giant yawn.


I think the best part of the film actually came before the movie started. The Cinerama Dome is a class act, since they have live announcers start off the proceedings by touting the cast of the film, and reminding everyone to turn off their cell phones and pagers.

Tonight's guest announcer was none other than Tobey Maguire. :snap:

I saw "Hot Fuzz" last week and I enjoyed it. It wasnt as good as Shawn of the Dead, but it was cute. Simon Pegg is a good actor and he and Nick Frost got that whole buddy thing down. It had some funny moments. If you ever been to a sleepy English town you will get some big chuckles.

During my experience seeing it, I only saw adults in the theater, I didnt see many kids or teens. So maybe its only attracting adults?

My biggest complaint with the first two Spider-Man movies (I really liked the first, didn't care much for the second) was that for all the money spend the CGI was very poor, looking like video game cut scenes. Any improvement on that front?

The Metreon in San Francisco tried live announcers for a while but I think they stopped because the audience (every time) first ignored, then taunted, then laughed at the poor young kid forced to do it.

I think the effects were better (certainly than the first film) ... but overplayed their hand so much that the actions portrayed screamed FX louder than lousy effects.


I'm glad Hollywood audiences are generally more polite to the poor kid who tells them to turn off their cell phones. It's fun that some major talent from the film being screened usually attends the opening show or shows in this town ... but this is the first time I've ever had one sub in for the usher.

Heheh, he had to say "Spider-Man 3, starring Tobey Maguire" with a straight face.

I had a lukewarm reaction to the first Spiderman, loved the second, and actually thought, "How embarrassing!" for most of the 3rd. It was, on the whole, a bad movie. And though I too really, really loved the Geek out baddie moments with Peter Parker, it was followed up by that horrible restaurant scene. I was entertained at times, but bored silly during others. I felt every minute I was sitting in the theater. Ah, well.

I can't believe how actively bad Spider-Man 3 is. It isn't just standard lame but entertaining popcorn movie fare, it is actually bad.

It was like watching a young power hitter who is sure he has the next pitch figured. Misses completely, spins himself around, and falls down. I had no doubt that Sam Raimi could do "not good" but am shocked that he can do "really sucky."

And yet, like Pirates 2 ... it's broken all box office records and is thus considered uber-popular. When two of the worst movies make the most money ever ... it's nothing but incentive to make films that suck.

Well, I don't agree that Pirates 2 sucked but the incentive goes back a lot farther. And it hasn't broken all box office records, just the records for opening weekend which is a testament to marketing and hype not quality and popularity.

It'll be interesting to see how it holds up since so far I haven't run into a single person who has seen it and had much positive to say about it. By opening on over 10,000 screens did they blow their wad opening weekend? Will next weekend's drop be 50%? 70%? more?

A possible sign of things is the box office number for for Monday. Pirates 2 had a similar opening three-day as Spider-Man 3 and then made $18 million on its first Monday. Spider-Man 3 only made $10 million and will probably fall behind the pace of Pirates on Wednesday.

The theater I was in last night had maybe 12 people in it.

And it may have made $380 million instantly ... but with it's reported $280 mil production cost and figuring more than the average $100 mil marketing costs ... it's barely broken even. And huge opening numbers mean simply that everyone who wanted to see it, saw it right away. And word of mouth is, as Alex pointed out, quite crappy. Repeat viewings and latecomers will be harder to come by.

The money will be all in the DVD, which is nothing to sneeze at.


Heck, I didn't even like the film ... and I'll be tempted to buy it, simply to complete my Spider-Man "collection."




But I'm not going to see Pirates 3 ... unless and until I hear from reliable sources that a miracle has happened and that series has been saved.

Ok, cool, I'm now ok with not seeing this in the theater. GD is really happy right now ;)

When Howard Stern raved about how great the movie was last Thursday, I got nervous. As much as I find his show entertaining, I have zero respect for his taste in pop culture - bad metal music, "dancing with the stars" etc. Being a comic fan and an admirer of most things Raimi (I don't have much of an appetite for the Hercules/Xena stuff) - I'll probably hit a matinée this weekend. I know I'll regret it.

I can't believe it, it seems I've missed Meet the Robinsons in the theaters.
I should see Spiderman, but the reviews here on LoT do nothing to encourage me and beyond the Kevin Brownlow screening, I could not really get worked up for the SF International Film Festival (though I probably should have).

All the good movies that are new to DVD are still on LONG wait or VERY LONG WAIT in my netflix queue......

Being a similarly minded Raimi fan, the first one entertained me, the second one disappointed me. I have zero hope for this one.

Am I happy? Well, I would have much rather it be a good movie that I want to go see, but knowing that it's going to be bad, yes I'm happy I don't have to go sit through it in a theater.

We saw Meet the Robinsons this weekend. It was fun. Maddy loved it but I'm not sure it has a lot of repeatability. I'm sure we'll own it on DVD. We kept the 3d glasses just for that purpose.

I'm going to have to go watch A Simple Plan to remind myself of what Raimi is capable of.

This is...intriguing.

I read this as. "I'll probably hit a manatee this weekend."

I know I'd regret it. OH, THE HUGE MANATEE!

Ouch. On so many different levels.

There is no way that will be good. F'n remakes. :rolleyes:

I'm going to a movie tomorrow evening. I have no idea what we're going to see, as there doesn't seem to be much out right now that's worth seeing. any suggestions?

Normally I'd agree, but Evil Dead II? And the fact that this is listed as a remake of Within the Woods is particularly fascinating. What the hell does that mean? The original Evil Dead was a remake of Within the Woods to begin with. And Evil Dead II was a remake of THAT (don't let the II fool you, it was a remake not a sequel), and then THAT had a sequel. All by Raimi (I know you know this, Jen, just thinking out loud here). So I'm rather intrigued by a remake of a movie that's been remade twice already.

If you can find it, Waitress is supposed to be excellent.

Everything I've heard is that it is in development hell and is unlikely to ever proceed.

Waitress???
It's not in development hell. (At least I dont think so)
It was reviewed on Ropert and whatever last week. THey saw it.
I swear I saw a release date.

eta: limited on 5/2

I believe he was referring to the Evil Dead project we were discussing in the previous posts.

I didnt make that leap with him.
that can stay in development hell. :p

Though there was an article that referred to it recently.... I wonder where.

Yeah, sorry about that. Maybe it has changed recently but I've been hearing about the remake of Evil Dead for a long time with no real progress.



I may have to re-evaluate Spider-Man 3. Since little in the last 20 years has indicated that George Lucas is anything other than completely wrong in his sense of movie quality this quote from him on Spider-Man 3 indicates it must be a great movie:

Yep, Spider-Man is already off the lead for the "Most ever after X days" race.

It finished the weekend with a $16 million lead over Dead Man's Chest but that is all gone. Pirates had $169.5 million after five days and Spider-Man has $169.4 and will fall farther behind today and tomorrow.

But school was out for Pirates so maybe Spider-Man will come on strong over the weekend. Hope not, though.

We're going to go see a midnight showing - so you'll all know if it's good or has massive sucktude before you go to work ;)

Finally saw Thank You for Smoking.

It was really good.

Uggh. Apparently my options are spidey 3 or blades of glory.

Try this excuse:

But if we see either of those now, our next flight will suck all the more for sitting through a crappy movie we've already seen.

Waitress is probably the ONLY film I'm interested in at the moment - in theaters at least.

We returned to watching our lonely Netflix selections. The Illusionist and Marie Antoinette were recent viewings. I liked them both for very different reasons, but neither were fantastic. Both had good soundtracks, though,

We enjoyed Night at the Museum so we picked it up at our local "mom and pop" video store for 10 dollars. They had a few used widescreen copies available, so we jumped at the chance. :snap: :cool:
It's the only movie where I can stand Ben Stiller.

I'm not really eager to see Pirates 3 - Especially since I read the movie storybook at Disneyland. If the last line of the movie is the same as the last line in that book, I am going to boo! louder than any Matterhorn scream, and throw rotten garbage at the screen.

Speaking of rotting garbage, Spiderman 3 - if I get to see Sam Raimi at a con, I'm gonna ask
"Who are you, and what have you done with Sam Raimi?!?"

We haven't touched our Netflix in months, due to the Wii. Our Misc Musings have kind of petered out...

Travolta as Edna Turnblad in "Hairspray".
:D

Saw SPidey 3 in IMAX last night. It was good - not great but good. Truely better than X-Men trilogy, Daredevel, Hulk and the such. Worst of the 3 Spidey movies.

I think it suffered the "Batman&Robin" syndrome where they tried to stuff too much into one film - a ton of waisted characters and moments. And I have to agree with Matt this is Sam Rami's worst directed film. It was very "auto pilot" and there was nothing of the charm that I love about his films.

With all the dissapointment there was a glimmer of goodness about the film in that it was fun and had excellent FX. I think seeing it in the big IMAX format was a huge plus for me.

Spidey 3 gets 6 bornieo's out of 10

I'm really surprised when I see people say the FX were great. Are there two versions of the Spider-Man movies floating around and I keep getting the bad FX version?

That was why the fight between Parker and Harry in Harry's place was the best action in the movie. It actually managed to look like real people were involved and not just computers.

Well, compared to 99% of most FX in films now-a-days, which for the most part looks like crap, I would say it was up there and looked fantastic. The Sandman stuff where he was "forming" was very nice - similar to the first "new" Mummy film.

I have to agree with Alex about the effects. The fight between Harry and Peter at Harry's place was gritty and great, while the opening fight between them as Goblin Jr. and Spidey was overblown, confusing, effects-bloated retardation.



That said, I think the effects in the 2nd film were great. The fight between Spidey and Doc Oc that started in the bank with the clever gag of gold coins flying everywhere, and then segued to Aunt Maye in peril on a Gothic skyscraper - was fantastic in both conception and execution.

I hated the FX in the 2nd movie. Spidey looked like he was made out of recycled tire rubber.

I watched "Summer School" that late 80's teen movie starring Kirstie Alley and Mark Harmon and it was so cheesy, but fun... Chainsaw, Alison from Melrose Place, that guy from NCIS... was a cute movie.. would see that on Imax over Spider man 3 anytime....

Heh, I'll cop to liking Summer School.

Yes, GD, you hated what almost EVERYONE considers the primo best Spider-Man movie, and admit to liking Summer School.


Your opinions are, hmmm, unique. Nothing wrong with that. Just sayin'. :p

Hmm, I don't recall ever saying I hated Spiderman II. (but for the record, the first one's got a higher rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so that kinda blows that theory out of the water).

I PLAN TO NEVER SEE SPIDERMAN 3!
 

Sorry sweetie, that was me!

I love that movie. Shawnee Smith in a pre-boob job state (see the new boobs in Becker), Wonderdog (I think that was his name), driver's ed, horror movie fake-out. Good times.

I liked Illusionist, too. Not ultra-fabulous, but nice. Just got Marie on Netflix and watched the first half. Like it so far. Music is wonderful. Versailles. Shoes. Pastries. It takes a little long to transition scenes which is sometimes good, sometimes boring. We'll see my final opinion once I watch the rest.

Oh, sorry, I'm mixing up my haters. GD, I now recall, simply liked Spidey1 better than 2.


And, ok yeah, I like Summer School a lot. :iSm:

Man, did I have a crush on Chainsaw after that movie.

I walked by Mark Harmon in Westwood a week or so ago. He's very, very, very short.

I loved Spiderman 2. :)

So H and I finally saw "Hot Fuzz" tonight. We both enjoyed it quite a bit.

Dumb personal story: in the first few seconds of the movie, when the lead character is introduced as "Nicholas Angel", I thought to myself: "I used to work with a Nick Angel at Island back in the day." As the end credits rolled, the Music Supervisor credit flashed on the screen "Nick Angel" - and I realized that I got yet another inside joke.

My wife, who is a theater manager, just left to screen Delta Farce.......she didn't seem too excited.

I would have loved to been in that summer school class. call me insane but I just watched "One Crazy Summer" yesterday. It was on one of the HBO's. That is such a cheezy cute movie too...

Demi Moore and a very very young John Cuszak... It was about a two buddies that go to spend a summer in a New england town and all the wackiness that ensues.. they help Demi Moore save her grandpa's house from being turned into a sprawling resort area..

there are some really wacky characters... like Billie Bird who plays this really insane grandma... and a really tore up dog ...... was cute..

stupid comidies in the 80's were fun... maybe i just feel more connected to them because i actually went to see them in the movie theater....

I was the one compelled to admit in a review for MousePlanet that I have a special place for Can't Buy Me Love.

I think it is mostly that teen movies are generally pretty stupid unless you're a teen when you first see them. And then they imprint and every generation ends up thinking their teen movies were the best while those of other (particularly later) generations are unbelievably stupid.

Oh, you don't need to describe that movie to me. One crazy summer I watched One Crazy Summer at least once a week. I loved, loved, loved that adorable movie, very much in the spirit of Better Off Dead - was it made by the same people? The cone dog! The girls with the faces that got "stuck that way". Ah!

I loved his friend George Years later, I was canvassing door to door and who should open their front door but Joel Murray. I believe the first words out of my mouth were, "One Crazy Summer!" He smiled and was very, very cordial. Gave me $80 too.

What did he give you $80 for, and where does he live? I could use $80.

Peter Parker is a drippy, pathetic crybaby.

Where do I even begin? Stan Lee cameo was painful. The camera work in the scene where Aunt May comes to check up on Peter was annoying and took one right out of the story. And the "you can tell I'm evil now because my hair is different"? All it was missing was the goatee.

I could go on with the various story flaws, but I think they've been covered. But the biggest flaw, for me, was that the movie made Peter Parker totally unlikeable.

$80 for peace! Heh. I worked for California Peace Action.

It's what I hate about sequels in general. The only way they know to spice up a de-facto tired concept is to have the characters become horrible, and then turn on each other.

Spider-Man 3, Pirates 2, Empire Strikes Back, I could go on and on.



Bleh.

Oooh - just remembered that one of the trailers piqued my interest - "Across the Universe". Anyone heard the buzz on this? Interesting? Sucks? Seems like it has the potential to go either way.

I'm intrigued by the trailer but haven't heard anything about it.

Well, it's Julie Taymor. I've loved one of her B'Way productions (The Lion King) and hated one (The Green Bird). I loved her movie Titus... so therefore... I have absolutely no idea.

Her battle with the producers to get her cut released has become legendarily infamous around Hollywood in the last few weeks.

She does not have final cut on the film, so I'm betting it's going to be re-cut without her approval. But it's purportedly a confusing mess as it now stands.

"as it now stands" being her cut or the studio cut?

Her cut.


I haven't seen either, but I've no problem believing the producer's version that her cut is incomprehensible and too fvcking arty farty.

Can't Buy Me Love is one of my favorites, too. Young Seth Green, as Chuckie Miller, is awesome. So sad when they are all doing the African Anteater Ritual at the kiddie party, as Ronald/Donald goes to sleep on a burlap sack in the garage.

One Crazy Summer was rad! The cone dog had puppies with cones. Yes, the mean girls' faces did stick when the girl slapped them on the back!

Ahhhh Patrick Dempsy... When I think Can't Buy Me Love, I think about that tacky white leather outfit and the wine!

Then it makes me think of McDreamy in Loverboy and ordering pizzas with anchovies. mmmm mmm mmmmmm

Patrick Dempsy totally grew into his looks!

My Fair Lady is on TCM. I got sucked into it and can't seem to pull away - except that the lip syncing is sooooo off, it is quite disgusting and it might force me away. (Besides, I scared the cats with my rendition of "Rain in Spain".)

I was thinking of Loverboy when I was writing that last post. Another great early Dempsy movie.

Can't Buy Me Love: I love Cindy Mancini's Espirit sweaters and Cabriolet. Great line when he is looking through the telescope in the mall, "Ah yes, I see the erection".

We were just discussing Miss Audrey last night. My favorite is Roman Holiday .

I LOVE Roman Holiday, but i also have a fondness for Charade and Sabrina. B@Ts is hard to warch (because of Cat). Audrey looks very much like my evil sister. I try to get over it, though.

Apparently at some point way in the past I put the critical hits of 1990-1991 on my Netflix queue.

I have to say that the critics were pretty lame during that period.

One False Move. Bleh.

The Man in the Moon. Get to see Reese Witherspoon naked and she's 14. Sappy girl movie (and I mean girl, not chick flick; if you're not a 14 year old girl in love for the first time I don't know why you'd want to watch this)

Thelma & Louise. First time seeing it and mostly enjoyed it but the bonding scene and melodramatic Harvey Keitel slo-mo at the end almost ruined it. I like how the DVD has an "alternate ending" that is essentially watching the car fall farther before ending the movie.

Dances with Wolves. The version that came in the mail was the Director's Cut. 236 minutes. 3 hours, 56 minutes. That thing sat in my official Netflix DVD holder for most of the last month waiting for me to find the energy to slog through that. Never did find it so I just sent it back unwatched.

The Director's Cut of Dances With Wolves is beyond lame.


I don't think the theatrical version, which I happen to think is great, is available on DVD at all.





ETA: I've never seen Roman Holiday all the way thru.

I thought Dances with Wolves was a great movie when I saw it in the theater. It was long enough, I can't imagine the extended director's cut.

iSm you need to see all of Roman Holiday. Adorable.

I don't think I've seen Charade. Just caught the last half hour of Sabrina a few weeks ago on cable. Love that one too. I feel B@T is really fun in parts, but just OK in others. I do love the swanky music - downloaded the Barney Kessel jazz from iTunes.

It's Mother's Day, I've been to see Mom yesterday and now I'm gonna watch Mildred Pierce. :)

And they said she was Box Office Poison. :cool:

Finally saw Last King of Scotland. A good movie, but I seriously don't know what all the fuss about Forrest Whitaker's performance was all about. Completely run of the mill, imo.

I recently watched Gidget.

Dear Big Kahuna.

I love you JUST the way you are and you're way hotter than Moon Doggie. Please, please invite me to one of your private parties.

Love,
EH 1812

I also recently watched Brick, which deserves all the high praise it received.

Apparently Shrek the Third is virtually Donkey-less. Bad move on someone's part...

Really. What an ass.

Spiderman 3 sucked!
It sucked so bad, that one could easily see the "extras" and their extremely bad acting in some scenes. :decap:

I watched quite a few people in the audience walk out after a while.

There's about as much Donkey in the movie as any other non-Shrek character. One of the flaws is that it is trying to cram in time for everybody who ever appeared in one of the first two movies, plus having to add more for this one.

It's a very distracted movie. Overall I still found it entertaining though definitely the weakest of the three.

^
and ^^

gee, i wonder how sucky Pirates 3 will be!

I'll find out on Monday. The first time I'll ever take time off from work to go see a movie since for some reason the press screenings have been scheduled for the middle of the day.

I'm now thinking of giving Shrek 3 a pass. I'm tired of being a sucka.


I'm certainly not going to see Pirates 3 absent authoritative opinion that it's the Citizen Kane of pirate movies.

Here's my full review. It finds a groove and I don't think it sucked. Still good for some bawdy family entertainment (to the extent that family entertainment can be baudy) but I don't think you're missing anything if you don't see it.

WARNING: Alex thought Dead Man's Chest didn't suck.

I really think I'm going to pass on this one. At least, I hope so.

You mean a beautiful bore? I think that's a safe bet.

I saw Shrek 3 last night.

I was right in thinking the franchise should've been put to rest.

After returning, disappointed, from PotC 3, I decided to cleanse my palate with a selection from my unwatched DVD pile.

So I cracked the plastic wrap on my copy of Alex Cox's Revenger's Tragedy, which I picked up for a couple of bucks at the Tower Records "Going Out of Business" sale, and popped it in my DVD player.

What a fun flick. The source material is the Jacobean revenge play of the same title originally published in 1607 - and much of the dialog comes straight from the play. Cox updates the setting to a near-future dystopian Liverpool, and by doing so gives himself license to pay homage to all of his favorite genres and directors, like Sergio Leone's westerns and Ken Russell's twisted sex sci-fi fantasies.

The mostly outstanding cast, featuring Christopher Eccleston as Vindici, the Revenger of the title and Derek Jacobi and Eddie Izzard as the father and son objects of Vindici's plot, respectively, eat up the script and spit it out in an over-the-top fashion which rarely verges on ham (and even then, it's reminiscent of Derek Jarman's Jubilee, so that's ok).

In all, a 109 minutes well-spent.

Sounds like my kind of fun. I'll have to put it in the queue.

I saw Pirates 3 last night at the Silver Moon Drive-in of Lakeland Florida. The lot was packed, and the night had a festival atmosphere, to which the movie was almost secondary. Even with lo-fi sound and state-of-the-eighties projection, I think I liked the movie better this way, rather than in a tightly packed modern movie-house with ear-splitting digital sound. I was able to hike around, socialize a bit, stargaze and watch trains go by, and occasionally pay attention to POTC III.

Today I watched Golden Door (Nuovomondo), an Italian film being shown as part of the Seattle International Film Festival. The festival gave it an A+ grade, which was definitely a bit over generous.

I wasn't totally thrilled with it as a movie. It had some amusing parts (lots of super large carrots), but was a bit over-odd. Although I think the end of the movie puts the beginning better in context, I'm not sure I like that approach.

Regardless, what the movie *did* do was get me once again thinking about what it must have been like for my great grandparents when they came here (also on an Italian boat) from Switzerland. Having just recently been to Ellis Island and seen the various exhibits, it made that portion of the film more meaningful to me.

It's not a movie I would probably watch again, but I will be thinking about it for awhile.

I haven't been watching many movies lately, most of my spare time has been taken up slogging through the 1983 mini-series of Herman Wouk's The Winds of War. About 10 hours in and the Germans and British just started shooting at each other. Started well but the last four hours have been pretty slow.

But this was a three movie weekend.

Mr. Brooks - Nothing truly fantastic but a pretty good movie starring Kevin Costner as a high-functioning serial killer. It has a pretty tight ending, but the epilogue makes the movie's first serious misstep and it was a pretty bad one, slightly redeemed by the last words.

Knocked Up - Lani and I enjoyed this a lot. A comedy targeted squarely at adults that is still raunchy enough to be fun. Certain parts of the set-up didn't ring true, but once you accept them the rest flows in a reasonable manner.

Damage - A 1992 psychological sex drama starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche. First, it is amazing that a movie with so many explicit sex scenes could leave me falling asleep out of boredom. They are the most unerotic (somewhat by intention) I've suffered through. Second, other than some sympathy for Irons' wife in the movie, there isn't anybody to even care about. A review at IMDb says it is a fantastic satire of overwrought sex dramas that give good thoughtful movies a bad name when critics go gaga over them.

That's true, except any satire would appear to be unintentional.

Did I post this earlier? I tried to watch Meet the Feebles and failed. Just not funny.

We saw Bruce Almighty last night, and it wasn't awful, but it sure could have been better. I mean, he didn't even try to cure cancer or end world hunger. Isn't he supposed to try to do away with at least one worldwide ill and of course have it ruin the planet? Saying "yes" to the prayers of one neighborhood seemed lame and tiny for the guy given the job of GOD. Way too much Jim Carrey - any other comedian would have made the movie much more watchable.

Every time I watch I heart Huckabees again, I think in existential terms for a month afterwards...

We also saw Night at the Museum. About what I expected, fairly enjoyable movie. Nothing amazing, but I wouldn't have complained having to sit through it with a kid. There was one scene, however, that made me want to hurt people.

:taps fingers on desk waiting for more info:
:D

Oh, it was just a stupid Ben Stiller scene that was not funny to start with and went on way....too...long.

But seeing that it's a Ben Stiller movie and there was only one of those, I'll count my blessings.

I think after the Ducks game tonight, I'm gonna watch Turkish Star Wars.

We saw Children of Men last night. It was a decent film and I enjoyed it - and Clive Owen is hot. I always seem to treat any story having to deal with the future as pure fantasy, so I'm not effected in the same way as I am with films that deal in the past .

Netflix has used copies of Howl's Moving Castle on sale for $7.99.

I second that Clive Owen is hot.

Who's Clive Owen?

Clive Owen on IMDB. He is hot!

I was just kidding... I met him just after the premiere of Children of Men, and it was kind of awkward cuz he looked familiar but I couldn't think of his name.

LOL. I shoulda realized. Well? Was he just as hot in person?

Let's see. The recent watchings.

Surf's Up. My MousePlanet review here. Recap: went in with low expectations and was very pleasantly suprised.

Brewster's Millions. The vagaries of life resulted in us no longer getting the $60 cable package at the $13 price. Of course, now we are used to the $60 package so I had to kick in, and while kicking in might as well get the basic digital package so now we have On Demand. Used my inaugural On Demand viewing to watch this. Stupid movie but I got a kick out of it when I was a kid.

Whispering Smith. I believe this was Alan Ladd's first western, from 1948. Ladd is, as far as I'm concerned, the Ben Affleck of the 1940's. I just don't understand the appeal he had for people. But it was a lot of fun to watch Robert Preston chew up the scenery. It is always interesting to see actors etched in my brain as old being young.

The African Queen. On the big screen at the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto. Some sound issues and one really bad splice. I'd never seen the whole movie in one go (though I'd seen most of it in pieces) and I'd forgotten what a fun movie this is. It starts off pretty weak but, pardon the pun, builds up quite a head of steam by the end.

Oceans 13. Much better than the second one but still pretty pointless. I found it too predictable and too choppy for the style to come through (though it still did at points) but Lani had a lot of fun with it.

The Fortune Cookie. The first pairing of Matthau and Lemmon. It is interesting to think that I watched Whispering Smith form 1948 in Technicolor and The Fortune Cookie from 1966 in black and white ('66 was the last year of separate Academy Awards for color and b/w). Not a great movie and pretty much everybody in it is completely hateful with nothing to redeem them but when Matthau gets in a groove he was a thing to watch. Was surprised that "bitch" was used freely and had to remind myself repeatedly that it was 1966 even though my brain kept wanting to put it back a decade.

I heard a review of it the other day that actually kinda make me want to see it...

I'll admit to liking it, though I doubt I'd sit through it again having seen it twice.

We saw The Prestige the other day. Why did two films about magicians suddenly come out at the same time and, why did I rent them back to back? Three months from now, I won't be able to tell you what the difference is between them.

One was good the other one was not.

Having never seen Goldfinger (:eek: ) I watched it this weekend, in widescreen. Terrific flick, Sean Connery, Honor Blackman, Oddjob, nuff said :snap:

As much as I love Connery as Bond, I'm ready now for the franchise to revist the original books and redo them with Daniel Craig. Won't happen, but I can dream, can't I?

I went to see Waitress this weekend. The movie was truly lovely. Jenna (Keri Russell) is a pregnant woman in a bad marriage. Her only escape from her husband is working at a local pie diner where she makes pies based on the happenings in her life (ex: the "Bad Baby" pie, after she finds out she's pregnant). She dreams of going to a pie baking contest to win the grand prize.

This movie was such a lovely, little gem. I'd recommend it as a respite from the high tech / action heavy summer blockbuster.

This movie was no different than other indie / arthouse films I've attended in my area. There were a total of 3 paying customers in the movie. :rolleyes: It's a like a private screening though!

I was just looking at Brewster's Millions on IMDb and I learn that the Richard Pryor version was actually the fourth filming of this movie in the United States (and it has been done nine times total worldwide). Interesting lesson on inflation:

1985 - $30 million in 30 days for $300 million.
1945 - $1 million in 60 days for $8 million.
1926 - $1 million in 60 days for $5 million (Miss Brewster's Millions)
1921 - $2 million in 365 days for $10 million.

How extravagant the British 1935 version (500,000 pounds in 60 days for 6 million) must have seemed in the middle of a global depression.

And I am curious, having seen neither, which would you reccomend?

I have a weakness for Christian Bale, but no idea if his film is the better.

I liked Prestige. even the parts that didnt make any sense. :p
havent seen the other.

The Prestige is the good one. I did not like The Illusionist at all, but a lot of people did. My unscientific perception is that among people who saw both, and liked both, liked The Prestige better.

I liked both, but I preferred the style of The Illusionist over The Prestige. Both, to me, worth a rental.

I will say that The Illusionist was prettier. But I just didn't like the story being told so all of the acting (fine except for Sewell) and cinematography was for naught.

And I don't mean to imply that everybody likes The Prestige more, just that my sense is that on average the cohort likes The Prestige more.

I actually think I preferred The Illusionist.

Can I ask what you preferred about it? I found the central story so lame (not to mention obvious before it even happened, let alone when you were supposed to realize what had happened) that everything else paled in comparison.

And I see that I was apparently wrong (or my unscientific sample was way skewed). At rottentomatoes, they both have similar overall ratings (75%) but The Prestige has an abysmal cream of the crop number (54%) while The Illusionist has 88%.

So that would mean among cream of the crop critics, The Illusionist was far preferred while among the rest, The Prestige was the big winner.

I liked both, but I found the competition at the core of "The Prestige" to be more compelling than the lost/found love thing at the core of "The Illusionist." "The Presige" reminded me of "Sleuth." "The Illusionist" reminded me of "The Princess Bride," except without the humor and the ROUSes.

I also thought that Christian Bale's character was fairly interesting in that, at least initially, he was unlikeable in a fairly lowkey, "What's wrong with this asshole" sort of way. The movie's low ratings might be attributable to the fact that Edward Norton provides more of a solid core for a movie than Hugh Jackman who is basically a handsome dish towel. Actually, to my mind, "The Prestige" was Jackman's most compelling showing since, like Tom Cruise, he seems to be at his best playing a handsome fellow who is totally in over his head.

I enjoyed them both, as I said. I found them both to be predictable. My main beef about The Illusionist was a plot point in the wrapup/flashback, was not seen during the course of the film, and that made me mad (like a Christie novel, adding a last minute character). It was stylish and entertaining.

The Prestige had more heft plotwise, but was equally predictable to me (I understand the book is much better). I felt nothing for either character, in fact I was more interested in David Bowie.

Both worth a Netflix rental, neither worth buying and keeping.

The CGI Magic in the Illusionist bothered me, so to the extent the magic in the Prestige was more "authentic" in it's trickery, I liked that - but our DVD rental was munched at the end, so I'm not sure if we were meant to believe Tesla's trick or not at the conclusion.

I probably enjoyed The Illusionist more because it was the one I saw first. It was also a "prettier" film but less of a solid story. However, they are already starting to meld in my mind as one story.

did you not see the end or just not clearly? if memory serves....and it rarely does, the end was sort of a vital part.

From what i could make out through the sticking scene and backing up as much as we could from the end, it looked like there were flashbacks, of the one magician killing his doppleganger, leading me to believe that in the realm of the movie the Tesla thing actually worked, but I know there was some pan by the magician suspended (apparently dead) in the tank, so it might have been some decent into death delusion - or maybe he had a brother too?

Wait a minute. We missed maybe a sentence or two due to glitchy DVD.

It worked. Hence the hats on the hillside. There was a garbled speech about how Hugh Jackman never knew on any given night if he'd wind up as the prestige in the balcony or the man in the tank. That whole room was full of tanks with dead Jackmans. That's why he had blind stage hands.

By the way, that whole element of the movie is not in the book. A lot of people complained about the significant changes to the book in translating it to the movie. I liked both and understand the reasoning. The book's version would have been too hard to do without a lot of exposition of voiceover.

If anybody wants to read the book I'd be happy to send it along.

Sigh - I feared that's how it ended, and so like it a little less. Where the illusionist annoyed me with CGI Magic to make you think the trick is real (and not just the trick), this annoys me in the introduction of a lame fantasy element to complete the story - it would have been much better as another elaborate trick. I mean, if you had that Tesla Machine magic tricks would be the last thing you'd do with it.

I'd transfer my pictures from wireless device to wireless device, effortlessly.

What page? I don't remember anything being said about this in the movie.

You know those movies that have a cast of a few really excellent actors, but that just don't really make sense together and thus, despite the talent, make for a terrible movie?

I fully expected Mad Dog and Glory to be one of those. De Niro, Uma Thurman, Bill Murray. I love all 3, but Bill Murray just seemed out of place in that cast list.

Much to my surprise, it's a really well put together film. I quite enjoyed it.

It's been awhile since I've seen MD&G. I guess I should check it out again. I don't remember what I thought about it.
:)

DeNiro's performance in Mad Dog and Glory was just wonderful, and is worth a viewing. I didn't like Uma as much, but then, I always have mixed feelings about her acting style. Murray was well cast, except for the part where he has to act physically tough. I don't think I could see Bill Murray holding his own in a fist fight.

Mad Dog & Glory is one of those movies I need to see again. I saw it in the theater my freshman year of college so I was 18. And I hated it. But it was critically successful so I suspect I was just an immature punkass.

To me it is Uma Thurman who sticks out since the other two can act.

Hence why The Prestige was a better book. Vague spoiler:

Uma's hit and miss for me. With a good director she can do good stuff. With so-so directors she becomes so-so.

Just came back from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Although it is much better than the horrible first film, this one misses the mark with horrible writing and acting. The only highlight is the better than normal special effects of the Silver Surfer character - Doug Rice is his name I believe - he was Pan in Pan's Labrynth and Abraham Sapian in Hellboy and did a find job as the S.S.

As typical with "comic book" movies, they failed miserabley keeping with the original story. They strayed so far off, it was so unbeliveably dumb and totally cheated the viewer of the best FF story out there - even more "classic" than the origin of the group.

If you've got nothing better to do but shell out $10 for this failure, by all means. I'd rather be in a 2 hour line for Nemo. ;)

This get's 4 bornieo's out of 10 - only because of the Silver Surfer character.

Finally watched Life Aquatic. Gotta say, I'm baffled by the luke-warm reception it received. I thought it was a great movie. It had me engaged from beginning to end, the animation was inspired, the characters were tremendous.

I've seen all of Anderson's movies, and I really don't get the seemingly common sentiment of, "It was pretty good, but nothing compared to his others." Not that I'd try to dissuade anyone from saying such-and-such is my favorite Anderson film (I can't even really peg what my favorite is), but for this to be so universally ranked as his weakest...don't get it.

Life Aquatic was awesome! Easily the best Wes Anderson flick, to me. But I'm in the didn't-quite-get-Royal-Tenenbaums grouping.

Oh, and we watched Holy Mountain the following night and oddly enough, these movies are totally linked. HM was incredible, almost too much to handle, in a good way.

Kinky Boots.
Good flick.
:)

Saw "Dreamgirls" this weekend. Basically enjoyed it, but I couldn't help thinking that it could inspire a new drinking game called "It's over."

Yeah, that was a fun film. Nice surprise.

Next up on the queue:

Shortbus
After the Wedding.

Ally, I loved loved Virgin Suicides.

I saw Ratatouille on Saturday nite and it was freaking wonderful. One of Pixar's best.

I'm looking forward to it. Even my roomie (who is not at all interested in animation) wants to see it, I'm treating her as part of her birthday present (the other part is a Canon SD 900 digital camera, like mine, for her trip to Mexico).

I've been catching, sporadically, part of the series of films TCM is running for the "Screened Out" Gay Images in Film series. Last night's fare was, The Uninvited (spooky movie about a ghost with Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey - a great name for an actor if ever there was one, Ruth Hussey) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Hurt Hatfield as a remote Dorian and a very young and beautiful Angela Lansbury as Sybil Vane and the always wonderful George Saunders). An old old favorite film, well done, moody and a nice use of technicolor when showing the painting, before and after.

I'm currently passing Catch & Release around the building....

surprising little film. Who'dve thunk I'd ever find Kevin Smith amusing, let alone funny?

yeah, I enjoyed that one immensely. didnt expect to in the least.
plesantly surprised.

I enjoyed Catch and Release as well. I love Timothy Oliphant. He's delicioso!

For me Aquatic had some of his finest directing. The animation and music were astounding. I loved, loved, loved Willem Defoe. But I thought Bill Murray's character was a bit tired, I HATED Cate Blanchett (something I didn't think possible) and I thought

It does have one of the best action sequences ever filmed. Best and funniest! Angelica Huston seemed wasted. But then we were given Seu Jorge, who I think is wonderful, wonderful. His voice!

The Royal Tenenbaums really is my favorite. I think that and Rushmore really are perfect movies. Sadly, I'm in a small camp of Anderson fans who didn't get Bottle Rocket. Some parts of it I liked. "Cawcaw," being one. But something about the romance really, really, really irritated me, I think.

That's how I felt about Tennebaum's, not enough of Angelica, and what was there was minor compared to what she could give. I simply adore her. That said, I loved The Royal Tennenbaums

Rushmore is my favorite of the bunch. I loved Bottle Rocket, too. I think it was the first time we got to experience Owen Wilson doing his shtick. I liked him in that. In fact, I like a lot of his films.
:)

The only one I didn't like was Tennenbaums. I just did not get it all all. Blech.


Perhaps I should give it a second chance.








But I'm not going to.

I saw "La Vie en Rose" tonight.

If the AFI is going to make a list of the best musical bio pics, this one should be on it. Marion Cotillard is wonderful as Edith Piaf. A beautiful and touching film that really filled in the blanks for me, as a casual fan.

At one point in the film, Edith has a chance encounter with Marlene Dietrich when they are both living in New York. Dietrich effuses that Piaf was simply the soul of Paris, and made her feel as if she were there - though thousands of miles away.

That's how the film made me feel at times. And Edith Piaf is the soul and the sound of Paree.

A salut, Not Afraid and €uroMeinke ... and mon amour, monsieur izak.

Damn - that one's on my list - I hope it makes it to DVD - of course, then I'll really want to go back to Paris

It's playing at The Art.

If you guys don't get to see it first run, come over here to watch it when it's out on DVD.



Bring your passports. I live near the airport.

Saw "Evan Almighty" tonight.

90 minutes I'll never get back - it was medium sitcom funny and only reminded me why I"m tired of Steve Carell (sp). There were a couple good side comments by Wanda Sykes (sp) that are worth skipping too if you rent the DVD. Otherwise, just watch the trailer.

Then there was the jerk snoring behind me. . .

3 bornieo's out of 10 - for the 2 really laugh out loud moments.

Was one moment worth 2 bornieo's or were each worth 1.5?

My son really wants to see that movie but I'm more inclined to take him to Nancy Drew at the moment. Maybe I should just suggest Pirates again, I'm sure he'd love to see it a second time. We watched Bruce Almighty tonight. We also watched a few classic movies on AMC or the Turner channel.
I caught part of Them today. I remembered that one from my childhood. My son walked in and then turned around and walked out. Go figure, I guess he doesn't like giant ants!

We watched Love Actually. Eh. Sure, I laughed at a lot of the bits, but it never really grabbed me. Too rambling and scatter-brained. And something about the production values made me feel disconnected, like I was watching a re-edited recap of a movie rather than a movie itself.

17 Girthies out of 30.

I gave each moment 2 bornieo's but since they used the song "Are You Ready for a Miracle" for the up-teenth billionth time or seemingly in 18 of the last 20 films I've seen - I had to deducts an extra bornieo.

Charge up the choir! Are you ready for a miracle? Yeah, it'd be a miracle if they'd stop playing that f**king song all the time.... :)

Critic Gary Thompson's quote about Evan Almighty:
I thought that was funny.
:D

I enjoyed Love Actually. I thought the haphazard style fit the concept. It's a good thing they didn't make a whole movie out of any one of these stories - there wasn't much too them, they were just fluffy and fun. The political moment was totally out of place, though it was sweet in the context of defending Natalie's honor. As always, I was disappointed by the stories that ended up sad. I admit that I prefer happily ever afters.

I loved the bit about the Brit who comes to America to get laid - so freaking true.

Oh, and it was filled with cute British guys. I think I now understand the Colin Firth thing.

"Merde that meets the eye."
~ David Poland's description of the Transformers movie. He's a critic from 'Movie City News'

lol! That's funny sh!t.
:D

He is Movie City News.

He and I disagree a lot but I have a feeling we're going to be agreeing on that one. But I'll still be seeing it since it is part of a social event.

I'm watching Jaws again in HD tonight - anybody care to join me?

D'oh! So... envious... oooh!

Let's see. Recent movies:

Live Free or Die Hard - Bruce Willis has charisma and that carries the day. Don't spend even a moment thinking about it or it falls apart, and the action sequences build up until the audience was actually laughing at the conclusion of the final one (in more of a "wheeee!" way than a "that was way stupid" way).

In the Bedroom - Just shows how long it takes movies to work their way through my Netflix queue since I believe I added this 2001 movie right when it came out on DVD. Not at all the movie I was expecting and it has very three distinct acts with a significant mood and tone shift with each. Went to a place I really didn't foresee.

The Player - I didn't like this when I saw it in theaters on its release in 1992. Watching it again I definitely "get" it much more than I did back then. But I still don't like it. Altman is very hit and miss for me and this is an almost redeemed miss. Still prefer the Kevin Spacey/Frank Whaley Swimming with Sharks which came out a couple years later and covers some similar territory.

Bad Lieutenant - For some reason I have pretty clear memories of when this came out in 1992 (probably because of the NC-17 rating) even though I didn't see it. Oh my was this tedious to sit through. Here's my personal "Stoned" scale. 10 equals fun:

Actually being stoned/high/etc. = 6
Watching other people who are stoned/high/etc. = 3
Watching Harvey Keitel be stoned/high/etc. = -16

Bob le Flambeur (Bob the Gambler) - This 1956 movie was recommended to me as a good caper flick. And since the French have done some of the best caper flicks of all time that was good enough for me. Unfortunately, I don't really agree with that categorization. There is a caper but it doesn't even come up until halfway through the movie and then is never realized at all. Some interesting characterization and it is odd to see nudity in a black-and-white 1950s movie (those rascally French!). But it didn't rock my world or anything. And another (actually, always) portrayal of casino baccarat ruins the ending for me.

After sitting on my TV for two months without me ever finding the energy to watch it, Malcolm X went back to Netflix unwatched. Considering that The Autobiography of Malcolm X was a formative book for me, I don't know why I've always been emotionally reticent about finally seeing the movie. But I am. I put it back on the list and I'll try again in 5 years when it gets here.

Revenge of the Pink Panther is a steaming pile. Couldn't even finish it. Worse than A Shot in the Dark even. I enjoyed the original, mostly because Clouseau was not the focus of the movie and was hardly in it at all. What a terrible character.

I just checked, and according to imdb reviews, the Pink Panther films we skipped ("Return of" and "strikes again") were the two funniest of the series. Sigh. Maybe in a few years we'll actually be brave (bored?) enough to give them a try.

We just watched a cute movie. It's a film from Spain called Reinas.

3 gay male couples are getting married as part of a mass wedding following Spain's legalizing of same-sex marriages. The boys face many challenges leading up to their happy day, but none as disastrous as their mothers....

Watched 12 Monkeys on Universal HD tonight - It's kind of weird that that movie showed up in the rotation after all our discussion here.

Finally watched Bull Durham for the first time ever last night. Mostly enjoyed it but the fact that I've never found Susan Sarandon attractive (I don't know why, it's something around her eyes but I can't pinpoint why she turns me off) made it hard to suspend disbelief enough to go along with everybody in the movie finding her attractive.

Yeah, I would recommend those two out of the series. You really have to already be a fan of the series to be able to find any enjoyment of "revenge". It's probably the weakest of all, other than "Trail of the Pink Panther" which was assembled from old footage after Peter Sellers had died.

I just saw "The Queen" and really thought Helen Mirren did a phenomenal job. I was afraid that the film might not live up to my expectations, after all that I had heard about it but I thought it was really well done.

I'm sure I mentioned this in this thread before, but I love love love Bullets Over Broadway.
It's one of the most quotable movies ever.
Not to mention, it's my favorite Woody Allen. I admit it.

"Please forgive me. My pedicurist had a stroke. She fell forward onto the orange stick and plunged it into my toe. It required bandaging."

Rose and I watched Dangerous Liasions last night - It looks even more immaculate than I remember, beautiful HD movie :)

Just watched Reefer Madness this week. Very funny and campy. Kristen Bell is totally adorable as Mary Lane, and hubba hubba Christian Campbell. I recommend viewing the original 1930s film (at least in part) to understand the film they are mocking.

Don't smoke pot or you will become a sex crazed murderer people! The government said so.

Also finally watched The Queen. Beautiful acting by Helen Mirren. :snap:

L4ayer Cake just arrived today.

Oh, Babette and MBC, The Queen is soooo last year. Get with the times.
:D

Just kidding. I loooove Helen Mirren. She was flawless in that film.
I almost heart her as much as Dame Judi.
:)

And I agree! :snap:

Awww, I only got one of the two. I feel gypped.

It's true. GD murdered me. I type from the grave.


:D

Not a haunted toilet?

Yes, a haunted toilet.
It flushes by itself...
Booooooooooooo!
:D

Okay, is this the one with Sissy Spacek? Marissa Tomei? If so, it was a very good movie but quite difficult for me to watch, at times. Quite possible, really. Things happen that you think no way, stop that!! But you know in real life, sometimes people don't stop things they should.

I saw 'Premonition'. All of the flashbacks, etc., to me, were probably too much in the theater but on DVD it was okay. Interesting although so far the rating from people I know who've seen it is 50/50. No spoilers since it just came out.

We rented 'Dead Girl' while on our trip. I think it was a Sundance type film. It was really good, not a kid friendly movie, to be sure. Again, like 'In The Bedroom', it went places that were a bit hard to take at times, and, to me, quite possible and that made it hard to swallow.

We also rented 'First Born'. This may be a t.v. movie {actually, I think I did see a listing for it}. I won't give it away BUT they really didn't do the movie right. The box for it represents it as a thriller but it isn't. Now, if they want to keep you guessing, oh well. But, as a psychological thriller, it would have made more sense. Ack, I can't say more because it will give it away. But, it would do the movie justice if it were presented that way.

'Norbit'. Norrrrrbiiiiit!!! {sorry, have to say it that way every time}. The movie starts off funny and then agh, not. And, it stays this way. We laughed our heads off at some things but then stopped thinking, Hey, that was awful. I mean, I know I love fluff movies and I love to laugh but this touched on something that really isn't funny {hypocrite that I am who laughed throughout} . But it was presented as a comedy and it was funny. BUT was it? I'd love any opinions on this movie as I was torn and I didn't see it when it came out nor did I read any reviews on it or hear about any flack given about it.

The Pink Panther movies. I bought the Hubster the Steve Martin version but we haven't watched it. I know I've watched some of the old ones, but I don't know which. A different type of funny. I don't think the remake would be as funny because it was funny back in the day because it was fresh and different. Am I wrong with this?

I always want to see movies but I forget what they are....

I think I might go see La Vie en Rose this weekend.

Just saw The Simpsons Movie.

My brief review: it was a long, widescreen, average Simpsons episode.

That was my thought as well.

But there were people there who were rolling in the aisles from the first frame of Itchy (or Scratchy, I don't know which is which).

People who fear clowns are REALLY not gonna like to walk near the Simpsons ride next spring :)

Would that be a seasons 1-10 average or a seasons 11-several years past expiration date average?

I personally couldn't say. I've never watched the show regularly. It was just "yep, those are the Simpsons...up on a big screen."

I was amused but I only laughed out loud once.

I kindof agree, but at the same time loved it. They did take a few things further than they would have gone on TV (language, Bart's full frontal, etc), but overall it was just an extended episode. For those that enjoy the episodes though, that's not necesarily a bad thing. Plus, they did give us fair warning with that opening gimmick:

Yes, because that makes all the difference.

I'm not one who can quote from The Simpsons ... but because I recognize 83% of the quotes in that thread ... that means they're from Seasons 1 - 10.

Confirming my assertion ... that I stopped watching when the show went downhill.


If the movie is a 90-minute episode from the first ten seasons, I'll like it.


But regardless, I'm obviously seeing it sometime this weekend. (likely Sunday)

I think the big thing about The Simpsons Movie is they hand drew the entire film, when most cartoons are computer generated these days. It is an "art" film. I hope to see it this weekend.

Just saw Shortbus - what a delight. I want to see it again just to pick up some of the lines. Of course, the national anthem will never be the same for me.

Shortbus was great, I think most of this lascivious crowd would love it. Just draw the blinds before viewing :)


Note to self - watch more unrated films

I liked the last Batman movie (which was a very nice surprise since I didn't care for any of the KKK(c) incarnations), so I must admit I'm looking forward to The Dark Knight. Teasers are, almost by definition, lies but I like this one.

And seeing the visual approach they took to the Joker it seems they are keeping with a pleasingly dark and serious approach to it.

Shortbus was fantastic!

Yeah, I was rather fond of Shortbus.


I don't suppose there are any clubs like that in L.A.??




*****

Yeah, I guess with a teaser like that, the only "lie" they can tell is to leave some of that dialog on the cutting room floor.

I like the dark approach to the new Batman series, but I draw the line at wanting "serious" with my Batman. It's frelling Batman.

I'm not wanting anything as campy as the TV series or as stupid as the Joel Schumacher disasters ... but I prefer the filmmakers acknowledge the complete non-seriousness of themed villains and an animagus-inspired crimefighter.

A niche waiting to be filled?

Something waiting to be filled.

heh... wow.. :-) there are a few things here (disney) that are waiting to be filled... and most just like your thinking. :-P

Hmmm, I'm gonna run that through the vagueometer and see what it implies.





But I do have a sudden inkling to find out what's going down at the Park.

Watched 'The Blues Brothers' and 'Chinatown' back to back last night on HD...

In money news, the 5-film Harry Potter franchise just edged out the money made by the 6-film Star Wars franchise, and is narrowly behind the 22-film James Bond franchise.

Raw dollars or inflation adjusted?

Raw dollars.

It's not a measure of popularity, or even of how much wealth at any particular time. It's dollars pure and simple.


I'd be interested to see how many paid admissions for each of those franchises, but I'm not even sure such numbers are available.

You can find some sites that guesstimate it since average ticket price numbers are available for each year, but it gets fuzzy with matinee vs. full price, adult vs. tickets.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Seen it a million times.
Love it.
Schmaltzy, but I tear up every time.
:)

I recently watched that one (gasp!) for the first time. I loved it!

I've actually been watching a lot of old movies lately. Perhaps to balance out all the summer blockbusters I've gone to see in theaters. The most recent film I watched was Charley's Aunt. The stage play was the very first community theater production I got involved with 15 years ago, so it's got a special place in my heart. This month a DVD was released of the film version starring Jack Benny, and it was fantastic.

Last night, I finally got to see 'Enter The Dragon' (Have I mentioned how much I love HD Movies?)

Ooh! Heading to netflix now, I have not seen this in ages and I simply adore Kay Fwancis! Thanks for the tip!

Finished L4yer Cake with Daniel Craig. It was an interesting drug lord tale. I was a little confused in some parts because of their strong British accents and there are so many offscreen characters they refer to, but it all came together.

If you liked movies like Traffic, Blow and Snatch, I think you'll like this one.

I got the Almodovar box set yesterday. I see some color in my future - unless we choose to watch Matador.

Saw The Bourne Ultimatum last night. It's awesome, although I have to admit there were some plot points I wish had been resolved better, especially if this is the last one. I still don't quite understand the relationship hinted at between Nickie and Bourne.

Polyester + NyQuil = WOOHOO!!

Why-oh-why do I listen to critical reaction?

The Bourne Ultimatum was completely MEH.


There was plenty of fun action, and a goodly amount of spyster intrigue.

But Jason Bourne was a weaksauce character this time out. Damon barely spoke a word. He had no one to play off throughout the entire film (cept for a brief interlude with Nicki, who - it turns out - used to be his gal at one time pre-being-Bourne) .. and so he never seems decisive or pro-active. He's just there, and he's always shown to be competent in sneaking around and fighting and chasing. But he's never moving the story along, never making anything happen, and never offered an opportunity to express his character through dialogue.


The stuff in the movie is re-tread city. David Strathairn is nasty, but his character is - in the end - far too easily fooled by Bourne to have risen to the high post he's got at the CIA. Joan Allen plays the same good-guy-at-the-Agency role she delivered in the last outting.

The series has been weak ever since Bourne recovered from amnesia. There's no hook to the tale. He's simply a rogue spy/assassin looking for revenge. Snore.

Last time he was looking to apologize for his first hit job, and he has to remember the details of that assignment. This time he's close to recovering the memory of how he was indoctrinated into the Treadstone program ... and the payoff for that is ho-and-hum. .


The pacing was fine, the action was good. But the part of Bourne was simply phoned in, virtually non-existent in a film with his name in the title. And - um - there was no "ultimatum" anywhere to be found.

Saw Bourne yesterday. I really enjoyed it. Thought the action was fun and entertaining. Extended chases and fights were amazing.

The story was not as great as the first. When Matt did speak (like only a handful of times or in short phrases) he sounded like he had a cold. Whatever, he was still hot!

The story had holes, but not too many to make me hate it. I wonder:

I didn't see the movie, but:

I think I am going to see The Simpsons and The Bourne Ultimatum tonight.

Daddy Day Camp : 2% on Rottentomatoes.com
:D

Heheheh, I wonder how Rush Hour 3 will fare .... but I'm not going to find out.


I was a big fan of Jackie Chan. Chris Tucker? Not so much.


* * * * *


Here's an example of problems I had with the Bourne sequels. Car chases. Big part of the franchise, right? Always a good car chase in the Bourne films.

But the ones in the sequels with just Jason Bourne in the car are not nearly as good as the one in the original with his new girlfriend along for the joyride.

See, there's no danger for Jason Bourne in a car chase (heck he survives a wreck in Bourne-Three without a scratch that would have killed an entire schoolbus full of kids). But with an unsuspecting girl along, the danger quotient is there. We feel it. She's our surrogate. She's the innocent civilian along for the ride with the uber-trained spy.

The chases with just Bourne alone in the vehicle, while technically superb, were emotionally inferior.


Likewise, the most riveting action in Bourne-Three is when the girl, Nicki, is being hunted by a CIA assassin and Bourne must rescue her. Girl in danger = excitement. Bourne in danger = we don't believe it for a second.



And yeah, the ending of Bourne-Three with him in the water was a nice bookend to the series. But his repeat of the line from the original, "Look what they make us give" came off lame, imo. (It was a ham-handed salute ... plus, um, Matt Damon is no Clive Owens. Sorry, Matt. No.)

I'm thinking it's gonna be an Almodovar kind-of night.

I am house-sitting with a big-screen plasma. So I'm just viewing widescreen faves of the past.

Fellowship of the Ring was last night. This weekend will include such widescreen geek fare as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Wrath of Khan.

Really liked Bourne. Mindless action + hot guy = good movie.

The ending after he remembered really bothered me. I didn't need to see

Loved the ending in the water and Nicki smirking when she heard the news.

Easily wrapped up or left open. Though I hope this is the end.

Just found Stardust to be pretty enjoyable. Not head over heels or anything but pleasant throughout.

My son has been trying to convince me all day to take him to Stardust. Today was far to busy for a movie though, maybe later in the weekend.

Undertaking Betty came to me via Netflix. Wacky undertaking fun with Brenda Blethyn, Alfred Molina, Naomi Watts and Christopher Walkin. Silly and fun, loved it.

I will not apologize for my Jackie Chan fetish and I have no doubt that I will be seeing every movie in the earliest form I can get my hands on until the day one of us is dead.

That said, I also know that most of the suck pretty hard (especially the American ones). Rush Hour 3 is really very much in the hard suckage category. Among its many problems is the fact that they are unable to hide the fact that Chan is 53 years old and just can't do it any more.

He is still agile and good with the acrobatics but when the better fight choreography goes to Chris Tucker then there is really a problem.

Add to that the fact that they apparently just said "let's reshoot the first Rush Hour but in Paris this time" and it really is a waste of time. Unless you have to see everything with Chan, just go watch the first one again.

I liked The Simpson's Movie. Had me laughing the whole way through.

LOVE Wrath of Khan!

Flash Gordon will never be the same again :D

let me know when Flesh Gordan comes out

Consider yourself notified.

In HD?

Please kill me.

I just got back from taking my 8 year old and 5 year old to Underdog.

What do you do for an encore? Take 'em to Daddy Day Camp?
:D

I already did a big put-my-foot-down-no-way-ever-in-a-million-years-will-I-ever-take-you-to-see-that-movie thing.

I just got around to watching my DVD of Peter Pan and I'm pretty sure I've never seen the whole thing before.

Shocking, I know. I saw the Mary Martin version on TV a lot when I was a kid but this version, no. There were little bits that were familiar but I know that would be from other sources. Now I'm looking at the unopened Bambi DVD and thinking that I've never seen that all the way through either.

But my first doll was a Peter Pan doll. And our cat was named Tiger Lily (but we never called her anything but Kitty). This was all around the time the movie was released. If I saw it then I was much too young to remember.

I caught this on tv the other night and I thought it was zanily amusing. My husband tuned in for a few minutes, rolled his eyes and went back the laptop but I found it to be unexpected gem.

I think Flesh Gordon would be a good one to watch with Forbidden Zone

Continuing my Ryan Gosling obsession, I watched Fractured last night. Meh movie. But he's riveting, and manages to bring a trite character arc to interesting levels. Anthony Hopkins, on the other hand, was phoning it in with a Hannibal Lector lite immitation. And the story was, in the end (especially in the end), kinda stupid.

The movie bombed, and deservedly so. So I hope Gosling can get past that and keep getting interesting parts. He's terrific and I can't get enough of him.

I can't remember, did you ever watch The Believer?

Yes. What a terrific movie. Gosling was superb.


The plot would have been completely unbelievable ... had it not been based on a true story!

Last night I saw two of the best performances I have seen in a long time. My Judi and Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal.
Wow.
This movie was wonderful.
Judi Dench was amazing in this. She played that character with the right amounts of anger and loneliness. She could have made the character just a madwoman but instead portrayed her as being smart, flawed, lonely, depressed, angry and likeable all at the same time. Wonderful.
And Cate Blanchett is just amazing to watch. So very pretty with them big sad eyes.
Bill Nighy is terrific. Everytime I see him I love him.
I bought this film when it was first released to DVD and hadn't opened it. I watched it last night after revisiting Ladies in Lavender. Judi plays 2 completely different characters. So amazing.
See it if you haven't.

"We are bound by the secrets we share."

Funny you should mention that-- I just said (on the board where I moderate) that among a dearth of potential icons, Gosling and his lady-partner McAdams could blow the lid off this town.

Oh, my! I forget that sometimes those who often share your opinion (like GC often does mine) can disagree sometimes. Notes was definitely not a fave.

Not recognizing Ms. McAdams' name, I dutifully went to imdb (I've seen a couple of her films and remember one of the characters well enough to say that I liked her). The first thing listed...Time Traveler's Wife, slated for a 2008 release!

I LOVED Notes on a Scandal ... and prodded GC to watch it when I learned last week he'd had it unopened for months. Gak. It's Dame Judy's absolute best performance, imho.



Who's this McAdams women (who already gets points merely for being attached to the lushiousness that is Ryan Gosling)?

She hasn't done a ton, but she was the chick in Wedding Crashers (a surprisingly good movie).

Oh, I liked her in that. And I was surprised at how The Wedding Crashers didn't absolutely suck.

I'm a big fan of Rachel McAdams. I liked her a lot in Mean Girls. I also like Gosling in Half Nelson. But as I mentioned before somewhere in this thread that the Gosling and McAdams pairing in The Notebook did nothing for me. I like them both but despise that film. Blechk!

She was also great in the otherwise-not-terrific "The Family Stone," as well as the I-admit-I-sobbed-in "The Notebook." Also "Mean Girls."

I liked it. It was funny.
I saw Wedding Crashers because I have a crush on Owen Wilson. However, in that film my crush turned to Bradley Cooper. Wow, what a cutie. :)

And I only saw The Notebook because I have a crush on Ryan Gosling (or, wait, wasn't that the totally worthless movie that started my crush on Ryan Gosling??)

Who was McAdams in The Family Stone? I liked that movie. But if she was the unfortunate girl stuck with the one "straight" role, she was completely overlooked by me in the menagerie of comic performances.

She was the younger sister of Sara Jessica Parker's fiance.

The "of course you do" in this exchange:

Rachel McAdams is hotter than hot!

Thought I'd share.. :cool:

The Hot Chick, Ally?
The Hot Chick?!
I may have to subtract princess points from you, Missy.







:D

And with that, my heart hurts just a little bit. Ouchie. :(

;) :D

I also loved White Chicks. Friday (which I can completely quote at length). House Party 1 & 3. And Dumb & Dumber is my most favorite one of all. :D :snap:

Friday is a brilliantly funny movie. Next Friday, definitely suffered from sequelitus, but was still entertaining. Didn't follow through and see Friday After Next, though.

I'll leave my comments at that. :p

I like Friday, too.
Friday, without a doubt, has one of the funniest moments ever. At least for me.

Jehovah's Witness: Are you prepared for Jehovah's return? 'Cause if you're not, we've got a pam...
[Craig slams the door in their faces]
Jehovah's Witness: Well fu ck you. Half-dead motherfu cker. Come on, sister!

LaWanda Page rocks. Man, I laughed so hard in the theatre and ever freakin' time I see it.
In fact, it's my favorite insult on the freeway when someone ticks me off. "Half dead motherfu cker!"

lol! :D

Love it love it.

Ally - I liked Hot Chick and the Notebook. You are not alone.

Dumb and Dumber still makes me soil myself with giggliness.

I didn't see the first one, and I only saw the last half hour of the sequel last night, and, granted, I was drunk, though I'm not sure which way that cuts, but . . . I thought High School Musical 2 was, oh, subpar.

Zac, Zac, Zac, what were you thinking?

What is this about High Schol Musical 2? And last night? My sis made a big deal out of it {granted, we were 'talking' via emails} and they saw it last night. And now you. LOL {Okay, that isn't the whole world but....} I'm just curious.

I watched a movie that a friend loaned to me. Either 'The Tenant' or 'Tenant'. Roman Polanski? It was an interesting psychological thriller.

Anyone see this? An older movie. I was discussing it with the person who loaned it to me and there are no real answers....interesting....

I think the only logical way to view this 'movie' is on acid. Or shrooms. Drunk is not enough, unless you're talking 'Barfly' drunk.

Yeah, the Kid made us watch it last night. I was sober, unfortunately.

HSM 2 is getting practically the best reviews of any movie this year. I almost want to see it for myself.

Zac was pretty good in Hairspray, though I don't get what all the teen-tizzyhood is about. But, um, he's totally, like, hot in a spread in Rolling Stone this month.

I had to look this one up on IMDB. I don't believe I have seen it. While perusing IMBD, I learned that this film - along with Repulsion and Rosemary's baby - is meant to be loose trilogy about the horrors faced by apartment/city dwellers. I never knew that.

Those 3 films would make one great movie night!

Ooo! You are so computer efficient!! I didn't think of that. I haven't seen 'Repulsion' but you mention 'Rosemary's Baby' and yikes, yes, I do see the connection of the horrors faced by apartment/city dwellers. I didn't know that. I thought Rosemary's Baby was purely about Satan worship.

It is pretty good. And, so ironic that you respond because the woman in the movie {um, the redhead, and that's all I will say....and not anything about the theater scene, either....} in the movie reminds me of you. I told the guy who loaned it to me and he said 'Introduce me!!'

{thanks for posting about that, btw, I was constantly thinking about the apartment situation as well as the city dwellers....interesting that this was the objective of the director/writer}

The Zac Rolling Stone thing. 2 young girls came through my line. He was on the cover of their bopper magazine. I said 'Oh, is this the guy from the Rolling Stone magazine?' and I didn't realize right off that they weren't kidding when they said 'Oh, sorry, that was shocking, wasn't it?' and I said 'Yeah!! It was ah, a, ah, yeah, I was surprised to see him like that' and they were like 'Yeah, sort of gross'. LOL I realized they were too young to get it. I changed my tune when I did so.

I can't believe you haven't seen The Tenant. It's a heckuvalot better than Pirates...

I love Pirates. One of his best, though I can clearly see why some don't get it.





Teenyboppers grossed out by Zac Efron's hotness?! HaHaHaHaHaHa!! :D

I'll have to give Pirates another shot someday, if I can find it. I just adore The Fearless Vampire Killers (aka Dance of the Vampires), and all three of the apartment horrors listed above. And when in the heck will his bloody and disturbing movie of The Scottish Play get a decent release? (I have a crappy old pan n' scan from 20 years ago.)

You mean, Mac . . . AAAUGGHHHH!

Actually, I don't recall it being particularly bloody and disturbing. At the time I thought it a straightforward telling of a play that is bloody and disturbing, which, perhaps, one occasionally forgets while reading it.

It's on DVD (and it's widescreen):
The cheapest place to get it now is deepdiscount for $22.42 inc. shipping.

Perhaps because the target audience has ****e for taste. I gave the first one a shot when it was new. I like musicals, and I work with teens. Plus the director has some solid credentials as a choreographer (most notably Dirty Dancing). So I went in wanting to like it.... I hated it. All the over hyping was an even bigger turn off. I refuse to watch the second one, especially since even the few adults I know who liked the first say the second is a lame retread.

Hmmm, now I'd like to find out which it is .... but in order to determine whether HSM2 is a retead, I'd have to watch both of them.


And, uh, that's not something I'm willing to do.

Even Tori didn't seemed overly impressed with it.

Maddy was out on Friday night so we DVR'd it - she started watching it Saturday but then we ran out to do some errands and she hasn't finished it yet. Not that she didn't have time just wasn't interested in watching the rest.

Friday is the bomb. Now I'm thinking of all my favorite parts!

"Smokey, why you go bangin' on the door like you the poe-lice?"
(everytime somebody knocks too hard, I spout that line.)

I just bought The Hot Chick on DVD this weekend. At $7.99 at Best Buy, that's a steal. I got Encino Man for that price, too.

And yeah, I LOVE PAULIE SHORE MOVIES. I can quote both Son-In-Law & Encino Man at length.

And High School Musical 1 & 2? I'm dying to see both. I caught bits of the first one the other night on the Disney channel. My poor boyfriend walked in the room and was like, "WTF?" I think Ashley Tisdale is darling & Zac Efron is smokin'!! (Although, I have to admit, I saw a clip from HSM 2 on The Soup this weekend of baseball players leaping to each base and spinning and skipping while twirling their bats. I was dying! Mostly because my boyfriend, a total sports fanatic, turned ghostly at the sight.) :D

My girlfriend Leigh, the other night, after we saw Hairspray, was like, "if I was 17 again I'd be so in love with Zac Efron!" I was like, "17 again? I'm 34 & I'm still lusting. He's legal."

So let me all beat you to the punch- apparently my taste is in my mouth, I'm a huge fan of craptacular movies, and I'm a predator of teenage boys. But I'm honest. :D :p

'Friday' is one of the most funny movies I've ever seen!!

{what is difficult is trying not to show the kids that we 'get' a lot of the funny stuff....and, yes, we have watched this with the little one, too}

The two sequels were good but the first one was best.

The other movies you posted, dang, funny!! I love 'Encino Man' {love Brendan Frasier, I think he has a new movie out but I only knew this by walking around Blockbuster?!!!}.

Ah, le lust. :cool:

Yeah. I get that. My friend told me it isn't that we are naughty women, we just know their potential.

{or is that, in fact, naughty?:blush: }

Now that I've watched a few movies, I need to read a book. 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'. I think the other one I want to read/buy is 'Aria'. {okay,I am derailing...I'm so outta here!}

The Loved One, a great guilty pleasure.

I saw Without Love this weekend.
What a nostalgic and lovely little romp that was. :)

When Babette was relaying her underwhelming review of Underdog to us last night, as we staggered home from Goth Day, I was remarking how Hollywood won't rest until every last movie, sitcom and Saturday morning cartoon from my youth has be re-made or otherwise mined for profit.

I mentioned that a live-action version of Johnny Quest is now in the making (a cult cartoon beloved by me as a tike, that I was shocked to learn ran only ONE season).

But I forgot to mention that Roland Emerrich (of Godzilla infamy) is remaking Fantastic Voyage, the Raquel Welch starrer from the 60's that perhaps sparked the entire Inner Space vogue fantasy of shrinking to microscopic size.

I'm thinking full length F Troop, except we set it in Iraq, kind of Three Kings, except funnier, and we bring back the Spike Jonze character . . .

How about an all-black Bowery Boyz?

I'm still PO'd there is still talk of remaking The Women. Pathetic, how can you mess with perfection?

I've never seen The Women. :eek:





Where do I go to surrender my Gay Card?

Double U Tee Eff?!

:eek:

Minus princess points for InnerSpaceman.
Minus princess points for AllyOops!
:D


Sounds like I need to have a screening of 'The Women' at my house... or at Chernabog's.
:)

Hahaha! I'm really running out of princess points! I'm powering down!! First The Hot Chick, then The Women!

How can I gain any points back? Your'e a tough crowd!

I own Dr. Strangelove on DVD and have seen it many times. Awesome! A Clockwork Orange, however, is my least favorite movie on the planet. Too visually disturbing, even now. Malcolm McDowell, however? Yummy, villainous stuff.

Oh, golly, what else? I own Casablanca....but, um, I've never seen it or watched it. :(

Or, as my Dad says sarcastically & with much disappointment as I tell him of never having seen Casablanca, "I'm sure you can name all the members of N*SYNC, though". And with eyes totally rolling. :rolleyes: <-- (AllyOops!'s Dad, if he were yellow with a Beatle wig sans mustache.)

"No, Dad. I (Justin, Lance, Chris, Joey & JC) cannot." :p


And with that, the "princess" was laid to rest for all eternity. :( ;)

Ally,
if you have access, please watch it.

It would mean soemthing totally different to you than you expect.
Its funny to be watching the older ideas of propriety and such and have a cat fight.
I never found it all that funny, and I know many do.
But its a lovely film. There are some fab gowns and coats, and all sorts of things...

You have got to be kidding? :eek: :eek:

INDOCTRINATION NOW, GC!

Wait til I'm in town! I have not seen it this month!

I've never seen the Women either. Hmm guess I need to hit blockbuster on the way home.

Ditto.

And I need to write down the titles of movies that I catch a glimpse of but missed the beginning, the end, or both.

A movie that looked great~ Judy Dench {oh, I just Googled it, wahoo!!}:

'Ladies' In Lavender'. 2004

Tagline:The story of two sisters who saved a stranger, and the stranger who stole their hearts.

Plot Outline:Two sisters befriend a mysterious foreigner who washes up on the beach of their 1930's Cornish seaside village.

What little I saw I fell in love with. If anyone sees this, their house is where I'd love to live. And die. {well, naturally, not like a horror flick, okay?}

wow... even I've seen The Women.

Ladies in Lavender. It's not a perfect film, but it is wonderful. It's like spending a little time with two wonderful ladies.
I wish I was that boy. :)
I also wish I was the girl who gets him. :D

He was good looking, wasn't he? The woman who gets him, is it the lady they show painting? I didn't get to watch any further than that but I did see, in one scene, a lady painting.

I think it was wonderful, too. I looked ideal.

I thought of myself and my sisters {any of them} when we are old. Damn, I wish we got along that well.

I always think of getting old. Once two sisters and I were cruising up to L.A. in my old Buick, singing and laughing, all of us in the front seat. Then, we look over, and there, in this old Fairmont {?) are three old women, all in the front seat of their car, singing and laughing. What a trip, what a look in to the future.

I saw The Women at Theater 80 St. Marks in the NYC. It was a great little revival house that has since been turned back to a live theater space - much better than condos. It's a great experience to see it with a catty gay crowd - kinda like the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Like RHPS, you could easily watch it on your own on DVD - but you'd be missing out.

Speaking of watching something on your own - I just viewed David Lynch's Inland Empire. Would anyone care to discuss/dissect it with me?

I've never seen the film version of The Women, but I have seen a live stage production. Does that count for anything?

That all depends.


Do you like the kock? If so, I think the movie version is de rigeur.

As a representative of the Chernabog household, I'm calling a The Women view on the biggievision teevee, pick a Friday or Saturday night in the near future.

Do thincrisps come in popcorn flavor??

I think he should make Jungle Red thin crisps.
;)

How about Jungle Red Pepper Garlic Cheddar? Or Summer Rain Parmesan Sage?

And they'll help you keep your Adonis figure!

I'm soooo up for this!

September 1st, 8th or 15th?

15th!

Now, this doesn't sound very enchanting to me at all:

Scary new OZ movie

Disney's Return To Oz tanked already, in large part due to its grim and depressing tone. (I kind of like it in spite of this, though it isn't aging all that well for me.) Even The Wiz, on film, ended up as a heavy-handed downer. Now, this McFarlane take on Oz? I give it a pre-emptory Bah. Between that and, I presume, the eventual movie of Wicked, a generation is going to think of Oz as a conflicted, neurotic place. Where's the whimsy and fun?!

(p.s. - Yes, I do like Wicked on stage, but I worry that a movie of it is likely to suffer from similar "Oz is a bad place" vibes. Can we get Baum's good hearted, place you don't want to leave Oz someday?)

Jiminy Christmas a Ripley-like Dorothy? There already ARE Oz sequels. Quite a few. Written by Baum. Why not try to do those properly? (And by "properly" I mean "not like Return to Oz", although that was closer than most.)

Things seem to be skewing towards "gritty" and away from "enchanting" these days. That Narnia movie certainly went that way. Though I did enjoy it's LotR-ness, it was pretty obvious they made some style choices.

I don't know why they just can't make up something new and not have to put the name Oz on it.

Here's my innerSpaceman-style answer to that question:

It's not going to be at my place, but yes! Everyone is invited!
:D

I think Ally should definitely be there.
I also think we all should show up wearing red. Jungle red.
:)

I loved the 'Labyrinth'!! That is a movie the whole family loved. I think we own it on VHS but not DVD, yet.

And, 'Return to Oz', that is another favorite around here.

Okay, GC, what is up with the red? Jungle red?

Both Labyrinth and Dark Crystal are awesome movies. And that's not even a child's filter talking as I never saw either until I was in my 20s.

Ok, I didn't like Wicked. There, I said it.

I enjoyed the production. I dig some of the songs and performances. I love the costumes.

The 2nd act purely sucked. And, boring as the book was, the play simply skipped the most interesting parts.

Also, unlike the book, the play reimagines the Wicked Witch of the West as a poor, misunderstood heroine - thus positing a complete alternate to the Baum creation (and beloved MGM version) ... and making no attempt to have the audience comprehend how charming Elphaba could, in fact, become the Wicked Witch of the West.

To me, this was an unforgivable cop-out. And because the 2nd act was so lackluster, I give Wicked - on the whole - a non-passing grade.



* * * *

I love the idea of a McFarlane OZ ... and I'm only dismayed that he's going to tone it down from his line of fabulously designed characters.

It's been a long time, but I recall the Baum series of books getting rather dark. The article says McFarlane is going for "Harry Potter" dark rather than "Seven" dark ... and I think, the beloved MGM version nothwithstanding, that's the proper tone for OZ.




.

[quiet confirmation of iSm's stance on Wicked]

Yeah, I was underwhelmed by Wicked when I saw it as well.
I thought some of it was good. I thought the Defying Gravity song was great. But all in all, I was meh about it.
But... I do understand why people love it. I just don't share in the love.

One of the reasons I try to get in on things early is to avoid my knee-jerk reaction against their potential popularity. I want to like it for itself, and not for how others like it.

More important, I want to give it a fair shot - and not deduct points for being popular. I tend to deduct popularity points from stuff I've never even seen ... and the cure is to see it before it has a chance to get popular.

Yes, this is why I didn't watch Buffy until the fourth season. Or Potter until the fourth book came out. Hmm, what is my thing with four? And also why I didn't watch Wicked until last weekend. (So, you win some, you lose some.)

I'll be going to see Halloween in a few weeks.

Was going to see it on opening night but the stupid scary clown mask in the commercial started freaking me out. The movie will now be pre-screened so I can hide during the scary clown mask parts.

Yes, go figure. Blood, guts and slasher doesn't bother me. Clown mask? OH HELL NO. Yet IT is still one of my favorite books and movies

I'm exactly the same way. I've not seen Wicked. I've only heard a couple of the songs (and those because they've been butchered by many school choirs). I was never all that excited about it to begin with other than the fabulous original leading ladies, but when it suddenly became HUGE that just made me even less interested.

Total agreement with Ally's entire post. I am so glad that there are a few here who didn't like it! I've heard the music and it didn't impress me at all. I'm also annoyed when they take the evil characters in classic stories and make them out to be good guys. Bleh. At least it wasn't Baum himself doing it, a la Lucas.

The only thing that drew me to Wicked was the whole "other side of the story" aspect of it. A what if the witch was actually a good person after all, etc. I kinda liked that. But it was dull and boring... like the book actually...
:shrug:

No, that's crap. Might as well have a what-if-every-story-was-exactly-the-opposite-of-what-it-was.

The POINT of (the original) Wicked was to show how the Wicked Witch of the West got to be so damn wicked. There were details about her, and an understanding of her character that made her more likeable ... but at no point did they need to claim that The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz got it completely wrong.


That sort of contrariness simply for the sake of it can be done with any tale, and I find it both insulting and uninteresting.


Triple Quadruple Quintuplet Bah on the Melting of the Wicked Witch being a ploy that NEVER HAPPENED and Elphaba lives happily ever after. Feh.


I know "Wicked" is still playing at the Pantages ... but the show is so old, it is no longer appropriate for spoiler tags, imo.

I liked wicked the play much more than I enjoyed the book, which got dreadfully boring with faux Oz politics. I thought it a delightful bit of whimsy fun.

The music didn't stick with me, and it had it's awkward moments - but as big Broadway show entertainment goes, this one I actually liked.

Oh, I was completely and utterly charmed and entertained throughout. I don't mean to imply it wasn't a fantastic evening of fun and enjoyable theater. It WAS.

I gladly went to see it a second time. ;)

And, as a matter of fact, I like the songs and have listened to the CD quite a bit (though I'm certainly long over it).

It's really just the essence of what they did to the story that bugs me - and the dissatisfaction with the seemingly less musical, certainly less fun 2nd act - - that just happened to dispose of the book's most interesting episodes.


(There certainly was a whole lot of boring Oh Zee politics, so I find discarding one of the story's main virtues a terrible waste.)



Oh, are we talking about movies? Hmmm, well, when they do finally get around to a movie version of Wicked, I hope they incorporate a bit more of the book when they film the musical.

I haven't seen Wicked because I *liked* the books. Loved the politics. Apparently I'm in the minority. I'm not really in love with what little of the songs I've heard. Actually, I didn't like what I heard.

While IMing I put Hard Day's Night in my DVD player. God, I love that film. iSm and I bought copies at the Grove. The restored version was $9.99. Amazing price.
I love every inch of this film. Each shot looks like it could be a postcard of some kind. The black and white photography is awesome.
Every time I watch this it's like visiting with an old friend. No wonder every girl in the 60's fell in love with them. They're hot.... except George. Never fancied him.
:D

I also liked the Movie Wizard of Oz better than the book - but I read the book as an adult long after seeing the movie

I never really fancied the Oz books as a kid (and haven't re-read them as an adult). That doesn't quite explain why I read at least 4 or 5 of them.


I always fancied George Harrison. I have his DNA on a napkin, by the way ... and as soon as home cloning is available ...


meanwhile, maybe I'll throw that Hard Day's Night that I bought with GC into the DVD ...

Oh joy...

I get to see a free screening of Mr. Bean's Holiday.

George was far and away my favorite Beatle. Not saying he was the most talented, but I liked him best as an individual and he was, in my mind, the best looking one.

Okay, saw 'The Simpsons' today, and naked Bart was hilarious! Tori was totally shocked to see his little bits.:D Didn't stop her from laughing her ass off, though.

When I went on the Behind the Emerald Curtain tour in NYC, we were told they are going to wait as long as possible before making a film version of Wicked. The stage show is still amazingly successful, both on Broadway and the touring company, and they do not want a wide release movie to slow their money making machine.

I love Wicked, but I can't really think about it anymore. I am totally obsessed with Spring Awakening! Spring Awakening!! Spring Awakening!!!

When is it coming here? When is it coming HEEEEEEEERRRRREEE? (Can't wait.)

I don't know anyhing about Spring Awakening, but I've just visited the official website and it sounds like something I'd enjoy. But, like others here, I'd better hop on it before it becomes a sensation, at which point, yeah, I'll resist it.

Too late; it already won the Tony.

Bono and Edge went to see it recently. I want to see it, but usually don't go to shows by myself.

Well, turns out I was unimpressed by the original cast recording. I liked only a 2 or 3 of the songs. Worse, listening to the songs did not convey the story to me one iota, which I find a failing in musical theater. They didn't even really convey much about the characters to me, but that perhaps is dependant on the theatrical context I didn't have.


Also, I'm not a prude ... but the constant use of swear words bothered me. They seemed to me to be an overcompensation attempt at modernity for a tale that takes place in the 19th century. I thought that choice was stupid. Not offensive, just stupid.


I had to go to Wikipedia to get a plot synopsis so I could have some context for the songs, and the plot is a collection of sophomoric soap opera staples.


If it were not for Babette's high praise and recommendation, I would write Spring Awakening off completely.

I may rent The Lives of Others this weekend. I meant to see it in the theater, but never got to it before it closed here.

I like the director's name: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Best. Name. Ever! :D

I have it on my Netflix queue, but it says there's a wait for it.


So I shall.

What the hell's Spring Awakening? Sounds like some kind of feminine hygiene product...

I just saw some info on the new Oz:
Source

Bah.



And, at the far end of the spectrum from McFarlane's twisted OZ ....





I watched High School Musical 2 last night.



An enjoyable enough piece of fluff. Squarely aimed at the kiddie and tween set ... really not interesting enough to hold my interest for 2 hours, but not horrible young folk entertainment by any means. The dance numbers, in particular, were enthusiastic and fairly inventive, and packed plenty of ooomph.



Oh, and Zac Efron is.like.soooo.cute.



and since it's summer vacation, there's a pool scene where he's shirtless ... and, oh my, is that little boy ever ripped! :eek:

I assume you'll be watching the Dance-along reprise this Saturday night?

No, I'm sure the dance-along would teach me to do the most boring stuff in the film. Really, there were some good moves that could not be taught via television.

And I'm not going to watch any of the sing-a-longs either. The songs were pleasant enough, but instantly forgettable.


I am, however, planning on watching the original HSM next week.;)



(GC tells me Zac takes his shirt off for a moment in that one, too.)

And don't forget about the swell taciturn anal sex reference.

"I'LL show you my promise." As he turns her around with a look on his face as though he's about to take her. (He's actually about to put a necklace on her.) We watched this bit like 80 times because it was just that amusing to us.

Wait.

Did I just admit to watching it?

Carry on.

You did. I quoted you to immortalize it. :D

Was this scene in 1 or 2?

2. And my-my, even I did not think of that in terms of anything but the chaste kiss he was trying so desperately to plant on her.





(of course, I saw all sorts of imaginary references to locker room anal sex with his also-quite-cute afro-headed sports buddy.)

Zoe. No question.

I love Serenity! God bless Joss Whedon. I can't wait for him to get off his duff and give us something else.

I'd have to say Inara. She's hot. And, yes, I haven't forgotten myself but hot is hot.
:)

They're all hot, but my personal preference is for Kaylee. I like the cute "girl next door" thing.:cool:

Hey, I just snapped out of it. I would love to be in a Wash, Jane, hot doctor and Captain sandwich!
:D

National tour is in production and is supposed to start in San Francisco in Fall 2008.

To be honest I had trouble getting into the soundtrack until I actually saw the show. Their cast recording performances were when it was all new and I think they have way more passion and character in the live performance (of course, as expected). Putting the songs into the context of the storyline really made a difference as well. I only hope that once it makes it to SoCal, the touring actors can live up to the original cast's performances.

As for the soundtrack, I didn't see why they needed the swearing either until I saw it. #15 Totally F**cked is the expression of how one feels when caught with no way out of a tough situation. #4 B*tch of Living is frustrated teen boys dealing with shame and confusion over masterbation. In addition to these two, my favorite songs are: #5 My Junk, #12 Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind, #19 The Song of Purple Summer.

The plot lines are similiar to modern day soap opera themes, but the story is an 1890s German play. They added music in a rock opera style to show us the inner thoughts of the characters. Watch a video here and here. Ok, I'll shut up now.

I know you've already seen the Bitch video, but just wait :iSm:... you'll see.

Ok, I'll keep an open mind.





Oh, and definitely Zoe. ;)

I saw Stardust tonight. Now, granted it's not a great movie in the "quality cinema" sense. And yes, Claire Danes acts like she's on stage, not film. (And has a much larger nose than I remembered, but that's beside the point.) And there were a few moments of anachronism that bugged me. And Sienna Miller looked like she was about 45.

Still, I confess that I enjoyed it. I'm a huge sucker for fairy tales. Huge. I was prepared to hate this movie and pass the time thinking about how I would have done it better. Instead, I got sucked in, big ol' fairy tale sap that I am.

It had all the important elements - royalty, magic, a land just beyond our own, destiny, the love story developing between characters who start out fighting, and - very important - the young hero who magically becomes hotter with longer hair, frock coat, and sword.

I'm feeling all swoony now, and it's only partly due to the post-movie port.

High School Musical #1 on Disney Channel as I type! Get'cha head in the game! Can someone tell me how HSM2 already won an award? I caught 30 seconds of Teen Choice Awards tonight when they won. Ummm, it has only been out a week!

OMG, Zac's so young ... he's almost not even my type anymore!

I thought Stardust was pretty good also. A great fun ride, a huge fairytale show with just enough special effects and originality to make it "new". And the music almost made it epic. I enjoyed just about every minute of it.

Still, there was something about it that almost said "Made for TV" to me. Not sure what it was, perhaps it had that Hallmark sappy quality or something.

Well, I didn't end up seeing Stardust over the weekend. Next stop, Netflix. Sorry, Stardust.


Thanks for the heads-up on HSM, Babette. As GC said, it does indeed have a much better message than the sequel. So even with much worse choreography and Zac not having the services of his personal trainer yet, I liked it waaaay better than High School Musical 2.


I think the message for school age kids to live outside your peer-pressure box is hugely valuable. If you like to bake or sing or hip-hop dance, do it!


It was a much less generic moral than the sequel's cliche of don't-let-your-bigheadedness-ruin-your-friendships. Snore. So what if Zac was hotter in the second one?



(And, yeah, GC, his Dad was HOT in the original. Did they change dads or something??)

Not sure. I haven't seen 2.
:)

Rumors are circulating that Owen Wilson tried to kill himself this weekend.
That's so sad if it's true.
:(

Hollywood has officially lost all semblence of originality. The lastest in the endless remake news is Keanu Reeves starring as Klatu in a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.



I wonder what the remakes of Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey will look like in a couple of decades??

Zac Efron as Luke Skywalker? Hannah Montana as Leia?

But who will play HAL?

Ben Stein?

Please - somebody buy or rent the DVD of David Lynch's Inland Empire. I loved it and want to discuss it here, but I'm not ready to either pontificate or deliver a monologue.

(I guess you could always drop by La Casa de Mousepod in a couple of weeks and I'll inflict the whole 3 hours on ya...)

I just found out yesterday that Lynch is from Spokane- he was born in Montana, but lived a large part of his life in the PNW. No wonder he's so weird.

Ok, I put it in my Queue, and moved it near the top.

No guarantee when I will get around to watching it.





If I was "meh" about Mullholland Drive, am I likely to hate "Inland Empire?" The So.Cal title commonalities make me nervous.

Haven't seen it, iSM, but the term 'Inland Empire' is also applied to the Spokane region. Hopefully, the movie isn't, because you'll likely fall asleep.

Dude! I'll watch anything by David Lynch, I just have to double up my medication first, for proper viewing.

Well, Spokane has to do something to try to appear relevant.

(I have to watch what I say, since I just might end up there. Maybe I should rent the movie as homework.)

THUD (jaw hitting floor)

I'm ashamed to say, the last Lynch film I saw was Wild at Heart.

I watched Eraserhead for the first time in high school - while recovering from a bad bike accident - a dear teacher gave me videotapes of that, A Clockwork Orange, and Koyaanisqaatsi.

iSm - sorry to say that if you didn't dig Mulholland Drive, you probably won't like Inland Empire. The seemingly disjointed and surreal style that Lynch dared only in the last 1/3 of Lost Highway and second half of MD is all of IE. I certainly don't want to give anything away before you all see it, but I just want to warn you: don't look for a plot. There is one (or many) there, but Lynch's experimental narrative style demands (at least for me) two viewings: one passive, just to let it all soak in, and, following lots of pondering and discussion, at least one engaged viewing, just to see how the hell he did it. I think it might be my favorite movie so far this year.

Twin Peaks - Firewalk with me scared teh crap out of me. The "Bob" lurking around just sent chilles.

OK then, another warning. There are some extremely startling moments in Inland Empire. Definitely a horror flick on some level.

Did you watch the TV series? "She's dead, wrapped in plastic!" My mom and I still quote that one. It had some wacky, creepy moments, and "Bob" was in many of them. Firewalk with Me crossed ick-factor lines the TV show could not. "There's a fish in the percolator." Lynch is definitely a creative wack job.

I too hope they are just rumors. I love him. Take care Owen!

What is the deal with Hannah Montana? I keep catching a minute of the show here or there. Her name isn't Hannah, but then they talk about meeting her. Is she a celebrity? I don't get it, but then, do I really want to?!

I still have not seen HSM 2 so I cannot compare the two. I enjoyed #1 much better the second time. The first time I watched it with 32 fifth graders who were quoting the entire movie!

Hannah Montana is her rock star secret identity. See she's a regular student by day, rock star by night. She wears the wig to disguise herself.

I saw Kinky Boots last night. I really enjoyed it. Chiwetel Ejiofor did a fantastic job as the drag queen.

I have passed Kinky Boots to people at work who had no idea what I was handing them.
Do you have issues with drag queens? no
Foreign accents? No
Here.. watch this

Brilliant little film. Though I did leave wanting more.

It always looked interesting to me, but I had no idea it was going to be as good as it was. It was funny, but had enough dramatic bits to make the characters realistic, and had some really sweet moments. There was always something I liked about Ejiofor when I saw him in other things, but I've gotta say this film made me a full fledged fan.

I saw Balls of Fury tonight...

Seeing Christopher Walken singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was almost worth the price of admission.

Balls of Fury is a movie everyone should rent on DVD and drink alot before watching. It's very funny, but not in the way I thought it would be. Most of the laughter was either followed or was proceeded by a Oh My GOd!

Not worth running out to see, but worth seeing for a good laugh.

7 bornieo's out of 10

Saw War last night because both Jet Li and Jason Statham are capable of bringing the kick assery. Unfortunately whoever was in charge of it wasn't particularly capable of filming and editing it.

This is one of the best film reviews I've ever read. :snap:

I almost forgot just how much I enjoy Dead Alive, but tonight's airing on HD Net brought back all the over top disgusting fun.

Next up (without even changing the channel) - Swamp Thing!

I just saw an 'I Love Lucy' with guest star Rock Hudson in it. Holy Jeebus on a pogo sick he was handsome... Man oh man!
:) :blush: