I hate movie trailers. Gave away just about every funny moment in Hancock, which was a cute film that would have been kinda hilarious had I not seen almost every joke in the trailer.

Either I haven't seen the full trailer or my sieve of a brain has forgotten it....I'm still up for Will Smith goodness :)

I lost interest in Hancock when the movie started tanking on rt.com. (I know the best way to judge a film is to see it yourself and then decide but I'm broke! :) )

The problem with revealing trailers is that, even if you've forgot something consciously, almost any brain will react with recognition when presented with the supposedly forgotten stuff. You can still enjoy that stuff, but there's an element of meh to contend with.


* * * *

Actually, Gemini Cricket, the best way to figure if you'll like a film is to go by the opinion of friends whose tastes you share, and not by rotten tomatoes. This means, of course, rush to see anything I dislike!! ;)

My experience is that generally an overly revealing trailor (have you ever seen the trailer for Seven Samurai? It practically says "and at minute 67:23 so-and-so dies and then at minute 93:14 this other so-and-so makes this important decision") doesn't do anything to ruin a good movie for me.

But they do go a fair ways towards ruining borderline movies. It is especially a problem for me since I see so movies in the theater I will have seen the big trailers a half dozen times or more (I generally don't ever look at them online) by the time the movie is released.

So Facebook tells me

iSm and I are Best Friends on the movie compatability. (GC and me is no real surprise there)

BE and me, "run away fast" :D (me & Borneo, too)

and € are "soul mates"

Traci and I are a terrible match ;)

Howling with laughter!

I am dissapointed that LSPE and I are only casual buddies (GD, too) :(

Facebook is full of it! SF, you and I like a lot of the same movies.

Just not the cruddy list of films they came up with.

I may, in fact, enjoy big-dumb-movies more than you. But the classics are still my bread-and-butter.

I love big dumb movies, but some in the last decade are just not dumb enough for me! ;)

I attended the closing night of Last Remaining Seats. Silent films at the Orpheum with my dad and two friends. FANTASTIC! Saw a Chaplin short, a Lloyd short and Buster Keaton's The Navigator, which is now one of my all-time favorite films, and may be my favorite romance.

Composer Robert Israel (love, love, love) played the Wulitzer. He was, per usual, The Awesome!

My heart is still on a cloud.

Ok, I gave The Women a second chance yesterday, and really enjoyed it. I can claim my gay card back now, thank you.


(Oh, except the final shot of Norma Sheerer of overthetop schmaltz nearly wrecked it for me)

"There's a word for you ladies, but it isn't used in polite society... outside of a kennel" :D

Good grief, dear... Your skin makes the Rocky Mountains look like chiffon velvet!

Nancy Blake (to the Countess de Lave): Chin up, dear.
Miriam Aarons (to the Countess de Lave): That's right, both of them!


Here's a refresher course in a good number of lines.

Reinstatement... pending.
Better save your cracks for your next thread, Dear.


:D

"My johnny says he'd like to do her nails right down to the wrist with a big buzz-saw."

There are so many great lines, how does one choose?

Countess DeLave: I never got a sou out of anybody except my first husband, Mr. Strauss. Oh he said the most touching thing in his will, I remember every word of it... He said "To my beloved wife Flora, I leave all my estate... To be administered by executors because she is an A-1 schlmiel."

"Well, cheer up, Mary; living alone has its compensations. Heaven knows it's marvelous being able to spread out in bed like a swastika."

"Oh, you remember the awful things they said about what's-her-name before she jumped out the window? There. You see? I can't even remember her name so who cares Edith?"

"Why he's plum loco for you countess! He likes you even better than his horse! And it's such a blasted big horse too! "

"Any ladle's sweet that dishes out some gravy."

Exercise instructress: Arms flat. Crawl slowly up the wall...

Sylvia Fowler: The way you say that makes me feel like vermin.

Exercise instructress: That shouldn't be much effort. I mean, crawling up the wall.

"Our new one-piece lace foundation garment. Zips up the back and no bone."

And to think, without facebook we may have never known this - so what are we going to say to Lisa?

You can have his soul, I get everything else. ;)

I was just scrolling by quickly and was, like, hey ... I don't remember that line from The Women.



Didn't realize we'd finally changed the subject. And I thought that wouldn't be allowed until every line in the script had been quoted.


;)

Well, since I've only seen it once the only thing I can quote is "jungle red".

Sorry. I'm better now.

Oh my Gawd! This is the best commercial ever! (I never use such superlatives in casual conversation. So, I really mean this!)

Ad for 'Kubrick Season"

Dark City is coming in a Director's Cut DVD & Bluray!

I absolutely love this movie, but shouldn't this cover art be, um, DARK?

The link is a little wonky - click here.

Total agreement, wtf?

Thanks for the fixed link, CP. That was cool.



* * * *

I have no problem with the Dark City cover art. What I do have a problem with is the entire concept of a "director's cut" that has no bearing on what the director may have originally wanted but couldn't achieve. I hate these 20-years-later, less talented old man revisions.


I love this movie ... but unless I learn that the new version is something along the lines of what Proyas always intended but the studio wouldn't allow, or some such .... I'm really not interested in buying it (though of course, I'll want to see it as a curiousity).


Does anyone know the lowdown on this? Vanity Project or long-lost-How-It-Should-Have-Been?

The first I'd heard of it was around 2005 - there were quite a few comments on the original DVD to the effect of "the studio didn't want this- so we did this".

I'm looking forward to the Dark City Director's Cut, if only for the removed narration over the first 5 minutes of the film that spoils the entire major plot twist of the movie! Whenever I show it to people, I mute the film until that horrible tacked-on voiceover is over.

I'd be interested in the Director's cut, actually, because I kinda felt the theatrical release was lacking. Nothing specific that I can recall, it's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember it being one of those where I felt that the idea was really good, but the execution didn't quite do it justice. I watched it twice and came away from it with the same feeling both times. I'd like to know if he could fix it anyway, cause it could be really awesome if he does.

I haven't seen Dark City since it was released in theaters. I loved the look of the film but really never connected with the story. Of course, it was seen by me so long ago that I have no clue what my specific issues were. I'd be interested in seeing it again in a "improved"(?) version.

So far, the commentary says the only thing imposed by the Studio was the voice-over intro. Sigh, I really don't see the need for a Director's Cut to fix that (especially when the mousepod method will work just fine).

It's also mentioned that Proyas claimed at the time to have gotten 90% of what he wanted for the film. I guess that leaves a 10% improvement potential ... and I think there's something like 15 extra minutes. So I'll give it a fair shake.


I'm certainly looking forward to seeing it at least once, as I'm sure that will be very fun and interesting.

I always liked watching Dark City and 12 Monkeys together

As it turns out, this weekend was a great weekend for movie watchin'.

A Star is Born - Judy Garland version. As it turns out, I have never seen this one before. I thought I had, but I guess I didn't. I liked it. It dragged in places and the still photograph sections were weird. AND there were 2 instances of the Wilhelm Scream in this flick. Two!

Waitress - Even though the sad events (Wiki entry on Adrienne Shelly's murder) surrounding this film kinda cast a cloud over the entire pic, I loved this film. What a fool the main character was not to live happily ever after with the doctor... but I get the moral... she didn't need a man to be happy...

Atonement - I liked this one. I didn't love it. It dragged in places. But now I know what LSPE's signature meant. lol! Brioni - what a turd she was. Not sure that Keira Knightley deserved a Best Actress nod. She wasn't that great, imho. James McEvoy... wow, he looked great in a wife beater.

Trainspotting - Everytime I see this film, I love it more and more. And more and more I want to sleep with Sick Boy.

To Kill a Mockingbird - A masterpiece. Gregory Peck is phenomenal.
:)

Let's see...

This weekend I watched The Incredibles, Journey To The Center of The Earth (the 1959 one with James Mason and Pat Boone), and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Hmm, I was busy over the weekend, but managed to kick it off with The Women, to regain my gay card, and Dark City because of this thread ... um, Yankee Doodle Dandy and 1776 with friends on the 4th. Hmmm, that's it. Yep, busy weekend.

I saw Hancock over the weekend. Meh, not bad not great. It did however bring up a question on the production side.

Why does it seem that every movie these days is made by some new production company or companies I've never heard of and will probably never hear from again?

For example:

Hancock was made by: Blue Light, Forward Pass, GH Three, Overbrook, Relativity Media and Weed Road Pictures.

Get Smart by: Mad Chance, Mosasic media group and others...

What's up with all these companies? Some of them don't even appear to have websites. Is there some sneaky tax reason for creating a new production company for each major movie?

I think it's the fact that everybody has a production company, so they all have to be credited. Tax purposes is probably a large part of it, as well as bragging rights, but while it used to be that a single production company would get investments from independent people, now each of those independent investors represents their own company.

That's my uneducated guess anyway.

Oh, that's right, I saw Hancock, too. Heheh, actually went to the movies once over the weekend.

It was cute. I mentioned that the trailer practically ruined my enjoyment of the film by giving away 99% of the humor. So I have to figure in that I would have laughed as much during the movie as I did during the trailer, and then the film comes out not half bad.

Another uneducated take - the big companies have a zillion small ones they go by. Right?

I imagine most of them are simply investment production companies or owned access to some important piece of the film's package. One of the ways the major studios hedge there bets is to get other people to pay for making them and the studios are involved more as distributors than creators. And to get people involved you give producer credits.

Forward Pass is Michael Mann's production company; there contribution might actually have involved production work.
I believe Relatively Media is just a financing production company so there contribution would be money.
Overbrook is Will Smith's production company; their contribution was Will Smith.
Weed Road Pictures is Akiva Goldsman's production company.


Don't know about the others.

I keep wanting to develop a computer based show system for my DVDs that will automatically skip the trailers, the menu, the THX logo ... and, almost more important, skip all but one of the studio/production company logos that introduce a film.

I finally saw Almost Famous. Loved it.

I would buy a copy of that software!

I'm watching the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice again. Judi Dench is such a b!tch in this one. I loooove her.
:)

Forgive me, but I'm not done gushing. I love this movie. The rain scene, I looooove love love the "end my agony" rain scene.
<3 <3 <3

I had a dream with Judi Dench in it last night, and I woke up all thinking of YOU, G.C.

How sweet! And, by the way, to quote Dame Judi: I've been plucked since we last met.
;)



Oofta! How could I have not watched the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice? I watched bits and pieces, but hadn't sat through it. It's wonderful! Is everyone in the Bonham-Carter family gorgeous? And the Mr. Collins in this version is just... ewww!

Oh, but Mr. Collins needs to be Ew! (the actor portraying him was also a very wonderful Cicero in the HBO series Rome)

I love this version of P&P (and I do love the old MGM, too, with Greer Garson and the divine Mary Boland as Mother Bennett, "totering on the brink!")

I love them both as well. hmm time to dust off the DVD's.

I just got KOYAANISQATSI and POWAQQATSI on DVD - time for some beautiful imagery and Phillip Glass audio mesmerism.

I had never seen those. Got them from Netflix about three weeks ago.

Put in Koyaanisqatsi. This is no exaggeration but I fell asleep four times before I had made it 15 minutes in.

I sent both of them back. It was like home hypnotism and not in a good way.

I've seen both of these with live accompaniment by the Philip Glass Ensemble. The only place I've seen the third one is on my TV...

I saw the first two with live accompaniment, too - I've missed out on seeing the third one, though.

Naqoyqatsi was tough going compared with the first two - not so scenic, much more concerned with the inner workings of technology. It also suffered in that it was the only one I was introduced to on a television set. The first two I saw in theaters.

I haven't revisited Koyaanisqatsi in a very long time, and wonder how it would hold up for me by now. I'll have to give it a rent. I saw Powaqatsi in a local independent theater, and I really enjoyed it, but the house I saw it with made audible noises of disenjoyment, including sarcastic snoring sounds, so that made the experience frustrating.

Another difference between the first two films - when I showed Koyaanisqatsi in Santa Fe back in 1984, most of the audience lit up. When I saw Powaqatsi, most of the audience were sipping Perrier and eating overpriced sandwiches. That might have had something to do with it.

Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Lady Catherine (Katherine?) is not nearly as bitchy in the 1995 version as she is in the 2005 version. But I daresay that Judi did a wonderful wonderful job.
:)

We re-watched Batman Begins last night. I tell you what, Dark Knight's got a lot to live up to. Begins is a great movie. I think it does an excellent job of carrying the "fear" theme all the way through, with characters and story that serves the theme and makes a point. It wasn't an overbearing message movie while still having a salient enough point to warrant grandiose comic book dialog and story (as in "your parents were perfect, captains of industry, level headed family folk, adored by all, sacrificed everything for a city that ultimately killed them and were happy to do so, and oh by the way supported the freaking underground railroad. Live up to THAT, douchebag!").

Preliminary reviews are in on it, and word is that it's actually even better. On Metacritic (which I prefer over Rotten Tomatoes; RT gives you a % of people who deem it good or bad, Metacritic gives each review a % rating and averages them, so it's more accurate) it currently has a 97% - very few films ever get a number that good. (Surely it may go down, but it says something that Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and Time all gave reviews rated 100% - otherwise known as "flawless.")

Saw Hellboy II last night. Really enjoyed it. H didn't like it as much as the first - but still liked it a lot.

Worth the time and $.

Just BLOWN AWAY by Batman Begins last night. Everything I remember having issues with the first time seemed wonderful this time. For some reason I hated Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes the first time around but this time she seemed a pretty good fit. (Of course she's not in the next one, which is fine, I didn't love her.)

They did an incredible job of melding the seriousness with the grand scale of things. Nothing comes off as cheesy, even as over-the-top-ness is everywhere, and I'm cackling over whatever awesome gadgetry or death-defying moment seems totally believable within the realm of the film. Damn, that's some good action-filmmaking.

*crosses fingers*

I saw Hancock on Saturday and Journey to the Center of the Earth this afternoon (both at the Americana at Brand). I enjoyed them both, though JTTCOTE wins the weekend because of the great 3-D effects and a couple great jolts. Journey steals a lot from other films (Bill & Ted, Indian Jones, Jurassic Park) though it does it well, maybe even topping the originals a bit. Hancock has been criticised for its mid-point twist, though I had no problem with it whatsoever.

Tref sez, check 'em out.

Yeah, I don't understand why that seems to upset people (the Hancock twist, that is).

Saw The Naughty Girl (French 1956) for Bastille Day yesterday. Horribly flawed and yet perfect vehicle to launch Brigitte Bardot's career. Gratuitous swim scene to show her in bikini, dream sequences to include pirate costumes, Jail house tangos, and outfits blown away in gusts of wind. Lot's of physical comedy that could have been so much funnier with some better editing, wonderfully cliched detectives, talking of the best places to get Cassoulet. Still a delight to see Bardot's opening line of "meard."

Co0ntinuing my Brigit Bardot marathon I saw Voulex-vous danser avec moi (Come Dance with me) Much more delightful film with Serge Gainsbourg playing a role - French Sex comedey. murder mystery, midgets, transvestites, and Brigit Bardot - perfect film to drink a martini to...

Cheers
:cheers:

Anybody wanna see a screening of "Mamma Mia" this Saturday?

Decided to finally tackle the "1000 Greatest Films" list from They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

I've also included the movies on their latest "Must-see" list that arent' on the main list, which brings the total to 1035.

Tonight I watched 12 Angry Men.

If anyone wants to come by sometime and pick a movie off the list to watch (assuming that I have it or it's available at one of two very well stocked local video stores)... I'll make the popcorn.

12 Angry Men is a cool film. Love it. One of my favorite Henry Fonda movies.
:)

You weren't dictating this post to NA, were you? ;)

(Sorry- don't often catch you making typos).

:D

That and "Tentacles."

Is there anything on the list that isn't yet available on video? If so, that will end up being the one I most want to see.

Currently on top of my "need to catch up with it" list is Pather Panchali.

Tentacles - ah yes. Caught that on a rainy afternoon and laughed myself silly. Terrible, but I own it on DVD, and probably spin it once every three or four years. Nostalgia is a silly thing.

Saw a screening of "Mamma Mia" today - tons of fun!

Meryl Streep is awesome.

I know I've gone on and on about these two films (avatars and all that too) but I m in love with A Clockwork Orange and Trainspotting. I just realized tonight that Trainspotting has an ACO homage in it. The Trainspotting boys are sitting in a club with writing on the walls just like in the milk bar in ACO.

I want to write a screenplay that hits hard like Trainspotting. The movie starts and within a few minutes, you know everything about the main characters. So very cool.

Think think thinky think think think...

:)

Faint praise indeed.

Saw Mama Mia with CoasterMatt - enjoyed it. It's flawed but has great music. Weird to see James Bond singing. The direction is really terrible, though, which is a shame seeing as the great location they have. Some moments you groan and some are really fantastic.

I agree that the new Star Wars film looks hopelessly dull and awful. Hellboy looks awesome from the trailers, but I doubt I'll get to it very soon. My movie budget this month will allow me to see Dark Knight and that's about it.

:eek:

Loved Mama Mia.

Tracking the Bullitt (car chase)
 

Found this today, was not sure where to put it, sooooooo MMM is where it lands.

A cool video, side by side comparison of the car chase from Bullitt (THE car chase) and the actual locations used in San Francisco.

View it here

Much like the slow, meandering car chase of Vertigo, it moves around a fair bit. But this is pretty cool!

makes me want to add Bullitt to the netflix queue, I think I will!

I, too, saw it with CoasterMatt. Thank you, sir. :)

You know, I completely agree with Bornieo on Mamma Mia!

Meryl Streep is wonderful. But at certain moments, even she couldn't save a couple of scenes she was in.

There are some really fun moments, but Act I was just a huge, rushed mess. Also, the cast screamed to much during this film. I understand that it was camp, but there's a way to successfully do camp. ie. Strictly Ballroom.

The scenery is amazingly beautiful.
:)

Let's see other than The Dark Knight, other recent viewings:

Mongol - This was nominated for Best Foreign Language film at last February's Academy Awards and was the submission from Kazakhstan. Though it was made by a Russian, funded from Germany, and mostly filmed in Mongolia. It is supposed to be the first film in a trilogy documenting the life of Temudjin, otherwise known as Genghis Khan. It's is a bit ponderous at times but beautifully photographed. I sometimes felt I was missing points of culture that were just assumed but overall I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to the future installments. The film is entirely in Mongolian (with, I think, some bits of Chinese) and subtitled.

Dawn of the Dead - The 2004 remake with Vingh Rhames. I'm not particularly a fan of the zombie genre and this one did nothing to change my mind. But I was being lazy on the couch and sat through it anyway.

Look Back in Anger - A 1958 UK film starring Richard Burton, Mary Ure, and Clarie Bloom. Essentially an early example of the "screwed up people behaving like screwed up people" genre of movie that I find so annoying. I just don't really have my empathy for people who wallow in their own ****.
Based on a stage play and not much was done to make it into a movie. Kind of felt like a rehearsal by Burton for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? though this movie doesn't have the snap or pacing of that one.

The very first theater monologue I ever did was from Look Back in Anger.

I ran into Steve Carell at a 7-11 just minutes ago. He was talking to some fans inside. He seems like a very nice guy. Kinda buff, too.
:)

Saw Once. Very sweet, though it didn't blow me away. I have to say I watched the guy's guitar fingering more than anything during the music scenes. :) Very cute, very sweet, that's about it, though the music was very good. Not sure if I'll buy the music or not.

Loved the music more than the film, which felt like a very long music video in some places. There was that absolutely joyful scene where the musicians record their first song in the studio: LOVED. Also loved how the romance played out. Definitely recommend the soundtrack and their other albums...

So which movie is going to win more Razzies?

"Meet Dave" or this X-Files thing?

Love Guru

I'll see it because I was such a big X-Files fan (who wisely jumped ship just as it jumped shark), but it's getting some pretty poor reviews. Waaaa!

I'm playing hookie today and I'm probably going to go see (no, I'm not playing hookie to see it, it is just a way to pass some time).

Sadly, it is maybe just barely good enough that it should have been considered as a made-for-TV reunion movie.

Unless you have a serious need to know what happened with Mulder and Scully over the last decade I'd just let this one pass (I wouldn't even really suggest an eventual DVD rental).

I just read the premise for Meet Dave. Double-you Tee Eff???

But have you seen the gigantic car that looks like Eddie Murphy's head?

We just got around to watching National Treasure: Book of Secrets.












My Momma taught me that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

Two teenage girls, I believe in the presumed target market for that movie, babysat my niece while we went out to dinner one evening. They rented NT:BoS from my sister's Vudu box. We got back from dinner about 15 minutes before the movie was over. We said they could stick around to finish it. They practically jumped off the couch and ran for the door. I took that as a bad sign for the movie.

I got ripped a couple new ones for not saying anything nice about it in my MousePlanet review. One paragraph:

So I agree completely.

What I don't understand, is how they can have done the research to include a few obscure historical references; but have been so bone-headedly stupid on everything else!

ETA: Several desks were made from the timbers of the HMS Resolute. One is in the Oval Office; the movie got that correct. A small ladies writing desk was made for Queen Victoria, but it's not in Buckingham Palace. It's at Osborne House (another of Victoria's homes), and is in no way, shape, or form a twin to the one in the White House.

Uncreative license.

Script research that can't even manage to get its ass to Wikipedia doesn't deserve to be called research at all. And contrived historical "facts" are really unimpressive when they are simply yanked from the screenwriter's sphincter.

Oh, and ever since The Wicker Man (21st Century "Not The Bees!" edition), I just can't watch Nicholas Cage anymore.

Tonight, I'm taking in Dark Knight and X Files: IW2B at the drive-in, weather permitting. I'm thinking the drive-in ambiance (mosquitoes, screeching kids in pajamas, dogs, horns honking, etc.) may detract from Dark Knight a bit, but may add charm to X Files, at least if the reviews are correct. (I was only a very occasional and casual viewer of the series, so i'm really only in it because its a double feature.)

There are too many uptight people over there. Not quite so many here. :p

I need to find the thread where some guy really got upset about RHCP doing the tunes for the two rides. I mean, it was like how some are saying {I received a forwarded multi-person email} that Obama is the anti-christ. :rolleyes:

I could not, for the life of me, make this sentence make sense for me. On an off-chance, I highlighted and right-clicked RHCP, followed the "Search Yahoo for "RHCP"" link, and voila! That's what RHCP means and now I know what the two rides are.

So far, I have not received any Obama for Antichrist spams yet. I hope he runs, I've always hoped the Antichrist would be nice. If he does, do you think Hilary will want to be Vice-Antichrist?

Just for the record, I will accept evidence of Obama being the anti-Christ as evidence of the reality of the anti-anti-Christ. So if anybody seems to make a good case, please forward it to me.

I have Fellowship of the Ring on while I work on stuff in my apt. I never get tired of this film. It's edited really well in places.
:)

Across the Universe

Loved it.

Hmm. I think I need to give it another shot. I saw it with CoasterMatt and Rose and I didn't care for it. I got what the filmmakers were trying to do, but I wasn't drawn into it. Maybe upon a second viewing?

Although, no second viewing will mend the ending in my head. I hated that they weren't together at the end. It was as if the producers and Taymor couldn't get them scheduled for the same shot at the end.

I thought that was very romantic, them on different rooftops but finally back together.


Across the Universe is one of those fascinating Love-It-Or-Hate-It movies. I love that i love it.

It's by no means perfect, but I thought they did a realloy fabulous job of not creating some literal visual transcription of the songs but rather took meaning from the songs and ran with it. The story is no Pulitzer-winner but good enough to hang everything together, and I thought most of the vignettes stood on their own as little mini stories. The whole thing felt like a good music album in movie musical form.

And I was prepared to hate it after the intro. I really disliked the bit of Helter Skelter at the front, but maybe if I see it again I'll get something different out of it.

Mostly loved Across The Universe. A few scenes made me cringe (Dear Prudence was way too literal, and silly, plus that character went nowhere, and the Mr. Kite sequence, oy) I thought the ending worked great, since by then I was blubbering like a teenager.

I liked Mr. Kite.

We never had a thread about Across the Universe? This board doesn't have boolean search. And there's no way I'm going to read this whole thread again, even though I would love to see others' impressions on this film.

Seriously, people - please start threads about individual new movies.

I thought it was great.

There was TONS of talk about Across the Universe when it was released. It's in THIS thread, if I'm not mistaken.

I hated the Mr Kite sequence, as well.

Visually, ATU was pretty. I really liked the draft exam sequence. I, too, liked Mr. Kite. But I wasn't moved by the movie. I kind of laughed when these actors started singing the Beatles' songs. I didn't find any of their portrayals to be as deep as the songs are. It felt like the director and the actors got together and said, 'Okay, now we're going to pretend to be hippies.' But because so many people I know adore this movie, I'm going to give it another shot...
:)

All Imax showings of Batman were sold out yesterday so we saw the X-Files instead. Loved seeing it at the Chinese because the theater is lush and the sound system unsurpassed. Enjoyed the film and seeing them together again despite the obvious plot holes and often bad and repetetive dialogue. I can understand why it has been poorly reviewed but it was still a fun date movie for 2 fans of the series.

My weekend movie watching reviews:

The X-Files: I Want to Believe - Embarrassingly awful. Would have made for an ok made-for-TV reunion movie but only because the standards for made-for-TV reunion movies aren't even as high as for regular series episodes. Not even as high as "we're in the middle of a contract dispute so we're flexing our power with the stars by showing them how much they rely on us for quality by not giving them any quality" episodes.

Unbreakable - Holds up well. I still love what Shyamalan was trying to do with this movie and it really emphasizes how full of himself he has become since.

For Whom the Bell Tolls - I've never understood the appeal of Gary Cooper. The man has a face and acting style like Teflon. Minutes after seeing him I literally can't remember what he looks like and two days after watching this if I try to picture him my memory just has a talking gray blob in it. The themes of manliness, death, and sacrifice are not well defined - at least not in comparison with the book. However, it did spart an interesting conversation with Lani about why it is bad that Jennifer Jones played hapa in Love is a Many Splendored Thing but that it isn't much bothersome that Ingrid Bergman plays a Spaniard here.

Mamma Mia! - Painfully bad at several points and very fun at several others. Pierce Brosnan can't sing but that doesn't match much. Though I wouldn't mind future opportunities to watch Amanda Seyfried running around in a swimsuit.

The King Is Alive - Dogma 95 has produced some interesting movies. This really isn't one of them. The story of some tourists lost in a Namibian-desert ghost town produces a few interesting scenes but is mostly just a slog.

I didn't connect with the characters in the same way I did the sort of similarly-gimmicked Moulin Rouge, for example. But I think Ghoulish Delight got nailed it best as a visual album watched and listened to with 60's/Beatles vignettes strung together by a connective-tissue-paper-thin story featuring appealing actors.

Interestingly, I love all the covers of the Beatles songs as they appear in the visual album of Across the Universe, but dislike them greatly as merely cover songs on the CD from that movie.


So the visual album style is unique and, imo, marvelous. It's not a film I can connect with in the same way as a conventionally plotted or executed musical ... its form is unique and its road to appreciation also unique, and perhaps a little more challenging.


But, sheesh, it's like 2 minutes between numbers ... and I enjoy every single one of the musical numbers, with a handful being fantastically excellent.

Like I said, I'm not rereading the entire thread, and there's no good way to search for the posts.

If you use the "search this thread" and search for Universe that should get you most of the discussion.

Post #2460 is where people who'd seen it start discussing it.

The reviews start at post #2460.

You can go back a little and see the advance excitement, plans etc...

But that's pretty much the best place to start.

I think it got reintroduced again when it came out on DVD.

From a more global perspective searching

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Gets you a good round up of the relevant posts. Not perfect, no. The problem that seems to happen with anything other than the most mainstream of films is that we all end up seeing them at really different times. So the first person to see a movie starts a thread and it dies, then the next doesn't remember it, starts a new one, and it dies.

So people just start dumping all of them into a standing thread where at least there is more walk-up traffic.

I actually didn't think Mamma Mia was terrible in some places. I thought it was ridiculously camp in almost ALL places, and I found that enjoyable. I really disliked the stage production* but it really jived with me in movie form.

X-Files was surely flawed, but was entertaining to watch. Not the terrible mess it was made out to be - but better than some other procedural movies (Untraceable, I'm looking at you.) I didn't feel the excitement for it that I would've during the first several seasons - but after all, it did break my heart with the last few. It should be happy I gave it the time of day!

*I think is because I am generally frustrated at the lack of original musicals out there. Or lack of opportunity for original composers/lyricists. It came around on the heels of Smokey Joe's Cafe, Movin' Out and the like. Piecemeal plots strung along with existing music which doesn't do much to move the plot forward. For whatever reason, this did not bother me in the film at all, because it felt like a fun exercise in absurdism.

I don't think I had the barest glimmer of being entertained by The X-Files. Maybe it is bad expectations on my part but:

I wanted something bigger than



But even what was given wasn't well told. It definitely isn't good (for a couple reasons) that the most interesting character in the movie is Amanda Peet.

Now I have "Lay All Your Love on Me" in my head. I blame LSPE.
:D

So, even after thirty years, there are places where Monty Python's Life Of Brian is still banned. (Including NA's home, I presume.) Amusingly, the woman who played Brian's girlfriend in the film (completely starkers!) is now mayor of a little village where the ban is till in effect.

I had so much fun at Forbidden Zone last night... but I must say, I almost don't want "Forbidden Galaxy" to be made.

I finally got to personally thank Richard Elfman for making a movie that meant a lot to weirdos like me.

Oh. There's a "Search this Thread". I didn't know that. :blush:

Saw Hellboy II yesterday. It appears to be several different movies smashed together, and not necessarily to good effect. It is apparently the chick flick of this year's superhero crop.

Saw Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay Uncensored. Funny, but not as funny as the first one.

My review of Swing Vote. There were things I liked in the movie (hopefully the Dennis Hopper anti-abortion ad shows up on YouTube). And both Kevin Costner and young Madeline Carroll give good performance; unfortunately they aren't really performances that go well together.

Tone is all over the place, and not in a good way and ultimately tears the movie apart.

It just occured to me that two Kevin Costner movies I like are not available on DVD in their theatrical release form (JFK and Dancing With Wolves.) I love these movies, but the "special editions" suck.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but Dancing With Wolves won the Oscar for Best Picture. How could THAT film not be on DVD??? Lame.

It's Dances With Wolves. Isn't that the version, or is there some minor tweak that doesn't make it authentic for you? It's the same running time as the theatrical release, according to IMDB.

Hahaha, yes, know the title of the movie you want and that might help. (Ugh, so little sleep last nite).


But, thanks. Actually, i've seen the theatrical version on DVD before, but always in pan&scan.


Cool beans. Heheh, find JFK for me, will ya?? ;)

Couldn't sleep last night and stayed up and watched Red River. One of these days, I will go into a scene by scene analysis but this movie has a big-time gay subtext.
Also, Clift is wonderful eye candy to look at in this movie but boy he's a stiff actor (no pun intended). I mean, his face barely moves when he talks!
I love seeing Wayne playing the heavy. He does it well. It's one of three movies I can stand watching him in. The other two being The Quiet Man and The Searchers.

Funny, those last two are among my least favorite Wayne movies.

Nobody's perfect.

The Quiet Man is one of my favorite movies ever.

I just noticed "Red Dwarf" on the netflix view instantly queue. There goes my productivity for the rest of the day....

Oh, awesome. Of course, we've only got one more disc to go in the series.

And THAT is my favorite vintage comedy.

er, SLIH, that is.

Love that movie.
:)


Right now, I'm working from home and have Goodfellas playing in the background. Love that movie! Scorsese's mom is brilliantly funny.
:)

Goodness. I am a big fat sucker for the 'light the beacons' scene in Return of the King. Love the music during that sequence. Gets me all misty-eyed.

Yeah, that part's awesome.



Not much in that movie is. But that's a great 2 minutes out of four hours.

Tinkle in my lemonade, why don't ya?

:D

Hey, i was agreeing with ya.


There's another good part coming up in 117 minutes. But after that, turn it off.

I have a special place in my heart for all three films (extended and theatrical). They helped me survive three years of the Bush administration and three years of living in Monterey.
:D

Goodness.
I just watched the end of Bullets Over Broadway and totally noticed a huge f*ck up! In the scene where Rob Reiner is yelling at John Cusack from his apartment window, you can totally see a C-Stand and a lighting rig in Rob Reiner's window. It's huge and obvious. lol! :D
Never saw that before.

Maybe he was about to shoot some amateur porn in his bedroom?

I'll have to look for that. It's really a fun, clever movie.

Watch The Godfather this morning.

Believe it or not, it was my first time ever seeing it, though I obviously am familiar with a good portion of it from it's proliferation through pop culture.

I found it to be a 99% excellent movie. Powerful, well paced, a rare movie that I felt deserved to be 3 hours long.

However I found one major shortcoming that kinda bugged me. In a 3 hour movie, they couldn't find the time to make Michael's transformation from war hero all American boy to mafia Don make some sort of sense? I mean, sure it's obvious that he was driven to it by the attempt on pop's life. But we aren't shown the tiniest bit of that transformation. I think Michael has all of 3 lines of dialog between, "That's my family, not me," and, "I know, I'll shoot those two guys and become king of the underworld!"

I just saw that "Starship Troopers 3" is now out on DVD/Blu.

I think the most interesting thing about that is: There was A Starship Troopers 2?

I can't begin to imagine what kind of horrid this movie must be.

Although I did enjoy the original Starship Troopers even if it did mangle Heinlein's sublime concept of power armor. I'm a sucker for naked Denise Richards.

They certainly didn't want to telegraph the transformation, or the end would have been less powerful. I guess they might have erred in going too far with that ... but i haven't seen the film in a long, long time and won't be watching it any time soon. (Mafia movies freak me out ... um, these particular folks who lived in my home town and who's grandkids I played with freak me out even more.)



* * * * *

Ya know, if you cut out about half the stuff in the middle of the picture, Peter Jackson's King Kong is absolutely brilliant. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the New York stuff that bookends the film, the sailing to Skull Island is brilliant, the stuff on the Island is fantastic through Kong's 1st appearance and from Jack's rescue of Ann onward.

There's really only that pesky middle part. Half of that stuff is very good, and the other half is godawful.


You tend not to think about it, but the New York segments are full of special effects. Jackson shows amazing restraint and demonstrates a keen ability to show just enough to tantalize, but not enough to induce growning. Yet he seems to lose all sense of that when dinosaurs are concerned. It's like two different people directed this movie.


Hmmmm, come to think of it, it's like two different people directed Lord of the Rings also. Maybe he's got a Smeagol problem.

I've never read the Godfather novel. I wonder how Puzo handles the transformation.

The novel is very good.

Being able to handle the internal better it provides deeper insight into that aspect, but it is still a pretty abrupt change from "I want no part of this" to "Well, I have to help keep dad alive" then in Italy it all hardens.

What was cut out of the movie (to my recollection) is the giant vagina and all of the Las Vegas stuff and most of the Hollywood stuff.

That was the first thing CP said too.

Sure they didn't want to telegraph that he was going to become the new Don over Sunny, but they made no bones about the fact that he was now ready willing and able to kill for revenge. That leap was made with no insight into his character. One second he was a war hero who wanted nothing to do with the family business, the next he was putting bullets into criminals' brains.

It's not even like it would have taken much to fill that in. The motivation is straight forward, they tried to kill his dad. Just show something to let us know what he was thinking. Was it an easy decision? Did he struggle with it? Does he miss his identity as a hero or was it easy for him to let that go? There was just nothing that reconciled the guy who clearly wanted no part of the family business with the guy who concocted an elaborate high profile revenge killing.

Better see which library branches have the book.

Reading these comments (it has been years since I last saw The Godfather) one thing that maybe the book did that the movie did was work through the politics and logistics that meant Michael was the only one who had a chance of making the hit and how he came to that conclusion and accepted that this was to be his role and that it was a Rubicon that couldn't be uncrossed.

Yeah, that wasn't handled well. They sort of addressed it and it was obvious that the reason he had to do it was that he was the only one who could easily disappear afterwards. But he was instantly on board, and actually came up with the plan, which just didn't make much sense from a guy who, to that point, had been presented as loyal to the family but entirely removed from the business.

I saw the commercial for the ST3 disc on SciFi and had that exact reaction! When the hell did ST2 come out

It was straight to DVD.

And had a $5 budget (I've never seen it, but reportedly all the bug attacks happened in the pitch-black dark, so nothing was shown).

ST3 purportedly had a budget on par with the original ... but apparently no budget for a theatrical release. Straight to Video this time, too ... but at least I've heard of it this time.

A little something from the upcoming Wolverine movie:



Wow!

i dunno, i think Hugh Jackman looking a little long in the claw ....er, tooth.



Not that he's not still hot stuff .... but a shame there's always a record of famous hotties' hotter days.

Well, Wolverine was born in the late 1880's. So Jackman looking long in the tooth is appropriate.

Geek.

That's Mr. Geek to you, innerSpacestoodinlinefordaysforthecrappystarwarspr equelsman.

:D

Have they established in the movies he is that old? I can't remember, X3 kind of had me putting the whole series out of mind.

Um... yeah... What he said. :snap:

Not really. From the first movie:

Honey, there ain't nuthin' wrong with Hugh Jackman's looks! If you don't want him, get out of my way!

Besides, he's over 25, so I wouldn't exactly expect him to be at the top of your Hot List....

The quandary: I have many "classic movies" on my list to watch - in the past few days, I've enjoyed Dreyer, Deren and Kurosawa - but I've just come home from Fry's with the "Starship Troopers Trilogy" blu-ray set. So... bathe in luxury or wallow in crap? Why am I leaning toward the latter?

You don't want me to answer that. ;)

Fvk the X-Men movies... A few years ago Marvel gave Wolverine a past when in fact his unknown past was part of the character's appeal, imho. Of couse the Wolverine Encyclopidea I co-wrote was canned before the W's otherwise you could've quoted that! :)

Go to your TV and watch some Satyajit Ray.

Dances with Wolves was too me the last film that left me leaving the theater in awe.
I have it on DVD with a Special Edition from Korea. It has all the languages and has the Diary cover like the one in the film with the famous feather and with the Diary entries.

Just saw Mummy 3. I think we can safely say that the franchise is now dead.

The Scorpion King 2 is coming out straight to DVD in a couple weeks. Then I think it's dead.

Aren't mummies undead?

Yes. "Undead" describes the state of the Mummy franchise perfectly.

I finally saw Hancock today. I thought it was a good super-hero film but bad, BADLY directed and shot. The whole film was, apparently, shot during a 8.0 earthquake. It, the direction, was incosistant, annoying and amature at best.

If anyone is curiuos, "FInding Kraftland" is playing at the AMC Downtown Disney on Weds, the 13ths of August at 9:30pm.

Interested and ticketed :) Who else is going?

I'm ticketed already. I think GC is still going also.

Until they make an entire film about the Yeti Football League. :D

Also, I'd just like to point out, that Mummy 3 is beating Dark Knight in the important "international box office" - no accounting for taste, though.

I be going.
:)

Hmmmmm... Sounds interesting....

Can't on a wednesday, bah. Eh, can't afford the gas anyway. Or the movie, for that matter.

Damn, if it were an hour earlier I'd be interested. Already had one late night this week

Finally saw "Crank" last night. Loads of fun. I didn't even mind the girlfriend, because that was just the point in the movie where they decided to lean towards ditzy humor. It wasn't just "her," it was everything about the plot and gimmicks going on around that point in time.


Anyway, that's the guy from The Transporter, no? He's the sexiest nearly bald man alive, and I'll watch him in just about anything. But they managed to pull off an extended skit about the Rush Craze and I loved it. (Heheh, robbing a convenience store for their supply of RedBull, and that type of thing.) Taut, funny, actioner with a tiny dollup of social commentary. Dig it!

Unfortunately they're making a sequel to Crank. This time a gangster steals his heart and he has to spend the movie constantly shocking himself to keep an an hoc artificial heart going.

No, I'm not making that up. I'm expecting it to be as lame in comparison as Transporter 2 was to the goofy fun of The Transporter (double crap, I just looked and see they are making Transporter 3, and also the horribly title The Brazilian Job, a sequel to The Italian Job).

And Jason Statham is one of those few guys where I'm willing to watch in crappy movies because he does it consistently well even if the movie remains crap.

Agreed, everything but the girlfriend. Her acting was unforgivably bad and her scenes (other than the one awesome scene, of course) just tripped the pace up too much for me.

But that's a relatively minor quibble amongst much goodness for a really well executed dumb fun movie.

Oh, and though I'm willing to watch him in anything, it does not mean I liked Transporter 2, or that I will fall for that again by automatically watching a sequel to one of his fun films. But if he's starring in an original story (albeit original in name only, since he's pretty much uber-typecast), I'll likely go along for the ride.


He's yummy.

please forigve my ignorance of Star Wars. I just found the most hysterical thing I have ever seen. Until today, I didn't know there was a creation called "The Star Wars Holiday Special". Apparently made in 1978, it revolves around Han Solo attmempting to get Chewbacca home for the Holidays.

If you dare.....

There's even an 8 minute clip you can watch.

Welcome to planet earth, mr. scaeagles ;)

The rest of us have been trying to FORGET that disaster (except for the animated bits)

OMG! You've awakened repressed memories!

The voices say I have to kill you now...

Anyone with a need for self punishment can find the entire two hour Star Wars Holiday Special on Google Video. It's nearly impossible to watch, but, you might try viewing it in tandem with the funny folks at Rifftrax. The Google file to which this track is synced includes all the commercials that aired during the broadcast as well. It's a terrifying trip back to the darkest heart of the Seventies.

I watched Cinema Paradiso last night- what a wonderful movie.

Just finished watching Slaughterhouse-Five. Love the book but boy what a rotten movie.

Awwww - I love that Movie (and the book)

Well, for me none of the power of the book came through in the movie and it just looked like a bunch of random nonsense with Valerie Perrine's boobs thrown in to distract you.

heh - yeah

Awww... yes, indeed. (I actually came down the aisle to the beautiful Morricone score!)

If you get the chance, watch it in HD - they've done a beautiful job with the transfer, and it's the 1989 version, not the "director's cut/re-edit" thing that just about ruins the movie.

Saw Finding Kraftland this evening over at DTD's AMC theatre. Kraft was there and what a spaztic guy, though he wasn't the type of spaz that annoys but one that brings you into his world. The film was alot more of that I thought it would be - it was touching and very funny, but also very self-endulgant. It was alot of - "I have money and I blow it on anything I want and it makes me happy." Which is fine but it really shined a nice spotlight on my own looserness, which wasn't the nicest feeling to have.

It was funny to see Stacy from the WDW Top 10 programs that are piped into the hotels - she made an apearance at the screening.

If for nothing beyond the Disney geek factor, I think it should be viewed.

Cinema Paradiso is totally in my top ten favorite films of all-time. I even love the extended version. It explains a certain unresolved relationship that is hugely prominent in the first half of the theatrical version and then disappears completely in the second half.
Bornieo and I disagree a little about Finding Kraftland. I enjoyed it immensely. And meeting Kraft in person was a hoot. Yes, the man has money, but if I had the money he had I would be doing the same things he did and buying some of the things he did. (And I know for a fact that CoasterMatt would be traveling around the world riding every single roller coaster ever made just like Kraft and his son did if he had the cha-ching to do it.) I found the movie to be less about his collections and more about him and his family. His relationship with his son is just wonderful. And it's a tear-jerker, too.
On top of everything else, I won a bobble head figure of Kraft and his son. He asked, 'Who's the big laughing guy in this section' meaning our section. I pointed at Mark. But he gave the bobble head to me, anyway. I think it had something to do with my tear stained face. Yes, I was moved. Movies move me. Yay! I'm going to keep the bobble head to remind me to find more joy in life.
:)

and I didn't fight you for it. ;) You need it more than I. :cheers:

Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder are both good action oriented comedies. Not great but plenty fun.

Just watched District B13, a French martial arts movie from a few years back.

Pretty standard, but if you liked the opening chase scene at the beginning of Casino Royale (the acrobat one through the African city) then if nothing else it is worth watching the first 20 minutes of this, which tops that. As it should since the star of the movie is the guy who invented pakour, the art of moving quickly through an environment that was put on display in that scene.

There's another pretty good one vs. many fight scene early but then things slow down.

But if you don't want to watch it all, here is the big scene from the movie. And here's a bonus video of him doing various stupid things.

fyi!!

This isn't technically a "movie" per se, but rather than start a separate thread for Netflix recommendations, wanted to just put a word in for a DVD series I loved and recommend:

The House of Elliott

Part period drama, part British soap opera, part textile pr0n. Really good chick show. It's about two formerly upper class sisters who fall on hard times when their dad dies, but they end up starting their own fashion house. Whole thing takes place in the early-1900's

Rumor has it that Lucas is going to release 3D versions of Star Wars, Empire and Jedi theatrically. Did anyone hear this, too? iSm?

I've heard it as a rumor, nothing more.


Maybe he's waiting to see how many suckers will fall for a re-hash of Cartoon Network's Clone Wars (tho newly animated) released in theaters about a month before it airs on TV.

I really liked the Cartoon Network version of Clone Wars.. in fact I liked it better than Episodes I & II (not that that's saying much) - I have no desire to see this new version... even if the NYTimes said "...it isn't the most painful movie of the year!".

SW: The Clone Wars spoiler.

Clone Wars was way better than most of the prequels (I and III ... i have a soft spot for II). And that makes me kinda want to see this one. But not in theaters.

If you like this, keep an eye out for the French & Saunders sendup of this series... it's a hoot !! (I think it was on the DVD "French & Saunders go to Hollywood") ... The original actresses appear in the spoof as well. :snap:

Tropic Thunder was as good a satire as I've seen in a good long while. Pretty stunning just how much mocking of the modern studio system was allowed. Downey Jr. rocked the house, but everyone - even those I don't like as much - succeeded in making me like them tonight. Even Tom Cruise, who is a pretty good sport for appearing in a movie starring/written/directed by someone who's overtly mocked him in sketch comedy and somewhat indirectly mocked him in this very movie.

Pineapple Express had pleasing character development and scene work. It didn't work as well as an action comedy as, say, Hot Fuzz (or Tropic Thunder, for that matter.) But I still enjoyed it - despite not being much of a toker myself.

Saw Tropic Thunder tonight also. That was just tons of fun! I went in knowing very little, so the element of surprise and discovery was strong for me.

As for Clone Wars, ever since I heard that and , my inner bad movie fan has kind of wanted to see it, but I can definitely wait until it's free on TV. Also, I overheard a kid, about twelve, commenting on Clone Wars as he left the theater: "That sucked wad." He and his friends looked glum.

So, it's the action movie Cheech and Chong should have made? (I don't know much about it, other than having seen Seth Rogan on The Daily Show essentially saying that his advice to young viewers was to drop out of school, smoke a lot of grass and write a movie about it. Also, it's technically impossible to be less of a toker than me, but I've enjoyed a lot of stoner cinema, for whatever reason. I probably covet the contact cool.)

If it's anything like Hot Fuzz, I'll probably enjoy it, but it's already on my wait to rent it list.

oh, wait, I do have one nitpick about Tropic Thunder. If you go see it, first of all, don't feel the need to wait through the credits. There are no cookies at the end. (That's the only reason I hung around. It seemed like the kind of movie that might have a post-credits gag of some kind, but no.) Secondly, don't stay for the credits, because, it does one very annoying thing. It replays, over a backbeat, some of the memorable lines of dialogue from the movie you just saw. I think this is a mistake. It comes off as self-congratulatory, like the filmmakers are running up to you and saying, "Oh! Wait, remember that part where Jack Black said ****?" "Oh, remember a few minutes ago when Ben Stiller said****? Wasn't that fvckin hysterical?" It left a bad taste for a movie I really enjoyed. Please, filmmakers, let me digest the experience myself. Don't tell me which lines you thought were the funniest. Okay, end of fervent nitpick.

We saw Tropic Thunder this weekend as well. Haven't laughed so hard or often in a movie theater in quite some time. As a send-up, it certainly brought to mind Hot Fuzz. For me, another level of appreciation came from what I consider to be the redemption of Stiller and Black for me. They're comic actors that I so want to be funny, yet tend to disappoint so often. ...and Tom Cruise kicks ass again.

I know! I have heard some of the lines (and that song remix) over and over QAing the site we did for the movie (which rocks, by the way) but it was one of the rare films I've worked on that I somehow didn't read the screenplay or have to listen to the dialogue breakout or read the coverage or see the movie before it came out - and I found myself completely stunned at how much I was laughing, and at just how far they were pushing the boundaries - humor on steroids. TOTALLY worth your $12 bucks.

I really enjoyed Tropic Thunder but I didn't really laugh out loud that much. I also thought Jack Black was given little to do and until the end wasn't funny at all.

I kind of liked that about it. I don't often think he's as funny as he seems to think he is. I liked that he was too distracted by his character's plight to be canned - and by the time the end rolled around, his circumstances were naturally funny and he was funny in them.

I second (or third? fourth?) this sentiment. I also thought that Jay Baruchel did a great job with the least showy role in the film. For me, the disappointment with Black was less with his performance than the fact that his character could have been dropped from the film with negligible impact on the plot. A rare misstep in an otherwise great script. I was also excited that for the first time, in my opinion, Ben Stiller as a director lived up to the promise of the Ben Stiller Show.

Hmm. We were going to see Pinapple Express this afternoon. Now I'm wondering if we should see Tropic Thunder instead. Or maybe do a double feature...

We did the double feature yesterday. Definitely fun. I'd recommend seeing Tropic Thunder second if you do. Though who knows, as you do have some issues with the Tropic Thunder crew.

I'd recommend Tropic Thunder over Pineapple Express, though if you've basically got the whole day open, I'd do a double feature.

Issues with the Tropic Thunder crew? Guess I don't read the boards as much as I once did...

At any rate, I don't think I've laughed that hard out loud at the movies without being totally high (and I'm sure I was annoying as **** that night... but let's not go there). Only trouble with the awesome lines is that the guys who kind of talked in that 'commentary kind of way' (you know, when people say awwwweeesommmmme at a good scene...) would repeat the best quips.

Normally, there comes a point where I've gotta shut them up or I start to get really pissed, but I was having so much fun I decided against it. For those who might find it amusing...

I forget how much I love The Usual Suspects until I watch it.

I think it may be one of my favorite movies.

I'm gonna watch one of my favorite movies in a bit - Midnight Run
I don't remember this movie doing well, or much at all at the box office, but I can't help but laugh every time I watch it.
One of the best buddy pictures ever.

Actually, I think Midnight Run was a considerable hit back in the day. I sure enjoyed the heck out of it, but it's in the category of movies I'm afraid to revisit in case they don't hold up. (This is a long list.)

I think I actually found a film I want to see in the Theater. Can you believe it's a woody Allen film? What is the world coming to?

We've just returned from said double feature. We did see P.E. first, which was a fine order. But I think both CP and I agree that P.E. has the edge for us. But then, we're definitely more the target audience than most around here so that's not too surprising.

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels still ranks as the best stoner action movie. But Pineapple Express is an admirable addition to the American pot movie cannon.

Tropic was good, Stiller and Black didn't trigger the usual nausea. But I didn't love it for some reason.

If I see the trailer for Nights in Rodanthe one more time I may have to hang myself.

Watched Word Wars from Netflix. Another niche community documentary in the vein of King of Kong (80s arcade game players), Hands on the Hard Body (an endurance competition to win a truck), and Wordplay (crosswords) that I've watched recently.

The norm for the genre is to show them as oddly dedicated but still basically normal good people (though King of Kong does have its villain). None of that in Word Wars, the four elite Scrabblers followed are simply presented as losers. Kind of left a dirty taste.

Pineapple Express was so fun. I just adore Seth Rogen. James Franco was a capable enough counter for him, though I still feel like he's the luckiest not-so-fantastic actor around right now.

The stuff with those two was fantastic. The McLovin character third-wheel-guy was annoying and detracted a lot from the film. And the Asian Mafia was just not as funny as it seemed on paper. Everything else was hilarious though, and spot on for potheads.

Tropic Thunder met my somewhat high expectations. Downey was amazing, no matter what angle he was playing. Ben Stiller was happily sidelined while other great scenes rolled out, making this far less painful than it could have been. The Tom Cruise parts were funny, but I swear I was covering my face during some bits. In the end, it was pretty solid from top to bottom, more so than Pineapple.

Two movies in one day, woohoo! The only minus, as GD mentioned, is that you see way-too-long trailers twice.

They replaced Wolf Creek with a lame-o Aussie comedy movie last night.. talk about chalk & cheese...

...but it was followed by Body Heat. William Hurt... Rowrrrr !!!

Though unfortunately you only get to see the best ones once. I want to see TT again just to watch the Downey Jr. fake trailer!

I know what you mean. I'm not even gay, and yet, I so want to see The Devil's Alley!

I had an amusing concession stand experience. Amongst the gaggle of pimple faced teens was one awkwardly wearing a spiffy white button down shirt instead of the uniform everyone else was, clearly the shift manager. As I walked past one employee who was wiping down a counter, he turns to the manager and says, with forced nonchalance, "So, I was wondering, do you think I could 'adjust my availability' now that school's starting." The manager, clearly ambushed having been asked in public, stammered our a noncommital replay. But the best part of the whole exchange was my cashier, who was utterly distracted by the whole exchange. Clearly she had some vested interest in whether mr. counter wiper would be allowed to 'adjust his availability' as she hardly looked down during my entire transaction, and practically gave herself whiplash, craning her neck as the manager walked back behind the scenes.

It was like a scene from some Disney Channel high school show.

I did quick research: Midnight Run made $38 million domestic in 1988, which was a solid but not spectacular take. It was the 29th highest grossing film of that year. By comparison, the 29th highest grossing films of each of the past three years were Meet the Robinsons, Nacho Libre and Constantine.

38 mil - not bad. It deserved better, though. Charles Grodin's finest hour.

Finally saw Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. Surprisingly entertaining and touching. However, I have a feeling that the caper at the end was tacked on and does not appear in the book. The other American Girl movies that were not released for the big screen--Molly, Samantha, Felicity--have the heroines affecting their surroundings in far less dramatic ways.

We just watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. What a delightful movie! Frances McDormand so rocks!

I just watched this yesterday and I agree. It's a really wonderful film.

We saw Om Shanti Om last night - sort of a Singing in the Rain meets Dead Again. It was charming in a sort of 1930's musical sort of way, and thenit was just a blast to see what Anglo/American idiosyncrasies get adopted and transformed in Bollywood culture.

wow, Tom, A for effort! This is why I love reading what all you intelligent folks have to say- you actually educate my ig'nant arse.

Thanks!

I finally saw Dark Knight in digital projection. It was good.

Has anyone seen Tell No One? I'm thinking of seeing it this weekend. It has a good rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Nope, never even heard of it. But momentarily I thought you were talking about Nobody Knows, an uber depressing Japanese movie from a couple years ago.

Don't see that one unless you want to test your anti-depressants.

Can't say if I did. Can't say if I didn't. Them's the rules!


:D

My parents did and really enjoyed it.

We saw it. It was pretty good. Not, you know, the most brilliant movie ever. But a solid one.

Finally, finally saw Oliver Stone's JFK. Wow.

Whether you've seen it before or not, now's a good time to visit it. The film hasn't aged at all and makes points that are just as important today, if not more so. I wonder how I would have reacted to it in 1991, or 1996, or 2000, or 2003...but today I see it as an especially timely, dire warning about militarization.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is still such an awesome film.

Weekend movie watching:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - One of the worst movie titles ever (especially now that I know just how mundane it is). Woody Allen has been somewhat resurgent since moving to Europe and this one is more good than bad. Good: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, and Rebecca Hall. Bad: Scarlett Johanssen and arch narration. The narration is not done by Allen, but it just felt like him overtly imposing himself on things since he isn't in the movie. Johanssen wan't bad bad, she just suffered in comparison and I think I would have preferred she and Hall switch roles.

Babylon A.D. - Finally went to check out the new-ish drive-in out in Concord, which is much closer than our regular trip to Sacramento. We kind of have a Vin Diesel thing going with drive-ins. We saw both The Fast and the Furious and XXX at the drive-in. This movie sucked, so a perfect drive-in experience. I don't know if this is based on a comic book or graphic novel or something but the movie seemed to assume, like the worst of the Harry Potter movies, that the audience would be coming in intimately aware of the story so it isn't necessary to make sense and everybody just fills in the blanks with their pre-knowledge.

Being Ron Jeremy - I have no idea how this ended up on my Netflix queue but I had an hour to kill yesterday so this 40-minute short killed (quite literally) that time. A Cinemax-after-dark level hard-R spoof of Being John Malkovich. Exactly the level of humor you'd expect to get if you had a bunch 13-year-olds make a porn-themed spoof. I was hoping it would be the stupid-immature fun of something like Orgazmo but it is not. Just stupid.

I had a mini-Bardot fest;

Love on a Pillow - dark tale of Bardot, a rich heiress befriending an alcoholic who takes her down a path of debauchery. Fun scenes of 1960's Paris and Florence, Decadent parties with artists, jazz musicians, and wonton sexuality. This would be a great pairing with Vadim's Dangerous Liaisons 1962.

Two Weeks in September - Bardot as a model married to an older man, has an affair while working in London, great London mod scenes, full of new wave (French cinema Nouvelle Vague) photoshoots.

Both great films to sip a cognac to - and made me see again the persistance of architecture. Loved seeing the big city scenes and recognizing the places despite the 60's styles and automobiles that overlay them.

I was mightily impressed with JFK on first viewing, but I regard it with a leery eye these days. For a movie that shakes such a big moral finger about truth, it sure is chock full of bullsh!t, albeit brilliantly directed and edited.

I'm not about to launch a defense of the Warren Report here. Like Bull Durham (another memorable Costner role), I do think Oswald acted alone, but that isn't the main reason I find JFK galling. Instead, I think it makes its biggest mistake in turning Jim Garrison into a hero, and I believe it wrongly vilifies Clay Shaw. (As did Garrison.)

I'm no expert. I read, and found convincing, a book called False Witness by Patricia Lambert. She tells a fascinating story (one that would make a great movie!) about a very different Garrison, an out-of-control maverick who would stop at nothing to get a conviction on Shaw, even after it should have been clear that Shaw was innocent, and Garrison was chasing shadows. This book portrays Shaw as a respected New Orleans shop owner who was participating (as were most other shop owners) in government security programs, but he was no agent or CIA operative, or anything like it. (He was also a fairly successful and well regarded playwright, and of course, a closeted homosexual, which fact is presented as something Garrison knew about and hated Shaw for.) The main idea is that the jury in Shaw's trial was quite correct in quickly finding him not guilty, but his life was ruined by the suspicion just the same. Garrison was widely regarded as something of a paranoid loony at the time, and his investigations (and subsequent books about them) were a terrible place for Oliver Stone to turn to as a basis for his film.

As I said, I found this book quite convincing. Even if the assasination was part of a conspiracy, it doesn't seem as if Garrison was anywhere near the right answer. Garrison did not present the Zapruder film in court, (most of his talking points about it were actually first published in LOOK magazine) and his very weak case hinged on testimony from some absurdly unreliable witnesses.

One of the most dramatic head-slappers in the book, for me, was the revelation of a photo that, in Stone's film, shows Clay Shaw cavorting in drag alongside his gay pals. The actual photo that inspired this bit in the movie is, first of all, nothing like that, (no one is in drag) and secondly, Shaw isn't even in the picture. It's somebody else. It miffs me a bit that Stone engages in unsubtle homophobia to make Shaw look worse. (And Tommy lee Jones performance is pretty insulting, in light of what I learned from Lambert's book.) The historical Shaw was reportedly a staunch democrat, and an ardent fan of John F. Kennedy. He also rubbed elbows with Tenessee Williams and other notables. To the extent that this is true, I really detest what Stone has done to him.

It is certainly possible that my faith in Lambert's reporting is misplaced, but as I said, I found it compelling and recommend it to anyone who holds Garrison in high regard only on the basis of the Kevin Costner character in Stone's movie. I have read a couple of articles defending Garrison and poo-pooing Lambert's book, but I did not find them persuasive. I am sure mileage will vary for others, and of course, I am just as susceptible to persuasion as anyone else.

But, anyway, conspiracy or no (and I am willing to entertain evidence about it), False Witness has made it impossible for me to watch JFK without getting really angry.

On the whole, I generally like Oliver Stone as a filmmaker, fwiw.

Thanks for the counterpoint. I figured there'd be more to it, though the Zapruder film (and its suppression) is all I need to know something was fishy...anyway, not going to derail the movie thread with a JFK conspiracy conversation. :)

Indeed - that would be an awful derail - and we have other threads better suited for that sort of thing already. (plus, the nets are just chock full of resources pro and con, more than enough to occupy the rest of ones life if one were so inclined.) I will include here a single link, which details 100 things that Stone got wrong (according to this source), which is unlikely to change anyone's mind about the actual assassination, but will give one pause before buying anything Stone puts forward as factual. It's interesting reading, but I end my own participation here. I don't know nothin' bout it.

Speaking of Oliver Stone, I have to admit that I am looking forward to W, which probably won't do the cause of righteousness any good, but it does look damn entertaining. I always keep a salt shaker nearby for this kind of thing though.

Hear, hear. I'm also looking forward to W, though it may be the most cringe-worthy film I'd see all year.

Just finally watched Thunderbolt, a 1995 auto racing Jackie Chan movie. This one was a big buzz back then even though it never released here because it was the first movie where he used a stunt double for parts of fight scenes.

He was still recovering from the foot he broke filming Rumble in the Bronx, but that was no consolation to us hangers on. The reputation had been marred and it was a sign the man was getting old.

Somehow I never actually saw the movie. Only two real fight set pieces and while the stunt double was never obvious to me, the real indication he was hobbled is the fight editing. A lot of cuts, a lot of close shots that don't really show the whole thing. Slow motion where it really serves no purpose.

Culminates in what may be the most ludicrous car race ever filmed.

But overall standard early to mid-90s Jackie Chan fare.

Well, on CP's suggestion, I watched JFK again last night. It's one of my favorite films, and well deserving of that status.

Firstly, we don't have to agree with its politics for it to be a great film, but that helps. But it's a virtuoso piece of filmmaking. Of course, I happen to agree with its politics, and I don't find anything in it not backed up by fact and truth.


Sure, I suppose there are other verions of Garrision's story that differ. But this is Garrison's story as told by him. Maybe he's lying. But it's HIS story, and I think he's entitled to tell it the way he wants. Stone's film is based, in large part, on his autobiographical accounts.

As I've also alluded to, but will NEVER delve into on the internet again, my completely non-exhaustive research has led me to less than a handful of contradictions with any of the assassination-related material in the film. In fact, I was amazed at how much veracity was in this picture. Tons of little throw-away details could have been dramatized, but they were presented as actually happened.

(As for whether it's accurate vis-a-vis Clay Shaw, I have no idea ... and will have to defer to flippyshark's verdict of decidedly not.)




In any event, whether you believe in the conspiracy of the assassination or not, whether you believe in the justice of Garrison's quest to prosecute some of those allegedly involved ... it's still a fantastic bit of filmmaking that stands out stylistically and editorially. And it's a moving piece of work.

What I came away from JFK with was that the details aren't even important. Shaw, O'Keefe, Ferrie, note that none of them are even mentioned in Garrison's final courtroom rundown of the day.

The important thing is that once you see the Zapruder film and conclude that no rational human being could watch that and conclude that Kennedy was hit from behind, then you HAVE to believe that there was at least a 2nd shooter, and you HAVE to believe that the Warren Commission willfully covered that detail. That's the lynch pin.

Garrison's details are circumstantial. He knew as much. Those details may be right, may be wrong. In all likelihood, there's a good deal that is right and a good deal that is wrong. And, considering the nature of the conspiracy, in all likelihood every individual up and down the line has been fed a different truth, just enough to get them to play their part. So contraditctions are bound to appear, purpopsefully designed by whomever was really running the show.

As Garrison said in the film, Clay was nothing more than a toe hold. Maybe his version was inacurate, but Clay and all the others had SOMETHING to do with it, that is pretty clear, and worth taking the risk of being wrong just to shine a light on it.

That said, I found the film's attempts to be sympathetic towards Garrison to be a bit heavy handed. It was obvious that they were trying very hard to vindicate him and say, "Is he really crazy, or the sanest man in the country at the time?" The fact is, he was a paranoid consipracy theorist. He had to be to think like he did.

But then, I forgive it becuase while this movie perhaps went too far in being sympathetic to him, it's a fair bet that the portrayals in the media that have lead people like JWBear to vilify him are equally exagerated. So maybe he deserves a measure of vindication.

That's true, but watching the Zapruder film doesn't lead me to that conclusion and nothing in JFK changed that. An entertaining movie, though.

Correction - Mr. Delight says he meant Flippyshark, not JW.

Let me be clear ... it was the film's JFK facts that I found 99% accurate (according to my limited research which may not have even included the book Alex says is vital) ... not the Clay Shaw facts. I have zero idea if those are true, and I have zero problem if the movie is presented entirely from Garrison's point of view.

I also have no problem with Garrison's story being dramatized. Yeah, he didn't present the Zabruder film in court. But, as the District Attorney, neither did he even present the case. That would have made for a rather boring conclusion to the film, eh? So, yeah, his story dramatized per movie bio conventions. The JFK stuff presented, to my satisfaction, with remarkable accuracy.


And, frankly, if Alex doesn't see a conspiracy with his own eyes by watching the Zabruder film, I see no reason to read a book he claims as vital on the subject. I don't mean to get personal, Alex. But we are clearly living in two different worlds. There's nothing wrong with yours.

Having not seen the film I'm curious, I always thought of it as a drama rather than a documentary. Meaning it's goal to entertain would trump any dispassionate search for truth.

On the other hand, the Nova episode that dealt with the JFK assassination was, I thought, well done and explained in detail how the single shooter explanation was plausible.

Have the Mythbusters tackled this one yet?

You seem to be confusing me and flippyshark in this post, I have not recently offered any book as vital. However, I did a couple weeks ago ask if among the couple dozen books (I believe) you said you've read on the Kennedy assassination any were defending the case of Oswald as a lone shooter? I also then suggested Vincent Bugliosi's recent Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Not because it is vital (I've only read small parts of it) but because it is an extremely detailed anti-conspiracy case that lays it out in a single source.

That said, no I don't see any proof of a conspiracy when watching the Zapruder film. I feel I've seen adequate explanation of everything shown in that film without relying on complex (and frequently simply irrational) conspiracies.

And I feel bad for flippyshark. Apparently he can simultaneously be confused with JWBear and me.

No, but Penn and Teller have on BULL****. They constructed a tasteless but nevertheless interesting experiment to show that, if shot by a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, a melon (or head) will actually move TOWARD the rifle as matter is expelled from the other side. Every time, the melon falls toward the rifle. (The same experiment is pictured in their book How To Play With Your Food) Not really all that scientific, and likely to irritate more than enlighten, but that's Penn and Teller sometimes.

This thread seems in danger of derailing, and I've found that absolutely no one will ever change their minds on this issue. I've seen friendships break up over it. I'm totally cool with those who are convinced, though I am not.

I've been confused with worse.

And I have Bugliosi's book, but I haven't jumped into it yet.

I've sat down with people and watched the Zapruder film over and over, and marveled at how we all saw what our predispositions led us to see. We all pointed fingers at specific spots on the screen shouting "Look! How can you not see that?!" and we all went away mad.

Which I now find really interesting.

yeah, which is why I'll discuss politics, religion, abortion, homosexual sex, anyone's mother, and Hitler on the internet, but will NOT discuss the Kennedy assassination.


Alex, i'm sorry if I thought you were recommending the Bugliosi book as vital instead of merely illuminating. I didn't read it, and I neglected to get back to you in that thread because I didn't want to perpetuate a Kennedy assassination discussion. That's a tough call, here, where I'd love to discuss the film JFK.

Let's see....movies....

I didn't go far back so I don't know...

Anyone see 'Mirrors'? Comments?

I know from my last visit that people did go see 'Tropic Thunder'. I didn't care for the gore parts but it was funny and I loved Tom Cruise in it. I don't know why some people don't like him, I don't see what they do, I guess. I had heard from here that he was in it but I didn't tell my family and they were blown away by it.

:snap: :snap: to the LoT gang. :cool:

I really enjoyed Tropic Thunder. Not a laugh-a-minute, but I was entertained throughout. Tom Cruise was hysterical. Robert Downey, Jr. great as always. I'm sure I missed half of the references, since I also caught so many of them everywhere.

I like it when satirists turn the scalpel on themselves, or their own field at least.

Yes, that did add to the fun of the movie.

I just could have done without the blood. LOL I know, dwelling here. And, I dont' want to spoil it for anyone so I'll just leave it at that.

I loved RDJs character. And the end scene with Lance....oh, Hubster just doesn't know who anyone is and he didn't get that one.

Who were the other actors nominated for the Academy Award with Ben Stiller's character? I couldn't catch them all. John Voight, hahaha. And then Tobey Maguire for the gay monk film from the preview that had me in stitches. Oh, there was one more I recognized, and now forgot. But I missed one or two, it went by so quickly.



Also, the gore in the first scene was excrutiating, but thankfully not so much in the rest of the film.

In case anyone hasn't seen it....














I couldn't handle the scene from where they landed and someone, er, well.....the Greyhound bus incident was fresh in my head and I couldn't look at all. The first part, I just kept saying that was of course not real but still yuck...

Last night, in my ongoing attempt to watch the "1,000 Greatest Films," I watched Army of Shadows. What a great movie... really. It's a gritty, 1969 film that deals with the French Resistance during World War II. It doesn't get into the politics, or even the details of the missions - it mostly focuses on the tension of life as a secret operative, and how one group was able to maintain focus in the face of imminent capture. It would make a great double feature with Munich, if I had the nerve to watch both of them back to back. Lino Ventura, as Gerbier, one of the leaders, puts in a cooler-than-DeNiro performance. Just brilliant.

... and as long as I'm posting in this thread, my .02 on Stone's JFK: it's a fun movie - which is as fun to watch as many late '60s-early '70s political thrillers. The fact that I don't believe a bit of the conspiracy doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the film. In fact, time has been kind to the movie - when it was released, I was annoyed that Stone promoted it by sending "educational" information to schools studying the assassination. With that disgusting promotional blitz a thing of the past - the movie can now comfortably stand on its own - as a solid, well-crafted piece of entertainment.

On an entirely different note:

Hedwig and the Angry Inch. See it.

Seen it. Blegh. Though I was the only one in a room of 20 who thought so. It was all the rage among one circle of friends several years.

Just found the old mini discussion in here re: Hedwig. Funny, I didn't realize it had been a stage show. When it was over I said, "That'd make a great stage musical."

Since we're now done with blockbuster summer season I was looking at the box office leaders and saw a surprising placement.

Worldwide box office. Spots 1 and 2 aren't a suprirse: The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones and the Decrepitude.

But number three surprised me: Kung Fu Panda. I remember many of you being shocked at the Kings Canyon camping trip when I said it was good, but I saw it, forgot about it and hadn't realized just how well it had done. Almost $600 million wordwide.

Wow. How did Wall-E do?

I decided I only had time for one animated feature in theaters this summer, and that's the one I chose. But I remember your recommendation about Kung-Fu Panda and expect to flix it when available.


I think I saw but four or five movies in theaters this summer. Not including the stupid second time I saw the second Batman, and the shockingly retarded second and even third time I saw fourth Indiana Jones.

Almost exactly 1/2 the box office and it is 11th on the list. However, Disney is apparently doing an extremely slow roll around the globe (but I don't expect it'll get anywhere near $600 million from its current $280 million).

It just opened in Australia (which did $23MM for Panda), hasn't yet opened in China/Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, or Russia (each of which did $20MM plus for Panda).

But in terms of money, Wall-E is generally losing to Kung Fu Panda in countries where they've both played. In the United States, Wall-E is only about $5 million up on Kung Fu Panda.

But foreign numbers are generally fuzzy. So it isn't particularly exact. I was just surprised to see it so high. Another surprise is the second Narnia movie which is #7 on the list.

And if you wonder why we very well may see a Hancock sequel, it is because it did 60% of its business in other countries and ended up making almost exactly as much money as smash hit Iron Man (which did 55% of its bank in the U.S.).

I didn't see Kung Fu Panda but I felt Wall-E was kind of a heavy movie. Not really a kids movie. A wonderful story but not really geared towards little kids.

Parents love to take their kids over and over to movies like KFP.

I was planning on going to bed, but I just can't resist -

REFORM SCHOOLS GIRLS - currently airing on MojoHD

:D

An article/interview in the SF gate about the remake of "The Women".

The woman who wrote and directed it is obviously a complete idiot who doesn't understand what made the original fun and enjoyable. She wants to focus on the "friendship and betrayal" of Mary Haines by Sylvia Fowler, rather than anything to do with Mary's husband. She thinks that nobody in the original movie is especially fascinating either. Um, what?

This just pisses me off!!! :mad: :mad:

WTF???

Seriously. And it's getting horrible reviews so far:

Slant Magazine

Films in Review

I guess I'm not too worried. I smell a bomb.
Besides, there will always be the original.
:)

Saw the Jewel Thief last night, part of our Bollywood collection - it's amazing how plot twisty and convoluted you can make a movie when 3 hours is a common running time. This one had it all - love interests and femme fetales, mistaken identities, swanky apartments and private jets, car chases, dance numbers, a secret hideout with secret panels behind more secret panals - honestly I'm having a ball exploring this genre.

It seems to me that three hours is an increasingly common running time here these days, but our blockbuster style doesn't tend to fill that bloated time with intriguing twists or colorful dance numbers. I wish H'wood would emulate B'wood more closely.

Oh, the film is jam packed with plot twists as well as song and dance numbers. I'm sure it could be edited down to a more concise film, but I'm not sure that would make for a better film. Most Bollywood films seem to run at the 3+ hour mark. I'm not sure when cinema-going audience members take bathroom breaks!

But, if you have an attention span that is greater than the majority of the American audience, like Bond and Hitchcock and can appreciate Bollywood-style musicals then you will enjoy this fim - even with its faults.

Bill and I just watched Brokeback Mountain again... <SIGH.....>

This weekend:

Drunken Master - The movie that essentially made Jackie Chan a star and went a long way towards establishing a more comedic form of Hong Kong martial arts movie. It isn't a great movie but has the seeds of everything that would eventually become great. On the plus side, it spends almost no time on story and is pretty much wall to wall fight scene. More like a porn model of storytelling than most. The choreography is too staged but it isn't horrible.

Bangkok Dangerous - Awful. Simply dreadfully awful. Since it is set in Bangkok and uses a mostly Thai cast I kind of hoped there'd be some Tony Jaa in it even though I hadn't heard such (but I hadn't been looking). Nope. I'm really sick of the conflicted hitman story. I'm really sick of the Nicolas Cage drawl. I'm really, really, really sick of the conflicted hitman story told in a Nicolas Cage drawl.

The Omega Man - I hadn't seen it since high school. Forgotten how bad it was (though I'm sure the Rosalind Cash nudity helped back then). Though I do wonder just how spitting mad the director must have been when they got the dailies back from the opening scenes showing a dead Los Angeles and in the far background of one cut there is a car driving and in another a pedestrian crossing a street.

I think we should have a protest viewing of the original this weekend sometime.
:)

0% on rottentomatoes. lol!
Okay, that's not really fair, because there's only 6 reviews, but still it's funny to say. "Haw haw, 0%!!!"
:D

I can't believe my sister is excited to see this movie. Yes, protest viewing of original by all means!!

Allegro Non Troppo - funny, crazy, beautiful animation, loved the spoof aspect as well as doing Disney one better in some ways. All Fantasia fans need to see it. :snap:

26 reviews in. The Women remake is still at 0%!
:D

Life is good!

0% must be over (I didn't look). Ebert gave it three stars.

Yep. It's 10% now.

This is a section of Richard Schickel's review of The Women remake:
Source

Pretty strong language. The bolding is mine.

We finally saw Dark Knight last night. Amazing spectacle.

So in furthering our education ion Bollywood, we saw Partners last night. This film came highly recommended by the diminutive Islamic woman in a Sari Shop, who insisted that we had to have both the DVD and CD when we asked for some recommendations. Needless to say, we took her advice.

Now, part of the fun of Bollywood films is the element of kitsch shared by home-grown musicals in simply fitting music and ance numbers into the storyline. This one of course, delivered that - and more. I would have never expected a Latin Dance number, spiced up with Spanish phrases, bolero hats, and mariachi fringe - but there it was.

Still this film about a "love guru" helping men marry the girls of their dreams caught me completely off guard with odd sub plots that resulted in Mob bosses being pissed on by little boys, or the guided missle jet ski chase. I have to say, this film had me say "wow" on several occasion as I gazed in wonder how they worked this all into the plot.

Of course the other fun, is seeing the cultural differences played out. There is a certain innocent that harken back to the old school Hollywood musicals, as well as clcihéd stereotypes also not seen since that era, mocking Chinamen, British Colonials, and of course, the over the top effeminate and presumed gay wedding planner. All the more amusing when compared to the ripped leading man, whose house is filled with poster sized images of himself, usually bare chested - manly, but certianly not gay - uh huh, just like those Hollywood hunks of days gone by. In any event it seems every bollywood film at some point has it's leading man emerge from a body of water, ripping off his shirt to reveal his dripping built torso.

The language is alos fun, the mix of English and whatever Indian language the films are produced in where we learn that Sh*t Man means "Oh No" in the land of subtitles.

Anyway, Partners deleivered and now I have a new set of private ear worms to enjoy.

I think my head would explode.




* * * * * * *

On another front, I'm really disappointed with the "director's cut" of Dark City. The much ballyhooed restored opening is a bit better for the lack of spoiler voiceover the studio insisted on ... but it's more than countermanded by the loss of the terrific hook of Everything Stops at Midnight that punches you into the title card. Bleh.

It's not even the "restored" opening anyway, since they keep the cool footage of outerspace and Keifer Sutherland intro ... which was filmed in re-shoots specifically for the voiceover and was not part of the original director's cut at all. (Proyas' cut opened with the zoom into the hotel room where Murdoch is revealed in the bathtub.)

As for the rest of the film, there are about a dozen slightly extended scenes. Most of these are good, a few are kinda awful. So once again, a director's cut that not only isn't as good as the theatrical release, but contains just enough cool differences that I'll be missing them whenever I watch the generally superior theatrical release from now on.

And now both versions have sucky openings.




Thanks Alex Proyas and your ego project.


Fail.

I just ran across some pics from the movie version of Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'. It looks like it's going to be really, really good- I can pick out exactly where in the story these shots occur, so I'm guessing they're not messing with the storyline overmuch.

The Road

Trying to watch a very early Tony Jaa movie. But it is just absolutely awful in every respect.

But I'm too lazy to go take it out of the DVD player and put something else in there (I guess this is finally an argument for why I should use the other slots in my multi-disc player) so I'm slowly working through it in 10-15 minute bursts.

It is like the worst of 1960s Hong Kong martial arts movies. But it was made in 1998 so there really isn't any excuse.

How did you like the book? How does it compare to other post-apocalyptic fiction? I'm intrigued.

I loved it. At the same time, I hated it. The 'Hollywood Ending' side of me despaired at the utter hopelessness of the scenario these characters are in, but I thought it was well written and very realistic. I'm not sure it really compares with much of any other books within the genre, as they always seem to have some glimmer of hope in the storylines, but it's really a pretty fascinating read and as a parent it makes me wonder which 'road' I would take if faced with the same circumstances.

I saw "Burn Before Reading (eating)" last night. Wow! A bit on the choppy side, well acted and in keeping with "Old Men" its got a great twist.

I can't wait. Trailers are a bad judge, but it looks like Oliver Stone might be back in form.


World Trade Center was a wet noodle.

I'm just worried that he made the movie too soon. I would have appreciated Nixon so much more had he waited until the tapes were released... a year or so after the movie.

The Namesake is highly underrated. It got very little buzz, but it was a subtle, lovely film about Indian immigrants and their second-generation kids. I found it fascinating, and very moving.

I enjoyed The Namesake as well. It proved that Kal Penn is capable of not coming across as a perpetually stoned and he just generally chooses not to (he seems stoned on House even).

As far as W, I think it will be a movie that I wait a half decade to watch. Honestly, at this point I just don't feel the need to sit through a dramatization of such recent history.

Thirded.

It looks like we're going to Igor this afternoon. Regal cinema is having their Can Film Festival and of course Igor is the only kids movie playing. The boy is excited though becuase he can stop school early and see a movie that won't cost Mom a dime. Well ok, a buck for soda but that's not bad. I told the boy I was going to see The Women instead, he did not find that funny!

I fourth the Namesake. Picked it as a totally random netflix choice and I really liked it.

I saw part of The Namesake the other night on cable. I should rent it so I can see the whole thing.

I had a free rental coupon so picked up Across the Universe. I plan to watch it this weekend.

Across The Universe - I think that one has had a couple of flurries of reaction in this thread, but I'm happy to reiterate that I really liked it - I loved some of it, cringed at one or two scenes, but overall, I was surprised at how much I got out of it. But it's no Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. (I bet you can find that one cheap, too. I dare ya!)

George Clooney apparently is going to be the Lone Ranger. Depp as Tonto.
Rumor has it...

I like George Clooney. I will watch him in almost anything.

I will not watch him as the Lone Ranger.

Aren't you going to review it for MP?

Oh, damn. Did you have to remind me of that? Isn't it bad enough I have to go watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua tomorrow?

I apologize. I just had a laughing fit. I just tried picturing you watching it in some theatre surrounded by big-eyed children. lol.
Ahem.
Okay, serious face now...
I look forward to reading your review.

Look at it this way - at least you didn't have to work on it for 10 months.

(Though, I kind of enjoyed the process.)

I make fun but I always go in hoping to be surprised. Sadly the most recent was the wrong kind of surprised. I fully expected Miracle at St. Anna to at least be thought provoking if not necessarily entertaining and Spike Lee didn't even deliver that.

I liked Across the Universe. The extras on the DVD were very interesting too.

I'm giving dvds of "Man of the Century" for the holidays. Clever little gem of a movie.

I hope Beverly Hills Chihuahua bombs horribly...

Saw Appaloosa today. Wow. Really enjoyed that. So far one of the best films of the year so far.

Oooh. Cowboys...
:)

Alex's Review

I agree about the talking babies thing. Somehow I'm not too creeped out by talking animals at all.
:)

We just watched Third Man Out. It was much better than we anticipated. Check it out.

As an aside, kudos to Disney for finally putting a disclaimer at the beginning of an animal movie about the responsibilities of pet ownership and that some breeds are not good choices for everyone-- I'm guessing in response to the backlash they received when shelters and rescue groups were inundated with Dalmatians after the release of the live action 101 Dalmations.

I have an 8yo therefore I had to go see it. The talking animals didn't bother me . It was fine, not great. Fine. (I didn't feel like I wanted to shove hot pokers in my eyes like I did with Shark Boy and Lava Girl) I distracted myself by watching Manolo Cardona (who played the hot "landscaper"):

Alex, regarding the one-female-dog-voice term paper... I happen to know that a fairly prominent Mexican actress had a sizeable cameo and then all of a sudden, all references of her were wiped from the marketing. I suspect that they had originally written so many male characters to sort of counterpoint the big-name actress (or put focus on her.) And in the end, they replaced that character with a male. Or that's how I understand it. I'll have to see it to be certain.

Wow, between Alex's review and LSPE's comment, I am hastily adding Beverly Hills Chihuahua to my must-avoid list. (Not that there was much chance of my going to see it anyway.) I totally agree about the animated animal-mouth thing (though it is infinitely creepier when applied to babies, a fact that made me turn off Baby Geniuses just a few minutes in. And that, I only started to watch because the late Bob Clark had made some terrific movies before, but oy - okay this parenthetical thought is getting too long.)

Anyway, the whole jettisoning of another actress-voice talent to buttress the star power of Ms. Barrymore? My eyes roll as I click "post quick reply."

Oh! No, I'm sorry, I meant that in the original drafting of the script, it seems they may have jettisoned writing other latina characters to put the focus on the latina actress. And once she dropped out and they couldn't replace her, they went with a more-notable male. This is only speculation on my part.

HELLO! :D

Saw Eagle Eye. Expected eye candy garbage. Got eye candy. So, not disappointed, though my expectations were pretty low. It was exactly what I needed.

Yeah, I was going to avoid BHC like the plague, but now I'm thinking of treating myself. ;)


Or maybe I'll wait to Netflix it and just watch the landscaping parts ... while I do my manscaping.

And while we’re at it… When did Brian Austin Green become so hot?



(I know this isn't technically the correct place for this – but deal.)

Better be quick, I'd guess he has no more than 5 minutes total screen time.

What do you mean, not the correct place? I'm dealing just fine.



Eh, I keep up with these things, so a quick trim is all that's ever needed. I'll just cue up his 5 minutes and attend to business.


Yeah, I know this isn't technically the correct place for too much information ... but deal. :p

I was surprisingly entertained by "What Happens In Vegas."

I was charmed by "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," though the ending, while realistic, left me a little cold. I don't need to go to the movies to see people who can't change the patterns of their lives.

"Trouble the Water" looks like it will be awesome.

I'm happy. Screw everyone else. :p ;)

I think this is a perfect place to play Poker. So deal.

:D

We should have a LoT poker night. That would be a blast.

swanking!

I don't know that this has been discussed but I just saw a commercial....

did anyone buy 'Sleeping Beauty' on blu-ray? I don't have a blu-ray player but I figured I eventually will, and, this price was pretty good, and I received both the dvd and blu-ray disc.

I think that is a great marketing ploy. I would never buy just the blu-ray. I have upgraded from vhs to dvd as many movies as I have wanted to {and have been able to, not all are available currently...}.

Comments?

I watched Appaloosa today - what an awesome movie.

Right up there with some of my favorites, including Tombstone.

:D

I'm anxious to see Appaloosa. By the time I get the chance, it will be out of theaters. I hope the DVD window is short.


I, too, will be buying Sleeping Beauty on DVD and BluRay even though I have no BluRay player yet (and even though I already have it on DVD ... and laserdisc ... and VHS ... it's one of those movies I will continue to own in every format ... and multiply in the same format if they upgrade the image again.)

Manolo Cardona sports a nice straw hat: Name that movie... :cool:

Hat? What hat?

Ok... I'm awake now!

No, the movie isn't called either of those names. ;)

Saw Man On Wire about Phillipe Petit's highwire walk between the WTC towers. He's quite a character.

I don't know when I'll buy a blu-ray player but I think this is great. I hope they do it from here on. It isn't that much more to buy it when they come out, well, not too much more and you get both types.

I want to see Appaloosa, too.

I just saw Ashes of Time Redux with our mousepod. What an excellent film! I can see why he loves this film. If you get a chance and can find it near you, I recommend seeing it. It's wonderful.
:)

Hotttttt Man in Superfluous Clothing Items? :D

I need another gaming system in my house like I need a hole in my head but I'm thinking about getting the Playstation 3 since (for about the same price as a stand alone player) it is also a blu ray disc player (as well as CD and DVD).

I like the fact that when you upgrade to a blu ray player, your DVDs remain compatible. That makes the price tag somewhat easier to swallow IMO.

We saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno over the weekend.

Solid Kevin Smith movie. Funny funny stuff. It's overall not as graphic as their battle to stave off an NC-17 rating would have you believe. Though there's one scene...

There was one sour note, the fault of the audience, not the film. It won't give too much away to say there is a scene with a male-on-male gay kiss. It was an entirely non-graphic kiss, a simple peck between a gay couple in the story. And yet the homophobe audience groaned with disgust. Made me ill.


Making this one particularly fun to watch is the fact that I've become a regular listener of Smith's podcast. I know a frightening amount about Smith, his likes, dislikes, and insecurities and recognized a lot of it on screen.

Oh, I wish I'd known that before the Silverlake March flowed past the Vista Theater showing that film.


I don't know why, but I do.

We saw Changeling recently. It's not the world's best film, but the story was fascinating. Horror movies don't generally frighten me, but things that can - and do - actually happen can terrify me. One element of the story in particularly gave me chills.

Ooh, a reminder that sometimes I did talk about things not directly involving gay people.

Recently (last two weeks) I've watched:
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) - Maybe it was just trying to be arty with the subject but the prancing around the homosexuality (DAMN IT! GAY PEOPLE!) of the central but not present character felt really old fashioned. Good monologues and some witty writing but didn't do much for me. For some reason I just can't buy Montgomery Clift in any role indicating great intelligence.

Madagascar (2005) - Had to watch it so I could review the sequel. Way too much emphasis on movie spoofs but some good laughs mixed in with the crap.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) - Actually a bit better than the first. Less moving spoofing, more time with the funny penguins and lemur. My MousePlanet review here.

Mad Max (1979) - I was sure I'd seen this before but it turns out I hadn't. All of my memories of it must be from Road Warrior. Anyway, it is a crap movie.

Cactus Flower (1969) - I wish someone had told me sooner that there exists a romantic comedy coupling Walter Matthau with Ingrid Berman (and at one point she does the bugaloo) so I wouldn't have waited 34 years to see it. It is not a great film and I don't know how Goldie Hawn got her Oscar out of it, but there are some great lines and I always love Matthau.

30 Days of Night (2007) - For a cheesy vampire horror movie it wasn't bad. The timeline involved made no sense (or the vampires were much more incompetent than they were made to appear for reasons not explained). There should be a creepy Ben Foster in every movie. Yes, every movie.

Fahrenheit 451 (1966) - The best of the spate of bad science fiction cult classics from the '70s I've watched recently. Maintained the essence of the book without needing to be a slave to it (someone is working on a new version and I am not looking forward to a visualization of the Mechanical Hound). Plus it all looks super goofy.

Lord of War (2005) - Nicolas Cage in the least annoying performance in quite a while. "Based on true events" story of a gun runner. Nothing worth remembering, nothing worth deriding.

This just made my day!

I'm simultaneously happy and full of dread.

Yes, always the chance they'll mangle it after the time away from it and in expanding it to feature format. The thing it has going in favor of it is that it was in many ways produced like a film anyway (a bit of a fatal flaw making it an expensive tv show to make), so it won't be a huge leap to the big screen.

OK, so I watched Hairspray with my daughter last night. Not the good one, the new one. Well, new to me, as I am years behind watching films on DVD that I meant to see in the theater but never did.

Was John Travolta channeling Cher, or what? I'd assume someone has made this observation before, it is just such an obvious comparison.

My girl loved it, but I told her she needs to see the John Waters version. It's been years since I've seen it, but yeah. I really wanted to like the new one. It wasn't bad, I guess. But Divine > John Travolta.

The old Hairspray hasn't aged all that well, but I still think it's awesome ... and the pair is one of the rare movies and remakes where both are good.


Alex is dead wrong about Mad Max. It's terrific. Not nearly as good as its sequel, also quite the rare switcheroo.

Ditto.

I fail to see what was potentially terrific about it. Here's the plot:

Boring
Boring
Some action
Boring
Some action
Action ends, fortunately considering the aforementioned action was boringly paced
Boring
Boring
Boring
Boring and brooding
Some action
Boring
Boring
Boring
Boring
Boring
Boring
The entire movie wraps up with 4 minutes of action which is refreshing in its understatedness compared to today's flash and overblown sequences but still doesn't reward the preceding plot of boring.

I wanna see The Duchess. I finished reading the book (a very academic biography, but the subject was a fascinating character). Is it even still playing?

I really like Mad Max. i saw both films back to back and they were a revelation at the time.

I will not take a dismissal of Suddenly last Summer from ANYONE. I adore that film. (And, one of my alter ego names comes from the film).

Dammit people, I already told you whether the movies are any good or not. Why are you wasting everybody's time pretending I'm wrong?

In make-believe land, Alex is ALWAYS wrong.

It's a movie, it's a movie, he's an actor, it's a movie.

Get it right. In make-believe land Alex is maybe wrong. It is in Exact-Opposite-of-Reality Land that Xela is ALWAYS wrong.

I'm going to call you X-Lax from now on. You'll get only Visible X-Lax Mojo from me.

I'm going to do my best to not try to picture visible X-Lax mojo. Why do you always go straight to the filth? I'm really disappointed in you. Try to be restrained and show some decorum.

Be like Kevy every once in a while.

What is the meaning of this word "decorum"?

And, poop is not filty, it's natural (even with encouragement from Ex-Lax). It's SEX that is filthy. Filthy, Filthy SEX!

Still in exact opposite land?

Yeah... But he was hot back then.

Hate trumps hot.

I like Mad Max. Who says a good film can't be a bore? Look at Citizen Kane and The Pillow Book. Great big, brilliant beautiful bores.

I agree that Madagascar 2 is better than the original. However, the penguins simply are not funny. Not in either movie. Not in the Christmas short. Not ever.

Where did I put the paper towels and monitor cleaning fluid...?

And art trumps all. Chopin had no love for the Jews but he's still my favorite composer. I don't have to like or respect the artist whose work I love. There are plenty of artists I would not want to sit across at the dinner table. Unless, of course, we were dining together in Hell!

Now, I understand that Chopin isn't alive and cannot donate the money he earns off of my purchases to anti-Semitic campaigns. And, Mel Gibson might use his money for evil, so there's that. I suppose that's a good enough excuse for illegally downloading his movies. Heh.

We just watched The Fall... Wow... Stunning movie.

Had never heard of it, but I just saw the imdb entry, and it looks very intriguing. Adding it to my queue.

I'm hoping to talk Lisa into seeing Love Story 2050 tonight

Hmmmm... Something about this movie makes me want to see it. What could it be?



Oh.... Yes.... Got it. ;)

Well, we haven't started watching yet......

I saw the new Bond film. It was pretty cool. I loved the action sequences. There needed to be more scenes with Bond without his shirt though.

Well, I confirmed that it was indeed The Road Warrior that I was mostly remembering. I also confirmed that The Road Warrior is mostly suck as well. 12-year-old me was mightily easy to please apparently.

Watched another car related movie by the name of The Driver. From 1978 starring Ryan O'Neal and Bruce Dern. Very sparse and I liked it a fair bit.

Started to watch What's Up Pussycat but am strongly disinclined to continue after the first five minutes of Peter Sellers (when he's funny he's very funny, but when he stinks he makes Steve Martin of the last decade look like genius). Peter O'Toole's eyes, though, compel me to to continue. I'm at work now, though, so will have to finish tomorrow.

We also saw the new Bond today. We thought most of the action scenes were a little overdone although I liked the fight in the Haitian hotel, as it looked very much like a street brawl and not a choreographed movie fight.

I like the new, gritty Bond, but I still kind of miss the more tongue-in-cheek Connery Bond. Also, the final action sequence was completely ridiculous.

I do love Judi Dench as M, though. No one delivers a dry, biting line like she does.

Tonight was the night for flix at the $3 theatre that just opened nearby.

-- W
I was surpised how sympathetic the filmed made Bush seem and at the same time almost surealist. There was a thin line between mockery and homage and I thought it an interesting film. Not the greatest Oliver Stone film, but Brolin does a fantastic job.

-- Sex Drive
In the spirit of American Pie - a real funny teenage R-rated film that is both hysterical and gross but had a bit of a cheesy ending.

-- Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Great quotable dialogue by Kevin Smith and alot of laughs. It was both hysterical and gross but had a cheesy ending.

OK - so "Porno" and "Sex Drive" pretty much had the exact same plot and has the same female in it,* so that was a bit odd seeing both in the same night. Boy and Girl are "best friends" and thru 1. making a porno and another driving to meet a girl for sex, they come to learn they actually "love" each other. Pretty much the same plot for both but I thought them funny.

Edit to add: It was actually "W" and "Porno" that had the same female lead. Elizabeth Banks played Laura Bush and Miri.

For those who have seen sex Drive, I work with an actress who appears in the film as "Drunk Amish Girl." I haven't seen the movie yet, but Michelle (that's her name) said she got to work with Seth Green, and she said he was as cool as she had hoped. She was also moved into the hotel room Green had been staying in after his couple of days on set were done. He had left behind massive amounts of junk food, so she now gets to boast that she ate Seth Green's snacks.

Oh man, now I really don't want to see W. I don't want to walk out of a theater wanting to do Laura Bush.

For those interested in seeing it, BOLT is adorable, has lots of heart, and if you catch it in a Digital 3D venue, the 3D is very good. Word on the street is that John Lasseter helped rework this into a better movie than it would otherwise have been. It's nice to see a really good movie bear the Disney Animation banner. Whee!

We've seen a lot of movies in the last month, so I wanted to post about them, because they were all movies that left varied impressions on me. In some cases, I want to send you to see them. In others, I'd like to send you away from them.

The Changeling
I very much wanted to like The Changeling. It is set in a fascinating period of time in a city that fascinated me so much that six years ago, I moved there. It focuses on a woman, which is rare these days. Its winding narrative held my interest. But I was surprised that, despite all signs pointing to "hey, swell movie," I was left rather cold.

It's possible that its starting point – just before the main character's child is kidnapped – isn't a strong enough connecting point to make us grieve the loss as the she does. It's also possible that a character spending 60% of her time waiting anxiously (and passively) for anything to be resolved may not be as resonant – or, dare I say, active – as one would hope, no matter how strong that anxious-passive performance might be.

In general, the whole film seemed… distanced… from me, somehow. The very oh-so-composed shots (like a close-up of a shocked man's cigarette ash hanging by a thread, that so fluidly crashes to the ground as he receives the final blow to his ignorance) were more distracting than elegant. "Oh, look. We're watching a movie. Why don't you give me some Brechtian titles while you're at it."

Even though I felt held at arm's length throughout, I'd still recommend checking this out at some point. It is elegant. Its story will hold your interest. And Tom liked it more than I did, so chances are, you might too.

Synecdoche, NY
I'm a big fan of Charlie Kaufman, so I was excited to hear he was going to try his hand at directing. We'd get The Full Kaufman Experience!

As it turns out, we may not actually want the Full Kaufman Experience.

Synecdoche is the unfurling of a dream state. Or a descent into madness. Or an abstract metaphor of the devolution of the human body. Possibly all three. Possibly none.

Like a Derren film, or a Lynch one, I think you're meant to sit back and let it absorb into your pores, into your brain, into your consciousness. And so I didn't spend too much time trying to discern exactly what was happening. (I really don't think it's the point, and moreso, I don't even think it's possible.) I just let it float over me, and into me. And that experience was the bleakest, most uncomfortable one I've ever had in a movie theater. It bores into all of the least-appealing parts of humanity. And so many of them are universal. That, or Kaufman and I have the same insecurities and nightmares.

It is a horrible film. Not that the performances were bad, or anything in particular. In fact, I can't be certain, but I think it really was quite remarkable. What I mean is that it is marked by the arousal of horror. And not in an "eek, the killer is right behind you!" kind of way. In a way that says slowly, clearly, and unequivocally: everything in this life is ****, and you're never going to make of yourself what you want to. And quite honestly, it may be the truth, but I really don't need to hear it if I'm going to live a life of anything aside from self-centered regret.

Should you see it? That's an excellent question, and I don't have the answer for you. Is it brilliant? Quite possibly. Are you up for it? You might be. And then again, you really, really, really might not be.

Side note: Samantha Morton is a bright spot, and she looks incredible with a curvy body.

Zac and Miri Make a Porno
We watched these three films in sequence, and thank Christ we saw this last. It was totally delightful, surprisingly romantic, and only occasionally Kevin-Smith-heavy. It washed the brain-ick of Synecdoche right out with a constant stream of very raunchy but pretty tender humor. And that was a tall order. I highly recommend it, particularly to fans of the Apatow ilk (as it seemed much more geared towards them than towards fans of Smith's earlier films.)

Slumdog Millionaire
It's a lovely concept. A young man from the streets of India wins a huge amount of money on a game show. Before his final question, he's arrested, accused of cheating. Question by question, we see (in flashbacks) exactly why he knew what he knew. It's structurally creative, socio-politically absorbing, and emotionally compelling. And musically, it's genius; the mix of Bollywood and hip-hop is gorgeous. Danny Boyle never makes the same film twice, and I admire his willingness to branch out.

It, unfortunately, was over-hyped to me by a number of people, and it didn't quite live up to that for me. So I won't overhype it to you. Slumdog Millionaire is not a perfect film, but it's a modern fairy tale that is definitely worth watching.

Twilight
I should probably post this in the Twilight thread, but I don't really want to rain on Twilight's parade. I found it to be rather wooden, and a little bit rushed. It did have some surprisingly cheeky humor now and then (outside of the unintentional laughs.) And Bella's father's performance was quite strong. Really, my favorite part of the film was witnessing the cultural tween meme. Their little hormones didn't even know what to do with Edward, so all they could muster were squeals of various pitches and lengths. I was duly amused.

Non-spoiler but as Laura Bush she takes off her shirt. YEs there is a bra but lead to the thought "MILF."

A I applaud her for that pattern, as she does the same in Zack and Miri.

However that just reinforces my desire to not see W, because I'll end up considering Laura Bush more attractive than is healthy, or consider Elizabeth Banks less attractive than is healthy.

Or FLILF.

I enjoyed that myself. Although they were shushed and hushed pretty quickly once the movie got underway. If no, I'm afraid they would have been noisy everytime Edward appeared on screen. I wish the movie were better - but honestly it's about as good as I exepected it to be.

Anyone going to see Milk this Thanksgiving weekend?

The trailer made me weepy, I have to say.

I'm gonna see it, but wait until next week until it's in wide release. There's a push in the gay community to have it be a top grosser that weekend, so I'll put my money and eyeballs where they will count most to help the cause he cherished.

Well then, I can wait, too!

I didn't realize there was a push - we were going to see it this weekend too, should we wait?

It would be great to see it with a group, also.

It's getting really terrific reviews.

oh, please wait. I'll go see it with a group, even if you and Tom and me are that entire group.

Of course, more, merrier and all that.

"RUMSPRINGA!"

I managed the rich media campaign for that film, saw it twice, and LOVED it. James Marsden and Seth Green were stellar, and honestly, if your friend Michelle was the girl screaming, "RUMSPRINGA!" etc., she was one of the funniest bits in the movie.

I have a feeling this casting will break Boss Radio's hear.

NM and I both watched The Great Escape for the first time.

John Sturges, you had me at The Magnificent Seven. And thank you, thank you again for a young, shirtless Charles Bronson.

In all seriousness, it was a terrific film. And, having no familiarity whatsoever with the story on which it was based, far more depressing than I was expecting. I don't CARE how up-beat and "you can't keep a good man down!" the music was at the end.

Speaking of the music, Elmer Bernstein, you were AWESOME.

Actually, the limited release box office is extremely important, too. (Often, expansions depend upon those numbers to know how wide they should release.)

How about this... we will be going this weekend... AND we will go with you on the 5th.

Milk
Five stars.
I started this thread about it.

So, should I go to the free screening of Milk on Saturday?

Yep, that was her. She's crazy fun to work with.

Absolutely.
Get as many people as you can get in to go with you. Word of mouth will do wonders for this film.