What is the last movie you saw? and rate it. [Archive] - Page 26

Emil Miller

06-13-2013, 04:33 PM

I have just watched for the second time this week a 3 hour documentary called What Happened on the Moon.

Absolutely fascinating and pretty damning evidence from professionals that the moon landings were faked. I remember watching the first 'landing' on TV as a youngster and saying out loud: 'But it's a film set !' Anyhow, the most fascinating section is part three dealing with the development of rocket technology in Germany and subsequently in the USA and USSR. The connection between Fritz Lang's film Frau im Mond and how it was used to inveigle Hitler's approval for funding the V2 project and its effect on the US Apollo programme is truly amazing. Because the film is exhaustive in highlighting impossibilities in the filmed moon landings, it must get a 10/10.
There are a couple of questionable points in the documentary but there are plenty that aren't.

http://youtu.be/sKainIQiaKA

YesNo

06-13-2013, 05:22 PM

Emil Miller

06-13-2013, 06:11 PM

I found "The Clue of the Silver Key" that Emil reviewed on YouTube. It seemed like I was watching a play. Although I knew from the review that the butler did it, I didn't see how until the end. Then it became obvious. Score: 5/10

I also saw "She Did Him Wrong", an old Mae West movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Done_Him_Wrong I understand this movie saved Paramount from bankruptcy. The movie could have been longer spending more time on the relationship between West and Grant. I've never seen Mae West before, but after seeing her I can see why many found her attractive. It was mainly the way she spoke. She seemed voluptuously overweight, but that may have been the preferred style of the 30s. She had all the good lines, like, "It takes two to get one in trouble."

Score: 8/10

Since it was 2 for $1 at the library, I also watched "Sexy Evil Genius": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexy_Evil_Genius Unfortunately my mind was still on Lady Lou (Mae West) who seemed even more attractive to me while watching the two females in this movie: Miranda (Michelle Trachtenberg) was cute, but she seemed like a child compared to West, and Nikki, the "genius", (Katee Sackhoff) was too annoying to even compare her to West although Nikki had moments of generosity just as Lady Lou did.

Score: 3/10

Congratulations, you must be one of the few Americans who has seen a British B movie. The word you were looking for to describe the play-like quality of its presentation is 'stagy', which is a facet they all share and is what endears them to their many British followers as well as their nostalgia for a Britain that is no more.

The legendary Mae West is indeed voluptuously overweight, but it's all in the right places and her sexuality is very much in the viewer's face. Noted for her risqué sayings, she was alleged to have asked a potential leading man how tall he was. The guy said six feet six and a half inches; to which she replied : 'Never mind the six feet, let's talk about the six and a half inches.'

Mathor

06-18-2013, 06:01 AM

There Will Be Blood. I hadn't seen it in quite some time, I think since it was originally released, but it didn't cease to amaze me. The soundtrack by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead is pretty amazing, as is the acting from Daniel Day Lewis. I would say that this is my favorite of his three Oscar winning roles. Completely mesmerizing film!

10/10

YesNo

06-18-2013, 07:14 AM

YesNo

06-18-2013, 07:22 AM

The legendary Mae West is indeed voluptuously overweight, but it's all in the right places and her sexuality is very much in the viewer's face. Noted for her risqué sayings, she was alleged to have asked a potential leading man how tall he was. The guy said six feet six and a half inches; to which she replied : 'Never mind the six feet, let's talk about the six and a half inches.'

One of West's famous lines I remember hearing as a child. I thought it went something like "Why don't you come up and see me sometime." What I found out in the movie is she actually said, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me".

I think my version came from a Popeye cartoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgUD-CUe-7o

Emil Miller

06-18-2013, 01:59 PM

I started watching parts of this and it does make me wonder whether the photographs were taken on the moon or not. It seemed that the astronauts didn't rise high enough when they jumped, for one example.

The interesting thing about the film is that the 'conspiracy theorists', unlike the usual naysayers, are, with the exception of the co-authoress of Dark Moon, qualified scientific experts in their fields; some of whom actually worked on the Apollo project. However, one of the things that doesn't hold water in the film is the one you mention. If, as is suggested , the astronauts were attached to wires to simulate jumping in low gravity, then the astronaut's jump shown could have been as high as they wanted it to be. The other flaw in the programme is the statement that Armstrong and co. could have been surrogates standing in for real astronauts who did go to the moon. This is simply silly because who would volunteer for a mission in which they knew they wouldn't be coming back?
However, the clincher is the fact that other light sources were obviously used because it's impossible to obtain clear pictures in deep shadow areas and the shadows cast by different objects on the 'moon's surface' were at variance with each other, as the professional photographer and the industrial imagist clearly demonstrated: this is an impossibility unless other light sources were used. Even the Swedish guy from Hasselblad who designed the camera they used couldn't explain it and Nasa's spokesman tried to brush it aside by saying such evidence was nit-picking. One of the rocks in a photo clearly had the letter 'C' stamped on it and it was lined up with another letter 'C' marked on the ground. Then there is the statement by one of the Apollo astronauts that it was possible that the film might have been damaged by conditions on the moon and NASA could have staged the landings.
The whole black and white sequence resembles a bad 1950s B movie. which gets it 2/10.

LitNetIsGreat

06-18-2013, 04:43 PM

If I was you lot I'd forget 'movies' and start watching All Creatures Great and Small on You Tube. 10/10.

Emil Miller

06-18-2013, 05:37 PM

Now, now Neely, All Creatures Great and Small is a British TV series about a veterinary surgeon and therefore rather parochial for an American website.
However, I have just watched Forbidden Cargo (1954) a black and white British film with a cast that reads like a composite list of 1950s actors as well known to British audiences in their day as the likes of James Cagney, Spencer Tracy etc.etc. were to American cinema goers.
The great Nigel Patrick plays a customs officer on the trail of a gang of drug smugglers and ends with a believably exciting motor chase through London's docklands before the gang are caught. No aliens, vampires, CGI, explosions, zombies, foul language or other forms of infantilism; just believable entertainment. 8/10

YesNo

06-18-2013, 06:01 PM

LitNetIsGreat

06-18-2013, 06:09 PM

No vampires?:shocked:

Mrs Neely's quite fond of The Painted Veil, not a bad film either, I think we've seen it about four times in total, though not watched it this year. The sound track refrain thing also captures a certain mood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1tyVlKjJZI

Though as I say I've not watching many films at the moment.

I showed some of Hitchcock's Tales of the Unexpected to some Y7s today (11/12 year olds) which went down quite well. I thought they would riot at the sight of black and white TV, but the direction of Hitchcock managed to pull it off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr6aFSOZEfk

qimissung

06-19-2013, 02:18 AM

If I was you lot I'd forget 'movies' and start watching All Creatures Great and Small on You Tube. 10/10.

I love that show! I hadn't thought about it being available on youtube.

The East 8/10 It's a movie about a young woman who infiltrates a group of bioterrorists. It explores a lot of ethical issues, and, if you care at all about the planet, makes you want to do more for it's well-being. A small, independent movie. I recommend it.

Emil Miller

06-19-2013, 05:16 AM

I haven't had a chance to finish What Happened on the Moon, but I can easily believe that many of the videos and photos of the moon landing were faked for Cold War propaganda purposes especially if live coverage proved a problem. The question that now bothers me is whether we actually went there or not. I told my daughter my current doubts. I probably shouldn't have. But if the Apollo missions were all a fake for propaganda purposes that would be almost as amazing a feat as going to the moon itself.

The film explains that the Russian and American scientific communities had been in collusion since the end of WWII to trick their respective governments into releasing the enormous funds for space travel: in much the same way as German scientists had inveigled their government to fund the original rocket programme. The German military, however, saw the potential for warfare and, to the chagrin of the scientists, shelved the space travel aspect in favour of weaponry. The 'space race' was a media creation which both scientific establishments encouraged to keep the funds flowing. The Apollo missions were not faked for propaganda but to ensure that NASA continued to impress the US government into releasing the money for further exploration. As the film points out, although NASA was a government agency, a relatively small group of scientists controlled everything that the government and the populace saw. We now know that the television images were not broadcast direct from the moon, as NASA originally stated, but were actually transmitted via an Australian transmitter, this is only one of numerous anomalies concerning the the photographic and televised material from that time. I don't know whether man went to the moon or not and frankly I don't much care but, on the evidence of this documentary, it would seem unlikely.

As Abraham Lincoln is alleged to have said: " You can fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

No vampires?:shocked:

Mrs Neely's quite fond of The Painted Veil, not a bad film either, I think we've seen it about four times in total, though not watched it this year. The sound track refrain thing also captures a certain mood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1tyVlKjJZI

Though as I say I've not watching many films at the moment.

I showed some of Hitchcock's Tales of the Unexpected to some Y7s today (11/12 year olds) which went down quite well. I thought they would riot at the sight of black and white TV, but the direction of Hitchcock managed to pull it off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr6aFSOZEfk

The Painted Veil is one of my favourite Maugham novels although I haven't seen the most recent film version. Using Satie's music is a smart move as it compliments the period as well as anything could. Reading the comments on this Youtube video, it's easy to see that the great storyteller's magic struck home to a majority of the film's audience. The title of the novel comes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. According to A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia, the novel was received very well by the French but had mixed reviews in England. I might get round to watching the film but the vast array of material on Youtube takes up quite a lot of time anyway.

Calidore

06-19-2013, 09:13 AM

The film explains that the Russian and American scientific communities had been in collusion since the end of WWII to trick their respective governments into releasing the enormous funds for space travel: in much the same way as German scientists had inveigled their government to fund the original rocket programme. The German military, however, saw the potential for warfare and, to the chagrin of the scientists, shelved the space travel aspect in favour of weaponry. The 'space race' was a media creation which both scientific establishments encouraged to keep the funds flowing. The Apollo missions were not faked for propaganda but to ensure that NASA continued to impress the US government into releasing the money for further exploration. As the film points out, although NASA was a government agency, a relatively small group of scientists controlled everything that the government and the populace saw. We now know that the television images were not broadcast direct from the moon, as NASA originally stated, but were actually transmitted via an Australian transmitter, this is only one of numerous anomalies concerning the the photographic and televised material from that time. I don't know whether man went to the moon or not and frankly I don't much care but, on the evidence of this documentary, it would seem unlikely.

As Abraham Lincoln is alleged to have said: " You can fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

But what makes this evidence more valid than the evidence of the events that it's supposed to be debunking. And why is the debunking of the tinfoil-hatters' claims less valid than their debunkings?

YesNo

06-19-2013, 09:59 AM

But what makes this evidence more valid than the evidence of the events that it's supposed to be debunking. And why is the debunking of the tinfoil-hatters' claims less valid than their debunkings?

It is the same evidence. One side says it is evidence we actually went to the moon. The other side tries to show that the evidence was faked. It is little more than one set of scientists critiquing the evidence of another set of scientists and calling the evidence into question.

I'm only a third of the way through the documentary, but it does look like the evidence for the lunar missions was faked whether for Cold War purposes or to get funding for NASA, as Emil points out. Or both.

Regarding the tinfoil hatters, probably the best thing is to stay as close to the evidence as possible and not accept the opinions of authorities too quickly, although that is all we usually have to go on.

For the past two days I feel like a child who has been presented with compelling evidence that Santa doesn't exist.

My wife wanted to know what I was so busy watching. I asked her, "Did you know that the Apollo moon landings might have been faked?"

"Yeah. The flag was waving in the air on the moon and the shadows were not right. That's old news."

Well, the documentary was released over 10 years ago, so I guess it is old news. Am I the last to know?

Emil Miller

06-19-2013, 10:00 AM

Emil Miller

06-19-2013, 04:31 PM

It is the same evidence. One side says it is evidence we actually went to the moon. The other side tries to show that the evidence was faked. It is little more than one set of scientists critiquing the evidence of another set of scientists and calling the evidence into question.

I'm only a third of the way through the documentary, but it does look like the evidence for the lunar missions was faked whether for Cold War purposes or to get funding for NASA, as Emil points out. Or both.

Regarding the tinfoil hatters, probably the best thing is to stay as close to the evidence as possible and not accept the opinions of authorities too quickly, although that is all we usually have to go on.

For the past two days I feel like a child who has been presented with compelling evidence that Santa doesn't exist.

My wife wanted to know what I was so busy watching. I asked her, "Did you know that the Apollo moon landings might have been faked?"

"Yeah. The flag was waving in the air on the moon and the shadows were not right. That's old news."

Well, the documentary was released over 10 years ago, so I guess it is old news. Am I the last to know?

No you're not the last to know. Even though I had my suspicions I also paid little attention to claims of falsification until this documentary. It was the fact that the hoax claim was being made by members of the scientific community that kept me watching until the end. Unless someone can prove that there were no other light sources used in the photography and filming of events 'on the 'moon', they must have been faked: there is no other possible explanation. If the video is ten-years-old, certain individuals involved with Apollo will probably be pleased to let sleeping dogs lie in the hope that the increasing passage of time will blur over the obvious inconsistencies highlighted in the video.

qimissung

06-19-2013, 04:37 PM

It is the same evidence. One side says it is evidence we actually went to the moon. The other side tries to show that the evidence was faked. It is little more than one set of scientists critiquing the evidence of another set of scientists and calling the evidence into question.

I'm only a third of the way through the documentary, but it does look like the evidence for the lunar missions was faked whether for Cold War purposes or to get funding for NASA, as Emil points out. Or both.

Regarding the tinfoil hatters, probably the best thing is to stay as close to the evidence as possible and not accept the opinions of authorities too quickly, although that is all we usually have to go on.

For the past two days I feel like a child who has been presented with compelling evidence that Santa doesn't exist.

My wife wanted to know what I was so busy watching. I asked her, "Did you know that the Apollo moon landings might have been faked?"

"Yeah. The flag was waving in the air on the moon and the shadows were not right. That's old news."

Well, the documentary was released over 10 years ago, so I guess it is old news. Am I the last to know?

I think most of those "did astronauts really land on the moon" theories have been debunked, guys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories

Emil Miller

06-19-2013, 05:04 PM

I think most of those "did astronauts really land on the moon" theories have been debunked, guys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories

Interesting but not entirely convincing. As was explained in the documentary, light reflection from the surface of the moon is far too low to give the kind of definition shown in some of the photos. There is also much other evidence of peculiarities that the 'Mythbusters' do not appear to have an answer for. Rather than relying on their, perhaps not entirely disinterested explanations, it might be wiser to watch the documentary as well.

WyattGwyon

06-19-2013, 06:38 PM

Interesting but not entirely convincing. As was explained in the documentary, light reflection from the surface of the moon is far too low to give the kind of definition shown in some of the photos. There is also much other evidence of peculiarities that the 'Mythbusters' do not appear to have an answer for. Rather than relying on their, perhaps not entirely disinterested explanations, it might be wiser to watch the documentary as well.

You apparently didn't actually read the entry qimissung linked to. This issue was amply addressed—as is the other nonsense the conspiracy theorists have dredged up. Try reading it again. And perhaps you could explain the confirmation of Galileo's prediction using a hammer and a feather? Let me guess—they are both on invisible wires?:rolleyes5:

LitNetIsGreat

06-19-2013, 06:47 PM

The Painted Veil is one of my favourite Maugham novels although I haven't seen the most recent film version. Using Satie's music is a smart move as it compliments the period as well as anything could. Reading the comments on this Youtube video, it's easy to see that the great storyteller's magic struck home to a majority of the film's audience. The title of the novel comes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. According to A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia, the novel was received very well by the French but had mixed reviews in England. I might get round to watching the film but the vast array of material on Youtube takes up quite a lot of time anyway.

I didn't know about the title coming from Prometheus Unbound, that's interesting. You should watch the film for it is a good one and you are sure to enjoy it, Edwood Norton is very good in it, a good actor anyway I think. The soundtrack is also up your street. I only mention it because we were watching an Agatha Christie on You Tube, Five Little Pigs, which featured the same music. It's certainly worth watching.

Emil Miller

06-19-2013, 06:51 PM

Emil Miller

06-19-2013, 07:11 PM

I didn't know about the title coming from Prometheus Unbound, that's interesting. You should watch the film for it is a good one and you are sure to enjoy it, Edwood Norton is very good in it, a good actor anyway I think. The soundtrack is also up your street. I only mention it because we were watching an Agatha Christie on You Tube, Five Little Pigs, which featured the same music. It's certainly worth watching.

From what some viewers of the video have said, it seems that certain facets of the book have been altered. Obviously there would have to be a shortening of the original text but Maugham's slightly downbeat ending is apparently replaced with a more palatable conclusion. Not that Maugham would have worried as he seldom bothered with the filmed versions of his books once he had received the very large payment that he normally got from selling the film rights.

YesNo

06-19-2013, 08:03 PM

You apparently didn't actually read the entry qimissung linked to. This issue was amply addressed—as is the other nonsense the conspiracy theorists have dredged up. Try reading it again. And perhaps you could explain the confirmation of Galileo's prediction using a hammer and a feather? Let me guess—they are both on invisible wires?:rolleyes5:

Although I've never tried it, one could probably simulate the hammer and feather experiment in a vacuum on earth as well.

One of the things I found strange in the films supposedly taken on the moon were the jumps should have taken the astronauts higher.

Some of this evidence could have been fabricated whether they actually went to the moon or not.

qimissung

06-20-2013, 12:39 PM

Farewell My Queen 10/10 I love this movie. I like historical movies that make the shadowy people of the past come to life, and this one most certainly achieved that. Absolutely fascinating, and beautifully done as well.

Emil Miller

06-21-2013, 06:37 AM

Although I've never tried it, one could probably simulate the hammer and feather experiment in a vacuum on earth as well.

One of the things I found strange in the films supposedly taken on the moon were the jumps should have taken the astronauts higher.

Some of this evidence could have been fabricated whether they actually went to the moon or not.

While I'm not trying to play the devil's advocate, it's an indisputable fact that any photographic material can be falsified whether taken from the moon, from space or earth.
As I've said, it's a matter of comparative indifference to me whether man has walked on the lunar surface or not, but there's a beautiful irony in the fact that the 'Mythbusters' had to construct a film set of the lunar surface in order to 'prove' that man went to the moon.

Snowqueen

06-21-2013, 08:54 AM

I saw Meet the Robinsons with my nieces and a couple of other kids. It's not bad. 6/10

YesNo

06-21-2013, 06:29 PM

While I'm not trying to play the devil's advocate, it's an indisputable fact that any photographic material can be falsified whether taken from the moon, from space or earth.
As I've said, it's a matter of comparative indifference to me whether man has walked on the lunar surface or not, but there's a beautiful irony in the fact that the 'Mythbusters' had to construct a film set of the lunar surface in order to 'prove' that man went to the moon.

I've never seen the Mythbusters, but it looks like this is what you were referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wym04J_3Ls0

Score on that Mythbusters' episode: 3/10

They get that high of a score because they made me wonder just how much the terrain does affect parallel shadows. However, they would need to do this outside with a real sun and witnesses so one can make sure they did not fake it themselves.

I finally finished What Happened on the Moon?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POLgS99dSjE

Score: 10/10

This is one of the few documentaries that messed my mind. Taking into account the link qimissung posted which did site references of 3rd parties who were able to track the Apollo voyages as well as the obviously faked Apollo evidence and the history of faking such evidence, I now believe the following is true:

1) There were no actual manned Apollo missions although lunar samples were returned to earth. The manned portion of the missions was faked. One doesn't need a manned mission to bring back rocks.

2) I don't think there were any "whistle blowers" that the documentary suggested for the inconsistencies. Whoever made the fakes figured what they did was good enough for government work.

3) I don't think the Soviets were aware that the US faked the evidence as the documentary suggested although they might have suspected it since they faked some of their own evidence as the documentary showed.

I'm past the point of shock. I just hope the calculation of the age of the universe that NASA did recently wasn't bogus as well.

I also watched Apollo 18: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_18_%28film%29

Score: 5/10

For those who don't know, there were only 17 Apollo missions. This is science fiction and except for the expected hostile aliens is OK as far as it goes. But it does try to answer the question why haven't we returned to the moon? Indeed, why hasn't anyone returned to the moon in over 40 years?

Show people you can build a nuclear bomb and they want to build one for themselves. Show people you can put satellites in lunar orbit and they do this themselves. But the US showed people they could put a man on the moon--6 times in a few years--and no one, including the US, has been able to repeat this.

There is something suspicious about experiments that can't be repeated.

Calidore

06-21-2013, 06:51 PM

Still wondering how the conspiracy folks' debunking of NASA's claims is more credible than both NASA's claims themselves and the debunking of the debunkers' claims.

Also, the Apollo program ended due to a combination of increasing costs and decreasing need for more manned missions. I've never before heard of the U.S. being "unable" to repeat them for some reason.

cafolini

06-21-2013, 07:49 PM

As I do most often, a documentary. This time about Martin Luther. Excelllent. Empires: Matin Luther. Available on Netflix.

Emil Miller

06-22-2013, 08:49 AM

I've never seen the Mythbusters, but it looks like this is what you were referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wym04J_3Ls0

Score on that Mythbusters' episode: 3/10

They get that high of a score because they made me wonder just how much the terrain does affect parallel shadows. However, they would need to do this outside with a real sun and witnesses so one can make sure they did not fake it themselves.

I hadn't seen the Mythbusters TV programme either but noted that it was referred to in Qimissung's Wikipedia item.

If using a couple of comedians and a spotlight to simulate the sun in a studio setting is proof, then it's going to have to be rather more convincing that that.

Still wondering how the conspiracy folks' debunking of NASA's claims is more credible than both NASA's claims themselves and the debunking of the debunkers' claims.

Well it's for individuals to decide for themselves. If one is happy with the status quo, and sees no reason to doubt it, then stay with it.
On the other hand, if one suspects that certain questionable elements have not been sufficiently addressed, then stay with it also.

Snowqueen

06-23-2013, 02:57 AM

My cousins called me and together we watched Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunter. I wonder why Jeremy Renner worked in such a film! 3/10

YesNo

06-23-2013, 10:05 AM

I saw Ron Fricke's and Mark Magidson's documentaries Baraka and Samsara. Although there is some chanting there are no spoken words in either of these movies, just images and sound. Quite beautiful and unusual.

Score: 9/10

It looks like there are a lot of Hansel and Gretal movies coming out. Although I haven't seen the one Snowqueen mentioned, I did see one some time ago called Hansel and Gretal: Warrriors of Witchcraft which probably gets a 3/10 also.

Calidore

06-23-2013, 11:24 AM

I saw Ron Fricke's and Mark Magidson's documentaries Baraka and Samsara. Although there is some chanting there are no spoken words in either of these movies, just images and sound. Quite beautiful and unusual.

Score: 9/10

If you've never seen Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi, on which Fricke served as cinematographer, I highly recommend it.

YesNo

06-24-2013, 08:19 AM

I haven't seen Kyaanisqatsi. I'll keep it in mind when I'm looking for something at the library. These movies without dialogue to hold one's attention are unusual. The sound and images are all one has.

Emil Miller

06-24-2013, 05:18 PM

http://imageshack.us/a/img96/8404/lbwz.jpg

It speaks volumes that the title of this British film in the UK was The Last Page but needed sexing up for US audiences.
American actor George Brent plays a bookseller who is blackmailed by British sexpot Diana Dors, who is murdered by her partner in crime, and
the bookseller is accused of killing her. Another Hammer production it was quite well done and kept me watching to the finish. 7/10

Was there life before YouTube?

Delta40

06-24-2013, 06:23 PM

I watched Shirley Valentine the other night. Hadn't seen it in years. It still brought a smile to my face about the drudgery of wifehood, the loss of one's identity and the need to escape. But perhaps others might think I need to talk to a wall? :biggrin5:

cafolini

06-24-2013, 06:53 PM

The Hanoi Hilton in military channel. Probably as meaningful as Oliver Stone's Platoon.

YesNo

06-25-2013, 10:25 PM

Yesterday was another rent 2 for $1 at the library.

One of the movies was typical Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained. Blood splattered every which way while stereotypical characters fed the audience with righteous rage.

Score 3/10

The other was a mature action film, The Cold Light of Day. Good and bad weren't so sharply drawn and the plot was more interesting.

Score 9/10

cafolini

06-25-2013, 11:48 PM

The Apalachean Trail. Excellent documentary of the more than 2000 miles trail spanning 14 states. Available on Netflix.

Lykren

06-26-2013, 12:02 AM

Yesterday was another rent 2 for $1 at the library.

One of the movies was typical Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained. Blood splattered every which way while stereotypical characters fed the audience with righteous rage.

Score 3/10

I enjoyed Django. Forgive me, but aren't Tarantino's movies comedies? It seems to me that taking them seriously is a little like thinking Malvolio in Twelfth Night is a noble and sadly maligned character.

YesNo

06-26-2013, 11:56 PM

I can sort of see Tarantino's movies as comedies the way Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus might be a comedy (although I think that was considered a tragedy because there weren't enough people left standing in the end, but I'm no Shakespeare scholar and can't remember Twelfth Night).

True, Tarantino's movies can't be taken seriously. They do feed on existing righteous rage in the audience. I think I enjoyed Kill Bill better than Django.

Emil Miller

06-27-2013, 07:18 AM

http://imageshack.us/a/img28/2982/egye.jpg

This 1955 film has the theme of a small town bank robbery co-incidentally linked to a serious of sub-plots
concerning various inhabitants of the town. Richard Fleischer's direction misses a chance to meld the
themes together convincingly enough but overall the film is fairly good entertainment and gets 6/10.

Snowqueen

06-29-2013, 02:27 AM

I watched The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad with my nieces last week and really enjoyed it. 8/10

Helga

06-29-2013, 06:24 AM

I don't think it counts as a movie but I watched the only episode made of 'Mockingbird Lane' by Bryan Fuller, I am a big fan of his shows. I kinda wish he had gotten a chance with this show, I liked it and think it could have been something more if it had the chance. Then again he might not have done Hannibal if he had gotten a chance to do the Munsters, and I do love Hannibal!

YesNo

06-29-2013, 08:36 AM

I saw Polish Wedding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Wedding

Score: 9/10

It might have been better titled "Shotgun Wedding", but there were no shotguns in the movie. Unlike Ebert (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/polish-wedding-1998) I did not have problems with the film's believability.

Emil Miller

06-29-2013, 09:44 AM

The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970). With Glenn Ford in the lead role as a high flying college professor who reaches the top by being a member of a secret society that controls business and academia for its own ends, this television production shows how 'conspiracy theorists' are discredited by the forces they seek to expose. When Ford is ordered to prevent a certain individual, who happens to be a close friend, from gaining promotion, it ends in the man's suicide: at which point Ford decides to renege on the Brotherhood and expose them. However, he soon finds that each of the top people he turns to are also members who spread the story that he is delusional.
As a result, his father suffers a stroke and dies, his wife leaves him and he finds himself isolated but another member of the academic community finds suspicious cracks in the facade of Ford's enemies and helps him expose the organisation.
Glenn Ford is very good, as are the supporting actors, but the story lacks a certain cohesion with too few people to represent what presumably was a nationwide organisation.
However, it's played straight without the usual car crashes and bloodletting that has marked the decline of the US cinema with the onset of incipient nihilism and it's worldwide exploitation. 8/10

Watching the film, one is reminded of this interesting item:

http://youtu.be/6K5M0xtxQVQ

Snowqueen

06-30-2013, 05:10 AM

Howl's Moving Castle. It wasn't as good as I expected it to be, but my nieces loved it. 7/10

MarkBastable

06-30-2013, 01:28 PM

Saw Despicable Me 2 with my daughters, 8 and 10. All three of us revelled in its (as opposed to it's) incipient nihilism.

Darcy88

06-30-2013, 03:08 PM

The last couple years haven't been great for American cinema, but the past 15 years have been overall amazing and I'd put the last decade and a half up against any other in the history of film.

Calidore

06-30-2013, 03:58 PM

The last couple years haven't been great for American cinema, but the past 15 years have been overall amazing and I'd put the last decade and a half up against any other in the history of film.

I think you always have to give it a little while for the cream to rise, just like one can't make an accurate assessment of the quality of today's music from the current Billboard Top 100. Or, for that matter, the state of literature from the current NYT bestseller list.

Maria May

07-01-2013, 07:20 AM

I saw ''All that jazz'' yesterday...Score: 9/10 :thumbs_up

chris_eriksson

07-03-2013, 10:55 AM

Finally saw "The Da Vinci Code". Despite the "is it true" hoopla, I thought it was a good movie taken at face value.

Rate: 8 out of 10.

cafolini

07-03-2013, 11:34 AM

I saw Hitler's Children. An excellent documentary on the reaction of the children of people like Hoess, Goering, Himmler, in coming to terms as Germans with the hidden reality of the Holocaust. Available on Netflix.

Darcy88

07-03-2013, 06:41 PM

Emil Miller

07-04-2013, 09:27 AM

The Woman in Black (1989)

This earlier version of the film cannot be faulted on historical detail with very high production values to the fore. Where it fails is in being too long
and repetitive. Unlike the most recent version, that relies far too heavily on grand guignol for its effects, it has the quality of eeriness characteristic of the stories of M.R.James where the fear lies as much in the subconscious of the reader as in overtly frightening depiction.
It's unfortunate that the story is strung out to meet the required length of a major feature film whereas the most recent version overdoes the in your face frighteners. This highlights the difference between good and mediocre direction where getting the balance between two extremes is essential to making the best of a story.

Here's a filmed scene from Susan Hill's novel:

http://youtu.be/8wg4jKt3NIw

Here's one from an M.R.James story which was written long before :

http://youtu.be/DmN68aNnLqI

Emil Miller

07-04-2013, 03:26 PM

I remember seeing this excellent BBC adaptation of an M.R.James ghost story when it was first broadcast.
It was so good that I've posted all four episodes. It's a great pity that the BBC has gone totally downhill
and no longer produces such professional material.
If you are of a particularly nervous disposition, you might prefer to give it a miss.
As a TV presentation it gets 10/10.

http://youtu.be/F1HlNqdGpvI

http://youtu.be/r7i9BacWMvM

http://youtu.be/-JaisM9X7bY

http://youtu.be/5a1wZ5N7ZHM

Snowqueen

07-07-2013, 02:31 AM

I watched Next Three Days last night and enjoyed it. Russel Crowe performed very well and it was a good thriller movie. 7/10

Emil Miller

07-08-2013, 04:02 PM

Baby Face Nelson (1957)

During the 1950s, film studios were beginning to feel the onslaught of television and among the methods with which they tried to compete was recourse to films based on the gangster movies of the 1930s: a formula that had been very successful at the box office. Baby Face Nelson is a typical example starring the diminutive Mickey Rooney as a psychopathic gang leader wanted for murder and a series of bank robberies. Directed by Don Siegel of 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers' fame, this film is essentially nonsensical rubbish that not only takes a liberty with the actual events but completely rewrites them and adds an impossibly melodramatic ending. The background jazz music has nothing to do with 1933 when the film is set but would fit well into a 1940s gangland movie.

http://youtu.be/KDt0JpZ-qc0

Emil Miller

07-10-2013, 02:19 PM

No Down Payment (1957)

This curious piece of social commentary was directed by Martin Ritt, known for his 'un-American activities' during the McCarthy era. It's therefore not surprising that this story concerns cracks in the American dream as a young couple get a mortgage on a new house in a model middle class area and find that beneath the surface of the post WWII boom there's a deal of discontent. Ritt is too good a director to go over the top about the human weaknesses displayed in the film and there is none of the hand-wringing and self-disgust that was the hallmark of the 'crazy-mixed-up-kid' scenario that was a contemporary Hollywood theme. So it's aimed at adults rather than teenagers and is effective in its measured and believable handling of the story.

http://youtu.be/jejGeZ_BiP4

8/10

YesNo

07-11-2013, 09:42 AM

P. J. Hogan's Mental: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655416/

I think the message was that some people are more mental than others. The way the theme song to the Sound of Music was performed at the beginning convinced me they were all delightfully mental.

Score: 9/10 -- ah, why not? 10/10

Snowqueen

07-12-2013, 01:37 AM

I watched Mama with my cousins and didn't enjoy it. 4/10

kushy

07-12-2013, 07:51 AM

something something........

bookowskee

07-12-2013, 09:09 AM

Trance

Snowqueen

07-14-2013, 01:46 AM

I watched Epic last night. 7/10

kushy

07-14-2013, 06:27 AM

Balupu.......

Emil Miller

07-14-2013, 09:39 AM

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Joseph Cotten leads in this Hitchcock suspense story as a killer of rich widows who escapes police surveillance by returning to his long lost family in a small Californian town. The family are overjoyed to welcome him back, completely unaware that he is wanted for three murders on the other side of the country.
Gradually, however, certain traces of his murderous character come to light when detectives arrive in town having him marked down as a suspect. The problem with the film is that it loses the 'did he, didn't he' aspect early on in the film so that we know that he's the killer and not another man, also being hunted elsewhere as a possible suspect. The acting is, as one might expect from Hitchcock, first rate and the film gets 8/10.

http://youtu.be/KShiFuerkCk

quidoftullamore

07-14-2013, 05:56 PM

Spring Breakers, the new Harmony Korine movie.

3.9/5 stars.

Snowqueen

07-20-2013, 01:43 AM

I watched Dorian Gray and it really disappointed me. Movie ruined the original story and the characters. 4/10

MarkBastable

07-20-2013, 05:21 PM

Saw Monster University with my daughters (8 and 10). Not bad, but we were all a little disappointed that it was a so short on incipient nihilism.

Calidore

07-20-2013, 05:36 PM

Saw Monster University with my daughters (8 and 10). Not bad, but we were all a little disappointed that it was a so short on incipient nihilism.

Was it the 8 or 10-year-old who said that? And how did the other respond?

qimissung

07-22-2013, 12:54 AM

Celeste and Jesse Forever 8/10 I really like Rashida Jones. A sweet and low-key indie that explores the dissolution of a young woman's first important relationship and her coming to terms with it's loss.

Fruitvale Station 10/10 The last day in the life of a young man.

Lykren

07-22-2013, 01:39 PM

Ugetsu, by Kenji Mizoguchi. 9/10, a really good film.

Lykren

07-22-2013, 11:05 PM

Scenes From A Marriage, by Bergman. I'm not sure how to rate it, but I can say it's not one of my favorite Bergman.

bookowskee

07-23-2013, 12:35 AM

Animal Kingdom 8 maybe 8.5/10

MarkBastable

07-23-2013, 01:09 PM

Was it the 8 or 10-year-old who said that? And how did the other respond?

Actually Nell (10) felt more strongly than Grace (8) about the lack of incipient nihilism. Grace was of the opinion that, on the whole, the piece was played straight without the usual car crashes and bloodletting that has marked the decline of the US cinema with the onset of incipient nihilism and its worldwide exploitation.

Me, I felt that by definition 'incipience' covers the concept of 'initiation', so 'onset' was redundant. But kids today, eh? Their thinking is sloppy and so is their sentence construction. I blame the parents.

Paulclem

07-23-2013, 03:32 PM

Actually Nell (10) felt more strongly than Grace (8) about the lack of incipient nihilism. Grace was of the opinion that, on the whole, the piece was played straight without the usual car crashes and bloodletting that has marked the decline of the US cinema with the onset of incipient nihilism and its worldwide exploitation.

Me, I felt that by definition 'incipience' covers the concept of 'initiation', so 'onset' was redundant. But kids today, eh? Their thinking is sloppy and so is their sentence construction. I blame the parents.

:lol:

I watched Eraserhead with the lad the other night. I have seen if before in the 80s, but, except for a few scenes - I'd had a few and my mate insisted even though I was falling asleep - I couldn't remember it.

So we watched it, and I now have an "I watched Eraserhead All the Way Through" badge, and membership to the Pretentious Crap Film Club. I'm still an admirer of Henry's hair though.

Ecurb

07-23-2013, 03:45 PM

I saw "Hannah Arendt" last night. There's not much action; the life of the mind is not quite as "cinematic" as cow-punching. It did appear as if chain smoking cigarettes makes one smarter -- they appear to have worked for Ms. Arendt, who chain smoked throughout the film. I was going to take up smoking and philosophizing (thinking it might help me in my arguments on the "Religious Literature" board), but my girlfriend told me that she wouldn't hang out with me any more if I start smoking.

The movie focuses on Arendt's coverage of the Adolf Eichmann trial for "The New Yorker". It was in her New yorker articles that she coined the phrase, "The banality of evil." The movie used only old TV footage from the actual trial to show Eichmann in his glass caged defendant's dock. It was creepy. Eichmann looked like a banal beaurocrat, but an evil, self centered one. "I was just following orders," was Eichmann's consistant refrain, and, indeed, he appeared to have no personal animosity toward the hundreds of thousands of Jews he sent to death (he was in charge of organizing transportation to the Concentration camps).

Arendt's articles (which I haven't read) focused on the breakdown of morality -- on how in trying times people stop "thinking" -- the ultimate sin for Arendt. This was true not only of Eichmann, but of some Jewish leaders who were complicit in sending their brethren to their deaths, as Arendt reported. The combination of blaming Jewish leaders, and reporting on Eichman as being a banal beaurocrat instead of a monster threw Arendt into a firestorm of criticism from the Jewish community in both New York and Israel. It probably didn't help that she had been an acolyte (and lover) of Martin Heidegger prior to the war, and that Heidegger had joined the Nazi party.

Despite it's non-cinematic themes, the movie is well done. Smokers might want to wait for the video, so they can puff away while watching.

Darcy88

07-23-2013, 05:25 PM

qimissung

07-23-2013, 07:26 PM

Well, back then they didn't know it caused cancer. It wasn't until the sixties that they started to figure it out. I remember my dad had smoked a pipe and still enjoyed cigars, but when they started informing the public of the dangers of smoking, he quit immediately. He had great discipline. My mom continued, then suffered for years from emphysema.

Anywho. that was just part of the lifestyle then, although there are some dangers in showing this and making it seem sophisticated, as you said. Young people are apparently very susceptible to those images, interestingly. And did you know that if a child plays with/eats candy cigarettes (do they even still make those?) it may increase their chances of taking up smoking?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070618091217.htm

Tournesol

07-23-2013, 10:26 PM

The last movie I saw, is 'Under the Tuscan Sun'...it was on cable, and my son was asleep, and so I finally got to see it.

I felt it was a beautiful movie: there was just the right mix of fantasy, as well as pragmatism - as is life!

Helga

07-24-2013, 06:23 AM

I just saw 'Pacific Rim' yesterday I really liked it. Idris Elba was great, he is my favorite actor at the moment and it doesn't hurt how very hot he is. Some of the drama was a bit annoying and I have to admit I was hoping for a slightly bigger ending without saying to much about it.

The leading male was OK (no idea who he is), it was good that he didn't take to much room I think so the others could shine, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman were great scientists.

I don't really drink and definitely not the strong stuff but there was a big drinking game in that movie.

bookowskee

07-24-2013, 07:11 AM

Only God Forgives. 10/10

Snowqueen

07-25-2013, 07:25 AM

I saw Rise of the Guardian last night with my nieces. This time they brought the DVD and kept on reminding me that it belongs to them. We enjoyed the movie a lot. 7/10

Buckthorn

07-25-2013, 02:20 PM

I watched "Now you see me" on Sunday. I loved it 9/10.
I also watched Beautiful Creatures. Pile of ****e. Book was better

Lykren

07-26-2013, 12:29 AM

Ran by Kurosawa. Has anyone else seen this? I thought it was astounding, one of his very best.

LitNetIsGreat

07-28-2013, 10:26 AM

I've not seen Ran I've seen quite a few of his though.

Last night I watched The Virgin Spring, Bergman, the fourth Bergman I have watched to date:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h82_I4kH6H8&list=TLfST1tyU0GIo

I thought it was OK, pretty good. Wild Strawberries and this one I have liked, that Wolf one can't think of the name of it right now and Seventh Seal, were too odd for me.

papayahed

07-28-2013, 10:49 AM

Monsters University. My cousin liked it, I thought it was ok. 6/10

Lykren

07-28-2013, 11:51 AM

cafolini

07-28-2013, 12:02 PM

I saw The Bridge as Ramagen, in military.com. I thought it was interesting regarding the exposure of Nazi officers who were no longer going to take orders from Hitler's madness and realized that their war was already lost. However on the American side the movie was inconsistent with military teamwork, and could not have happened in that messy way. It was very atypical. Still very interesting.

Snowqueen

08-01-2013, 04:47 AM

I watched Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted with my nieces, it was a great fun. And when the movie ended they kept on repeating the words “Trapeze Americano”. It’s amazing how kids easily learn new words. They even tried to sing like Dubois.
I'll give it 7/10

Helga

08-01-2013, 06:17 AM

Went to see The Wolverine yesterday, pretty good. A lot of action and pain just like wolvie likes it. I didn't like Jean Gray's role in it, found it kinda pointless. And some very funny scenes about how tough he is and that he is a loner and will bear his curse alone, I always find that funny. I don't think he smoked a lot in this one, he is really the only person who 'can' smoke. I always enjoy Marvel's hidden ending, most of the audience had already left and there were about 7 of us left in our seats waiting patiently and a few who were walking down when it started but about 60% had left.

It's Marvel you know there is a secret ending!

*Classic*Charm*

08-01-2013, 03:05 PM

Gangster Squad. Very well fashioned after a 40's/50's thriller. It reminded me a lot of The Asphalt Jungle, stylistically. I liked it.

bookowskee

08-02-2013, 11:03 PM

El Topo. This one is a classic. A fusion of surrealism, mysticism, absurdism and existentialism typically found in Alejandro Jodorowski's films - at least, the good ones. 9, 9.5/10.

qimissung

08-02-2013, 11:23 PM

Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus. 7/10 I really liked this. Be forewarned that it's a bit rambling, and also, it's not really about drugs, although they do figure largely in the plot. Michael Cera is hilarious and awesome, as usual, as is his hair, I might add.

Snowqueen

08-03-2013, 02:34 AM

I saw Magic Magic with my cousins last night. There is nothing much to see except the magnificent scenery of Chile. 2/10

qimissung

08-03-2013, 08:48 AM

I saw Magic Magic with my cousins last night. There is nothing much to see except the magnificent scenery of Chile. 2/10

The same could be said of Crystal Fairy, hehe, nevertheless I want to see this one, too, Snowqueen. I didn't realize it had been released.

Hawkman

08-03-2013, 12:33 PM

I stayed up much too late last night to watch An Unbearable Lightness of Being on the box. I've decided that I definitely fancy Lena Olin, and Juliette Binoche is very nice too; they're both good actresses. However, they didn't need to do much acting to keep a chap interested because they seemed to be naked, or nearly naked, most of the time. I thought What's 'is face, the Irish chap, played a rather unsympathetic character whose primary purpose was to fornicate his way through the female cast, who all seemed to be remarkably compliant.

The most interesting part of the film dealt with the Prague Spring of '68, which I remember, and that was gritty, raw and thanks to archive footage neatly spliced in, very authentic. I wish I hadn't stayed up to watch it though. 5/10

Emil Miller

08-03-2013, 01:38 PM

Separate Tables (1958)

This black and white rendition of the celebrated play by Terence Rattigan has a tremendous cast including David Niven, Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, Wendy Hiller, Gladys Cooper and Felix Aylmer.
An English seaside hotel has a number of residents, some of whom have the inevitable skeleton in the cupboard and the resultant exposure makes for the dramatic tension between them.
The main problem with the film is that it’s set bound and the entrances and exits betray its stage origin all too obviously but, despite Deborah Kerr’s overplaying the repressed daughter of an overbearing mother, there are some excellent performances from Wendy Hiller, David Niven and Burt Lancaster. Lancaster was in my view one of the most natural actors to come out of Hollywood and turns in a very watchable performance as an American writer trying to come to terms with the failure of his marriage to Rita Hayworth, who turns up at the hotel having tracked him down through his agent.
The main thrust of the film comes from the fact that the resident British army major, played by David Niven, is in reality a confidence trickster who is arrested for molesting women in a cinema.

David Niven and Wendy Hiller won academy awards for their performances.

8/10

Ainsley

08-03-2013, 04:50 PM

Global Epidemic Exposed - Television Sigil Magik
(free on awakenvideo.org)
10/10

Snowqueen

08-04-2013, 02:47 AM

The same could be said of Crystal Fairy, hehe, nevertheless I want to see this one, too, Snowqueen. I didn't realize it had been released.

I would really like to know your thoughts on that film, Qimi. :)

kushy

08-06-2013, 01:18 PM

Jeans very nice movie.8/10

Helga

08-08-2013, 10:37 AM

Beowulf and Grendel- maybe it's an OK story if you know nothing about this time and haven't read the poem but it wasn't all that good. Just OK. I have a few more Beowulf movies to watch for my B.A. but this one I can use a whole lot so that was good.

bookowskee

08-08-2013, 07:25 PM

Pusher trilogy. 10/10. I just loved the films (all of it ) of this director, Nicolas Winding Refn. I've seen his films many times and never seemed to be tired of it.

qimissung

08-11-2013, 09:06 PM

Blue Jasmine directed by Woody Allen and starring Cate Blanchett. 9/10 I thought this was just going to be a comedy (not that there's anything wrong with that), but this was quite a bit more than that.

cafolini

08-11-2013, 11:55 PM

An excellent documentary called River of no Return. About the Salmon river wilderness in Idaho where only the salmon return to spun and die. Filmed by a rather unique young couple. Excellent. Available on Netflix.

hannah_arendt

08-12-2013, 03:29 AM

Snowqueen

08-13-2013, 02:03 AM

I saw Robin Hood with my nieces on Eid and really enjoyed it. They especially loved the songs. 8/10

Also saw another horror film with friends, When the Lights Went out. It’s about a young girl who is possessed by an evil spirit. As the story progressed I realized that her parents were more evil than the evil spirit. I found this film ridiculously funny. 3/10

Emil Miller

08-13-2013, 03:42 PM

This Gun For Hire (1942)

A filmed version of Graham Greene's novel A Gun For Sale that remains close to the book's plot except for certain adjustments to accommodate the change of setting from England to Los Angeles. Alan Ladd plays Raven, a hired assassin who is cheated by those who paid him false banknotes to kill the blackmailer of a powerful businessman who is secretly developing poison gas for the Japanese while the US is at war with them. Raven is ruthless in his determination to exact revenge on the mogul despite the cordon of security surrounding him by police unaware of his treasonable activity.
Anyone who has read the book will have to suspend judgement as the quintessential Englishness of the characters is totally submerged beneath this version of the story. On its own level I would give it 8/10

http://youtu.be/GSx-CiuC-QA

Maria May

08-14-2013, 10:51 AM

''Fantastic fear of everything'' (2012)...10/10,it was so cool,I really enjoyed it :D

Varenne Rodin

08-15-2013, 01:34 AM

I've seen more than a few movies recently. Here are some:

Mud - 9/10. I saw this in a theater because a (probably terrible) Apatow movie was sold out. I wasn't expecting anything. Mud turned out to be a pretty great movie. It flows well. The actors all gave solid performances. Someone pointed out to me that it's a bit sexist. All of the female characters in the film are portrayed very negatively, as though the gender is designed to destroy men. For that, I knocked off a point. It's based in a southern state, though, so all of the characters made sense to me within their dirty backward environment. Everyone in Mud is filthy dirty, but it's still somehow a beautiful movie. Lots of feeling.

Tron: Legacy - 3.5/10. This would be a 0/10 if not for the soundtrack and the occasionally interesting light sequences. The computer generated Jeff Bridges was so lifeless and off-putting. I don't know who the animators were, but they should be fired from everything forever. I like the original Tron well enough. This sequel was like Tron run through the new Hollywood, Twilight style glazed, overly digitized, poorly written, blockbuster garbage machine. I think I hated it.

The Man in the Moon - 6.5/10. I watched this movie a few times as a young kid. I loved it then. I still like it. It holds up ok. I like how it clips along one way at the beginning of the movie, following a couple of Southern sisters and their interactions with boys and puberty. Then it takes a surprisingly deep turn. Not exactly a twist, but unexpected, sort of gut-wrenching. I knocked off a couple of points because there are babies and toddler youngsters introduced into the story and then frequently forgotten and grossly neglected throughout. I didn't notice it when I was young, but now I think it's a big oversight that should have been corrected. I knocked off a little bit more because Reese Witherspoon stole the show from the sister who was supposed to be upstaging her. Young Reese was pretty great then; not the romantic comedy shill we are familiar with today. Even with the score I gave, I think this is a highly watchable movie.

Despicable Me 2 - 1/10. I got dragged to see this with young relatives. They didn't like it. I didn't like it. I gave it a point because the characters resembled the characters from the first film, which I would give 5.5/10. This sequel was completely incoherent. Bubbly, cheesy, ultra lame, insulting, stereotypical, racist, artless trash. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Snowqueen

08-16-2013, 04:40 AM

I had been planning to watch an Argentinian film, "Secret in Their Eyes" for quite some time, but wasn’t able to do it. Last night I finally managed to see it. It’s an excellent film and I would recommend it. 9/10

Emil Miller

08-16-2013, 02:15 PM

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

This shows why a great director like Billy Wilder can take something as unlikely as an Agatha Christie play and turn it into a film that make all those Poirot and Miss Marple TV efforts look like the amateur theatricals they really are.
Charles Laughton gives a stunning performance as Sir Wilfred Robart, a top defence lawyer defending Tyrone Power's accused murderer at London's Central Criminal Court. The star witness for the prosecution is the accused's wife, played by Marlene Dietrich who is just one of a number of players who turn in marvellous performances. Even if you guess the surprise ending, it's unlikely you will work out how it was done without actually seeing the film. 10/10

It's all on YouTube but here's an extract.

http://youtu.be/Fq3UK04pNrY

cafolini

08-16-2013, 03:05 PM

Extraordinary documentary called Happy People. Its about a region of Syberia where a group of people live of the land, almost exclusively. The wilderness is called The Taiga. Available on Netflix.

Helga

08-20-2013, 09:06 AM

Hawkman

08-22-2013, 09:31 AM

'Beowulf and Grendel' really bad, really really bad. The worst part of how bad it is is that it was written and directed by a man from the ice and filmed on the ice and Grendel was played by an actor from the ice and the only word he spoke was icelandic. a really bad movie but perfect for my BA so I give it 5/10 for that

I'm afraid I haven't seen this version of the tale, though I have seen others, which are nearly all incomprehensibly bad. What really annoys me about them is the fact that the filmmaker wants to make a film of a classic text that has survived for over a thousand years, and yet they think that they can "improve" it by completely changing the story. I have in mind the ghastly CGI version starring Stan Winston in particular. Personally, I'd rather they just had someone read it on the radio, so the audience can imagine the pictures themselves! If a filmmaker just wants to use the idea to inspire their own story then the best approach is to write their own and call it something else, like, "The 13th Warrior."

Snowqueen

08-23-2013, 01:49 AM

I watched REC with my friends last week. It was disappointing. 3/10

Helga

08-26-2013, 10:42 AM

I'm afraid I haven't seen this version of the tale, though I have seen others, which are nearly all incomprehensibly bad. What really annoys me about them is the fact that the filmmaker wants to make a film of a classic text that has survived for over a thousand years, and yet they think that they can "improve" it by completely changing the story. I have in mind the ghastly CGI version starring Stan Winston in particular. Personally, I'd rather they just had someone read it on the radio, so the audience can imagine the pictures themselves! If a filmmaker just wants to use the idea to inspire their own story then the best approach is to write their own and call it something else, like, "The 13th Warrior."

I do agree with that, and this version completely changed everything. The CGI version is next on my list and also Beowulf the sci-fi movie and one animated. I will be writing about Grendel in my BA so these changed movies are exactly what I will write about.

I just saw Spider-man 3, hadn't seen it before, my son and I watched all three in a three days so I could rate them all I guess.
Spider-man 6/10 it's ok but not great. So many great actors,Willem Dafoe, James Franco, Kirsten Dunst and of course Maguire but something about the story was just annoying.

Spider-man 2 5/10 again great actors but not that special

Spider-man 3 6/10 more villains make it a bit better and the music was a fun twist.

cafolini

08-26-2013, 11:29 AM

HEY, BOO. An excellent biography of Nelle Harper Lee, and the production of To Kill a Mockingbird, with the role of the excellent editors that made it possible. BOO is the character she thought portrayed her in attitude as well as aptitude. Also the false version of her being friends with psychopathic Capote is taken care. Available on Netflix.

YesNo

08-27-2013, 09:15 AM

H G Wells' Things to Come (1936).

For wierdness this scores 5/10, otherwise about 1/10. I doubt I need worry about spoiling the plot, so here it is. Between 1940 and 1970 there is a world war that puts us back to the stone age until the engineers and mechanics come out of hiding dressed in a new black fashion and driving huge airplanes save the day by creating a world order using science. In 2036 after they clean up the mess and make improvements like living underground (as if that's an improvement), the world order engineers are ready to shoot someone to the moon with a space gun. It is then that the masses start acting like masses again and try to stop the space gun by rushing at it, but just in time a young couple, unprotected from radiation, get shot to the moon before the anti-scientific masses can stop them. At the end the leader of the world order makes an impassioned speech about the glorious future of this future world to come.

One of the pieces of machinery that carved out the underground living quarters reminded me of Dr. Zarkov's spaceship in Flash Gordon (the early TV series) which brought back childhood memories.

Snowqueen

08-31-2013, 03:39 AM

I watched Despicable Me 2 with my nieces. They enjoyed it, but I didn’t. Yes, the minions were funny. 4/10

Lykren

08-31-2013, 11:06 AM

The Sacrifice, by Tarkovsky. The cinematography was great!

Helga

08-31-2013, 11:16 AM

'Beowulf' oh it was even worse than the movie I watched the other day based on the poem. Just very bad. I guess if you know nothing of the poem it's a great adventure movie and at least Grendel ate the people he killed. 3/10 is my rating. The three stars are for Crispin Glover and a few quotes I can use.

cafolini

08-31-2013, 01:49 PM

I watched The Story of Eleanor Roosevelt. Very good documentary available on NetFlix. Don't miss it.

Helga

09-02-2013, 04:49 AM

R.I.P.D now that is a bad movie. 2/10

'24 hour party people' that is a great movie. Had only seen parts of it before but watched the whole thing last night, very good. 8/10

qimissung

09-02-2013, 10:07 AM

The City of Life and Death 10/10 a movie about the massacre of Nanking. Beautifully done, if rather painful to watch.

Ecurb

09-05-2013, 03:59 PM

I saw Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine” last night. It is clearly an homage to “Streetcar Named Desire”, and tells the story of the widow of a rich Wall Street crook, who now has no money or marketable skills. She heads to San Francisco from New York, to stay with her working class, divorced sister. Kate Blanchett plays Jasmine, in a succulent (if overly dramatic) role.

Unfortunately, the minor characters don’t work. The Stella equivalent is mildly interesting, but her boyfriend (presumably the Stanley Kowalski) role is a stereotyped bore. In addition, the working class friends of the Stella character are out of place in San Francisco – they represent New York working class stereotypes.

The movie tries to emphasize the growing divide in America between the working class and the rich, but fails. Alec Baldwin is his usual charismatic self in his role as Jasmine’s crooked financier husband (seen in flashbacks). But the movie is sordid, depressing, and lacks the depth that believable supporting characters might have given it. Perhaps it is somewhat interesting in that Jasmine’s decent from wealth mirrors Woody Allen’s own vilification when he married his step-daughter.

cafolini

09-05-2013, 05:44 PM

Richard Gere's Red Corner. Director: Avnet. I give it a 10.

hannah_arendt

09-06-2013, 03:38 AM

Recently I have gone to see "Elysium" (8/10).

Snowqueen

09-07-2013, 02:19 AM

I watched Chernobyl Diaries with my friends. Some horror films are often quite funny and it was one of them. 4/10

Sophia21

09-30-2013, 06:03 AM

I watched Epic Ronin, an animated movie and really enjoyed it.

7/10

Snowqueen

10-05-2013, 01:54 AM

Finally, I managed to watch Laura. It’s an interesting tale of murder and mystery. Clifton Webb was very funny throughout the film. I greatly enjoyed it. 8/10

Helga

10-08-2013, 05:48 AM

Much Ado About Nothing -the Joss Whedon version, oh it was so good! I really loved it. It had the absurd feeling I always get from Shakespeare's comedies and so many great actors were in it. It's hard not to love Nathan Fillion as Dogberry (or anybody) and Sean Maher was a nice villain, also he is the sort of villain I like, he was just mean spirited and had nothing nice about him.

I also enjoyed the set, this house is beautiful, and apparently its Joss Whedons home.

TheFifthElement

10-08-2013, 06:09 AM

Sightseers - killer caravanners. Unusual, funny, low-budget and British. Nice quick shot of Winnat's Pass, too, which is just about the nicest place on this Earth. Also given us a list of places to visit (but not kill people, that wouldn't be nice). 8/10.

qimissung

10-09-2013, 08:19 AM

Finally, I managed to watch Laura. It’s an interesting tale of murder and mystery. Clifton Webb was very funny throughout the film. I greatly enjoyed it. 8/10

I thought you might enjoy that movie. It reminds me of you, Snowqueen-elegant and mysterious. :)

Much Ado About Nothing -the Joss Whedon version, oh it was so good! I really loved it. It had the absurd feeling I always get from Shakespeare's comedies and so many great actors were in it. It's hard not to love Nathan Fillion as Dogberry (or anybody) and Sean Maher was a nice villain, also he is the sort of villain I like, he was just mean spirited and had nothing nice about him.

I also enjoyed the set, this house is beautiful, and apparently its Joss Whedons home.

Agree, agree, agree, with everything you said! I loved that movie, so much fun. It deserves a repeat viewing, I think.

Sightseers - killer caravanners. Unusual, funny, low-budget and British. Nice quick shot of Winnat's Pass, too, which is just about the nicest place on this Earth. Also given us a list of places to visit (but not kill people, that wouldn't be nice). 8/10.

Love the name, Fifth. Yes, very British. I would love to caravan there, too, along the canals, particularly? Fantasy vacation time, maybe? Care to plan with me?

Snowqueen

10-16-2013, 01:40 AM

I watched World War Z with my young cousin. It wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. 6/10

Paulclem

10-20-2013, 04:58 PM

Just watched Fight Club again. Great film. You know when you watch some sports like football how it makes you want to go out and have a game? Well Fight Club - briefly - very briefly - makes the idea of going out and having a fight seem appealing - which is funny.

9/10

Helga

10-21-2013, 06:00 PM

I recently saw two movies worth mentioning, Cria Cuervos a Spanish film about a young girl who looses her parents 8/10. And Körkarlen a Swedish film about a ghost carriage that picks up dead souls 7/10.

YesNo

10-22-2013, 07:50 AM

I saw World War Z with my daughter last night. I was as much annoyed by the character Brad Pitt played, who in the mist of zombie attacks had to be forced to help out, as I was with the zombies. Score: 4/10

As I think about it, the difference between zombies and vampires starts to blur. They both like to bite other people and then the other people turn into them. I do remember seeing a comedy, Vamps, about vampires some time ago that I would rate 8/10.

Paulclem

10-22-2013, 03:15 PM

I tried to rent Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas from Lovefilm and I'm on a waiting list for it as they either have fewer copies or it is very popular. I wonder why that might be?

I may buy it from Amazon.

cafolini

10-22-2013, 05:26 PM

If you get a chance, watch Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore in A Few Good Men. A military court martial very well presented and very meaningful.

Snowqueen

10-23-2013, 12:54 AM

I watched The Rescuers with my nieces last week and enjoyed it. 7/10

islandclimber

10-23-2013, 06:43 AM

I revisited Gábor Bódy's four and a half hour masterpiece Nárcisz és Psyché last night. A masterpiece of iconoclastic poetry on screen based on the poetic musings of Sandor Weore. The film is a 120 year (nineteenth century to early 20th century) long meditation on the antagonistic nature of love in European culture, following ageless characters through several generations of history. They question the possibility of even possibility it seems. The episodes at times seem quite disjointed, and some might find this film to be cinematically illiterate, as divergent storylines are preferred tied up by most, but I think this brings a greater literacy to the film, a better coherence, a more honest reality. It attaches a film that shades itself into the realm of myth to life, where not every story we encounter presents us with a neatly gift-wrapped ending, we don't always receive closure. And that is one of the points this film makes as it weaves its way through Hungarian history. A fantastical vision with surprisingly beautiful and sometimes quite disturbing images, the cinematography is splendid and perhaps somewhat akin to certain works of Wojciech Jerzy Has (The Hourglass Sanatorium and The Saratoga Manuscript)... Györgi Cserhalmi is brilliant in this film, as is always the case with him.

9.5/10

qimissung

10-27-2013, 12:08 AM

Hmmm. Saw "Twelve Years a Slave," and "Gravity," but it feels like I just watched an episode of the Simpson's Halloween show compared with the above review. :D

Anywho, they were both excellent, but "Twelve Years" wins by a hair. 10/10

Gravity 9/10

YesNo

10-27-2013, 09:48 AM

When I'm in the library I pick up whatever new movies make it to the shelves. The last two were both about the rapture. I guess Hollywood has finally had its fill of zombie, vampire and Hansel and Gretal movies. These were both light, perhaps stupid, comedies, but after a day of work that's all I needed. I was amazed to see Craig Robinson in both of them.

Rapture-Palooza (2013): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1879032/?ref_=nv_sr_1 I enjoyed Anna Kendrick's cool dialog while hot rocks were falling from the sky and how she handled the beast (Robinson). Score 7/10

This is the End (2013): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245492/ The scene where James Franco was getting sort of beamed up to heaven was predictable, but amusing. Score 8/10 because the ending was more upbeat.

Helga

10-27-2013, 05:39 PM

I saw Shame and I enjoyed it a lot, as much joy as you can get from a movie like that. It was very interesting and I think I will watch it again sooner rather than later, it could have been a bit deeper, I would have liked to see more of the siblings back story. 7/10

YesNo

10-27-2013, 10:13 PM

I just finished seeing The Way, Way Back: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727388/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Score: 10/10

It starts in a car ride and ends in a car ride and in between everything changes for 14-year-old Duncan (Liam James).

Snowqueen

11-01-2013, 10:09 AM

This is the End (2013): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245492/ The scene where James Franco was getting sort of beamed up to heaven was predictable, but amusing. Score 8/10 because the ending was more upbeat.

I saw This is the End and some of the scenes were quite funny.

Also watched The Three Musketeers, it was good and I enjoyed it. 7/10

Emil Miller

11-02-2013, 03:20 PM

This 1998 effort is the kind of film that gives conspiracy theories a bad name. The film has enough car crashes, explosions and gunfire to satisfy the most juvenile mentality while purporting to be about a rogue NSA officer's attempt to recover a tape of his henchmen murdering a non-compliant senator of a bill for massive surveillance powers to be granted America's security agency. I kept expecting Bruce Willis to show up but his shenanigans were taken over by Will Smith as a lawyer who is surreptitiously passed the tape by an old college friend before the man is killed trying to escape the henchmen. Using unbelievable surveillance techniques, including a satellite and helicopter to track down the lawyer, the film ends with a ludicrous shootout reminiscent of the battle of Stalingrad in which the villain of the piece gets his comeuppance. There is a good film to be made of the misuse of power by the security forces of the USA, but this isn't it. 2/10

Emil Miller

11-04-2013, 02:05 PM

This is another of those 'Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper' films set in an imaginary fog-bound Victorian Whitechapel.
John Neville plays Holmes and Donald Houston, Watson in the way that countless others have before them.
Even by 1965 the theme had been overplayed and nothing new was added to this production. It just about holds one's interest so it gets 4/10

http://youtu.be/dgMXQOnW0VE

Snowqueen

11-06-2013, 06:05 AM

Sophia21

11-06-2013, 10:04 AM

Helga

11-15-2013, 07:22 AM

The greatest movie ever sold- advertising in movies are interesting and everything that goes with it but it wasn't the greatest documentary on advertising,not that I've seen many.

YesNo

11-15-2013, 10:13 AM

I watched Conjuring with friends – another horror film. It has the same old story; a family moves to a haunted house and strange things start to happen. This time victim is poor mum with 5 kids. To me she already seemed possessed by some evil spirit, honestly! The funniest part is when Patrick Wilson performs exorcism and in the process she bites one of his helpers. I was expecting the bitten man to become a zombie in less than 10 seconds but unfortunately that didn’t happen. The film has a happy ending though. 5/10

Needless to say we enjoyed it.

I was planning on watching this one with my wife until my daughter told us that she heard it was the most terrifying movie ever made. Since I spent the $1 to rent it I figured I had to view it although I don't like seeing doors slamming on their own or expecting a monster to pop out of nowhere. Initially, I kept giving them updates like, "Even their dog won't go into that house."

What I liked about the movie was that it was based on true events and from searching it didn't look like it strayed too far from the truth. However, the Annabelle doll looked more wicked in the movie than in real life. There was a documentary short with the movie about the Warrens that describes the events without building up the terror.

What I didn't like about the movie was the fear of the unknown that seemed to be an underlying message or that one needs a Catholic exorcism to resolve these experiences. That being said, if I were ever possessed, I would not object to an exorcism (except the possessed part of me probably would). Whatever happened to Casper the friendly ghost? But this wasn't a ghost. It was a demon. Whatever happened to angels?

Since the movie got us thinking, and was creepy, I would have to give it a score of 10/10.

Snowqueen

11-16-2013, 02:46 AM

I was planning on watching this one with my wife until my daughter told us that she heard it was the most terrifying movie ever made. Since I spent the $1 to rent it I figured I had to view it although I don't like seeing doors slamming on their own or expecting a monster to pop out of nowhere. Initially, I kept giving them updates like, "Even their dog won't go into that house."

What I liked about the movie was that it was based on true events and from searching it didn't look like it strayed too far from the truth. However, the Annabelle doll looked more wicked in the movie than in real life. There was a documentary short with the movie about the Warrens that describes the events without building up the terror.

What I didn't like about the movie was the fear of the unknown that seemed to be an underlying message or that one needs a Catholic exorcism to resolve these experiences. That being said, if I were ever possessed, I would not object to an exorcism (except the possessed part of me probably would). Whatever happened to Casper the friendly ghost? But this wasn't a ghost. It was a demon. Whatever happened to angels?

Since the movie got us thinking, and was creepy, I would have to give it a score of 10/10.

I haven't done any research on the film, just watched it for sheer enjoyment, but my friends later told me that it was based on true events. Glad to know you liked it.

CharlesH

11-18-2013, 10:29 AM

Watched Pacific Rim at the weekend. It's not exactly thought-provoking, but it doesn't try to be. What it is though is beautiful. Del Toro has such a wonderful eye for design. Big, silly and beautiful.

jlb4tlb

11-18-2013, 09:44 PM

Watched "Life of Pi" the other night and enjoyed it!

Wizard272002

11-19-2013, 12:29 AM

I watched Man of Steel yesterday! I throughly loved it. Now watching The Amazing Spider-Man.

CharlesH

11-19-2013, 11:16 AM

Amazing Spider-Man was much better than I thought it was going to be. Pleasantly surprised (nice profile pic by the by, Morrison's X-Men is untouchable).

Emil Miller

11-21-2013, 02:56 PM

There is no resemblance between the real Jamaica Inn and the studio mock-up used in this film, but for the purposes of this contraband story it suffices. Scripted from the novel by Daphne du Maurier it is held together by Charles Laughton's majestic performance as Sir Humphrey Pengallen, ostensibly a pillar of the Cornish establishment but secretly the organiser of a gang of wreckers who draw ships to their doom off the Cornish coast before killing any survivors and pillaging the cargo.
I read the book long ago and remember it as being a bit of a yarn and that is how this film version comes across despite it being directed by Alfred Hitchcock who made a much better job of the same author's Rebecca.

6/10

Paulclem

11-21-2013, 06:24 PM

I recently watched Pulp Fiction again - excellent, and it seemed different to the first time I saw it. I also watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in, which made a lot more sense having read the book first.

My predisposition for picking rubbish is still with me though. Rites of Spring is a kidnap drama tagged onto a horror movie. Complete rubbish being marginally better than one of he worst horror films ever Ogre.

qimissung

11-22-2013, 02:07 AM

I saw The Conjuring recently-5/10. It got good reviews, not sure why.

Life of Pi. Better than I thought it would be. Wish I'd seen it on the big screen. 9/10

Dallas Buyers Club. I liked it. It's always good to see someone transform into a better person. 9/10

Helga

11-22-2013, 06:48 PM

Dallas Buyers Club. I liked it. It's always good to see someone transform into a better person. 9/10

I have been thinking about seeing it, in the trailer both male leads look so skinny it's scary.

Just watched 'Safety not guaranteed' I really liked it, this is the kind of movie I want to see on a Friday night, a little bit sci-fi and a little bit weird with people who don't know what they want.

YesNo

11-22-2013, 08:07 PM

Just watched 'Safety not guaranteed' I really liked it, this is the kind of movie I want to see on a Friday night, a little bit sci-fi and a little bit weird with people who don't know what they want.

I saw "Safety Not Guaranteed" last night. To be able to pull of that kind of ending deserves a score of 10/10.

Snowqueen

11-23-2013, 01:22 AM

I saw The Words last night. It has a good story with good cast. Jeremy Irons and Dennis Quaid were brilliant. I’m not a Bradley Cooper’s fan but liked his performance. 7/10

Life of Pi. Better than I thought it would be. Wish I'd seen it on the big screen. 9/10

I’ve yet to see Life of Pi. My sister watched it and liked it too.

tanveer shah

11-23-2013, 02:24 AM

The last movie I saw was "Splendor In The Grass". I'd rate it an 8 out of 10.

SilentMute

11-23-2013, 07:11 AM

I saw Great Expectations several days ago. This is the one that was made in 2012 with Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane, and Helena Bonham Carter. I give it an 8/10. It kept a good pace. However, it did really edit the story quite a bit--and the characters didn't have the opportunity to fully develop. I really liked this depiction of Miss Havisham, though, and I also liked that they did flashbacks on key points of her life.

YesNo

11-23-2013, 11:41 AM

This past week I saw two movies about the White House being overrun by self-righteous nuts wanting to start WWIII to make themselves feel better.

Olympus Has Fallen, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2302755/, annoyed me when the president told the other two with the passwords to give them up and temporarily save their lives. That was totally stupid. Also those passwords looked easy to break. The violence was overdone and the bad guys, some rogue Koreans, filled with typical self-righteousness, didn't impress me much although the Korean female (Malana Lea?) who was running the computer did look cute while doing her part to destroy civilization. The bad guys need to feel that their cause is hopeless earlier on. Score: 4/10. No, make that 1/10.

White House Down, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2334879/, was more entertaining. There was none of the nonsense about saving one's own life at the expense of starting a world war. The bad guys felt their plan falling apart throughout as was appropriate. The plot was also more complicated. Score: 9/10

Helga

11-23-2013, 02:29 PM

Olympus Has Fallen, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2302755/, annoyed me when the president told the other two with the passwords to give them up and temporarily save their lives. That was totally stupid. Also those passwords looked easy to break. The violence was overdone and the bad guys, some rogue Koreans, filled with typical self-righteousness, didn't impress me much although the Korean female (Malana Lea?) who was running the computer did look cute while doing her part to destroy civilization. The bad guys need to feel that their cause is hopeless earlier on. Score: 4/10. No, make that 1/10.

this movie was written by an icelandic woman so it was very popular here on the ice, I haven't seen it though. Apparently they are writing a sequel, maybe Olympus will fall again.

re watched 'The Phantom Carriage' trying to write an essay about it, going slooooow. But it's a good movie

YesNo

11-23-2013, 07:30 PM

this movie was written by an icelandic woman so it was very popular here on the ice, I haven't seen it though. Apparently they are writing a sequel, maybe Olympus will fall again.

It was entertaining. The bullets and bodies kept flying, perhaps too much so. It probably deserves more than the 1/10 score I gave it.

It reminded me of World War Z where the main character had to be forced to help, even though all those zombies were running around. You would think he would want to help to protect his family. The same thing with the president ordering the other two (I don't remember them or their titles) to give up their passwords to save their own lives. It just doesn't make sense to do that if those passwords would unlock a nuclear arsenal.

Helga

11-24-2013, 07:16 AM

I was mainly pointing out how easy it is to get people from the ice to the movies if you tell them someone from around here worked on it. We have the phrase 'known all over the world in Iceland' about everyone who does something in America.

YesNo

11-24-2013, 10:11 AM

We saw Now and Then last night. It could be portrayed as sentimental, but it seemed realistic. Score: 8/10

The town mentioned in the movie was Shelby, Indiana, which was near where I lived as a child. After I looked it up, the town was actually Winchester, Indiana, on the other side of the state. That was a bit disappointing, but I realized while watching that movie that whatever town they were showing, it didn't looked like the Shelby I remembered.

qimissung

12-01-2013, 01:00 AM

Catching Fire. I liked it. 9/10 While not great literature by any means, Suzanne Collins knows how to tell a good story and she has given us a memorable character in Katniss Everdene. I personally like the moral conundrums she is constantly faced with and the fact that she always makes an attempt to get through them honorably, while at the same time being quite pragmatic. I also think Collins has given us, within her limited style, quite a lot to think about in terms of what is perception, and what is reality, and how very, very often people conflate the two, particularly in terms of celebrity, in this instance, anyway, and it's certainly a reflection of our own culture.

The Heat. While it isn't really good at all, it was fun. 6/10

YesNo

12-01-2013, 10:51 AM

I saw The Heat recently as well. Actually, I was looking forward to it having seen some of the previews. A score of 6/10 seems about right, although I might see it again.

We saw The Trip: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1740047/ where Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon take a tour of northern England to provide restaurant reviews. The scenery was beautiful and I loved those narrow English roads they drove on. The chitchat was pretty good, but after the two flings Coogan had, I was getting a little tired of it and almost stopped watching, however, I think it is worth putting up with this until the very end, after their trip is finished and they separate and get back each to their own homes. It puts everything in perspective in an unusual way. Score 9/10.

farnoosh

12-01-2013, 11:49 AM

Last movie would be " A Seperation" 9/10

Helga

12-01-2013, 06:01 PM

This weekend I showed my son some children classics (you can debate if they count as such) from my childhood. 'Babe' the little pig, Animal Farm for kids, I love that movie. Also we saw 'The Princess Bride' on Friday and he has said 'I am Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die' about a thousand times.

Babe- 8/10
The Princess Bride- 7.95/10

Poetaster

12-01-2013, 06:10 PM

Hunger Games: Catching Fire - I'm not sure of a rating, but I thought it was merely alright.

I thought it much better than the first film, and I want to see where this series ends up, but I can't call it a great film. I can't even call it a very good film really, but it was fun enough. I saw it when I was on a date, and her and I both wanted to see it because I had seen the first one and she had heard good things about this film. My date liked it well enough, and I thought it was enjoyable. I'm glad I saw it, I just was not terribly impressed.

YesNo

12-02-2013, 10:32 AM

I saw RED 2 last night. Very entertaining. Right up there with Knight and Day. Score: 9/10

Ecurb

12-02-2013, 08:53 PM

I saw “Hunger Games” and “Gravity” recently. “Gravity” has received generally good reviews, but I didn’t like it. It was beautiful – the Earth looked great from orbit, reminding me of the line describing it in “Journey to the Moon” by Archibald MacLiesh. However, the movie didn’t work as a thriller. It jumped right into the action – so we didn’t get to know the characters at all. Some viewers (perhaps) care about Sandra Bullock simply because she is America’s sweetheart – but that wasn’t enough for me. The film made some futile attempts to doctor up some sympathy for its heroine by informing us that her child had been killed in an accident. The effort seemed forced, as if the screenwriter knew he hadn’t done his job and was stretching for an ex deus machina with which to involve the audience.

The new “Hunger Games” movie was a mess. I’ve read the books (I’m not sure why), so I was able to follow the plot. I doubt non-readers were able to. The movie was simply incompetently done. To me, this is strange. The first movie grossed $200 million (or more). Can’t they hire a director and screenwriter who can tell a simple story in a minimally competent manner? Someone must have spent millions upon millions of dollars for the stars, the special effects, and the book rights. Spend a few grand for a screenwriter, for goodness sake. Every time Donald Sutherland came on the screen playing the evil President Snow I wanted to go out for popcorn, just so I wouldn’t have to see his trite and predictable performance. J Law (America’s new sweetheart) is a good actress, but utterly unbelievable as a Hunger Games’ winner (she’s completely unathletic – she can’t even run, as she proved in her Academy Award winning turn in the horrid “Silver Lining Playbook”). Oh, well. Maybe next time.

qimissung

12-02-2013, 08:59 PM

Hey, I didn't say I would qualify as a movie reviewer! I've read the book, so, yeah, I could follow the plot. I actually do like some "good" movies, and I know this does not rank as art, but as fun. I had fun, that's all I'm sayin'. :)

This weekend I showed my son some children classics (you can debate if they count as such) from my childhood. 'Babe' the little pig, Animal Farm for kids, I love that movie. Also we saw 'The Princess Bride' on Friday and he has said 'I am Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die' about a thousand times.

Babe- 8/10
The Princess Bride- 7.95/10

Both are completely adorable. "The Princess Bride" is one of my favorites and that line is one of my favorite movie lines of all time.

hazelk

12-02-2013, 09:37 PM

I watched (again) "Fargo" it is classd es "An American Masterpiece" 10/10

YesNo

12-03-2013, 12:21 AM

Snowqueen

12-03-2013, 05:41 AM

Reading mixed reviews about Hunger Games and Catching Fire I am tempted to see them both.

I watched a couple of movies on weekend. Welcome to the Punch was a waste of time; that’s all I have to say about it and it gets 3/10. Yes, I’m too generous! :D

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was good, though it was more action packed than the first part but personally I enjoyed its previous movie better. 6/10

hazelk

12-03-2013, 06:38 PM

Really enjoyed "Pumpkin Eater" starring Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch, the closing look the two exchanged was wonderful, not a word needed to be spoken!! 7/10

Calidore

12-03-2013, 06:47 PM

I finished watching the first three episodes of the first series of Dr Who. It is about as much as I can handle in one setting.

This was from the ninth set of episodes with the doctor played by Christopher Eccleston starting in 2005: tardis.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_television_stories.

I found out about Dr Who a few weeks ago. It was more entertaining that I expected. Score 7/10

For an idea of the heights Doctor Who can reach, I highly recommend "Blink" from the third season. If you like low-budget B-movies, you might enjoy much of the original series (1963-1987) as well.

YesNo

12-03-2013, 07:10 PM

For an idea of the heights Doctor Who can reach, I highly recommend "Blink" from the third season. If you like low-budget B-movies, you might enjoy much of the original series (1963-1987) as well.

Thanks! I was wondering what the best ones were. There are way too many on the list I found.

Update: I finished the next three shows in the series I rented and found out how a Dalek climbs the stairs.

faithosaurus

12-04-2013, 10:38 AM

Just saw Catching Fire for the third time (I have issues). I think they all did a great job with it. Good acting.
There were a few parts that I feel they should have put in, because they were important and non-readers might have trouble not catching on (like Plutarch's gold watch and explaining D13 more).

9/10.

YesNo

12-08-2013, 02:14 PM

The World's End: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213663/

This was about a pub crawl where not only the quantity of alcohol but also aliens kept getting in the way. At the end the heroes save the world, but it depends on your perspective whether the world was saved or not, so I'm not really spoiling the ending by saying that they "saved" anything.

Score 9/10

qimissung

12-08-2013, 03:13 PM

The latest iteration of Superman. 7/10 It was alright.

Emil Miller

12-08-2013, 04:00 PM

Update: I finished the next three shows in the series I rented and found out how a Dalek climbs the stairs.

Nice to see you're not wasting your time.

YesNo

12-08-2013, 06:05 PM

Nice to see you're not wasting your time.

Watching Billie Piper as Rose Tyler made the time pass quickly. I liked the way she'd not pronounce clearly the "t" in many words such as "later". Or at least that's how I heard it. She would say something like "lay-er" and the "t" in "not" would seem to get de-emphasized or combined with the next word to the point of not being there and the "o" sound made long.

Hwo Thumb

12-12-2013, 12:35 AM

Serenity, 10/10.

Serenity is the movie conclusion to the short lived, cancelled-in-its-prime Tv show, Firefly. They're both epic and amazing and fantastic pieces of science fiction that reject the classic views of shining spaceshippy utopias or post-apocalyptic dystopias and go for something in between, portraying a 26th century humanity with a huge class division between the haves and have-nots. It's got great dialogue, 9 extremely well written characters, and it's the only movie I've cried at since I was a little kid.

YesNo

12-12-2013, 01:31 AM

I saw Stuck in Love. It had Jennifer Connolly in it and I remember seeing her long ago in Labyrinth. I guess the acting was OK, but the story line seemed like it needed a touch of Woody Allen humor to liven it up. Score: 5/10

Ecurb

12-12-2013, 12:48 PM

I saw “Twelve Years a Slave” last night. It’s directed by Steve McQueen, whose last film, “Shame”, highlighted the horrors of being a rich, white suburbanite. This one is different. It’s about a free black man who, in 1840, gets shanghaied (is that a racist term?) and sold into slavery in Louisiana.

Based on the evidence of this film, slavery generally involves getting whipped, hanged, humiliated and raped. I’m sure this is all correct, but the film appears to have concentrated 12 years of torture into a two hour titillation for sado-masochists. McQueen obviously has talent. The movie combines oppression with natural beauty. It’s gorgeously shot. In one scene, our protagonist gets hanged for defending himself against an overseer, with his toes barely touching the ground. All around, the other slaves go about their daily tasks, ignoring what appears to be a commonplace torture.

If McQueen’s goal was to make his audience feel the oppression of slavery, he succeeded. Nonetheless, after about two hours, I felt like I’d been tied to the whipping post myself. Perhaps being beaten is, in some ways, enlightening. But it’s not very enjoyable.

YesNo

12-12-2013, 11:55 PM

I picked up Johnny English Reborn from the library, wondering if I had seen it before or not. After watching the opening scene in the Tibetan monastery, I remembered that I had indeed seen it before and would probably not mind seeing it again.

Score: 9/10

Satan

12-13-2013, 01:16 AM

Prisoners (2013)

Not bad, not half as good as Zodiac either. Hollywood cannot compete with South Koreans in this genre. Case in point: Memories of Murder. Jackman and Gyllenhaal have matures as actors, but the latter's annoying blinking, Cyrillic tattoos, and masonic ring reflected a half-arsed attempt at character development, on the pretense of giving it some depth - a past. More than a couple of scenes remind of the excellent, excellent Spoorloos (1988), which is a much better film.

7/10

Worth watching once.

Snowqueen

12-13-2013, 10:40 AM

I saw Butterfly Room last week. It was very disappointing. 2/10

krishna_lit

12-13-2013, 01:14 PM

Today in my PC i saw The Last Samurai.. and i liked it good.. I'd rate it 7/10 but a couple of days ago I saw Kick-*** 2 it was very nice.. I'd give 8/10 for that.

Emil Miller

12-13-2013, 03:39 PM

I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967)

Typical 1960s nonsense directed by Michael Winner and starring Oliver Reed as a brilliant advertising director with, mistresses, money, a wife and child and all the trimmings, who gives it all up to work for a literary magazine. But leaving the rat race doesn't prove easy because his former boss, played by Orson Welles, is determined to get him back and buys up the magazine.
Quite well done in a flashy sort of way but it sinks beneath its attempt to be with it. It's meant to be hip but turns out to be hype. 5/10

YesNo

12-13-2013, 08:44 PM

For an idea of the heights Doctor Who can reach, I highly recommend "Blink" from the third season. If you like low-budget B-movies, you might enjoy much of the original series (1963-1987) as well.

I just saw "Blink". It was pretty good. I'll never think of statues in the same way again. Score: 9/10

Snowqueen

12-14-2013, 05:27 AM

I watched Amour last night, it’s really good film but seemed too long. It was also tough to see the pain and suffering of Anne at some points. 7/10

YesNo

12-20-2013, 12:20 AM

What Maisie Knew: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1932767/ Score 10/10

This is the story of a pre-school child with dysfunctional parents mainly from the child's perspective. Onata Aprile did a great job as Maisie.

qimissung

12-21-2013, 12:31 AM

I loved Amour Snowqueen, although to be honest it's probably not going to be one that I would want to see again.

I would like to see Bling and What Maisie Knew. I like Sofia Coppola's movies a lot.

Snowqueen

12-21-2013, 02:27 AM

I watched Disconnect and it was better than I expected. It reveals the dark side of modern communication and internet. 7/10

I loved Amour Snowqueen, although to be honest it's probably not going to be one that I would want to see again.

It really is a good film but I found it a bit depressing, to be honest. :)

MarkBastable

12-21-2013, 06:28 AM

Watching Billie Piper as Rose Tyler made the time pass quickly. I liked the way she'd not pronounce clearly the "t" in many words such as "later". Or at least that's how I heard it. She would say something like "lay-er" and the "t" in "not" would seem to get de-emphasized or combined with the next word to the point of not being there and the "o" sound made long.

It's a form of glottal stop - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop - and it's an identifying characteristic of Estuary English - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English - which is what you might call the 'street accent' where I grew up. Not many people would claim that it's a pretty accent, but its influence seems to be growing. Me, I flip to and fro between attenuated Estuary and BBC-style Received Pronunciation at will, and often within a single sentence.

Billy Piper's a West Country girl, which would suggest that that's not her native accent - though she seems to have lived around the capital since her teens, so she's had plenty of time to pick it up.

Helga

12-21-2013, 01:34 PM

Just came from the movie theater with my boy, we saw Frozen a Disney movie about two princesses. I have a lot to say about Disney princesses and not all good but these two were pretty good. I liked how the ending was different from movies like this when I was a kid.

jlb4tlb

12-21-2013, 09:38 PM

Watched "Taken 2" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1397280/?ref_=nv_sr_3

The saddest part is that I will never get back the hour and a half that I wasted watching this horrible excuse for a motion picture.

Emil Miller

12-22-2013, 08:13 AM

Hywel Bennett plays a freelance chauffeur whose connection with wealthy employers leads to
a romance with Haley Mills' American millionairess. After which, he has a house built by a
famous architect in a beautiful English landscape. The marriage is marred by a mysterious old
woman who tries to frighten them away and a feeling of malaise that has no apparent cause.
Some of which is explained towards the end of the film when the wife's body is discovered in a field and
the verdict is a heart attack. Unfortunately, there's no explanation for the old woman or the hideous
statuette of a cat that is brought into the house by a mutual acquaintance, so perhaps it's a case of poor editing.
A key scene at 2.37 in this compilation video, was missing from the film that I saw. 6/10

http://youtu.be/H-J9t1BW43c

YesNo

12-22-2013, 10:59 AM

It's a form of glottal stop - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop - and it's an identifying characteristic of Estuary English - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English - which is what you might call the 'street accent' where I grew up. Not many people would claim that it's a pretty accent, but its influence seems to be growing. Me, I flip to and fro between attenuated Estuary and BBC-style Received Pronunciation at will, and often within a single sentence.

Billy Piper's a West Country girl, which would suggest that that's not her native accent - though she seems to have lived around the capital since her teens, so she's had plenty of time to pick it up.

Perhaps because it sounded so unusual to me and looked so cute when Billy Piper said it, I like hearing Estuary English. I didn't know there was a name for it. I work with someone who grew up around Manchester. I hear the "cheers" and "mate", but he doesn't sound like Piper, of course, Manchester is north of London and I shouldn't expect him to.

Emil Miller

12-24-2013, 12:34 PM

Adapted from Agatha Christie's 1929 novel, this TV version takes us right back to the English aristocracy's last gasp when characters were called 'Pongo' and ''Bundle', and Bentley roadsters were thick on the ground. It wasn't all fun and games though because, when the cricket bats and hockey sticks had been stored away, there were serious things like mysterious societies, spies and secret formulae of national importance to be dealt with. That didn't mean that these too weren't a jolly jape or a spiffing wheeze to be enjoyed, so long as one was prepared to take the occasional risk that the unknown villain might be the least likely of one's fellow players. The important thing was that the bounder was eventually unearthed and true love blossomed in the knowledge that once again, England had been saved for those who knew best how to enjoy it. 7/10

hannah_arendt

12-25-2013, 05:33 PM

Today, I have seen "The Hobbit.Desolation of the Smaug". It was much better that the first part but for me it wasn`t much to do with the book.

Helga

12-26-2013, 08:07 AM

Don't know if it counts as a movie but I just saw Doctor Who Christmas special. I would have liked to see River Song in it but it was good. I will probably watch it again tonight when my son is back from spending the holidays with his dad. I expect lots of crying when he sees that bow-tie he loves so much fall.

probably the second best Christmas special they have done so 8/10

tonywalt

12-27-2013, 08:03 PM

"The Trip" with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon - very funny movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8BPP4ASQWo

bIGwIRE

12-28-2013, 10:03 AM

I recently went to '47 Ronin'.

The special effects were above average, but the story felt rushed and thin. The Samurai were too melodramatic for me, and (sorry if this offends anyone) I have never enjoyed watching Keanu Reeves. He is like an Asian Nicholas Cage.

6/10

faithosaurus

12-30-2013, 11:29 AM

American Hustle. I'll give it a 6.5/10.

It was a bit slow at first, but it picked up and ended up being pretty good. Plus, there were great actors.

Lykren

01-03-2014, 02:09 AM

I just watched Blue Is The Warmest Color.

WOW.

Has anyone else seen this? If so, I'd like to get your thoughts on it.

SleepyWitch

01-03-2014, 01:17 PM

Mandela - Long Walk to Freedom, 10/10

Helga

01-04-2014, 07:13 AM

I saw 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' yesterday. I went into the theater knowing I was seeing Jacksons take on the book and his re-writing of scenes so in general it was a good movie. Way to many useless fightscenes aimed at the teenage boy part of the audience. I was there with my stepdad, my brother, his girlfriend and her son and it was obvious that the young boy loved it more then the rest.

I was very disappointed with Beorn and his part, he was my favorite character in the book and he was just crappy and the whole scene was useless to the plot and nothing like the book.

I love Lee Pace, he will always be my favorite baker and I liked him as an elf too.

Well in general I give it 7.5 as a movie but as an adaptation it would get a lot less.

YesNo

01-04-2014, 11:25 PM

Over the past 24 hours I watched The Hangover (which I saw previously), The Hangover Part II and The Hangover Part III. It is probably not ideal to get so much enjoyment over such a small space of time, but the movies were very satisfying. Score 9/10.

Emil Miller

01-05-2014, 10:17 AM

It's not surprising that Arthur Miller fell foul of the Un American Activities Committee when his first play All My Sons was produced, because it attacks the profit motive that is the mainstay of business.
This filmed adaptation is well acted by a cast that includes Edward G Robinson, impressive as the paterfamilias whose rise to wealth includes the selling of faulty equipment to the US government during WWII that leads to the death of 26 pilots. Burt Lancaster is the son who survives the war while his brother is killed: a fact that the mother refuses to believe, expecting him to be simply missing in action. Robinson's business partner is blamed for the mis-selling of the equipment and is sent to prison but, although acquitted by the court, an aura of doubt continues to hang over Robinson.
The whole thing spirals out of control when the dead son's fiancee, who is the condemned man's daughter, is proposed to by the eldest son and her brother objects to the engagement; accusing Robinson of being the real culprit and not his imprisoned father.

The script betrays its theatrical origins and it's not for those with a minimal attention span, but viewing the film as a morality tale without the political undertones, I would give it 9/10.

deguonis

01-05-2014, 02:33 PM

Dead-end Drive In (1986)
8/10

I don't find watching fiction movies very interesting but this flick was first-rate.

qimissung

01-07-2014, 09:29 AM

Inside Llweyn Davis-10/10
Nebraska-10/10

Some good movies got made this year! Gotta get the soundtrack for Llewyn Davis and I'm rooting for an Oscar for Bruce Dern. So is he, I've heard, lol.

YesNo

01-07-2014, 09:59 AM

The Mortal Instruments. Much of this didn't make any sense although I thought it was nice how she was able to hide the cup in a tarot card.

Score 6/10

SasnLou

01-07-2014, 11:07 AM

I watched "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".
I'd give it a 8/10.

I loved the soundtrack and the visuals, but I was quite disappointed by how the story actually turned out.

Emil Miller

01-07-2014, 02:23 PM

This film, based on a short story by Graham Greene, stands or falls by the acting of the leading character played by Rod Steiger who unfortunately gives a somewhat mannered performance as a crooked financier on the run from the British police.
The plot is ingenious in that it involves Steiger fleeing to Mexico from New York and assuming the identity of a fellow train passenger whom he drugs and throws from the train, only to find that the man is wanted for the assassination of the Mexican president. Using his victim's passport to get arrested and taken into Mexico, he reveals that he is in fact Carl Schaffner. He intends to travel to Mexico city where he has salted away a million US dollars but the corrupt police chief of the Mexican border town forces him to stay there unless Schaffner gives him 10% of his fortune. Rather than agree, he is reduced to sleeping rough and is threatened by the town's residents who regarded the assassin as a hero; his only friend being the assassin's pet dog that follows him everywhere. The British police officer who is sent to the town gets no co-operation from the police chief but catches the dog and ties it inside the US section of the bridge that links Mexico to the US. Unable to bear the dog's crying, Schaffner attempts to sneak over at night and free the animal but with tragic results.
In the hands of a more competent director, this could have been a great film on a par with Greene's The Third Man but Ken Annakin apparently fell out with Steiger during the filming and the result is a regrettable miss. 7/10

Helga

01-11-2014, 12:38 PM

Watched the documentary 'Mansome' about men and it was very interesting and funny. Not very deep but interesting, also I love Will Arnett, his voice is just beautiful!

YesNo

01-13-2014, 11:38 PM

Drinking Buddies

Score: 10/10

This was considered a comedy on the library self, but it is more of a drama about guilt and four people who had different responses to it.

Emil Miller

01-14-2014, 07:37 PM

What starts out as a promising story about the hunt for a top Nazi official at the war's end, quickly degenerates into a Boy's Own Paper adventure in which the all-American hero defeats the villain and then settles down to a farmer's life in good 'ol Nebraska.
That being said, there was potential for a much better film based on the search for Martin Bormann (although that isn't his name in the film) by the US after WWII.
In this instance, the escapee arrives in Saigon to join the French foreign legion where Germans are welcome provided they have no evidence of a Nazi past. Under an assumed identity, he is drafted into the legion, unaware that an American secret service agent on his trail is also a draftee into what is colloquially called 'Rogues Regiment' on account of the number of men who have joined through being on the run for various crimes but are welcome because of the difficulty the French are having in trying to re-establish colonial rule in their former colony of Indochina.
As a picture of the French attempt to establish their former grip on Indo-China, this makes for some interesting viewing, but the overall impression is of a film trying to play both ends of German national socialism and Vietnamese national socialism against the middle. 7/10

YesNo

01-15-2014, 01:44 AM

Language of a Broken Heart

Score: 8/10

The message was a bit confusing, but the cover said it was a "sweet, romantic comedy" and that's what it was. I liked the cartoons introducing the sections of the movie. Violet got what she deserved. Nick should have treated his mother better, but he figured that out in the end. I don't understand why Nick even let Violet in the house, but it did lead to a nice ending.

YesNo

01-15-2014, 10:02 AM

Sophia21

01-15-2014, 10:14 AM

I saw Disney's new animated movie, Frozen and would rate it 8/10.

Emil Miller

01-15-2014, 12:08 PM

I was looking for something different than the current stuff on the library shelves and this one, All My Sons, 1948 version, was available. My attention span is usually minimal unless I'm interested, but this movie did keep my interest and made me want to see more. I could predict the ending, but that kind of ending is the sort of things one gets in morality tales.

Overall, I would agree with the score 9/10.

Glad you enjoyed it. I understand that it has since been remade, but in my experience remakes seldom live up to the originals.
The same is true of films such as The Glass Menagerie (1950) and All the KIng's Men (1949) both of which have been remade and fail miserably when compared to the originals where the acting and direction are outstanding.

Chance33

01-17-2014, 12:10 PM

Frozen- 8/10
A phenomenal come back for Disney. Didn't enjoy the newer stuff they've put out but this took me back to my childhood and is somewhat comparable to the classic Disney movies we all loved as kids.
Secret life of Walter Mitty- 3/10
I'm not much of a daydreamer and couldn't really sympathize with Ben Stiller's character. The end was a nice twist and that's the only reason why I'll give it a 3.
Wolf on Wall Street-4/10
Although borderline porn- more nudity then I ever would care to see, I did enjoy learning about the real life Jordan Belfort and his story. A good message is portrayed although I was disappointed in Scorsese for directing such a trashy movie.
Saving Mr. Banks- 5/10
An interesting but sad tale. Why is it Colin Farrell is always playing a shade-y character?
The Hobbit 2- 6/10
Too much action, and a terrible representation of the book, but standing alone it wasn't so bad and my only complaint was it could've been an hour shorter and accomplished the same thing.

Michael T

01-17-2014, 01:48 PM

I just watched Blue Is The Warmest Color.

WOW.

Has anyone else seen this? If so, I'd like to get your thoughts on it.

Hi there Lykren. Yes, I've just watched 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' and thought it was excellent (9/10) in most respects, but not without controversy and an avoidable imperfection that has tended to taint people's view of the film as a whole. I'll try to explain my feelings without giving too much away about a great piece of cinema that I would recommend without hesitation.

I personally can't remember watching a movie where I felt such empathy with the central character since Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blue from his celebrated Three Colours Trilogy produced in 1993 and starring Juliette Binoche.

I think that this has a lot to do with the film's intimacy. It is achieved through the marvellous close-up camera work of the director (Abdellatif Kechiche), and his concentration on the central character Adèle (played by the actress Adèle Exarchopoulos), although that changes somewhat during the second half of the film, returning again towards the end.

A lot of people I have talked to seem to regard the first half of the film as better than the second. I tend to disagree, feeling that the change, and there is one, is necessary as the camera pulls back to encompass the social and cultural pressures that affect any relationship over time. It's worth considering too, that Blue is the Warmest Colour was originally to be billed as La vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 (The life of Adele, chapters 1 & 2)

Before mentioning the movie's, for me anyway, controversial imperfection, it's worth mentioning also that there has been a lot of bad press associated with the film due to the director's treatment of the cast and crew during production. I firmly believe that those are separate issues, and should have no bearing on any critique of the film as a piece of artwork.

Now back to the movie itself, and what I see as it's imperfection, which is partially linked to the above comment...

Some of the sex scenes in the film, but not all, could have, and I believe, certainly should have been softer, more sympathetic to the tone of the rest of the film. Instead they appear to be more a portrayal of a male fantasy of lesbian sex, and are so out of character with the rest of the film that they become almost uncomfortable to watch - because you know the director is unwittingly destroying what could have been an almost perfect film.

Whilst I hesitate to label any piece of art as pornographic, a majority of those I have discussed the issue with - especially women - lean towards this label. It is also worth mentioning that Julie Maroh - the female author of the original French graphic novel - criticized the director's view/portrayal of lesbian sex.

Having said that, It's important to point out that we are talking about a couple of scenes, that are no more than a few minutes long, in a three hour film. if you haven't already, make sure you go and see this film. Blue is the Warmest Colour didn't win all those awards for nothing - and I, like Lykren, would also love to hear your views on the film! :coolgleamA:

Michael T

01-17-2014, 02:13 PM

Two other 'World Cinema' films that are very much worth seeing if you get the chance. Both are on the shortlist for an Oscar in the 'Foreign Language' category this year.

The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium :cool:

Lovely little film with a cracking 'Bluegrass' soundtrack!

The Great Beauty, Italy :cool:

A visual feast!

Helga

01-18-2014, 08:45 AM

Prince Avalanche- very good and based on a movie from the ice. Not a role you normally see Paul Rudd in but he was great. About silence and solitude, I think the first word spoken by a character in the movie was about 4 or 5 minuets in and it's often silent. I give it 8.5/10

YesNo

01-18-2014, 01:09 PM

The Family: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404311/

A family is placed under a witness protection program and has to be moved often because none of the family members behave themselves. Too many collateral good guys got killed in the final shoot out, but overall it lived up to its comedy listing.

Score: 9/10

SleepyWitch

01-19-2014, 07:01 AM

12 Years a Slave

10/10

Britworthink

01-19-2014, 07:21 AM

Sunset Boulevard

10/10

A fantastic film that I never got round to seeing until recently, such a shame it took me this long! Recommended to anyone who, like me, has somehow managed to avoid this masterpiece thus far..

YesNo

01-19-2014, 10:02 AM

Anything Else: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313792/

This is an old Woody Allen movie about a comedian (Jason Biggs) who is supporting an annoying agent (Danny DeVito) and a annoying girlfriend (Christina Ricci) as well as another comedian (Woody Allen), almost as annoying as the other two, and needs to break free, but isn't quite able to until the end.

Score: 8/10

Emil Miller

01-19-2014, 10:06 AM

Directed by the celebrated Marcel Carné, this is an unfortunate dud in a long list of successes.
Starring a very young Jacques Charrier and Jean Paul Belmondo it purports to show a picture of
rebellious French youth in the manner of the 'angry young man' and 'crazy mixed up kid' scenarios
of UK and US films of the 1950s.
An earnest young science student from the well-off right bank of the Seine gets pulled into a group
of youthful neerdowells who live off of their wits and spend all of their time cavorting around left
bank bars, but he finally comes to his senses when the girl he falls for is killed in a car crash.
The credits state that it was from 'an idea by Charles Spaak' but not, I'm afraid, a good one.
However, scenes of Paris are always worth watching and Pascale Petit, who plays the main female
interest, was an absolute sweetie. 4/10

Shalot

01-19-2014, 11:31 PM

(1/10)

I finished watching Jack Reacher today, which is available on both Netflix, and Amazon Prime, which means that if you pay the yearly fee to get free 2-day shipping from Amazon then you can also stream many of their movies and TV shows for *free* (as opposed to having to rent it for 4.99 for 24 hours).

Anyone who is familiar with Netflix and Amazon Prime knows that their selections consist of movies and shows that are generally a couple of years old (with few exceptions), and it seems like the worse a movie or show is, the sooner it becomes available. I could be wrong about this, but that's the way it seems to me. So, Jack Reacher was released in theaters in December 2012 and here we are in January 2014 and it's already available on Amazon Prime, and that seems like a quick turnaround to me, but I decided to give it a try anyway. Sometimes, movies that don't do so well in theaters turn out to be brilliant.

Now, the first sentence of this post was, "I finished watching Jack Reacher" today. That's because I started it a few nights ago, and couldn't finish it. I started it at night and was too tired to get very far into to it and hadn't seen enough to form an opinion, other than "Well, maybe this movie is the type that starts out slow, and gets better."

When I finally finished it I found out that it didn't get better - it never got better. But, it was so comically bad that I at least got some amusement out of it.

My husband saw that I had started watching it but didn't finish, and so he decided to watch it while I was at work and he sent me a couple of texts about it that pretty much tell you all you need to know:

"Unnecessary cleavage!" (he's not the type to gripe about cleavage)

"Jack Reacher is long, like one of those turds that wraps around the bowl."

And it is long. It is 2 long hours of really bad acting and stiff delivery. When I finally got around to finishing the movie, I was able to laugh out loud when I saw the unnecessary cleavage that my husband was referring to in his text, but I wouldn't tell anyone to watch this movie just to see how bad it was. I've seen better B movies. Also, I had no idea what his "Unnecessary cleavage!" text was about until I saw the movie, and that could have prompted my laughter more than anything.

I saw that Tom Cruise will be developing a sequel to this, which is just great, but he's Tom Cruise and he can do whatever he wants.

Helga

01-20-2014, 06:23 AM

'Hunger' simply 10, very very good

TheFifthElement

01-20-2014, 08:51 AM

(1/10)

I finished watching Jack Reacher today [...]"Jack Reacher is long, like one of those turds that wraps around the bowl."

Ha ha ha! That about sums it up. We watched Jack Reacher last week. It was long, tedious, implausible with rubbishy characterisation. A typical Tom Cruise film. Then this week we watched Oblivion which is basically Jack Reacher but with a futuristic setting and flying machines. Yawn.

Emil Miller

01-20-2014, 09:41 AM

Jean Gabin stars as Georges Simenon's iconic Inspector Maigret whose avuncular exterior conceals a steely resolve to bring criminals to justice in the French courts. In this case, the villains are a trio of American gangsters who arrive in Paris to kill a man who is a potential witness for the prosecution of a gangland boss in the USA. They manage to gun the man down in the street but the shooting is witnessed by a police officer who is amazed to see another car pick up the wounded man, leaving both the villains and the police stymied as to who has taken him or where he could have gone. Maigret's team at the Sûreté have the task of painstakingly tracking down the wounded man before the killers are able to find him.
Above average policier with Gabin giving a characteristically laid back performance. 8/10