What is the last movie you saw? and rate it.

[YesNo]

August: Osage County 9/10 I grew up in a town just a few miles from this setting, so this whole movie was like coming home for me. Even some of the family dynamic s. I thought everyone gave a good performance.


We saw this last night. My wife told me she read a review of the movie that said something like, "If you think your family's bad, wait till you watch this movie."

I would have expected that Barbara (played by Julia Roberts) would have weighed 100 pounds more than she did. Also, from my limited experienced, the problem of abusive people like Violet (played by Meryl Streep) is that they don't take their medication not that they deliberately drug themselves more than is necessary. Barbara's 14 year old daughter (played by Abigail Breslin) seemed in character when she wanted to watch some TV show rather than go to the funeral, but other than that she seemed too quiet. Her mouth should have been running more helping to wind up the anger her mother and grandmother were projecting on those unfortunate enough to be around them. Also the TV show would have been something like Spongebob not some old movie classic. I can't think of any teenager that would have wanted to watch that movie.

So, some of the plot didn't ring true to me, but my experience and imagination are limited. I can't deny that such abusiveness is real, but that doesn't mean I trust Tracy Lett's description of reality.

Score: 8/10

[Emil Miller]

Updated from the 1930s to the 50s, this is loosely based on Scott Fitzgerald's short story Babylon Revisited and has a stunningly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor as the daughter of Walter Pidgeon who plays an impoverished American living in Paris but refusing to give up living in the style to which he'd once been accustomed. Van Johnson is the American writer revisiting the city after some years when he was stationed there with the US army at the end of WWII and where he meets Taylor on the day that Paris is liberated. The story is told in flashback and recounts their marriage and Johnson's lapse into alcoholism when his novels are rejected. Both Taylor and Pidgeon give good performances and there are some amusing one-liners for the roguish father but Johnson's all at sea in his part and unconvincing as the writer. Eva Gabor plays herself as a much married gold digger and Donna Reed is good as Taylor's embittered sister who wanted Johnson for herself in this glossy romantic family saga typical of the 1950s. 7/10

[Emil Miller]

In seven episodes this takes some viewing but holds interest by virtue of its convoluted plot.
The problem is that spy stories had been done to death by 1979 and, to my mind, the film no longer carried conviction despite some excellent supporting roles to Alec Guinness's rather bland performance.
Having the head of British intelligence as an aged and rather prissy academic who collects old books while performing mental gymnastics with his Russian counterpart mirrors the eccentric Sherlock Holmes's struggle against the evil Moriarty, so the scenario is somewhat motheaten. 6/10

[papayahed]

Lone Ranger - It was entertaining, but I'm torn. I like the quirkiness of the movie Tonto but at the same time it bums me out that it isn't true to the TV series.

[Paulclem]

I watched a documentary film called Restrepo about US Marines and their battles in a remote valley in Afghanistan. It had the usual chaotic combat footage and scenes of marines relaxing in a sressful position.

What was really striking ws the understandable grief they felt when one of their comrades was killed in a Taliban attack, which contrasted with their significantly blaze attitude to female civilian deaths and children casualties, which they witnessed.

Another thing that really struck me was how a young Captain - 30 maybe - was expected to negotiate with Afghan elders when he clearly had no idea about the culture, and admitted at the beginning of the film that he had not read up on it in order to keep an open mind. You couldn't blame this chap, but the really shortsighted political policies that whoever was runing the campaign were using.

Very illuminating.

[qimissung]

I'd like to see that one sometime, Paul. It looks really interesting. It's just that things with a lot of death in them are hard to watch. For me anyway.

The Spectacular Now. A relatively realistic coming of age story, by which I mean it is not in the vein of John Hughes, as celebrated as they are.

Also Ran, the brilliant, stately, despairing, tragic tale of a Japanese warlord who is betrayed by his sons. Based on Japanese legends and King Lear.

[Emil Miller]

This has Kirk Douglas as a master criminal planning to rob an giant insurance company in Hamburg.
Apart from some ludicrous fight scenes and a silly car chase involving maximum destruction, there is the nail
biting robbery involving high tech gadgetry which Douglas and his accomplice pull off until the inevitable double cross blows the whole thing out of the water.
It's alway a shame to see class actors like Douglas reduced to the rubbish of the seventies and beyond, even though they still manage to give of their best. 6/10

[Snowqueen]

I watched Prisoners last week, it was quite violent at times but overall it was a good film. I really liked Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance. 7/10

[Emil Miller]

Being a great cat person, I watched this enjoyable documentary about felines. They really are the most enigmatic
creatures and also the most beautiful. 9/10

http://youtu.be/izqCgnEEKwc

[qimissung]

The Act of Killing, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. 9/10 This was a truly excellent documentary. In the end it was somewhat disturbing, but rarely have I seen a movie or read a book that shows the layers of good and evil in human beings like this one did.

[YesNo]

2 Guns

This is the story of two undercover agents from different organizations who try to do the right thing while the bad guys keep popping up all over the place. The scene with the chickens is gross, totally unexpected at least from my limited experience, and I can't forget it.

Score: 10/10

[Snowqueen]

I watched Liberal Arts last night and enjoyed it a lot. Josh Radnor was really funny throughout and I think he was superb as an actor, director, and writer. This movie took me back to my years in college. 7/10

[Lokasenna]

I went to see Inside Llewyn Davis last night. Astonishingly good film, and one of the Coen brothers' finest outings - very much in the vein of their earlier A Serious Man, which is quite possibly my favourite film.

[Helga]

The Lego movie with my son. I do understand why it's so popular, it is probably the best 'kids' movie I have seen. I put kids in brackets cause I think I had more fun than my son. This is the best version of Batman I have seen, and I have seen most if not all of them. His song about depression and being an orphan was very funny.

Another part of the movie was how great it's beginning was showing cameras all over and directions about how to live your life, a small 1984 vibe.

[Michael T]

I went to see Inside Llewyn Davis last night. Astonishingly good film, and one of the Coen brothers' finest outings - very much in the vein of their earlier A Serious Man, which is quite possibly my favourite film.

Hi there Lokasenna, I'm looking forward to watching Inside Liewyn Davies myself so I'm pleased to read your recommendation. :smile5:

The last film I watched was The Wolf of Wall Street. One of the most morally bankrupt and misogynistic films I can remember watching. Cracking fun though, and a cool 9/10 rating from me. Leonardo DiCaprio is surely the new king of Hollywood. :cool:

[YesNo]

I enjoyed The Wolf of Wall Street as well.

Last night I saw Last Vegas. Four friends go to Las Vegas for a wedding and bachelor party and have some adventures and get to know each other better even thought they have known each other for the past 60 years.

Score: 7/10

[YesNo]

About Time

This was an "extraordinary ordinary" movie and the best one I've seen about time travel.

Here is the theme song written by Mike Scott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSgU0gNL2Ac

Score: 10/10

[YesNo]

Love Actually

After watching "About Time", I looked through the library for other work by Richard Curtis and found "Love Actually". What I liked about this movie and the other one was the way ordinary events and people presented initially in a humorous way get resolved as the movie progresses. One stops laughing at the characters and starts empathizing with them.

Score 10/10

[Emil Miller]

Directed by Daniel Mann from the William Inge stage success, this won an academy award as best actress for Shirley Booth who had starred in the original play.
It’s the story of a frowzy middle-aged housewife whose husband failed in his ambition to become a doctor when very young due to his girl friend becoming pregnant. The baby didn’t survive and this put a strain on their marriage that drove the husband to alcoholism that he eventually overcame through Alcoholics Anonymous.
When they decide to let a room in their house to a girl college student, the sexual liaison she has with a young man brings back memories of the older couple’s loss and the husband is hospitalised after turning to drink and attacking his wife.
As a study in psychological repression it could hardly be bettered and Shirley Booth gives an outstanding performance as the doting wife desperately trying to hang on to the memories that her husband is trying to forget.
Burt Lancaster is also superb as the husband and gives of his best in a career that contained many outstanding performances.

10/10

[Emil Miller]

To say that Stanley Kowalski is uncouth would be a euphemism but he is content living
a low-life existence with his wife Stella in a sleazy area of New Orleans.
Into this situation comes Stella's sister Blanche, a faded southern belle dispossessed of
the family home and with nowhere else to go, whose exaggerated gentility proves a volatile
counterpart to Stanley's brutal directness; but although disgusted by Stanley, she is nevertheless
physically attracted to him. Her genteel manner, however, conceals a cupboardful of skeletons that include suicide and nymphomania.
After a series of explosive altercations, Stanley rapes Blanche while Stella is in hospital having a baby.
Stanley's best friend Mitch is more of a gentleman and has become Blanche's suitor but Stanley has discovered
the unsavoury nature of Blanche's past and reveals it to Mitch who then rejects her.
Already bordering on insanity, this tips Blanche over the edge and she is confined to a mental institution.

This is familiar Tennessee Williams territory and the cast occupy it with bravura performances; especially Marlon
Brando who gives an outstanding display of acting that transforms him visibly into the character of Stanley.

http://youtu.be/YBJ_u2ExjmY

[Snowqueen]

I watched We're the Millers with my cousins last week and enjoyed every minute of it. Jason Studeikis was hilarious and so was Jennifer Aniston. 7/10
Also saw a couple of Oscar nominated films this year, but I was really disappointed because they were both equally bad.

[YesNo]

I enjoyed The Millers as well. It's at the 7/10 level.

Earlier this week I rented Machete Kills and Austenland. It was 2 for $1 rental at the library.

I wasn't expecting much from either one, but my first dilemma was which to watch first? I picked Machete Kills and with all the over-the-top violence after the first 10 minutes, I wondered if it should not have been Austenland. But the violence was so outrageous it was comical although still pretty gross. And it did have Lady Gaga in it.

The next night I saw Austenland. It was very romantic. The girl was chased to the airport not by one misunderstood lover but by two. One of them even chased her back to the US. I wished I hadn't returned Machete Kills to the library since I needed something to cut through the sentimentality, but then I sat back and thought. Both of these movies were light entertainment for people like me who have nothing better to do and I asked myself: did they deliver? Yes, they did. They were entertaining. I'm glad someone bothered to make them. What's more, I got my 50 cents worth for each of them.

So, keeping that in mind, the score for both: 7/10

[Ecurb]

I saw Hayao Miyasaki's "The Wind Rises" the other day. It's an animated film about an aeronautical engineer. Miyasaki has had a continuing fascination with aviation, and "The Wind Rises" represents his swan song (unless he comes out of retirement). It's beautiful, set in the pre WW2 Japan, and filled with soft, elegant colors. If it's still in a theater near you, go and see it. You won't be disappointed.

As with many animated films (and some live action films), it won't translate well to TV. It's probably not even worth renting or taking out of the library. Seeing it on TV would be comparable to taking "Art Treasures of the Prado" out of the library, instead of seeing the originals in Madrid.

The film details the life of Jiro, an aeronautical engineer who designed the Zero. It focuses on his obsession with flying -- an obsession that mirrors that of the director. Nonetheless, the flying scenes aren't as moving as the scenes of the Japaneses countryside, or the love story between our engineer and a dying girl.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you
But when the leaves are trembling
The wind is passing through. (The Rosetti poem is quoted in the film, and, I hope correctly, here).

[Emil Miller]

I don't normally comment on LitNet film reviews, but sometimes one feels impelled to draw attention to the salient features of an unusual post.
In this case, I have boldened those that struck me as being the most significant.



I enjoyed The Millers as well. It's at the 7/10 level.

Earlier this week I rented Machete Kills and Austenland. It was 2 for $1 rental at the library. I wasn't expecting much from either one, but my first dilemma was which to watch first? I picked Machete Kills and with all the over-the-top violence after the first 10 minutes, I wondered if it should not have been Austenland. But the violence was so outrageous it was comical although still pretty gross. And it did have Lady Gaga in it. The next night I saw Austenland. It was very romantic. The girl was chased to the airport not by one misunderstood lover but by two. One of them even chased her back to the US. I wished I hadn't returned Machete Kills to the library since I needed something to cut through the sentimentality, but then I sat back and thought. Both of these movies were light entertainment for people like me who have nothing better to do and I asked myself: did they deliver? Yes, they did. They were entertaining. I'm glad someone bothered to make them. What's more, I got my 50 cents worth for each of them.

So, keeping that in mind, the score for both: 7/10

[qimissung]

I saw The Wind Rises last week, Ecurb. I enjoyed it. I really liked the scenes with the young lady he fell in love with and the animated look at pre-war Japan.

I also watched Austenland a few weeks ago, YesNo. I liked it. A pretty average script. Yet another woman deluded by the idea of romantic love. Are there really so many of those around?

[Snowqueen]

I've seen just two animated movies by Hayao Miyasaki - Howls Moving Castle and Spirited Away and they were very good specially Spirited Away. I look forward to watch The Wind Risestoo.

I saw The Gift last night with a big cast and it wasn't bad. 6/10

[YesNo]

Glad the review prompted your response, Emil Miller. I figure if there weren't characters like those in Austenland, qimissung, we'd have to create them. I saw Spirited Away long ago, Snowqueen and Ecurb. It still sticks in my mind. I think I'll have to skip the comedy section in the library for a while and look at some anime movies.

I saw three movies last week:

Sightseers: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2023690/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Alice Lowe's performance is what makes this stand out. I liked the expression on her face when she (Tina) watches her new boyfriend kill a couple people he figures shouldn't continue to breathe anymore and how you can see the wheels turning in her brain as she makes sense out of it. If you find this gets a bit boring because all they are doing is pushing people over cliffs or running them over in their camper, hang on till the end. It is unusual. Tina was a quick learner.

Score: 6/10

The Angel's Share: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1924394/?ref_=nv_sr_1

This one has more realistic violence than what you find in Sightseers. I liked Paul Brannigan's portrayal of Robbie as well as the plot surrounding this character. Robbie is caught between physically harassive stalkers and he gets into situations where he thinks he is defending himself only to find he has harmed innocent people. He needs a job because he is a new father and his father-in-law just wants him out of the way. Robbie handled himself better than I would in the circumstances.

Score: 9/10 (maybe 10/10)

Afternoon Delight: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2312890/?ref_=nv_sr_1

This is about a wife, Rachel, who has multiple problems which makes for a delightful story. She takes in a stripper, McKenna, to try to help her out. Actually, McKenna doesn't really need any help, but she goes along for the ride helping Rachel. Rachel is also seeing a shrink, or counselor or whatever you call them. Toward the end of the movie, this shrink performs an hilarious routine on the couch with Rachel. Perhaps it is a brand new therapeutic technique? Whatever, it knocks some sense into Rachel and everyone lives happily ever after as they are supposed to.

Score: 8/10

[Emil Miller]

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard this is a very French film and very much of its time.
The cast consists largely of the strikingly beautiful Macha Méril and her husband and lover.
She has a son but her husband is a pilot who is often away and that is when she has assignations
with her lover who is a stage actor. She is thinking of divorcing her husband but when she discovers
she is pregnant, she decides that an acting engagement that will take the lover away to Marseille gives
her a chance to break with him and return to her husband.
The story is told in random conversations and actions very much à la mode at the time but I doubt that
it would be acceptable today except to serious film buffs.

7/10


http://youtu.be/g3_Z3vsdjKk

[LitNetIsGreat]

Chess Fever.

A brilliant 1925 Russian silent film about chess. It is just a short, under 30 mins but well worth a watch. It is about a society addicted to chess and how one young man's obsession with it nearly ruins his love life. Features some rare real footage of some old great players from a 1925 tournament, such as Lasker and Capablanca. Very funny and well shot.

9/10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLnn4K8g354

[MorpheusSandman]

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard this is a very French film and very much of its time... I doubt that
it would be acceptable today except to serious film buffs.I love Godard, but that is not one of his better films. Godard never WAS acceptable to anyone besides film buffs (except maybe for his first 2 or 3 features) because his entire cinema was built around subverting cinema (and culture) itself in a very postmodern way. That said, there's been no filmmaker more influential in the last 50 years (which is why he's #5 on TSP's Top 250 list (http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_top250directors.htm), along with tying the great John Ford for the most films on their Top 1000) and even filmmakers that work in completely different modes, like Tarantino, owe almost all of their freedom to Godard and the French New Wave. Trying to write about a Godard film with a plot summary is rarely worthwhile as his plots are usually just skeletons that his aesthetics and intellectual ideas hang on. A Married Woman is really one of his lighter works from that era, colorful and fun, but lacking the originality of his truly great 60s films (and he had a handful of them: Breathless, Contempt, Pierrot le fou, Weekend, Alphaville, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, Masculin/Feminin, Vivre sa vie).

[Emil Miller]

Chess Fever.

A brilliant 1925 Russian silent film about chess. It is just a short, under 30 mins but well worth a watch. It is about a society addicted to chess and how one young man's obsession with it nearly ruins his love life. Features some rare real footage of some old great players from a 1925 tournament, such as Lasker and Capablanca. Very funny and well shot.

9/10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLnn4K8g354

An interesting film that satirises the Russian fascinaton with chess that was being actively encouraged by the soviet regime as a form of intellectual stimulation of the public following the revolution. V.I Pudovkin was one of the founders of soviet cinema who went on to make films of a somewhat more serious nature.

[YesNo]

I saw a couple Hayao Miyasaki anime movies last week:

1) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087544/

Nausicaä is a princess who turns into the hero whom the world has been waiting for for a thousand years. You sort of expect this from the beginning once you know that the community has given up on the hero ever appearing and you see how Nausicaä behaves.

Score: 9/10

2) Ponyo: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Here's a fish who causes a lot of trouble just to become human. She is already quite nice the way she is. The most interesting character is her mother who is a goddess of some sort. She reminds me of the Hindu Lakshmi rising out of the churning ocean.

Score: 9/10

[Iain Sparrow]

I saw The Grey Zone last weekend... where Schindler's List has moments of tender humanity, The Grey Zone only marches on to certain conclusion.

I can't remember watching a movie so devoid of hope, not even a pretense of hope. If you think you can take it, then I recommend the film.

[MorpheusSandman]

I saw a couple Hayao Miyasaki anime movies last week:I adore Miyazaki, but neither are favorites. Nausicaa is beautiful in its own way, but Ponyo seems a decidedly minor effort. I'd give the former an 8.5 and the latter a 7.5.

[TheFifthElement]

I adore Miyazaki, but neither are favorites. Nausicaa is beautiful in its own way, but Ponyo seems a decidedly minor effort. I'd give the former an 8.5 and the latter a 7.5.
I agree Morpheus, both are lesser Miyazaki works. Nausicaa is Mononoke-light with Mononoke, I think, being a much more fleshed out and beautifully done version of the same kind of story. Ponyo I saw at the cinema and disliked, but it has since grown on me considerably. It is a nice rendering of the Little Mermaid story, Japanese style of course. Pretty, but not a master work.

My personal favourites are Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. I also have a fondness for My Neighbour Totoro, which is such a heartwarming story. Oh, and Kiki's Delivery Service, that's sweet too. Haven't seen The Wind Rises yet as it's not out in UK until May, but I can't wait.

[MorpheusSandman]

My three favorite Miyazakis are Mononoke, Totoro, and Spirited Away, with Castle in the Sky a close 4th. Most of Miyazaki's grow on you, I've found. I too liked Ponyo more the second time around, though, as we agree, it's still short of a master work. Nausicaa very much does seem to be a "tune up" for Monoke.

[YesNo]

I'll probably pick up a couple more Miyazaki anime movies at the library this morning. I didn't expect the animation to be so realistic.

[MorpheusSandman]

I didn't expect the animation to be so realistic.I don't think I'd call them realistic in the slightest, though definitely artistic. If you want "realistic" anime, try Grave of the Fireflies, which, IMO, is better than any single Miyazaki film.

[kev67]

I just watched Under the Skin at the cinema. I was the only one in the auditorium. Just as well, as it is uncomfortable viewing. I kept wanting to do some press-ups to relieve the tension.

[TheFifthElement]

I don't think I'd call them realistic in the slightest, though definitely artistic. If you want "realistic" anime, try Grave of the Fireflies, which, IMO, is better than any single Miyazaki film.
Oh I agree, Grave of the Fireflies is in a class of its own. I've only been able to watch it once because cry, cry, sob, cry. It should come with a box of tissues and a hotline for counselling after you've watched it. My son, who watched it with me, also sobbed at the end. It is a very powerful piece of movie-making.

I still like Spirited Away better though :)

Last movie I watched was The Woman in Black. Best part was watching Ciaran Hinds' incredulous expression as he watched Daniel Radcliffe trying to act. More boring than the book. Full of cliches. Yawn. 3/10.

[Calidore]

I loved Princess Mononoke, but only liked Spirited Away. I still haven't seen Nausicaa, but I have the manga, and that's excellent.

I liked The Woman in Black a lot, but I'm also a big fan of old-school ghost stories to begin with.

[YesNo]

I just watched Howl's Moving Castle: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347149/

Score: 8/10

[Lykren]

I just finished Grave of the Fireflies, and yes, it was oh so sad and beautiful.

[MorpheusSandman]

I just finished Grave of the Fireflies, and yes, it was oh so sad and beautiful.It's in my Top 20 for a reason.

[Calidore]

Since we're on anime...

It's not a movie, but those of you who like cyberpunk and unraveling symbolism should check out the 13-episode anime series Serial Experiments: Lain. All the reviews I read said the same thing: It's slow and weird, but has lots of good ideas and depth. I've watched it twice so far and enjoyed it a lot both times. The opening sequence gives a pretty good idea of the look and feel (nice song, too).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9CXmEUwvgM

[MorpheusSandman]

Serial Experiments Lain is quite good, but I think it's a tad overrated. I think it hints towards more than it actually offers, and feel the strongest aspect is its expressionistic, surreal visuals. The other two Ueda/ABe series (Haibane Renmei and Texhnolyze) are far superior, IMO.

[YesNo]

Bad Grandpa: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3063516/

Don't watch this movie.

Just kidding. I'm tempted to watch it again, now that I saw it on display in the library. The first time I saw it with my wife. I'm glad she picked it out and not me. It is a little gross and I didn't realize at first that not all the people in the movie knew they were part of a movie until it was over. There is a diner scene that I did not expect and another when the grandpa was sitting in the driver's seat, parked, waiting for something and pounding on the steering wheel as if it were a drum to the music on the radio.

I'm easily entertained.

Score: 10/10

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Last weekend I watched the 1962 classic The Day of the Triffids (TDOTT)after stumbling upon it while searching for trailer to The Brain That Wouldn't Die (for the bad movie thread.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055894/

TDOTT was vaguely familiar to me, a movie I recall seeing during my formative years.
6/10 - any movie that starts with rogue meteorites instigating a bunch of trouble, automatically starts with at least a 5 on my scale.
it's spring time here, time to keep an eye on those those bloomin flowers.

[Emil Miller]

Last weekend I watched the 1962 classic The Day of the Triffids (TDOTT)after stumbling upon it while searching for trailer to The Brain That Wouldn't Die (for the bad movie thread.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055894/

TDOTT was vaguely familiar to me, a movie I recall seeing during my formative years.
6/10 - any movie that starts with rogue meteorites instigating a bunch of trouble, automatically starts with at least a 5 on my scale.
it's spring time here, time to keep an eye on those those bloomin flowers.


I ordered some clematis plants from a garden centre and the guy said they are putting on a foot a week now that the planting season is here. In reading about this film, I'm beginning to wonder if he actually meant real feet. At the moment they are standing in two buckets of water and I'm thinking it might be better to leave them there rather than plant them: especially as some varieties reach 40ft in height.

[Aere Perennius]

Deleted

[Emil Miller]

This filmed version of Nigel Balchin's novel about an embittered civilian explosives' expert who has lost a foot defusing an explosive device and who is part of a small group of scientists assessing weapons for the British government during WWII, was directed by the eminent Powell & Pressburger team. It's a very good example of how Britain relied on brainpower as well as firepower in wartime. It's also a human drama that shows how, even in during a war, politicians seek to enhance their own status at the expense of the war effort. The Germans are dropping booby-trapped bombs that look perfectly innocuous but the main character in the film, who is strongly reliant on whiskey, decides to undertake the dismantling of one of the devices after an army officer colleague has been killed in a similar attempt. Forget storming the beaches while chewing a cigar, this is the other side of war and a lot more believable. 10/10

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

I ordered some clematis plants...
...they are putting on a foot a week...
...At the moment they are standing in two buckets of water...


Just add some salt..hold on...SPOILER ALERT...to the water.





It turns out salt water was the triffids' Achilles heel so the speak.

[Emil Miller]

Just add some salt..hold on...SPOILER ALERT...to the water.


It turns out salt water was the triffids' Achilles heel so the speak.


Too late! They are already planted but I shall be keeping an eye on those long tendrils that are the hallmark of clematis.

[Snowqueen]

I just watched Howl's Moving Castle: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347149/

Score: 8/10

I saw it last year and gave it 7/10. It's quite good.

I've been watching some BBC Documentaries recently and immensely enjoyed these series. If you guys have teeny-tiny interest in the wildlife (like me) then I would recommend Africa: Eye to eye with the unknown. It is an amazing ride into the untouched wilderness - 9/10.
Now I long to visit Africa.

Also watched Himalayas (The Natural World) although there was no reference to K2 or Nanga Parbat, but it revealed the lives of beautiful animals like snow leopards and markhors. It gets 8/10.

Today saw Earth (2007) it was good but there was something missing (David Attenborough I guess :D). 7/10

[qimissung]

Do you mean the one called Planet Earth, Snowqueen? Which has Sigourney Weaver instead of the omnipresent David Attenborough (:D) That was beautiful, so gorgeous. Made me want to get to see any part of the world besides where I am now.

[Snowqueen]

I haven't seen Planet Earth yet. The one I saw is just Earth and here is the link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393597/

[qimissung]

It's made by the same people, as far as I can tell. I'll give it a look see one of these days, Snowqueen.

[qimissung]

Under the Skin. 9/10 I loved this movie. That said, it's unlikely I'll watch it again. It's not really the kind of thing you watch over and over. Particularly the scene with the baby, which is difficult to watch and haunting. But I'm really glad I saw it. I found this link to a series of discussions with the various people who were involved in making it; rather fascinating reading.

http://www.film4.com/special-features/interviews/under-the-skin-casting

[Whosis]

Captain America The Winter Soldier, 8/10; really picked up until halfway through, then it just died into what every other superhero movie is.

[YesNo]

Barefoot: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2355495/

Two nuts who aren't all that nutty, although they both looked nutty to me, meet in a mental hospital and have an adventure and grow up. The girl hates wearing shoes. The best scene was when the guy tries to ditch her, but then goes back for her, arriving just as she despairs of ever seeing him again.

Score: 8/10

[qimissung]

Only Lovers Left Alive directed by Jim Jarmusch, with Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston. I give it a 9/10. I really enjoyed it. Not a lot of action, but very stylish. The two main characters played these very humane vampires-is that an oxymoron?

[arctic bunny]

Grand Budapest Hotel, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Emil Miller]

This film has the unbelievable casting of Dirk Bogarde as a Mexican bandit and John Bentley as the local police chief. It's a stereotypical story of good versus evil when a new priest, played by John mills, is sent to a small Mexican town under the control of the bandit's gang.
The issue is complicated by the local lollipop ( Mylene Demongeot) who falls for the priest, and the bandit's barely disguised homosexual attraction to him as well. It's possibly the most camp of Mexican dramas with the actors speaking in well modulated English with no concession to whom they are supposed to be portraying. Dirk Bogarde dressed in tight black leather trousers has to be seen to be believed.

British director Roy Ward Baker makes the best of a film that he initially had doubts about; suggesting, ironically, that it should have been given to Luis Buñuel but he does manage to create some acceptable visuals among the general banality.

4/10

[YesNo]

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359950/

Although the name Walter Mitty sounded familiar, it wasn't until I saw the movie and then read James Thurber's short story that I could finally put these pieces of the puzzle together. Here's a movie that made me want to read the original story underlying it.

Score: 9/10

[Sancho]

Ping-Pong Playa

It's just a fun formula comedy - the sort of movie that insomniacs like myself like to Netflix at 2 in the morning. But this one was a standout based on the performance of the lead actor, Jimmy Tsai. He also wrote it.

It's about a young Chinese-American guy, C-dubs, living in L.A., or more likely up in the valley, donno, somewhere around there. Anyway, C-dubs has an infatuation with basketball. It's his identity. He lives and breaths basketball. He's affected a trash-talking ghetto speak that's hilarious coming from a Chinese guy. The problem is, well, basketball is not in his blood, and he's not built for it, height wise (he's a Chinese guy for Christ's sake). He's a star on the court for pickup games with 12-year-olds, and the kids absolutely love the guy - he's a charismatic fellow. But he is starting to be alienated from his family and the greater Chinese-American community, a group of people with whom ping-pong is an important sport. So I guess you could say Ping-Pong is in C-dub's blood... I think you see where this is going.

Anyhow, the movie was great fun. Probably not up for an Oscar, but El Sancho certainly enjoyed it.

Score 11 to zip

[YesNo]

Thor, the Dark World: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981115/

The plot was hard to follow. There's a concurrence, alignment of worlds, or something weird happening that beams out of the sky and monkeys with gravity. However, whatever it is and no matter how hopeless, you know the good guys are gonna win and the end will have an opening to make Thor 3. I find it hard to see people fighting with swords and futuristic laser guns at the same time.

Thor's hammer is strange. You would think there would be more to it. I thought Loki got his just reward this time, but I won't spoil the movie.

There were some romantic parts such as the two interns getting together and Thor sensing some jealousy when someone his girlfriend dated called her and his girlfriend greeting both Thor and Loki with slaps across their faces. There was also some tension with another female who wanted Thor, but this wasn't developed. Although, these romantic parts were humorous, they didn't provide enough comic relief nor enough heartfelt interest to balance the fighting.

But the main question I'm left with is: how are the bad guys gonna see if they take away the light?

Score: 5/10

[YesNo]

Superman II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_II:_The_Richard_Donner_Cut

Now this movie, unlike Thor The Dark World, had all the pieces in place: humor, romance and people getting their butts kicked.

Comparing the two, one can see that the technology in creating illusions has improved over the past three decades.

Score: 8/10

[RobbyA]

Does the RSC Live streaming of Henry IV Part 1 count? It's the last thing I saw at the cinema and I guess it was filmed in a way that made it more movie-esque, ie. Not filmed from one fixed viewpoint as you'd see it from your seat in the theatre, but with multiple camera angles, zoom-ins etc. Really interesting concept, fantastic play.

9/10

[YesNo]

My favorite way to "read" Shakespeare is to watch a video of the play, RobbyA. I haven't seen Henry IV, either part yet.

Last night I watched The Hobbit the Desolation of Smaug: http://www.thehobbit.com/

The scenery was beautiful, but I wasn't clear about the plot. There were a lot of nice parts with orcs getting killed and some romance between a dwarf and an elf guard that provided some relief to the killing. It was definitely better than the last Thor movie I saw, but I was too confused. Why did Gandalf have to go off and leave the dwarfs to go through that wierd forest with the spiders and elves alone?

Score: 6/10

[Snowqueen]

I saw The Ledge last night – a drama thriller. It wasn't so bad. The story of Gavin and Shana seemed a bit absurd, specially the way it ended. Overall the plot was gripping. 6/10

[YesNo]

American Hustle

It was hard to follow just what what going on, but the characters were enjoyable.

Score: 9/10

Raising Arizona

Wonderful movie.

Score: 10/10

[Calidore]

Raising Arizona

Wonderful movie.

Score: 10/10

Classic. Since you liked this, you might also like Kung Fu Hustle, which has a similar live-action Warner Brothers cartoon feel to it.

The first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies are still tremendous fun. I liked some things about Man of Steel, but I think overall it paled in comparison.

[YesNo]

Kung Fu Hustle is in the library! I'll check it out tomorrow.

[YesNo]

Kung Fu Hustle: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373074/

Entertaining and original. Sometimes I couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys. The subtitle on the edition I watched read "From walking disaster to kung fu master" which was cute. There was an unromantic romantic theme that resolved itself in the end.

Score: 9/10

[Calidore]

Kung Fu Hustle: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373074/

Entertaining and original. Sometimes I couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys. The subtitle on the edition I watched read "From walking disaster to kung fu master" which was cute. There was an unromantic romantic theme that resolved itself in the end.

Score: 9/10

Glad you liked it! Then I feel safe in recommending Stephen Chow's previous movie, Shaolin Soccer.

[YesNo]

OMG. The library has Shaolin Soccer as well.

I tried watching Zatoichi at Large and fell asleep. Zatoichi is a blind samurai. It is so far so over the top of my expectations of what either anime or any video should look like that my score is still ?/10.

[JanVanHogspeuw]

Godzilla (2014) - some nice directing touches, but probably one of the worst scripts of any blockbuster I've ever seen - and that's saying something.

[Calidore]

I tried watching Zatoichi at Large and fell asleep. Zatoichi is a blind samurai. It is so far so over the top of my expectations of what either anime or any video should look like that my score is still ?/10.

I've never seen any of the Zatoichi movies, though I know they're hugely popular in Japan. I think my father has seen some of them and recommended them.

Fun fact: Shintaro Katsu, who played Zatoichi in the original Zatoichi films, was the younger brother of Tomisaburo Wakayama, who played protagonist Itto Ogami in the concurrently-running Lone Wolf and Cub movies.

[prendrelemick]

The Dambusters. I'd forgotten what a great movie it is. It just tells the story, no annoying token characters, no contrived comedy moments, no added on love interest. And the sound track, no annoying music overlaying the action, just those heavy merlin engines droning ominously. an absolute classic.

[Emil Miller]

The Dambusters. I'd forgotten what a great movie it is. It just tells the story, no annoying token characters, no contrived comedy moments, no added on love interest. And the sound track, no annoying music overlaying the action, just those heavy merlin engines droning ominously. an absolute classic.

Yes it's a marvellous war film that gets to the heart of what aerial warfare is about but if you think it's a classic, watch The Way to the Stars ( the RAF's motto 'Per ardua ad astra') for the human story behind bomber command's pilots and crews. Made while the war was still being fought, it has a stupendous cast of actors and a first rate director in Anthony Asquith, son of the former Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith.

[YesNo]

I saw three very different comedies:

Shaolin Soccer, that Calidore recommended. This had a lot of wild soccer action, but the most entertaining part was the relationship between the girl who made buns and the poor kung fu soccer leader.

Score: 8/10

Neighbors: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2004420/

This was about a family with an infant child who found out a hard partying fraternity had just moved in next door. They crossed the line so many times in trying to get the fraternity to keep the noise down, that, if there are any bad guys in this movie, it was that couple. This is not to say the fraternity members were saints. The only reason they moved in was because they burnt their last house down.

Score: 7/10

A Million Ways to Die in the West: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557490/?ref_=nv_sr_1

This one was truly wonderful. However, being in the theater with only 20 other people on Friday evening made me think this was going to be as bad as Johnny Depp's Transcendence, but right from the beginning it delivered the expected entertainment value.

Score: 9/10

[Hwo Thumb]

Treasure planet! 2002 movie has aged pretty darn well! I forgot how good it is.

8/10 They could have done more with the cyborg's moral ambiguity. As it stands, he just sort of spontaneously bounces back and forth between good and bad. Also, the movie only needed 1 comic sidekick, and the robot was obnoxious. The art was actually really good, but something bothered me about the main character. His eyes were off; either too small or too high or something. (Also, his scar randomly shifts to different sides of his face) But hey, cool aliens, space pirates, and LITERAL spaceships! I need to go back and rewatch all the Disney movies.

[AuntShecky]

Hugo by Martin Scorsese **** Story, set design, lighting, acting, everything. Best picture spouse and I have seen in years.

Flight by ? (Zemekis?) Excellent acting by Denzel Washington ***1/2

[Emil Miller]

This is no match for the 1946 American version but is worth watching for its curiosity value. The action is shifted to England but the storyline remains essentially the same with an ageing Robert Mitchum playing the hard-boiled expat private eye Philip Marlowe, supported by a stellar cast of British actors who are not best served by Michael Winner's somewhat ham-fisted direction.
To be fair, the plot is very convoluted and quite unbelievable and Mitchum is too old to make a creditable ladies man although he is quite convincing as the laconic detective with a conscience.

7/10

[YesNo]

Home Fries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Fries_(film)

It amazes me how cute Drew Barrymore is although she's not everyone's Angelina Jolie.

Anyway, the plot of boy meets girl starts with the boy finding out the hard way that the girl is his step-father's lover and pregnant. It's hard to make things right since he and his wacko brother, egged on by his even wackier mother, have just given his step father a heart attack by pretending to shoot him in a military helicopter and those two now want to do worse to her.

Score: 9/10

[Emil Miller]

Once again Robert Mitchum takes on the part of Philip Marlowe in another filmed adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novel.
Set in Los Angeles it involves Mitchum in the search for a recently released prisoner's girlfriend whom he hasn't seen since being sent down for seven years following a robbery. There are the usual shenanigans involving thuggery and double dealing, with a surprise ending that's impossible to guess although it does explain all of the confusing elements of the story.
Mitchum is good in this type of role where his world weary cynical private eye act helps to carry the improbability of the plot. Sylvester Stallone ( dare I say Sly?) has a bit part as a thug, and the femme fatale is Charlotte Rampling who, given her propensity for disporting her minuscule superstructure in numerous supposedly glamorous roles, would be more appropriately named Charlotte Dumplings.


7/10

[Lykren]

I'm sick and don't have the energy to do anything but watch movies, so that's what I'm doing. So far I've watched Akira (so-so) and The Wind Rises, which was fantastic. I haven't cried in a few years, but that one almost got me going. It wasn't a tearjerker though, it was a very subtle movie.

[Lykren]

Spirit of the Beehive. What the hell. You're not supposed to be able to make a movie that good.

[YesNo]

Authors Anonymous: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2114461/

This movie is a good reason not to join a writers' group. All these characters messed up, but it looked like Henry Obert (played by Chris Klein) messed up the least. He seemed to be the only one who should have been published, but listening to the plot of his novel, I don't think I'd want to read it.

Score: 6/10

[YesNo]

Saving Mr. Banks: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140373/

This is the story behind the creation of Disney's Mary Poppins movie. "Let's Go Fly A Kite" and "Tuppence a Bag" now have added meaning for me because of this movie.

Score: 10/10

[Lykren]

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring. This was a very, very good movie.

[YesNo]

Red Lights: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748179/

This is about people trying to disprove paranormal events and then running right into a closet psychic. It didn't make a lot of sense and I was unable to empathize with the characters although the plot was cute.

Score: 3/10

High Anxiety: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076141/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

A shrink who is afraid of heights resolves a murder mystery, gets cured of his fear of heights and gets the girl. It was sort of funny.

Score: 3/10

I must be in a depressed mood to give out 3s so easily, but I actually feel pretty good.

[Helga]

'Where the buffalo roam' very very good. Murray is brilliant as always.

[YesNo]

Project X: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1636826/

After starting the movie I realized that I saw it before especially when the parents interact with the teenagers planning the mother of all parties at the beginning.

You would think that watching people get drunk and jump off the house into the pool in the backyard would be boring, but there is enough story going on to keep one's interest. One amazing scene is when the teenagers get word from their kung-fu security guards that the police are coming. The entire party moves to the back yard and is silent. It's incredible. By the time the police come the second time, it's too late. They are now celebrities.

Any movie that I would enjoy a second time deserves a score of 10/10.

[Sido]

La stanza del figlio (2001). It’s an Italian move by a director called Nanni Moretti. When I first got it I wasn't sure if I would like it, but once I started watching it, I found it to be absolutely amazing.

The ending was simply wonderful. If you can find it I highly recommend that you watch it.

And of course I give it a rating of 10/10. Here is the IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208990/

[LadyDedlock]

Her (2013) with Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Rooney Mara. Actually I am still watching it right now, and for some reason it reminded me of this forum, and well I guess here I am. And it's really good so far, though it's making me a bit uncomfortable in some inexplicable way (probably because it hits a wee bit too close to home) because a lot of my correspondence is online now, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

[Emil Miller]

This story of a young female concert pianist who inexplicably tries to commit suicide and then refuses to communicate with anyone stars James Mason at his silky best as the Svengali like guardian of his protege Anne Todd. Although he mistreats her badly, she has affairs with a young fellow student at the Royal Academy of Music and also with the society painter who is hired to paint her portrait. It is the psychiatrist, brilliantly acted by the charismatic Herbert Lom, who dedicates himself to uncovering the reason for her attempted suicide and refusal to speak. The reason is finally revealed as suppressed feelings for one of the three men in her life: no prizes for guessing who but that's women for you. The music is Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto and Beethoven's Pathetique sonata so it's romance writ large but, despite that, the performances more than compensate for the scenario. 7/10


http://youtu.be/uu1PHOZ9LGM

[YesNo]

The trailer was pretty good on the Seventh Veil.

[Emil Miller]

The trailer was pretty good on the Seventh Veil.

You can watch the whole film on YouTube if you are interested.

[deguonis]

I'm not very big of movie-watching, let alone contemporary cinematography. I tend to avoid anything that's made nowadays in movies and books if they're fiction. Now, documentaries and non-fiction books are another story. They might have useful data.

Dead-end Drive In (1986)

Possibly one of the best films I've ever watched. Top-notch to me yet the Scottish girl (she actually speaks gaidhlig: Scotland's REAL language) who watched with me said she saw nothing in it. Quite uninteresting, according to her.

[Sancho]

Mile, Mile And A Half

Best film I've watched in a long, long time.

Although it is not really a movie, and it's not really a documentary either. It's just sort of a story.

It's the story of a group of friends hiking the John Muir Trail, which runs approximately 200 miles from Yosemite to Mount Whitney. One of them does still photography, one does motion pictures, one does panoramic photos, one does sound. Along the way, one guy drops out, but several others join in. The scenery is gorgeous, but the story really becomes more about life on the trail, the people they meet, the experiences they have, the stories everybody shares.

I think avid hikers as well as folks who never leave the city would enjoy the film.

I Netflixed it

[Emil Miller]

Not exactly a movie but an interesting little item from Youtube.

Fascinating to see Dick Cheney's 1994 view of what an attack on Iraq would do.

http://youtu.be/TC3tINgWfQE


9/10

[YesNo]

Not exactly a movie but an interesting little item from Youtube.

Fascinating to see Dick Cheney's 1994 view of what an attack on Iraq would do.

http://youtu.be/TC3tINgWfQE


9/10

Enjoyable documentary, if that is what one calls these things. It confirmed my worst suspicions.

From a human nature perspective, there is that cute brunette in a white dress around 30 seconds in saying, "Airstrikes. Bomb them, bombing them again and again" (if I got the quote right).

[Emil Miller]

Enjoyable documentary, if that is what one calls these things. It confirmed my worst suspicions.

From a human nature perspective, there is that cute brunette in a white dress around 30 seconds in saying, "Airstrikes. Bomb them, bombing them again and again" (if I got the quote right).

Having an interest in geo-politics, the events as described in this 'conspiracy theory' pretty much match the conclusion that I have come to. Having been forced off the 'Gold standard' under President Nixon, the cards are now beginning to stack up against the 'Oil standard' and, facing economic Armageddon, one wonders what the US will do in the event of a dollar collapse.

[YesNo]

I figure we're headed for a deflation, but I know jack about economics. I also found that Seventh Veil movie on YouTube, but I haven't had time to watch it.

[Emil Miller]

Anatole Litvak's screen version of Terence Rattigan's famous play was unfortunately filmed in Eastman colour when both the subject matter and settings would have been better in black and white. This resulted in very muddy colours and poor definition but Vivien Leigh and Kenneth More are good as the wife of a High Court judge, sympathetically played by Emlyn Williams, who leaves him for a former fighter pilot whose free-wheeling and hard drinking lifestyle is the opposite of the stolid sobriety of the judge. This is a recipe for disaster, for the failure of her efforts to reform her lover eventually leads to attempted suicide. Her situation is redeemed by Eric Portman's wisely pragmatic ex-doctor who has been struck off the register for some unexplained medical misdemeanor and the film ends intriguingly with the departure but possible return of the Kenneth More character.

7/10

[Sancho]

Not exactly a movie but an interesting little item from Youtube.

Fascinating to see Dick Cheney's 1994 view of what an attack on Iraq would do.

http://youtu.be/TC3tINgWfQE


9/10

Ha! Well there's 22 minutes I'll never get back. And I feel stupider for having sat through the whole thing. I wouldn't exactly call that YouTube video a "documentary". In my opinion it didn't rise to that level. I don't even think it rose to the level of a compelling "conspiracy theory." In fact most 3rd grade science projects have more academic rigor than did that film.

What I'd call that piece is - commie propaganda. The film maker has a fundamental problem with inductive reasoning and evidently a profound misunderstanding of global markets, the Fed's monetary policy - and of currency in general. The dollar didn't go from a "gold-backed currency to an oil-backed currency" - the dollar went from a currency in specie (gold) to a fiat currency (backed by the full faith of U.S. government). The U.S. dollar is the dominant international reserve currency precisely because of its stability and liquidity. Markets decide what currency they'd prefer to do business with, and right now it's primarily the dollar.

One day that will change, probably gradually as happened in the middle of the last century when the preferred international reserve currency went from the pound sterling to the dollar, but certain events could drive a change quite rapidly - the Fed losing its sh*t and starting to print money willy-nilly, or the U.S. government defaulting on its debt. Neither is likely, in the near future anyway.

So what about changing the dollar back to the gold standard? I'm no monetary-policy expert either, but when the vast majority of serious economists consider that crazy talk, I'll throw in with them rather than the You-tube experts. Intuitively it seems to me that a currency backed by jewelry is a bad idea.

Hey, here's one I Netflixed:

The Unknown Known

It's about the political life Donald Rumsfeld, essentially a no-holds-barred interview by Errol Morris where he tries to hold the former Secretary of Defense accountable for the missteps and mistakes during the George W. Bush administration. It's a fascinating look into the way his mind works. He doesn't dodge any questions except the last one. Morris asks, "One last question - why'd you agree to this interview?" Rumsfeld smiles and replies, "I have no idea."

[Emil Miller]

Ha! Well there's 22 minutes I'll never get back. And I feel stupider for having sat through the whole thing. I wouldn't exactly call that YouTube video a "documentary". In my opinion it didn't rise to that level. I don't even think it rose to the level of a compelling "conspiracy theory." In fact most 3rd grade science projects have more academic rigor than did that film.

What I'd call that piece is - commie propaganda. The film maker has a fundamental problem with inductive reasoning and evidently a profound misunderstanding of global markets, the Fed's monetary policy - and of currency in general. The dollar didn't go from a "gold-backed currency to an oil-backed currency" - the dollar went from a currency in specie (gold) to a fiat currency (backed by the full faith of U.S. government). The U.S. dollar is the dominant international reserve currency precisely because of its stability and liquidity. Markets decide what currency they'd prefer to do business with, and right now it's primarily the dollar.

One day that will change, probably gradually as happened in the middle of the last century when the preferred international reserve currency went from the pound sterling to the dollar, but certain events could drive a change quite rapidly - the Fed losing its sh*t and starting to print money willy-nilly, or the U.S. government defaulting on its debt. Neither is likely, in the near future anyway.

So what about changing the dollar back to the gold standard? I'm no monetary-policy expert either, but when the vast majority of serious economists consider that crazy talk, I'll throw in with them rather than the You-tube experts. Intuitively it seems to me that a currency backed by jewelry is a bad idea.

Hey, here's one I Netflixed:

The Unknown Known

It's about the political life Donald Rumsfeld, essentially a no-holds-barred interview by Errol Morris where he tries to hold the former Secretary of Defense accountable for the missteps and mistakes during the George W. Bush administration. It's a fascinating look into the way his mind works. He doesn't dodge any questions except the last one. Morris asks, "One last question - why'd you agree to this interview?" Rumsfeld smiles and replies, "I have no idea."

Well You tube is admttedly often highly suspect in its political/economic videos but even before watching this one I, like many others, had been asking why the US and its allies were so intent on getting rid of Saddam Hussein, Muahmar Gadaffi and Bashar al-Assad and turning the Middle East into hornets nest in the process. There has to be a reason and Donald's 'Stuff Happens' doesn't quite cut it.

[Sancho]

Been asking that question myself. But let me add a few of names to that trifecta of brotherly love you've got there: Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The Ayatollah Khomeini, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler...I'm sure there're more. Oh yeah, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Jefferson Davis, Antonio López de Santa Anna, and of course George III.

I do agree with what Howard Zinn said in that clip, something like - watch governments closely, listen to what they say, and watch what they do. But I'm not yet cynical enough to believe that the United States' recent foreign adventures where all planned out as some shady international economic deal. And an internet video that chops up sound bites of Alan Greenspan, Richard Nixon, Dick Cheney, and Fox News (P'Tooey); and then forms a general conclusion as to a grand plan behind U.S. foreign policy is a good example of horribly flawed inductive reasoning and, well, commie propaganda.

Anyway the big question that's been weighing on my mind lately is - what's going to happen when Rick Perry is elected President of the United States? You know, he's from TEXAS.

[Emil Miller]

Anyway the big question that's been weighing on my mind lately is - what's going to happen when Rick Perry is elected President of the United States? You know, he's from TEXAS.


Surely the question is 'if' rather than 'when' but, assuming that he gets to the White House, how about secession?

[Emil Miller]

With a cast of top class actors of the period, this thriller opens with a cleverly planned murder of an arms dealer by his wife and her lover. It then falls apart with the killer trapped in a lift while his car is stolen and used in the random killing of two German tourists. It was much admired in its day, but with a plot full of holes, Louis Malle's directorial debut is nothing to write home about even though the Paris locations are, as always, very watchable.

http://youtu.be/sjURPebrbrY

[YesNo]

My wife and I watched Blended last night: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blended/ Initially, the dialog seemed goofy, but that was before we finished our bottles of Dragon's Milk: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/335/5428/. After the stout, the dialog was great. I was looking forward to a nice comedy like 50 First Dates from Barrymore and Sandlers and, with the help of the beer, they delivered.

Score:10/10

[Sancho]

Surely the question is 'if' rather than 'when' but, assuming that he gets to the White House, how about secession?

Oh no, it's when. Just ask Governor Perry. He'll tell ya. Definitely when. Boy Howdy. But what happens then? My guess is we'll all be packing heat and wearing those pointy toed cowboy boots that can smash a cockroach in a corner.

Braveheart 8/10

It just seemed appropriate with all this talk of secession (on both sides of the pond). I'm afraid though this time over here if Perry is elected, it'll be North that secedes. In fact, it's probable that everybody except TEXAS secedes.

[YesNo]

I don't normally watch the news. I didn't know Scotland wanted to secede from the UK until I read about it in one of Biggus' poems. But I think he's right. The other parts of the UK should vote on whether they want to let Scotland stay.

And now I hear that Texas just might want to secede or the rest of us might want to secede from Texas and I think to myself if a state can avoid its share of the US national debt by seceding from the union, that might be a good move unless the remaining states don't ultimately plan to pay it back anyway.

At the library I found out that Joan Rivers died and so I checked out "Don't Start With Me". She was 78 when she made this movie, three years ago, and I don't know where she got the energy and the jokes were crude and funny, just what I expected.

Score: 10/10 and I wasn't even drinking.

[Emil Miller]

Oh no, it's when. Just ask Governor Perry. He'll tell ya. Definitely when. Boy Howdy. But what happens then? My guess is we'll all be packing heat and wearing those pointy toed cowboy boots that can smash a cockroach in a corner.

Braveheart 8/10

It just seemed appropriate with all this talk of secession (on both sides of the pond). I'm afraid though this time over here if Perry is elected, it'll be North that secedes. In fact, it's probable that everybody except TEXAS secedes.

That might be construed as having an anti-Texan bias. After all, I seem to recall that the present incumbent's predecessor came from Texas and his oratory will go down in history like that of Demosthenes and Cicero....but not for the same reason.

[Emil Miller]

I don't normally watch the news. I didn't know Scotland wanted to secede from the UK until I read about it in one of Biggus' poems. But I think he's right. The other parts of the UK should vote on whether they want to let Scotland stay.


Well they decided against independence. One of the many questions that might have concerned them was what their national anthem would be. Here's one possibility:



http://youtu.be/dF7wXe1LznU

[Sancho]

^ouch, but also, Hahaha! Toot that saxophone.


That might be construed as having an anti-Texan bias. After all, I seem to recall that the present incumbent's predecessor came from Texas and his oratory will go down in history like that of Demosthenes and Cicero....but not for the same reason.

Heh-heh, Dubya does have a way with words, don't he - a splendiferous oratalogical gift.

The sad thing about it is that people are always misunderestimating him. It's gittin' me all hot under the collar just thinkin' about it. I'm fixin' to git heat frustration!

The Outlaw Josey Wales, 10/10

Based on the book, Gone To TEXAS, by Forrest (Asa) Carter, a man with very checkered past.

[Emil Miller]

Heh-heh, Dubya does have a way with words, don't he - a splendiferous oratalogical gift.

The sad thing about it is that people are always misunderestimating him.

This reminds me of the time when during his term of office there was a large anti-Bush demonstration in London about the Iraq war. A reporter covering the event wrote that he tried to interview one of the demonstrators but he couldn't understand him because the man was still wearing his George W Bush mask.

[Sancho]

The governor of TEXAS that preceded Dubya probably said it best:

Poor George, he caint help it - he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

http://youtu.be/ZgeQ_y7LMRI

Although the quote was about George H.W. Bush, it works for junior as well. Ann Richards truly had a way with words. That speech at the '88 Democratic Convention made her nationally and even internationally famous. Queen Elizabeth noticed, in fact she visited the governor in Austin in '91.

Ann Richards was also the last (and only) TEXAS governor that I ever voted for. I was living there at the time. She was defeated for reelection by Dubya in a particularly nasty campaign. It was a real smear job designed by the miscreant Karl Rove.

[YesNo]

Well they decided against independence. One of the many questions that might have concerned them was what their national anthem would be. Here's one possibility:



http://youtu.be/dF7wXe1LznU

That potential national anthem got me wondering what "Hoots Mon" even means.

I asked my wife if she knew that Scotland wanted to secede. She told me that was old news and that they voted against secession confirming what you said. I suppose I could have just looked this up on the internet. She said that Scotland has all the natural resources and the nukes. No wonder they wanted to secede.

For movies, I saw the documentary, "Bad Grandpa .5". My wife declined to view it with me. It was a good description of how they made "Bad Grandpa", a movie both of us enjoyed.

Score: 10/10

[Emil Miller]

This British film has a weird provenance insofar as its cast and director are concerned. It was directed by Laslo Benedek, director of The Wild One, and stars Dorothy Dandridge, Edmund Purdom and Trevor Howard; casting doesn't get much weirder than that. A few stalwarts of British supporting actors such as Michael Hordern, Alfred Burke and Paul Stassino complete the lineup. The story looks as though it was made up as they went along and it's a pity to see Trevor Howard in such low grade material, although the opening scene where a burglary is carried out in total silence in the presence of the sleeping victim was genuinely exciting. All in all though, it falls into that category where someone with too much money backs a film that should never have been made.

4/10

[Sancho]

Who Is Dayani Cristal?
2013
8/10

It's a documentary about migrant workers coming into the United States from south of the border. I know, as soon as I said "documentary" it sounds boring, but it's not. Here's the set up:

Deputies from the Pima County Sheriff Department are heading out into Sonora Desert to do a body recovery. Pima County is in Southern Arizona and runs from Tucson to the Mexican border. There are some beautiful shots of the desert, but then you see the buzzards circling. The body is of a young man and it is beginning to bloat. Thankfully the film makers digitally blurred the man's face. The one distinguishing characteristic of the body is a tattoo across his chest: Dayani Cristal, hence the name of the film.

You then spend time with the coroner and a representative from the Mexican Consulate in a forensics lab in Tucson. Hats off to these two for what they do. They were serious and conscientious about their task. At one point the coroner looks at the camera and sort of sheepishly says something like - I had to remove the hands and try to rehydrate them to get good fingerprints.

They get a hit on the fingerprints and determine that the man is a migrant worker from Honduras. From there the film takes you along the man's journey from his village in Honduras to the desert near Tucson - and back. The young Mexican actor, Gael Garcia Bernal, narrates as he tries to retrace the man's footsteps, riding atop trains, sleeping in shelters, and chatting with people who are making the trip for real - to the promised land.

It's gritty, it's real, and it's personal.

[YesNo]

"Who is Dayani Cristal" sounds interesting. I'll have to keep it on my list with the others people recommend here.

I ran into this short film (less than 12 minutes) as an advertisement prior to watching some other YouTube video, but it was the only advertisement I actually finished watching. It is one of the Jameson First Shot 2014 series of short films called "The Mundane Goddess" written and directed by Henco J: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujqoQ6V_kl0

The Greek gods have incarnated as ordinary people and Hera is in therapy complaining about her life.

Score: 8/10

[Poetaster]

Royal Opera House's production of Tosca.

I loved it! Tosca is one of my favourites.

10/10

[Emil Miller]

This British crime thriller is definitely a cut above others of the genre. It shows the frustratingly painstaking work that the police undertake in tracing the killer of a woman whose dismembered body is found in a house at the southern seaside resort of Brighton.
Starting from almost nothing, the Detective Superintendent and his two sergeants follow some false leads before they identify the victim by a process of elimination and they twice arrest the wrong man before the murderer is finally brought to light.
How this happens even astounds the police as the case is finally brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
The film has been much praised among critics for its documentary style and it is both engrossing and exciting by turns.


8/10

[papayahed]

Godzilla. It was fun. 7.8/10

[YesNo]

D.E.B.S. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367631/

I think I've seen all the recent comedy and so I started looking up the old stuff in the library. It needs to be stupid enough to wind me down at the end of the day, but not too stupid that I'll fall asleep. This one was just right.

The D.E.B.S. are female spies recruited when they took their college entrance exams with secret questions. They remind me of a mix between the powerpuff girls and Charlie's angels. There is also a bad girl and her male assistant. They are so misrepresented by the spy agency that everyone is afraid to come in contact with them. The D.E.B.S. are trying to bring them to justice.

If one needs more than mini-skirted teenage spies carrying weapons that should be too heavy for them to lift, there is an interesting theme about lying and deliberate misrepresentation that could keep an adult entertained.

Score: 8/10

[Emil Miller]

This romantic tragedy was directed by Anatole Litvak and stars Kirk Douglas and French actress Dany Robin. The story revolves around a GI (Douglas), based in liberated Paris during WWII, agreeing to pose as the husband of a young French girl from St Malo (Robin) in order that she can obtain a room under wartime laws then in place. What starts out as a wary relationship slowly develops into a romance that leads the soldier to propose marriage, but he needs the permission of his commanding officer who thinks that Douglas has given in to a whim and has him transferred to another city before he can contact the girl who, thinking that she has been deserted, kills herself. The girl had told him that she had only been happy once when she was on holiday and staying in a small hotel by the sea in Villefranche on the French Riviera. Years later, the GI returns as a civilian to France and goes to Villefranche to stay at the same hotel and while there he runs into his former commanding officer who is there on holiday with his wife. When asked about the wartime incident, he is dashed to hear that his refusal to allow the marriage resulted in the girl's suicide.
I might have thought the later meeting of both men in a small French seaside town was too much of a coincidence except for the fact that, some years after I had left the Home Office in London, a woman I had worked with was staying at the same Villefranche hotel as myself.

[Ben_Styles]

Last movie I saw was 'I Saw the Devil,' a very brutal and dark story about a serial killer who murders a girl who just happens to be both the daughter of a police chief and has a boyfriend whose a federal-type agent and national mixed martial arts champion. With a recipe like that you'd think this was some kinda dark, 90's style action flick, but it's not... the hero proves to be as brutal as the killer, harming people himself in order to get what he wants.

In the end he defeats the bad guy only to realize now he's the bad guy?

[Varenne Rodin]

I saw the "Carrie" remake. 1/10 Horrible movie. Probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It was laughably awfully made. The lead actress was stupid. Terrible to watch. I can't say enough to describe how I completely hated it. It was the opposite of bliss.

[YesNo]

With Halloween ending the month of October, the library had all its suspense videos available for free rental. I looked them over and couldn't find any I wanted to watch. If I have to cover my eyes to protect myself from seeing some monster pop out, why bother watching the movie? That's when I saw the movies, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King on display and although I've seen them before, it is October.

The Mummy: Score 9/10

The Mummy Returns: Score 8/10 Imhotep's despair when his lady love abandoned him at the end was worth the wait. I don't see how the Scorpion King in this movie relates to the one in the next.

The Scorpion King: Score 10/10

[HCabret]

I saw the "Carrie" remake. 1/10 Horrible movie. Probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It was laughably awfully made. The lead actress was stupid. Terrible to watch. I can't say enough to describe how I completely hated it. It was the opposite of bliss.the original or the remake?

[Varenne Rodin]

the original or the remake?

The remake. The original is a work of art. I love De Palma.

[tonywalt]

Gone Girl - it's close to the book and i give it a ummm, say an 8

[YesNo]

I enjoyed Gone Girl as well although I could anticipate the plot except for the actual ending which I found disappointing. I agreed with the guy's sister.

Recently, I watched the older version of the Mummy and Dracula. The stories were very similar. The male violated some code and is punished with a defective existence. The female reincarnates and is later found by the male who loses her in the end. They would both get 8/10.

[romeoindespair]

I just watched Nymphomanic Vol 1 on netflix.

Great movie. The way people were talking about it I was expecting something like Salo but it felt more like a Greek tragedy. You watch this girl get corrupted pretty early and she just ends up running in circles from guy to guy.You just keep waiting for her addiction to finally kill her

[YesNo]

While I was at Menard's (a hardware store) I found sets of movies for $5.00. I once bought 100 science fiction movies there for $10.00. Anyway, I found a set of 6 that I had not seen before and so I've been watching them to see what I've missed. Here are the ones so far:

The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag Score 8/10. The is what could happen if you are a police detective and you skip dinner with your wife on your wedding anniversary because you have to work late.

Two Much Score 8/10. This is about two wealthy sisters. One of them decides to marry Art (Antonio Banderas) who wants to marry the other one who unfortunately doesn't like him until he becomes an imaginary twin brother called Bart.

Betsy's Wedding Score 8/10. Two kids want to get married and their parents try to plan it for them against their will. There is also the sister of the bride, a policewoman, who meets someone she thinks she should be arresting rather than falling in love with. But love conquers all. And everyone lives happily ever after except those who don't deserve to.

Mr Wrong Score 8/10. I realized I saw this one many years ago after wealthy Mr Wrong started reciting some poetry he wrote. Except for his poetry, the guy didn't seem all that bad to me.

What's left are Born Yesterday and Gross Anatomy.

[YesNo]

I saw Born Yesterday and it kind of reminded me of a play that was made into a movie. It was a little more serious than the other movies in this set and deserves a higher score: 9/10

Then I figured I might as well watch Gross Anatomy. And this one was wonderful: Score 10/10.

[Marbles]

300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

Historical background: Second Persian invasion of Greek city-states which ended in a stalemate at one front and Persian loss at the other, in the year 480 BC.

It reinforces old school Orientalist characterisation in worst possible way and at the same time frames the Persians as war fanatics interested only in death and destruction.

Good computer-generated action but a lousy piece of political propaganda. 300's first episode that came out a few years ago was much better entertainment.

[Emil Miller]

I saw Born Yesterday and it kind of reminded me of a play that was made into a movie.

That's probably because originally it was a play.

[YesNo]

That's probably because originally it was a play.

Yes, I see it was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Yesterday

I wonder why I felt the disconnect. Perhaps the age of the play? Or the way the scenes changed? It did seem more serious than the other movies in the set except for Gross Anatomy. The others could have been labeled "S" for "Stupid", which is often all I want to see.

[Emil Miller]

Yes, I see it was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Yesterday

I wonder why I felt the disconnect. Perhaps the age of the play? Or the way the scenes changed? It did seem more serious than the other movies in the set except for Gross Anatomy. The others could have been labeled "S" for "Stupid", which is often all I want to see.

I haven't seen the film but it did make an impact when it came out, largely due to Judy Holliday's performance that won her an academy award for best actress. I imagine that being directed by George Cukor also helped.

If you have a penchant for films labeled "S" for stupid , the last 50 years gives you limitless choice.

[Snowqueen]

I saw Annabelle last month. It's very nice, funny horror film and I highly recommend this. It tells the story of a couple of women who want to play with the same doll – Annabelle. 3/10



I saw the "Carrie" remake. 1/10 Horrible movie. Probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It was laughably awfully made. The lead actress was stupid. Terrible to watch...

I agree, it was a waste of time.

[Emil Miller]

This neat little British film stars the then husband and wife team of buxom Hazel Court and handsome Dermot Walsh who play a married couple from Canada who have come to England and who buy a motorised yacht even though the ships custodian tells them that it's haunted. The ghost of a marine engineer haunts the engine room and the reason is explained when they call in a medium who under an induced trance reveals a tale of adultery and murder among the ships former crew.

7/10

[YesNo]

I wasn't going to admit I watched these, but then I thought, why not?

Don Peyote: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1828968/

This starts out with some information about the hundredth monkey which seems to say if you can convince just enough people then you will convince everyone. I don't think this is quite true although there is something to the idea of people influencing others indirectly.

So this is about a guy who is getting married. His girlfriend is also pregnant and they did this on purpose. If there is any message for the females, it might be first get married and then get pregnant, but the story is more about the guy's views of reality especially after taking more than his share of drugs and drinking too much ayahuasca. There are also his adventures while evolving into Homo sanctus, or something like that.

Apparently, at the end he meets his son years later after his girlfriend abandoned him since he abandoned them while trying to become Homo sanctus. I guess his son was the hundredth monkey. I hope I didn't spoil the ending for anyone. I didn't understand it anyway.

Score: 3/10

Behaving Badly: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2314824/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Rick Stevens (Nat Wolff) is trying to get a cute girl (Selena Gomez) to like him and he makes a lot of mistakes along the way, but then most of his friends and family are mistakes waiting to happen. There are some nice scenes with his guardian angel or imaginary friend or whatever she was. At one point she says she is taking a vacation and leaving him on his own. That was the best scene for me.

For movies like this, I think the 'S' rating is a little too generous, but I did enjoy it.

Score: 8/10

[Calidore]

Escape into Night (1972): A six-part British TV serial adaptation of Catherine Storr's children's fantasy novel Marianne Dreams. I only recently learned of the existence of this show, and having loved Bernard Rose's Paperhouse (1988), based on the same novel, I had to check it out.

Here's Wikipedia's plot summary of the source novel, which applies to both media versions: Marianne is a young girl who is bedridden with a long-term illness. She draws a picture to fill her time, and finds that she spends her dreams within the picture she has drawn. As time goes by, she becomes sicker, and starts to spend more and more time trapped within her fantasy world, and her attempts to make things better by adding to and crossing out things in the drawing make things progressively worse. Her only companion in her dreamworld is a boy called Mark, who is also a long-term invalid in the real world.

Well, the TV version is very different from the later movie. I understand from reviews that this version is much more faithful to the novel (which I haven't read), but I actually liked most of the plot changes the movie made. It didn't help that the lead actress of the show, Vikki Chambers, was very stiff, while the movie's lead, Charlotte Burke, was much, much better. The boys who played Mark in both versions were very good as well. In supporting roles, the differences between professional film actors and '70s low-budget British TV actors are about as you'd expect.

In general, the TV version is worth watching once, but the film is a must-see. Sadly, it's unavailable on DVD in the U.S., so I had to ask my father to bring a copy back when he took a trip to England.

Escape into Night: 7/10
Paperhouse: 10/10

Flashpoint (1984): Kris Kristofferson and Treat Williams are border patrol officers who come across a long-buried jeep containing a mysterious stash of money and a rifle, and then soon find themselves up against some federal agents who have their own agenda.

I've been enjoying the Tangerine Dream soundtrack CD from this movie for 30 years, but had never seen the film itself until now. Sadly, it's pretty disposable. The plot turns out to be thin and slow to progress, the climax just kind of happens, and the director strangely ends up breaking the fourth wall to explain the MacGuffins to the audience, while the lead characters never do learn exactly what's going on. The main positives in the movie, besides the soundtrack (nice to see the music in context at last), are the always likeable Kristofferson and Kurtwood Smith (That 70s Show) as the villainous lead Fed.

4/10

[qimissung]

Sounds like a good movie and a good book, Calidore. I'll have to check out the book.

[Emil Miller]

This is a filmed version of a scandal so great that it makes the Clinton/Lewinsky affair look like a minor indiscretion.
Based on a series of books written since, it concerns what became known as the Profumo affair. John Profumo was a role model for pillar of society wannabes. Public school and Oxford educated, decorated in WWII, Conservative member of parliament and married to a beautiful actress, he had risen through the political ranks to be appointed Minister for War in the Conservative government of 1959.
By 1960, however, the siren voices of liberalism had persuaded the establishment to open its doors to the lower echelons of society and the result was, inter alia, the Profumo affair in which the MP became involved with a winsome prostitute Christine Keeler, among whose lovers was a soviet naval attaché. Another prostitute, Mandy Rice-Davies, Keeler's friend, was also implicated in the affair, as were a number of upper crust figures who had also enjoyed the girls' favours.
The linchpin of this network of impropriety was a society osteopath, Stephen Ward, who acted as a procurer for his clients and eventually committed suicide when charged with living off of the immoral earnings of prostitutes.
When the truth emerged into the public domain, it shook British society to its foundations.

The film opens very well with newsreel showing Profumo being appointed War Minister and switches to Keeler leaving home to go to London where she gets a job in a strip club and meets Ward and Rice-Davies. Ward introduces the girls to his circle of bigwigs including Ivanov the Russian naval attaché.
At a party thrown at Cliveden, the aristocratic seat of Viscount Astor, Keeler meets Profumo and their affair begins. The story continues to the point where Ward, realising that he is going to be made the scapegoat, kills himself.
It's well acted but completely fails to mention the colossal impact of the fallout from the scandal when it was uncovered by a Labour politician and splashed all over the media for weeks. It concentrates mainly on Ward's relationship with Keeler and gives but small mention to Rice-Davies who was a major figure in the affair.

6/10

[YesNo]

I do remember the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. However, I haven't heard of Profumo before, but then my political awareness is almost unconscious. I wonder how the social fallout differed.

I've watched some rather enjoyable movies:

Chef: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2883512/

My wife told me that Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (her full name) was very famous and even had a line of clothing. She did seem hotter than Scarlett Johannsson which I didn't think was possible. Anyway, the nice part about the movie was the ending where the nemesis became the opposite.

Score: 10/10

Begin Again: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1980929/

Like Chef there is a couple that has problems and then get back together again. The best scene for me was when Keira Knightly's character discovers her boyfriend is seeing another woman just by listening to his music and slaps him. I also liked the idea that the two main characters did not have an affair and how they released their album in the end.

Score: 10/10

[Emil Miller]

I do remember the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. However, I haven't heard of Profumo before, but then my political awareness is almost unconscious. I wonder how the social fallout differed.

Well, while calls for Clinton to be impeached were rebuffed and he went on to complete his term of office, Profumo was forced to resign and the government almost collapsed but held on for another year before being beaten in the following election.
The soviet naval attaché was recalled to Moscow but he was almost certainly a spy and was therefore of no further use in that capacity.

Here's how I covered the affair in my novel Pro Bono Publico:

The press, knowing they were onto something extraordinary, began to investigate the affair more rigorously, and as their journalists got to work, they uncovered a vein of impropriety implicating some of the highest names in the land as being among those attending licentious parties at one of England’s finest country houses. The allegations included call girls and drugs and, with serious implications for the country’s security, a soviet naval attaché was revealed as the client of a young woman named in the affair as the Cabinet Minister’s lover.
The sexual repression inherited from Puritan and Victorian forebears gives rise to an exaggerated prurience among the English and, as the story evolved, the public waited eagerly for new aspects of the scandal to be revealed. Their expectations were fully realised when, some weeks after the Cabinet Minister’s denial, the country’s leading tabloid published irrefutable evidence of his extramarital affair and the scandalous events surrounding it.

[YesNo]

The involvement of the likely soviet spy complicated matters. Then the public denial of what was latter shown to be true destroyed credibility.

I can see how it was a mess. In the case of Clinton there weren't any spies involved.

[Emil Miller]

The involvement of the likely soviet spy complicated matters. Then the public denial of what was latter shown to be true destroyed credibility.

I can see how it was a mess. In the case of Clinton there weren't any spies involved.

Yes, governmental credibility was further damaged due to the appointment by the outgoing Prime Minister, who resigned for health reasons a few months after Profumo, of Sir Alec Douglas Home; a personal friend of the PM.
There is a wonderful irony in the fact that the Labour MP who uncovered the story was later caught by police as he drove around Hyde park importuning women, which in itself might be considered unusual given the number of homosexuals among members of parliament.

[Calidore]

The Thing from Another World (1951): Hadn't watched this in quite a while, and it's still a decent, polished old-school creature feature. The only cast member who really stands out is pre-Gunsmoke James Arness as the alien, and at 6-foot-7, he can't help it. This actually has all the ingredients of an early Doctor Who base-under-siege story, making me wonder if it was an influence on the template.
8/10

[Emil Miller]

The Thing from Another World (1951): This actually has all the ingredients of an early Doctor Who base-under-siege story, making me wonder if it was an influence on the template.
8/10

It probably was, as in most science fiction, nothing succeeds like excess.

[Ecurb]

I saw "Whiplash" last night. It's a movie about music and teaching: a Jazz drummer studying at a thinly disguised Julliard is abused by a teacher who runs the school's Jazz ensemble as if it were a Marine boot camp. He screams at and abuses his students. His excuse? He wants to motivate them to true greatness, like Charlie Parker was motivated when some drummer I hadn't heard of threw a cymbal at him.

The lead actor is a kid so obsessed with drumming (he drums until his hands bleed, and he races to perform at a concert after a bloody car accident) that any reasonable adult would encourage him to take it easy. Not Fletcher (the teacher, played by J.K. Simmons). He, evidently, comes from the Vince Lombardi, football-coach school of motivation, screaming, belittling and abusing. The film is less about music than it is about the psychotic desire for control

In the end, while the film is intense, it is overblown and not believable. In addition -- who want to hear a brilliant drum solo as the grand finale? Couldn't they have made the hero a sax, trumpet or piano player?

[free]

"First Knight" (1995). The king Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot triangle. I liked it very much, although I expected it to be about Holy Grail which is in the legend closely connected with king Arthur and his knights. But, anyway, I spent a pleasant time watching it. Good acting, imaginative ideas and beautful scenery.

[YesNo]

Cuban Fury: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2390237/

As a child Bruce (Nick Frost) was winning all the salsa dance competitions until some bullies embarrassed him and he stopped dancing just before a likely win at the championship. Years later he's being bullied by a co-worker who is trying to sleep with their new boss whom he likes as well. As it turns out the boss is a salsa dancing student and so he has to brush up on his dancing skills to win the girl.

The only problem with Bruce is he could lose a pound or two. Regaining his corazon wouldn't hurt either. Neither I nor his boss pictured him as a salsa dancer, but he proved us both wrong.

Score: 8/10

[Emil Miller]

With existentialism all the rage, Louis Malle astutely released Le Feu Follet in which the protagonist (Maurice Ronet) is a burnt out playboy who has spent some time in an alcoholic's rehabilitation centre. Unfortunately, the cure has left him with a crisis of identity which is amplified when he returns to Paris and finds that his erstwhile friends have dispersed to take up lives of bourgeois normality, chase after the big money, or sink into drug induced degradation. After visiting various friends, he returns to the rehab centre and commits suicide.
Originally, Malle started shooting it in colour but sensibly changed his mind when he realised that black and white was a much more expressive medium for this story. The camerawork is excellent and captures a Paris that is, sadly, disappearing due to crass commercialism and duff architecture; it's worth seeing for that alone.

http://youtu.be/mpQ4UED3LLU

[silverdroger]

Last movie i watch Exodus Gods And kings (https://exoduswatchgodsandkings.wordpress.com/) It was awesome and i am still looking now to watch Interstellar both are good movies.

[Chuck Habakkuk]

I watched the Quiet Man last night. I believe it's the best John Wayne movie, up there with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and True Grit. Very funny if you can understand the thick Irish accents and stand the fifties stereotypes.

[YesNo]

My wife gave me the complete set of John Wayne movies for Christmas some years ago. I'll have to see if it was complete enough to contain True Grit or Liberty Valance.

I saw "My First Mister" last night: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206963/

This is about a 17-year-old girl, J, with too much metal jewelry on her face who runs into a 49-year-old clothing store manager, R, who gets the metal off her face. She also has a mother she abuses and a grandmother who is not alive, but whom she talks to. Usually in romantic movies there is something in the plot that gets the fairy-tale couple to split up temporarily until the boy chases the girl to the airport. In this movie all J and R have is something to argue about, but it turns out well, is justly labeled a comedy and kept my interest.

Score: 10/10

[Marbles]

Bal-can-can (2005), a Macedonian film. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369258/

It's a comedy about a military deserter who escapes his native Macedonia with his family during the fighting between Albanian separatists and government forces in 2001.

An excellent satire of the Balkan conflict told through the background story of the grandma who dies on the road when the family is fleeing. Her body is rolled in a carpet to avoid suspicion from the authorities. When the carpet sitting on the car's roof is stolen, they find themselves sucked into Balkan crime underworld to retrieve the carpet and the body.

Fun fact: The film was the highest-grossing film to date in Macedonia. I give it full marks.

[prakssj4]

Watched "Grave of the fireflies" and cried uncontrollably. One of the best anti-war films ever

I'd give it a 9.5/10

[YesNo]

The John Wayne set did not have True Grit in it nor Liberty Valence. It was a selection of early John Wayne movies.

My daughter brought home the complete set of Breaking Bad and so we are watching these, two episodes per evening. Some of the things I've learned:

1) The chemistry teacher (Heisenberg) and his partner (Jessie) remind me of Merlin and Arthur.

2) I should have paid more attention in Chemistry class.

3) Don't call your wife a skank when she's high on something and your head is beneath an ATM machine.

4) The way to build up plot is to give the main characters all the back luck you can think of along with all the good luck to get them out of the situations they are in so you can have a next series.

We are only into season two.

Score: 8/10

[Marbles]

The Hunt (2012), Danish film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106476/

‘It is assumed that children tell the truth but it’s common for children to describe non-existing details’ and ‘to have a vivid imagination.’

A primary school teacher is accused of sexually abusing an innocent child. A mass hysteria ensues. He is ostracized, social-boycotted, spat on, thrown out of shops, abused and, finally, arrested by the police. Lucas’ perfectly normal life becomes topsy-turvy.

What recourse do you have when an angelic child, just to spite her teacher, describes things that can only be interpreted as sexual abuse? Nothing it seems. It is as though the accusation proves the guilt.

It’s an excellent critique of preconceived notions and our attitudes towards some matters, which, though serious, are guided by irrationality and impulse than by reason and evidence.

5/5

[jajdude]

A pretty good one I saw recently on youtube was "The Perfect Host" (2010) with David Hyde Pierce (Niles Crane) as a total whackjob.

[YesNo]

We are further along in the Breaking Bad episodes and somewhere in season three. Although I expected Walter's wife to have an affair eventually with her boss Ted the way she did made me think that she was the ultimate cause of all this dysfunction by not letting Walter reject therapy for his cancer and die peacefully. Of course other people made bad choices along the way as well.

I see her as "narcissistic". That is, she manipulates others without empathy. In terms of the dualism of good and bad she represents self-righteous goodness, an extreme form of good that is essentially evil.

Anyway, the series seems to be getting better and I am raising the score to 9/10.

[Snowqueen]

I saw Closer last week. It was quite good and acting was great. I've always liked Jude Law, but in this film Clive Owen was absolutely astounding. And it will get 7/10.

[NikolaiI]

Sherlock Holmes: a Game of Shadows -

9/10 . . I love the series.

[YesNo]

We finished the third season. The part that had the fly in it was unbelievably bad. I've reduced the score back to 8/10.

It seems the real problem is that Skylar and her sister want the best medical care and don't believe that their insurance can provide it. What's the insurance for anyway? Hank acts like a baby and won't go through with the treatment that is now costing them much more money and then he won't go home until he magically gets better.

Skylar continues to act like a nuisance.

Walter should do what Jessie says and go to the police. But if he does that, the story would end. I do like the way he finished off those two that Jesse was planning to kill. I'll up the score to 8.5/10 just for that scene.

[Emil Miller]

THE PUTIN SYSTEM 10/10


From my late teens I have always had a keen interest in the Machiavellian maneuvering of politicians in the major European countries; not least my own.
It makes for great reading and, as Shakespeare has shown, it's a trait common to nations in general.
Russia is obviously no exception and a full length French documentary on Youtube called the Putin System covers the events that brought Vladimir Putin to power and his consolidation of that power. It is the story of how a group of rascals, sometimes reffered to as the Jewish Oligarchs, got hold of Russia through a foolish Boris Yeltsin's breakneck mass denationalisation of the country's industry and used him as a puppet to milk Russia of billions of roubles. When Yeltsin's health started to deteriorate they had to find a successor and they set up Putin, an ex KGB colonel who had infiltrated Yeltsin's circle, as their next puppet by using their vast wealth in promoting him to the electorate who voted him in as president . And whaddya know folks? the puppet turned out to be more rascally than his backers and nailed them for corruption and tax evasion; forcing some to flee the country and imprisoning others. Those who were allowed to remain were warned not to interfere in the country's politics while he set about massively restoring Russian power that had been devastated by the predatory oligarchs; thereby gaining the support of the population at large.

Of course, it's always prudent not to take such documentaries at face value and allow for a certain amount of axe grinding but this one was so well made I watched it twice .
I was so impressed with Putin's political skill, that I'm thinking of buying a Putin mug. I'm torn between one with a hammer and sickle and the words 'Nobody tells Vladimir what to do', and another with a picture of Putin's smiling face and the slogan; 'Haters Gonna Die'

[Ecurb]

I saw The Imitation Game last night. It tells (or distorts) the story of Alan Turing, the man who helped break the enigma code in World War 2 by inventing one of the first computers. He was then convicted of public indecency for engaging in homosexual acts (in the '50s) and submitted to "chemical castration" (hormone therapy) instead of going to prison.

The movie is so bad that it was almost fun. It distorts the historical facts to portray Turing as the ultimate nerdy genius, socially inept and politically uninterested. He's in love with his computer -- which he names after his dead, beloved Public School friend, Christopher. It's the sort of pop-psychoanalysis in which bad movies indulge.

And how "The Imitation Game" indulges!!! Every scene is imbued with high drama and terrible dialogue. The fun comes from watching the actors chew the scenery attempting to give life to their ridiculous lines. Throughout the movie,Turing occasionally goes jogging, an event which, based on the facial expressions of actor Benedict Cumberbatch, leads him to run the gamut of every emotion known to man.

In the interest of dramatic tension, "The Imitation Game" has the head of the secret decoding project despise Turing and try repeatedly to get rid of him. Since Turing's boss is portrayed by Charles Dance (Papa Lannister from Game of Thrones), viewers cannot but wonder if he survived being shot through with arrows by his son Tirian.

At the end of the movie, subtitles describe Turing's fate: conviction for being, in the argot of the movie, a "poofter", hormonal therapy, and suicide. There is no mention that his suicide occurred at least a year AFTER his hormonal therapy ended -- that might ruin the dramatic tension between an evil, uncaring society and a tormented, gay genius.

I have no objection to distorting historical facts in the interest of good cinema; "The Imitation Game" distorts historical facts in the interest of bad cinema. Why bother?

[YesNo]

I was going to see "The Imitation Game", but I probably won't after that review, Ecurb. There is another "Night at the Museum" movie that I was eyeing. I missed "Dumb and Dumber To" because my wife refused to have anything to do with it after seeing the trailer. I'll wait till the library gets it. I remember seeing "Transcendence" and I know how bad some of these movies can get, with or without names like Johnny Depp.

[Ecurb]

If, YesNo, The Homesman is playing in your mall spackled suburban environment, I recommend you see it. I saw it a couple of days ago, and it's remarkably good.

It's director and star is Tommy Lee Jones, and if your have seen "The Three Burial of Melquiades Estrada", you will know that he is a talented director as well as a good actor. His co-star is Hillary Swank. Together, they take on the responsibility of transporting three insane women from the wilds of 19th century Western Nebraska back to civilization in eastern Iowa.

The women are appropriately insane -- they can't talk. The bit players -- including John Lithgow and the omnipresent Meryl Streep -- are excellent. The story is harsh and dramatic. The acting is excellent.

Best of all, though, the photography is stunning. Nebraska is a bleak land that could drive anyone insane. The trip back east is a National Geographic expedition through strikingly barren beauty.

By way of example, the last shot in the movie is a direct copy of George Bingham's painting "The Jolly Flatboat Men". Here's a link (since I don't know how to insert a picture): http://www.artnet.com/artists/george-caleb-bingham/the-jolly-flat-boat-men-G4qOXIl2pn3Ln2abw98Acw2

I'm not sure why more directors don't copy painting for their visuals. Terrence Malick copied many famous American paintings in "Days of Heaven", and it's still one of the most visually stunning films I've seen.

[YesNo]

The theater we usually go to isn't showing "The Homesman", but it looks like one to rent when it gets out of the theaters and into the library.

We did see "The Theory of Everything" some time ago which we found enjoyable. Say, score 8/10.

"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" was OK, but it got tiring. Score: 6/10

My wish list includes "Interstellar", "Wild" and "Into the Woods".

Edit: Just adding a comment on the next scenes from Breaking Bad. The Whites are manipulating the owner of a car wash to sell. This seems in character for Skylar and Saul, but I am getting tired of these characters. It also confirms the stupidity of Walter, whatever character he is trying to represent. Hank's pettiness is tiring as well and I have never understood why his wife likes to steal things. I've reduced that score to 6/10.

[Ecurb]

Visually superb movies are still far better in the theater than on TV, despite the improvements in high definition TVs.

[Emil Miller]

Infidelity is a theme that runs through Louis Malle's films like a thread, so it's no surprise that Damage , unusually filmed as an English story, concerns a Member of Parliament with a wealthy wife and two children who falls for his son's girlfriend. This initiates a passionate affair giving Malle a chance to show Jeremy Irons and Juliet Binoche thrashing around in the sack while his wife and son remain completely unaware of the affair. Given the athleticism of the guilty parties coupling, not to mention the frequency, it's a wonder nobody noticed the bruises. It would have been much improved if it had been cut from its two-and-a-half hours to 90 minutes but it comes across as another example of self-indulgent film making that palls about half-way through.

5/10

[YesNo]

Visually superb movies are still far better in the theater than on TV, despite the improvements in high definition TVs.

I dont see much difference between a theater and what we have for a tv. I tend to get hypnotzed by the story even if I view it on my phone, providing it is done well.

Regarding the movie "Damage", I think I saw it but can't remember enough about it to suggest a score, not that my scores mean much.

[Emil Miller]

I dont see much difference between a theater and what we have for a tv. I tend to get hypnotzed by the story even if I view it on my phone, providing it is done well.

Regarding the movie "Damage", I think I saw it but can't remember enough about it to suggest a score, not that my scores mean much.

Well film scores are fairly arbitrary anyway and the fact that you don't remember much about it is a good indication of its lack of impact.
Repetitious sex scenes are no substitute for imaginative film making although, in this instance, the storyline wasn't that impressive either.

[Ecurb]

I saw "Into the Woods" last night. I love musicals -- both stage musicals and movie musicals. However, I haven't liked most of the big hit movie musicals in recent years. Les Miz -- which I loved on the stage -- was horrid. How Anne Hathaway won an Oscar for her embarrassing performance as Fantine is beyond me. Chicago -- which won best movie, I think -- was terrible. Richard Gere's attempts at dancing reminded my of how difficult it is. Instead of showing professional dancing, the camera swirled around the actors in an attempt to create an illusion of graceful movement. It didn't work.

So it was with trepidation that I went to "Into the Woods", the fine Stephen Sondheim musical that I'd seen 3 times on various stages. Like other lousy musicals of recent years, it starred some non-singers and non-dancers -- like Meryl Streep as the witch and Johnny Depp as the Big Bad Wolf.

Not to fear! The movie was very good! True: Streep's big numbers ("It's the Last Midnight") were talked rather than sang -- but she has sufficient talent to pull it off, and played her role with a sense of humor. The filming was appropriately mystical; the princes appropriately conceited; the baker and his wife appropriately cute. The best numbers -- Into the Woods, You are Not Alone, Children will Listen -- were well done.

Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true.....

[Helga]

The Hobbit Battle of the five armies (or something like that). Well I had to remind myself constantly that this is just a movie and as such I enjoyed it. A lot of new stuff was added and I felt the whimsical part of the Hobbit book was a bit lost. I liked Thranduil character, but maybe that is because I love Lee Pace.

It's a good movie if you try not to compare it to the book, but if you do then it's no good....

good entertainment but no masterpiece.

[Emil Miller]

This film conforms generally to my recollection of E.M.Forster's novel that I read many years ago. The story is set in the fictional hill town of Monteriano in Italy in 1903 and relates the consternation of a widow's family and her inlaws when she decides to marry the unemployed son of an Italian dentist. Her first husband's son is sent to Italy to persuade the Italian to renounce the marriage by offering him money but is laughed at and told that the wedding has already taken place .
Having failed in their attempt to salvage what they perceive as their damaged reputation, they are further disconcerted by the news that the errant relative has died in childbirth; leaving the child in the charge of her husband.
Both families decide separately to 'rescue' the child from a life of semi-poverty and have him brought up in England as a gentleman, but their plans go awry and end in tragedy.
The culture clash is deftly handled by the director, and the Tuscan scenery shown to advantage while the cast manage to convey the stiffness of middle class Englishness with the free and easy lifestyle of the Italians. 9/10

It's surprising that, given the interest shown in English writers, that E.M. Forster, one of its foremost practitioners, is hardly mentioned on LitNet

[Snowqueen]

I saw BBC documentary One Life last night and it was very entertaining. It is a collection of different scenes shot in exotic locations. And I loved the scenery. Some parts of the film were really awe-inspiring, like Komodo Dragon stalking a water buffalo. I also liked the music and Daniel Craig's narration.

Thanks for recommendation, Nikolai. It was great.


Watched Wag the Dog last week. It's a great political satire with biting humour. Very thoughtful film and it shows how the general public is easily fooled by politicians who are habitual liars. Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman were excellent throughout the film. Woody Harrelson (Old Shoe) was really funny.

Thanks for recommending it, Hawk. I enjoyed it.

[readspider]

Saw ANNIE with the wife and kids. Loved it.

Modern take on an old movie and done very well.

Jamie Fox played a great part but fame did not matter as all parts were owned by the actors/actresses (Cameron Diaz great) despite their tenure or status.

I recommend it.

[Ecurb]

I made the mistake of seeing "Wild" last night. I'd been warned. One of my backpacking buddies had already seen it, and warned me about it. However, I knew that he just disliked the movie because he couldn't handle the sheer incompetence at his favorite pastime on the part of the heroine. So I figured it might still be a good movie, and parts of it were filmed on sections of the Pacific Coast Trail on which my own boots had trodden (or something like that).

So I went. It's a chick flick -- not horrible, but self-obsessed and self-absorbed. Cheryl Strayed hikes the PCT to change her life, which has spiraled into heroin addiction and random sex (horrors!) after the early death of her mother. It works! She muddles through, failing to COMPLETELY kick the random sex habit on her adventure. I'll even grant that it probably WAS a life-changing experience for her -- nothing like 4 months of strenuous exercise with no access to heroin dealers to help ANY pretty young addict.

What annoyed me is the self-absorption -- her motive is to look within herself and find herself. But (as I wrote in another thread recently) it seems to me that we find ourselves by looking for something else. Of course Strayed does find something else -- a beautiful country, some interesting people -- but she's always looking within, surprisingly, given what's passing by without.

I love mountaineering and adventure literature. Perhaps the greatest polar adventure book is "The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Gerrard. It tells the story of the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole. However, the titular "worst journey" takes place in the winter prior to Scott's dash for the pole. Gerrard and one companion trek in search of the roosting grounds of the Emperor Penguin -- never before seen by humans. They journey is "only" 150 miles or so, but the weather is far worse than it is in the summer -- -80F, intense winds, etc. Anyway -- it's a great story.

Gerrard concludes his book with this famous paragraph, In which his attitude compares with Strayed's.


“And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.

If you are a brave man you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but cowards have need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say, “What is the use?” for we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year.

And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: that is worth a good deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.”

[Sarabande]

I've completed a review on another thread of "The Rum Diary". Here's a snippet of director Bruce Robinson's 1987 cult classic, "Withnail and I". Both films have much in common:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0DytHBjGTQ

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcm50m82oi4

Hilarious!

[YesNo]

Grandma's Boy: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456554/

This came in a rated and unrated version. Since I don't want to miss anything, I always pick the unrated version.

It is about a brilliant but nerdy and dishonest video game creator, a set of video game testers who don't like him, their new age boss and a beautiful female project manager who comes in to make sure the next game release occurs on time. Considering how everyone is behaving this project manager is definitely needed, but being a beautiful female with everyone else being male virgins focused on video games the context for the conflict is set up. Additionally, the lead tester, in his thirties, is living with his grandmother and two other elderly women.

The crucial problem is who will get the girl, the nerdy but dishonest genius or the likable head tester. It is a comedy so you know who wins, but how he actually wins her is what makes this worth a score of 10/10.

[Emil Miller]

Joseph Losey is a director I can take or leave. An escapee from the Un American Activities Committee, he made most of his films in Europe and specifically England. His off-beat approach to directing lead to some very patchy films but The Intimate Stranger isn't one of them.
Staring the reliable Richard Basehart as the lead in the role of an American expat film producer who has married the daughter of the head of a major British studio, he starts receiving letters from a woman claiming a romantic liaison with him although he has never heard of her.
Because he had to leave Hollywood over a sex scandal, he has great difficulty convincing his wife and her father that he isn't lying but the mysterious woman is convincing and knows things about him that only a close confidant could know.
This leads to his wife leaving him and her father taking him off a big production he Is working on.
Although everything looks stacked against him, a stroke of luck reveals that he isn't going mad, as he had begun to think, but is the victim of a plot get him removed from the studio by another executive who wants to step into his shoes.


8/10

[Clopin]

The Tale of Princess Kaguya - Isao Takahata

Beautiful animation and story... 8.5/10

[YesNo]

We're in season four of "Breaking Bad". It seems there is another scene with Walter White in his underwear. We stopped for the evening with Skylar telling Walter that she gave the money to Ted.

So far, I like Saul and Gus the best. Walter is getting on my nerves. Skylar has been on my nerves for some time. Jesse is starting to show promise. Mike is showing he can get shot and Ted is getting a taste of the real Skylar.

Score: 5/10

[Clopin]

Fanny and Alexander - Ingmar Bergman

I didn't realize this thing was nearly five hours long so when I found out I was a little apprehensive as to whether I could actually handle four and a half hours of consecutive Bergman. It was amazing though, eveything about it. I was very surprised by the supernatural elements and enjoyed them very much. The scene in the attic with the ghosts of the bishops two girls puts most horror movies to shame.

10/10

[Pompey Bum]

Fanny and Alexander - Ingmar Bergman

I didn't realize this thing was nearly five hours long so when I found out I was a little apprehensive as to whether I could actually handle four and a half hours of consective Bergman. It was amazing though, eveything about it. I was very surprised by the supernatural elements and enjoyed them very much. The scene in the attic with the ghosts of the bishops two girls puts most horror movies to shame.

10/10

I strongly recommend Through a Glass Darkly, if you haven't seen it already.

[Lykren]

Fanny and Alexander - Ingmar Bergman

I didn't realize this thing was nearly five hours long so when I found out I was a little apprehensive as to whether I could actually handle four and a half hours of consective Bergman. It was amazing though, eveything about it. I was very surprised by the supernatural elements and enjoyed them very much. The scene in the attic with the ghosts of the bishops two girls puts most horror movies to shame.

10/10

MY FAVORITE MOVIE. Though I watched the film version - sounds like you watched the TV version.

[Pierre Menard]

I strongly recommend Through a Glass Darkly, if you haven't seen it already.


As do I, my favourite Bergman film.

[Lykren]

Through A Glass Darkly was my favorite Bergman before I saw Fanny and Alexander. Still love it though, of course. And while we're recommending Bergman films, if you're ready for a couple hours of emotional agony, try Cries and Whispers on for size.

[Pompey Bum]

It's funny how people always talk about Bergman movies like spicy food: awesome if you can stand it. It's usually true, though.

[Clopin]

Yeh I've seen Through a Glass Darkly, it's great, just behind Wild Strawberries for me. I've been sick this entire week and I watched pretty much every episode of Seinfeld in that time haha, the other movie thread made me remember that I wanted to watch more movies.

Persona - Ingmar Bergman

So many top lists and crtics rank this as one of, if not the best, Bergman film.... I was uh, underwhelmed for sure. The opening collage of imagery seemed to me like a bad cliche of what an 'art house' film looks like, and this same feeling cropped up a few times during the viewing. Overall I liked it, but not overly much.

6.5/10

[YesNo]

I'm going to have to watch some Bergman movies. I've seen some decades ago. Maybe today I'll understand them.

We finished season four of Breaking Bad last night. It looks like Walt and Skylar are getting back on the same page. Score: 6/10

To wash down Breaking Bad, I watched "Stretch": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2494280/

This is a movie about fate and finding your true love even though you are in a relationship. Luckily for fate, your girl friend dumps you freeing you for the unknown. After realizing you can't end up like your suicidal imaginary friend you face the reality of your situation that your gambling debts have been called to be paid tonight. If you don't pay, suicide will be the least of your worries. You are hoping the tip from a wealthy outlaw the FBI is chasing will be enough to pay off those debts if you can dodge the rival limo gang you've ticked off earlier by stealing one of their clients who left his gun in the limo. Then you have to get even with your ex-girlfriend, since you ran into her, chase your limo as it is being towed, convince some navigation system to let the engine start.

But it all works out in the end. Fate always wins.

Score: 8/10

[Clopin]

Scenes From a Marriage - Ingmar Bergman

Very real. I've never been married but I have been in a long term relationship and while it wasn't exactly the same (I'm nothing like Johan), a lot of the generalities were pretty close. I was sort of waiting for Marianne to lose her mind and have some sort of intense existential, psychoactive experience or something but I'm glad that didn't happen and the movie stuck to stark realism.

9/10

[Lykren]

Scenes From a Marriage - Ingmar Bergman

Very real. I've never been married but I have been in a long term relationship and while it wasn't exactly the same (I'm nothing like Johan), a lot of the generalities were pretty close. I was sort of waiting for Marianne to lose her mind and have some sort of intense existential, psychoactive experience or something but I'm glad that didn't happen and the movie stuck to stark realism.

9/10

Scenes from a Marriage is one of the few artworks that I think follows the rule wherein more life experience brings you a greater appreciation for it. I watched it, and while I could see the intensity, it didn't really hit home for me in a coherent way. I saw the power of the individual pieces, but I couldn't make emotional sense of them. My dad however, who has been divorced twice, could.

[Clopin]

I've decided to finish the Bergman films I have on my list of movies to watch, while I remain sick. We'll see if I can do the ten I have left in the next four or so days... Summer with Monika is next anyway.

[Clopin]

Summer with Monika - Ingmar Bergman

I hated Monika, but I liked the movie.

8/10

[Emil Miller]

This film has the impossibly beautiful Janet Munro playing the lead in a cautionary
tale of the dangers of falling for the chimera known as glamour.
As a young girl from a defunct mining town who loses her virginity to a slick
business man and ends up in London with nowhere to go, she is befriended by a
young man who works as a barman and takes pity on her. He takes her into his
lodgings and tells her he will think of some way to help her. She is so taken by his
respect and genuineness that she tells him that she is in love with him and they set up
a conjugal home in a larger part of the house.
It is at this point that she starts to think of the opportunities that London has to offer
a beautiful young woman and begins to get ideas of becoming a fashion model.
This leads to friction when she gets an invite to a smart party by an elderly actor who
lives in the same house and comes into contact with a swinging crowd of poseurs
who are very different to the young man.
She eventually leaves him and is taken up by a rich middle-aged wheeler dealer and
from there to numerous liaisons with other men before killing herself with sleeping
pills. Janet Munro gives a superb performance and is ably assisted by the rest of the
cast of seasoned actors. She died tragically at the age of 39 from a heart condition
aggravated by alcoholism.

9/10

[YesNo]

I saw Bergman's "Through a Glass Darkly" and looked at the following to try to make sense of it:

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-through-a-glass-darkly-1961
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_a_Glass_Darkly_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

What I understand is Karin is believed by the three members of her family who are with her to be suffering from some mental illness and there is at least one doctor who diagnosed her with something. Her behavior estranges her from the three males currently with her.

(1) She refuses to have sex with her husband, Martin.
(2) She sexually teases her brother, Minus.
(3) She looks for reasons to justify a feeling of grievance against her father, David, who's wife, her mother, died of some mental illness.

If one views God as a male, which Karin does, we could add a fourth male to the set. She thinks she hears God in a closet and demands that he show himself. The door opens and she screams. She claims that God is a spider wanting to have sex with her. The fact that she has this experience makes me think she is not totally imagining this. Everyone does see the door open.

She agrees to be taken to a hospital. It is like an admission of her failure to establish relationship.

Of all the characters, her father seems to understand best what is going on. He recently attempted suicide, so his mental health may be in doubt as well, but at the moment he does not seem to want anything from Karin except to understand and perhaps write about her illness to further his understanding. This acceptance gives him an edge. He is also blamed by the other three for not being around, for writing in his journal, for writing novels, for giving them gifts they devalue. He doesn't blame anyone. He becomes a sort of God-figure for his son Minus when he explains to Minus how he approaches Karin at the end. Minus is surprised that his father spoke to him. What should have really surprised Minus is this is the first time Minus actually listened to him without judgement.

Anyway, that's what I found out about the movie and my current views of it. I originally saw it when I was an undergraduate as part of some watered-down "existentialist" course to fulfill some cultural requirement for graduation.

[Clopin]

I'm pretty sure Minus and Karin have sex in some form in the boat when they are alone together; also, speaking of incest...

Saraband - Ingmar Bergman

So I'm correct in thinking that Karin and Henrik are involved in some sort of very bizarre incestual relationship right? My reasons for believing this are, they sleep in the same bed, she takes her top off right in front of him before going to bed and there's a very un father-daughter like kiss which takes place around two thirds of the way through the film. I read that Bergman was somewhat preoccupied with incest and it crops up in a few of his other movies so I think it's an open and shut case. All this considered I actually liked Henrik (more than Johan at least) and felt pretty bad for him.

I liked how the movie ended especially, with the suicide attempt and Marianne looking at the photographs. The audience is left unaware of what is going to happen to Henrik, Karin, Johan, etc next, but it almost definitely won't be good. Bergman was 86 when he made the movie and I think it's important to know that before watching the film.

10/10

[YesNo]

I think Minus tried to kiss his sister, Karin, but she rejected the kiss. Robert Ebert mentioned incest also, but I don't think that occurred.

I had two reasons for referencing someone like Ebert. I wanted to know what I missed that I could look for the next time I saw the movie and I wanted to look for divergence between Ebert's description and what I actually saw. Ebert would be presenting an authoritative version that might need to be rejected in part.

One of the divergences is that Ebert assumed Karin was schizophrenic. I think it is more interesting to see her as not. Her brother admitted that he did not think she was mentally ill and neither did she. Most important, the closet door clearly opened making one wonder if what she was experiencing was a delusion or not.

[Clopin]

Yeh but Karin and Minus both act very strangely after the boat scene. Karin suggests that something serious has happened, starts crying and laments what she has 'done' to Minus; and later when David calls Minus to talk to him he's running around and hiding (lol, the scene was I think, unitentionally, humorous). It could be what you think though, it's ambiguous.

As for the door, a helicoptor goes by the house when it opens, maybe it just blows open.

[YesNo]

The helicopter might have opened the door. I will watch the movie again to see if that was possible.

The pattern I see is Karin's successful rejection of sexual advances. That is why I don't think she and Minus actually had an incestuous relationship. Even the rejection of the present her father gave her seemed to fit as a rejection of a sexual advance. It seemed to me that Karin was in control throughout from the very first where she gets her way to the end where she wants to go back to the hospital.

The linking of sex with spirituality is however key. I think that may have been Bergman's intent, but I do not know enough about him. I will probably have to watch some of the other films, especially, Winter Light and The Silence.

[Clopin]

Yeh possibly, I didn't consider the repeated rejections of sexual advances, but now that you mention it, it strikes me as pretty relevant. Karin won't have sex with her husband while she is 'ill' and she rejects God himself!

[Clopin]

Also regarding the door opening. Once I was discussing Kafka online with someone who drew a humorous diagram or graph in paint which plotted characters in The Metamorphosis alongside their level of 'buggyness' and was accompanied with the argument that Kafka envisioned a world in which human life could be explained through the binaries of 'buggy' and 'not buggy' and considering this he stressed the possibility that really Gregor's parents are the ones who woke up changed... who woke up less buggy. It was defintely a joke, sort of a stab at literary criticism in general and Kafka analysis in particular. How that relates to the door, well... okay.

So I think the general interpretation of Through a Glass Darkly is the more literal one, that Karin has schizophrenia or something like schizophrenia and is uncurable. However your suggestion that there is no illness would mean what? Well that she's suffering from life? Or a spiritual strugglers? That makes a lot of sense to me given Bergmans oeuvre and the themes he chooses to tackle repeatedly in his films. He touches on mental illness a lot, but not nearly as much as he contemplates the silence of God, or (damn this word) existentialism, and you can also assume perhaps that mental illness isn't just mental illness when it crops up in his movies. So really then Karin is just suffering from a spiritual crisis of a much stronger magnitude than anyone else, but as you can see, every character is struggling in their own way and perhaps it's only a matter of degree separating Karin from everyone else instead of Karin being 'sick' and others being 'well'.

That could explain why everyone sees the door open at the same time becsuse every character is sick in the same way as Karin is, but maybe it's just not as pronounced, or they don't notice it all the time.

[Pompey Bum]

The door is opened by the spider god so that he can rape Karin. It is also blown open by the helicopter coming to the island so that she can be forcibly committed to an institution. The silhouette of the helicopter is the image of the spider god coming for her. It is also the thing itself. They are analogous, but they are the same thing (Karin's her mind, and in the reality of the film). That is the power and horror of the scene. She has been waiting for God to come and redeem her from the schizophrenia that she inherited from her mother and that had led her to seduce her childish and needy brother. But instead of the forgiving and redeeming God she seeks, she gets a god of sickness, the spider god, an image Bergman takes from Nietzsche's critique of the Christian God in The Anti-Christ.

[Clopin]

Woah, maybe I'll go rewatch it right now.

[YesNo]

The door is opened by the spider god so that he can rape her. It is also blown open by the helicopter so that she can be forcibly committed to an institution. The shadow of the helicopter is the image of the spider god coming for her. It is also the helicopter itself coming for her. They are analogous, but they are also the same thing. That is the power and horror of the scene. Karin has been waiting for God to come and redeem her from the schizophrenia that she inherited from her mother and that led her to seduce her childish and needy brother. But instead of the forgiving and redeeming God she seeks, she gets a god of sickness, the spider god, an image Bergman takes from Nietzsche's critique of the Christian God in The Anti-Christ.

I searched and found one reference to "spider" in Nietzsche's The AntiChrist: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19322/pg19322.txt


"the priest himself is seen as he actually is--as the most dangerous form of parasite, as the venomous spider of creation...."

I'll have to watch this again to see how the helicopter and its shadow are presented.

She perceived the spider as wanting to have sex with her, but I don't think she saw it as attempting rape. I will have to pay attention to that as well. Also, at one point she agreed to go to the hospital. However, there is the scene where she is given a drug to calm her after the spider incident. I will have to see to what extent she is forced to go to the hospital.

[Pompey Bum]

I think this is the pertinent quote:

The Christian conception of God--God as god of the sick, God as a spider, God as spirit--is one of the most corrupt conceptions of the divine ever attained onearth. It may even represent the low-water mark in the descending development of divine types. God degenerated into the contradiction of life, instead of being its transfiguration and eternal Yes! God as the declaration of war against life, against nature, against the will to live! God--the formula for every slander against "this world," for every lie about the "beyond"! God--the deification of nothingness, the will to nothingness pronounced holy!

I don't believe Bergman is embracing Nietzche's ethos so much as recoiling at his recognition of its applicability. The horror is relieved (barely) by the suggestion that faith may still be found in our potential to love one another ("Papa spoke to me!"). But that possibility is precisely what Bergman rejects in The Winter's Light, and especially in The Silence.

Edit: This clip shows the helicopter sequence and the symbolic rape (with syringe). I notice that the image of the father is opposite the opening door. Somehow I had forgotten that over the years.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=41dVm3EauOU

[YesNo]

I rewatched the movie. Karin does believe the spider wanted to rape her, but she was able to defend herself against him. Injecting the drug was against her will. That the helicopter occurred at the same time as the door opening implies there is some connection. There was no shadow of the helicopter on the floor. It had descended below the window by the time Karin recognized the spider, however, the final scene does have the helicopter leave and there is a shadow on its landing site that moves away.

Karin feels she was being forced by the "Others" to reject Martin, seduce Minus and read David's journal. She assumes responsibility, but excuses it by denying any free will on her part. She did want to go back to the hospital requesting that no attempts be made to give her therapy (which is what they did with the injection) so she could stay with the Others and not come back to them. I will have to see how "Winter's Light" and "The Silence" turn out. I've had enough Bergman for one day.

The idea of God as spider is a new one for me. However, I don't know if this idea is something Bergman intended to use or if others imagined this afterwards.

[Pompey Bum]

I rewatched the movie. Karin does believe the spider wanted to rape her, but she was able to defend herself against him. Injecting the drug was against her will. That the helicopter occurred at the same time as the door opening implies there is some connection. There was no shadow of the helicopter on the floor. It had descended below the window by the time Karin recognized the spider, however, the final scene does have the helicopter leave and there is a shadow on its landing site that moves away.

Sorry, I meant silhouette. I went back and changed it later. But, she screams at the apparition of the image of the helicopter descending from the heavens like a spider on a thread (I also edited the scene into my post above). The rape was symbolic. The men (including her brother) trap her on the stairs and her husband injects her butt against her will. She does not say that she was successful in her attempt to defend herself. The description of what actually happened (in her delusion) seems to mirror whatever transpired between Karin and Minus in the ruined ship (based on the eye contact she makes with him as she describes it). Later, Minus tells his father that this involved reality "bursting open" and his "tumbling out" it seems to me that he is confessing his incest. What Karin seems to have been alluding to is that it did not involve actual penetration--perhaps because if Minus' immaturity.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LEdRxYotZuQ

[YesNo]

Also regarding the door opening. Once I was discussing Kafka online with someone who drew a humorous diagram or graph in paint which plotted characters in The Metamorphosis alongside their level of 'buggyness' and was accompanied with the argument that Kafka envisioned a world in which human life could be explained through the binaries of 'buggy' and 'not buggy' and considering this he stressed the possibility that really Gregor's parents are the ones who woke up changed... who woke up less buggy. It was defintely a joke, sort of a stab at literary criticism in general and Kafka analysis in particular. How that relates to the door, well... okay.

So I think the general interpretation of Through a Glass Darkly is the more literal one, that Karin has schizophrenia or something like schizophrenia and is uncurable. However your suggestion that there is no illness would mean what? Well that she's suffering from life? Or a spiritual strugglers? That makes a lot of sense to me given Bergmans oeuvre and the themes he chooses to tackle repeatedly in his films. He touches on mental illness a lot, but not nearly as much as he contemplates the silence of God, or (damn this word) existentialism, and you can also assume perhaps that mental illness isn't just mental illness when it crops up in his movies. So really then Karin is just suffering from a spiritual crisis of a much stronger magnitude than anyone else, but as you can see, every character is struggling in their own way and perhaps it's only a matter of degree separating Karin from everyone else instead of Karin being 'sick' and others being 'well'.

That could explain why everyone sees the door open at the same time becsuse every character is sick in the same way as Karin is, but maybe it's just not as pronounced, or they don't notice it all the time.

My assumption is that she was not mentally ill, or that her problems were a form of spiritual crisis she needed to work through. If that is true, then her treatments generated the symptoms of schizophrenia which reinforced the diagnosis of why she heard the Others. However, that is what I want to see in the film. That may not be what Bergman intended. Whatever Bergman intended is what counts.

[YesNo]

Sorry, I meant silhouette. I went back and changed it later. But, she screams at the apparition of the image of the helicopter descending from the heavens (I also edited the scene into my post above). The rape was symbolic. The men (including her brother) trap her on the stairs and her husband injects her butt against her will. She does not say that she was successful in her attempt to defend herself. The description of what actually happened (in her delusion) seems to mirror whatever transpired between Karin and Minus in the ruined ship (based on the eye contact she makes with him as she describes it). Later, Minus tells his father that this involved reality "bursting open" and his "tumbling out" it seems to me that he is confessing his incest.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w6YD7Z0EtlM

In the next clip she says at 3:30 "I defended myself" against the spider and I assume that was successful since she also said at 3:47 that "he couldn't penetrate me". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzyMu4pBjYA

I agree that the helicopter symbolizes the spider. As it lands she sees the spider on the floor. The helicopter will take her back to the hospital where she will be with the Others provided she does not get further treatment like they gave her with the injection. After seeing the spider perhaps she will want the treatment now.

I don't think Karin and Minus committed incest. Her rejection of Minus as his face came close to hers was a sign of her free will which she assumed she did not have since the Others were supposedly making her seduce Minus. Minus was confused and he felt guilty since he probably wanted to have sex with her.

[Pompey Bum]

In the next clip she says at 3:30 "I defended myself" against the spider and I assume that was successful since she also said at 3:47 that "he couldn't penetrate me". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzyMu4pBjYA

Sorry again, but please see my thoughts about this above. I apologize for editing so much into posts I have already submitted, but that's the way my mind works :)

[YesNo]

Sorry again, but please see my thoughts about this above. I apologize for editing so much into posts I have already submitted, but that's the way my mind works :)

No problem. I edit mine as well. I have been trying to see if it makes sense that Karin and Minus had sex given the way she looked at the end of the scene where she brought Minus head toward her. At the moment I don't think it matters one way or the other. Perhaps my idea that she was rejecting sex in different ways is not what Bergman intended.

[LadyDedlock]

I watched Seven Psychopaths a couple of days ago and I thought it was really good. I got a few good laughs and replayed a few scenes to watch them over again and laugh. I recommend it if you're looking for a movie that'll cheer you up but doesn't annoy you by being too shallow or crass. 9/10

[Pompey Bum]

I have been trying to see if it makes sense that Karin and Minus had sex given the way she looked at the end of the scene where she brought Minus head toward her. At the moment I don't think it matters one way or the other. Perhaps my idea that she was rejecting sex in different ways is not what Bergman intended.

It's difficult to say. I don't think Bergman commented much about this movie, except to distance himself from it a bit, later on after he'd rejected religion. But I want to take slight exception (though only slight) to what you say about an artist's intent. Certainly there is an overly broad way to interpret a work. ("For you Through A Glass Darkly is about isolation from God and each other, but for me it's about how a pretty girl is like a melody!"); but there is also an overly narrow approach.

I vaguely remember J.R.R. Tolkien complaining, in one preface or another, about all the people who wanted him to admit that the One Ring was really the hydrogen bomb. No, no, he told them, that was not his intent, although some may find an applicability. That seems to me to be an excellent and valid distinction in the appreciation of art (which you, as a Berkelean, must see as subjective in any case). In that case, it matters less whether the screenwriter, or director, or actress understood every nuance of the film in the same way that you or I do (or that you or I understand them in exactly the same way, for that matter). That doesn't mean, of course, that Through a Glass Darkly is about bunnies and flowers. It is not. But it does mean that maybe Karin seduced Minus or maybe she rebuffed him--whatever Bergman thought. :)

EDIT: Sorry to step on your post about Seven Psychopaths, Lady D!

[YesNo]

It's difficult to say. I don't think Bergman commented much about this movie, except to distance himself from it a bit, later on after he'd rejected religion. But I want to take slight exception (though only slight) to what you say about an artist's intent. Certainly there is an overly broad way to interpret a work. ("For you Through A Glass Darkly is about isolation from God and each other, but for me it's about how a pretty girl is like a melody!"); but there is also an overly narrow approach.

I vaguely remember J.R.R. Tolkien complaining, in one preface or another, about all the people who wanted him to admit that the One Ring was really the hydrogen bomb. No, no, he told them, that was not his intent, although some may find an applicability. That seems to me to be an excellent and valid distinction in the appreciation of art (which you, as a Berkelean, must see as subjective in any case). In that case, it matters less whether the screenwriter, or director, or actress understood every nuance of the film in the same way that you or I do (or that you or I understand them in exactly the same way, for that matter). That doesn't mean, of course, that Through a Glass Darkly is about bunnies and flowers. It is not. But it does mean that maybe Karin seduced Minus or maybe she rebuffed him--whatever Bergman thought. :)

I view the movie as a cult classic that keeps coming up so I feel I have to have an opinion about it to stop my mind from wondering if I am missing something or not.

Given my pigheaded in/ability to appreciate art I have to take pains not to dismiss something too quickly especially if it is in black and white with a seemingly cryptic message I am sure not to get. For example, if I had to watch something for pure enjoyment from the middle of the 20th century, I admit that I'd rather watch Roger and Hammerstein's "Carousel" than anything with the name Bergman associated with it. So, I have to be careful.

"Through a Glass Darkly" does has some interest for me. As you know, I like monistic idealism and kundalini, tantric spiritual practices. For me, sex is not taboo. The universe is good. That seemed to be part of David's message at the end of the movie so I grudgingly have to admit liking the movie. Schizophrenia assumes that an authority knows the difference between a delusion and reality. The movie left enough doubt about whether that door opened because the "spider" opened it or the helicopter shook it open. Another plus for the movie.

I try not to take anything from the mid-20th century for granted. That leaves me still wondering if I'm glad I saw the movie or not. I'll have to watch the other two films from the trilogy to see.

----------------------------

I remember enjoying "Seven Psychopaths", LadyDedlock. My score would be high as well.

Last night we saw "American Sniper". That was a movie about Chris Kyle and I thought it was well done. I wasn't in the mood to watch a war movie, and I almost fell asleep with all the violence, but this one surprised me in a way I was not expecting. The sniper had an unusual characteristic. Not only was he good at killing people, but he was gentle. He selflessly served those around him so much so that he became a legend. That seems a contradiction in terms, a gentle sniper, but it is what makes the movie exceptional for me and offers a sort of moral that might be worth more thought. Anyway, my score for that movie is 8/10.

[Clopin]

The Hour of the Wolf - Ingmar Bergman

So this was uh... huh...

Indeterminate/10

But I did enjoy it quite a bit.

[LadyDedlock]

EDIT: Sorry to step on your post about Seven Psychopaths, Lady D!

Don't worry about it, it's nice to see people continue a conversation. I would have felt awkward if it had stopped because of my post.

YesNo, I watched American Sniper too and I thought it was also pretty well done. I haven't seen any other Clint Eastwood film except for Gran Turino, which I also liked. I'd give American Sniper an 8/10 too.

[kev67]

I saw Ex Machina on Sunday. It was pretty good. It reminded me most of a film called Android from 1982, in which Klaus Kinski played a mad scientist on a space station, working away at perfecting his fembots. It is odd that the mad scientist is now a Mark Zuckerberg type IT billionaire, although I suspect the corporation that the protagonists work for, own, or were created by was based on Google rather than Facebook. I thought the actress who played the sexy fembot was great. The actor who played the computer scientist employee was not nerdy enough imo. I could believe him as a software engineer, but since he was tall and had even features, the only reason I could think for him not having a girlfriend would be if he suffered from social anxiety or was a bit on the aspergers/austistic spectrum. He did not seem that bad. Being invited to spend a week with the boss of your megacorporation, who is also a genius, would be worrying enough, but they way this one behaved would be enough put Bill Gates or Richard Branson ill at ease. The employee seemed to deal with him reasonably well considering.

[Clopin]

The Magic Flute - Ingmar Bergman

I expected this to be a movie based on the opera, or featuring the opera in some way (as Hour of the Wolf does) instead of a genuine opera film. The sets and costumes were beautiful and I enjoyed some of the score but opera isn't really my thing. I did add thirty or so filmed operas to my movie list so maybe I can change my own mind eventually.

Indeterminate/10

Shame - Ingmar Bergman

I forget who I'm quoting with "it's difficult to make an anti war movie because the action speaks for itself"; but there's no action here and it's quite effectively anti war. In fact I'm not sure I've ever seen a war movie where the (relatively) likeable protagonist turns into a sort of fiend without any real necessity driving his actions.

9/10

[YesNo]

We finished all six seasons of Breaking Bad. Walter's character resolved most of what needed to be resolved calmly without desperation.

Although I found this often painful to watch, thinking back on it, the series was an amazing achievement. Score: 10/10

[Clopin]

But you only gave season four a 5/10! I agree though, four was the worst season. I enjoyed the show a lot, especially seasons one and two but I took issue with the hardline anti drug stance and Walter becoming necessarily evil to fill his role. I agreed with Gail when he said "there's crime, and then there's crime, I'm supplying a good product to people who are making the decision to use it"; not verbatim but I think that was the gist.

[YesNo]

Yeah, I think I was being too hard on it before. The episode about the fly that Walter was determined to kill was the worst for me. I suppose it was describing how much of a perfectionist he was, but it now stands out as too weird.

I agree with you about the anti-drug theme. One could say this whole thing could have been avoided if meth was able to be sold legally and manufactured correctly like cigarettes. The consumer would be better protected. I think that point was made throughout the series even though Hank's perspective dominated for the purposes of the storyline. Based on body count, Walter removed more of the "bad guys" than Hank did.

Another theme was health insurance. Both Skylar and Marie refused to allow their husbands to use the health insurance they had which they felt was inferior, but had no real basis in knowing the treatment would have been worse except for the price. If it weren't for Skylar making a fuss about Walter getting the "best" treatment, none of this would have started.

Walter did become "evil", but most the of main characters became evil in their own way. Fear, greed, selfishness and insensitivity--I'm probably just scratching the surface--could be seen as explanations for their bad behavior. Some of the characters knew they were "bad", such as Walter and Jesse. Others, such as Skylar, Hank and Marie, never really understood that. They could always point to a bad guy who was worse than they were.

[Clopin]

The fly was written the way it was because of extreme budget restrictions, most people dislike that episode.

I really didn't like how Walter and Jesse's relationship was written, I kept expecting them to become friends or comrades and Jesse just ended up annoying me.

EDIT: Oh yeah and regarding the characters becoming evil, I think it was the writers trying to show how morals become corrupted until good people justify doing bad things, so naturally manufacturing and selling meth opens the door to murdering children a year or so later right? Not in my view.

[YesNo]

My daughters said the same thing about the fly episode. However, why should budget restrictions affect the quality of the writing?

Walter and Jesse were friends. They had each others' backs most of the time. Most people probably don't act like Jesse. They would have forgotten about the children who were killed after a while.

I think Skylar's personality was worse than Walter's. She was insensitive, self-righteous and manipulative. All the while she maintained a cover of innocence. Being one of the more beautiful of the females in the series helped make that innocence point. I see her as narcissistic.

Manufacturing and selling meth was just a way to put these characters into a situation that got out of hand. All of the narrow escapes, victories followed almost immediately by defeats, were ways to keep the plot moving. They were exaggerations of reality.

[Clopin]

Maboroshi no Hikari - Hirokazu Koreeda

Filmed exclusively using natural light, and featuring beautiful settings, interior spaces and outfits (if you like textiles/fashion), it's a very visually attractive movie; the scenes in the small town, alongside the ocean are especially pleasing. At nearly two hours the movie is also very slow, pehaps too slow at times, or entirely too slow for some viewers. The story poses questions, about characters, about life and doesn't bother even attempting to answer them.

The movie also reminded me of how much I like Japan and the Japanese language which I really think is the most beautiful language on Earth, both written and spoken.

8.5/10

[Calidore]

The movie also reminded me of how much I like Japan and the Japanese language which I really think is the most beautiful language on Earth, both written and spoken.

My father commented once, after watching the Lone Wolf and Cub films, that Japanese is an even better language than German for yelling at people.

[Clopin]

Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu

Loved it, I was nearly in tears by the end and I don't cry easy. Loved Noriko.

10/10

[Lykren]

Ozu is great! Late Spring and Floating Weeds by him are also fantastic.

[Clopin]

The Smash Brothers - East Point Productions

Four hour long episodic independent documentary made about the underground and, today, mainstream esports, professional scene of Super Smash Brothers Melee, possibly the best fighting game ever designed and currently the most watched figting game on the pro circuit. I think the average age of poster on litnet is around mid 40's so the subject matter, music, style and age of the participants would probably be grating. If you haven't played the game you won't have any idea what is happening, but if you have you will be dumbstruck by what can be done with the engine. The game is played so fast that professional players can and do develop serious wrist and hand problems (as do Starcraft players), and this is seriously worth a watch if you're young enough to get hyped over a video game tournament. Freely available on youtube.

9/10

[Lykren]

Hey Clopin, I tried watching Maboroshi no Hikari but after the key incident in the beginning, and seeing Yumiko's face and body posture immediately afterwards, I just couldn't take it. When I feel better I'll try again.

[Emil Miller]

Highly mannered film performances of Sherlock Holmes have been mandatory for some time and Rupert Everett's contribution to the genre
is no exception. In 'Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking' he plays the master detective as an extremely arrogant and dismissive
character with a totally ruthless desire to solve the case at any cost.
It's not by Conan Doyle and therefore has leeway to set the villain as a foot fetishist who murders young women on account of their shoes.
This unlikely tale is given some credence by the very good production values and atmospheric direction that creates a genuine feel for the
period. The usual Holmes idiosyncrasies: the narcotics, violin playing, moodiness etc. are on display but they don't detract from a fast
moving story that has genuine excitement.
This is a different kind of performance to Jeremy Brett's and in some ways its better but I suspect that it's due to the director Simon Cellan
Jones as much as Rupert Everett.

8/10

[tonywalt]

I watched the documentary on Vivian Maier - the unknown photographer who lept to fame posthumously. 10 out of 10.

[Helga]

Magic in the Moonlight, the latest Woody Allen movie. It was great, Colin Firths character was brilliant, I loved it.

"I have irrational positive feelings towards her"
"This meaningless world can still have magic"

these are not exact quotes from the movie but close, great movie.

[Lykren]

I just found about Vivian Maier yesterday! She's fantastic, isn't she?

[Clopin]

Hey Clopin, I tried watching Maboroshi no Hikari but after the key incident in the beginning, and seeing Yumiko's face and body posture immediately afterwards, I just couldn't take it. When I feel better I'll try again.

Yeh that's understandable. I watched Late Spring, An Autumn Afternoon and Floating Weeds recently and enjoyed them all very much. The idea of quiet, unnoticed suffering and deep disappointments masked by a culture of polite nods and regimented social customs of behaviour is plenty interesting to me as a Westerner, even though I suspect the movies would be even more impactful were I Japanese.

Hiroshima Mon Amour - Alain Resnais/Marguerite Duras

I really liked it, the movie opened strong and waned only a little, felt fresh despite its age and was very watchable. It was also nice to watch a movie in a language I sort of know (though I still needed subtitles) after all the Swedish and Japanese. The actress who narrates or speaks through most of the film has an incredible voice, it was beautiful to listen to and a lot of the dialogue was enjoyable and memorable as well "First your eyes go, then it swallows your voice".

9/10

[Lykren]

Well, I finished Maboroshi no Hikari. Thank you, it was fantastic! The music added a lot, don't you think?

[Clopin]

I only remember noticing it during the funeral procession scene. Actually I'm watching movies now on my tablet and the speakers are really subpar, it's defintely hurting my ability to appreciate the music and sounds of the films and that's something I actually really care about. A bigger screen would be nice, but the audio is more important I think.

Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard

Yeh it was okay, watching it fifty five years after release I'm not wowed by anything that would have seemed groundbreaking to film audiences in 1960. I was hoping the girl would go to jail with Michel for being such a moron "you killed a police officer? Tee hee, lets go get dinner" but I was relatively satisfied with the ending anyway.

7/10 (but a weak 7)

[qimissung]

I watched the documentary on Vivian Maier - the unknown photographer who lept to fame posthumously. 10 out of 10.

I saw that, too! Really enjoyed it (8/10) and plan to get one of the books of her photography. She's quite a fascinating character.

Saw American Sniper the first weekend it opened. I didn't see it as a screed for war, but rather the story of a man very damaged by the war. I think the word hero gets bandied about a lot these days, so I don't know that I think he's a hero. He did something he believed in, I guess. I also heard that he wasn't such a nice guy in real life.

[YesNo]

I just finished watching "A Month by the Lake". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113849/

In a resort in Italy an older couple (Vanessa Redgrave and Edward Fox) meet but can't seem to connect until a young girl (Uma Thurman) gets between them and then brings them together. It's complicated.

Score: 7/10

[Ecurb]

Two Days, One Night is the latest movie from the Dardenne brothers, who specialize in bleak, minimalist dramas. The solar panel factory where our heroine (Marion Cotillard, now that the Dardennes can afford her) works is over-staffed. They offer the 16 workers a vote -- each will get a 1000 Euro bonus, and Cotillard will get fired, or Cotillard keeps her job and nobody gets a bonus.

Cotillard, who is recovering from Depression, runs around grim, suburban Liege asking her co-workers to vote that she gets to stay. The movie is like a piece of Phillip Glass music -- Cotillard tracks down each of her co-workers and goes through the same, rehearsed speech (it's only two sentences, thank God). Each of them reacts in his or her own way. It's a theme and variation.

I liked the last Dardenne movie (Kid with a Bike) -- but this one is a little too grim, visually dull, and repetitive for my taste (despite getting excellent reviews from others). The situation is a bit too forced to be realistic. It's a fairy-tale situation, with all the magic removed. There is no music; there is no beauty (even Cotillard looks haggard and plain, as astonishing as that may seem). Cotillard is an excellent actress, and the Dardennes (I think) accomplish their goals as filmmakers. But did I really enjoy my participation?

[YesNo]

I just finished watching Coffee Town: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234025/

This is about a guy who doesn't want the coffee shop he uses as his workplace, because of the free wifi, to turn into a bistro and so he takes matters into his own hands. There is also a cute girl whom he likes and a bartender whom he doesn't like who also likes the girl. This gets the males to start competing as best they can and complicates the plot, but don't worry. You won't be required to think too hard. This guy also has two friends who are idiots.

All in all, it was quite enjoyable nonsense. Score: 9/10

[Emil Miller]

I was hooked when I read in my Film Guide: 'Parachutists pass through a red mist and disappear into thin air. And before long you will too! There is little point in sticking around to find out it's alian Maurice Evans putting skydivers in suspended animation and substituting duplicates. Talky, laughably low-budget and hopelessly inept.' I must admit that my hand did hover over the delete button more than once but we British are made of stern stuff and I watched it until the ultra embarrassing end.

2/10 For the nostalgia element of seeing the usual British suspects in both leading and supporting roles.