Jump to content

Movies, old and new


KAndre

Recommended Posts

Let's see......since my last post I watched Midnight Cowboy (oh my fucking god, why didn't someone warn me?), rented Hannibal Rising and watched it again (still miss Anthony Hopkins, but it was well done), and then this morning, illegally downloaded The Kite Runner through torrents. What can I say? It doesn't seem to be playing anywhere that I can see it, so I gave in. And I am soooo glad I did! I think it was amazingly well done, it made me cry all over again. The child actors were great, and probably even more so than in the book, I felt Amir's pain over his past mistakes, and was applauding him when he finally stood up for Sohrab, albeit far too late for Hassan. What a powerful story, what a powerful movie. I will buy it when it comes out on DVD for sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hadn't been to the movies in a long time and when i finally went back I saw Juno...and it was soooo worth it. can't wait until the DVD comes out

hey yalcfan...welcome to our movie thread...

I have heard a lot about Juno. I guess people from aorund here are excited cos I do beleive the young girl is from the Maritimes....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only 320 days until the new Star Trek movie opens! :lilredani:

*high fives jamar* EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Also....

104 days until "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (May 22)

168 days until the next "X-Files" movie (July 25)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Yes, I'm a geek. Why do you ask?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only 320 days until the new Star Trek movie opens! :lilredani:

*high fives jamar* EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Also....

104 days until "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (May 22)

168 days until the next "X-Files" movie (July 25)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Yes, I'm a geek. Why do you ask?

WOW those are must see movies for sure!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so djs...what is cloverfield...the previews are pretty vague...is it an alien attack?

Better late than never, huh? huh?

Ansa, Cloverfield is like Blair Witch only it is interesting, has a plot, good actors, and awesome special effects.

Basic premise is that something attacks New York City, and a camcorder being used to video a party gets passed from victim to victim, until at the end we are treated to a Grizzly-type demise of the two lead actors. The culprit is a pretty cool-looking alien reptilian thingy, they are not too mysterious about showing it. Or culprits, I guess, there are hordes of them. If they bite you, your head wll explode at some point. Or someone will shoot you in the head. Not clear on that, but either way you are bygones. Sniff.

Anyways, True Love and also Guilt and Sheer Stupidity embolden some party-goers to go and rescue a damsel in distress. If you suspend your logic and stuff like that, and just enjoy the movie like I did, it is lots of fun with some jolts along the way.

I liked it a LOT. My grandson complained the whole time about feeling seasick. I mean really complained. So, sensitive and caring mom-mom that I am, I told him to either keep quiet, or go out into the lobby and play video games. (At just-turned-13, he is about 5'9", at least, and weighs 180 pounds. No one will steal him. Anyways, he chose the keep quiet option, much to his benefit.

We saw Ironman last Sunday. Prison has been berry berry good to Robert Downey Jr. or at least to his physique.

There are plot holes you can drive a very large truck through, of course, but it was pretty good. And Robert looked good, and he basically played himself, only with the ability to make a metal suit that is both bullet-proof and able to fly, after he whipped up a long-running safe power source from melted doo-dads and sand and wires and other stuff in his Afghan cave prison. This was so he did not have to carry around the car battery that powered the electro-magnetic thingy that kept shrapnel from penetrating his heart, or something. Plus he was supposed to be making an evil rocket missile thingy and the Bad Guys never noticed he was making a large metal suit instead, even tho there were lots of spy cams in the cave. Pretty tricky of Robert, or pretty stupid bad guys. You decide.

Just goes to show what a dissolute playboy can do with a little sense of urgency looming. Plus now the world will have safe energy forevah! if only the evil Jeff Bridges will let it happen! Because Jeff would rather sell everybody in the world really nasty weapons to shoot at each other.

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Ironman's Girl Friday, and has a few good snappy lines and Saves The Day. Jeff Bridges is the chief bad guy, his head is shaved, he looks v. odd and v. bad-guy-ish.

I made Jacob stay until the credits were over, he was horribly embarassed because only a few other folks stayed. Then hahaha! after the name of the last possible person who delivered sandwiches to the 17,000 people who worked on the animation rolled past, we saw the set-up for the sequel. Surprise!!!!! There will be a sequel!!!!! Wow!!!!! Anyway, Samuel L. Jackson, looking ratty, with a ratty eye-patch, is waiting for Robert when Robert arrives back at his awesome bachelor pad, after telling all the reporters that yes, he is Ironman, which horrifies (and surprises) the government guy assigned to him. This guy is played by Old Christine's ex-husband, lurve him and that show.

So then Jacob was not embarassed any more.

We decided all the previews looked awesome and that we would like to see them all. As usual.

(Addendum - I will absolutely deliberately misstate something in a movie review just to go for a joke, so inaccuracies are most likely on purpose. Ahem.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got back from The Hulk! It was way better than I thought it would be! Lots of action! In fact, there was very little plot! And no logic whatsoever!!!!

Edward Norton was his usual sexy self; the computer-generated Hulk was cool, except there were lots of continuity and sizing or perspective problems. From my completely inexpert point of view. And just as I suspected, Bruce Banner cannot make love to Liv Tyler because his pulse rate gets too fast and he would get too big and ya don't want that!

Well, turns out that Liv really DID want that, but I believe Bruce assured her that the condom wouldn't fit. I am SURE they had a condom, because I cannot believe Liv would have unprotected sex with a guy she has not seen for years who had just been transformed into The Hulk and then back to Edward Horton. Plus she already had a new boyfried, the slut.

Liv Tyler looks awesome, but displayed the same exact acting chops as she did in LOTR.

William Hurt played Liv's dad, the Very Bad General. I wish they had told us about the dad thing ahead of time, because at one point Liv plants herself in front of a charging tank he is riding in and yells DAD!!!! Stop!!!!! and I thought she had been hit on the head a little too hard or something!!! I thought it must be like Tommy Smothers yelling Fire! when he fell in the vat of chocolate. Damn, now I will be singing that all day.

Hurt has the worst fake mustache I have ever seen - it looked like wads of pocket lint stuck to scotch tape. Maybe they spent all the money on bullets and rocket launchers and machine guns and exploding vehicles.

Lou Ferrigno was the voice for the Hulk, and also played a security guard with obscenely bulging biceps who was easily bribed by Edward Norton with a medium (see? just a medium? How cheap!) pizza to gain entrance to a building.

Tim Roth is the bad guy. Surprise!!!!! Actually, Tim seemed too short to BE in the army, IMO.

In the beginning of the movie, there is a scene where Bad General is having guns'n'stuff loaded onto an airplane, and one of the crates says "Stark Industries". Aha!!!! Which led to......

At the end, Bad General is sitting in a bar drinking something that looks eerily green and glowing - either absinthe or Hulk blood - and saying, cleverly, "Reload!" instead of "May I have another please?", and the door to the bar opens, a figure is dramatically silhouetted against the dustily swirling light - and in walks Robert Downey Jr!!!!!!! Yay!!!! It was cooler even then when Vin Diesel shows up in a car at the end of Tokyo Drift!!!!!!

I was confused, because Iron Man was a good guy at the end of, um, Iron Man, but he seemed in cahoots with Bad General.

But it was nice to see Robert once again, even with the icky facial hair, and I am not a betting woman, but I would almost bet there will be a movie with Hulk AND with Iron Man sometime in our future. Call me psychic.

Once again, every single movie preview was AWESOME! and Jacob and I want to see them all.

I hope no one was expecting a serious review of The Hulk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jacob and I just got back from seeing WALL-E. What a charming movie!

Plus, it managed to give a sweeping indictment of the Super-Walmart syndrome, the effect of fast food on fat asses, and the way humans have covered the earth with trash and are working on clouding the sky with satellites.

There is a sweet-enuf-to-make-you tear-up love story, too! Nice ovation at the end!

The movie works on several levels, and the animation is outstanding.

Heee....Jacob said he was afraid his dad would laugh at him for watching a cartoon - and I reminded him that World of Warcraft is really just an interactive cartoon. Enough said.

Preview report - the previews shown before G-rated movies tend to be kinda boring - we both knew instantly that a full-length dog-infested feature starring a talking chihuahua voiced by George Lopez was NOT gonna be on our schedule.

Despareaux the Mouse, or something like that, looks charming, but it kinda sounds awfully like last year's awesome Ratatouille, looks great for kids tho.

We will prolly watch Angelina Jolie kill people in various inventive ways, while looking gorgeous, tomorrow.

I would like to see War, Inc. and the Mongol movie, and the new Batman; also would like to rent In Bruges, I understand it is v. dark indeed, but good acting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, you went to an anti-walmart movie - are you just trying to make me go see it?

You know, it is funny when I wash blankets or quilts, I prefer to let them dry outside. Every time I hung them out to dry, my neighbor would rush over and ask if my dryer wasn't working - she would offer to let me use hers. I use a push mower for now, I had a neighbor rush across the street thinking that my power mower was broken, He gave me the name of a landscaper who does mowing. I had one once - they want several hundred dollars a month even if your lawn is not growing and they use all kinds of noisy machines. When I make a cake, I make it from scratch (not too many differences between scratch and mix, some flour, eggs, ... I have had people quite shocked at that. has life so changed that we find it odd when people do like normal kinds of things?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saw Wanted this morning (thank goodness for $5 early shows!) - Angelina Jolie kicked butt, and looked gorgeous.

This movie is full of death, destruction, foul language, and ridiculous action sequences; also lots of peanut butter-coated rats. Also a sex scene, but nothing involving Angelina Jolie - she mostly just defies gravity and the laws of physics and science. And that is just her lips! Just kidding!

It was fun! Because it is quite cartoon-ish.

Except for one sequence over a very steep ravine that I could not really watch because of my fear of looking at heights. I am prolly the only person ever who covered their eyes and cowered fearfully during the Spiderman ride at Universal Studios - and that ride never leaves the ground or moves, either, just jiggles about on giant springs in front of a big screen or something. My boyfriend laughed at me. So did total strangers.

Anyway, lots of action, no logic, liberal use of the F-word. I did have to explain binary numbers to my grandson - his eyes glazed over almost immediately.

The trailer for The Mummy Returns Again! Only It Is A Different Mummy This Time! looked good.

We really really don't want to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua, X-Files trailer looks so-so.

There was a trailer for a movie about a stoner psychologist and his patient (I think) who accidently see a murder and are then evidently chased by villians - someone in the theater yelled "straight to rental", the rest of us silently concurred.

New Batman movie looks to be pretty good, though! Also, oddly, I can't wait to see the new Hellboy movie, it looks like they spent a zillion dollars on special effects and graphics.

See ya next week!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got back from taking my grandson to see Babylon A.D.

Here's my review (keep in mind that I just report and then make fun of the facts as I see 'em; for artistic merit and all that other crap go to Slate or something):

Sort of a Blade Runner (one of the all-time best!!!!!!!) setting, dark, gritty, lots of giant lighted advertising, but with snow and cold and more poverty and guns.

There is an entire jumbo jet painted to look like a Coca-Cola Zero can, so I suspect there was paid product placement. Or else the implication is that Coke not only vanquishes Pepsi, it gobbles up the airlines companies, too.

Vin Diesel kicks ass. He is not a conventionally handsome man, but he has a lovely sweet smile that transforms his face. He also displays some nice cooking skilz. Best not to dwell on the main ingredient. You are never gonna see it as the surprise ingredient when Chairman Kaga dramatically throws open the dry ice container in Kitchen Stadium, unless you are watching Iron Chef Korea.

But Vin looks to be quite good at sauteeing onions and mushrooms and picking just the correct red wine and knowing when to duck his head so that a rocket launched through his front door passes harmlessly over his head and the dinner table, spilling nary a drop of vino. Well done!

Michelle Yeoh kicks ass. And still looks gorgeous. Kind of a subdued supporting role, really.

There is a mysterious babe who must be transported 6,000 miles through Russia and Alaska and Canada to get to New York, which takes about 22 minutes screen time, no attempt at any sort of continuity is made, just kicking ass in various snowy and/or industrially grim surroundings occurs. Near the end she manifested some kick-ass (there's a theme!) supernatural powers which would have come in pretty fucking handy earlier, saving some ass-kicking, but noooooooooo, she waits until SHE needs to have a nice force field which deflects a killer missile aimed right at Vin Diesel but then is aimed at her too.

Phew! I just barely avoided revealing a major incredible plot twist! If you have never ever seen a Vin Diesel movie!

Charlotte Rampling kicks ass. She plays a power-mad, insane Scientologist-type. I did spend a minute or so trying to figure out if she was Lauren Bacall, same hooded eyes and attitude and voice, but then I remember that I think Ms. Bacall is either departed from this plane or else is stuck in the back seat of a limo shilling discount home decor stores.

Gerard Depardieu, for the first time evah!, to me personally, looks kinda yucky. One of my favorite movies is him and Andie MacDowell in Green Card, nice big huggy shambling sexy intelligent guy with a sense of humour. Or at least he knows how to play one in the movies. I was extremely envious of that apartment Andie was living in, too!

And I wanted Queen Latifah to hook up with Gerard in Last Holiday, in a stunning plot twist. Because seriously, she seems like she could cook and eat LLCool J, that sweetheart of a man, for breakfast. Her attitude, not her size. She looks good in those Jenny Craig (or whatever) ads, tho, she is beautiful!

But, no. It was not to be.

Anyway, Gerard is victim of a bad makeup decision, he looks like a shady used car salesman who got a bad plastic surgery job at an illegal chop-shop that normally repairs stolen vehicles - he looks like his face was patched with Bondo.

And his nose, never shy and retiring, has evidently gone and declared itself a sovereign country, with borders and crossing guards.

Gerard does NOT get to kick ass.

There are many kick-ass fights with lots of bad guys and guns and missiles and drone jets and Hummers and various other war-like hardware, and many people die violent deaths, but - and I know you are afraid to ask, so I will tell you - Vin is still alive at the end of the movie! And so are the bare minimum of other characters needed to make Babylon A.D. - The Growing Years, if this one makes enough money.

I think they made a case for possibly bringing totally dead people back to life, too, just in case the script calls for them.

Heh, I figured out that Vin didn't die, anyways, because there was a trailer for the next Fast and Furious movie (Coming Next Summer!!!!!!) featuring Vin and car parts galore.

The trailers were cool, we were not subjected to the horrors of talking Chihuahuas this time, Thank You, Deity of Choice! or just thanks! AMC theater people!

We want to see all those movies too, they look good! Especially Quarantine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone was thinking of going to Bangkok Dangerous.......I'd say wait until it comes out on DVD. Heh, not the greatest movie. I went because I like Nicholas Cage and it's been a while since anything was playing that looked remotely interesting. But this movie has little dialogue and a weak storyline. And Nick has some seriously bad hair going on! :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone was thinking of going to Bangkok Dangerous.......I'd say wait until it comes out on DVD. Heh, not the greatest movie. I went because I like Nicholas Cage and it's been a while since anything was playing that looked remotely interesting. But this movie has little dialogue and a weak storyline. And Nick has some seriously bad hair going on! :P

But, but.......this is the exact kind of movie I love to "review"!!!!!!!!!!!

My grandson has not bugged me about it as yet, so I think I won't be seeing it, anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So today we went and saw Nights in Rodanthe. Obviously a major chick flick (from the book by Nicholas Sparks) and had some incredibly corny scenes.........but it made me cry TWICE and it's set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with many references to Raleigh, so what's not to love? Of course, Richard Gere is easy on the eyes, too......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys and your thoughtfully picked, uppity, classy movies!

I just got back from Wolverine the Mutants Killing Each Other and Bad Guys and Innocent Civilians Too Movie (or something like that)!!!!!!!!

Lots of skin!!!! Heaps and piles and tons of muscles!!!!! Hugh Jackman!!!!!

(Actually I don't really go for the muscle-bound thing, but I was appreciating the genre. That's my story and I am sticking to it.)

We went for the 10am show, but it was sold out, so we got the 10:45.

My grandson was prescient enough to bring a Dean Koontz novel.

I sat there and watched the same 7 stupid-ass commercials for 45 minutes.

I will share!

-----I feel it is creepy for an animal care hospital to have a giant picture of a baby seal looking adorable and ready to be clubbed by nasty people as its symbol. A kitten or puppy would be fine.

-----Why would mothers buy tickets to sit in a movie theater and listen to Doctor Laura yammer about how great it is that they are mothers?

If they get a sitter, they should really just go out for a nice dinner. If they don't, they are sitting in a movie theater for an hour, at night, with little kids.

Lose-lose, IMO.

-----Penelope Cruz says that it is impossible to live your life through the viewpoint of another person. Yup. Gotta agree. Except I would have said "stupid". But nine out of ten people agree that

Penelope is way nicer than me.

-----Evidently Meryl Streep irons her own clothes, which makes her just like all of us.

Except I don't iron clothes. So it seems that I have even less in common with Meryl than I thought possible.

-----Alan Arkin co-wrote The Banana Boat song, which was a huge hit for Harry Belafonte.

Now, that is a strange fact!

-----Business meetings in movie theaters seem okay, but if the host is as insanely perky as the girl giving the pitch, is it okay to pelt them with popcorn?

All the trailers, strangely enough, were for violent movies. Even the trailer for Ice Age - the Coming of the Kelvinators (or something) was all about that poor dumb squirrelly thing losing his nut once again in a perilous but funny fashion.

We want to see them ALL, but I suspect watching Christian Bale is different for me than it is for my grandson, when we say we want to see Terminator 47 - Office Depot Strikes Back.

Side note (as are they all!) - Michael Bay is the director, and his commercial for something where he has various parts of his house and grounds blow up via remote control is really funny.

Anyway, Hugh Jackman looks suitably toned as Wolverine, but I am really really shallow because that weird hair pouf thing that any self-respecting duck would refuse to wear on its butt turns me off.

But I am strangely drawn to Liev Schreiber, and if he really does have vampire teeth, that will be a bonus.

I will have to Google him and investigate. No, wait, no, because I want to stick with my little fantasy. Damn you, internet!

Lots of killing, shooting, knives, violence. Lots and lots.

But, at the end, everyone who will be needed for X-Men - Mutants Take Hollywood was still alive. No, really!!!!!

BUT - they have this sneaky thing where they inject people with something that stops the pulse or whatever, so there is still a chance for big surprises!

Well, little surprises anyway.

There are some illogical mutant abilities, or, rather, unused ones, like if a girl can turn her skin into diamonds hard enough to stop bullets, why can't she saw her way out of a regular metal cell with, say, a sparkly forearm? But maybe I am getting too thoughty! :-O

So anyway, yeah, go on and watch those artsy movies! I am Jellus!

But Hugh did escape the evil general by throwing himself over a high waterfall and he did not have any clothes on.

Nice ass. Yes I realise it most certainly was not Hugh's actual butt.

I understand there are many places on the internet where one can get an actual review.

My post here is not one of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ha! I enjoyed your not a review djs. I don't always watch artsy movies, just sometimes.

One of the worst movies I've seen was MaMa Mia following closely behind was Sex and the City. But I really enjoyed SATC on HBO. We've had the dvd Billy Elliot for two weeks now. I'd better get to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you know, I was a HUGE fan of Sex and the City but never had any urge to see the movie. I guess I just thought 30 minutes was perfect time to watch these mostly shallow women - to me - anyway. But now I want to Giles from DWTS who I heard was naked in the movie :hubbahubba: Maybe I can find his part on you tube.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My grandson wanted to see Angels and Demons yesterday, so we did!

Please apply IMO, YMMV, ad. inf. to the rest of this!

It was okay, "Tom Hanks" and "thriller" didn't mesh well, really, but it was interesting.

Think Nic Cage's National Treasure with all the fun and detail missing, and with Cardinals. Most of the info about the Illuminati was given in odd lecture form by Tom Hanks; the movie was not nearly as good as the Da Vinci Code. Although Ewan McGregor looks quite nice in his Camerlengo outfit.

To me, the heroes were not heroic, the villains not too bright. Rome looked gorgeous, the crowds and architecture looked incredible. I would like to go there some day.

I read the book a while back, I loved all the details, and interesting to associate the Illuminati with the Masons. But as Ron Howard told Steven Colbert, you can only do so much in a two hour movie.

Heh, one of my pet peeves, right up there with "nuc-u-lar", is "masonary".

The 10 am showing was packed. The new movies look, um, nice - the Julia Child one looks funny just because Meryl Streep playing Julia is a hoot to think about, and I love cooking and Julia. New Sandra Bernhard movie looks formula-cute. There is also a tear-jerker about a girl who doesn't want to give her sister a kidney or something, with Michelle Pheiffer.

And Denzel and Travolta are doing a remake of Taking of Pelham 123 - or is it that I read the book so long ago that I just think it was already a movie? Will Ferrell has a remake of Land of the Lost. Amazingly enough, he plays a clueless explorer.

Funny, when I got home there was a survey from movietickets.com about the trailers, and I forgot half of them.

Kind of amusing, the way trailers match the type of movie you are seeing....yes I am quite aware they are probable-market driven. Just so predictable. And evidently I love real thrillers.

The only movie we wanted to see out the the batch of six or seven is Johnny Depp's John Dillinger movie, it has Christian Bale too! Yum! But I already know the ending. :-(

My grandson loves Johnny Depp, ever since Captain Jack hove into view.

eta -jamar - we are going to see Star Trek next, we just felt it would still be around because it is getting such good reviews.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been reading reviews and comments about Angels and Demons - some thought there would be picketing or whatever by Catholics.

There was nothing controversial whatsoever, unless you think everyone in any particular religion must be a good guy.

Actually, Kenneth the Page referring to the bible as "science" was more controversial than the entire movie.

Can't wait to see Star Trek!!!!!!!! And Terminator!!!!!!! And Night at the Smithsonian!!!!!!

Yes, we do so love mindless fun!!!!!!!!! and $5 morning movies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...