Recently viewed films

oily slick · Post by **oily slick** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:46 pm

"Knocked Up" is absolutley hysterical.

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:52 pm

Saw the new Harry Potter tonight. Fabulous-- my son and I ate it up like a big bowl of ice cream. Among other perks, Alan Rickman gets some decent screen time, all of which he turns to gold.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:19 am

Chilling with...

Mechanical Grace · Post by **Mechanical Grace** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:27 am

[Pssst, Sam... put down that crack pipe. Wrong thread.]

Great record though.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:28 am

Yeah, what happened? Too much coffee this morning I guess. Trying to take the edge off with this.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:23 pm

I hear that Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are starring in the upcoming Revolutionary Road. This is one of my all time favorite books by one of my all time favorite writers - Richard Yates. A few months ago I read the thick, depressing and compelling biography of Yates by Blake Bailey. One of the things that I did not know about him was that the Elaine Benes character in Seinfeld is partly based on his daughter (she dated Larry David and remained freinds) and there is a whole episode based on Yates (Jerry and Elaine are supposed to have dinner with her hard drinking - hard coughing father - played by Lawrence Tierney - he brings George along as a buffer and Elaine is a no show - and George and Jerry are terrified by the Yates character). Yates was a complete alcoholic that really only functioned at his keyboard.

Anyway - I'm worried about this film. Maybe I'm too attached the book, which contains very little action and is dialogue/mood driven. It's about a marriage falling apart and people being unable to live up to their expectations of themselves. The hype machine is going to come at it from a Titanic reuinted angle - and even though I think DiCaprio and Winslet are very good actors and this is great material - I just don't have a good feeling.

Anybody heard anything about this?

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:20 pm

With the film being made by BBC film, 'Mr Winslet' Sam Mendes directing and Kathy Bates co starring it should be in fairly safe hands.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:39 pm

Mechanical Grace wrote:Saw the new Harry Potter tonight. Fabulous-- my son and I ate it up like a big bowl of ice cream. Among other perks, Alan Rickman gets some decent screen time, all of which he turns to gold.

Since there was nothing else on this evening I went to this as well. TV director David Yates does a competent job, Rickman and other old lags like Robert Hardy and Maggie Smith looked like there were enjoying themselves giving a masterclass to the brat actors.
Other than that it has been a dreadful summer in the mainstream cinemas, thank god for the IFI, particularly its excellent Cassavetes season at the moment. Beautiful new prints, an absolute joy to see these films on the big screen.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:52 am

Sneak Preview of "No Reservations" with Catherine Zeta Douglas.

How many times can the same love story be done with the obligate death of a family member, a distraught kid, an antagonistic relationship that blossoms into true love.

o

my

gawd

$10.50/ticket for the three of us. What a tripe face farce. And she is looking long in the tooth.

Someone thinks Abigal Breslin (sp) can act. She cannot.

Cliche's galore and trite sequences in abundance. I had to check to verify the male lead wasn't Richard Gere, and the female wasn't Julia looking for an easy paycheck. Criminey. Save your hard eraned money and watch O'Reilly. At least you'll see someone who thinks he's good.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:58 pm

Just got back from the Simpson's movie. Pretty funny. Watch for all the movie and historical references. We took our three teenage boys plus another tagalong - classic teenage boy funny stuff. And Doc liked it, too.

Funny line from the movie:

Lisa : Mom, I'm angry.

Marge: Lisa, you're a woman. You've got the rest of your life to be angry.

pophead2k · Post by **pophead2k** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:57 am

We saw this too, Spooky. The first thirty minutes packs the most laughs and sight gags- once the plot kicks in, it slows down. Still, loads of fun to see the yellow ones on the big screen, Bart's doodie, and they definitely didn't embarass the series.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:34 am

I am now petless. Two gone in six months!

RedShoes · Post by **RedShoes** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:49 am

Who Shot Sam? wrote:I am now petless. Two gone in six months!

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that, Sam.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:52 am

Sorry - post was in wrong thread.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:38 am

Saw the Simpson's Movie today, not disappointed. Loved the Holy Bible joke although had already seen it in a preview. Also spiderpig was very funny.

The Latest Harry Potter movie was probably the best so far although the book wasn't my favourite. Rickman brilliant.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 1:10 pm

If any of you do see the Simpson's movie, please stay until the bitter end for all of the credits. I knew they would do something silly - and they did - several things, actually. Just don't leave early. I couldn't believe all the people that left before the end - they missed some funny stuff.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:09 pm

Who Shot Sam? wrote:I am now petless. Two gone in six months!

Sorry to hear about this Sam - it's tough. Hope the kids are holding up ok.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:18 pm

Thanks. My wife is the one who is really crushed. By the time the kids came along, they had slowed down. We had them for 17 years, so we couldn't have asked for much more.

It brings a lot of good memories flooding back when I think about the day we got them. A friend of my wife's from work brought over a litter of kittens in a milk crate. She volunteered in a drug treatment center and one of the families she was working with couldn't take care of them, so we picked two of them out. The first thing they did was dash UNDER the kitchen cabinets in our apartment. We had to pry them out of there with a broomstick and tape up under the cabinets so they couldn't get under there anymore. It took us some time to figure out where they had gone. We thought they might have magically disappeared.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:21 pm

Watched Downfall on DVD this evening. Yeah, I probably should have chosen something more uplifting after a shitty couple of days, but I'd been meaning to see this for a while. Bruno Ganz's depiction of Hitler is really extraordinary. Chilling and human at the same time, which makes it all the more frightening.

I could hardly watch the scene where Frau Goebbels administers the poison to her children. Christ, I don't think I'll be revisiting Hitler's bunker again anytime soon.

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 8:01 am

I thought The Simpsons Movie played like a good, but not great, extended episode. Still, there was something magical about seeing all of those characters on a big, widescreen. And there were definitely some great moments. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:55 pm

I'd agree. I was hoping for more. I never really watch it, my kids do that instead, so it felt like I was catching up. I gather the latest series is getting lame, and aspects of the film were too, it seemed. Lacks the bite it used to have.

strangerinthehouse · Post by **strangerinthehouse** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:42 pm

I liked the film and it is definitely better than the latest episodes. I think a lot of great characters were left out or underused but perhaps this will happen on the sequels.

The Simpsons 2: Wiggum's revenge!

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:20 am

Okay. The chick in me is *really* wanting to see Becoming Jane this weekend, and yet I am reading articles that diss it as a "obvious guy-directed film" and was made intentionally to be "very be-still-my-beating-heart." And still, I want to see it. I know it will most likely be more of the historical fiction level, but I am still intrigued. Anyone else heard anything?

pophead2k · Post by **pophead2k** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:25 am

We saw the Irish film 'Once' last night. Features the fella from the Frames, one of my girlfriend's favorite bands. Interesting 'days in the life' kind of film, but there wasn't much there, other than a number of nice musical performances. As a musician, I stretched my credulity when the protagonist and a woman he's just met sit down in a music store and perform a first-take, spot on duet of a song she's never heard before, but when they got into a very high end recording studio and his pick-up band played a perfect version of a song in 5/4 time with a tricky arrangment, I felt a little put out. Anyone who has ever recorded before would feel the same I suspect. If you are a Damien Rice fan, chances are you'll find the soundtrack to your liking.

Post by **BlueChair** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:49 am

Last night Red and I saw the last of the five films we had tickets for in this year's Toronto International Film Festival (I'm pretty bummed that we can't make it to see I'm Not There tonight, but alas there are family conflicts surrounding the Jewish holidays).

We had a good mix of films this year. On Thursday of last week we went to see a Canadian comedy called Young People Fucking, which basically showed people in different stages of their relationships getting it on. There were the friends whose desperation led them to each other, the exes whose loneliness reconnected them, the couple who was clearly getting quite boring in bed, the first date, and a particularly humorous scenario involving a man, his girlfriend and his housemate.

Then this past Friday we were able to see Michael Moore in person for the first time, presenting his new film Captain Mike Across America. Unlike most of his films, Captain Mike is actually a raw documentary: no voiceovers, not a whole lot of editing, basically just showing his Slacker Uprising tour of college campuses in the U.S., trying to get young people in swing states out to vote.

This was followed by a film called The Visitor, directed by the guy who did The Station Agent and starring Richard Jenkins (Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. off Six Feet Under - he was there!!). This was a really great, subtle film about an American university professor who ends up befriending a couple of illegal immigrants by odd circumstance and becomes very attached to their welfare.

Speaking of Six Feet Under, Saturday's film Nothing Is Private (whose stars included Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette and Maria Bello) was the feature directorial debut from Alan Ball (Academy Award screenwriter of American Beauty and creator/director/writer from Six Feet Under). This film will no doubt be controversial as it deals with illicit relations between a 13-year-old girl and her U.S. army neighbour, but it's a lot deeper and more invovled than that. See it when it comes out.

Finally, last night we went to see a documentary called Body of War, co-directed by Phil Donahue (yes, that Phil Donahue, and he still looks exactly the same), about a young man from Kansas City who enrolled in the military on Sept. 13, 2001. Obviously he thought he'd be sent to help find Osama Bin Laden, but instead he was sent to Iraq, where we was paralyzed from the chest down within five days of service. He has since become a vocal critic of the war, and while the film wasn't all that compelling, his story was. Oddly enough, Eddie Vedder provided original songs to the film and ended up treating the audience to live performances of two of them. I love film festivals.