Recently viewed films

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:37 am

Just returned from "Weatherman" with Michael Caine and Nicholas Cage.

Not what I expected. Dark and mournful. A few comedic moments, but much more melodramatic than expected. Wierd messages and themes, little real magic on screen. I was very disappointed, as was my wife and daughter. Nothing 'feel good' here, in my opinion.

I almost thought Michael Caine took the role to anounce in film that he is actually taken ill in real life. Otherwise, I cannot understand why he took this role. Then again, I am not sure why he took the role of Samantha's father in the film version of Bewitched...

Basic theme: life's a bitch and then you die but if you continue to live then life is still a bitch anyway so there!

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 7:41 am

Went to see three films over half-time with 7 year old daughter.

Wallace & Grommit - good one liners but too formula driven

Corpse Bride - Brilliant - go see.

Nanny McPhee - Could have been better, Emma T's part in the title role could have been more expansive. Most kids will love it though.

Extreme Honey · Post by **Extreme Honey** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:18 pm

I saw "Crash" with my gf. What a mutherf***ing brilliant movie.

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:44 pm

"Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" - really fresh and original actioncomedy - /film noir tribute from Shane Black. Could be the most pleasant surprise of 2005

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:47 pm

Hey, we're getting all encapsulated-y!

Shop Girl: lots and lots I could say about what's wrong with it, but go see it anyway, it's very good.

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:50 pm

selfmademug wrote:Hey, we're getting all encapsulated-y!

Shop Girl: lots and lots I could say about what's wrong with it, but go see it anyway, it's very good.

That's exactly how Red and I felt about Shopgirl. Check out my review!
http://www.beingtheremag.com/content/05 ... .html#1070

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:43 pm

Well, it's not recent, but I've seen it for the first time : Wes Anderson's wonderfully offbeat "Rushmore". In some ways it reminded me of John Irving's books - the same mixture of drama and comedy, twisted humour and eccentric characters, which - though at times weak and making mistakes - are always shown with genuine compassion.

And on top of that a great selection of soundtrack songs.

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 7:34 pm

Good point, iPole. Now I wanna see that again but won't have time in the near future, so Hotel New Hampshire will go on tour with me instead. Thanks for reminding me!

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 7:35 pm

Rushmore is indeed a work of brilliance.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 7:36 pm

"Rushmore" is one of my favorite movies of the last several years..yet, I'm not an John Irving fan...

Been doing some catching up on movies myself over the last couple of weeks, winding down from the "Serenity" mishegas...which I could discuss but I've been advised by a panel of doctors not to....

"Good Night and Good Luck" -- A truly beautifully made little movie. So pristine at times, it borders on being almost dry...but dry more like a good martini than, er boring, if you know what I mean. Still, a bit too martini-dry, maybe. But great...more or less. Amazing b&w photography and my admiration and respect for George Clooney only continues to grow. A classic example of why you should not discriminate against people just because they're handsome.

"Wallace and Gromit" -- Very good, but I didn't love it to the degree that a lot of the critics did. Not quite sure what the problem was, but it's still overall a very nice little movie. And the vacuumed rabbits had me in stitches.

"Corpse Bride" -- Wow, two stop-motion animated films at once. This was a bit of a mixed bag in that it is very much a typical Tim Burton movie with concerns of his that stretch back to "Beetlejuice". I thought the emotional core of the story took too long getting started and Danny Elman's songs didn't work for me at all (which is interesting because I loved what he did for the Oompah Loompahs in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", which I think is definitely Burton's best film since "Ed Wood"). On the positive side, once the story really did get going, it turns out to be a very toucing fable of love and sacrifice that actually got a lump in throat out of me. Helena Bonham Carter and Emily Watson, who's probably one of my two or three favorite actresses these days -- she always gets me (points at heart) right here.

"Domino" -- Snuck into this one and, while the reviews on this one were pretty savage, I found some stuff to like. Tony Scott's style has become increasingly unhinged in recent films and while it was one of very many reasons I detested "Man on Fire", here it almost makes sense, though the movie doesn't make any sense at all that I could detect, which is why it almost kind of maybe sort of works if you're in the mood for it. Christopher Walken's character is described as having "the attention span of a ferret on crystal meth" and you wonder if the ferret directed the movie, but Tony Scott is, nevertheless, a pretty clever tweaker ferret. On the other hand, the last half hour or so of the movie is a near total disaster, it's still got a bit of life to it.

I'd say people who like off-beat action films should at least consider seeing this...but in a very tolerant mood. Think a tighter, better constructed "Casino Royale"...which I know is kind of like saying a thinner Orson Welles....In any case, great actors help. Mickey Rourke kind of steals the movie, but Keira Knightly really manages to be good in a horribly underwritten role. Mo'Nique (who I've never seen before but I gather is a stand-up -- and I"m guessing a good one) is actually great and there are a bunch of fun cameos...any movie that starts throwing in gratuitous amounts of great vintage Tom Waits songs, only to have Tom Waits himself suddenly appear on camera as a preacher or something. Also great to see Jacqueline Bisset and Dabney Coleman....

Oh, but there are some howlers and weirdness, relating to the fact that Domino Harvey was a real person who recently died. The narration at one point says something to effect of "If you want to know what parts are real and what parts are ficiton, that's none your #$#$# business." Which I found odd because I'm pretty sure the part where the tower at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas explodes, or where Domino stars in a reality show hosted by two of the guys from "Beverly Hills 90210" is pretty much completely unrelated to any reality.

And then there's a pretentious closing credit sequence (I love it when movies give the actors that little final bow with those actor credit montage, but here the actors are credited by first name only --- because we're all such good pals, I guess) followed by an image of the real Domino Harvey a once gorgeous former model now resembling Nancy Kulp from "The Beverly Hillbillies", probably because of an addiction to crystal meth, which she died from. Definitely the least accurate biopic since "The Jolson Story."

In the realm of movies that don't work, this is the kind I actually like to see every once in a while. Not so much a "guilty pleasure" as the pleasure one gets from seeing SOMETHING, even if it's not a terribly good something.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:22 pm

Just come in from seeing a Scott brothers production, In Her Shoes. When I saw the trailer it screamed chick flick until I saw that Curtis Hanson directed. So it turned out to be a pretty good film, maybe a bit contrived in places, other than that great performance all round even from Shirley MacLaine who I usually cant stand. Definitely Diaz's best turnout in years, I almost forgot she can act.
On friday I saw one of the years best, The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Astonishing performance by Romain Duris, this film should make him a huge star. Engrossing story, brilliant editing. Surreal to see immigrant squatters being victimised in suburban France on film and then go home and see the end result on the news for real.
I managed to stay away from the truly wretched sounding Elizabethtown, though there have been some enjoyable savagings in the press, the best that I saw being Philip Frenchs piece in this mornings Observer.

I am no great admirer of Cameron Crowe's work and have a particular dislike for his most celebrated film, the banal, bombastic Jerry Maguire. But nothing had prepared me for the sheer awfulness of Elizabethtown, a film packed with sentimentality, empty gestures, unrevealing epiphanies, ill-won affirmations, and unsubstantiated declarations of universal brotherhood. The movie starts off like a broad satire on corporate business life in the manner of the Coen brothers' Hudsucker Proxy, with a bright young shoe designer, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), going from hero to zero overnight when his latest piece of footwear loses his company a cool billion dollars and threatens its very survival. As he's contemplating suicide he gets the news that his father, a somewhat remote military man, has died while visiting his vast extended family in Kentucky, and the picture changes mood and mode into a young man coming to terms with death.

Flying to Kentucky, the distraught Drew meets a garrulous air hostess, Claire (Kirsten Dunst), who appears to have overdosed on Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking and back numbers of Reader's Digest and has convinced herself she's the embodiment of the all-American life force.

The night after they meet Claire and Drew have the most protracted mobile phone call in movie history. It lasts for about six hours and only concludes when they drive to meet each other and see the sun rise. She orchestrates a journey of learning and healing, complete with carefully chosen music, for Drew to make across America with the urn containing his father's ashes beside him.

If Claire is a pain in the neck, not to mention the ears, eyes, nose and throat, the father's supposedly colourful family in Kentucky are the kind of people that make orphanhood seem a pleasing option. But their clammy embrace, as comforting as meeting a giant squid under a coral reef, is as nothing compared with Drew's kookie mother (Susan Sarandon) who turns up at her husband's memorial service to give a sentimental speech, tells an excruciatingly embarrassing off-colour joke, and performs a tap dance to her late spouse's favourite song, 'Moon River'. Instead of lynching her, these big-hearted Southerners give her a standing ovation. The rest of 2005 can bring us nothing worse than this.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 2:26 am

Hilarious review.
Those three bits are brilliant :
- "appears to have overdosed on Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking and back numbers of Reader's Digest"
- "the kind of people that make orphanhood seem a pleasing option"
- "as comforting as meeting a giant squid under a coral reef"

Definitely have to see the film.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:44 am

Derailed:

1. It's all been done before.
2. Glenn Close "Fatal Attraction" seamlessly merged with Mel Gibsons "Ransom". Predictable early.
3. A few serious continuity problems that will be missed by most.
4. Great Bad Guy. Vincent Cassel.
5. Clive Owens is stuck somewhere between Nicholas Cage and Mel Gibson. Looking for something unique, different, and compelling in his performance did not reveal anything special.
6. RZA does aw ite. Thanks to Quentin and Robert, I would guess.
7. Still, mildly entertaining with a smidgen of suspense early. But if you think for even a minute, you'll have this one wrapped before intermission.

ice nine · Post by **ice nine** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:06 pm

Saw Bee Season. A wonderful film about a dysfunctional family where all the members are trying to get close to God through mysticism, religion, the Kabbalah, and spelling.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 7:42 am

I saw Code 46 the other day, which I think came out a few years ago in the States, but has just been released here. It's about a highly globalized, but also highly controlled future, where cloning is so rampant that you have to submit to DNA tests before you can have kids with anyone, and where you can take "empathy viruses" to guess the thoughts of those around you. Despite some inconsistencies in the futuristic setup (people are scared of being in the sun, and then they're not), it was enjoyable and thought-provoking, and even a little shocking to see how casual our future selves are about birth control.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:05 am

Headed to the theater this afternoon with a vanload of kids to see the new Harry Potter movie.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:27 am

Not a bad movie. Then again, I like the Harry Potter movies. My kids are all about the ages of the kids in the movie, so it works out well. I allow myself to just sit back and enjoy it without critiquing it too much. It was darker than the others, but a good flick.

And PoP, Snape had his usual sexy voice going on.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:56 am

Spooky, do you think I could take my 7-year-old boys to see the film or is it definitely for older kids ?

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:59 am

invisible Pole wrote:Spooky, do you think I could take my 7-year-old boys to see the film or is it definitely for older kids ?

Or my (fairly mature) 5-year old daughter? She loves the Potter films and can usually be found strutting around the house like a young Hermione Grainger. Not frightened in the least by any of the dementor business in the last film or the spider scene in the second film.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:25 pm

I took my 5 year-old nephew. Then again, his dad died when he was 19 months old and he has often been treated like an adult since then. The only time he gets to be a real kid is when he's with my kids. He is afraid of nothing and was totally into the movie the entire time. Not once did he even start to get scared of anything. But I think it may depend on the kid. Alex is pretty tough. For a 5 year-old.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:33 pm

spooky girlfriend wrote:I took my 5 year-old nephew. Then again, his dad died when he was 19 months old and he has often been treated like an adult since then. The only time he gets to be a real kid is when he's with my kids. He is afraid of nothing and was totally into the movie the entire time. Not once did he even start to get scared of anything. But I think it may depend on the kid. Alex is pretty tough. For a 5 year-old.

Thanks. Sounds like she'll be OK with Mommy by her side.

On second thought, maybe I should go too. Mommy may be too wound up in the dark charm of Professor Snape to be of much use.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:34 pm

Who Shot Sam? wrote:On second thought, maybe I should go too. Mommy may be too wound up in the dark charm of Professor Snape to be of much use.

Umm, easy to happen.

Misha · Post by **Misha** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:48 am

Ok, I too saw the Potter movie....have to admit it is just guilty pleasure entertainment for me. The only thing really scary I think is the Grindylows. Voldemort is scary, but not as bad as the Grindy's.

Loved the Wallace and Grommit WereRabbit. I've never seen one before!!

Nanny McPhee was a good kids story, but could have been better. Nice though.

Hmmm, what's next????

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:54 am

Yeah! It's Misha!!!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:04 pm

"Meet The Fockers" sucks ass, yet I sat through the whole excruciating thing on Thursday night. I blame my wife for falling asleep on my arm - and the tryptophan in the turkey.