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Akoni

Movies

I post a lot of "your favorite" topics lately, so here is another one; your 10 most favorite movies.

Kingdom of Heaven, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Pulp Fiction, The Goonies, Schindler's List, Der Untergang (The Downfall), Joan of Arc, The Matrix Trilogy, The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far.

I of course have a lot of other favorites, I really love movies!
Porthos

See, I never get caught up in this because there is way too many movies to count.
Uriel

I really, really wanted to like Kingdom of Heaven. I mean, how could you go wrong? Ridley Scott for a director, Orlando Bloom for eye candy, Liam Neeson and Marton Csokas and Edward Norton for great support, an interesting era in history, exotic locales ... and it was just boring and pointless to me. I was soooo bummed!

The Matrix -- great movie. The other two -- WTF? They should have quit while they were ahead!

Pulp Fiction -- sooooo good. Tarantino has never equaled it. (Okay, I never saw Kill Bill. Just didn't interest me.) Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels couldn't hold a candle to it (hell, I never could figure out who all the characters were supposed to be).
Fredrik

Having heard so much about Pulp Fiction, I finally watched it during Christmas and was shocked by how boring it was. Actually, I only watched a third of it, I was so dissapointed.

Some favourite movies:
The Shining
Life of Brian
Tři oříšky pro Popelku (DDR-ČSSR version of Cinderella)
Mrs. Doubtfire
The Blair Witch Project
La vita è bella
Fried Green Tomatoes
Flåklypa Grand Prix (Norwegian animation movie)
Halloween
Schultze gets the blues (German Cajun movie)

I guess my choices are a bit light-hearted, either horror, comedy or teardrippingly sentimental. I just don't get deeply moved by movies the way I get by books.
Loic

Has anyone watched The Queen or Pan's Labyrinth?

If so, what do you think of them?
Fredrik

I can report that "The Queen" is nice, with some overdone metaphors (Diana = dead deer), but with many very sensual big telephones!

Deborah wrote about Diabolique:
Quote:
Maybe I didn't find the scary scene scary because my mother had already told me what happens in it, and I was watching it on TV, not in a dark theater

Or maybe because it was just too old to be scary? As a horror movie lover I've been disappointed several times by how little scary famous old horror movies, like "Psycho", are.
Deborah

Fredrik wrote:
Deborah wrote about Diabolique:
Quote:
Maybe I didn't find the scary scene scary because my mother had already told me what happens in it, and I was watching it on TV, not in a dark theater

Or maybe because it was just too old to be scary? As a horror movie lover I've been disappointed several times by how little scary famous old horror movies, like "Psycho", are.

You're right, I was already inured to watching more modern slasher movies.
Uriel

Now, I have a hard time picturing a Norwegian watching Fried Green Tomatoes, Fredrik!

I saw it, but I don't remember much about the movie. The book, however, was very entertaining -- way better (as books usually are)!

By the way, the book had some excellent recipes at the end, and I actually made fried green tomatoes -- dredged the slices in flour, salt, and pepper and sauteed them in butter (I didn't have real cornmeal) -- and they were mighty tasty, after all! Because they really don't sound that appetizing....
Deborah

Uriel wrote:
By the way, the book had some excellent recipes at the end, and I actually made fried green tomatoes -- dredged the slices in flour, salt, and pepper and sauteed them in butter (I didn't have real cornmeal) -- and they were mighty tasty, after all! Because they really don't sound that appetizing....
OK, just what do cooked green tomatoes taste like?
Fredrik

Uriel wrote:
Now, I have a hard time picturing a Norwegian watching Fried Green Tomatoes, Fredrik!

But it has happened! I was taken by my dad and my grandmother and it was one of my first visits to the cinema, my Cinema Paradiso, so to say. You know, when you get really sucked into a whole other world via that screen.
Uriel

Deborah wrote:
Uriel wrote:
By the way, the book had some excellent recipes at the end, and I actually made fried green tomatoes -- dredged the slices in flour, salt, and pepper and sauteed them in butter (I didn't have real cornmeal) -- and they were mighty tasty, after all! Because they really don't sound that appetizing....
OK, just what do cooked green tomatoes taste like?


Not bad at all. They're a little more tart and crisp than ripe tomatoes and they have less of that sweet, meaty fullness, but the cooking mellows out the flavor a little and the breading complements it nicely. I would recommend them.
Elaine

André, have you seen Blood Diamond yet? I was wondering what you thought of Leo DiCaprio's Afrikaner accent. Did he nail it?



I don't think I'll be buying real diamonds for awhile (if ever).
André in Zuid-Afrika

Not yet, but according to reviews here his accent "comes and goes", good in some scenes, bad in others.

This is what SA Movie and DVD Magazine had to say about the movie.

Quote:
Usually Hollywood movies about Africa and South Africa are a source of hilarity to local audiences as Hollywood tends to get so many details about this country wrong. Who can forget Joss Ackland's atrocious “Afrikaans” accent as the villainous apartheid-era ambassador in Lethal Weapon II, for instance? Or that ornamental Nazi eagle in his office (come on, which Department of Foreign Affairs official's office ever looked like that?) Or how about the Nazi-like paraphernalia adorning the podium as the celluloid Jimmy Kruger made his notorious “Biko died after a hunger strike” speech in Cry Freedom?

But what South African audiences usually find the most entertaining (or insulting, depending on your sense of humour) is when Hollywood actors attempt a Seth Effrikan accent. (One can only imagine how they have mangled other “ethnic” accents in the movies throughout the years then, particularly in all those movies featuring the poor Russians as villains!)

However, in Blood Diamond we're happy to say that while DiCaprio doesn't always get the accent right, he at least gets the character spot on. Or maybe the role was just well-written, as the screenplay at least seems decently researched with an eye for detail and an ear for the local tongue.

“Doos,” DiCaprio's character murmurs when faced by an officious soldier, which had the audience I was with laugh appreciatively. DiCaprio has aged well enough to fit this role; no longer the fresh-faced boy star of Titanic, he is more credible as a tough action man than, let's say, the soft-faced Colin Farrell in Miami Vice. Cynical and opportunistic, DiCaprio comes off like an boer seun Han Solo, spouting the sort of political incorrect dialogue one imagine a character like him would in real life.

Blood Diamonds gets other things right too, mostly by casting local actors such as Arnold Vosloo and Marius Weyers as Afrikaner diamond smuggling heavies. One detail that is straight out of the Hollywood cliché rule book though is when DiCaprio's character visits the Stellenbosch vineyards of his employers and there are machinegun-wielding heavies all over the place guarding it like one always sees with Columbian drug lords in the movies. Very unlikely.


That Stellenbosch farm scene was mentioned with amusement in every review I read.

Incidently, according to a magazine articles on South African/Afrikaans accents in Hollywood movies, the worst one ever was Val Kilmer in The Saint, and the best one Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 2.
André in Zuid-Afrika

BTW, the "blood diamonds" are from other African countries. Diamonds from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana are fine to buy, totally legit.
André in Zuid-Afrika

A friend who has seen the movie, says DiCaprio's accent is fairly good, but a bit over the top at times.
Elaine

André in Zuid-Afrika wrote:
A friend who has seen the movie, says DiCaprio's accent is fairly good, but a bit over the top at times.


Over-the-top? Really?

Fine actor he. Why, I can remember when he was just little Leo from Growing Pains.

André in Zuid-Afrika

Elaine wrote:
André in Zuid-Afrika wrote:
A friend who has seen the movie, says DiCaprio's accent is fairly good, but a bit over the top at times.


Over-the-top? Really?

Fine actor he. Why, I can remember when he was just little Leo from Growing Pains.




I remember!! He was cute!!
Porthos

I thought Leo was playing an Anglo-South African????
Uriel

My man Arnold is in a movie again? I guess I'll have to see it!

He does a pretty good SA accent, I think.

Hounsou isn't hard to look at, either, and whatever accent it is that he has is pretty cool as well.

This week I rented 24 Hour Party People, about the rise and fall of Factory Records (you know -- Joy Division, New Order, the Happy Mondays .... well, okay, you older people will know them). Never heard of Steve Coogan before. He was pretty damn funny, in that deadpan English way. It was more or less a documentary, but he kept making little funny asides to the camera about which parts were true, which parts fiction, and where the two met that were just hilarious -- and a pretty interesting approach.
André in Zuid-Afrika

Porthos wrote:
I thought Leo was playing an Anglo-South African????


English (speaking) South African, Porthos, we say English (speaking) South African, not Anglo....

Leo's character is a ex-Rhodie (Rhodesian) actually, from what I've read. I don't know if he's accent is supposed to be Afrikaans or English South African, but since Arnold Vosloo helped him with it, I would guess it was supposed to be Afrikaans. The producers probably didn't care, as long as it was South African! As an ex-Rhodie, especially an Afrikaans one, his accent would be similar to the South African accent.
Walker

Two movies that I watched recently, and that I really liked, were V for Vendetta and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.





The latter is one of those films where it's hard to decide whether to feel sympathy for the main character or not. No words will do it justice and I can only hope that you will see it.

One of the positive things about V for Vendetta was the setting, I believe. It wasn't entirely unbelievable, was it?
Porthos

André in Zuid-Afrika wrote:
Porthos wrote:
I thought Leo was playing an Anglo-South African????


English (speaking) South African, Porthos, we say English (speaking) South African, not Anglo....

Leo's character is a ex-Rhodie (Rhodesian) actually, from what I've read. I don't know if he's accent is supposed to be Afrikaans or English South African, but since Arnold Vosloo helped him with it, I would guess it was supposed to be Afrikaans. The producers probably didn't care, as long as it was South African! As an ex-Rhodie, especially an Afrikaans one, his accent would be similar to the South African accent.


Why not "Anglo"? We say "Anglo-Canadian" to distinguish between the English speaking Canadians and the "French-Canadians", and the same for elsewhere. Anglo just means English anyway. And it's a more practical way of saying "English-speaking".
André in Zuid-Afrika

Porthos wrote:
André in Zuid-Afrika wrote:
Porthos wrote:
I thought Leo was playing an Anglo-South African????


English (speaking) South African, Porthos, we say English (speaking) South African, not Anglo....

Leo's character is a ex-Rhodie (Rhodesian) actually, from what I've read. I don't know if he's accent is supposed to be Afrikaans or English South African, but since Arnold Vosloo helped him with it, I would guess it was supposed to be Afrikaans. The producers probably didn't care, as long as it was South African! As an ex-Rhodie, especially an Afrikaans one, his accent would be similar to the South African accent.


Why not "Anglo"? We say "Anglo-Canadian" to distinguish between the English speaking Canadians and the "French-Canadians", and the same for elsewhere. Anglo just means English anyway. And it's a more practical way of saying "English-speaking".


We just never use Anglo. We say English when we mean English.

Here, "anglo" is considered an old fashioned term. We do use it in "Anglo-Boer War", which, in modern terms, would be: English-Afrikaner War.

Come to think of it, the alternative name for that war is the English War.
Loic

V for Vendetta is so past tense, Walker. Do you mean to say that you caught it in the theatre or did you watch it on DVD?

I watched Letters from Iwo Jima last week and I actually thought of Uriel for she once mentioned that she approved of Ken Watanabe. It is superb storytelling although I had to consistently remind myself that the Japanese were not the overall victims in the grand scheme of the war, but the aggressors. What struck a chord with me though was the values which the soldiers held dear to themselves: obedience, duty and loyalty to country.

The film is totally in Japanese and is told from the Japanese point of view. It is easy to walk out from the theatre sympathising with the Japanese. After all, the americans are now portrayed mostly as faceless enemies attacking a besieged and helpless island. The Japanese, on the other hand, were depicted as men who knew that they were undertaking a doomed mission but who yet swore to fight till the very end.

It made think of what I would have done if I were in similar circumstances. Would I have committed suicide in order to avoid capture?

I really doubt it. For one, suicide means going to hell so I'd probably try to pull rank and ask a lower minion to pull the trigger on me.
Walker

Quote:
V for Vendetta is so past tense, Walker. Do you mean to say that you caught it in the theatre or did you watch it on DVD?


I watched it on my computer, actually. A couple of months ago the first time.
Joanne

I'm looking forward to watching Frank Miller's 300 this weekend
Uriel

I very much approve of Ken Watanabe. Also of Chow Yun Fat, although he is obviously not Japanese -- but they both have that same aura of stillness and power. The acting ain't bad either.
Elaine

I saw 2 terrific movies on dvd over the weekend-- Little Miss Sunshine and Babel. Yes, I'm a little late on seeing those but I've been preoccupied with other things.

Anyway, loved everything about LMS-- the acting, the storyline, the humor, the jaw-dropping ending...

Babel came thisclose to me hating because after one storyline ended badly, I thought for sure that the others would end up unhappily too... and I just couldn't handle that much pain.
Lazar

Elaine wrote:
Anyway, loved everything about LMS-- the acting, the storyline, the humor, the jaw-dropping ending...

I saw Little Miss Sunshine last week and I thought it was excellent. Alan Arkin as the grandfather was absolutely hilarious.
Uriel

Just got back from seeing Night at the Museum with a friend -- too funny! The Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton just wants to chase one of his spare bones, the mummy speaks in a perfect British accent because he went to Cambridge -- well, he was on exhibit there, anyway -- the miniature cowboys and Roman legionnaires keep trying to invade each other's dioramas -- and you should see what they do once they get ahold of a Tonka truck!

Then there are the Quest-For-Fire neanderthals who rapidly discover the joys of both the Zippo lighter and the fire extinguisher.... and if you stay through the credits, you get to see Dick Van Dyke shake his ass -- dude still has the moves! It's very silly and fluffy, but good, escapist fun.

I'm not much for Ben Stiller, but the supporting cast -- including Ricky Gervais as the tongue-tied British museum director, Steve Coogan as the Roman general, Owen Wilson as the cowboy, and Robin Williams as the Teddy Roosevelt mannikin in love with Sacagawea -- steal the show.
Deborah

The other night, filling my week's quota of movies in Spanish, I rented El Mariachi, the first feature-length film of Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Once Upon A Time In Mexico). It's a very low-budget film with an almost entirely amateur cast, but it won the Audience Choice award at the Sundance Film Festival in, I think, 1992. The movie was OK, but what was most entertaining for me was watching it with the director's commentary, because he told, scene by scene, how he managed to create this film on such a low budget. I've read since that Columbia subsequently put a lot more money into it, to fix the sound synch problems, among other things, but sill, it's fun to hear how he cut costs. For instance, he was the director, lighting designer and editor. He also advised filming in a town where you or your star know a lot of people so that you can get lots of free actors, locales and props. They didn't have money for a dolly, so he sat in a wheelchair and filmed while someone pushed the chair (which they borrowed from a hospital). While they filmed some scenes in a hotel, the hotel clerks got to go take a rest while the filming was going on, and the film crew temporarily took over the clerks' duties, between shooting the film.

I recommend this DVD just for the director's commentary.

Oh, and I also liked Little Miss Sunshine. I thought Greg Kinnear's character was one of the most enjoyably annoying I've ever seen.
Deborah

The other night I watched the 1989 movie Glory for the third time, the last time having been at least 10 years ago. It still had the power to turn me into an emotional mess. At least this time I was alone, so I didn't have to be inhibited about it! The scene around the camp fire, the night before the final battle, is one of my favorite movie scenes ever, with (in order of appearance) Jihmi Kennedy, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington giving powerhouse performances.

I have mixed feelings about Matthew Broderick's performance; I think he seems too boyish. But he, too, was very moving in his silent scene at the seashore, just before the battle.

Have any of you who've seen this movie had a reaction like mine?
Walker

Deborah wrote:
The other night I watched the 1989 movie Glory for the third time, the last time having been at least 10 years ago. It still had the power to turn me into an emotional mess. At least this time I was alone, so I didn't have to be inhibited about it! The scene around the camp fire, the night before the final battle, is one of my favorite movie scenes ever, with (in order of appearance) Jihmi Kennedy, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington giving powerhouse performances.

I have mixed feelings about Matthew Broderick's performance; I think he seems too boyish. But he, too, was very moving in his silent scene at the seashore, just before the battle.

Have any of you who've seen this movie had a reaction like mine?


That camp fire scene, is that when one of the guys is trying to pick a fight, or starts to argue and provoke or something like that, and somebody (Freeman?) tells him off? I have a vague memory of that scene but I seem to remember that there was something special about it. It was truly terrible how the black soldiers were treated, e.g. by that Quartermaster who wouldn't give them boots to wear even though the storage was full them. Nor were they given much respect from white soldiers; I recall that Freeman was promoted and a white soldier wouldn't obey him regardless of the former's sergeant stripes -- he was still just a "nigger".
Deborah

No, the scene around the campfire is when the men are singing and taking turns getting up and saying whatever's on their mind, with a religious tone. Then Denzel Washington's character says that he's not much for religion, and that he didn't have a family, so the 54th (regiment) is the only family he's ever known. He finishes by saying that whatever happens in the battle the next day, at least they're men (rather than subhumans, as many whites thought at the time, or a helpless, dependent race that was made for slavery because otherwise they couldn't survive, as others thought).
Walker

Deborah wrote:
No, the scene around the campfire is when the men are singing and taking turns getting up and saying whatever's on their mind, with a religious tone. Then Denzel Washington's character says that he's not much for religion, and that he didn't have a family, so the 54th (regiment) is the only family he's ever known. He finishes by saying that whatever happens in the battle the next day, at least they're men (rather than subhumans, as many whites thought at the time, or a helpless, dependent race that was made for slavery because otherwise they couldn't survive, as others thought).


Right! I will watch that movie again, for sure!
Uriel

Just so none of you will have to go through it, I saw Eragon the other day, and it blows. I don't know what kind of money they dangled in front of John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, and Robert Carlisle to get them to agree to even be IN that piece of crap, but I bet they all took their respective agents out in the parking lot after it came out and punched them out!



"Here, boy; with this blade, I beg thee to stab me and put me out of my career-low misery...."
Joanne

I saw Shaun of the Dead last night, and I am kicking myself for not seeing this movie much sooner!

Uriel

I've told everyone from the moment I saw that flick how funny it is!
Lazar

Ha ha, that movie is hilarious! I wanna see their new one, Hot Fuzz.
Deborah

Lazar wrote:
Ha ha, that movie is hilarious! I wanna see their new one, Hot Fuzz.

My roommate and I are going to the preview performance in SF Thursday night. I believe the writers/director/lead actors (I know there's some overlap there) are supposed to attend, and maybe some of the supporting cast.
Joanne

Deborah wrote:
Lazar wrote:
Ha ha, that movie is hilarious! I wanna see their new one, Hot Fuzz.

My roommate and I are going to the preview performance in SF Thursday night. I believe the writers/director/lead actors (I know there's some overlap there) are supposed to attend, and maybe some of the supporting cast.

I just saw it. Well, it's no Shaun of the Dead, but it was pretty funny. And the advertisements for the film weren't lying: these two guys really did see every action flick ever made. There are tons of references everywhere, plus a healthy dose of Wicker Man thrown in.
Deborah

I still haven't seen Shaun of the Dead, but now I know I have to, after seeing Hot Fuzz. Of course, I can't compare the two movies, but I thought Hot Fuzz was hilarious. I loved the references, especially the samurai moment. And the scene where the people were carrying their own spooky lighting effects kept cracking me up throughout the scene, although the audience in general didn't seem to think it was funny

I had a free pass to see an advance screening at an AMC theater, so I was hoping some of the cast or crew would have a Q&A after the show, as they've done at some other advance screenings, but apparently San Francisco doesn't rate. My 2 friends and I were the last 3 people admitted into the theater. Whew!
Walker

I saw El Laberinto del fauno the other week. I liked it. The then 12 year-old Ivana Baquero who played the main character Ofelia was quite fantastic. Another actor in the film that very much impressed me was Doug Jones, who also played the lead Gentleman in the Buffy: the Vampire Slayer episode called Hush. In Pan's Labyrinth he played Pan and the Pale Man. According to imdb:

Quote:
Doug's role in Guillermo del Toro's Laberinto del Fauno, El (2006) required him to learn huge amounts of dialog in archaic Spanish, which he did perfectly.


The man doesn't even speak Spanish! Man, well done!

And yes, Shaun of the Dead is a very funny movie.
Uriel

I just saw Wild Hogs, Blades of Glory, and the Prestige.

Wild Hogs: fairly lame, mildly entertaining and eminently forgettable. Its saving grace: the denoument of this middle-aged road trip flick is in New Mexico. Its fatal flaw: there's a showdown between our suburban middle class weekend riders and a "real" biker gang in New Mexico, and nobody got a shotgun in the whole frickin' town? Puh-leeeeeeze!

Blades of Glory: Will Ferrell and Napoleon Dynamite ON ICE, as two men skating doubles and arguing over which one has to "be" the chick .... you MUST see this flick! I ain't proud, I love ridiculous comedies. Historically I haven't had much use for Will Ferrell, but he's getting better these days .. and Stranger Than Fiction almost redeemed him. (Well, having Maggie Gyllenhaal in your movie usually helps.) Bring a diaper -- you're gonna piss in your seat from laughing so hard! It's just not right from one end to the other, and pretty much every skater you've ever heard of gets a mention or a cameo. And then there are the costumes....



And I think it goes without saying that the final routine is done to a Queen song ... Flash! Aaaaaaahhhh....


The Prestige: go see this movie! Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johanson, and David Bowie -- and Gollum to boot! You will not see the twists -- either of them -- coming! Let's just say that in their rivalry and desperate competition to outdo each other and undermine each other, these two maginians come up with two very different -- and equally novel -- methods of coming up with a double for their respective acts....
And the magic tricks, the acting performances, and the cinematography are all excellent.



Would you buy a mysterious machine for your magic act from a man with two different-colored eyes?
Walker

I saw The Prestige and I totally agree with what you said about it. Another movie I saw recently was M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water. I was a little disappointed, I must say. I wanted to know and see more and I think the story was too unlikely, besides the supernatural stuff, that is. Sometimes wanting to know and see more can be positive thing but I don't think that was the case with this movie. I was a little disappointed in The Village too, but at least it had a twist (which I did like).
Uriel

I've heard so many bad things about Lady In The Water that I've never bothered to see it. And I, too, was disappointed in The Village, although it didn't suck completely and had some very interesting elements. It just didn't follow up on its promise. I think it would have been better without the twist -- if it had really been a world unto itself with its own rules and fairytales. I had a little bit of trouble with the moralizing in Signs, but other than that, I though it was an excellent movie. Unbreakable had an interesting premise and good performances, and The Sixth Sense was a classic, of course. Waking Up, which had no supernatural elements other than the main character's search for God as a way of understanding his first brushes with mortality (he's just a child) was really excellent. But I think Shyamalan's gotten a little ahead of himself since those earlier days, and it doesn't always work.
Joanne

I was never much of a Spiderman fan, but I do like action flicks, and I must say that I really, really, really did not like Spiderman 3. Here's why:

1) Kirsten Dunst sang. A lot.
2) Emo Spiderman with guy-liner.
3) Emo Spiderman doing schwingy things with his hips that his body obviously was not built for.
4) Spiderman cries more in this movie than I did during the 1990s. (Dude, suck it up. Seriously.)
5) An unsatisfying ending.

The saving graces of Spiderman 3 were the special effects for Sandman, the action sequences that unfortunately were not long enough to offset the "cons" of this film, and the short scene with Bruce Campbell. He even got a round of applause from my theater when he came on screen. Bruce Campbell is a Sam Raimi film staple and he is a GOD!
Uriel

Have you read his "Confessions of a B-Movie Actor?" You will die laughing! And find out why Sam Raimi may have had a thing for a certain model of car.... A must-read for any Bruce Campbell fan!

Say what you will, "Army of Darkness" was one of the best camp flicks ever!



Shop smart -- shop S-Mart!

Is Emo-Spideman Topher Grace? I love him, but have the same issues you have with the Spidey franchise -- it just ain't workin' for me.
Joanne

I have his books, Darkman, Mindwarp, the Evil Dead trilogy (they should have gone with the alternate ending in Army of Darkness, imho), the Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr. series DVD set, hell, even Congo where he dies in the first ten minutes! Still, I am by no means the biggest Deadite out there. Without the Jack of All Trades series DVD set, I'm afraid all I'll ever be is a Deadite wannabe...

Uriel wrote:
And find out why Sam Raimi may have had a thing for a certain model of car....

Well, I understand the attachment, but a car is a bit much! (Jeez, my mementos are a few pressed flowers.) And the way the car gets treated throughout his movies kind of makes you wonder about Sam Raimi, doesn't it?
Uriel wrote:
Is Emo-Spideman Topher Grace? I love him, but have the same issues you have with the Spidey franchise -- it just ain't workin' for me.

No, Emo Spiderman is Toby Maguire. Topher Grace's alter ego is similar, but more menacing than a mere emo.
Elaine

I saw "The Queen" the other night (I know, I'm so behind in my movie watching), and I thought it was a beautifully scripted "quiet" story. Helen Mirren was superb.



What made me so sad was not so much the fact that the royal family reacted coldly towards Diana's death (frankly, I cared not one bit for the lady when she was alive), but the fact that Tony Blair showed so much promise in those early days of his prime ministership but now all that's been squandered.

What surprised even me is that I actually felt a tinge of mourning for that old stereotypical British reserve that the Queen was going on about. I think it's because just before popping in the dvd, I was bombarded with commercials for that crappy "Katie & Peter" show on E!
Yelina

I just watched a Chinese movie called "Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise" (sorry, I don't know the English title). I enjoyed it. It's a rather trivial story, but I like the way this kind of Chinese movies are shot, among beautiful landscapes. Furthermore, I "melt" with the charm of the 2 main male actors. Damn, they're so handsome!!! Well, for me, almost all Asian men are attractive, but these ones were very charming!


Chen Kun


Liu Ye
Deborah

Elaine wrote:
I saw "The Queen" the other night (I know, I'm so behind in my movie watching), and I thought it was a beautifully scripted "quiet" story. Helen Mirren was superb.


I thought she was almost too good, as watching the movie made me feel that I was intruding on the actual queen's private life.

I also loved seeing the difference between how she looked in this movie and how she looked at the Academy Awards.

Yelina wrote:
Furthermore, I "melt" with the charm of the 2 main male actors. Damn, they're so handsome!!! Well, for me, almost all Asian men are attractive, but these ones were very charming!

I went to schools that had a large Asian enrollment, and when I think back to who I thought was good-looking, Asians seem to form the largest group. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I find almost all Asian men attractive, because I can't say that about any group of men!
Walker

Uriel wrote:
I've heard so many bad things about Lady In The Water that I've never bothered to see it. And I, too, was disappointed in The Village, although it didn't suck completely and had some very interesting elements. It just didn't follow up on its promise. I think it would have been better without the twist -- if it had really been a world unto itself with its own rules and fairytales. I had a little bit of trouble with the moralizing in Signs, but other than that, I though it was an excellent movie. Unbreakable had an interesting premise and good performances, and The Sixth Sense was a classic, of course. Waking Up, which had no supernatural elements other than the main character's search for God as a way of understanding his first brushes with mortality (he's just a child) was really excellent. But I think Shyamalan's gotten a little ahead of himself since those earlier days, and it doesn't always work.


I was disappointed in the twist in Ze Willage too -- at first, but a while after I'd seen the film I started to appreciate it. I liked the sudden contrast between their world and the cold (real) world on the outside. I haven't seen Waking Up but I guess I shall have to see it then.

Drinking wine and going through the TV channels at my parents' house last weekend I caught a pretty cool "samurai" flick. It was one of those movies in which gravity seems almost non-existent at times and the characters are able to handle their weapons as weapons can only be handled by Japanese actors on film. Azumi.



At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to see it, but something kept me watching...



That was one creepy villian.
Yelina

Deborah wrote:
I went to schools that had a large Asian enrollment, and when I think back to who I thought was good-looking, Asians seem to form the largest group. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I find almost all Asian men attractive, because I can't say that about any group of men!

Well, what I meant by saying I find almost all Asians attractive is that even if they're not handsome, something appeals me. Their eyes mainly and also the shape of their heads, which is different from the caucasians ones.
I think if I came to live in an Asian country, I would become polyandrous!!
Uriel

Not a bad idea!

I went to high school in Japan, and most of the cute boys were half-Asian and half-American (white or black), so I developed a strong appreciation. (We did have full-blooded Asians and Asian-Americans, but they weren't half as cute!) Oddly, the only time I ever hooked up with a part-Asian was in California (he was a quarter, but he really had the eyes, so he could have passed for half).

Yeah, Elaine, I was also one of those people who just couldn't get into the Diana craze -- she did nothing for me, either. And when people went on and on about what a philanthropist and a do-gooder she was, I was like, So? What else has she got to do with her time? It's not like she has to work for a living.

But Helen Mirren is always great -- I still get a kick out of watching her in her little brass bustier in Excalibur, back when she was just a young thing (she was Morgana). Loved Nicol Williams in that one, too -- he was a kick-ass Merlin!
Joanne

Uriel wrote:
But Helen Mirren is always great -- I still get a kick out of watching her in her little brass bustier in Excalibur, back when she was just a young thing (she was Morgana). Loved Nicol Williams in that one, too -- he was a kick-ass Merlin!


Those two had great (negative) chemistry. John Boorman, the film's director, has said that their scenes together worked so well because they hated each other so much in real life.
Elaine

Uriel wrote:
Yeah, Elaine, I was also one of those people who just couldn't get into the Diana craze -- she did nothing for me, either. And when people went on and on about what a philanthropist and a do-gooder she was, I was like, So? What else has she got to do with her time? It's not like she has to work for a living.


I never really had a problem with her until she went running to the press and her biographer to unload the family's dirty laundry and whine about how miserable she was in her marriage. The prince was carrying on with another woman????? What a shock!!! No matter how bad things go, one should handle things discreetly and with dignity.
Uriel

Joanne wrote:
Uriel wrote:
But Helen Mirren is always great -- I still get a kick out of watching her in her little brass bustier in Excalibur, back when she was just a young thing (she was Morgana). Loved Nicol Williams in that one, too -- he was a kick-ass Merlin!


Those two had great (negative) chemistry. John Boorman, the film's director, has said that their scenes together worked so well because they hated each other so much in real life.


I didn't know that! Why didn't they like each other?


I understand Debra Winger absolutely loathed Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, and it took everything she had to get her through all those kissing and sex scenes with him.


Quote:
The prince was carrying on with another woman?????


Look at him -- is that really someone you'd want to have to service yourself? She should have been happy to find a good subcontractor!
Joanne

Uriel wrote:
Joanne wrote:
Uriel wrote:
But Helen Mirren is always great -- I still get a kick out of watching her in her little brass bustier in Excalibur, back when she was just a young thing (she was Morgana). Loved Nicol Williams in that one, too -- he was a kick-ass Merlin!

Those two had great (negative) chemistry. John Boorman, the film's director, has said that their scenes together worked so well because they hated each other so much in real life.

I didn't know that! Why didn't they like each other?

I understand Debra Winger absolutely loathed Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, and it took everything she had to get her through all those kissing and sex scenes with him.


Earlier in Helen Mirren's career, she and Williamson had worked together in a disastrous stage production of Macbeth. By the time Excalibur rolled around a few years later, they loathed each other and weren't on speaking terms. John Boorman knew this, and cast them together anyway, hoping that their real life tension would transfer onto their performances on screen. I think he made a good call.

Uriel wrote:
Quote:
The prince was carrying on with another woman?????

Look at him -- is that really someone you'd want to have to service yourself?

That's what happens when cousins marry cousins for over a thousand years...
Deborah

Planet Earth is a BBC documentary series, not a movie, but it's available on DVD now, so it sort of counts. I rented one disk last night and I heartily concur with the editorial review at amazon.com:

Quote:
As of its release in early 2007, Planet Earth is quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced.


http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Eart...m_cd_t_sims_i/104-5825199-3103923

Don’t miss the 14-minute video introduction by the series producer on the amazon.com page, which gives you some examples of the stunning camera work.

And this seems to be the same set from the UK amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Ea...dvd&qid=1179365554&sr=8-5


If you plan to buy this series, be aware that there's also a Discovery Channel version that's shorter by 90 minutes and narrated by Sigourney Weaver rather than David Attenborough. One or the other of these contains some extras that aren't in the other, but I'm not sure which one.
Walker

I finally watched the 1930 version of All Quiet on the Western Front the other night. It's hard to say whether it's better than the 1979 remake because they're obviously quite different. The stage acting in the old one, for one thing. I never really got used to that, I suppose. However, the message of the novel did come through in the film for sure. It was nicely shot too.



And I saw that there's yet another remake on the way that's supposed to be finished in 2009.
Deborah

Walker wrote:
I finally watched the 1930 version of All Quiet on the Western Front the other night. It's hard to say whether it's better than the 1979 remake because they're obviously quite different. The stage acting in the old one, for one thing. I never really got used to that, I suppose.

I couldn't take it -- I didn't finish watching it.
Porthos

I recently saw:

RV - w/Robin Williams (loved it, great family movie, and very funny)

The Longest Yard - w/Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds (hilarious)

I am Rappaport (hilarious, while sad at the same time, makes you appreciate life)
Pauline

This was the first book I've read in german, and until now the only. I cried very much, and so this book was very difficult to read, to add to the language . Im Westen Nichts Neues is the german title. Where I live was much fighting during WW1 and 2, and there are many cemeteries of american, british, canadian and other soldiers; the Ardennes had strategic importance because of the situation between France and Germany, and in some places of east Belgium you can see the Siegfried Line still - big, black pyramids in some rows.
Liz

Pauline wrote:
This was the first book I've read in german, and until now the only. I cried very much, and so this book was very difficult to read, to add to the language . Im Westen Nichts Neues is the german title. Where I live was much fighting during WW1 and 2, and there are many cemeteries of american, british, canadian and other soldiers; the Ardennes had strategic importance because of the situation between France and Germany, and in some places of east Belgium you can see the Siegfried Line still - big, black pyramids in some rows.


That's a very good book! I didn't know about the film adaptation, though.
Deborah

To clarify what I meant by "I couldn't take it" -- "it" referred to the acting style.
Pauline

I havn't seen the film, but I don't want to as i've read the book- especially not if the acting is so bad or unrealistic. Bad acting is intolerable , completely confusing and annoying!!!!!
Walker

Deborah wrote:
To clarify what I meant by "I couldn't take it" -- "it" referred to the acting style.


Yeah, I got it! I wonder how much you saw of the film. You must've seen that scene where they visit Kemmerich at the hospital and Paul gets frustrated and looks around for a doctor and says something like a doctor, why isn't there a doctor here?. That was pretty hilarious.

Pauline wrote:
I havn't seen the film, but I don't want to as i've read the book- especially not if the acting is so bad or unrealistic. Bad acting is intolerable , completely confusing and annoying!!!!!


Bad acting can be annoying indeed, but in this case it was more a question of acting style. The actors, or at least many of them, acted as if they were on a stage in a theater, most likely because that's how they were trained to act. So their voices and their body language seemed excessive. That movie is from 1930.
Uriel

Children of Men -- awesome flick! Cuaron did it again. Just amazing. Loved, loved, loved all the characters -- not a false note in the whole movie. Michael Caine was just wonderful, as always; Clive Owens is never hard to look at, and he can act, too; the chick who played the young mother was a hoot -- she had some of the best one-liners! -- and man, you felt what it was like to live in fear and anarchy and random violence. Very compelling.

Happy Feet -- lame. Sorry. I was so excited to see it, finally, and .... nah. Letdown. Plus I spent the whole movie thinking, when is this poor penguin gonna molt already? It had some good parts, and it had some good points -- I didn't hate it or anything. But it just fell a little flat after all the hype.
Elaine

Uriel wrote:
Happy Feet -- lame. Sorry. I was so excited to see it, finally, and .... nah. Letdown. Plus I spent the whole movie thinking, when is this poor penguin gonna molt already? It had some good parts, and it had some good points -- I didn't hate it or anything. But it just fell a little flat after all the hype.


It was cute, but I wasn't terribly moved by it. Thank God I had watched "March of the Penguins" several months beforehand, otherwise I wouldn't have understood that whole business with the egg.

Saw "Notes on a Scandal" on dvd over the weekend. Although I thought both actresses were superb (esp. Dame Judi in all her depraved wickedness), Cate Blanchett's character was just gettin' on my very last nerve. How can anybody be that dim and gullible?
Deborah

I finally saw Shaun of the Dead, which was great. But I don't think, as some people did, that Hot Fuzz didn't come up to it.
Loic

I saw Pirates of the Carribean last week - it was quite dull, actually.
Liz

loic wrote:
I saw Pirates of the Carribean last week - it was quite dull, actually.


Quite frankly, I don't really like it, either. (I like Johnny Depp anyway - what a waste of talent. ) I saw it with my cousin and his girlfriend. They enjoyed it, I didn't. It was passable apart from the horrible dialogues, which seeemed slightly unnatural to me. I'm often wondering if the style of the dialogues in this film is intended to be all tongue-in-cheek or it's just so bad that it appears to be so.

uriel wrote:
Happy Feet -- lame. Sorry. I was so excited to see it, finally, and .... nah. Letdown. Plus I spent the whole movie thinking, when is this poor penguin gonna molt already? It had some good parts, and it had some good points -- I didn't hate it or anything. But it just fell a little flat after all the hype.


Is it? I haven't seen the film but I wanted to -- I also thought it must be good. I've always regarded Robin Williams as some sort of a guarantee of an enjoyable film. He seems to be going downhill then.
Joanne

I guess I'll wait for Pirates to get released on DVD. (When is that, next week? Movies come out on DVD so quickly these days ) I also saw Happy Feet recently, and wasn't impressed. Neither was I with Happily N'Ever After...

However, I did watch Knocked Up, and liked it! It was full of immature stoner humor, though, so it probably won't be to everyone's liking. My favorite part was the "Shrooms n' Chairs" scene
Uriel

Well, Liz, it's not that Happy Feet was bad, it was just .... not what I expected. Let me quote the BBC's review to put it in perspective for you:

Happy Feet is the story of a tap-dancing penguin. So far, so adorably cute. But before you rush to the box office, be warned: it's also one of the oddest computer animated tales ever made. At first glance, this looks like your regulation kiddie fare: cuddly animals, big star voices (Elijah Wood, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and so on). What you actually get is a bewildering combination of anthropomophic perversity and environmental polemic, all scored to cheesy pop hits.

Happy Feet is so very, very weird that it's hard to know where to start. It's as if the filmmakers watched March Of The Penguins and said to each other: "You know what this really needs? Disco." The first surprise is the animation, which renders the penguins borderline photorealistic. Fair enough, but when these extremely lifelike critters start singing modern R&B medleys sprinkled with old school hip-hop, the mind goes into overboggle. Stranger still, they all belong to some repressive religious cult, complete with growling penguin elders and compulsory Pingu-worshipping. They behave like penguins (at one point, Nicole Kidman delicately regurgitates into her offspring's mouth), but they talk like the Amish branch of the Motown Appreciation Society.

"SENDS THE MIND INTO OVERBOGGLE"

Our hero, Mumbles Happyfeet (Wood) is a fabulous dancer but can't sing. Because of this, he's ostracised from his chums and embarks on a quest to discover where all the fish have gone. He's accompanied by a coterie of Mexican mini-penguins (no, really) and a penguin mystic played by Robin Williams (Williams has two roles in Happy Feet, which is two more than he should be allowed). Then without warning, the whole film turns into an environmental cautionary tale of serious bleakness, capped off with a spectacular Busby Berkely song and dance number. It's absolutely bonkers, but undeniably original.

Personally, I thought the Adelies were the best part (and just goes to show that the BBC accent nazis don't know Mexican from Cuban or Puerto Rican, etc. -- or realize that penguins spend a lot of time in South America). I actually though Robin Williams made a great pair of penguins -- he played an Adelie and a Rockhopper. It was Hugh Jackman channeling Elvis and Nicole Kidman playing Marilyn Monroe, the flippered version, that I couldn't quite figure out. Apparently penguins are American, but need to be played by Australians, whereas the elephant seals (which I've seen in California) required Australian accents. (Go with it....)



Joanne, who doesn't like stupid stoner humor?!! Dazed and Confused, Half-Baked, even Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle (I can never look at Doogie Houser the same way, now that I've seen him snort coke off a chick's boobs! I don't care how many times he comes out!)

Did you know, by the way, that that movie is inexplicably known as Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies in the UK? I suppose they wouldn't have a clue what a Whitecastle is. They also renamed 13 Going on 30 -- maybe that's not a familiar phrase there.
Porthos

Hey, I liked Happy Feet.

Pirates 3 sucked monkey balls. It was one of those, seen one, you've seen em all type things. Same ol', same o. Nothing new, or original, weak plot development, the characters we fell in love with in the first movie assumed radically different personalities as if they had multiple personality disorder like cibil. This movie was dark, and less humurous, and it was not at all suspenseful. There was nothing to keep me interested. Then again, I was at a drive-thru movie theatre, with a female in the passenger seat.
Uriel

Uh-huh. So how much of the movie did you see? Were the credits really that bad?
Porthos

Uriel wrote:
Uh-huh. So how much of the movie did you see? Were the credits really that bad?


Lol. I listened to and saw about half of the movie, but I did hear the whole thing. LMAO!
Loic

Just some linguistic quibble I feel compelled to point out in Pirates III: Chow Yun Fatt's character was reciting a verse of a rather famous Tang dynasty poem in Cantonese in a scene before he shortly met his doom.

However, most of the Chinese crew extras had their dialogues interspersed with Mandarin phrases.

I am going to watch Ocean's Thirteen sometime soon. I hope it's vastly better than Pirates of the Carribean. Now that I feel I have been conned by Jerry Bruckheimer, I look forward to seeing suave and debonair conmen in the form of Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Daemon doing what they know best.
Porthos

loic wrote:
Just some linguistic quibble I feel compelled to point out in Pirates III: Chow Yun Fatt's character was reciting a verse of a rather famous Tang dynasty poem in Cantonese in a scene before he shortly met his doom.

However, most of the Chinese crew extras had their dialogues interspersed with Mandarin phrases.

I am going to watch Ocean's Thirteen sometime soon. I hope it's vastly better than Pirates of the Carribean. Now that I feel I have been conned by Jerry Bruckheimer, I look forward to seeing suave and debonair conmen in the form of Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Daemon doing what they know best.


Yep. Rush Hour 3 should be coming out as well, as will the third installment of the Jason Bourne series, and I still have to see Shrek 3.
Loic

Quote:
Yep. Rush Hour 3 should be coming out as well, as will the third installment of the Jason Bourne series, and I still have to see Shrek 3.


This is surely the summer of sequels!
Deborah

Uriel wrote:
They also renamed 13 Going on 30 -- maybe that's not a familiar phrase there.

No, I think it's something to do with the decimal system...

I loved the BBC review of Happy Feet. BTW, my roommate thinks the live models for the dancing penguins must have been guys wearing hangin' pants (or whatever you call them).
Porthos

Quote:
This is surely the summer of sequels!


That it is. It woud appear that Hollywood has had a bout of deficiency in creativity, so rather than coming up with anything new, they've just decided to make a series of sequels to previously successful productions.

Loic, have you seen The Good Shepherd?
Uriel

loic wrote:
Just some linguistic quibble I feel compelled to point out in Pirates III: Chow Yun Fatt's character was reciting a verse of a rather famous Tang dynasty poem in Cantonese in a scene before he shortly met his doom.

However, most of the Chinese crew extras had their dialogues interspersed with Mandarin phrases.

I am going to watch Ocean's Thirteen sometime soon. I hope it's vastly better than Pirates of the Carribean. Now that I feel I have been conned by Jerry Bruckheimer, I look forward to seeing suave and debonair conmen in the form of Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Daemon doing what they know best.


I loved Oceans Eleven. Despised Oceans Twelve. I seriously hope Thirteen does better justice to its cast.

Speaking of Matt Damon, I'm excited to see the Bourne Ultimatum. I read at least one erview of Casino Royale that credits the original Bourne Identity with causing the newest James Bond outing to strip down to the bare bones of action and toughness, rather than go the route of its predecessors' high-tech toys and overwrought one-liners.
Liz

I wanted to see the Good Shepherd, too, but I went to a pub with my friends instead. They didn't feel like going to the cinema and I didn't want to let them down. Have you seen it, Josh? What was it like?

It has been here in the uni cinema recently, so it was quite cheap. The only drawback of it was that the film was dubbed into German -- Der gute Hirte...grrrrr!!!!

No worries...I'm not gonna start the palaver over dubbing all over again. (Without Walker it is almost impossible after all. )
Loic

Bad guys usually fall onto one of two categories: dashing romanticised anti-heroes such as Robin Hood and Ned Kelly, or scheming and ruthless professionals such as Al Capone. After having watched Ocean's Thirteen, I confidently conclude that Danny Ocean defies simple classification and straddles the two realms.

I am not going to give away any thrilling highlights here, but suffice to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel. Danny Ocean's sleek crew of thieves are now thieves with a conscience, stealthily plotting to bankrupt Willy Bank's casino establishment on opening night in order to seek revenge for an injustice dealt out to one of them. Director Stephen Sonderberg knows his Las Vegas well. Every scene reeks of the city of sin: glitzy neonlights, the stench of cigarettes and exhaust fumes, the cynicism and tasteless opulence of the business moguls, the all-pervasive ruthlessness of cut-throat politiciking, the bubble of invincibility which the villains inhabit.

Watch Ocean's Thirteen and appreciate the weaving of complex intricate plots designed to prick that very bubble and send Willy Bank sprawling to his very knnes. I'd give it 4/5.
Walker

I saw a Dutch film last night. Zwartboek. It's about a woman who's in the Dutch resistance. It's not because I'm a sucker for WWII movies in general that I say that it was really something. The woman infiltrates the SD headquarters by becoming the mistress of one of its head officers. I think the acting was suberb. Especially Carice van Houten who played the main character. As you can imagine it involved informants, double-crossing to the right and left, interrogation, torture, members of the resistance getting their asses kicked, nazis getting their asses kicked, SS uniforms and tragedy, but also a love story that wasn't silly. In other words, Sander would love it.

Porthos

Walker wrote:
I saw a Dutch film last night. Zwartboek. It's about a woman who's in the Dutch resistance. It's not because I'm a sucker for WWII movies in general that I say that it was really something. The woman infiltrates the SD headquarters by becoming the mistress of one of its head officers. I think the acting was suberb. Especially Carice van Houten who played the main character. As you can imagine it involved informants, double-crossing to the right and left, interrogation, torture, members of the resistance getting their asses kicked, nazis getting their asses kicked, SS uniforms and tradegy, but also a love story that wasn't silly. In other words, Sander would love it.



That was actually advertised in America. And I really wanna see it.
Elaine

Finally saw Volver the other night and I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED it! It also forced me to reassess my thoughts on Miss Cruz in both the looks department and acting ability. I thought she was a beautiful mamacita and her acting in it actually impressed me. My only criticism is that Mr. Almódovar didn't cast me in that role. I was stunned however by how old Ms. Maura looked. Has it really been that long since Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios?
Josh Lalonde

I saw Bourne Ultimatum, and I was disappointed. The story line, acting, etc. were all fine, but they were all ruined by the cinematography. Apparently they used handheld cameras for everything, and it shows. There's a scene with two people having a conversation in a restaurant, and they film over the shoulder of one to show the face of the other, but the first person's shoulder takes up half the screen! And the camera shakes like mad throughout it! And no one's even moving in that scene. In the fight scenes and the extended chase sequences, you can't tell what's going on, cause it's all just a blur. Maybe it'll work better on DVD. I've always thought it would be neat to have fight scenes in a few wide shots, rather than rapid cuts back in forth like they usually do.
Deborah

Elaine wrote:
Finally saw Volver the other night and I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED it! It also forced me to reassess my thoughts on Miss Cruz in both the looks department and acting ability.

At last!

Quote:
I thought she was a beautiful mamacita and her acting in it actually impressed me.

If your assessment of her beauty is at all based on her posterior, you should known that she wore a prosthesis. I think Almodovar was going for the Sophia Loren-type appeal.

Quote:
My only criticism is that Mr. Almódovar didn't cast me in that role.

I'm getting a pretty good idea of your personality by now!
Elaine

Deborah wrote:
Quote:
I thought she was a beautiful mamacita and her acting in it actually impressed me.

If your assessment of her beauty is at all based on her posterior, you should known that she wore a prosthesis. I think Almodovar was going for the Sophia Loren-type appeal.


Yes, I read that somewhere. I assessed her beauty based on her facial features. She looked gorgeous in this movie, unlike other movies I've seen where she looked... well, just okay in a plain sort of way.

Watching Penelope in scenes with the girl who played her daughter reminded me of the female dynamics of old Italian neorealism films like Two Women with Sophia Loren. And I thought this before I saw the final scene with Carmen Maura watching Bellissima (with Anna Magnani) on television. I guess that's why I loved Volver so much. My life is like an old Italian movie! (well, just in my imagination)



Walker

Deborah, you once expressed your dislike of Gangs of New York. Is it its historical inaccuracy that makes you think so, or if not, what is it? It's not my favorite movie but I think it's pretty entertaining. I think Daniel Day-Lewis is great as Bill 'the Butcher' Cutting.
Deborah

Walker wrote:
Deborah, you once expressed your dislike of Gangs of New York. Is it its historical inaccuracy that makes you think so, or if not, what is it? It's not my favorite movie but I think it's pretty entertaining. I think Daniel Day-Lewis is great as Bill 'the Butcher' Cutting.

No, the historical inaccuracy didn't bother me. That is, even if I hadn't known about the inaccuracy, I still wouldn't have liked the movie. It just seemed to me that most of the effort behind the movie went into the fight scenes, and I got tired of seeing so much graphic gore. I thought Leonardo di Caprio wasn't believable in his role. As for Daniel Day-Lewis, I usually like him, but I thought his performance in this was a bit hammy.

The most enjoyable aspect of the movie for me was seeing the recreation of the Five Points area of NY.

Speaking of Daniel Day-Lewis, I recently rewatched Room With a View, My Beautiful Launderette and The Name of the Father, in all of which I thought he was excellent. Then, on one of the Spanish language TV stations, I watched El Ultimo de los Mohicanos, which I enjoyed more in Spanish because I didn't have to hear his sort of strange American accent.

I just got through watching the movie Wilde (1997), in which Stephen Fry was absolutely perfect as Oscar Wilde. That movie was a catch-all for some of the pretty boys of UK cinema, before they were stars, I guess. Jude Law plays the lord's son who was Wilde's undoing, Ioan Gryffydd (spelling?) has a small role and his name doesn't even appear in the opening credits. Orlando Bloom has a brief, non-speaking role as someone in a crowd who attracts Wilde's attention.
Uriel

I couldn't even get through Gangs of New York. Just couldn't muster up the interest.
Walker

Deborah wrote:
Walker wrote:
Deborah, you once expressed your dislike of Gangs of New York. Is it its historical inaccuracy that makes you think so, or if not, what is it? It's not my favorite movie but I think it's pretty entertaining. I think Daniel Day-Lewis is great as Bill 'the Butcher' Cutting.

No, the historical inaccuracy didn't bother me. That is, even if I hadn't known about the inaccuracy, I still wouldn't have liked the movie. It just seemed to me that most of the effort behind the movie went into the fight scenes, and I got tired of seeing so much graphic gore. I thought Leonardo di Caprio wasn't believable in his role. As for Daniel Day-Lewis, I usually like him, but I thought his performance in this was a bit hammy.


I see. Cameron Diaz might've seemed a little out of place too. Maybe Day-Lewis' performance was a little over the top, but I still think he did a good job. Probably there are other things than his acting that makes me think so, though, like the environment in the movie, his clothes, his hair and mustasche etc. And he spoke in the coolest accent. I read that...

Quote:
Bill's hard "New Yok" accent wasn't entirely fabricated. Martin Scorsese actually did some research by listening to a voice recording of Walt Whitman and by reading an old play in which the dialog was spelled out phonetically.


I imagine that his accent might seem extra fake to you who've lived in New York. I also enjoyed the language, the 19th century slang and grammatical errors etc.

Quote:
The most enjoyable aspect of the movie for me was seeing the recreation of the Five Points area of NY.


Yes, that was very enjoyable.

Quote:
Speaking of Daniel Day-Lewis, I recently rewatched Room With a View, My Beautiful Launderette and The Name of the Father, in all of which I thought he was excellent. Then, on one of the Spanish language TV stations, I watched El Ultimo de los Mohicanos, which I enjoyed more in Spanish because I didn't have to hear his sort of strange American accent.


How was his American accent strange? I don't recall what is sounded like in The Last of the Mohicans.

Quote:
I just got through watching the movie Wilde (1997), in which Stephen Fry was absolutely perfect as Oscar Wilde. That movie was a catch-all for some of the pretty boys of UK cinema, before they were stars, I guess. Jude Law plays the lord's son who was Wilde's undoing, Ioan Gryffydd (spelling?) has a small role and his name doesn't even appear in the opening credits. Orlando Bloom has a brief, non-speaking role as someone in a crowd who attracts Wilde's attention.


Right, I saw that movie some years ago. I remember Ioan Gruffudd in some sort of gown and with an equally colorful hat on his head. And there was a sex scene...

I saw a documentary about bipolar disorder on TV the other night. It was narrated by Stephen Fry who suffers from bipolar disorder himself. Like so many bipolars he wouldn't want to get rid of his disorder. Right at the end of the documentary he answered the question -- if you could press a button and make your manic depression go away, would you do it? -- by saying: not for all the tea in China.
Deborah

Walker wrote:
Deborah wrote:
Then, on one of the Spanish language TV stations, I watched El Ultimo de los Mohicanos, which I enjoyed more in Spanish because I didn't have to hear his sort of strange American accent.


How was his American accent strange? I don't recall what is sounded like in The Last of the Mohicans.


I can't recall exactly, now. I believe I thought it sounded too modern American for the pre-revolutionary era. If I ever watch it again in English, I'll let you know what I think.
Walker

I've watched quite a few movies lately and one that you should definitely see is This Is England. The story is pretty simple: basically, a boy gets picked on in school and one day he walks by a few skinheads who show friendliness toward him. Things are fine until reality hits him when Combo (Stephen Graham) reveals his true self. What's so great about this movie is its realism. You really get a feeling of what it might've been like in some working-class district in England in the early 80's.





This guy in particular, Stephen Graham, whom you might remember from Gangs of New York, was just great.
Elaine

Walker wrote:
I've watched quite a few movies lately and one that you should definitely see is This Is England. The story is pretty simple: basically, a boy gets picked on in school and one day he walks by a few skinheads who show friendliness toward him. Things are fine until reality hits him when Combo (Stephen Graham) reveals his true self. What's so great about this movie is its realism. You really get a feeling of what it might've been like in some working-class district in England in the early 80's.


It doesn't sound like a movie I'd be interested in watching. I tend to shy away from movies about the British working class because I find the accents quite a challenge to comprehend.

But anyway, I've been watching the Hitchcock tribute on AMC all week and the movie Rope was a pleasant surprise. I had never seen this one before, and although disturbing, I was riveted.



My favorite Hitchcock, however, would probably be Vertigo.

Walker

Elaine wrote:
Walker wrote:
I've watched quite a few movies lately and one that you should definitely see is This Is England. The story is pretty simple: basically, a boy gets picked on in school and one day he walks by a few skinheads who show friendliness toward him. Things are fine until reality hits him when Combo (Stephen Graham) reveals his true self. What's so great about this movie is its realism. You really get a feeling of what it might've been like in some working-class district in England in the early 80's.


It doesn't sound like a movie I'd be interested in watching. I tend to shy away from movies about the British working class because I find the accents quite a challenge to comprehend.


I watched a version that had subtitles so I didn't have to worry about not understanding what they were saying. However, their accents weren't incomprehensible. Stephen Graham has a rather peculiar accent, though. Even if you don't understand every word in a movie it's good practice.

Quote:
But anyway, I've been watching the Hitchcock tribute on AMC all week and the movie Rope was a pleasant surprise. I had never seen this one before, and although disturbing, I was riveted.



My favorite Hitchcock, however, would probably be Vertigo.



I don't think I've seen Rope but I've seen Vertigo two times, I think. A couple of years ago I watched a bunch of Hitchcock movies, some of them for the first time.

North by Northwest is a good one. For some reason I didn't expect much from The Birds but it was actually pretty uncomfortable to watch i.e. good. Have you seen Lifeboat? I just remembered having seen it a long time ago.

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