Recent Movies You've Seen?
 

Since I'm on break from school and am trying to avoid anything resembling work, I've been on a movie kick. Not in theaters -- I'm too poor for that. :) We rent from Blockbuster and Netflix and also watch a lot of streaming movies at Netflix.

Recent movies I have watched, and my very brief opinions:

Slumdog Millionaire: Lovely movie, very sad, but inspiring
Lost In Austen: LOVED it.
Vanity Fair: Very good interpretation of a book I couldn't force myself to finish.
Walk The Line: I was seriously not impressed. Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash? Not even close.
The Remains of the Day: I love Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, 'nuff said.
Of Mice and Men: Also love Gary Sinise and John Malkovich, but wow, it's so creepy.

Anyone else want to add your recent views, and opinions?

I'm always looking for good books & movies. I like historical stuff the very bestest :)

Watch Ink. Its available on Netflix.

Julie and Julia - watched it last night - was light-hearted and funny.

Dr. Who and the Daleks on Youtube
The Dalek Invasion of Earth on Youtube
Rush Hour 3 on HBO 2

Oh, DH and I saw Julie & Julia in the theater. Loved it.

I treated myself to Paranormal Activity.
Wonderful.

Afternoon showing, so only about 10 of us in the cinema.
Perfect, because of the long, silent stretches of the film.
It's far better to see it in the cinema, but I can see how it could be completely ruined by other people.

The audience were well spaced out (in seating terms!) and very respectful. Silences remained silent. Tension built.

No screams but a lot of jumps and shivers along my arms. Non-one left the cinema until the lights came up and music went on. For me it was because I wasn't 100% sure it had finished. I think that was the case for the others (who were sat further back - me being the only bint cheeky enough to snag a luxury seat when I'd paid for standard). Or they may have been too scared...!

Thank FSM there were no mirrors/ reflections used in the filming of this movie. As it was, it spooked me but I went happily to sleep that night. Buttons pushed, but not the panic button.

All your past sins are forgiven

Meaning?

Meaning that if you're a Dr. Who fan, she wuvs you.

I saw Fabulous Mr. Fox and LOVED it. Was funny, clever, adorable in an un-treacly sort of way, and made me believe in Foxkind again.

I thought Julie & Julia was lame - the book was much, MUCH better.

Just watched "The Duchess" -- blech. I don't care for Keira Knightley very much.

Son rented "Knowing" - I'm not a fan of Nicholas Cage or freaky disaster movies, but I guess it was all right as such things go.

Last night I watched "Wine for the Confused" starring John Cleese - an educational film. I'm not much of a wine drinker, though I do have it occasionally and it's good to know at least a little about it lest some pseudo wine snob try to call me out. Good to at least know how to pronounce Shiraz or know whether Riesling is white or red. :)

Star Trek. I saw it once in the theaters and liked it; now that I have it home, and have watched it a bunch more times, I'm really liking it.

It's fascinating to watch how they have entwined the old and new; and to watch the actors interpret the familiar characters. I especially like Kirk's voice, for some reason. I like the music, too--movie music is very important to me.

Another pair of thumbs up for Fantastic Mr. Fox over here.

The most recent movie I watched was Angels and Demons. I thought it was great, though to people who read the book, did it do it justice?

Fresh!
Good to see you back.

I thought the book was sucky.
Then again, I always rad his books (someone always has one available to lend me) and I always think they suck.

NOT going to see the film, but I expect it is better.
Films usually have plot holes your could drive a four-in-hand through, but they dazzle you with lights and noises and such. It's more obvious in a book.

I'm trying not to read SG's post about Paranormal Activity because I really want to see it...my nephew said it's scary and I love scary. There probably aren't spoilers but I can't take the chance.

I went to the movie theater last Saturday for the first time in a long time, by myself with a big popcorn and pop, and saw Brothers.

Tobey McGuire does a great job. Natalie Portman is simply beautiful, and they could just rename Jake Gyllenhaal "Yum."

The girl who plays the oldest of the daughters, Bailee Madison, is the cutest thing and a great little actress.

I liked it.

No spoilers I promise.
It's not an in-depth critique anyway, more me being self congratulatory for seeing it in a quiet cinema!

Up in the Air - "B" Clooney at his most charming, fabulous, crinkly-smiled but a weensy bit tortured. Berri good.

Sherlock Holmes - "B" Holmes as James Bond. Great chemistry between Downey and Law - clever, psuedo tricky-occulitsh story with possible debbil worshippers. Nice.

I saw Angels and Demons about 6 months ago and was surprised how much I enjoyed it...good disposable entertainment.

My next two movies when I get these others back in the darn mail: Paranormal Activity (and I want to be SCARED) and Public Enemies.

No spoilers please! ;)

Then you'll LURVE Paranormal Activity.

on the other hand I read Public Enemas - Did a double take. :eek:

We saw Up, Epic Movie and Inglorious Basterds.

I liked Up more than I thought, Epic Movie was just another comedy spoof, along the lines of Scary Movie and IB was just plain weird and needlessly bloody, IMO. Typical Tarantino output.

Avatar in 3D (not IMAX) was fantastic! Star Trek was OK. Hope to watch Wolverine by the end of the weekend.

Watched Avatar last night. Very good stuff 3D and CGI are finally good enough for actual story telling.

Food Inc.

Cashback
Helvetica
Magic of Flight

I liked them all

Yeah, I'm wondering when people are going to finally cotton-on to Tarantino and see him for the sociopath he is.

Imma let you finish, but Pulp Fiction had the best movie ever.

;)

Julie & Julia: Great! Meryl Streep is an amazing actor, and a great voice actor--she had Julia Child DOWN. Also, it brought back a lot of memories for me--I swear my mother went through that whole cookbook too. (Shudders at memories of being forced to eat aspic.)

Great actors make an ok movie excellent. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I think it was a "B" movie that got carried by those performances.

I loved Pulp Fiction. Mind you, I was tripping the first time i saw it, so it was very intense :P

Last night I watched The Invention of Lying. I thought it was a wonderful film. Funny and romantic, and with a refreshing lack of cynicism.

ugh. I thought Pulp Fiction was disgusting.

I also thought IB was needlessly bloody, but other than that, I thought it was really good -- moody, suspenseful and funny. It'd be a perfect movie if they'd let me trim five minutes or so of the bloodiest stuff.

Apparently, netflix didn't have any more copies of Paranormal Activity so they sent the next in line. I would have rather waited until Saturday and received PA...I'm really excited about the scary movie.

But, I have Public Enemies! The next in line was Sunshine Cleaning. I should get one in before the Rose Bowl.

Me too. I also liked Reservoir Dogs, the Kill Bills, and also Natural Born Killers. I liked ER, can't stand CSI.

...or anything else that includes a blood-bath? lol!

The blood is clearly overdone... but it doesn't bother me. I see it as the hyperbolic opposite of cheesy tv violence, with bullets flying everywhere, no blood, and only the bad guys dying (very quickly and neatly).

I too liked Pulp Fiction and The Kill Bills are my all time favorite,Reservoir Dogs. I couldn't stomach Natural born killers.

Liked CSI at one time as well as House but they just got ridiculous after awhile.

I used to like CSI; but I got bored with it after a while. House I adore! Then again, I was always a mad Sherlock Holmes fan and so much of House is based on Holmes, I like spotting the connections :P

I haven't seen (that i recall) a Tarantino film that didn't like. I muist have watched Pulp Fiction a dozen times. I love the musical direction. I think my favourite scene in the whole thing is the one where Bruce Willis' character finds the samurai sword. I just think it's such a stylishly directed film.

Yes there's a lot of blood. But it's supposed to be over the top. It's drawing on genre references. Not supposed to be taken too seriously. It's a little like the way they used blood in Evil Dead. That moment when Ash is literally blasted with a geyser of blood (always makes me chuckle).

Res Dogs was the only one of his films that I found genuinely disturbing. The violence was less cartoonlike than his other films. Still enjoyed he film, but it wasn;'t a comfortable one to watch.

[quote=Shawnee123;622344]Apparently, netflix didn't have any more copies of Paranormal Activity so they sent the next in line. I would have rather waited until Saturday and received PA...I'm really excited about the scary movie.

I just bought Paranormal Activity because everyone I've talked to has said it was an awesome movie! I plan on watching it on my next night off work.

House and CSI writers were sucking after the 9th year or however many years for burn -out to occur.

House is at season 6. I still love it:)

[quote=DanaC;622013]I loved Pulp Fiction. Mind you, I was tripping the first time i saw it, so it was very intense :P QUOTE]

I saw Pulp Fiction on a small screen TV on a cargo ship which was making its way through the Chilean archipelago and probably because of the surroundings (airport lounge type scenario on the boat...it was completely clouded and fogged in outside, so we didn't even see much of the islands) don't remember much of it. It hadn't even crossed my mind until now to watch it again in a more cinematic atmosphere.

My 18 year old nephew warned: do NOT watch it alone! HA! I'll show him! (And I'm already a bit scared. Let me know what you think and I'll do the same. :)

Public Enemies was pretty good. The acting, of course, was wonderful. Oh Johnny...

His woman in the film is French on one side and Native American on the other...like me though I'm much more distilled than one would have been in the 30s, I've got all kinds of other stuff in there. ;)

I've probably said this before, but I can't watch Hugh Laurie not being English so have only got through about 3 episodes of House. I am currently completely addicted to Scrubs though and love Dr Cox's character (the rest are great as well, but Dr Cox is the most cartoonish).

I think Pulp gets better the more you watch it. You start to see the order of things, since the story is told out of order. I like to watch any movie I like more than once, to catch things I missed before, but Pulp Fiction is the granddaddy of rewatchable, in my opinion.

Cool. I'll give it a go in a couple of months.

I hated his accent the first few times I saw it. I thought it sounded dead false. Then some Americans told me they thought he was American, so I guess it was more about expectations of Hugh laurie than any real understanding of the accent on my part.

It's taken a few years for House to really break over here. He is such a household name in Britain, that people were not ready to accept him as an American at all.


@ Shaw: I'd agree with that.

I never really knew much about Hugh Laurie before House, so the american accent seems normal to me.

And I LOVE House. He is awesome, the show is awesome.

@ casi: I've always like Scrubs, too. Funny show. I think my favorite is Turk.

As an actor/person I think Hugh Laurie is great.

I didn't know he was from Oxford nor that he attended Cambridge and Eton so I didn't notice any accent at all.

Over here he isn't just well-known, he's a 'national treasure' along with his comedy partner and best friend Stephen Fry. Both are known as quintessentially English, in a rather old-fashioned sort of a way. So hearing him with an American accent was something of a shock :P

What I was going to say and didn't was that now knowing I did recognize a bit of polish and that probably comes from his education.

I'll have to look up 'Fry and Laurie'. :)

There are some great quotes at imdb.com

Watched "Up" night before last. I thought it was wonderful. Also caught "Sunshine Cleaning" for the first time. Well played movie, but had the typical handmade, choppy feel of a lot of indie films.

I just saw Sunshine Cleaning, finished about half an hour ago. I loved it, but I love indie films. The acting was super, Amy Adams, Alan Arkin, Emily Blunt, and another chameleon, Clifton Collins Jr.

I love the real-lifeness of indies, the grittiness, the rawness.

Ew, Pulp Fiction was the only movie ever that I could not watch the whole thing. Fortunately we rented it, so I just went elsewhere while DH watched. I guess I could give it another try, but there are so many other good movies to watch, I probably won't.

I also love House, though it seems really repetitive in theme and structure and gets on my nerves. Yeah, he's a damaged, Byronic asshole, but really smart. I get it.

I'd already been introduced to Laurie as "American" in the Stuart Little movies so it wasn't a leap, but yes, I did know he was English and had quite an illustrious career as such. Actually his "American" accent grates on me because I find it really nasal, but that's probably just me.

I've been on a 19th century period piece kick. Watched Middlemarch, Lost in Austen, Under the Greenwood Tree, Vanity Fair.

Heh. Selene is so funny about certain things, and Pulp Fiction is one of them. When we first got together, she would tell me again and again that I needed to see this film, because it was so great...although she would never watch it again because it was so disturbing. She was right - one of the best films evah.

I find it slightly bizarre that, despite the fact that "House" is the same story over and over and over, I am addicted to it. I may figure out why someday, but until then, I'm just going to enjoy it.

Pulp Fiction is the only movie I ever, out of the blue, got a craving for.

House is addictive because of the backstory' also because he is an 'archetype'. he's based very much on Sherlock Holmes. Now, I adore Sherlock Holmes, but his stories are just as formulaic as those of House.

You didn't figure that out while you were watching Reservoir Dogs? Like in the first 15 minutes?

Saw Paranormal Activity - wasnt impressed at all. Saw Public Enemies - it entertained. Saw Sherlock Holmes - what a blast! Downey Jr. and Law were fantastic. Just got home from watching Avatar and my eyes are a still a bit swollen from crying. Must be hormones. It was a great film.