May: Have we had a movie thread lately?

[Gilgamesh37]

I don't remember seeing a movie thread recently---and I'm chomping at the bit, because we finally joined Netflix and I am just LOVING it! I was one of those people who kept thinking Oh, what's the big deal? I just swing by Blockbuster when I want something, how different could it be? but I'm a total convert now. And it means that DBF can add his wants when he thinks of them, so I'm not standing in the video store trying to guess at what he *might* be interested in.

Anyway, sorry. Rave mode off. :p

I, Robot - we liked this, maybe because we went in with low expectations because the reviews were so stinky. Will Smith is terribly likeable, not a riveting mystery, but an enjoyable couple of hours.

Alfie - ugh. You know it's bad when 2 hours of staring at The Glory That Is Jude Law is still depressing. I felt blue for days.

I {heart} Huckabees - we didn't even make it through this one. 30 minutes in, DBF turned to me and said "Can we turn it off now?" I would have bailed even earlier, but it was one of his choices. Strident characters in whom I had no interest or empathy. Even The Glory That Is Jude.

Amadeus - an oldie I had never seen. Wonderful (albeit long). Everything else sort of suffered by comparison.

Sideways - I know everyone raved about this, but we didn't really like it--I watched most of it alone because DBF bailed about 35 mins in. The characters weren't likeable---Thomas Haden Church's character was downright reprehensible. Yes, the acting (esp Paul Giamotti) was excellent, and I was thrilled to see Virginia Madsen again, but mostly.....eh.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - this was the surprise winner from our recent batch. Yes, Jim Carrey chews on the scenery (but since he's playing an overblown actor in the film, it actually serves the plot). The child actors are wonderful and the story is unusual and enaging. And visually, this is just stunning--one I suspect we'll buy soon. Highly recommended.

Okay, so I've run on at the mouth. Anyone else? :D

[mbrogier]

After the Sunset I thought this was really good. Salma Hayek's character actually has a brain, is treated with respect, and isn't flashing her boobs every 15 seconds. (did she get a reduction?) Woody Harrison is really funny. Pierce Brosnan. Do I need to say anything else? You must watch the alternate ending. I don't know why they switched it, it was so much better.

Troy Seriously. I think Brad Pitt is a good guy to look at, but even 2 hours of ogling is not enough to hold one's interest. This movie does not have a plot. Unless you love those computer games where you fight large scale battles, OR you love Brad Pitt more than life itself, you might not enjoy this that much.

The Incredibles Rent this even if you don't have kids. This is one of the funniest movies I've seen. My husband was laughing out loud, and he thinks the only funny cartoons are Shrek.

Spanglish Eh. They could have really gone somewhere with this movie. It was building up to a great ending, but evidently the writers were fired two weeks before the screenplay was finished or something. I liked the way they dealth with the poor girl with body issues, but the rest of the movie...let's just say it doesn't end well.

I really need to get NetFlix. I've been using Blockbuster Gift Certificates. I'm trying to talk my husband into NetFlix, but he thinks it is too expensive, and we wouldn't use it enough.

[blazedog]

They don't make them like they used to -- get out the hankies :D

Now Voyager
Dark Victory
Old Acquantance
Mildred Pierce

[masimmons]

Alfie - ugh. You know it's bad when 2 hours of staring at The Glory That Is Jude Law is still depressing. OMG - I felt the same way. Its hard to NOT like looking at Jude Law, but this was a depressing movie. The original with Michael Caine was too.
Blazedog- I LOVE those movies (haven't seen Old Acquantance though.)
I got Phantom of the Opera for Mother's Day. I know many people didn't like the movie, but I did and am looking forward to watching it again.

[brykate]

How unfortunate to not like Phantom of the Opera :( But I'm a huge fan from the beginning and loved all the little extra "stuff" they put into the story. Loved the movie and hope to own it soon too.

We just watched Alfie this weekend. I agree on the depressing ending - but thought it was appropriate too.

[rosie_one]

We recently signed up for Blockbuster's online service thing. We are splitting the membership with my brother (who lives a few blocks away) and sharing the discs, so far it's fun. But I'm only a few weeks into it. Here were our first flicks.

Shark Tale was fun, light, kind of a werid plot. My kids thought it was just o.k. DH and I enjoyed it, though not as much as Shrek or the Incredibles. A lot of the humor went right over my kids' heads. Not lewd or anything, just a lot of retro references they don't remember. I like the soundtrack. We purchased it and it's fun for the car.

Spongebob Squarepants Movie Yah, well, it was 2 hours of Spongebob and pretty much that says it all. Kids loved it, I thought it was endurable. Not one I want to watch again though.

Pirates of the Carribean This was a hoot and visually cool. Hardly intellectual or even plausable, but so what; it's got some good bodice ripper style (literally even) fantasy. Johnny Depp is great as a "psychologically challenged" pirate with a twisted honest streak. It's a good fast moving rental for one of those nights when you need a little escapism.

Next up is Garden State.

[Kathy B]

We mostly seem to watch kid movies, and we also really liked Pirates of the Carribean and The Incredibles . One other that we enjoyed even though it was somewhat predictable was National Treasure with Nicholas Cage. DH and I liked it as much as the kids did.

[mbrogier]

I just watched Phantom of the Opera. It was really pretty good. I just couldn't conceive of it being as good as the stage productions. It was worth watching.

I now have National Treasure. The Blockbuster guy talked me into it. I hope it is decent. The guy said it was pretty good if you didn't expect too much. People were expecting a lot out of this??

[CompassRose]

The Incredibles is my new favourite movie. I just bought it, cos I watch it over and over... :o

I was terribly disappointed in National Treasure -- didn't even make it through. I rented it cos Columbine, an online writer whose opinion I respect, said that he enjoyed it because of the "history geek hero" character played by Nicholas Cage. Blah. It drove me nuts. Particularly the "romantic" interest. Blonde is not enough -- whoever she was, she's not even really pretty, and the character was so obnoxiously idiotic I couldn't stand to listen to the lines.

[Kathy B]

Originally posted by mbrogier
I now have National Treasure. The Blockbuster guy talked me into it. I hope it is decent. The guy said it was pretty good if you didn't expect too much. People were expecting a lot out of this??

I think WHAT you expect will make a difference in how you like it. From a critical standpoint, it didn't have much going for it, but I think you could tell that from the previews. We liked it because it was fun, kept us interested, and it was OK FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY! Hard to find that in a movie anymore!

It may be a little misleading in that the previews don't necessarily give you the idea that it is a family movie. I think it is actually a DISNEY movie, although I'm not 100% sure that is correct.

[erin elizabeth]

Fever Pitch with Drew Berrymore and Jimmy Falon should be out on DVD soon since it was in and out of the theaters here so quickly. I actually liked this one out of all the romantic comedies that my mom has dragged me to lately--it was funny and cute.

Anyone seen Millions? I heard good reviews on NPR and somewhere else and have been meaning to try and find it here.

[gertdog]

We watched two this weekend:

American Splendor, which we really enjoyed. I liked the quirky format, the oddball characters, and the story. Paul Giamatti is great.

Napoleon Dynamite- I'd seen raves about this one on the BB, which is how it ended up at the top of my Netflix queue. DH and I both thought it was fun to watch, but only okay overall- there were several laugh out loud moments, but many others where we just thought "huh?"

[HUNGRY!]

Erin Elizabeth, Fever Pitch is still in the theatres by my parent's house right outside of Boston so maybe it depends on where you live :D I loved that movie, although I thought the story was predictable- I just love Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore and the Red Sox though so it had a lot in it for me. We went on sneak preview night (in Northern Virginia) and it was funny because a lot of people showed up in their Sox gear.

DH made us rent The Ring the other night becuase we found what might be a well in the back yard. I thought the movie was terrible, and a waste of plastic (or whatever they make DVD's out of).

I have Lost in Translation at home now and I am looking forward to it.

I changed my NetFlix subscription to 1 movie at a time for $9.99 a month because I just don't watch that much TV in the summer.

[Escher]

It was "adult night" in the Escher household this weekend.

So we rented "Saving Ryan's Privates".

A good time was had by all.

[Schmee]

Originally posted by Gilgamesh37 I {heart} Huckabees - we didn't even make it through this one. 30 minutes in, DBF turned to me and said "Can we turn it off now?" I would have bailed even earlier, but it was one of his choices. Strident characters in whom I had no interest or empathy. Even The Glory That Is Jude.
Sideways - I know everyone raved about this, but we didn't really like it--I watched most of it alone because DBF bailed about 35 mins in. The characters weren't likeable---Thomas Haden Church's character was downright reprehensible. Yes, the acting (esp Paul Giamotti) was excellent, and I was thrilled to see Virginia Madsen again, but mostly.....eh.
I'm with you on both of these. I think we lasted a little bit longer with Huckabees but we were both falling asleep and DH finally got up and turned it off. Those are the only ones we have seen lately.

[Alethea]

We're not big on movie theater goers, but this weeked DF and I caught The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill and I'm so glad we did. This has to be one of the best films that I've seen in a long time. It's a documentary about a homeless man who cares for a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco. It's an amazingly beautiful, touching story.

We netflicked Sideways, so that's next.

[PAMMELA]

Originally posted by Escher
It was "adult night" in the Escher household this weekend.

So we rented "Saving Ryan's Privates".

A good time was had by all.


*snort* I'm sorry, I found this tickled my funny bone.

[Laurielee]

I recently signed up for the Blockuster, rent all you want for $15 a month since there are so many I have been wanting to see.


Sideways,Thought it was good, but not like everyone raved about and found it pretty depressing, DH fell asleep

oceans 12, horrible, didnt finish watching
spanglish was good but expected more of the ending
flight of the falcon, just love dennis quaid, but this was so-so
incredibles - DH and I are probably the only two that didnt think much of it, loved finding nemo so much more

the notebook, I loved this movie, I hadnt heard of it, and blockbuster said you have to se it.


troy,
" think Brad Pitt is a good guy to look at, but even 2 hours of ogling is not enough to hold one's interest. This movie does not have a plot." I felt the same way, Eric Bana was soo much better,

And blazedog mentioned mildred pirce, had never seen it and it was on TCM yesterday, great movie


Laurie

[greysangel]

Amadeus is my all time favorite movie...I love it and can (and have!) watched it several times.

We recently finished watching season 3 of The Shield...love this show. It's very gritty and tough, but I love Michael Chiklis and we just love getting caught up on all the development the characters have gone through from one season to another.

The Incredibles- cute, funny..love the costume designer :D

The Gift - eh..not so much.

Next up is whatever season of 24...I think we're up to season 4?

j

[MISSINDI]

Gilgamesh, I totally get your enthusiasm with Netflix. I do the Blockbuster Online one (similar set-up to Netflix) and love, love, love it.

That said, I also agree with your review on I {heart} Huckabees. Unfortunately, we saw it in the theater. That's only the second movie we ever walked out on. Horrible stuff.

I saw Phone Booth this weekend, with Colin Farrell. It was ok during it, but when it was done, I found myself saying, "That's it?" Wouldn't recommend.

[Gilgamesh37]

Originally posted by MISSINDI
That said, I also agree with your review on I {heart} Huckabees. Unfortunately, we saw it in the theater. That's only the second movie we ever walked out on. Horrible stuff.



And yet, I know at least two people who loved it. One of DBF's best friends raved about it. He saw it in the theatre. Twice. Geez, and I felt gyped because I paid $4 at Blockbuster.....

Mbrogier, one thing I've found with Netflix is that since we pay a flat rate per month, I'm renting all kinds of things that I would never think to rent if I were "paying" for them individually. In some sense, in my head they're somehow free, since it doesn't matter how many I rent in a month, you know? And it's been SO nice, when we're sitting around talking and DBF will say "Ohh, I'd like to see X" that I can just log on and add it to my queue right when I'm thinking about it. And if TV stinks, we always have 3 movies in hte house to choose from, that at least one of us is interested in seeing. Everyone seems to talk about how convenient it is to have stuff mailed right to your home, but that's really been the smallest factor for me in terms of why I like Netflix.

[Laurielee]

what also sounds good about netflix, you can get top movies no problem right? What I dont like about blockbuster, their new releases are never in, I may check it out

Laurie

[mbrogier]

See, my husband was a very sheltered child. There are a ton of movies he's never seen. So, the rest of the room can be dying laughing because of a crack on popular culture in a movie, and he's off in left field somewhere. I feel it is my goal to give him the childhood he never had. I figure it would be cheaper not to have to do it at $3.99 a pop.
:D Netflix has a ton of things I'd love to see.

The Parrots of Telegraph Hill sounds really good. I'll have to look for that one.

[Meganator]

what also sounds good about netflix, you can get top movies no problem right? What I dont like about blockbuster, their new releases are never in, I may check it out

What we do is this: when a movie we are interested in comes out at the theater, we add it to our netflix queue right away. Then, when it comes out on DVD, we get it that day or shortly thereafter.

Also, there are way more indie/foreign/obscure movies available through netflix than you would ever know about if you just went to Blockbuster (although I'm not sure about Blockbuster online). We have seen dozens of movies that we really liked, but that no one else we know has ever heard of!

Most recently we have seen:
The Incredibles - really good
Meet the Fockers - We saw this against our better judgement. We loved Meet the Parents, but this one was garbage.
Closer - Hated it - no sympathetic characters, which kills a movie for me.
Sideways - Eh.
Ocean's Twelve - Fun - loads of holes in the plot, but that's not really why I was watching it anyway.
Hotel Rwanda - Really good, really disturbing.
Spanglish - Eh. Almost turned it off after the first half hour because the Tea Leoni character was so annoying. As occasionally happens with Netflix, our DVD was messed up for the whole last half hour. It came back on for about the last 3 minutes; we decided we hadn't missed much.

Currently in house are Finding Neverland, Criminal , and Finding Neverland.

[Meganator]

No, not two copies of Finding Neverland...one is actually House of Flying Daggers !

[Kay Henderson]

Very interesting thread.

For people interested in Phantom, I started a thread on this a while back:

http://community.cookinglight.com/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=693973&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

I agree with true fans that it was very much worth seeing for the extra material.

Kay

[CompassRose]

Originally posted by Meganator
No, not two copies of Finding Neverland...one is actually House of Flying Daggers !
Oo. I forgot about that, because I hated it with such a passion.

Very, very pretty, yes, both the people and the scenery. But deeply obnoxious in the plot department.

[Kathy B]

Originally posted by Meganator


Meet the Fockers - We saw this against our better judgement. We loved Meet the Parents, but this one was garbage.


I didn't even think Meet the Parents was that great, and I agree that the sequel was absolute garbage. I had given it the benefit of the doubt, because it had DeNiro, Streisand and Hoffman in it. I couldn't believe how bad it was, nor that those actors would be associated with such a movie. Certainly lowered my opinion of them all. :(

[KristiB]

I went to see Crash last night.

I liked it but didn't love it.

Semi-spoilers ahead but I'll be very vague.

This is one of the few times I wished a movie was longer.

There wasn't enough character development except for Don Cheadle and Sandra Bullock since she started to become aware of her mindset at the end of the movie.

I don't feel like we got to know the characters well enough to care about them.

Example: the Korean couple. We knew the wife was a b**** and the husband was almost killed and what the check was for but I didn't know enough about them to care or be completely shocked by the twist. Don't get me wrong-what they did was mortifying but what Ludacris did in the end wasn't exactly the right thing either.

And Matt Dillon. What did he get out of that final experience with Thandie Newton. He didn't change-at least not that we could see-he just did his job. I'm not sure what the message was there-that even though he was a dispicable person he'd still do the right thing? Well yeah who wouldn't do what he did. But that doesn't excuse what he did to her in the first place.

I think they could have cut the Korean and the Iranian people out of the movie and tightened it up.

There are also a couple parts that were totally implausible. I won't say what they were but those who have seen it will know.

It was well acted. The most impressive performance was by Ludacris.

I'm also becoming a fan of Terrence Howard. His character in this should get him noticed! And I cannot wait to see him in Hustle and Flow.

Tony Danza-didn't recognize him as the chop shop owner but as soon as he started talking....

As far as the message goes I did get that we are ALL racist or at least all have our biases.

Situations can bring out prejudice in people who never thought they were racist. Like Brendan Frasers character.

Racism doesn't have to be a blatant act of hatred but simply a case of making assumptions. I've been guilty of it and I admit it and I'm not proud of it.

I also liked the soundtrack and I desperately want to know who the female who sang the song towards the end was. Loved it! Amazon gives no info since it hasn't been released yet.

[Chefzhat]

Kristi - I want to see Crash too. Next week I've got a movie day planned.

JeAnne - we LOVE The Shield! We were so bummed when this week's installment was bumped by Independence Day. Great, great show.

[gertdog]

We watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on DVD last night. I really enjoyed it. DH... fell asleep for the last 30 minutes, which is not unusual for him, and asked me how it ended. This was one time I felt I couldn't sum it up adequately, so he watched the ending this morning. Thumbs up from both of us. :)

We've got The Incredibles and In Good Company coming from Netflix next.

[beckms]

We've watched a few recently:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--Saw this in the theater and we both loved it. I posted a review here after I saw it. I think it's a love it or hate it kind of movie.

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle--HA! Watched this last night and there were a lot of laugh out loud moments. It's not a movie for people who like to think...it's crass and juvenile and the humor is at a 14-year-old- boy level, but I thought it was hilarious. If you liked Napolean Dynamite, you might also like this (only the humor in this is a LOT less subtle).

Ocean's Twelve--Not as good as the first one, but still fun, and the holes in the plot are worth the eye-candy, IMO.

The Drifters--Eh. Gotta love John Cusack, but the ending left me wanting. It didn't feel finished to me. BF loved it, but JC can do no wrong in his eyes.

Ray--Ok, I GET it! He was a womanizer and he loved his drugs and his music. I think they could have cut about 20 minutes out of the movie and it wouldn't have suffered. I thought Jamie Foxx was very convincing, but other than that I wasn't too impressed.

Home Movies--We watched the first episode of season 1 last night. I was tired, so maybe that's why I din't think it was as funny as I've heard, so we'll give it another shot. Reminds me a lot of the show Dr. Katz.