The Movie Thread

Paragon

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The Queen

It's the only movie I've seen in a theatre in a year and Helen Mirren can walk on water. She is QEII.

big dirigible said:
I may be the only person on the planet who actually liked the old one.

No you're not the only one. I think it's a wonderful film right up there with its contemporary Valley of the Dolls. Casino Royale knew it was camp. V of the D did not.

That's what makes the latter so infecting.

Both were made in the 60s and the original Casino Royale features a tremendous performance by Sellers and arguably the most beautiful footage of Swiss beauty Ursula Andress on film.
 

Sklar

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QUEEN LATIFA in LAST HOLIDAY

This was so not what I was expecting from a Queen Latifa movie. I mean this in a very good way!

This movie was slow but very, VERY enjoyable.

Quick synopsis: After bopping her head at work, they take her to the work clinic and she has a MRI performed. The machine is faulty so gives her a bad reading which is interpreted by the doctors as her having 3 weeks left to live. You know what's going to happen from here. She starts to live her life the way she always dreams. And the fun begins.

This nice thing about this movie is how it shows how other people view each other, wrongly of course. The only one who is grounded in reality is Queen Latifa's character (naturally). Everyone else is caught up in speculation.

Rent this movie.

It's well worth it!
 

Sklar

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Ratatouille

This is another big score for Pixar. This is a movie, in all honesty, that should be nominated for a best picture award. It's that good. It's right up there with Beauty & The Beast when it comes to story and animation.

The one thing that's a big plus in its favor is that it's original! Any other rat movie shows rats as evil, viscious rodents. This one shows that rats can cook! :smile: With the basic premise being "Anyone Can Cook," the movie goes on to show that anyone CAN cook.

Take one rat with exquisite taste, combine that with a kid who has no taste, throw in a helping of comedy and two helpings of great writing and this is what you have.

It's hard to put down in words what you actually feel when you watch this movie. What reaches out and grabs you about this movie is one simple truth: We are more than what we are. Everyone one of us longs to be something bigger and better than who we are now. We all want to make a difference. Whether it's one rats dream to become more than just theif and to cook or one kids dream to work in a kitchen and learn to cook, we can all empathise with the main characters because deep down, we know exactly how they feel.

Go see this movie.

Then go see it again.
 

Sklar

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TRANSFORMERS

You don't go to a movie based on a kids toy expecting great results. You just don't. You go to the movie for the cool special effects.

I'm pleased to say that I was very pleasantly thrilled by the time I walked out of the movie.

The plot was strong, though there are some plot holes. In the same vein of movies such as Deep Impact, there are 3 different stories running through the movie. Unlike Deep Impact, they pull it off much better here and with a better cast, too.

Plot one starts out with an attack on a military base in Quatar with few survivors. They make their way to a small town where they do battle with a scorpian decepticon. The action is fast, the special effects are top of the line and the humor is good. When the special forces operative has to ask someone for a credit card to make an overseas phone call to the Pentagon while fighting the decepticon it really does make you laugh. Granted, the way I am writing it doesn't do it any justice but the entire audience was laugh out loud the entire time. It's really that good.

Plot two involves an attempt by the decepticons to attack the Pentagon's main frame. Then they succeed by infiltrating Air Force One where a fire fight breaks out in there, too. The people the Pentagon hires here are able to stop the first attack but not the second.

Plot three is the typical romance plot that, again, it suprised me, works. The main character gets the bad girl gone good with a dark past.

All three plot lines come together at Hoover Dam.

Interweaving all through this is the Autobots/Decepticons. My one big criticisim of this movie is that aside from Bublebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron, it's hard to tell one from the other during the fight scenes. And let me tell you, the fight scenes ARE TOTALLY WORTH SEEING THIS MOVIE FOR! The fight where Optimus Prime decapitates a Decepticon makes you sit up and take notice.

As I said before, this is a much better cast than that of Deep Impact but the one character that steals the show is the Secretary of Defense. Talk about your non-typical political appointee. I liked this guy. A lot! Smart, cool, keeps his head in a tight situation and very, very personable.

Go and see this movie with the expectation of having a good time and to forget about life for two hours and thrity some odd minutes.

Solid B+
 

Sklar

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Harry Potter and he Order of the Phoenix

There's a marked difference in this movie as opposed to the others. That being that it is a very dark movie. Both in the storyline (someone dies -this isn't a shocker to anyone who has read the book so I don't consider it a spoiler) and in the visual aspect of the movie.

Visually, everyone is dressed in dark clothes with the lone exception being Delores Umbridge. She dresses in a pink outfit that doesn't match any of the schools uniforms. In my opinion, this is to show the audience that she doesn't fit in to the school at all and furthers help to alienate her from the audience as the mean outsider.

The movie is 2 hours and 18 minutes and still the movie is very, very rushed. I realise that movies made from books are not always as good as the book itself, but in this instance I feel that the director made some glaringly bad choices in what to cut out of the film. When will directors and producers understand that people WILL sit through a 3 hour film (Lord of the Rings all 3 of them and Dances With Wolves) if the movie is worth it.

By cutting down the film to what they did the film is very disjointed and I feel the the director is expecting the audience to fill in the gaps from what they read from the book. As I said, it's a bad decision.

Besides all of that, go and see this movie. It does have a lot of good parts to it. The introduction of Luna Lovegood in this movie is very appealing. The actress who plays her got her down exactly right. Luna's character helps to bring an etherical (that's the only word I can use to describe it) quality to this movie that shines a very nice light in the darkness. The other character that is introduced is the pyschotic cousin to Sirius Black, Bellastrix. She is certainly NOT what I expected from the book, so I was suprised about that. Severus Snape is truely a joy to watch in this movie. The actor who plays him continuously rises in my opinion when I see him in this role.

Some other things worth noting. The kids are growing up. Neville Longbottom now towers over Harry. His character also gets the fill in the gap treatment I mentioned above. Fred, George and Ginny have more active roles in this movie.

The final battle of the movie between Dumbledor and Voldemont is definatly worth waiting for. From previous lack luster magician fights (Gandolf vs Modred from Lord of the Rings and the two female witches from Willow) the director gets this right! This is exactly what you imagine when you picture two powerful mages facing off!

However, even that great fight can not save my rating on this movie. At it's best I'd give it a C+. The movie could have been so much more.

I'm also, on Monday July 16th, start a thread about this movie over in Etc. Etc. To really gripe about what I didn't like about this movie. I'm waiting that long out of respect for the people who havn't seen it yet. So I feel that Monday is fair game as it is the first day after opening weekend.

Everyone have a kick ass day!

Sklar
 

Dave NoCal

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We saw "Short Bus" fairly recently and thought it was well done and interesting. Most notably was the VERY REALISTIC (as in real), sophisticated, a mature ways that it deals with sexuality. Hint: All the actors went and got tested for STDs before rehearsals began.
Dave
 

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Tonight I am watching the 1959 Cannes film festival grand prize winner, "BLack Orpheus" I have always loved this movie. Here is the trailer...

YouTube - "Black Orpheus" Trailer

I also loved the remake Orfeu .Both were set in Rio during the Carnival season. Based on the Greek myth it is a tragic tale of love and revenge.

YouTube - Orfeu-Manha De Carnaval=
 

Sklar

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KUNG FU PANDA

C+


Over all this movie is very dull plot wise. It has a good premise. It has a good story but nothing really happens until the big fight at the end.

It really reminds me of the first Home Alone movie: Really really boring until the final fight scene.

The animation rocks. The fight sequences are totally worth it.

It's just very boring until you get there.
 

Sklar

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OK, so I'm going to try and restart this thread again, as opposed to starting a new one.

Feel free to chime in on any movie you see: What you like about it, what you didn't like and a rating.

THE LORAX

Another hit by Disney on this one.

To be honest, the first ten minutes of this film reminded a bit of Grease II with the opening song and dance. That's right, the Lorax is a musical. And not a bad one at that.

It's based upon the Dr. Suess novel and they really captured the essence of the book in this movie. Look for the Far Right Wingers to shout about how this movie is anti big business and reeks of environmentalism. But, honestly, we can ignore that. That's what they story was about.

Basically, it's a Boy Wants To Impress A Girl theme. The girl wants a tree and there are no trees until Ted (the main character) goes in search of one.

It has an all star cast to it and is really worth it. Lot's of music (some songs are better than the others but all are catchy), lots of humor and lots of excitement.

Children will like it because of all the pretty colors and it's an animation. Adults will like it for it's humor and parody/homages (sp) to other movies, most noteable the Mission Impossible series.

All in all I'd give it a B+

Thanks all,

Sklar
 

nudeyorker

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My favorite current movies are...
The Descendants
The Artist (I saw this a second time on a big screen)
As soon as they are available on DVD I'm going to own them.
 
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Loved Dark Knight Rises.

Just waiting for The Hobbit and Skyfall, now.
 

nudeyorker

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Yesterday on TCM they played Family Plot (1976) ... it's the first time I've ever seen it. (I was really busy in 1976) but I remember it got horrible reviews. I liked it. Anyone else have an opinion? I did not realize until the follow up after the movie that it was Alfred Hitcthcock's last film.
 
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The last movie I saw was a somewhat re-creation of the Dr. Seuss story The Lorax. I thought ultimately it had a good story/meaning behind it.
 

dude_007

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Go see Gravity. Preferably in IMAX.

If that movie doesn't win awards for effects, then I will truly be surprised. I don't even understand the criticism about it being kinda boring. Start to finish, that movie was incredible. Mortality...the insignificance of the drama of our lives...friendship....and loss. My two thumbs are way, waaaaay UP
 
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last movie I watched was The Expendables -- it was okay. Idk why but movies rarely catch my attention at home.