The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Resurrecting the Movies thread...
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on April 28, 2012, 12:56:58 pm ---I saw Hunger Games before I left for Italy.
I liked the premise (Sorta tone-downed Battle Royale) and the books were extremely popular. I haven't read them yet.
I give it 7 out of 10 in that the premise is good, acting pretty solid by supporting cast, though the main characters aren't given much acting to do as reacting.
I enjoyed it and it was disturbing. I am told the books are even more disturbing.
Sequels are set to start filming this summer.
--- End quote ---
I watched this last night and found it engrossing. Although it seemed like each step in the action was drawn out a little too long. I'm very impressed with Jennifer Lawrence. I hear Josh Harkness, the costar, bought Heath Ledger's "treehouse."
Jeff Wrangler:
On my recent ramble I finally ::) got to see Latter Days.
Kind of interesting to see Joseph Gordon-Levit (I didn't know he was in it) before he started to become such a Big Deal, and also Rob McElhenny, before he "made it" with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (I didn't know he was in it, either).
BTW, it is not always sunny in Philadelphia. ... ;D
delalluvia:
For previous discussions
I will watch a movie that is sad if I find something in it to identify with or find the topic engrossing. Otherwise, it's difficult to sit through. Those that Crayons mentioned along with
Amistad - I had to leave the theater to stop from throwing up. But I did go back in and finish watching it.
Gallipoli - you need a strong drink after this movie
Romeo and Juliet/Hamlet/other tragedies in literature - you know it's going to end badly
Black Hawk Down - sense of futility
Agora - sense of frustration and fear
Schindlers List and Valkyrie - enough said
BBM of course
I really want to go see 12 years a slave when it opens, but I'm afraid it will be this decade's Amistad for me.
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on October 11, 2013, 10:24:31 am ---I watched this last night and found it engrossing. Although it seemed like each step in the action was drawn out a little too long. I'm very impressed with Jennifer Lawrence. I hear Josh Harkness, the costar, bought Heath Ledger's "treehouse."
--- End quote ---
Josh Hutcherson is the co-star, did you mean him?
I am looking forward to the newest one Catching Fire in November, but I know a movie is disturbing to me when I get that sick feeling in my stomach. I got that - and still get it - when I see The Hunger Games and when I think about the next installment, I get that same sense of "I want to see this...but I don't want to see this..."
delalluvia:
Excuse me if I've reviewed this before, I can't remember if I did or not
2011's The Thing 6.99/10 - when people heard that there was going to be a 'remake' of John Carpenter's 1982 movie The Thing, the fans were up in arms. JC's movie is now considered a classic, nearly a perfect movie of its genre.
But the producers pulled a fast one. It's not a remake.
If you know the 1982 story, you know that the movie starts off with a helicopter chasing a dog into the US Antarctic science base. The helicopter pilot and his passenger are armed and acting irrationally. One of the Americans remembers the helicopter having the word "Norge" on the side of it and they realize the helicopter is from the Norwegian science base some miles away. They investigate the base and the story takes off from there.
2011's The Thing is the story of what happened at that Norwegian base. It is not as scary as the first movie - I guess because the surprise factor is gone for those who know the 1982 movie. In a great treat, the actors are mostly all Norwegian. The producers got the OK to cast the creme de la creme of Norwegian film stars and got them.
There are some liberties taken with some things. But for the most part, the extras on the movie talk about how they had to do a lot of 'reverse engineering' using the 1982 movie to show how things ended up as they did and they nail it.
Hint: Stick around for the first part of the credits.
And I've been on a Benedict Cumberbatch kick recently so I've watched the following. I've also recently bought a DVD/blu ray player that plays region 2 movies so be aware two of these are not available in the US:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 8.5/10 - I missed this in theaters when it first came out and finally rented it. Well worth it. I ended up buying the movie. I do like spy movies (they don't all have to be Bond or Bourne) and it got such excellent reviews and I like almost everyone in it. So I picked a cold, rainy night so I could concentrate on the plot because I heard it was tricky. But it turned out to be a fairly straightforward tale, the acting by EVERYone is FAR beyond reproach and it was a lot more emotional than it looks from the trailers. The sexuality of some of the characters, like the morals, is surprisingly fluid in this movie. But John le Carre gave that his blessing as he says that was quite common.
Third Star 7/10 - movie of a man with terminal cancer taking a trip with his close friends to his favorite wilderness beach in Wales. I like it because you rarely get to see a movie about friendships between (straight) men that gets so intimate. They rip each other to shreds emotionally in this movie, are rude, crude and cruel with one another, but also treat one another with great tenderness and love.
Stuart: A life backwards Based on a true story of an author (Benedict's character) who decides to write a biography of a homeless man (Tom Hardy's character) and the odd friendship they develop. I need to watch this again before I give it a rating because it wasn't what I was expecting.
First off - culture shock - what is 'homeless' in the UK is apparently not the same as someone considered homeless in the US. Stuart is considered 'homeless' but he actually does live in government housing and owns a car. In the US, when you're homeless you are truly homeless, you are living under bridges or in dumpsters or in a box in a back alley somewhere and have nothing.
Secondly, Stuart the character is really bad off - he's ill, a heroin addict and an alcoholic, so he mumbles. And it is very very difficult to understand what he is saying, so I was stuck concentrating on understanding his words instead of focusing on what he was actually saying and what it meant, so I played catch up the entire movie, lagging behind in meaning and being divorced from the emotions of the story because I wasn't getting most of Stuart's dialogue.
Tom Hardy is spectacular in this role. I think he either won a BAFTA or was nominated for one and deservedly so, but my goodness, the man can't put two words together in person.
The DVD has extras and interviews with each of the cast and in his interview, Hardy rambles on and on, unable to find the words for what he wants to say. But he does obviously admire Cumberbatch as a person and an actor, he smiles when he says the man's name and is quite prophetic when he says he knows when someone is an Olympic level actor and Benedict is that.
Hardy apparently really took Benedict to heart. They worked together again in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and on the red carpet at that premiere, Hardy gave Cumberbatch a very intimate hug that apparently got awkwardly long:
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on October 12, 2013, 03:18:51 pm ---
--- End quote ---
Heavens to Betsy!! :P
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