Resurrecting the Movies thread...

[ednbarby]

Has anyone seen "Marley & Me" yet?  I'm thinking about seeing it on Saturday.

[Front-Ranger]

Exactly. The "framing" seemed necessary, yet--not. Might not have been J. Ormond's fault--maybe the editing or the writing. Also--we know what was really going on in the hospitals in New Orleans during Katrina--yet in this film, it seemed like a heavy rain storm. Major cavil! But I love this film.

We learned through Brokeback Mountain that it is not necessary to reference contemporary events in order to give the flavor of the times. Thus, the Katrina mentioned seemed superfluous. In fact, anything other than Benjamin Button's beautiful face seemed superfluous sometimes to me...except for Tilda Swinson, that is!! Actually, I liked all the actors, Cate, Jared Harris as Captain Mike, etc.

Just joking. She is plain gorgeous. The Russian episode is one of my favorite parts.

Ever since I saw Tilda in Orlando, I've been a big fan. I try to watch Orlando every New Year's!!

[serious crayons]

Those photos make me homesick for N.O. Thanks for posting them, John.

$2.8 million really doesn't seem like a lot for that house. Real estate prices must be pretty low there.

[oilgun]

[...]
Ever since I saw Tilda in Orlando, I've been a big fan. I try to watch Orlando every New Year's!!

I loved ORLANDO and that's when I became a fan of hers as well.  I knew her from the films of Derek Jarman before that, but ORLANDO sealed the deal.  Did you see her in LOVE IS THE DEVIL?  She is unrecognizable as Muriel Belcher, one of Francis Bacon's drinkling buddies.

[ednbarby]

Yeah we saw it.  Go rested, and if you are prone to tears over pet stories, bring a hanky.  Pretty good movie.

Ever since a fairly recent hormonal shift, I'm pretty much prone to tears 24/7.  So I will have some travel Kleenex in my purse.

I'm actually looking forward to Marley making my two new doggies look exceptionally good in comparison!  And to the fact that John Grogan lived in Boca Raton and West Palm Beach when he wrote for the Sun-Sentinel and had Marley, and I understand the movie was filmed mostly in Miami but has a couple of local shots mixed in.  I also understand it takes a couple of pretty good shots at "Boca Bitches" which I look forward to giggling at.  I've not read the book, but I did very much enjoy Grogan's columns about fatherhood and dog ownership in my early years down here.

[HerrKaiser]

No one wanted to see Valkyrie. Poor Tom Cruise, I think his day has passed.

While the film opened with mixed reviews, it came in a surprising 4th place for Christmas weekend box office sales...a very good showing. And Tom Cruise, imo, remains huge box office and has much more left in his stellar career.

I thought Valkyrie was quite good. It was well paced, extremely intense and nerve-racking; in spite of my having read two bios on von Stauffenberg and knew the story quite well, the director had me on edge the full 2 hours.

Casting was overall superb. Cruise looked strikingly similar to von Stauffenberg, and his performance was a B+, imo; he came across very well. His stiffness was completely in character with von Stauffenberg.

Unlike most 'historical' films, it did not suffer the typical Hollywoodization by signifcantly altering historical fact, which was a pleasure. There was some obvious scripting that had to have been infused by the writers' imaginations, but overall, the history was solid.

The two areas that could have been better were the portrayal of Hitler as a munchin like creature, silent and brooding, slow and seemingly 'not all there'. This was inaccurate; while it did not majorly distract from the core film, it would have been better, imo, to portray Hitler as the strong and powerful and intense persona he was, and his being assassinated would have seemed all the more intriguing.

The other part that was under represented was the executions at the end. Hitler and his gang brutally murdered the conspirators and the killings were bloody, torturous and horrendous scenes of mayhem which did not get shown.

[serious crayons]

I was reminded tonight of another movie I really enjoyed in 2008, though I think it was released in 2007: Charlie Wilson's War. I've seen it twice and would love to see it again sometime. I'm baffled that it didn't win any big awards.

[Front-Ranger]

I loved ORLANDO and that's when I became a fan of hers as well.  I knew her from the films of Derek Jarman before that, but ORLANDO sealed the deal.  Did you see her in LOVE IS THE DEVIL?  She is unrecognizable as Muriel Belcher, one of Francis Bacon's drinkling buddies.

Friend, you never cease to amaze me! No, I haven't seen Love is the Devil, but it has zoomed to the top of my must-see list!! Did you think Lord Orlando was credible as a man? I still think you must be some bigwig in the Toronto Film Festival!!

[oilgun]

Friend, you never cease to amaze me! No, I haven't seen Love is the Devil, but it has zoomed to the top of my must-see list!! Did you think Lord Orlando was credible as a man? I still think you must be some bigwig in the Toronto Film Festival!!

   No, I'm afraid not a bigwig in anything, lol!   In fact my attendance at the TIFF has been reduced to seeing just one or two films.  I used to buy the pass and sit through 3 or 4 films a day for 10 days but it became to much after a while.

Anyway, another reason to watch LOVE ISTHE DEVIL:  Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon is Daniel Craig's famous (& lingering) full frontal in the bathtub scene.  He plays George Dyer, Bacon's rough-trade lover.

[Front-Ranger]

Anyway, another reason to watch LOVE ISTHE DEVIL:  Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon is Daniel Craig's famous (& lingering) full frontal in the bathtub scene.  He plays George Dyer, Bacon's rough-trade lover.

To quote Terri Garr: "Woooff!!" I don't think I've seen a full frontal (in the movies  ) since Richard Gere in Breathless! Of course, there was Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights, but that was just too freaky to enjoy!