Resurrecting the Movies thread...

[oilgun]

So, what should I go and watch tomorrow?  ZOMBIELAND or CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY.  It's a tough one.

[southendmd]

So, what should I go and watch tomorrow?  ZOMBIELAND or CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY.  It's a tough one.

I haven't yet seen either, but I say, go for Michael Moore!  He's more voracious than any zombie.

[delalluvia]

Where the Wild Things Are

6/10

Great acting, production values, but plot lacks a point.  Movie is 1.5 hours long but feels like a solid 2 hours.

[delalluvia]

Men who stare at goats

6.5 out of 10

Silly and enjoyable (I certainly didn't mind staring at my man Ewan McGregor for two hours  ) some minor political points made, but the story just meandered and didn't know quite what it wanted to be - a political allegory told through the character study of one man, a black comedy on the absurdities governments go through in wartime, a tale of the dichotomy between Dark and Light forces and how they reflect on the individual and on the whole, etc., etc.,

The movie didn't ever come to a climax because it didn't know what it was trying to say.

[serious crayons]

I'm glad you resurrected "Resurrecting the Movies thread," Del, because I've seen a bunch of movies on DVD lately and have been meaning to post here about them.

Taking of Pelham 123 -- Pretty typical thriller, mildly entertaining but nothing to write home about. It made me want to see the one from the '70s, which is supposed to be more interesting.

Adventureland -- I really liked this. I had heard it wasn't a typical teen comedy, and it wasn't -- it's much more intelligent and subtle.

The Lookout -- Excellent! A bit like Memento, one of my favorite movies ever, in that it helps you understand how brain damage would make one vulnerable to being messed with by others. Beautifully filmed, and not nearly as bleak as I'd feared it would be. In fact, there's one really funny line. JGL's performance is very good.

The Proposal -- Typical rom-com, but cute and actually funny at times. I used to be pretty meh about Ryan Reynolds, but I liked him in this (and in Adventureland, above). And I always like Sandra Bullock, even though her movies are almost always bad.

Out of Sight -- Just saw it last night and liked it a lot. George Clooney is charming as always, and Jennifer Lopez makes you wish she'd have stayed like this instead of turning into JLo. Good chemistry between them. Somehow I didn't realize until the end that Steven Soderbergh had directed, which makes sense.

[serious crayons]

The PC-correct it's OK to boo hiss pro-apartheid white people so it was set in South Africa, was a move so heavy handed it was laughable,

I think the main reason it was set in South Africa is that the director is South African.

Where the Wild Things Are

6/10

Great acting, production values, but plot lacks a point.  Movie is 1.5 hours long but feels like a solid 2 hours.

I can't say the plot is gripping, but it does have a point. The wild things -- their personalities and the relationships between them and with the kid -- represent the emotions the kid is struggling with as he grows up. Same as in the book, only the movie takes the concept much further. I went with a friend who really wanted to see it and I didn't expect to like it. The friend wasn't all that impressed, and I wound up finding it interesting.

[Ellemeno]

I'm glad you resurrected "Resurrecting the Movies thread," Del, because I've seen a bunch of movies on DVD lately and have been meaning to post here about them.

I was just thinking this thread is pretty well-titled.

Taking of Pelham 123 -- Pretty typical thriller, mildly entertaining but nothing to write home about. It made me want to see the one from the '70s, which is supposed to be more interesting.

I saw it as a New York City subway-riding kid when it came out, and it was terrifying to me.  Robert Shaw is always so sinister - in that, and Jaws, and The Sting.

The Lookout -- Excellent! A bit like Memento, one of my favorite movies ever, in that it helps you understand how brain damage would make one vulnerable to being messed with by others. Beautifully filmed, and not nearly as bleak as I'd feared it would be. In fact, there's one really funny line. JGL's performance is very good.

I had never seen or heard of Isla Fisher before seeing The Lookout, but ever since, I dislike her and her characters with an unreasonable ferocity, for duping and endangering the sweet and lovely JGL character in The Lookout.  It's hard to picture my hard feelings toward her changing.  Of all the reasons people have of being turned off by Sasha Baron Cohen, my reason is because he's married to Isla Fisher.  It's even made me like the likable Amy Adams less, since they remind me of each other.  I was watching an old The Office a couple of days ago, and Amy Adams had a short stint on it, and I noticed I feel completely different toward that episode now.  Maybe also because I now know that Pam and Jim get married, so Amy Adams feels more like an interloper than a plot-delayer now. 

[delalluvia]

I think the main reason it was set in South Africa is that the director is South African.

I thought the director was from New Zealand?

I can't say the plot is gripping, but it does have a point. The wild things -- their personalities and the relationships between them and with the kid -- represent the emotions the kid is struggling with as he grows up.

OK, I understand this, but this is a big, Yeah, So?  Anyone above the age of the character knows this.  We didn't need a movie to tell us this.  So what an audience might have expected to see was how the kid handled these emotions, calmed and controlled them and gained some sense of himself in the doing of it - IOW a coming of age story.  So what did the kid do with these emotions?  As far as I can tell from the movie, he did nothing.  Just experienced them, the monsters had no resolution and then he went home where there was no resolution there either.

[serious crayons]

I had never seen or heard of Isla Fisher before seeing The Lookout, but ever since, I dislike her and her characters with an unreasonable ferocity, for duping and endangering the sweet and lovely JGL character in The Lookout.  It's hard to picture my hard feelings toward her changing.  Of all the reasons people have of being turned off by Sasha Baron Cohen, my reason is because he's married to Isla Fisher.  It's even made me like the likable Amy Adams less, since they remind me of each other.  I was watching an old The Office a couple of days ago, and Amy Adams had a short stint on it, and I noticed I feel completely different toward that episode now.  Maybe also because I now know that Pam and Jim get married, so Amy Adams feels more like an interloper than a plot-delayer now.

Wow, that's some serious Isla Fisher dislike -- that it even spreads to innocent bystanders whose only crime is physical resemblance!  

The first thing I ever saw her in was The Wedding Crashers, but she didn't make a huge impression on me then. The next thing was Definitely Maybe, in which I liked her a lot. And then there was Confessions of a Shopaholic, which was not a good movie but she was OK in it. So my feelings toward her were vaguely positive before she duped and endangered JGL.

I'm the other way around with SBC and IF -- I hold him against her, rather than her against him. She reminds me of Amy Adams, too. They seem like sisters, the way that JGL and Heath seem like brothers. If anything, I probably like IF more because of her resemblance to AA, whom I found so enchanting in Enchanted.

[Ellemeno]

I agree that she and Amy Adams remind me of each other. They seem like sisters, the way that JGL and Heath seem like brothers.

There's a movie that will never happen.