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My mom really wants to see Anna Karenina badly, so good or bad, I suppose I shall fork over my hard-earned dough to see it in the next few days.

Zero Dark Thirty was remarkable. I thought Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke were flat-out brilliant, and I wonder why he's not getting any notice really. Our theater erupted in applause as the credits rolled. And I'm still thinking about it, which for me is a sign of a good film.

Took my nieces to Rise of the Guardians today. The oldest, who is twelve, did not think highly of it. My eight year old niece liked it, but I think the best age for it was probably the five-six year old near me. He was so gleeful the entire movie it was a joy to witness. The mythology of the movie was rather muddled, and I don't really think adults will like it as much as young children will.

That's interesting to hear you say that, bookworm, because when it came time for our pre-Christmas Guide trip to the cinema, Rise of the Guardians was one of the films that was suggested and the girls who had seen it already said that they didn't like it at all and wouldn't recommend it, much less go to see it a second time. They would be about the 11/12 age group.

We ended up going to see Nativity 2, which was a bit ridiculous if you stopped to actually think about the plot and the shenanigans, but David Tennant was his usual very capable self, in a dual role no less, and we all laughed in the right places and enjoyed it.

Not that I'm at all familiar with Nativity 2, but with a title like that I'd expect a good amount of ridiculousness.

Martin Freeman was in the first film and it centers around a school at Christmas and wacky shenanigans ensue. It's a bit of fun, very improbable in places, but still David Tennant makes it work.

QueenSix wrote:That's interesting to hear you say that, bookworm, because when it came time for our pre-Christmas Guide trip to the cinema, Rise of the Guardians was one of the films that was suggested and the girls who had seen it already said that they didn't like it at all and wouldn't recommend it, much less go to see it a second time. They would be about the 11/12 age group.

My oldest niece's complaint was that all the characters (Santa, Jack Frost, etc) where mythical and therefore silly. I could see her point. I would have enjoyed it more if the concept didn't have so many holes in it.

My oldest niece's complaint was that all the characters (Santa, Jack Frost, etc) where mythical and therefore silly.

That sounds like grumping about how awful Star Trek is because everyone knows faster than light travel is impossible. The mythic nature of the characters is the whole point.

That said... it was pretty shoddy world-building overall. Not a movie I could recommend, though I liked the concept well enough.

Lincoln, which I expected to be underwhelming (or rather, overwhelming in a distinctly Spielberg way). I was quite wrong. I really enjoyed the entire thing. Also, Daniel Day-Lewis was amazing. If I didn't know who was playing Lincoln, I wouldn't have known. And I have seen many DDL movies. Has anyone checked to make sure he's not a wizard? I don't know who the other Best Actor nominees will be, but they don't have a chance. Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field were also awesome.

I was, however, a little confused by how verklempt a lady in front of me became at the end. It didn't hit me that hard, emotionally.

Binky wrote: Has anyone checked to make sure he's not a wizard?

I checked.

He is.

I can't be the only person imagining DDL in a wizard's hat, right? In my mind's eye, he looks quite fetching. It actually wouldn't surprise me to see a random pic of him walking around looking like Albus Dumbledore for no reason. He's just that weird.

Still sad he didn't play Greyback in HP 6/7. He would've been ideal if the film had decided to feature that role.

There's a paparazzi photo from around the Gangs of New York era, where DDL was wearing I think a corduroy suit, with like 5 different completely unacceptable fabrics constituting the entire outfit. All that was missing was a wizard hat. So in conclusion: wizard.

I saw Les Mis tonight, and enjoyed it even with boring directing and my brain's insistence on playing the Broadway soundtrack alongside it for comparison (the movie did not win this). I'll repeat my shock from the Les Mis thread on how effectively they fugged up Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman. Him especially as they aged him.

Just saw Jack Reacher (my brother dragged me). It's a shame Tom Cruise is crazy, because that was a damn fine action movie. Like, really really good. I won't say it was a better movie than Skyfall, but I definitely had a better time watching it.

I saw Silver Linings Playbook over the weekend, and it was really, really entertaining. Great acting, fun story, and just excellent all the way around. I can't stand Bradley Cooper, but he and Jennifer Lawrence were amazing and had a lot of chemistry. I highly recommend it!

Also saw Lincoln the week before. And the Academy Award for Best Actor goes to...DDL. Does anyone seriously have a chance against him this year?

We went to see Jack Reacher today and while it was a solid enough film, it wasn't as good as I thought it'd be. It reminded me of The Pelican Brief in places with people doing exposition about conspiracies and when Rosamund Pike first arrived on the scene, I thought she was channelling Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs with the way she was speaking. Her and Cruise didn't have much chemistry, either as comrades fighting the good fight or people who were a bit attracted to one another.

I'm no avid Reacher book fan. I've read a few of them and enjoyed them but while I thought Tom Cruise was competent enough in the role, he just lacked a certain quality that I'd expect to find in a character that is so hardcore and that has this back story that everyone who hears it gapes and wonders at his badassery and his lone wolf-ness. I can buy him no problem as IMF agent Ethan Hunt who kicks the crap out of all and sundry but here he just seemed his usual intense self as opposed to this guy who can scare you with the mention of his name. The film seemed a bit uneven to me.

So I was disappointed but if they made a second film based on one of the books, I'd end up going to see it, let's be honest here.

Not quite playing at the theatre yet, but I got to see an advanced screening of Warm Bodies last night. It was a lot of fun. It's far from a perfect film, specifically in zombie lore. But, it was sweet, and I really liked all of the characters. Nicholas Hoult has gotten very cute as he's grown up, and Teresa Palmer was fantastic. It started off a little slow, but once it got going, it just flew by. It'd be a nice little date movie for the zombie lover in your life.

Is Teresa Palmer the actress who looks like a happier Kstew?

To me she looked a happier Cody Horn. But either way, she's a less miserable version of actresses who typically look glum.

Saw Zero Dark Thirty and I actually sort of thought Chastain was the weakest part of it. I just never fully bought into her as the intelligent, badass agent they kept telling us she was. Everytime she swore to prove how tough she was I kind of winced over how forced it felt. That said, it's really smart and suspenseful and the final raid sequence was awesome. Watching it, I couldn't help but think that Affleck should take some notes on how to build suspense without turning your film into a mass of cliches and melodrama.

Saw Gangster Squad and it was as bad as the promos would have you believe. It had two of movie boyfriends --Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie--and a couple of my tv boyfriends --Giovanni Ribisi and Sullivan Stapleton--and they were all predictably hot in their 1940's get ups. Also predictable was Sean Penn's over-the-top mugging. I generally like Sean Penn Ac-Tor, but unlike everyone else he did nothing to make the material better. And if you're thinking about seeing it for Emma Stone, she's in it for about 5 more minutes than she's shown in the previews, and her entire character was an after-thought.

Two good things it had going for it were Mireille Enos' character who completely subverted the long-suffering wife of a tough-as-nails cop trope and the bits of genuinely funny moments between the squad. Other than that, meh.

See, I thought the Gangster Squad promos were made of meh and I had been excited about it when it was first announced...it seemed like the actors were doing a lot of posing and posturing based on other, better gangster movies. Plus, that the studio released it in January made me think they did not have high hopes for it. I know it was delayed because they had to film scenes again after the Aurora theater tragedy, but in that case the release could have been saved until February or March. Shutter Island was busted awards bait but it was held back until after all the Oscar movies that year had their run, so it had room to break out as a movie to see for adults.

I got to see Silver Linings Playbook this weekend and I really loved it. It was remarkably funny for a movie that's technically about mental illness, and the Philly setting really tickled me as a PA resident. I've watched games from the cheap seats at the Vet and all the references to the rampant fighting are quite realistic.

I would never have thought to pair Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, but they really sold it. Their dancing scenes were absolutely adorable, I could have watched that all day.

As an aside, I spent quite a few minutes trying to place the guy who played Julia Stiles' husband...turns out he's the guy who did a jury duty video that I had to watch last week. Guess he's moved up in the world!

Saw Zero Dark Thirty. As a film, Bigelow did a great job in creating tension in various scenes and the film flowed very well. As a narrative I found it problematic because it seems like Boal and Bigelow bought the kool-aid of the "heroic CIA doing what was needed to keep America safe" rather than exploring the complicated nature of the war on terror and how by using torture Americans lost their moral footing.

I got a very different impression. The end feels like such a hollow and empty victory that I thought a lot of the film WAS critical of the war on terror, and especially torture, considering that

Spoiler:

I felt like we were supposed to empathize with the CIA agents' mission but not their methods.