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queenofdenile wrote:I finally watched Love Actually.

That's it?

I am not a fan of Love Actually either. I liked the stuff with Hugh Grant and the story with Colin Firth but eh, I did not enjoy the movie as a whole.

I think it improves with repeated viewings.

But you'd have to like it enough to repeat a viewing wouldn't you? And weirdly as much as people adore this movie, and talk about how much they adore it, I find I hardly EVER run across it on television, during the holidays or not, it's just never one of those things I stumble on so I've never had the chance for it to "improve". I think I ran across it once when it first hit cable post release, and then pretty much never again. It seems like it would be more ubiquitous given the widespread popularity.

Well it's also not widely regarded as a family film, what with the nudity and the swearing, so it's probably not going to make it on the tv Christmas countdowns as often.

But you'd have to like it enough to repeat a viewing wouldn't you?

Hee, took the words out of my mouth. I didn't dislike it, really, I just felt "meh" about most of the stories.

And this is unrelated to the movie's quality, but as someone who has watched Sense and Sensibility at least ten times, it was effin' weird to see Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant play brother and sister.

I watched Love Actually once and I remember absolutely nothing about it so I guess I'm not a big fan of it either.

A movie I keep going back to on Netflix lately is Hope Floats. I think its probably my favorite Sandra Bullock performance ever, particularly a scene in the middle where she gets drunk. She's really funny in the bar scene and plays drunk really well and then there's a great scene afterward between her and Gena Rowlands where she's doing the post-drunk emotional breakdown and it's very believable.

I love the whole cast of the movie, including the two kids who were both great. I don't remember if that movie was a hit when it came out but I really love it.

The Lincoln Lawyer with Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Phillippe. There was a very good cast in this with Frances Fisher, William H. Macy and Marissa Tomei popping up as well. I thought it was a very solid thriller and it took some interesting turns. I really enjoyed it and I wouldn't mind if they made a few more Mick Haller films.

It was very refreshing to see Matthew McConaughey in a film that wasn't a rom-com.

Oh, I'm not judging any of you who have watched/want to watch What's Your Number. That's next on my viewing list. No judgement zone here.

I feel the same way about Love, Actually. I watched it once a year or two ago and was very underwhelmed. I enjoy several of the actors in it (Firth, Grant, Neeson) but as a whole I just didn't enjoy it. Side note: It took me the entire first season of The Walking Dead to realize Andrew Lincoln is the "to me, you are perfect" guy from Love, Actually.

I agree that Love Actually is a movie that gets better with repeated viewings. I thought it was okay when I first saw it, rewatched with a friend who had rented it, and I finally bought it. I rewatch it once a year, and it always makes me feel happy when I watch it.

And there I was, swimming against the tide in the Christmas movies thread with all my anti-Love Actually sentiments, feeling horribly alone. And here you all are! My people!

For what it's worth, I've watched it multiple times, trying -- and wanting -- to see what everyone else seems to see in this film, and it's just never worked for me, no matter how many times I've seen it.

I hated Love Actually when I first saw it, but I have a lot of close girlfriends who freak out over movies like this, so I remember being forced to watch it against my will one Christmas. It wasn't so bad, and I do agree it gets better with repeated viewings, but I wouldn't watch it alone. It'd have to be with those friends, preferably doing an activity like making gingerbread houses and drinking hot chocolate with Bailey's. The storyline in Wisconsin is still the dumbest fucking thing I've ever seen.

I watched (or rather, rewatched after many years) The Secret of NIMH on Netflix the other day. I still love, love, love this movie. Although it is so much shorter than I remember! Mrs. Frisby will never fail to break my heart. I remember when I was a kid and feeling so scared/so sad that Timmy was sick. Poor little guy! And Justin rocks. Basically, this movie is amazing.

Mrs. Frisby will never fail to break my heart.

All the moreso because in the movie she's Mrs. Brisby. Stupid WHAM-O and their stupid trademark issues.

I give the movie a hard time occasionally because I really don't like Don Bluth's movies overall, but I have to admit that he did a good job with The Secret of NIMH and Small One (back when he was still at Disney).

And Justin rocks.

I had a total crush on him as a kid. OK, I still might.

I wasn't feeling well last night so my husband thought it would fun to rent Contagion. It was fun to watch if you're into apocalyptic-esque movies, but I didn't really care about any of the characters except for Matt Damon's, and I think that was mostly because I really like Matt Damon. I think it says something that I have no idea what most of the main characters' names were.

Also fun to watch if you work in Public Health! I liked it and I don't think I knew most of the characters' names. I think I was thinking of them either by the actor's name or some descriptor (e.g., Jude Law = douchey blogger).

I've had Tree of Life sitting here for nearly a month. I don't know if I'll ever gear up enough to watch it.

I actually went back to SF 3.0 to see if there was a thread about this, but I guess it predates that forum. Nonetheless, the other night I happened to catch The Phantom of the Opera for the first time and. Well. I still like the songs? I thought that they uniformly did not have strong enough voices to be singing them and that Emmy Rossum's eye makeup looked insaaaaane.

Then last night my husband and I watched some of Russell Crowe's Robin Hood. How did they make it SO BORING? Without even a shred of humor? That did lead to an entertaining discussion of how many times we had seen Prince of Thieves and he beat me by far with "at least 15 from start to finish." I mean, I will always watch it if I come across it on tv, but all the way from the beginning is a pretty intense fan.

laddical wrote:

Mrs. Frisby will never fail to break my heart.

All the moreso because in the movie she's Mrs. Brisby. Stupid WHAM-O and their stupid trademark issues.

I give the movie a hard time occasionally because I really don't like Don Bluth's movies overall, but I have to admit that he did a good job with The Secret of NIMH and Small One (back when he was still at Disney).

I loved The Secret of NIMH as a kid, both the book and the movie. I also remember being annoyed that the name was changed; I didn't know it was a trademark issue. I still think of Justin as a noble name partly because of the rat.

My thoughts on Love Actually are as follows. I think of it as a collection of snapshots of people's lives and connections, like a little strip of time lifted out, and I don't think it's meant to be very deep. The part of the movie that never fails to make me cry is the part at the end (and the beginning) where people are greeting each other at Heathrow and hugging, all different kinds of people with all different relationships. I don't know if it's real people or if they're actors, but it's some beautiful little miniature portraits of human connection, and the rest of the movie (as in, the entire movie) works best for me as an extension of that. I like the way the characters and the anonymous people kind of blend together at the end. I don't think any of the individual moments are that profound -- but there's some profundity for me in the very fleetingness of the moments, and how there are a zillion people just at this one airport on this one day, but we stopped for a moment to look at a few of them. The overarching truth is there's not really a big overarching truth, just the truth that there are such a lot of people living out their lives with all their ups and downs and we're all connected in some way.

On the level of the individual stories, mostly what I like about them are (fittingly enough) little moments: when Hugh Grant does the dance; when Colin Firth proposes in his terrible Portuguese; when the friend of the couple shows Keira the signs; when Hugh Grant's driver has the awesome singing voice. And then of course there are the ones that are hard to watch: when Emma Thompson opens her present; when Laura Linney gets cockblocked by her brother's neediness. A lot of the stuff is sitcom-y and a little overly gag-driven (despite my love for Martin Freeman I'm not super fond of the porn-stand-ins story because it's kind of laborious, and the single joke of "American girls like British accents" is not enough to sustain that whole storyline). But the little bits I like add up to something I have an overall fondness for, and I think the movie gets away with a certain amount because of the sort of patina of "humans; amirite?" affection laid over it.

The shots of the people at the airports were real; the camera crew would hang around the terminal and shoot footage of people hugging and then ask them permission to use it in the movie. I get verklempt EVERY TIME at that scene, especially when Hugh Grant starts talking about 9/11.

I know the "Colin goes to America" plotline is lame, but I laugh my ass off every time he's like "I've got my tickets. I'm going to...WISCONSIN!" And when he says American girls will love him because he's just like Prince William, but without the creepy family.

Okay, I do agree that the scenes at the airport are completely lovely and touching. Maybe if the whole movie were that, I'd like it better.

BreezyK wrote:Nonetheless, the other night I happened to catch The Phantom of the Opera for the first time and. Well. I still like the songs? I thought that they uniformly did not have strong enough voices to be singing them and that Emmy Rossum's eye makeup looked insaaaaane.

I don't remember Rossum's eye makeup, but I do recall that, upon watching the movie for the first time and knowing nothing of Gerard Butler, I thought, "WHY would they cast someone as the Phantom, of all characters, who can't even SING?!" I stand by that opinion.

I think Love Actually didn't work for me because the ONLY stories that moved me were the ones that ended on sad or depressing notes. The supposedly uplifting ones didn't uplift me in the slightest; they just made me feel manipulated.

Bill Nighy's story was a delight from beginning to end, though. I won't dispute that.

We watched Cedar Rapids. Mr. Shrew said he appreciated all the Midwestern humor (which I didn't think there was that much of, but at least he enjoyed it, right?). I don't always like these "nice guy whose life goes to hell" kinds of plotlines, but this one resolved itself sweetly, and all the actors were enjoyable.

I rented He's Just Not That Into You and was really surprised to kind of like it. It's not a great movie by any means, but I thought Jennifers Connelly and Aniston were good, and actually found the Ben/Jen storyline moving.

and actually found the Ben/Jen storyline moving.

Weren't they were SO good together?! But then I'm a Jen fan and think she does this kind of thing so well, being down to earth and portraying relationships/romances in all their complicated glory.

I watched In the Loop, brutally profane and funny, Gandolfini killed me at the end. Also, yay, Anna Chlumsky, I hope she keeps working after this!

queenofdenile wrote:I rented He's Just Not That Into You and was really surprised to kind of like it. It's not a great movie by any means, but I thought Jennifers Connelly and Aniston were good, and actually found the Ben/Jen storyline moving.

Totally agree. Ben/Jen is also my favourite storyline, and I think Jennifer Aniston is perfect at those sort of saddish, but not super serious, roles.