Re: Movies at Home

Auroura76 Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:18 pm

Matinee wrote:
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.

They were my favorite part of this movie too! Whodathunk those two would have had chemistry? And I don't even like Jennifer Aniston.

xyzzy Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:46 pm

Decided to watch Contagion--it wasn't bad, as death virus movies go. Not satisfied with a single serving of spreading microscopic doom, I decided to revisit Outbreak, a movie from 1995 that I remember as being pretty good. Yeah, I was apparently an idiot in 1995. After finishing Outbreak, I actually up-rated Contagion from 3 to 4 at Netflix.

laddical Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:06 pm

xyzzy wrote:Decided to watch Contagion--it wasn't bad, as death virus movies go. Not satisfied with a single serving of spreading microscopic doom, I decided to revisit Outbreak, a movie from 1995 that I remember as being pretty good. Yeah, I was apparently an idiot in 1995. After finishing Outbreak, I actually up-rated Contagion from 3 to 4 at Netflix.

The movie was the first time I was really aware of Kevin Spacey, and I still love Rene Russo madly, so the movie gets all kinds of passes from me. But I will never not be amused by the fact that after spending hours (days?) having her interior organs liquefied by this virus that Rene's character made a complete recovery as if nothing had happened.

Also, the fact that their fallback plan after Harrison Ford turned them down was to hire Dustin Hoffman cracks my shit up.

Kiran Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:59 pm

I love Outbreak for how horribly bad it is. Its just hilariously ridonkilous. My favorite part is when Rene and Dustin tenderly caress each others helmets.

sagitare Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:53 pm

Speaking of horribly bad - nay, repellant - I watched Sucker Punch last night. Just as absolutely bad as every review said it was. I remember reading a comment from Snyder saying that he regarded the movie as critical commentary on the stereotype of women being overtly sexualized and objectified in movies where they're rendered powerless. He says: "But my hope was that they would take those things back, just like my girls hopefully get confidence, they get strength through each other, that those become power icons." First off, "my girls"? Yeah, that's part of the problem right there, dude. And second? You haven't made a movie that's a 'critical commentary' on the kind of movie that uses this representation of female characters: you've MADE THAT KIND OF MOVIE, you idiot.

Anyway, I had to wash it out of my brain so I watched A Single Man with Colin Firth and thought it was wonderful. I have to give major props to Tom Ford (of all people!) for his direction. I thought he did terrific work. All the scenes were so well framed and shot.

Kiran Sun Jan 08, 2012 12:05 am

That movie was also lifestyle/clothing porn.

katesti Sun Jan 08, 2012 12:12 am

Sucker Punch was, I think, only the second movie I've turned off in the last decade or so. (The other one was Date Movie.) We didn't make it more than twenty minutes.

punzy Sun Jan 08, 2012 3:28 am

Auroura76 wrote:
Matinee wrote:
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.

They were my favorite part of this movie too! Whodathunk those two would have had chemistry? And I don't even like Jennifer Aniston.

Add me to the chorus, having just those two would have made a nice short film. Alternately, I hated Scarlett Johannsen's character and everything that touched upon her story line.

Gillian Sun Jan 08, 2012 4:02 am

queenofdenile wrote:I rented He's Just Not That Into You . . . and actually found the Ben/Jen storyline moving.

Those two were the only part of that movie I liked at all. I would have much preferred to watch a movie about the two of them than had to have put up with the rest of it. Which strikes me as weird, because I really like Jennifer Aniston and generally like Ben Affleck in movies, but I was really surprised at how much I liked the two of them together. I didn't think they would spark at all, but they were the only ones I cared about.

killershrew Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:16 am

We were on a roll this weekend, because last night we watched The Prestige. I really like Christopher Nolan's other films, and this was no exception. I was really glad that at the end they explained

Spoiler:

naughty zoot Sun Jan 08, 2012 12:05 pm

The Fright Night remake wasn't bad, though I still the original was more fun. I liked Chris Sarandon's cameo, but the best part was David Tennant's Criss-Angel-meets-Russell-Brand character.

sagitare Sun Jan 08, 2012 3:33 pm

Checked out The Adjustment Bureau last night and liked it. I think the sci-fi aspects of the story and the more traditional romance plot didn't quite mesh together, but Matt Damon and Emily Blunt were so very charming together that I was more than willing to overlook it. If the filmmakers had been willing to really commit to the reasoning and implications lurking deeper in the adjustment bureau portion of the story then the movie could have been a really great one. As it is, they seemed to just use a small portion of that to wrap around the romance plot. Still, what was there was, I thought, pretty intriguing, and I liked the guys playing the bureau agents, especially Terrence Stamp and the guy who watched out for Damon's character (Mitchell, I think his name was?) I quite enjoyed the chase at the end, too.

Putli Bai Mon Jan 09, 2012 7:22 pm

I watched Ghost Rider last night, and during the movie, my dvd player stopped working twice in protest. Clearly it's not down my growing appreciation for the Nicholas Cage oeuvre.

RiverThames Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:03 pm

sagitare wrote:Speaking of horribly bad - nay, repellant - I watched Sucker Punch last night. Just as absolutely bad as every review said it was. I remember reading a comment from Snyder saying that he regarded the movie as critical commentary on the stereotype of women being overtly sexualized and objectified in movies where they're rendered powerless. He says: "But my hope was that they would take those things back, just like my girls hopefully get confidence, they get strength through each other, that those become power icons." First off, "my girls"? Yeah, that's part of the problem right there, dude. And second? You haven't made a movie that's a 'critical commentary' on the kind of movie that uses this representation of female characters: you've MADE THAT KIND OF MOVIE, you idiot.

I hate to defend Sucker Punch too much, but there's somewhere where I feel it's more of a "reach extended further than his grasp". I can see how he was trying to make the kind of movie he's talking about, and and yet failing. On some level, if he had just made the movie about what had actually happened in the sanitarium, instead of the layer of bordello fantasy followed by layer of combat fantasy, then in might have succeeded. Or even including the layers of fantasy, but making the connections and stakes clearer. And, most of all, putting Emily Browning in a different outfit. (Because hers was the most egregious.) But, at the same time, I can see that Emily Browning in that outfit was how he got the studio to fund such a crazy venture in the first place.

It's a failure, and I'm not saying otherwise, but it's at least a failure in trying something outlandish and failing spectacularly. I'll take that over milquetoast failure of not trying any day.

swsa Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:16 pm

I thought it absolutely was milquetoast though. As far as an action/fantasy film, it was just straight up boring. Repetitive and lifeless. Had he made an interesting failure, it might've held my attention. But I didn't think there was anything challenging or controversial in the material. Just pointless action scenes with no internal logic and a bunch of hot chicks dressed in psuedo fetish gear.

Red Wolf Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:27 pm

I haven't seen Sucker Punch, but I do like Genevieve Valentine's essay about it.

Seriously, if you want to do a movie about girls in fetishistic outfits fightning ninjas and monsters, do that movie. Don't try to give it that serious window dressing. It's very much 'trying to have your cake and eat it too'.

themis Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:37 pm

I didn't mind Sucker Punch. Here's how I explain it: I have to be smart all day at work, sometimes I come home and stupid is just fine by me. I don't always read litrachur; in fact, when I'm on a beach, I would rather have Stephen King or Jacqueline Carey. Sometimes, brainless and visually striking is all my tired noggin is up for. So I guess I could deeply analyze the failure of the feminist message to transcend the . . . zzzzzzz. I wished it had been better, but hey, I liked the soundtrack.

I wasn't all that invested in its success, though. I was on the fighting ninjas and outifts level, like Red Wolf says.

Auroura76 Tue Jan 10, 2012 12:49 am

killershrew wrote:We were on a roll this weekend, because last night we watched The Prestige. I really like Christopher Nolan's other films, and this was no exception. I was really glad that at the end they explained
Spoiler:

Did they, though? Wasn't there some big discussion about how we, the audience, is hoodwinked by the whole story? It's been a while since I've seen it, so forgive me, but I remember reading a really interesting post somewhere that posited the entire movie was a "prestige" on us. I'll see if I can find it.

Either way, awesome movie.

A bunch of Bollywood movies got added to Netflix over the weekend, and my friends list promptly went nuts. Hee! There are some good ones there. I think Jodhaa Akbar has been there for a while; I really do want to give it a try, but it was so sloooooooooow the last time I tried. Most Bollywood films need vicious editors to cut the repetitiveness down. That being said, that movie looks stunning; they even used scenes from it in the Maharaja exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Kiran Tue Jan 10, 2012 12:54 am

It was indeed stunning, but I saw it in the theaters and I swear to God I fell asleep and woke up and it was the same damn scene. Hrithik and Ash are super pretty together though and its always nice to have a more historical Bollywood movie.

Did they, though? Wasn't there some big discussion about how we, the audience, is hoodwinked by the whole story? It's been a while since I've seen it, so forgive me, but I remember reading a really interesting post somewhere that posited the entire movie was a "prestige" on us. I'll see if I can find it.

Spoiler:

Snarryfan Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:44 pm

Showtime had a free preview this weekend and I finally saw The Road. I consider myself a smart person with a deep appreciation for many types of films and the themes contained within so I ask this humbly: can someone tell me what the hell that movie was about? It was like if Ingmar Bergman had taken too many xanax and then decided to film Ohio in winter--in other words, muddy and slow.

Kiran Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:19 pm

It was a very faithful adaptation of that book. Which seems to be an either love it or hate it book.

laurelin_kit Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:27 pm

Auroura76 wrote:
killershrew wrote:We were on a roll this weekend, because last night we watched The Prestige. I really like Christopher Nolan's other films, and this was no exception. I was really glad that at the end they explained
Spoiler:

Did they, though? Wasn't there some big discussion about how we, the audience, is hoodwinked by the whole story? It's been a while since I've seen it, so forgive me, but I remember reading a really interesting post somewhere that posited the entire movie was a "prestige" on us. I'll see if I can find it.

Spoiler:

Menshevixen Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:13 pm

Currently watching Steel Magnolias. I don't know, I just really felt like crying today!

sagitare Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:30 pm

Menshevixen wrote:Currently watching Steel Magnolias. I don't know, I just really felt like crying today!

You've certainly picked the right movie for it, then!

mokey75 Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:06 pm

I am a terrible person, because I laugh SO HARD at that scene in the salon where Julia Roberts has the fit. "Drink your juice, Shelby" never fails to give me the giggles.

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