Movies at Home

I found The Eagle to be a pleasant surprise, as well. It's a time period I've read plenty of books about, but haven't seen portrayed with any attempt at accuracy before. The villa and all of the landscapes were gorgeous. Jamie Bell was great as a very conflicted Esca. I appreciated seeing how very foreign and incomprehensible the indigenous peoples of Scotland would be to a Roman.

I brought Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy home from the library, and this is probably a really unpopular opinion, but I could barely stay awake watching it. I made it through maybe a half-hour, and then had to quit, because I couldn't take it anymore. It's just so quiet and slow, and kind of confusing, like, "Huh? Who the hell is that guy? Wait...what's happening?" That kind of thing. Or maybe I'm just so shallow and dopey that I can't appreciate a movie like that. That could certainly be.

So I pulled out my copy of Overboard that I bought used from Amazon for something like 99 cents plus shipping, and it made everything better. Which pretty much confirms my level of sophistication, but I don't even care.

TTSS is a very quiet movie. I mean, Gary Oldman doesn't even speak until about 20 minutes in! I read the book before I saw the movie, and found the movie explained a lot for me. There are some differences between the two, but the book is written in such a way that I had to go back and re-read a few passages to understand what was going on. The spy terms were especially confusing to me because there weren't any footnotes or anything to tell me what the characters were referring to. The movie was all about subtlety, I felt like a spy myself while watching it because I was looking at the characters actions and reactions to the events going on around them. Mark Strong kinda stole the movie for me though. If you can manage it, I would watch it for him alone. And don't worry about loving Overboard. I watch that movie every.single.time it is on tv.

Jude, if loving Overboard is wrong, I will never be right. That movie is BOSS!

Meek's Cutoff was fantastic up until the ending. I don't mind ambiguity at all (sometimes I prefer it: see Take Shelter) but this just felt like hugely lazy writing. Note to self: don't take advice about Westerns from hipsters in tight manpris and bright red shoes and glasses.

Yay, fellow Overboard lovers! I've been trying to get a friend of mine to watch it with me and she refuses, because she says it looks stupid. What can I say, it *is* stupid. But it's also hilarious!

I've taken out four movies from the library that I haven't gotten around to watching yet: Thor (I don't even know why), Young Adult, The Ides of March, and Carnage. Has anyone heard anything about Carnage? Someone told me at the library that they really liked it, so I guess I'll find out.

If by "stupid," you mean "awesome" and "perfect" and "so watchable that it hurts," then yes, Overboard is an unbelievably stupid movie.

Well...yeah!

Tell your friend to get onboard with Overboard. It will change her life. Dramatically.

Today I watched In Time, which was basically "Bonnie and Clyde Stage a Socialist Revolution While Making a Bunch of 'Time' Puns," and I was surprised by how much I liked it. I mean, it's not genius or anything, but it is enjoyable and it does kind of make you think about things. Also, it was the first thing that's ever made me stop hating Justin Timberlake for almost two solid hours, so that was nothing short of miraculous. I think he even managed to be charming in places. Amanda Seyfriend was great as always, not to mention freakishly beautiful. I suppose it's a good thing she and Matt Bomer didn't have any scenes together, as my computer screen would have melted from that much concentrated hotness.

I finally got around to watching Midnight in Paris, and while admittedly, I am not a Woody Allen fan, I'll confess that I enjoyed all the historical bits. Unfortunately, two things cancelled out any good will I might have had toward the movie. First, Rachel McAdams character was so very awful and one-dimensional -- I can't believe Allen won an Oscar for a screenplay that included such a hack plot device. And second, the ending was crazy lame - like, "I'm tired of writing, let's wrap this up like an episode of Family Ties, where everyone hugs and learns a lesson. Oh, and of course, my Marty Stu avatar loses the shrew and hooks up with a hot French babe who likes Cole Porter, pina coladas and getting caugh in the rain."

I was dogsitting this weekend so I lugged my Wii over to their house to stream Netflix. I made the mistake of renting several episodes of that old miniseries chestnut, Winds of War. I'd re-watched War & Remembrance a couple years back and liked it quite a lot, mostly for the historical bits, but this... this. Were there actual human beings who thought that Ali McGraw could act? There was no one even remotely likable in this series. In W&R there were likability issues, too, but they were mostly overcome with charismatic acting. WoW has none of this. God. Horrible.

Also watched Puncture. It was pretty good, though I'm not exactly sure why the movie was a love letter to the drug addicted lawyer who took the case. He may have been flawed and brilliant and all that, but I'm not sure that the right balance was struck between the dramatic elements of the case and the lives of the lawyers involved. Flawed but quite watchable.

So I finally saw Captain America, and absolutely adored it. No surprise. So now I'm reading for the Avengers movie (it's ok that I haven't seen Hulk, right?).

ETA: and can I just comment that Netflix seems to have about 5 movies, total? I know they're having problems making deals with the studios, but seriously, this is getting ridiculous.

ETA: and can I just comment that Netflix seems to have about 5 movies, total? I know they're having problems making deals with the studios, but seriously, this is getting ridiculous.

I was just noticing this yesterday, they have eight million tv series' that I've never heard of, but finding a decent movie is like seeing a unicorn.

And that is EXACTLY why I think Netflix were IDIOTS to put so many of their eggs in the streaming basket, so early. Sure, maybe it's the future -- in fact I have no doubt that it is -- but in the meantime their streaming selection is EXTREMELY underwhelming, and instead of "the future" you see "licensing/copyright red tape that we may never be free of, so let's just start pirating movies because it's a lot easier, man."

It still takes forever for some things to come out on DVD (see: Game of Thrones), but at least you can be fairly confident that once it finally DOES come out on DVD (and the frenzy dies down if it's a popular title) you will be able to get it on Netflix. With streaming, it's a complete crapshoot.

I think they hoped the streaming problem would magically resolve itself, as happened for Apple and 99-cent MP3s, but, it has not.

I don't understand the movie studios' thought processes. The whole Netflix issue seems like a general studio antipathy to streaming. I don't know exactly what they were offering as contractual terms (or if they were really offering anything at all) but I have a feeling the terms were ridiculous. Mostly because if Netflix was the obstreporous one the studios would have found another outlet to permit streaming. I really wish the media industry would just catch up to the now. The world doesn't stay the same, tech doesn't stay the same, and the media industry needs to keep up with progress, not constantly impede it. I bet they could make a bunch of money if each studio set up a site where you could stream their movies for a dollar or something like that. Although maybe I'm dead wrong - I'm not exactly a business guru.

I just want to be able to watch whatever I want to watch, whenever I want to watch it. And I'm happy to pay for the privilege. Why is that not a business model?

Ha, I had the exact opposite reaction and thought Netflix was supersmart to start acquiring so many TV shows before they lost their STARZ contract. I agree they did lose a really good selection of movies but they have so many TV shows I have wanted to see or I wouldn't have access to otherwise, I haven't really noticed or missed the movies. In my case though, there's a Redbox (ha!) right next to where I live, so I can usually get an immediate fix.

I'm with you, UO. There are so many TV shows on Netflix that I'm interested in that I'm frozen by indecision sometimes. And in addition to all the ones I want to see for the first time, there's the siren call of all the ones I want to watch over and over. If they ever do have a movie I want to see, I'll find time for it, I'm sure, but I'm not feeling like I'm missing out, either.

rivki8699 wrote:So I finally saw Captain America, and absolutely adored it. No surprise. So now I'm reading for the Avengers movie (it's ok that I haven't seen Hulk, right?).

You're not going to miss anything by not seeing it, but I really enjoyed it.

I watched 50/50 last night. The movie absolutely wrecked me - I spent about a third of it cracking up, a third doing a slow weep, and a third outright sobbing. It was GREAT. Might be the best movie I've seen from 2011.

There's only about six people in the film, but they were all pitch-perfect. Although, between this and The Help, I am wondering when Bryce Dallas Howard is going to get a role that isn't a really hateful person.

There's only about six people in the film, but they were all pitch-perfect. Although, between this and The Help, I am wondering when Bryce Dallas Howard is going to get a role that isn't a really hateful person.

cf. The Village and Spider-Man 3.

Oh, you meant, when is she going to get a role that isn't a really hateful person in a good movie? Can't help you there.

Hugo. I'm actually sorry now that I didn't get to see this in 3D because the production values are fantastic and there are scenes where I bet the 3D really made it something spectacular. I enjoyed it so much. It's such a lovely charming film. I didn't really know what to expect from it plotwise because I wasn't familiar with the story, but it was so lovely.

I kind of wish train stations were like that these days. If you tried dancing in them now, they'd throw you out straight away!

Where the Wild Things Are which was awesome. I can't imagine anyone other than Spike Jonze pulling it off, and the kid playing Max was super.

Limitless. Not what I was expecting in some ways, particularly visually, but I felt that they actually ran out of story at about the one hour mark. After that the movie just kinda kept going, like when you walk into a room but forget why you're there, and you just stand there for awhile looking around waiting for the recollection to come back. Eventually you wander back out and get on with your life. That's how I would describe Limitless.

I watched Megamind this weekend. And in many ways I really liked it. I really liked Roxanne, and how blase she was about getting kidnapped, and how she wasn't actually into Metroman. But from about the middle of the movie onward, when she kept saying that (disguised) Megamind had to defeat Megamind and that Megamind had to defeat Titan, I just kept thinking how much more awesome it would have been if she'd taken charge of his evil lair and taken Titan out herself. I mean if she thought Bernard could take on a supervillian, why couldn't she? (I do get that the whole point was Megamind realizing that he could be the hero, but I wish they could have figured out a way of doing that without making Roxanne suddenly passive.)

We Bought a Zoo was okay. I enjoyed Matt Damon, the little actress who played Rosie was adorable and the animals were fun. But I thought it went on a little too long with multiple false endings and I wanted to punch the teenage son character in the face after a while.

I streamed the documentary little man on netflix. It's a lesbian filmmaker (Nicole Conn) documenting the birth and first year of life or so of her extremely premature son. For lacking a real narrative arc - it's own description is simply how these events "brought a family to its knees" - it's extremely engaging. It ends up largely being about her commitment to her extremely disabled son's life. It doesn't really follow up on stuff like the fact that they used a surrogate who lied enormously about her medical history and likely contributed to the baby's prematurity and profound disability, or the constant undertone of occasionally vicious conflict between the filmmaker and her partner, who very obviously would have preferred not to resuscitate the baby. It tries to end on a happy-ish note, although the child continues to require constant, elaborate medical intervention to sustain life. She does allow the the viewer to make their own decision on whether it was ethically or personally right to birth and resuscitate the baby. I looked up what happened after the movie, and was not at all surprised to find

Spoiler:

.

Like many documentary-makers, Nicole Conn has a really beautiful voice.