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I get the feeling if there is a third movie

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I agree with Kiran, and that was my thinking as we left the theater. Much too convenient.

I went to see Shame yesterday. I'm not sure what I expected but I don't think I expected it to

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TiffanyNichelle wrote:I went to see Shame yesterday. I'm not sure what I expected but I don't think I expected it to

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Saw it last week, and it is, shall we say, plot-light? It's an interesting character study, and Fessbender is great. But the actual dialogue is really poor, in my opinion. "We're not bad people. We just come from a bad place." Ugh. The movie is at its best when no one is speaking. Which is, thankfully, about 60% of the movie.

Re: Spoilered Holmes bit. I agree with you, Kiran. It's almost painfully obvious the way it's set up.

I've read great critical reviews about Shame but poor word of mouth from the few people I know online who have actually seen it. I'm very eager to see it though because of Carey Mulligan and Fassbender. (The promise of his nudity doesn't deter me either, obviously.)

A question for those of you who've seen Shame: Is it relentlessly bleak? By that I mean, like Leaving Las Vegas or Requiem for a Dream where god it was just one awful thing piled on top of another until I totally couldn't blame any of the characters for wanting to die. I don't need a happy ending per se, but I need to walk away from a movie not feeling completely shitty.

I'm actually glad to read that it's a character study--I was worried that it would be BOOM SEX BOOM followed by shallow navel-gazing for 2 hours or so. In my head, I'd envisioned it like The Woodsman which was plot & dialogue light but an amazing character study (and Kevin Bacon was AMAZING too).

Bleak? No. But it is uncomfortable. And the sex in it is (intentionally) mechanical and unsexy. But, how to put this-- the director likes his long, uninterrupted shots. Really likes them.

I love that Requiem For a Dream has been mentioned here twice now as a standard for cinematic bleakness. It really is one of the most depressing things I can ever recall watching. You just felt misery emanating from all the characters. I'm glad Shame isn't like that, or I might not have the strength to endure it.

RiverThames wrote:Saw Sherlock and Young Adult so far this week. Enjoyed them both in different ways. I actually really liked Sherlock a lot, though I totally get the annoyance friends of mine had at

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But it was a lot of fun. Young Adult wasn't fun, though I laughed a lot, but Charlize and Patton were both fantastic.

See, I didn't mind that (even though in my head

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), because it quickly established how badass Moriarty was.

blixie wrote:I saw both The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. I found both fairly....eh. I was surprised that Mara was the best thing about GWDT. The very thing I liked about her Lisbeth was that she felt alien/odd and not like a "real" person, and Noomi did feel as though she was a little too..normal. I do agree that it's a heavily, and definitely creepily, directed performance though.

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I hadn't read the book or seen the Swedish film when I went to see TGWTDT, and

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I did think the Swedish version handled the Wennerstrom stuff better. They set it up more thoroughly at the start which meant they could spend less time on it in the end. After the murder is solved, it's kind of anticlimactic to finish things up with a money laundering scheme.

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Ha! I saw the credits and thought

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I've seen Sherlock 2, New Year's Eve, and Young Adult.

My favorite was Sherlock. However, I liked it because it didn't feel like a Sherlock Holmes movie (the trope of Sherlock seeing X, Y, Z to determine A, B, C bugs me). I liked it better than the first one, too. I also sincerely doubt that

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NYE was nothing more than a collection of pretty celebrities in a sparkly movie. It tried even less hard than Valentine's Day to have a plot.

Young Adult was underwhelming. It felt like a mood piece and even the climax didn't really do much for me. I think Diablo Cody writes women more interestingly than a lot of screenwriters, but it needed more. At least it didn't have her typical twee dialogue.

I saw Mission Impossible IV: Ghost Protocol at the imax theater last night, and it was massively enjoyable. I think a big part of it was just watching it at an imax, since it was shot for imax and had a lot of big action sequences that just work better on that type of large screen. My only (small) quibble? Not enough Josh Holloway.
He looked fine, and he was really good in the beginning action sequence so

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I saw it today too, Actonbell, but me and IMAX have issues so I just saw the regular version. I enjoyed it well enough, but then I'm a fan of the series in general and Cruise as Ethan Hunt specifically. He might be a Xenu-loving nutbag, but I always enjoy him in movies because the man commits. Watching him run exhausts me.

And he's looking damn good for damn near 50!

I went to see The Lady - the Luc Besson film about Aung San Suu Kyi. It was a mixture of good and bad; Michelle Yeoh is great albeit plays her as too damn perfect - I'm pretty sure that years of house arrest would've resulted in a foul mood every now and then. Also, the Burmese leadership are portrayed too cartoonishly for my liking; they are one of the world's most brutal regimes and if you knew little about the history of the country (like the friend I went with) I'm not sure the depth of that brutality comes across. Finally, I didn't feel as though the film shows the lasting impact her choices and imprisonment had on her family, especially when her husband is diagnosed with terminal cancer and she decides to stay in Rangoon.

On the whole it means well, but could've been so much better.

I saw We Bought a Zoo, which I surprisingly really, really liked. Yes, it's sappy in places, but I think it manages to stay just shy of becoming cloying. And for once I wasn't the least bit annoyed by ScarJo. I'd have cut out

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I also saw MI4. Good fun, I agree. But I could've done with more Lea Seydoux and less Paula Patton.

Sherlock Holmes was really fun, even though the last 5 minutes were a little ridiculous. (Someone in my theater even shouted, "Are you kidding me?!") The moment we saw

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Does Mycroft wander around nude in the books? Because I can't think of any other reason to subject us to that much Stephen Fry, whom I otherwise adore. Within the first ten minutes I was sure there was going to be a sequel, since everyone involved just seemed to be having so much fun!

If Mycroft wandered around naked in his house, Watson never detailed it in the books. I just couldn't stop laughing at Mary's reaction and the 1,000 yard stare when he was talking to her.

I was fine with the ending in this because it was like a compact, action version of the story the movie was based off of. But that's just me.

We saw Tower Heist a few nights ago and considering how low my expectations for it were, it was actually not bad. I thought Ben Stiller was great in it - it was nice to see him playing just a regular person. Matthew Broderick certainly plays the hapless middle aged guy well and Casey Affleck was great.

The Artist is adorable and charming and I love it. And I know I'm not the first person to say this by a long shot, but Oggie the Dog needs a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination!

We saw Young Adult over the weekend, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. because I hated (haaaaaaaaaaated!) Juno, and I don't normally like Charlize Theron all that much. The characters were real people, not catchphrases. I kind of liked that

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Plus, I can't lie- I know I've been a little Mavis-y when I've been back to my hometown. The part where Buddy talks about how the town is really coming along by saying they're getting a Chipotle? I totally snorted out loud because I've had that conversation. (Though I think it was an Applebees.) Also, it didn't hurt that if Facebook photos are accurate, my high school crush now looks a lot like Patrick Wilson.

The soundtrack was awesome, too. If I was still the sort of person who bought a soundtrack, we would have been stopping at a store on the way home.

I did feel badly for her dog, though, stuck in that hotel for days. Poor pooch.

I, too, was pleasantly surprised byYoung Adult and thought Patton Oswalt was really amazing in it. But, yeah, poor pooch for sure.

We saw Drive this weekend, finally, and I loved it. Ryan Gosling was freaky and amazing and I don't understand why he's not in the Oscar conversation more. He was terrific. The movie was tense, violent, tragic, and overall very well-made.

In a sane world Ryan Gosling would be nominated for Drive, but I think it is too genre for Oscar voters and unfortunately it didn't make enough money to overcome the stigma of that.

harvey the penguin wrote:The Artist is adorable and charming and I love it. And I know I'm not the first person to say this by a long shot, but Oggie the Dog needs a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination!

harvey, my husband and I are so excited to see that when it comes out here! We love Jean Dujardin ever since seeing him in the OSS films a few years ago. I think it's part of the French film festival starting here in February. Can't wait!

In a perfect world, Drive would be a shoo-in for Best Picture this year, with Ryan Gosling in contention for an acting award along with Albert Brooks. It's easily the best movie I saw this year. So good.

I didn't know what to expect going into Young Adult, but I really enjoyed it. Great performances and an interesting story that fueled conversation between my husband and me for days. I was stunned by how excellent Patton Oswalt was. Yet another fantastic movie that is hardly getting any Oscar buzz.