Movies at Home

Oh yes, the Raid. As a story, it's about two pages long. And not all that good. But as an experience, as a series of fight scenes, it is awesome. My favourite was

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By the time it ended, my heart rate had gone up. If you like action movies, you need to watch this.

I actually fell asleep halfway through! Obviously I need to finish it.

Yes. You do.

I rented Side by Side, the documentary about film vs. digital, from iTunes over the weekend. It surprised me to see that it was priced at $6.99, but I felt it was worth it. Keanu Reeves produced and narrates the film, in which he interviews famous filmmakers (Scorcese, Lucas, Cameron, Nolan, and the Wachowskis to name a few) and cinematographers who offer their views on the future of film. It's both entertaining and educational, and I highly recommend it if you don't mind paying the price.

The Raid: Redemption was that good. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for martial arts movies. In the theater, I had never heard as much groaning in sympathy in my life. Also, Dredd appears to have knocked off the larger part of its plot.

Dredd appears to have knocked off the larger part of its plot.

There's an element of that. It's a decent enough premise, but it looks to be done differently. Besides, Dredd has introduced me to the wonder that is blonde Olivia Thirlby. And it looks to actually use its 3D, which is no bad thing.

Fiammetta wrote:The Raid: Redemption was that good. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for martial arts movies. In the theater, I had never heard as much groaning in sympathy in my life. Also, Dredd appears to have knocked off the larger part of its plot.

I haven't heard one bad thing about this movie and am seriously considering ordering it On Demand.

I watched One For The Money, which was unbelievably average. Katherine Heigl was so, so wrong for the part of Stephanie Plum. There were elements that I thought they got right, but for the most part the film was really dull. I also rented The Vow, which I liked more than I thought I would. Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams had really good chemistry, and I liked that the film didn't go for a cliched ending.

I also forgot I had DVR'd Postgrad, which was also fairly dull, although I did spend a lot of it marveling at forgetting how beautiful Alexis Bledel is.

eventide82 wrote: I also rented The Vow, which I liked more than I thought I would. Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams had really good chemistry, and I liked that the film didn't go for a cliched ending.

Me too. Maybe it was because I had zero expectations, I actually enjoyed it a fair bit. It was less cheesy than I thought it would be.

Parts of The Vow felt so threadbare that it felt 50% improvised. It was like they tried to film a greeting card. I liked Rachel McAdams a lot, because like, she's sooo pretty and her clothes were nice to look at. At the end, when she says something like 'You never tried to force me to remember,' I thought, well yes he did. He threw that stupid party with all her old friends and insisted that they live together when she didn't know him from Adam.

Nonetheless, I too appreciated the unconventional ending, and the use of The Cure's 'Pictures of You' over the credits almost completely redeemed the movie.

We're 20 minutes into the 2011 The Three Musketeers and I'm afraid it's going to be terrible and I'm going to lose my movie-picking privileges for the forseeable future.

ETA: Yep, privileges revoked.

I thought the 1990 version of The Three Musketeers (Keifer Sutherland! Charlie Sheen! Oliver Platt!) was the worst then the 2011 version came along. At least the men were pretty and the so were the costumes.

I just can't get over how Logan Lerman in a blonde wig looks like a teenage Jennifer Anniston. I got the Peaver translation of The Three Musketeers for $4 because it had the movie cover and he looks just like her.

He was way too girly looking to have that swaggering attitude in the movie. Though I think my favorite part was EEEEEEEEEEEEVIL Orlando Bloom chewing all the scenery. I bet he wished he had an evil mustache to twirl, evilly.

I actually saw the 2011 Three Musketeers in the theater (there were pretty men with swords and horses - don't judge me). It was easily the worst movie I saw that year. And the year before. And maybe this year too.

I saw Doctor Zhivago for the first time this week, at the theater rather than at home, and dude. As a sweeping epic, I thought it was really good. As a love story, I thought it sucked. 3+ hours, and they devoted, like, no time to the two main characters falling in love. They meet in one scene, and two or three scenes later we've fast-forwarded six months and Zhivago is all, "I <3 you" and Lara is all, "Sorry, kitten, but I ain't no homewrecker." And that is the foundation for this epic love story. Even when she was a teenager, his vibe was more, "She's pretty and young and I feel sorry for her because Komarovsky is the worst" and her vibe was non-existent because she never even saw the guy, much less interacted with him. If I'm going to root for a guy to

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It was cool seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi, though. I didn't know he was in this movie.

There is a tv version of Dr Zhivago starring Hans Matheson and Keira Knightly. Its not nearly as good as the movie, because in my opinion few things are, but its not bad and one thing it does do a bit better I think is the love story. They focus on it a bit more.

Watched 9 to 5, which just kept getting weirder and weirder. First there was the really heavy-handed

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which I thought for sure she was going to get caught with/in trouble for, but then turned into an excuse for a bunch of fantasy sequences. Then when they got to the hospital it seemed to turn into a Coen brothers movie for awhile, and then they made a way-too convenient discovery, and the ending seemed to be as much "oh crap, two hours just FLEW by! How do we get the leads out of this mess?" as anything.

I enjoyed it, but it was dated in more ways than the fashion and office technology. And seriously, I had no clue it would get so strange. I guess it is nice to finally have more context for that great Dolly Parton song. The cast was thoroughly entertaining and clearly enjoying themselves.

We watched What To Expect When You're Expecting and it was totally bland. The only thing I enjoyed was the Anna Kendrick/Chace Crawford storyline and remembering how hot Chace Crawford is.

I thought Brooklyn Decker was surprisingly likable and funny for a model turned actress. She seems like a nice girl.

Yeah that was the only other thought I had to add to that movie.

I thought the dad's group was pretty funny. That's about it for me.

I wish I could watch it on Netflix streaming just for the dads' group part.

Last weekend saw Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Happy. Both satisfying. Any other recommendations for positive documentaries?

Being Elmo was very sweet and if you haven't seen Murderball, it's great.

Poubelle wrote:Watched 9 to 5, which just kept getting weirder and weirder. First there was the really heavy-handed

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which I thought for sure she was going to get caught with/in trouble for, but then turned into an excuse for a bunch of fantasy sequences. Then when they got to the hospital it seemed to turn into a Coen brothers movie for awhile, and then they made a way-too convenient discovery, and the ending seemed to be as much "oh crap, two hours just FLEW by! How do we get the leads out of this mess?" as anything.

I enjoyed it, but it was dated in more ways than the fashion and office technology. And seriously, I had no clue it would get so strange. I guess it is nice to finally have more context for that great Dolly Parton song. The cast was thoroughly entertaining and clearly enjoying themselves.

It is a great cast, if for no other reason than how fluidly every single one of them rattles off, "Sexist Egotistical Lying Hypocritical Bigot". I haven't seen it in over a decade, so perhaps it hasn't aged well, but I have seen it many, many, MANY times and love it deeply.

Though it is certainly dated (or at least, of its period) in that the whole plot revolves around them having to stall for six weeks to get a file from the head office or something (if memory serves), when today it would be emailed within the hour.

Re: positive documentaries, I really like Every Little Step about the casting of the latest A Chorus Line revival and also Tupac Resurrected which obviously is sad in the sense that hes dead, but I found rather illuminating and positive.