Movies at Home

I would love to see Secretary again. I've been catching up on The Blacklist with Spader and with the 50 Shades of Grey neverending, overexposed nonsense right now, I'd been thinking how long it had been since I'd seen and enjoyed that film. Thanks for reminding me again!

I also love What's Your Number?. It is a stupid premise and in all honesty I've been kind of embarrassed how much I liked it, so I'm glad to see so many of you justifying my taste.

I also loved What's Your Number? I will watch it any time it shows up on my television. It's got Chris Evans and, honestly, that's enough for me.

I watched The Interview on Valentine's Day and I just want to say, once again, that I adore Seth Rogen. He's just the most delightful stoner and every time I see one of his movies I think, "Yup, I like him". That said, I ended up liking The Interview more than I thought I would but the ending with the over the top violence did it for me. I feel like Rogen's movies always require a suspension of disbelief that I some how just say "fuck it" and embrace.

So I am in the middle of a James Spader thing and on Tuesday I watched Pretty in Pink, which for some reason I had only seen clips of. Once I stopped laughing at the fashion (seriously, Andi looks like she got dressed in the dark and then there are the blazers....so many blazers) I really enjoyed it.

But can someone explain why people think she should have ended up with Duckie? Dude was a stalker with "nice guy" tendencies. I'm not saying Blane was great (Blane! His name is Blane!) but he was hot. I kind of wanted Andi to either run off with Annie Potts and be new wave together or for her to pull a "I choose me" moment.

People didn't want her with Duckie, the ending was reshot because focus groups hated that she ended up with Duckie, and wanted her to end up with Blane, which was weird because every single person I know then or now wanted her to end up with Steff.

Thank God I was not the only one thinking--"you are about to graduate--just bang Spader and then go to college!"

Apparently John Hughes was so mad that they changed the ending he stopped talking to Molly Ringwald as she was against her character ending up with Duckie (at least as played by Cryer, apparently RDJ almost had the role).

Apparently, Some Kind of Wonderful was Hughes' response to the changed ending in Pretty in Pink. So there's that at least.

Grainne Mhaol wrote:Apparently, Some Kind of Wonderful was Hughes' response to the changed ending in Pretty in Pink. So there's that at least.

Heh. So, the changed ending (that I like a lot better than Hughes' original one) led to him making my very favourite movie of that era? (Eric Stoltz! So cute!)

I'm sorry Hughes was upset, but I seem to have made out like a bandit on this deal!

Yeah SKoW is a huge improvement over PiP both in terms of how it was written and how it was cast, and has one of the greatest screen kisses of teen movie history.

Having a girl in the unrequited love role I think made it seem less gross, as did her lack of overbearing clinging, I think even if it had been RDJ that would have still felt yucky.

Since I'm a year behind in watching the Best Picture nominees, I watched Her last night. It really dragged at first and Joaquin Phoenix was really off-putting, but I'm glad I stuck with it because I enjoyed it in the end. The back of my mind kept waiting for some kind of sci-fi twist where all the OSes were secretly plotting to enslave mankind, but I knew Spike Jonze wouldn't go that way (thank god). It's not a movie I would seek out to watch again, but I'm glad I saw it.

World War Z. Every review I read was so focused on how it deviated from the book that they failed to mention that it is a really good movie. It was well-paced, tense, had great action scenes, zombies on a plane, Brad Pitt cutting a soldier's arm off, Wales. Of course I'd like to see a more faithful adaptation, preferably in a TV miniseries, but this was an enjoyable movie nonetheless.

We watched The Monuments Men over the weekend and I didn't love it as much as I hoped I would. It probably didn't help that I was super tired and we watched it in two lots, but it just didn't leave much of an impression, which sucks because the cast was amazing.

eventide82 wrote:We watched The Monuments Men over the weekend and I didn't love it as much as I hoped I would. It probably didn't help that I was super tired and we watched it in two lots, but it just didn't leave much of an impression, which sucks because the cast was amazing.

I agree completely! I was so underwhelmed despite the awesome cast, including Matty Matt Damon, one of my all-time faves.

Bad Username wrote:World War Z. Every review I read was so focused on how it deviated from the book that they failed to mention that it is a really good movie. It was well-paced, tense, had great action scenes, zombies on a plane, Brad Pitt cutting a soldier's arm off, Wales. Of course I'd like to see a more faithful adaptation, preferably in a TV miniseries, but this was an enjoyable movie nonetheless.

I think the problem that a lot of zombie enthusiasts had with that film was the lack of real zombie gore.  It was hard to convince people that a PG13 zombie film worked.  I felt like after a lot of buildup, it ended kind of abruptly, but I did enjoy it for the most part.

Since you are my people this is the place where I can say without shame that HBO has Head Over Heels this month and I DVRed it.  I may never erase it.*

*My entire Permanent Keep on the DVR is an embarassment of guilty pleasures.  This just adds to it like the cherry on top of the sundae.

OK, so back in the day when many other women my age had huge crushes on Keanu Reeves, he never did anything for me. Sure, he was objectively very good looking, he just did NOTHING for me. But this weekend I finally got around to seeing John Wick, and now I finally have seen him in a role where I find him totally, completely hot.

I don't know if it was the gun-play, the immaculately tailored suits, the car, the beard, or that ridiculously adorable puppy, but I was all in on this movie. Probably one of the most enjoyable revenge/action flicks I have ever watched. I liked just about everything about it, which surprised me. And aside from Keanu, the movie has a great cast with really good actors in some very small speaking roles. Hey look, it's Dottie from Agent Carter! John Leguizamo! Al Swearengen! Adrianne Palicki! That dude from The Wire! Theon Greyjoy! And Dean Winters! Oh and Willem Dafoe.

Keanu always gets pinged for being a bad actor, but he has a scene towards the beginning of the film that certainly belies that. His character is grieving due to the death of his wife from an illness that is never explained when a beagle puppy is delivered to his door. A final gift from his wife. He just breaks down and ugly cries, and it was genuinely moving, damn it! I don't think Keanu has a huge range per se, but he's REALLY good at grieving, vengeful hit man of VERY few words. Seriously, John Wick may not say a lot, but you know exactly what he's thinking and feeling.

Watching this movie also reminded me of how little Keanu Reeves has aged. I honestly have a hard time believing he's 50 years old.

John Wick was a very, very silly movie indeed, but Keanu's acting really impressed me. I was having flashbacks throughout the movie to The Crow, until I realised that John Wick was directed by Chad Stahelski who was the stunt co-ordinator for that movie. Almost everything that happened - from revenge plot to the crime king-pin story to chasing down the weasily scumbag by killing off literally everyone else in the building - gave me flashbacks.

Agent Sculder wrote:

Watching this movie also reminded me of how little Keanu Reeves has aged.  I honestly have a hard time believing he's 50 years old.  

He's a lot older than 50. I strongly believe he is the inspiration for that show Forever.

Oh, and in other very silly action movies I loved, I MUST mention The Guest. I must say I totally enjoyed Matthew Crawley as a very messed up version of Captain America. Maybe it helps I only watched the first season of Dowton Abbey so I really don't bear Dan Stevens any animus for leaving the show. The movie is such a fun homage to 80s horror movies with just a touch of The Terminator thrown in. It's a movie that knows it's ridiculous, and has a complete sense of humor about it.

I can't help loving a movie with a fantastic synth soundtrack that also features a completely gratuitous shot of its leading male actor in nothing but a towel, emerging from a steamy bathroom. And before everything goes horribly wrong, you can't help liking "David" who seems to genuinely want to help the Peterson family. He's helping the bullied kid deal with the evil jocks, comforting the grieving mom, giving dad a drinking buddy and outlet for his misery at work, and finding a way to remove the daughter's pesky drug-dealing boyfriend. Also, the movie it set right around Halloween, which makes the ending in one of those fake haunted houses at the high school just perfect.

My husband and I had never seen Silence of the Lambs, so we watched that last night. It was CREEPY. I loved the way they framed Hannibal and Clarice, it really added to the atmosphere of the film. Given that it's over 20 years old, I think it holds up really well.

Oh, and I did not realise until the end that the guy was Captain Stottlemeyer from Monk, who I love, so that added to my grossed out feeling. Over all I thought it was really good, but super duper creepy.

eventide82 wrote:My husband and I had never seen Silence of the Lambs, so we watched that last night. It was CREEPY. I loved the way they framed Hannibal and Clarice, it really added to the atmosphere of the film. Given that it's over 20 years old, I think it holds up really well.

Oh, and I did not realise until the end that the guy was Captain Stottlemeyer from Monk, who I love, so that added to my grossed out feeling. Over all I thought it was really good, but super duper creepy.

There was a moment watching the movie Evolution where Ted Levine, Julianne Moore, and David Duchovny are all on-screen at once. So you have Jame Gumb, Clarice Starling, and the guy who was on a TV show where one of the leads was based on Clarice Starling. It was one of those moments where that whole "six degrees of separation" thing gets a little trippy.

I watched Judgment At Nuremburg last night, which for some reason I don't think I'd ever seen in its entirety before. Even now, and even considering the amount of history I've read of the period, it was a surprisingly upsetting experience. I was glad I had advance warning of the historical footage used in the film-- again, nothing I hadn't seen before, but that didn't diminish the impact and I think I'll look up whether audiences of the time would have been warned about it.

The courtroom confrontation between Maximilian Schell's defense attorney character and Judy Garland's witness character really made me want to leave the room for a minute. And I think I'll go back to the special features to see whether the interview with Schell talks about his feelings for his character-- the character had a vital role, but it can't have been an easy one for the actor.

Anyway. Not a cheerful experience, obviously, but very well done. And I've seen surprisingly few Spencer Tracy movies so this was very interesting.

I watched Super 8 and liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I particularly liked the interactions between the kids. Some of the larger plot was a little lost on me, though that may have been my fault because I was tending to laundry at the time.

We watched About Time last night and I adored it. It's been on my to-watch list for ages and I'm so glad I finally sat down and watched it. I thought it was perfect: sweet and funny and heartfelt and bittersweet all at once.

Coneycat wrote:I watched Judgment At Nuremburg last night, which for some reason I don't think I'd ever seen in its entirety before. Even now, and even considering the amount of history I've read of the period, it was a surprisingly upsetting experience. I was glad I had advance warning of the historical footage used in the film-- again, nothing I hadn't seen before, but that didn't diminish the impact and I think I'll look up whether audiences of the time would have been warned about it.

The courtroom confrontation between Maximilian Schell's defense attorney character and Judy Garland's witness character really made me want to leave the room for a minute. And I think I'll go back to the special features to see whether the interview with Schell talks about his feelings for his character-- the character had a vital role, but it can't have been an easy one for the actor.

Anyway. Not a cheerful experience, obviously, but very well done. And I've seen surprisingly few Spencer Tracy movies so this was very interesting.

I should check it out one of these days. For some reason I thought it was going to be very sanitized since it was made in the 50s (or was it early 60s?)

ulkis wrote:

Coneycat wrote:I watched Judgment At Nuremburg last night, which for some reason I don't think I'd ever seen in its entirety before. Even now, and even considering the amount of history I've read of the period, it was a surprisingly upsetting experience. I was glad I had advance warning of the historical footage used in the film-- again, nothing I hadn't seen before, but that didn't diminish the impact and I think I'll look up whether audiences of the time would have been warned about it.

The courtroom confrontation between Maximilian Schell's defense attorney character and Judy Garland's witness character really made me want to leave the room for a minute. And I think I'll go back to the special features to see whether the interview with Schell talks about his feelings for his character-- the character had a vital role, but it can't have been an easy one for the actor.

Anyway. Not a cheerful experience, obviously, but very well done. And I've seen surprisingly few Spencer Tracy movies so this was very interesting.

I should check it out one of these days. For some reason I thought it was going to be very sanitized since it was made in the 50s (or was it early 60s?)

It was released in 1961, and I thought the same thing. It must have been pretty shocking at the time, and even now I kind of sat back a few times. It really was worthwhile.