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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 6:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Michael Keaton is my favorite living movie star. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 9:57 pm |
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billyweeds wrote: Michael Keaton is my favorite living movie star.
I'm very close to agreeing with that. There may be others that are a tie but I'm to sleepy to get into that train of thought.
As Keaton's buddies on the rodeo curcuit asked him when they were downing some beer at a local pub, "So, Mike, what do you do for a living?" |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 10:03 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The Hangover, part II. This time it's Stu the dentist getting married and it's in Bangkok, but they used the plot of the first movie blatantly as the plot of the second, to the point where it's endearing. This time it's the bride's sixteen year old genius brother who's missing (except for one finger), and there's a monkey instead of the chicken and tiger. The monkey's a better actor, but I liked that they never explained the chicken in the first movie. The movie has a serious plausibility problem getting Alan in, because he's a dangerous asshole who the other characters would never, ever let anywhere near a public event.
I fear there may be a third movie in the series with Alan getting married. That would only work if everyone else in the movie tried to prevent it. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 10:27 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Kung Fu Panda 2. An example of a good movie ruined by 3-D. The problems are (1) the movie is too dark with 3-D glasses and (2) the action is so fast it's impossible for my eyes to adjust. I took my glasses off occasionally, and the movie was blurry but mostly looked great. Or would have looked good if it had been in 2-D.
The opening set-up scene and the closing credits are done in a pseudo-Chinese style of animation, and are strikingly beautiful. The backgrounds are delightful, too. I just wish the people involved with the film had thought more how they'd look through polarized 3-D glasses.
The story is solid. It involves Po trying to find his origins (he's caught on that he's adopted), and an evil Peacock trying to take over the world, rendering Kung Fu obsolete in the process because he's discovered that gunpowder can be used as as a weapon of war, despite the soothsayer's prediction that he'll be defeated by a panda warrior. This means, by the way, that we know from the beginning Po will win, but it's wondering how he'll win that drives the plot.
The villain is strange. The key thing is that he's a peacock--in other words, he's an egomaniac, darts his head around like he's on amphetamines, fans his tail to stun his enemies, and always thinks that's he's destined to be on top, damn the prophecies. I love the way he uses his tail to glide around. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 10:28 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| There will definitely be a Kung Fu Panda 3. I look forward to it, but I'll probably watch in in 2-D. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 12:56 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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One of the previews was for Puss in Boots. I don't see a plot, but if there was one role Antonio Banderas was born to play, this is it.
Meanwhile, Jessica Alba is the mom in the reboot of Spy Kids. Why not Alexa Vega? She's twenty-two going on twenty-three and she can actually act. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 1:11 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Mirgun and I watched The Thin Red Line last night and it re-confirmed my feeling that it is a full-blown masterpiece. Mirgun saw it for the first time and pronounced it the best movie she's ever seen.
I'm certainly not alone in thinking highly of The Thin Red Line. It has in recent years gained in stature and is now seen as having been a grossly underrated film when it was first released.
Here's a review of the new Criterion release of TTRL by Michael Wilmington.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/5678/
Anyone who doesn't recognize the magic of TTRL doesn't know great film making from a bag of donuts. |
Last edited by Marc on Sun May 29, 2011 7:56 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 5:35 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc wrote:
Anyone who doesn't recognize the magic of TTRL doesn't know great film making from a bag of donuts.
Whatever. I know what bores the shit out of me, and I know awful acting when I see it. (I'm looking at you, John Travolta.)
Badlands was an excellent movie. Days of Heaven was a gorgeous-looking nothing. The Thin Red Line was a snooze.
I am going to see The Tree of Life, with expectations seriously low. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 5:41 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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"...a defiantly free-associative brood on man’s fraught relationship to nature. Its greatest achievement, arising from the weft of cutaways, dreamtime soundtrack reveries, found phenomena, disconnected combat episodes and explicit metaphysical inquiry, is the creation of a cinema with a truly communal voice, a portrait of humankind not refined down to individuals and story."
From Michael Atkinson's (not Wilmington's) piece on TTRL. Call me a philistine if you want to, but this is not what I go to the movies for. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 7:44 am |
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| The only good thing about TTRL for me was that the projector broke down around 20 minutes before the ending (I did catch the ending I missed, on TV, and it was no improvement. Same insignificance of man preaching), and we got free tickets from the theatre which I used the next day for Suicide Virgins which was a very good movie. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 9:56 am |
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| Which movie should I see today, The Adjustment Bureau or Source Code? I plan to see both but want to start on a high note. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 10:38 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Given their themes, those two make a great double-feature.
Regarding the critical take on TTRL as "....a portrait of humankind not refined down to individuals and story." That does seem to cut to the heart of the division between viewers of the film.
The trailer I saw for The Tree of Life left me confused at to whether it was The Great Santini ("hit me! hit me!") or Left Behind. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 1:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Which movie should I see today, The Adjustment Bureau or Source Code? I plan to see both but want to start on a high note.
I slightly preferred TAB but liked them both very much, and most people seem to prefer SC. So there you are. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 2:10 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Source Code. They're both fine movies, so you can't lose either way. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 5:19 pm |
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| I saw The Adjustment Bureau. It was OK but I wasn't too impressed. Damon was good in his role and the visuals were good. |
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