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| knox |
 Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:22 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| Very restrained clamor greeting the return of Johnny English. Discuss. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:40 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| I heard they put in more testicle jokes this time, which you think would make it more palatable (if that's the word) to an American audience. There's just no pleasing some people. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 6:44 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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bartist wrote: Joe, I'm glad someone saw 50/50 and reviewed it here...I've been wavering on it, will probably check it out now, as I've liked JG-L even in his more juvie incarnations.
Give us your take when you see it. |
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-Topher |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: bartist wrote: Joe, I'm glad someone saw 50/50 and reviewed it here...I've been wavering on it, will probably check it out now, as I've liked JG-L even in his more juvie incarnations.
Give us your take when you see it.
I'll be seeing it tomorrow. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:54 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Carnage is Roman Polanski's 79-minute all-star version of the Broadway hit God of Carnage. Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly play two NYC couples who get into a free-for-all over the subject of a playground altercation between their two sons. It's sort of funny, sort of over the top, sort of worth seeing--but nothing to rush to the multiplex over. The four actors are all good (yes, including my non-fave Foster) and the pace is furious, but it falls considerably short of memorable. A perfect video rental, and blessedly short. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Jane Eyre is almost not current, it came out so many months ago, but it's still a 2011 release and a mighty fine one, which I finally have seen. Mia Wasikowska is wonderful in the title role and she's beautifully matched by Michael Fassbender as Rochester. Judi Dench and Jamie Bell offer brilliant support. The photography is stunning and the pace is perfection. Now I have to see, also finally, the Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine version. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: bartist wrote: Joe, I'm glad someone saw 50/50 and reviewed it here...I've been wavering on it, will probably check it out now, as I've liked JG-L even in his more juvie incarnations.
Give us your take when you see it.
I'll be seeing it tomorrow.
Can't wait to hear what you thought. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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I liked 50/50. A difficult subject is treated tenderly, with humor, but without tackiness. . Gordon-Levitt and Rogen are very good.
Footnote:(The hospital doctors and nurses are more abrupt and unempathic than I have seen in my experience. The psychtherapy intern (Anna Kendrick) seems to be functioning without any supervision!)
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:14 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| 50/50 is really impressive in the way it rides the line between comedy and drama, never getting silly in its humor nor weepy in its dramatics. A comedy about cancer seems a contradiction in terms, but they make it work very well. The cast helps enormously, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen creating a palpable chemistry between the two male leads and Anna Kendrick and Bryce Dallas Howard contrasting well as the two women in Gordon-Levitt's life. Anjelica Huston is excellent as his mother. The cancer contracted by the hero is never minimized, but the comedy is ever-present. I very much liked this movie. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:20 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I'm glad you both liked it. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| By the way, what else has the doctor who performed the operation been in? She looked really familiar, but I couldn't place her. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:15 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Didn't recognize the actress, but I will research later.
In the meantime...
A Dangerous Method is a new David Cronenberg film about Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and a young woman with problems who comes to Jung to be treated and winds up in a weird relationship with him which is instrumental in the evolution of psychoanalysis. Don't know how much of the story is absolute truth (will also research this later) but I feel the story would be better told in a non-fiction book. The movie--although interesting intellectually--is talky and often boring, and turns Michael Fassbender--so sexy and charismatic in Jane Eyre--into a piece of wood. His Jung is stiff and unyielding (that's more or less the point) but it's a shame he can't show more of his personality. Viggo Mortensen is excellent as Freud, though all but unrecognizable under the Freudian beard.
However...
Keira Knightley as the woman in question is completely unrecognizable as the quite talented star of Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. She returns us to the pre-Tracey Ullmann days when British actors like Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity and Laurence Olivier in lots of stuff tried to do American accents by broadening their A's into a strange and ear-shattering sound that approximated the mating of a Canadian and a Martian. Knightley sounds first American, then ambiguously European, then God knows what. In addition to her egregious vocal problems, she makes a very amateurish Madonna-style attempt to capture the tics and spasms suffered by the character in the early scenes, and doesn't get all that much better when the character is "cured." She goes from horrific to merely snoozerific. She's my early candidate for the 2011 Razzie award.
You will probably hear many favorable reviews of A Dangerous Method, some saying this is a truly "adult" piece of cinema. Well, it's for adults who don't like movies. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:15 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:41 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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I was going to comment on 50/50, having just seen it, but Weedman and Ghulam covered it. BD Howard seems to be developing a knack for doing false women...a scene where Rogen is all over her baloney like a pitbull is quite funny. Kendrick, as novice shrink, is adorable.
I'd been wondering about A Dangerous Method. Might check it out just to see Keira working on the Razzie -- I remember her American accent in [time travel film with Adrian Brody and Kris Kristofferson] was peculiar and distracting, so I guess there's more voice training in her future. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:52 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Did anyone see Scorsese's George Harrison doc Living in the Material World? Seems it played on HBO recently. I was going to pick it up, but it's two parts, and 2 discs, and that was more than I wanted.
Not much of a Marty fan, except for his film preservation and appreciation work. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:07 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Quote: Not much of a Marty fan, except for his film preservation and appreciation work.
To me, that's like saying "not much of a Shakespeare fan, except for his essays on stage lighting." But, chacun a son gout, and all that.
Will probably rent the GH doc...it sounds good. |
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