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| Syd |
 Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:32 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Ghulam wrote: "Mr. Turner" is a visual delight, another gem of a movie from Mike Leigh. J.M.W.Turner is portrayed as an eccentric, fiercely independent, sometimes callous, sometime kind, prolific painter. The cinematography is superb. Each scene is like a Turner painting. Timothy Spall is wonderful as Turner. A "must-see".
I hope that makes it here. I want to see it on a big screen. |
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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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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 5:21 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Imitation Game is well-made and entertaining enough, but rather feels like it's checking off boxes and trying to heighten the drama. Rather than the personal side of things, I would have been more interested in how Turing designed and conceived his machine rather than who was or wasn't sleeping with whom. And it would have been interesting to know how the intelligence gathered was and wasn't used.
Keira does a good job, but certainly looks too much like a Wow! for the part. It seemed to me like one of those movies you stumble upon on cable and mildly enjoy, but if you missed it, or miss half of it, that's fine too. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 9:50 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Kingsman: The Secret Service is very satisfying. Colin Firth is (of course) perfectly cast as the very stylish agent Galahad for a really, really secret organization (Kingsman) of well-tailored gentlemen agents out to save the world. Michael Caine is Arthur, the head of the organization, and Mark Strong is his right-hand man, Merlin, and they, too are perfectly cast. When Agent Lancelot*(Jack Davenport, perfectly cast) is killed by a woman with bladed prostetic legs (think Oscar Pistorius as a female assassin), Kingsman needs to train a new Lancelot, and Galahad's candidate, Eggsy (Taron Egerton, struggling slightly to keep up with a bunch of perfectly cast actors), is the son of an agent who died saving Galahad's life. Time is urgent, too, because Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) is ready to hatch his diabolical plan to save the environment by culling the human race, and it does look like it's Valentine's day.
This film is a perfect blend of humor (sometimes very dark) and action, and sometimes very serious. At one point, all the prospective agents are assigned dogs, and Eggsy picks a pug under the impression it's a bulldog puppy. He asks hopefully whether it will grow, and he is reassured, well, no. The dog is, of course, perfectly cast.
*do you see a naming trend here? |
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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 Feb 14, 2015 10:38 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Mark Strong is my #1 candidate for an actor who is going to find himself a role that will win himself a lot of awards, including an Oscar. Among women, it would be Emily Blunt or Isla Fisher. |
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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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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 12:55 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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Strong was good as the MI6 chief in TIG. Hope you're right.
My mind links SLJ with "Valentine" in another film...
Anyway, we were leaning towards seeing Kngsman, so thanks for the nudge, Syd. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 9:58 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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I liked The Theory of Everything.
Hard to imagine a better portrayal of Hawking.
It's a little light on the science and heavy on the score, but it really put across the physical and emotional difficulties. I wasn't surprised at the end to see that it was based on a book by Hawkings first wife, since it focuses a lot on their life together and her forbearance. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 3:09 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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gromit wrote: Imitation Game is well-made and entertaining enough, but rather feels like it's checking off boxes and trying to heighten the drama. Rather than the personal side of things, I would have been more interested in how Turing designed and conceived his machine rather than who was or wasn't sleeping with whom. And it would have been interesting to know how the intelligence gathered was and wasn't used.
Keira does a good job, but certainly looks too much like a Wow! for the part. It seemed to me like one of those movies you stumble upon on cable and mildly enjoy, but if you missed it, or miss half of it, that's fine too. |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:08 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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bartist wrote: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/ Nov/20/the-imitation-game-invents-new-slander-to-insult-alan-turing-reel-history
...as I suspected.
- from the earlier chat about TIG.
- as gromit suggests, if it pops up on cable you might have a look....
Can't find my review, but it was similar to gromit's. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 2:44 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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In an odd way, the Turing Machine -- a protocumputer -- becomes an enigma in the film, as it's just this large wall of clicking discs which we don't understand how it works at all. Build an enigma to solve an Enigma, I guess -- though I didn't like how the film makes the Turing machine such a cypher.
Just as it worked pairing Birdman and Whiplash -- mainly linked by the drum scores -- Imitation Game and Theory of Everything went well together. Biopics of Brit geniuses with significant flaws and smoking hot wives. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 10:45 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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Sienna miller outsmokes both of those wives.
We saw Kingsman and pretty much everything Syd said (incl the Pistorious femme fatal). It's not a good film, but it's a very good bad movie. Stylish, sexy, sometimes hilariously OTT. Not since "Scanners" have I seen the exploding heads trope put to such good service. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 10:54 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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bartist wrote: Sienna miller outsmokes both of those wives.
Well, I'd have to see whichever film she's in -- Kingsman? (which i have no interest in seeing).
But Felicity Jones is much more my type than Sienna Miller.
And Keira as a brainiac would do quite well ...
Both of those were real nice fantasies -- almost made me want to be smarter and geekier ... |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 4:03 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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I liked Theory of Everything a lot more than I had expected to. It is 20% about cosmology, 25% about Lou Gehrig's disease and 55% about a remarkable love story. I thought the writers got the proportions just about right.
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:30 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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| I must admit that when Hawking starts driving his wheelchair around wackily while looking spazzy that I thought of Woody Allen in the early scene in Sleeper. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 8:26 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Sienna Miller was in American Sniper and Foxcatcher.
For some reason, I was thinking Witherspoon for the lead category, but she does compare favorably to the supporting actresses I mentioned. (For The Good Lie, of course.) |
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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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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:28 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| My friend who sends me disks with movies he pulls out of the Internet supplied me with a few to watch over the long weekend, but the only one I've had time to watch was "Birdman." And I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I like Gromit's theory of the final scene, though. And I love the New York theater setting, and the unusual camerawork. The actors were all terrific. And now I want to read some Raymond Carver. But I still can't really decide whether I liked the movie or not, though I liked quite a lot of the things in it. |
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