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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 5:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I'm planning to see Love & Friendship despite Stillman's most recent movie, IMO one of the worst movies in decades. It's called Damsels in Distress, and is a must to avoid. Since L&F reteams Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny, the costars of my favorite Stillman, The Last Days of Disco, I'm taking the Whit-plunge again. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:11 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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The new Michael Moore film is fine enough. His gimmick of "invading" countries, stealing their good ideas and planting an American flag is a bit thin. And a fair amount of the film is personal testimony and information without hard numbers attached. And the old Hollywood clips inserted seem rather perfunctory.
But there certainly are other ways of doing things than the American way. And it's odd how resistant America(ns) is too ideas that work elsewhere. I thought the most interesting parts dealt with education systems. How in France they actually have a school chef and provide the kids with restaurant quality meals, and spend time to teach them how to eat properly. And how Norway essentially bans private schools, so that rich folks must send their kids to public schools, and therefore the public schools are good and meet high standards. Finnish schools seemed interesting, but we mostly get generalities about how they do things.
It's a decent film and interesting concept for a film, but I think it would have been best served by a factual documentary on good European practices, rather than Moore halfheartedly applying his shtick to it. Though this film might make a bigger impact on middle Americans unaware of the generous vacation time Euros enjoy, or the Portuguese decriminalization of drugs.
Sidenote: I once worked at a big law firm that had a Paris office. So there were a dozen plus French lawyers in the NYC office and it didn't take me long to realize that if you wanted to enjoy a long expensive lunch, just tag along with the French group who hit up all the good restaurants in lower Manhattan. It made quite a change from my usual sandwich or street felafel and knish. The French fully intended enjoying their lunch hour (and a half, or more) and thought nothing of dropping whopping lunch bills on the firm. The trick was to stop at 2 glasses of wine so you didn't fall asleep in the afternoon. One and a half really seemed best ...
I can't imagine the rather lenient Scandinavian prison system working in the US for various cultural reasons. Though elements of that could work in minimum security US prisons. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 8:58 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1245
Location: St. Louis
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I admire his vigor in Where to Invade Next, but I see his one-sided approach not furthering those ideas as much as he wants. I recall several members here critical of his personal/polemic style and you, Gromit, were defending him at the time....so I appreciated your admission that this film has some shortcomings with him "halfheartedly applying his shtick...."
A lot of the message, re good Euro ideas, is already out, like awareness that other nations do healthcare better and cheaper. In this film, he preaches to his choir. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 10:15 am |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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I've seen a lot of movies that I liked. On Tuesday I saw A Bigger Splash. It was almost the worst thing I had seen in almost 2 hours. I sat there watching it. At least in the last 20 or 15 minutes it was definitely way better than the crap it was before the ending.
If you want to see it, come in when it's the last 20 or 15 minutes etc. Someone drowns (he's an asshole) and that's when it was worth awhile. |
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 10:06 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I'm pretty happy with The Conjuring 2, which is nicely creepy and sometimes genuinely scary. One of the best sequences is at the very beginning, in which Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga again) envisions the Amityville murders in one of the best sustained horror sequences I've seen for quite a while. The film is not about Amityville, though, but about the Enfield haunting, full with poltergeist activity and possession. The Warrens are called in by the Catholic Church, who want to determine whether this is a hoax or requires an exorcism. (They don't want to look ridiculous, especially since this is just a few years after The Exorcist--especially since this one involves a little girl doing voices, in this case an old man who used to live in the house.)
Although billed as "based on a true story," I'm on the side of the debunkers on that score, but it works better if you just go and assume it's fiction. I'd like to see James Wan continue with this series because he's good at 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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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 10:15 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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Never been much for haunted house flicks. But, that said, even though I think it's all a lot of nonsense, I am always extremely careful to make sure when I go to bed that the sheets are carefully tucked in around my feet. I feel that exposed toes are the first thing they'll go after.
I would skip this, but you mentioned Vera Farmiga, so I'm....wellll, maybe.... |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 4:42 pm |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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I just came back from watching the movie Now You See Me 2. Another movie that I really liked. Liked it very much! It wasn't great, but it was very good to watch and the acting was excellent and including a lot of funny stuff.
Any of you to see it?
PS, some very good visuals. |
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:08 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:35 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Daniel Radcliffe was on the Colbert show last night trying to describe it, very enthusiastically but well aware that it sounded awful. Stephen was fascinated, but I don't know whether anyone was persuaded to run out and see it. I wasn't. Sounds like a guy flick, to me. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 1:29 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| Are you implying that women are less interested in farting corpses who become your best buddy? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 2:11 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Well, I can't speak for all women, but in a crowd of moviegoers in a line at the weird-films multiplex, I wouldn't place a bet on any of the women buying a ticket to that one-- not that I'd be likely to bet on many guys doing it either, I'll admit. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 5:59 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Finding Dory is a very good sequel to Finding Nemo, in which Dory starts getting flashes of her childhood, realizing that her parents are in California, so she, Marlin and Nemo cross the Pacific Ocean by the Turtle Express to a sealife rescue and exhibit sponsored by Sigourney Weaver. Lots of complications ensue, with the usual high standards of visuals and storytelling,.
Although I think the short, Piper is in its way even better, visually stunning (it took a moment to realize it wasn't live action), and amusing. It's the story of a little sandpiper learning how being a sandpiper works.
Not the first time I thought the Pixar short was better. I like "La Luna" better than "Brave," and "One Man Band" better than "Cars." |
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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: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:04 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Oh, and the next Disney project, Moana, looks like a winner. It features the demigod Maui as her traveling companion. |
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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: Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:22 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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I never saw Finding Nemo. Or I think I saw 5+ minutes when I was at an HMV* store in Hong Kong years ago.
* do they still exist? Of course I used to call it the HIV store ... |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:48 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Finding Dory, the Finding Nemo sequel which is breaking every conceivable box office record for animated features, is unfortiunately not all that.. Lightly amusing and undeniably somewhat fun, it could have been much more, as "Nemo" indubitably and memorably was . The best thing about "Dory," aside from the excellently rendered visuals, is the voicing of Hank the septopus (an octopus missing one tentacle) by Ed O'Neill. Albert Brooks as Marlin doesn't have much to do here, and Ellen DeGeneres in the title role is sort of stuck with constantly reiterating that she has short-term memory loss. I was a little disappointed but wouldn't steer you away from it. But if you're a "Nemo" fanatic like me, lower your expectations. |
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