BS: Seen any good movies lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Sep 08 - 05:26 PM

Seen any good movies lately? Yes.

This movie is full of murderers and other felons, but there are no gun fights or car chases. Despite that, there is a fair amount of suspense. The movie stars Clive Owen, David Kelly, AND Helen Mirren.

Greenfingers (2000) – (There is a horror movie out with almost the same title: "Green Fingers." But that ain't it, so be sure you get the right one. No relation to "Greensleeves," "Green Gables," or "green around the gills.")

It deals with prisoners in an experimental "open" prison who are being given job training for when–and if–they are released or paroled. A group of them are dragooned into learning to be gardeners ("You guys are a disgrace to the prison system!" says another prisoner) and after some initial distaste and misgivings, they take to it with gusto—and wind up at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

Trailer

Unusual movie based on a true story. Very well done. (Be forewarned, though. It's kind of a "feel good" movie. But don't let that put you off).

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: DougR
Date: 05 Sep 08 - 05:35 PM

Little Hawk: I think you are being most generous by rating "No Country for Old Men" 2.5 stars. I thought it was a terrible movie. Woody Harlson's role was a throw away part and Tommy Lee Jones' (a fine actor I think)role was only a tad bit better.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: olddude
Date: 05 Sep 08 - 07:09 PM

Frankenfish scifi channel
oh yes rates right up there with AI assult, or Boa vs Python

only the best for the olddude

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Sep 08 - 07:26 PM

I love this! I open one window to my netflix account, the other to this thread, then go down the list of posts, check to see if netflix has each movie and voila! They are on their way to me for viewing. Thanks for the recommends! I have just added Greenfingers (love Clive Owen!), A Very British Gangster, and Everything is Illuminated to my queue.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Sep 08 - 12:40 AM

Doug - You're absolutely right. I was being very generous to give
"No Country for Old Men" a weak 2.5 stars (out of 4). I should have given it about 1 star.

I guess I was in a merciful mood when I rated it at a 2.5.

Yes, it is a terrible movie. I was not impressed when I saw it. I'm glad I just rented it rather than blowing 10 bucks on it at the theatre.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Sep 08 - 12:51 AM

Haven't seen this since it came and until now couldn't find it anywhere on the Internet, so I am chuffed to note that the First Nudie Musical is now available on DVD!! It is a blast to watch with those clean cut kids from Happy Days, Ron Howard and Cindy Williams. Netflix doesn't have it, yet, but I plan to request it. It is one of the most hilarious movies I've ever seen...right up there in the spoof category with Spinal Tape etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 03:01 PM

Death and the Maiden

The Illusionist

Out of Africa

Children of a Lesser God

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,Sawzaw
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 03:55 PM

Does anybody remember "Bar Fly"? I thought it was a good one especially to show to alcoholics to sober them up.

Mickey Rourke seemed to be imitating the voice of Hokey Wolf in the Hanna-Barbara Cartoon series.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 03:58 PM

I loved Bsr Fly-- I thought of it as a character study.

I most loved about that I could say to one man of my acquaintance that he did NOT meet me in a bar.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 10:11 AM

Must see: Rabbit-Proof Fence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit-Proof_Fence_(film)

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is a true story concerning the author's mother, as well as two other young mixed-race Aboriginal girls, who ran away from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, in order to return to their Aboriginal families, after having been placed there in 1931. The film follows the girls as they trek/walk for nine weeks along 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong, while being tracked by a white authority figure and a black tracker....[

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 03:10 AM

On Saturday we saw The Power of Song.
Wonderful!
I sang all the way through.
(I don't know what the lady sitting next to me thought.)
So inspirational.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,Don Firth (computer still in the shop)
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 07:31 PM

We love NetFlix!! And the Internet Movie Database!

Barbara has a neat way of picking good movies, most of which we had never heard of before. She zings in on an actor we particularly like or think is especially interesting, for whatever reason. Then she looks him or her up on IMDb to see what other movies they've been in. Then, she looks the movies up on NetFlix. That's how we ran into Quigley Down Under and a particular filming of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, looking for movies with British actor Alan Rickman (most recently, probably best known as Prof. Snape in the Harry Potter movies).

Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent was another. We'd seen him as Hap Shaughnessy, the tall-tale telling blowhard on "The Red Green Show" and heard that, as ridiculous as the character was, in real life, Pinsent was an excellent serious actor. Which, indeed, he is. We saw him in The Shipping News, Saint Ralph, and Away from Her, all excellent movies, and Pinsent is, indeed, a fine actor.

Lately we've been sampling the work of another British actor, the late Roger Livesey. We had first noticed him as the elderly Duke of St. Bungay in the TV series, The Pallisers (secretly, I'm madly in love with Susan Hampshire), and there was something about that sort of "hoarse-ish" voice of his. We checked out the 1945 movie, I Know Where I'm Going, with he and Wendy Hiller. Then the Errol Flynn swashbuckler, The Master of Ballantrae (okay, but very Errol Flynn-ish), and quite recently, Futtock's End, with Ronnie Barker. Grunts and mumbles, no actual dialogue. Bloody hilarious! At the age of eighty, Livesey insisted on doing his own stunts!

We've just watched Livesey in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). I had heard of Colonel Blimp as a satirical British cartoon character, and this movie picks up on it, although the character played by Livesey is much more fully rounded and sympathetic than the cartoon character. This carries the character, British army officer Clive "Sugar" Candy up through the ranks as he partakes of three wars (the Boer War, WWI, and WWII—over time, they age him with make-up, mainly a walrus mustache, a "bald cap," and a prosthetic belly). Deborah Kerr co-stars, playing three different (?) women in his life.

I can recommend all of the above-mentioned movies (unless you're not a fan of Errol Flynn as he swashes from the neck up and buckles from the knees down), particularly The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

A most unusual and enjoyable movie.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 09:57 AM

Au Revoir, Les Enfants

Ikiru

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 07:41 PM

I confess that I haven't read ALL of this thread, so this might just be a repeat of someone else's recommendation. If so, record it as just several exclamation marks after the previous rave, if any.

This afternoon my Beautiful Wife and I saw Elegy, with Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Cruz. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Those two are such great actors, and the story is marvelous. Then add lovely cinematography, and gorgeous music along the way.

In a nutshell, Kingsley, a professor and arts/literature critic and commentator (on NPR) falls in love with Cruz, who had been a student in his class. His angst about the difference (30 years or so) in their ages tortures him through the real romance. I don't want to tell you more about it, because it might spoil the effect of certain developments in their lives.

SEEITSEEITSEEITSEEIT!

(If you gather that we liked this movie, you must might be getting the flavor.)

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 11:46 PM

Don, we do the same thing, using IMDB and netflix. Love it!

Dave, I just "sved" Elegy at netflix, but it won't be out on DVD until Jan, 13, 2009. Oh, well, I look forward to it. Thanks!

Thanks to someone's recommendation up thread, Greenfingers is on its way to us, just in time for the weekend!

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 12:06 PM

Onibaba

Vatel

Wonderland

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 05:10 PM

When the Legends Die

LOVE my new specs-- bifocal line lowered so I can lean back AND see the TV!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 05:26 PM

If you have not seen Perfume, DO NOT SEE IT
It is of a reality so different that your senses of sight sound and smell will be altered forever, along with your sense of history.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: DougR
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 06:03 PM

We saw one last night that the majority of you folks will eat up if you haven't seen it. It actually is a movie made for television and is the final chapter of the popular BBC series, CRACKER. My wife and I have viewed all of the other DVDs in the series and looked forward to seeing this last one (CRACKER, the final chapter). None of the previous episodes included anything political at all. Just a good old mystery type story with excellent characters. This one was almost totally political. Who's the bad guys? Why, George W. Bush of course and his able sidekick Tony Blair. Even the IRA was drug into it.

Rent it. You'll love it.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: DougR
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 06:29 PM

Little Robin: I don't know what your seat partner thought either, but I'm pretty sure if I sat next to someone in a theatre who sang all though the movie, I would have been annoyed.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 10:16 AM

Burn After Reading!   Saw it last night, and it is a hoot!
John Malkovich is forced out of the CIA, and starts to write his memoirs. By a weird chain of events the partly completed "book", on CD, gets into the hands of Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt, who realize it's got classified stuff in it, and they try to blackmail him, and when he doesn't bite, try to sell it to the Russians. Then there's another interweaving story line with George Clooney and Malkovich's wife (sorry, I can't remember the actress's name) having an affair. Weird (there's that word again!) happenings all the way along, ending with dead bodies here and there, which SEEMS like a strange basis for a comedy, but it's great!

Seems like every identifiable character in the movie is an idiot, including Malkovich's superiors in the CIA.

Another triumph of the Cohen brothers!

I should tell you, my Beautiful Wife was wonderfully offended by the prevalence of the F word, especially in Malkovich's mouth.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 12:14 PM

The other day I found, in a charity shop, a film (in video-tape format) that I had wanted to see for ages. It was called 'The Limey' and starred Terence Stamp. It was about a gangster from the East End of London who goes to Los Angeles to investigate the death of his daughter.

It turned out to be eye-wateringly, tooth-achingly BAAAADDD!!!!! The plot, the acting, the dialogue were just awful - especially the dialogue ... no, that's unfair, the plot was worse ... holes that fleets of aircraft carriers could pass through without touching the sides ... but on the other hand the scene where Stamp talks in Cockney rhyming slang to the LA cop ... my toes still haven't uncurled after a week!!

I hope the Director (and Stamp) were shot soon after this went out.

Still, the video only cost me 99p and I'm eternally grateful that I didn't go to the cinema to see it!

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 03:31 PM

Don Firth -

Two of the films you mention with Roger Livesey - I Know Where I'm Going! and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - were made by Powell & Pressburger (whose non-Livesey films include The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus). If you liked them you should like A Matter of Life and Death aka Stairway to Heaven in the US, which stars David Niven and Kim Hunter, with Roger Livesey as a brain specialist.

Very specifically set over a few days over the end of WW2 in Europe, and in fact shot during the last part of 1945, it combines black and white (the "afterlife" - or is it?) and Technicolor (earth) and is about life, death, love, law and war and also Anglo-American relations (it was partly a propaganda film to show Americans why they should still like the Brits, even if we did have cricket and the Empire) and is my favourite film.

Blimp is another film I really like; one amazing thing about it is that it was shot in Technicolor in south east England during WW2. Decades of exposure to films set in WW2 but shot years afterwards maybe dull the impact, but when you see magazine front covers in the film dated 1943 that's not years ago, that's months or weeks before and the outcome of the war was not fully known. Similarly with the ruins of Canterbury in A Canterbury Tale; that's real bomb damage while the war was still on, filmed in 1943, not recreated production design.

Churchill, incidentally, tried to get Blimp banned; with its sympathetic German officer character (Anton Wallbrook) and its message that the Brits ought to stop being jolly good sporting warriors and fight (and interrogate) more like Nazis, plus the suspicion that the Blimp character was partly a portrait of Churchill, he thought it didn't send the right message.

For more on Livesey and his family - including the tidbit that he and his wife Ursula Jeans met Susan Hampshire as a 6-year old and wanted to adopt her - see http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/Livesey/JillWatt.html

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: MAG
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 01:08 PM

Oh I loved "Limey." Stamp gets out of prison and goes to find out what happened to his daughter years after the fact. The plot is non-linear, so you have to figure out what has happened by mentally putting them back where they go. They use bits of an old Terence Stamp movie in it for the flashback. The ending is poignant. See it!

I wasn't so sure about "Burn After Reading." I don't think it is the Cohn's best work. And the wife is Tilda Swinton, and her acting is polished as always.

They get good performances out of a bunch of Hollywood names. I wasn't so sure about Brad Pitt as the buff gym idiot. It's all a spoof on espionage thrillers and it has its moments.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Amergin
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 03:38 PM

I watched a good movie last night called Reign O'er Me, with Don Chedle and Adam Sandler....It wasn't the usual Sandler affair, where he is the obnoxious 12 year old in an adult body. He played a dentist who basically just shut down, refusing to acknowledge even his grief, when his wife and daughters are killed on 11 September. The movie takes place years after the event, and Don Cheadle is an old college rommate who runs into him, and rekindles their old friendship.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 04:02 PM

We really enjoyed Greenfingers last night. Thanks to whomever recommended it upthread.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Schantieman
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 04:21 PM

My 12 year old daughter took me to see the new 'Batman' film.   Not at all what I expected, no 'BIFF' 'KERPOW'   'SPLAT', no Robin and VERY unpleasantly violent. Not to mention what happens to that bloke's face!

She loved it.


Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 11:10 PM

Garage Days

Cute.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Sep 08 - 10:43 PM

Les Enfants du Paradis

Three hours, all worth it. In two parts. Wish there'd been an epilogue!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 10:16 AM

I saw Ghost Town on Saturday. It was really pretty funny. Ricky Gervais was perfect for the role.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: MAG
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 11:22 AM

The local college showed a Korean film called "Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring."

Simple and powerful.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Oct 08 - 06:35 PM

NeilD, thanks for recommending "Everything is Illuminated!" Excellent film, I can see why you have it in mind and keep sharing it. So funny, poignant, elegant, and beautifully directed, acted, filmed, etc. AND I love the music. I am going to get the soundtrack, soon." Start wearing purple for me now!":-) Oddly enough, Elijah Wood as Jonathan was perfect but really irritated me. I think it was the character more than the actor, though. I loved Hutz's part best of all, as Alex, and yes, Samudovsky was excellent as the grandfather, too. Thanks, again! Here's a link to Gogol Bordello's myspace where one may listen to "Start Wearing Purple."

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 04 Oct 08 - 07:43 PM

Saw 'In Bruges' on the flight up to Shanghai a couple of weeks back. Great movie, very black comedy and some great lines. Not rerally rated Colin Farrell before but in this he is excellent.

Also watched 'Death at a Funeral' and nearly wet myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: heric
Date: 04 Oct 08 - 09:02 PM

Yeah I liked Limey a lot too. I always remember the scene where the meatpackers maul him brutally and throw him unceremoniously into the alley, then he gets up, calmly . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Oct 08 - 09:23 PM

I saw Brideshead Revisted today. I thought it was better than I expected.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 08 - 12:36 AM

WALL*E...

Far too much subtle stuff in there for just kids - but a really nice love story 2 robots!. Almost no dialogue in first half.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Amergin
Date: 05 Oct 08 - 05:18 AM

Every once in a while one will come across a show that just makes you go WOW! I just watched The Lives of Others, and it is a very amazing thought provoking film. The ending was perfect. I thought the guy would go up and talk to him, but no...he didn't.

Was it me or does the guy who play Wiesler resemble Kevin Spacey? Also, I do not think it was a coincidence that the film initially took place in 1984, when they started spying on the author.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: MAG
Date: 05 Oct 08 - 12:24 PM

Y'know, the thing about Brideshead Revisited is that I don'tremember any ofthat stuff beingthe focus of the book -- I remember the focus of the book being the End of Empire, as symbolized by this family too hidebound for its (or its members) own good.

Sabastian didn't come across nearly as swishy, but naybe I need to go reread it.

Oh, Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist was a must for us Young People's Librarians -- fun, but they changed a bit too much from the book. Which will now fly off the shelves.

An Israeli movie called, I think, Close to Home at the college this weekend. grim.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: alanabit
Date: 05 Oct 08 - 04:59 PM

I saw "Das Leben der Anderen-2 ("Lives of Others") too and I agree it was excellent. It was so convincing to see the frighteningly scrupulous Stasi guy was sincere in his beliefs. He was a sort of Robespierre - incorruptable, yet capable of causing untold misery. You hate him at the beginning and come out of it respecting his integrity two hours later. That's a clever film.
There are some German films around at the moment, which are dealing with their big issues very sensitively and intelligently.
We went to see "The Baader Meinhof Complex" on Friday, which was every bit as good at Neil Ascherson described it in his Guardian review. It is a believable and unsentimental telling of the story of the terrorist group (and it's successors), which wreaked carnage in Germany in the seventies and early eighties. I believe the makers tried very hard to be objective in the way they told the story. Nobody was made to look a complete monster, although it would take a special person to like a lout like Andreas Baader. Sadly, a lot of facts about that series of catastrophes are never likely to emerge, but the makers showed admirable restraint.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: MAG
Date: 05 Oct 08 - 05:57 PM

Is the English language consciously shedding its irregular verbs??

Sutely the past form of "Wreak" is "wrought"??

I have noticed numerous examples of this.

and the sprinkled apostrophes -- please please! nails on a blackboard to us recycled English majors. ("Its" -- possessive. "It's" -- contraction of "it is.")

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: heric
Date: 05 Oct 08 - 06:01 PM

Actually it's not "wrought." I had to learn that the very hard way from a college professor long ago. (Wreaked.)

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: alanabit
Date: 05 Oct 08 - 07:13 PM

Sorry if I muffed it... I have been away from the UK for nearly a quarter of a century now. Is there a special word for someone, who is illiterate in two languages?

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 08 - 07:23 PM

I thought we didn't give a damn, at least too much of one, when writing in the threads? I think we all *know* most of the rules...which makes it fun to ignore them at times.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 04:45 AM

I remember that song

Love you! hold you! eight days a wreak!

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 06:01 PM

I just got home from seeing "Burn After Reading". The ads on TV made it look like a comedy. It isn't. But once I realized that, I really liked it.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 09:46 PM

"Das Leben der Anderen-2 is a film Americans need to see to understand that our neww SS police are agencies like Homeland Security and other new domestic spying police.

How is Religulous?

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 10:19 PM

I've seen lots of good movies lately, but nothing recent. I confine my movies to TCM, and the film history class I take...Wednesday we're going to discuss Columbia pictures of the mid-late '30s.

We've already had the pre-code stuff in which women had the strong roles...quite a switch from the last half century. And certainly a far cry from what passes for stories today.

And I wouldn't give you piss for 95% of those who call themselves actors today.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: michaelr
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 10:33 PM

"The Fall" -- a beautiful film. Paralyzed stuntman in 30's LA tells tall tales to little girl in hospital with him; girl's imagination provides visuals. Most incredible cinematography I've seen in years.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 07 Oct 08 - 06:04 PM

"Yeah I liked Limey a lot too. I always remember the scene where the meatpackers maul him brutally and throw him unceremoniously into the alley, then he gets up, calmly . . . ."

So why did the silly tw*t only produce the gun AFTER he had been beaten up? The meatpackers could easily have killed or disabled him him (and probably would have in real life).

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 04:33 PM

I also just saw "Burn After Reading" and I didn't really care for it. It was ok but not worth all the hoopla it's getting, IMO.