BS: Seen any good movies lately?

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:37 PM

Me, too, that's one of my fav. novels by him! Thanks, Neil.

Loved Smoke Signals. Will have to watch the other. Alexie's writing is also some of my fav.!

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Amergin
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 01:52 PM

In the Electric Mist is on Netflix online....think I'll give it a shot tonight.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 09:50 AM

After seeing "Smoke Signals" I went looking for other movies with Gary Farmer in them and found "Powwow Highway" from 1989. Not quite as good as "Smoke Signals" but still a worth watching. Ebert called Farmers's portrayal of Philbert "one of the most wholly convincing I've seen". Sherman Alexie wrote in one of his short stories that the highest form of literature for modern natives is the road movie and after seeing these two I say "ain't nothing wrong with that".
Further up thread someone recommended "In the Electric Mist" and I recently watched that. It's based on the novel "In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead" by James Lee Burke, one of our finer, more poetic mystery writers. Tommy Lee Jones does a more than credible job of bringing Burke's rough-edged, flawed detective Dave Robicheaux to the screen. One of the highlights of the film for me was this haunting song that played over the closing credits.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: michaelr
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 08:47 PM

"Inception" was fascinating. "The American" put me to sleep.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: kendall
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 06:58 AM

Waking Ned Devine.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 06:54 AM

I go through phases of choosing the type of film I watch depending on the mood but it still has to be a really good story.

The last DVDs that I've watched are:-

In The Name of the Father.
There will be Blood.
The Last King of Scotland.
The Grudge.
The (Digitally Re-mastered) Exorcist.
The Village
Cabaret
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill 1 and 2
Slumdog Millionaire
Sean of the Dead

Jurassic Park the first one, I still enjoy no matter how often I see it.
Shrek 1 and 2 for the same reason. Recent animated films don't seem to quite come up to the quality of Shrek.

Ice-Age 1 and 2, didn't think I was going to like it but it's really enjoyable to watch along with some nibbles on a boring rainy Bank Holiday.

Bolt, about a stunt special effects dog. This was surprisingly good the story was original about a stunt dog who finds himself out of his staged environment and has to get by in the real world and he suddenly discovers that he can bleed and get hungry unlike his unreal life in the movies. A good lesson for children to learn that special effects are not true life.

The last time I saw a film of my choice at the cinema was 'Hot Fuzz' I'd seen Sean of the Dead and had been impressed by that so didn't mind so much paying the extortionate cost of the ticket. Likewise I take my own popcorn or pick n mix sweets which I get at a local supermarket and take it in my holdall or handbag. I've even smuggled in a small can of gin and tonic when watching an higher rating film. No-way will I buy an over priced carton of coke that is probably watered down anyway. Our cinema is in a complex surrounded by restaurants and bars so to my way of thinking it is no different than having one or two before I go in. On the whole though I rarely do go to the cinema now, it has to be really really darn good or I wait until the film is released on DVD. I have seen the odd turkey though and it seems such a waste of money, the film I am contemplating seeing is the 'Last Exorcism' and hoping it is not a disappointment but if anyone knows differently I would be grateful.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 12:32 PM

Thanks for the links, Jim. That looks good!

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 11:10 AM

The Real Dirt on Farmer John -- a documentary about the hardships of John Peterson, an eccentric (but, in my opinion, lovable and admirable) bachelor farmer, who comes into conflict with his narrow-minded and suspicious neighbors. Harrowing (no pun intended) but it has a happy ending. Here's the trailer. It's been shown on PBS, but I rented it from Netflix.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 02:48 AM

Kamikaze Girls

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 02:12 AM

Saint of 9/11....a documentary about Father Mychal Judge, who was an FDNY chaplain that was killed that day....truly amazing man.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 11:25 PM

Just watched "Himalaya" which was a 2000 nominee for Best Foreign Film. I don't know which one won that year, but this one would have had my vote. Stunning, poignant, beautiful, and shot on location in Nepal. I would urge anyone who is interested in other cultures and relationships across generations to watch it. I really cannot recommend it highly enough! Available online at netflix. Not sure of where else.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 12:59 PM

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles - an excellent, touching movie

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,erbert
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 11:03 AM

"Black Snake Moan"

American rural music life seems far more interesting than that light weight Brit film about morris dancing...

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Wesley S
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 08:37 PM

I've found this to be one of the better locations to see trailers of upcoming movies:


The Movie Box

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,erbert
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 07:41 PM

"The Matador"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365485/

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 09:53 PM

The Big Gay Musical...poignant, hysterically funny, great songs and performances. WARNING: nudity and simulated sex scenes as well as lots of irony and poking fun at the "far right of Christianity."

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 04:43 PM

'The Departed' - directed by Scorsese; incredible cast - Di Caprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga, Mark Wahlberg, Ray Winstone, and a memorably evil Jack Nicholson. Marvellous film.

Already in the realms of the great: 'Jean de Florette'/'Manon des Sources'.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jun 10 - 11:05 PM

We just watched Lost City by Andy Garcia who also directed and starred in it. He talks about it HERE. It was excellent, esp. the music. Think I'll get the soundtrack.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 May 10 - 01:14 AM

I rented one recently called "The Young Victoria". It's about Queen Victoria in her late teens and in the early years of her reign and marriage, and it's excellent. It gives you a view of Victoria when she was a young, attractive, lively woman rather than the old lady dressed in black whom we all think of now when her name comes up. Definitely worth watching.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 May 10 - 12:24 AM

Just watched a French movie called "Seraphine" about the French painter, Seraphine Loius aka Seraphine de Senlis. It's a remarkable film which won seven Cesar awards including Best Picture and Best Actress. One may read more of Seraphine at WIKI and see a trailer for the movie HERE. I highly recommend it.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 May 10 - 10:13 PM

Thanks, Beer!

No time to investigate it right now, but I just bookmarked the site.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Beer
Date: 24 May 10 - 10:01 PM

Hi Don,
Try this site;http://www.movies-links.tv/

I have watched many movies here. Some great oldies and some recent ones.
Ad.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 May 10 - 09:48 PM

Last time I saw a movie in a theater was in 1993. "Jurassic Park." Cinerama Theater in Seattle. The curved screen is about the size of a football field set on edge, and even though the theater seats many hundreds of people, there are maybe a dozen good seats in the place. Where the radii to all areas of the "wraparound screen" are close to equal. I saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" in that theater a few decades before, sat in a good seat, and it was really spectacular.

Since then, I've had to take to a wheelchair. The "wheelchair accessible" areas of the theater are down very close to the front and over on the sides.

I saw some of the tallest, skinniest dinosaurs imaginable!!

A few weeks later, I rented a video and watched it at home on my 13" television set. Much better.

My wife and I belong to NetFlix. About ten bucks or so a month. We watch a movie, send it back, and no more than two days later, we get the next one on our list. No late fees if you don't get around to watching one for awhile. They just don't send you the next movie until they get the one you have back.

And the DVDs are often "director's cut," with extra features, interviews with the actors, directors, etc, how certain special effects are done. Good stuff.

We watch movies on my laptop (15.4" screen, Harmon-Kardon speakers), sitting on a small lap-desk between us on the bed, or on a coffee table. Excellent. Whatever snacks we might want.

Maybe get a large, flat-screen TV sometime if the spirit moves us. And if Ed McMahon ever gets around to sending me the $10,000,000 he said I had already won a few decades back. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Beer
Date: 24 May 10 - 08:54 PM

Why is the sound so loud?? Do they believe all us Baby Boomer's are deaf?
A movie from the Eighties which was amazing in may ways was a flick called " The Gods Must be Crazy"
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 10 - 11:56 PM

I agree.

Just saw the last vignette of three in a 1957 John Ford movie which I posted about in the Rising of the Moon thread. Hope I can find a copy to watch the two I missed.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 May 10 - 11:05 PM

The best time to see any movie is in the afternoon, specially on a slow day. There'll be very little audience there.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 10 - 10:24 PM

When we go to a theatre, which is almost never, we still sneak in our own goodies in my purse...I carry an extra large one then. Most times I don't carry one at all. I took my grandson to a matinée, got popcorn with no butter, low salt (they have started offering that) and two small drinks as it was a special treat for him. Afternoon rates are cheaper, right? It cost me $35 ad I haven't been back since.

LH, you'll really like the humour in Smoke Signals, imo.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 May 10 - 09:12 PM

They keep pushing the envelope up and up on sound volume, low frequency stuff that hits you like earthquake aftershocks, quick cut visuals that bombard your senses but don't give you time to really see what the hell is happening...and an absolutely ridiculous number of thunderingly over-amplified previews and ads before you even get to see the movie you just paid a hefty price for.

And they try to sucker you into buying popcorn with way too much salt on it, and other junk food that's no damn good for you at all.

This is what happens in a decadent consumption-oriented society that's lost touch with reality, I guess...

Nevertheless, a few really good movies still do get made, in spite of it all. And the seats are very well designed in the modern cineplex, I'll give 'em that...a big ergonomic improvement over the theatres of my youth.

I am pretty careful which movies I go to, so I seldom end up seeing one that "sucks". And I accordingly ignore probably about 98% of all the movies that get realeased in any given year. Works for me.

As for the half-hour of bombastic previews that precede the feature film, I have just about mastered the art of entering the theatre when they're almost all done.

And as for the popcorn and other junk food, I simply don't buy it. I drink water instead. The corporate movie industry hates people like me, but probably not quite as much as they hate you, gnu. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: gnu
Date: 23 May 10 - 06:05 PM

Becca... I haven't been out to a movie theatre for over ten years. The sound was so loud, I walked out after ten minutes and asked for my $ back because it hurt my ears. They said no, so I picked up two foot long subs, a large popcorn, a HUGE coke (who could drink that much?) and said, "Call the cops. I'll be out in the parking lot for ten minutes. Ford F150, black over silver. Plate is CHC-160."

The cops never arrived.

Good munch. Never went back. Watched the movie two years later on cable... it sucked.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 23 May 10 - 05:35 PM

One for the "to be avoided" file: Ghost Writer. Absolutely horrible. I expected so much more from Pierce Brosnan and Ewan MacGregor. Very predictable and painfully slow. That $9 could have been much better spent.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: DougR
Date: 23 May 10 - 05:25 PM

My wife and I watched a very good film last night, "As It Is In Heaven" a Swedish film we got through Netflix. I should think anyone who enjoys music would enjoy it. It's kind of a Swedish "Brassed Off."

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 May 10 - 05:10 PM

I thought "District 9" was very good. On the other hand, I thought "Avatar" was absolutely wonderful, really unforgettable, and I enjoyed it more than any other movie I've seen in the last 20 years. I haven't seen "The Hurt Locker", because the subject holds little or no interest for me. "Smoke Signals" looks very good, going by that clip that was posted.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: michaelr
Date: 23 May 10 - 04:59 PM

Best movie I've seen in a long time is a Swedish film: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The actress who plays the title character gives a tour de force performance. Plotting and suspense-building are superb. Don't wait for the watered-down Hollywood version now in the works.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 10 - 04:44 PM

Neil, we had a special screening at the Casper College in WY when Smoke Signals came out. I am glad you liked it so well. I have never forgotten it and bought the soundtrack right after seeing the movie, plus read Alexie's other books. Fantastic talent and breathtaking writing. I would recommend it to any and all and would hope they would use it in history classes, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 23 May 10 - 04:03 PM

I agree with S O'P. I thought "District 9" a better movie than either of the 2 big Oscar nominated pictures from last year, "Avatar" and "Hurt Locker". The movie I've seen lately I heartily recommend is "Smoke Signals", the first feature film written, directed, and co-produced by Indians to ever receive a major distribution deal. It's not a recent release (1998) and it's not something you find in the average video store or Red Box. Luckily my library is in a swap network with libraries all over the country and were able to find it for me. It is a subtly nuanced story with lots of humor and even more heart. Since Huck Finn our best stories have been about journeys and friendship and man's dubious interaction with society. Writer Sherman Alexie does a wonderful job of using those themes to tell a tale about Natives that is also a great American story. Here is a clip from the end of the film which captures its essence and grandeur without spoiling the plot:How Do We Forgive Our Fathers?

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 23 May 10 - 02:55 PM

I just watched "Good Night And Good Luck" - about Ed Murrow's taking on McCarthy. Directed and co-written by George Clooney.

Fascinating subject matter - that really was a scary time in the annals of the American people. Just the short extracts of what I guess were actual hearings were enough to make me glad that I wasn't in the USA at that time. David Strathairn, playing Murrow, came over very well, although I can't say whether he made an authentic Murrow. It was very definitely another time, if only shown in the constant lighting up of cigarettes. That was a time when smoking was socially acceptable. It's not surprising that he died early from lung cancer.

What a departure from the normal Clooney image. The part he played (Fred Friendly) was nowhere near the normal Clooney roles. It took a few minutes to realise that it WAS George.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 May 10 - 11:29 PM

We just watched The Fastest Indian in the World with Anthony Hopkins acting as Bert Munro, the man from New Zealand who set a world record on an old Indian motorcycle at Bonneville Salt Flats. What a great movie and such an amazing man he was...Kiwis be proud! Really incredible. The only thing that bothered me was I thought Hopkins shouldn't have tried a New Zealand accent as he didn't quite get it, esp. when compared to the real Kiwis who acted in the movie, too, imo. It's Hopkins, though, and he did a superb job regardless.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Becca72
Date: 08 Oct 09 - 12:41 PM

Just watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from Netflix last night. Wonderful! I wish I'd seen it in the theatre!

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: billhudson
Date: 02 Oct 09 - 11:19 AM

Jacob Young's documentary -DANCING OUTLAW
      Liey Schreiber film, Everything Is Illuminated
       Berhard Wicki, West German film, The Bridge      
      Joseph Losey's film, The Boy with the Green Hair
      Jim Jarmusch.'s film, Down by law
      Any 1950's English films

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 04:51 PM

Yes LH but this is new on DVD with Billy Bob and Mickey Rourke so I thought a public service announcement was merited.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 04:42 PM

Legend of 1900

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 04:41 PM

When it comes to bad movies, the competition is vicious and the field is very, very extensive.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 04:39 PM

I saw a very, very bad movie: The Informers. I can't remember anything as bad.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 10:51 AM

There's no end to it. You just have to hang around the wrong people.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 10:09 AM

Gran Torino. Man, I didn't even know there WERE so many racial slurs.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 03:55 PM

I agree. It's an excellent movie.

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 07:45 AM

District 9

Solid robust storytelling replete with laugh-out-loud humour, searching metaphor, a thoroughly unlikely (and unlikeable) hero and a touching tenderness that made sure I watched the credits roll through my tears. Ups the anti on the genre; the most thrilling and inspirational sci-fi since Aliens....

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 10:42 AM

Breaker Morant. Especially loved the references to race relations.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Sep 09 - 12:01 AM

Waking Ned Devine

Good music, too.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Seen any good movies lately?
From: robomatic
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 05:36 PM

oh, get me started on French movies:
In my youth I saw two French flicks that sucked so bad it put me off the genre for years (and by two I mean trois):

First was a 'histerical historical' snoozefest which we had to see for school. It was called "Louis Cat-horse." It was all in French and it doesn't matter if it was subtitled because it was pretty much edited in real time, the main scene being an interminable dinner which went on forever. When the king was going through the many halls of Versaille (which the movie showed being constructed pretty much in real time) on the way too (and from) dinner, various standing extras were reqired to yell "Le Roi!" a appropriate intersections. This went on for so many times that when he vanished from the corridors for a moment, one of my schoolmates yelled (imagine a coarse New England accent here) "Where's 'Le RWAAAAAAA?'" the only bit of levity to this mass expenditure of le film. The only known cure for this movie is a quick round of Gilbert & Sullian but at the time the films of Gilbert & Sullivan were being strangled by the courts and actor's equity.
My fellow schoolmates reacted with the same benumbed reflexes as myself, and the effect was so noted by the school authorities that next month, as we showed signs of recovery, they sent us to see it all over again.

Sometime later, and probably on my own nickel, I saw a suspense thriller called "Le Boucher" (The Butcher). It was a thrill-a-minute, and by that I'm talking about a minute on Jupiter which takes about a billion years to go around the sun one time (It's gone around about twice since God made Darwin). Anyhow, a byoutifull French gal is visiting a charming town in the suburbs of Paris which is about fifty miles out, and she's caught the eye of the local boucher which is French and sounds kinda like he could be a baker or a bootcher but he's really a butcher. He takes a shine to her and she keeps coming by because she gets hungry. He saves the good cuts for her. But all around, people keep on dying. And well, the screenplay comes to life and wanders up and down the aisles screaming alternately c'est le boucher! and occasionally in a French accent: "heet's thee bootcher, heet's thee bootcher!" which the entire audience can here and often responds telling the animated script "yeah, like that's a surprise!" so anyway the distraction is welcome, but the movie is still rolling slowly on, and the cute gal is still showing up for her regular meat pies. There is no tension, there is no flirtation. There is no nothing. There is animated stasis. People die, young French woman shows up to get the cut de jour, and butcher guy looks shifty. Finally for some reason, probably to avoid being hit under the chin by the closing credits, he confesses, to the pretty French girl. He is the killer. He feels bad about it, too. And that's pretty much how the film fin'd. The cute gal was still alive, too, but the audience had died.

Some years later, full of dread, and with a cute blonde, I attended a French film for the third time in my young life, this time by a great director full of la criticisme de la nouvelle ague: It was by Bunuel and it was called "La Charme Discrete de la Bourgeosie". It totally does not matter if it was subtitled, which it was. The film was a surreal critique, which either means it was a critique of class done in a surreal style, or it was a surreal critique or it was a critique of a surreal class. It involves a bunch of upper class nimrods trying to have a meal together so they can talk about those not present, which is one of the standard human conditions (talking about those not present OR not being there, take your pick). In the early part of the film they are at a restauranat where the waiter is on the table, because he's already seen the script and passed himself off as dead (or not speaking, or trying the clever third position: Being there AND being spoken about).
Ultimately these hungry well clothed people playing hookey from their jobs (as actors) wind up in a restaurant which gets attacked by terrorists, but not the new terrorists, the old kind who wore red berets and liked to shoot up airports. Many of them (the real terrorists) later became lawyers and bankers, but that's an entirely different, much scarier story than this. The best scene in the whole movie is when a terrorist goes up to a restaurant table and lifts the tablecloth, exposing one of the nastier wealthy bourgeois characters, who is holding in his hand a chicken leg, and defiantly chews it in his the terrorist'sface. Earning him his just reward, the same reward I'd've cheerfully awarded Bunuel had I had my Kalashnikov with me. The only only good thing to say about this movie was that the film was like a bludgeon to my cute blonde friend and she was helpless before the crude advances of youth.

So anyhow, this is just to say that I do love French films. I think they are great and I heartily endorse them and am probably going off to see one right now.