Past Movies: The First Reel

[wisewoman]

I'm looking forward to UP on DVD too.

Interesting thoughts on the Beckinsale/Paltrow Emmas, Kate and lys. I've only seen the Beckinsale version once, and it suffered a bit because I had already seen and loved the Paltrow version, which I do think is much funnier and more... sprightly. Also, the Paltrow version has a simply delightful score, one of my (admittedly many) favorites. I don't think the music in the Beckinsale version was anything memorable.

*wonders why his spoiler box looks different from some other people's*

If you do this: (SPOILER=Jane Eyre, for example)spoilers here!(/SPOILER), it will give your spoiler a title. If you don't use the = info, it will just show up as black lines, which is fine I guess. I like now that you can use spoiler tags right in the middle of a sentence without breaking it out into a new paragraph.

*also enjoys the Jackson King Kong, even if she will be persecuted for it*

Aww, I really like The Importance of Being Earnest, lys! (Though I agree with you about the tattoo. The dancing-girl flashback could have been much worse.) Of course, I haven't read the play, so the film version is all I know. I just think it's fun. And I agree, Anna Massey stole the show! She was so cute, especially with the vicar.

I really enjoy both of the recent Batman films. Initially I thought I liked Batman Begins better, but every time I see The Dark Knight I am reminded just how good it is. The music for both is stunning too.

Valkyrie was good, ILF. It was hard though, watching it and knowing what was going to happen. I don't know that I would rush out to borrow it again from the library, but it was certainly well made.

I watched Citizen Kane for a film class in college. I enjoyed it but a lot of the technical stuff probably went right over my head. "Heartless" is a good word to describe it, I think.

You found Amazing Grace for $5? Cool! We love that movie.

Who here has seen His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell? I borrowed it from the library because it looks like it could be fun.

Oh, and how about the Best Picture of 1962, Lawrence of Arabia? We'll probably be watching that soon and I'm curious if others here have seen it.

[Meltintalle]

*waits (im)patiently for lys' review of David Copperfield* I still haven't watched my copy yet. I'd like a few other people in my family to have read the book first, I guess.

ww, I saw Lawrence last summer. I really liked it. The cast and crew did a stellar job. There are a few parts that aren't very fun to watch quicksand, torture and the end of the story (which they put at the beginning so it doesn't end so tragically)... but watching camels race across the desert is really cool and makes up for the not so nice bits. I like the score, too.

[QueenLucy]

I take it you don't like Audrey Hepburn at all, eh, QueenLucy?

Nope, not at all! LOL.

I just recently saw Casablanca ant thought it was utterly fantastic. It was a true masterpiece of a movie, and Bogart was very good in it, as well. Four stars!

I have yet to see Citizen Kane, but I will soon. We have it in the house, somewhere.

[PrinceCor004]

@ Lys. Hmm, something tells me you really dislike The Birds and PJ's King Kong..... I'll agree that neither are "great" films, but they are fun.

*has seen Citizen Kane and agrees with Ly's and ww opinion on it*

Going back to the Batman films: It's kind of odd, I prefer the film Batman Begins, but I like the score to TDK better. *shrugs*

*needs to see Lawrence of Arabia*

Speaking of desert films, has anyone here seen the 1975 Sean Connery film The Wind and the Lion? It's a family favorite of ours. Good Jerry Goldsmith score as well.

[SnowAngel]

WiseWoman- What you should know about the Walmart $5 DVD bin is that the cases tend to be very cheap: think, those recycled cases. (My parents bought Valkyrie (for us) and Amazing Grace (for grandparents) both at WallyWorld and the cases were sorry.) Not that would stop us from getting a bargain at the $5 bin, just thought you'd like to know.

We watched A Knight's Tale on Friday. It was 6.5 of 10. It had good acting and the plot was pretty good, but the music was just weird.

I was looking though my posts on the old forum and found my favorite movies list. So, I add and removed some movies... and here it is my newest list of favorite movies.

My Favorite Movies

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Lord of the Rings
Fireproof
Faith Like Potatoes
The Patriot
Gladiator
Band of Brothers
Come What May
Horatio Hornblower Saga
Behind Enemy Lines
Amazing Grace
Blood Diamond
Silverado
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
The Hunt for Red October
The Great Escape
Horse Soldiers
Stalag 17
The Fuller Brush Man
Whistling in Brooklyn
You Can't Take It with You
It Happened One Night
Arsenic and Old Lace

SnowAngel

[Shadowlander]

Yeah, that $5 bin is filled mostly with forgettable movies, but occasionally one comes across a real keeper. Just make sure they're widescreen for best cinematic effect.

[QueenLucy]

It Happened One Night

Oh, I completely forgot about It Happened One Night! That is one of the sweetest movies of all time! 4/5

I just saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I love F. Scott Fitzgerald's work, but I had never heard that he wrote this story. So, I watched the movie, and thought it was almost flawless. The story was brilliant, the acting was great, and the overall production was beautiful. Yes, it was depressing, but worth it. 4.5/5

[IloveFauns]

The ending of Benjamin button was sad.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

SnowAngel, you've never heard of Queen's music before? Or do you mean their music didn't really suit the medieval era of the movie? I thought it was enjoyable. You don't see A Knight's Tale for historical accuracy.

I most recently watched Dark City - The Director's Cut. It was the director's original vision before the bigwigs made him cut it down. It improves an already great movie.

[QueenLucy]

IloveFauns: Yes! *I cried. *

[IloveFauns]

That reminds me of when all these people looked ta me when i laughed when dumbledore was about to die.

[QueenLucy]

That reminds me of when all these people looked ta me when i laughed when dumbledore was about to die.

How ironic! I did the same thing! We were watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and I began to giggle when

SHOW SPOILER

Will Turner "died."

...I got stared at, yes.

[Shadowlander]

Whoa folks...spoiler boxes please! It's a safe bet most of us have seen the movies in question, but I haven't seen the HP films and I'm assuming that's a major plot point on down the road in the storyline.

[Bookwyrm]

I watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine last night. It was okay, for a popcorn movie. It's definitely not one of the better Marvel movies. Better than the first Hulk movie or the second Fantastic Four movie, although that's not saying much. I think I even liked X3 better.

I guess the biggest reason I wasn't thrilled with it was because it just felt like a summary of the events. The interesting stuff is completely rushed through and then it lingers on boring moments like when Logan was living with Kayla. Nothing happens and it's just a very dull section of the movie. Then we get a big old rush of action, but the action just seemed kind of pointless and disjointed. The plot is just not very good. I will admit that the fight scenes were amazing, some of the best fighting I've seen in a superhero movie. Wolverine actually fights like he knows what he's doing in this movie instead of just blundering around hacking people up like he did in the X-Men trilogy.

More things I disliked included the music. Harry Gregson-Williams is an average to mediocre composer, but this was bad, even for him. It was loud and obnoxious, kind of like a cross between a Hans Zimmer score and a John Williams score, all played by tone deaf musicians. Then in the emotional moments, it would suddenly shift into piano music that sounded like HGW's attempt to imitate James Newton Howard. It was nice, but completely out of place.

People have complained about there being too many characters in the movie and it's true, somewhat. There are a ton of mutants thrown in, basically to make the fanboys go "SQUEE!!", but I didn't mind it that much. It did annoy me that Emma Frost is never mentioned by name and that the mutant prisoners on the island are never really identified. Seeing Gambit was pretty awesome. Deadpool could have used more screentime, considering he was my favorite of the Team X people, other than Wolverine and Sabertooth.

Acting wasn't bad. I thought Hugh Jackman played Logan as more of a tame character, which doesn't really work for me. He only seems Wolverine-like in scenes with Sabertooth/Victor. Liev Schreiber was excellent as Sabertooth. He was creepy and vicious and scary, everything a good supervillain should be.

Oh, and whomever decided to use that horrendous digital effect on Patrick Stewart again needs to be fired. It looked cheesy in X3 and it looked worse in this movie. Maybe it's because I know what Patrick Stewart actually looked like 20 years ago, but it just looked like someone wearing a plastic Professor X mask to me.

So it wasn't awful, but it wasn't excellent. Good enough for one viewing and enjoyable enough, just not as good as the other X-Men movies. Hopefully the next Wolverine movie is better.

[QueenLucy]

Whoa folks...spoiler boxes please!

Oh, my apologies! I didn't think about that. Oh, well, I'll remember next time.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I think Casablanca is very good but overrated. Ingrid Bergman is amazing, as usual. The only disappointing thing was that I didn't feel any chemistry between Humphrey Bogart's and Ingrid Bergman's characters (and this is known as one of the best love stories?) I could see Bergman was trying but Bogart was a cold hearted man (almost always is). He's got gravitas but he expresses less emotion than James Bond. Ouch!