Movies/DVDs

I saw "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" for the first time recently. Saddest. Movie. Ever.

Well, due to my London Trip and seeing David Tennant in Much Ado About Nothing... I am having a "little" phase. :-) I imported 3 DVDs. And yesterday I've watched Single Father... Argh. David should play some funny roles at times... :-( This was heartbreaking at times.
Sooo, Hamlet - here we go (not funny either, ey??? :-))
And Blackpool is yet to come!

David Tennant was in "Hamlet?" I didn't know that. Who does he play?

Hamlet himself. You should buy it, he did a great job.

Just watched The Shawshank Redemption! Tim Robbins is the man!

NeonChoir wrote:

I saw "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" for the first time recently. Saddest. Movie. Ever.

In my opinion young Leonardo did truly a fantastic job in it.....

I have to say, I am just disgusted with movies at the moment. Everything is something that's been done already. Old films being remade (why on earth did anyone need to remake Straw Dogs???), old TV shows, even board games are now becoming movies! Even the newest Pixar flick (Cars 2) sucked. Nothing fresh or original recently, and I'm really bummed about it.

Having said all that, what is the one film that I'm actually looking forward to seeing this fall? The Muppets. Oh the irony...

ChrissieInFL wrote:

Everything is something that's been done already.

I totally agree with you! What is that? Is it just our age?
So jaded with movies at the moment: yada, yada, yada - seen it all before...
And yes, The Muppets are probably the best we can hope for at the mo...

Jones wrote:

I totally agree with you! What is that? Is it just our age?
So jaded with movies at the moment: yada, yada, yada - seen it all before...
And yes, The Muppets are probably the best we can hope for at the mo...

Not just our age, Jones...even my daughter notices how many sequels and stupid movies are in the cinema. She hardly ever asks us to take her to see anything anymore. When you are boring the 11-year-olds, you're really not trying!

Have to say, the video for the new Muppet theme song ( https://youtu.be/oiMZa8flyYY ) is fun, hopefully the film itself will be good. I'm a Muppet freak so if it sucks, I'll be really mad.

I went on a band trip this weekend. My director remembered to bring "Mars Attacks" and forced us to watch it on the bus. Oh my geez. What an awful film. He loves it to death, though. I have no idea why.

On the way back, we watched "She's the Man." I laughed, but not in the way it was intended. It wasn't like, "LOL, that's funny," so much as "LOLWUT. That's so dumb." It was only a fun experience because my friend who I was sitting with and I made fun of it the whole time.

NeonChoir wrote:

I went on a band trip this weekend. My director remembered to bring "Mars Attacks" and forced us to watch it on the bus. Oh my geez. What an awful film. He loves it to death, though. I have no idea why.

It is a truly awful film, but I actually think it's pretty funny. I like that Tom Jones gets to be an action hero. I like that Slim Whitman music makes the Martians' brains explode. I like that all the actors and actresses, even the screen legends like Jack Nicholson and Glenn Close, are completely into it, and deliver over-the-top, batsh*t-crazy performances. It's very Ed Wood in the type of campy vibe it has, but there are better special effects than poor old Ed used to have. Definitely not a "good" movie, but it entertained me, anyway.

Mars Attacks? Agreed, a classic in the "so bad, its good" territory!

Blimey... it's been a while, but the last film I actually went to see was JJ Abrams' Super 8.

Cracking plot with great effects that don't outshine the story, plus there's an extra level of movie geekiness to appreciate with all the Spielberg references. Bearing in mind he actually managed to get Spielberg to produce it too, Abrams consciously created the perfect homage with affectionate layers of Close Encounters, E.T. and Goonies.

The DVD release is not far off so it'd be a real treat for sci-fi fans - especially those of a certain age.

ChrissieInFL wrote:

NeonChoir wrote:

I went on a band trip this weekend. My director remembered to bring "Mars Attacks" and forced us to watch it on the bus. Oh my geez. What an awful film. He loves it to death, though. I have no idea why.

It is a truly awful film, but I actually think it's pretty funny. I like that Tom Jones gets to be an action hero. I like that Slim Whitman music makes the Martians' brains explode. I like that all the actors and actresses, even the screen legends like Jack Nicholson and Glenn Close, are completely into it, and deliver over-the-top, batsh*t-crazy performances. It's very Ed Wood in the type of campy vibe it has, but there are better special effects than poor old Ed used to have. Definitely not a "good" movie, but it entertained me, anyway.

OK, the whole Tom Jones thing was pretty funny. I'll admit that. It got a lot of us singing "It's Not Unusual" and doing choreographed moves. xD Other than that, though...I don't know. I've never been into those sorts of movies. It reminded me a bit of "Airplane!" (which I was also forced to watch on a bus during a marching band trip, and which I also hated).

Jones wrote:

ChrissieInFL wrote:

Everything is something that's been done already.

I totally agree with you! What is that? Is it just our age?
So jaded with movies at the moment: yada, yada, yada - seen it all before...
And yes, The Muppets are probably the best we can hope for at the mo...

There are still some really good movies out there, you just have to look a bit harder for them and you may not find them in the big commercial theatres...

These are some films I saw in the last months worth checking out:

Rabit Hole
Barney's Version
Essential Killing
The Insider
Water
Network
Entre Les Murs
Limitless
The Kid With A Bike
Midnight In Paris
Tree Of Life
The Guard
Mr. Nice

^ I've only heard of one of those. Is that bad?

NeonChoir wrote:

^ I've only heard of one of those. Is that bad?

Which one?

In my city there is 1 commercial theatre and 2 smaller ones. The films shown in the smaller ones are usually not that well-known but I've seen some great films there.
To find good films I check out reviews in magazines that I know have similar taste as mine. Also a good source for 'quality' films are the websites of filmfestivals (Berlin, Cannes, Sundancel, Montréal). And there are the recommendations of colleagues, friends, other websites. But then, and this is not always easy, you have to find these films somewhere. Just try to find a Russian movie from 1962 and you will know what I mean . These independant/alternative films aren' t easy to find, they aren't even shown in theatres sometimes. There are some websites that stream alternative films and they usually cost only a couple of euros, I also have a big DVD store in my city where I can find several older alternative films and if I haven't found it by then I admit I download it from the internet. So yeah I put time and effort in searching good films but I think it's worth it.

FILMS:
My fav. films released in Belgium in 2011:

Black Swan
A Separation: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832382/
As If I’m Not There: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1456477/
The Tree Of Life
The Guard
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Rabbit Hole
Barney's Version
Mysteries Of Lisbon: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1236371/
Even The Rain: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1422032/
The Ides Of March
Bullhead
Midnight In Paris
The Sunset Limited
Medianeras: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235841/
Beginners
50/50
Drive
Le Gamin Au Vélo

Personally,I think Midnight In Paris is the most over-rated film of 2011....

JessieAddick wrote:

Personally,I think Midnight In Paris is the most over-rated film of 2011....

My pick for most over-rated film is Melancholia (Lars Von Trier). Most critics will probably disagree with me, but it's just not for me...

Just had to say, The Muppets made me very happy. As a stone-cold Jim Henson geekasaurus, I thought it pushed the right buttons and hit the right notes, despite the fact that I was a bit wary of Jason Segel being such a huge part of it. Very well done, IMHO. And my 11-year-old daughter, who was never much of a Muppet fan, really loved it as well. I wish Dave Grohl had been in it for a lot longer than he was, but he's so awesome that I guess a little Grohl goes a long way.

ChrissieInFL wrote:

Just had to say, The Muppets made me very happy. As a stone-cold Jim Henson geekasaurus, I thought it pushed the right buttons and hit the right notes, despite the fact that I was a bit wary of Jason Segel being such a huge part of it. Very well done, IMHO. And my 11-year-old daughter, who was never much of a Muppet fan, really loved it as well. I wish Dave Grohl had been in it for a lot longer than he was, but he's so awesome that I guess a little Grohl goes a long way.

That's good to read ! I thought I was the only Muppet fan I know
I watched 2 Muppets movie this month, and I really loved them and laughed a lot.
It's a pity my friends don't understand me, they think it's childish and they don't want to make the effort to watch a small part

Open arms wrote:

That's good to read ! I thought I was the only Muppet fan I know
I watched 2 Muppets movie this month, and I really loved them and laughed a lot.
It's a pity my friends don't understand me, they think it's childish and they don't want to make the effort to watch a small part

Oh yeah, I am a HUGE Muppet freak. No offense to your friends, Open Arms, but if they think the Muppets are only for kids, they're just not getting it, and they're missing out on some good stuff!

*back on topic*

In DVD news, I just received the 1st season of Boardwalk Empire on DVD and I cannot wait to get into it. I know the 2nd season's already over, but I don't have HBO and I haven't seen a single full episode of this show yet! I love Steve Buscemi and the few clips I've watched seem amazing. Hope it's as good as I expect it to be.

It's been double cinema visits over Christmas for us, see the new Sherlock Holmes & Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - which is amazing on the big screen - but you also get to watch this:

Just watched Sherlock Holmes 2 and I loved it! Yay! Cheers to part 3!!!

Intouchables is AMACING! Never laughed so much!

mrswoman wrote:

It's been double cinema visits over Christmas for us, see the new Sherlock Holmes & Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - which is amazing on the big screen - but you also get to watch this:

Oh man, how did I miss this??? That's awesome! So glad you posted that, I enjoyed watching it!

In movie news, just saw this morning that Aardman Animation have bowed to protests from a couple of leprosy advocate groups, and are retooling a scene from their upcoming film "The Pirates!" to omit a bit that was apparently offensive to leprosy victims. *sigh* I suppose that's fair enough, but I can't help thinking that the world is a little too PC these days.