New year, new movie topic. Does anyone go to the movies anymore? I haven't been since Christmas, but I did get a chance to catch up on my Netflix yesterday since I am so not a sports fan.

Watched Viggo Mortenson and Nioami Watts in Eastern Promises. Pretty good movie. Viggo is nominated for an Oscar for this performance as a Russian mobster in London. This is from the same director who directed him in A History of Violence, for which he received critical acclaim last year or the year before. Very intense performances in this movie from Viggo, who plays the driver/clean-up guy, and from Armin Mueller-Stahl, who plays the mob boss. Viggo's character, Nikolai, works for him. (You might remember Armin Mueller-Stahl from the movie Shine. He played the father.) This movie is about the Russian mob and their trafficing of young girls from Eastern Europe into London as prostitutes. This movie is not for the faint of heart.

Hey Mary-

Yeah, we go at least twice a year

Actually did go to see the movie Mad Money- my wife was wanting to see it. Well, odd things happened....
First, it was a couple weeks ago, in the middle of one of our coldest days, even had a light snow going. 22 degrees or so. A water main broke, and not just a small one, but a massive 36 inch diameter one- water spewing like a fountain. All this was about a mile away from the theater. Well, we had just sat down, watched the previews, 5 minutes into the movie, and then everyone got evacuated from the building. Huge mess and very icy, around that break- fortunately we didn't have to go that way to leave the theater. They gave us free passes on the way out.
So, the next weekend, we used the passes and went back to see the same movie. It was OK, I guess, but not what I'd call great be any means. Light, funny, but I didn't like the ending. Let's just say nothing was learned.

Couple rentals were great-
First, a movie called Shattered, with Pierce Brosnan. I'm not a big fan of his, didn't care for his Bond versions, and a few others we've seen were not good. This one has a great story. I won't get into it, but if you enjoy psycho kidnappers, love triangles, and plenty of twists, you'll like it.
The other one was a Richard Gere called The Hunting Party. Plenty of political ennuendo, but most of it very true. Good story here also, with Gere as a washed up journalist tracking down the story of the century sort of thing.

Later
TY

Hello, I used to see a lot of movies at the theatre until a couple of years ago. I am going to see Bucket List tonight with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Should be interesting to see.

Forgot to mention, I saw Cloverfield a few weeks ago. It did indeed remind me of The Blair Witch Project because of the shaky hand held cam and the fact that the story was told in the first person. It wasn't great, but, all in all, I enjoyed it. There were a couple of really creepy scenes, like when they were walking through the pitch black subway tunnels while being pursued, and the scene from the commercial where the Statue of Liberty's head comes flying through the air, hits the ground, and rolls down the street like an enormous bowling ball. (Actually, that scene is very effective in conveying the size, power, and hostility of what they are facing.)

There were a couple of times while watching it that I thought of the events of 9/11. There was one scene in particular, when they were in the bodega hiding and you see an enormous cloud of dust coming up the street, and the power flickering. It looked like footage from 9/11.

well, have another good one for you. THe critics didn't like it too much, but hey....what do they know anyway. This one, by the way, is NOT recommended as a Valentine's chick flick. No way.

It's Jodie Foster's The Brave One. Warning, it's very brutal, somewhat sexy in the beginning, (may be a bit too much skin and breasts for kids or early teens) but done tastefully. I liked it enough to watch two times, so I could get more of the dialogue- it's a bit low volume at times.

I think she did a great job of realistically playing the victim/woman with a grudge, even though some of the scenes were a bit hard to believe. She gets thrust into a couple of situations, but then gets a taste for justice.

Don't want to say too much, no spoilers, but I found it to be captivating and intense. A couple spots, we had to pause it for a breath and to blink our eyes

Next on the list is Micheal Clayton, looking forward to that one in a week or so.

I haven't seen it and don't plan to unless I happen to be watching when it eventually makes its way to cable. However, I'm surprised to see that Rambo is STILL playing at our theater. Normally, it takes something along the lines of a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings to hold over this long. Unless there's some twisted contractual obligation to show it so many times, I guess this means there's still an audience for Rock ... er Sly Stallone action movies.
Can Arnold Revisits Conan the Barbarian be far behind?
And, hey, isn't it time Dirty Harry came out of retirement?

I think Clint Eastwood is doing very well in his second career as a director that he doesn't want or need to bring Dirty Harry out of retirement.

I agree, was just trying to think of some classic movie heroes who've been on the shelf a couple of decades.

Saw two rentals this week.

One was Dedication, with Mandy Moore.
I give it a C, maybe...it's called a romantic comedy, but seems more like an excuse to use foul language. But the characters were interesting, very quirky, very likeable/hateable, and had lots of funny moments in it. Overall, tho, it just didn't have much of a story to tell.

The other was called King of California, with Micheal Douglas. Another C, maybe a B- for the young girl actress, who did a great job of telling the story. Basically, Douglas is a mental patient just released, wife long gone, and the daughter has learned to fend for herself. It's a lot about father /daughter relationships, but it's pretty funny too, with the treasure hunt going on. You're constantly wondering if he's out of his mind, or really on to something.

later
TonyY

I watched 2 movies this weekend. The first was Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington. Wow! I really enjoyed this one although it started slow. I won't give away any spoilers but I will say the female character is absolutely beautiful!

The second movie is Chaos starring Jason Statham and Wesley Snipes. Another real good mystery with a surprising plot twist at the end. I don't recall this being in the theaters. Probably a 'straight to DVD' deal. Again, no spoilers but that I recommend both!

Hmmmm........just watched Jumper! This one stars Hayden Christensen and Samuel Jackson. Very entertaining. Hayden does a way better job than he did in Star Wars! I won't give away any spoilers but the ending did lend itself to a sequel or sequels.

ooookeeedoookee....

A new movie to look forward to, the new Indy Jones flick.
At least we'll go into this one knowing not to expect too much, except for some fun and wry humor, and contorted facial expressions of Harrison Ford. Personally, I love the Indy Jones stuff, so it'll be one to put on the "go to an actual THEATER to see" list

Here's a link to the trailer, which is getting huge numbers of hits....

http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html

Going back in time a bit:
- Saw 12 Angry Men on TCM last week. Great movie with exceptional timing, because last night we had auditions for the play, although our version will likely be titled 12 Angry Jurors because we'll have some women in the cast.
- Watched Doom on TNT the other night. No, I never played the game, although I tried to test a demo with my first computer, but it's RAM was so low I couldn't get it work right. (Anybody remember 4 MB?) The flick was entertaining in a comic book sort of way. Not great, but not awful either.
- Finally bought my copy of a favorite comedy, Used Cars with Kurt Russell and Jack Warden. I hadn't seen this one in eons. They can't show it on TV because of the language. Editing it won't work - would be worse than what they did to Smokey and the Bandit. And since we don't subscribe to any of the movie channels, well.

Saw a couple of disturbing yet good movies-
In The Valley Of Elah, with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlise Theron.
Basically, TLJ is the dad in search of his son who supposedly has gone awol after his tour in Iraq. Disturbing and sad, also unsettling when you think how many soldiers come back from the horrors or war over there and have huge issues with anger and rage when they get back here. I'd give it a B.


The other one was Gone Baby Gone, with Casey Affleck and Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, etc
One of those "do the right thing, but is it really?" stories.
No spoilers, but makes for a sad ending. Another B, maybe B- for all the f word usage....waaaay over the top, I know all of Brooklyn doesn't talk like that, do they?


Hopefully this week's two dvd's will be good.

I watched 'I Am Legend' and also viewed the alternative ending which I liked better than the theatrical released ending!

I won't spoil it for anyone but if someone wants details, please PM me.

I liked "I Am Legend" when I saw it in the theater. I'm going to PM you for the alternate ending.

Thanks for the alternate ending. It sounds interesting. Don't you just wish we could have alternate endings to choose from in real life?

Watched "Kinsey" over the weekend. It was one of my Netflix movies. It starred Liam Neison and Laura Linney. I didn't really care for it. It was about the sex studies done in the '50's by Dr. Alfred Kinsey. Don't really recommend this one.

Thanks for the heads up on "Kinsey", won't waste my time on that one...

One my wifey picked out that was pretty good, more family oriented, was Martian Child with John Cusack and Amada Peet. Sweet, adopted kid story. Much happier than Gone Baby Gone....here's a trailer for it from youtube. Martian Child

We got No Country For Old Men today, may watch it tonight. Have high hopes for it.

10,000 BC - Don't concern yourself with historical accuracy. These guys didn't care in making it, and if you care when you watch it, you'll hate this movie.
Lots of good visuals, great locations and excellent creature animation. Story is simple but good. It's engaging and at times very exciting. There is violence but no gore, so it's safe for children.
I saw several interesting trailers. One is not on my want-to-see list: Speed Racer. Great movie if all you want is stunning visuals with colorful cars. But I wasn't a fan of the Speed Racer cartoon, so this doesn't interest me at all.
The Dark Knight - so far, I'm liking this series of Batman movies better than the Tim Burton set, so I'm looking forward to this.
Get Smart - Steve Carell as Max with Bill Murray and The Rock (he's going by Dwayne Johnson here) as agents 13 and 23, respectively. I know it's a rehash of an old TV series but I got a feeling it's going to be the rare exception that it makes for a good, funny movie.
Wanted - In the realm of creativity, this one looks like a winner. A guy who can bend bullets like Beckham. Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman are in it. I think it's based on a comic book, about a group of assassins who "kill one to save thousands."

DW, I may try Chaos...our luck at finding good movies to add to the queue is down pretty badly; most of the recent ones have been really poor.

Last night we watched Into The Wild, a true story of a young college grad who came from the home of a successful man, who was a wife beater and abusive dad- leaves after graduation and hikes and camps his way across the US and eventually to the depths of the Alaskan wilderness. The location shots are stunning, the visuals and scenery are so beautiful. But the story is truly depressing. I won't get into to it for the sake of those who haven't seen it yet. Well developed character, lots of wackos he met along the way (just like real life), lots of adventures. Just really didn't like the ending, but true life is like that...I guess I was expecting more of a feel-good. I will say I admire the family for being willing to have the best and worst of the true story put to film...I seriously doubt most of us would want that.

Currently sitting on the table waiting to be watched, Awake, I am Legend, and Atonement.
You can tell which one I picked to watch for me....

I caught "Iron Man" on Saturday and I must say this movie is definitely worth catching. Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges & Gwyneth Paltrow all provide excellent performances but Robert Downey Jr. is the standout. CGI is effective, more realistic not over done as in some movies. A very entertaining film from start to finish.

I've never really been into superhero movies, so I'll probably pass on this, even though I like Robert Downey Jr.

I'm awaiting the release of the new Indiana Jones movie. I think it's this weekend.

Some movies recently seen as part of my Netflix - "Million Dollar Baby" with Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hillary Swank. It was good, but it kind of dragged on a little too long for me. "Layer Cake" with Daniel Craig (the current James Bond.) Didn't really care for this one. Very hard to follow. They also drop the f-bomb quite a bit in this one.

Iron Man does look interesting, but I'm holding out for Indiana Jones. Mary, I think the release date is the 23rd.

Thanks Woody. Can't wait to see that one.

Watched another Netflix movie last night, a documentary called "Born Into Brothels." It's an Oscar winner from a couple of years ago. A woman goes to India to make a documentary about prostitutes living and working in the red light district of Calcutta. She meets their children, who are fascinated by her camera. She returns at a later date with cameras for all the kids and begins teaching them photography. They tell their stories through their words and their photographs. Some of them are quite good. This woman tries to help these kids get out of their hopeless situation through the skills they learned from her. The deck is so stacked against them from day one that you can't help but hope they can use these skills to rise above their circumstances. (One girl comes from three generations of prostitutes.) An amazing story.

I watched Stephen King's The Mist. Very good.

Revisited one of my favorites over the weekend - Cinema Paradiso. Ahhh! I love that movie! <Sigh>

Have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Hillary Swank in "Freedom Writers."

Occasionally my wife and I like to spend an evening going back and replaying flics that we enjoyed. When we feel like tearing our hearts out we watch "Message In A Bottle," "Pay It Forward" or "Saving Private Ryan." If the endings of these films fail to leave you with an extremely heavy heart, you better have your pulse checked.

The civil rights films "Ghosts of Missippi" and "Mississippi Burning" occupied a recent evening and always serve as a reminder of "man's dominating man to his injury." And when we need a change of pace and a great laugh, we pop "Hitch" into the DVD player and re-enjoy Kevin James "dance" routine before Will Smith.

Incredibly I keep returning to my all-time favorite action trilogy, "The Bourne Identity," "Bourne Supremacy," and the best one of them all, "The Bourne Ultimatum." At this point my wife reminds me that I've watched these movies far too many times and then takes her leave to a good book.

My husband and son went to see Iron Man and loved it. While they watched that, I was next door to them watching Baby Mama. It was cute...not rip-roaring funny like Wedding Crashers, but definitely funny.

I am waiting for Indiana Jones, too!

I saw Iron Man and really enjoyed it. LOVED how it ended. This was the first movie we have been able to see in months, so we really relished it.

Also looking forward to Indy.

well, saw Lions for Lambs, with Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, Robert Redford etc.
Clearly a strong political statement, very anti-Bush, anti-Republican, etc.
But, I really enjoyed it, it did a great job of engaging you into the lives of two best buddies who leave college and go to war together, and it definitely stirs the water in all of our lives about what are we doing to change the world; are we actively involved in working to improve the lives of others, or are we sitting back enjoying our comfortable 2.5 kids, fat 401k and a mortgage. Very thought provoking, and made it's points very well.

May have actually seen the worst movie ever made.

At least it's the most poorly acted one, to the point that it'd probably be a good one to watch for laughs with a bunch of high or drunk people to make fun of it.
It's called Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls....may have been a good book, but this movie is a black hole of your time for the evening, pulls a huge vacuum....incredibly bad acting.
OK, I give it a half a star for scenery. But that's it.
Poorly filmed too....excruciatingly long close ups of grimacing faces, pouty faces, surprised faces, etc. No matter what the expression, if it could have been said with words, they tried to do it with exaggerated facial expressions. Maybe they were afraid the actors couldn't remember the dialogs...I had hoped it'd be similar to an Indy Jones, and maybe in some respects it was, but not even close in story or entertainment.
OK, enough....

Looking forward to the Indy movie, may have to watch the trailers one more time

LMAO, Tony, I wasn't aware there was a sequel to another bad sequel.
The first flick was King Solomon's Mines (1985), a lame attempt to capitalize on Raiders of the Lost Ark. I watched it and found it mildly entertaining.
Then came, ack, Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold. I passed on that one. To think they actually took a third stab at this is beyond sad - funny, but sad. (And yes, my friends and I who watched the first also found it amusing that this action "hero" made people think of General Hospital's Dr. Alan Quartermaine. The book that King Solomon's Mines was based on is supposedly a classic.

I saw I Am Legend and American Gangster. Both are very good, but I Am Legend is kind of slow-paced. I think watching Will Smith talk to himself (and mannequins) added to that feeling, although I must say that who among us wouldn't talk to mannequins in any situation where all the other people are either gone or dead.

Woody
Didn't know, until this weekend, that Allen Quartermain was the character Sean Connery played in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Although i don't think even Sir Connery could help the Temple of Skulls, it does give me some hope that the character himself was higher quality than portrayed.

Stayed up late last night watching In The Name Of The King, with Jason Statham (Handsome Rob in the Italian Job). My son wanted to see it, since he said he's never been disappointed by a movie with Jason Statham in it...Not disappointed, but not overwhelmed either.
Very King Arthur-ish in storyline and setting, with maybe a shot of Lord of the Rings in it, overall not too bad.

I've seen worse, recently

Rented Mad Money for my wife last night, it's pretty funny in spots, and I have to say Queen Latifah brings a lot to her roles- the movies I've seen with her in them are usually well done, and she's becoming a good comedian actress. The movie obviously is light hearted fare, but still makes me laugh out loud a couple times. Predictable except for one twist in it, and overall a good movie for entertainment.

Also got Untraceable, with Diane Lane as an FBI aagent tracking a serial killer who uses websites to video his victims, the more hits the site gets, the more brutal he is....remember seeing commercials for it, but have no clue if it's good or not; we're hoping to watch it tonight or Wednesday night. The premise sounds very horrifying, so sounds like a thriller to me. Yeah, I'm sick like that

later- are you ready for Indy?

Tonyy

I'm willing to bet that there are people talking to mannequins now.....

What's scary is when the mannequins talk back...we were shopping a few weeks ago, and saw one of the "real people" mannequins, it was freaky, when she changed positions- you could tell it shocked a lot of people. Cool, but I bet it's a hard job....not everyone can be a dummy

Real people mannequins? Hmmm.
Oh, I love Diane Lane. She's a good actress and under-appreciated insofar as looks. I want to see that, too, but have to remember to put it on my list.

I got the chance to watch the Golden Compass. It was pretty good for me, but a lot of sybolisms there that caught my eye.

I caught Iron Man a few weeks ago. Probably the best action hero movie that I've seen. Robert Downy, Jr. did a great job as Tony Stark.

I had the opportunity to see Iron Man a couple of weeks ago and loved it. Robert Downey Jr did a stand out job as Iron Man. As superhero movies go, it was the best so far this year. The next Batman movie should be good to see too.

I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. It's the most satisfying Indy movie since Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Good effects.
Good action.
Excellent tie-ins to Raiders. There's one brief scene where Indy looks at photos of "Dad" and "Marcus." Very nice touch.
As to the music, it's an original score to a point, but John Williams also resurrected some lesser themes from Raiders - largely in reference to the Ark and to Marion.
And Shia LaBeouf (sp) adds a fun element as a greaser who is a perpetual drop-out, carries a switchblade and combs his hair a lot.

Anyone going to see "Sex and the City" this weekend? Think I might. But can't wait for next weekend and "Kung Fu Panda!"

Kung Fu Panda looks fun. I saw the full trailer for it last night. Funny.

yeah, Indy is on my go see list for sure. And soon....

Watched the Great Debaters last night, and wow- excellent movie, as I've usually come to expect from Denzel W.
Don't want to say any spoilers, but it has one gruesome scene which really got to me, but it was necessary to visually get across what was going on between races at that time in the Deep South.
Highly Recommended!

Later
TY

I know which scene you're talking about...with Forest Whittaker, right? It was a powerful scene, but you're right, it was necessary to convey how things were back then. It was a great movie. I took my nephews, aged 14 and 16. I wanted them to see there was more to life than video games, hip-hop music, and basketball.

Well, I'm not sure- lets just say on a back road, and involving fire.

My wife watched one, PS I Love You, and she said it's one of those sad, melancholy sweet stories, but with some hope and healing in it too. Not going to be one of her favorites, we prefer movies that are a bit more uplifting; we get enough of the difficult life situations as it is, between our own adventures and other folks we're close to...grief and pain are real enough for us, in other words, don't necessarily want it in our movies too, unless it's something that makes the movie exceptional.

Oh, gosh- speaking of exceptional, man- finally watched Untraceable. Diane Lane does a great job in this one. It's plenty gory and gruesome, but probably no worse than CSI at times.

Outstanding story. No spoilers here either, my previous post about it gave the outline, lets say there's far more suspense and tension than I can convey here. I found myself shouting "NO NO!" at certain spots.....
Another element that brings it closer to home is she's a widower, single Mom, living with her Mom to have help raising her daughter, and the FBI demands of the case keep interfering with family life too. Then there's the stalker aspect of it...

I've said too much- rent it if you like thrillers/murder mystery/mental issues. I give it an A for sure. I seriously boubt my wife will ever watch it with me again, similar to Identity...that creeped her totally out.

I was thinking about the scene involving the pig, but the one you mention is extremely powerful.

oops, you must be online while I was writing....yeah, the pig scene was infuriating. I hate when people get treated like that, and lorded over. The way of the world, I guess, but hopefully none of my family will ever treat anyone like that.

Saw "Sex and the City" this past weekend. I really liked it. If you followed the show, it picks up right where that left off. The only complaint was that there was so much crammed into this movie. Too many sub-plots, but it all tied together at the end. Some VERY funny scenes.

Watched Get Smart. Wow!
Excellent movie.
Steve Carrell was perfectly cast to reprise the Don Adams role. He and Anne Hathaway play off each other well.
Fans of the TV series will appreciate Max saying "Missed it by that much," and wanting to use the Cone of Silence. Also, if you're not focused, you might miss the reference to "Not Craw, Claw."
It was funny in all the right places. And was a fairly good action movie.
My favorite part? The big dance number. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

Hey Woody- wife is on a mini vacation (taking our daughter college shopping for a few days)- we cancelled one campus tour, and ended up going to the matinee showing of Get Smart. I thought it was very well done, I'd definitely watch it again. The interplay between Maxwell and 99 was excellent, and like you said, the big dance number...huge I loved it.
Also all the references to the old tv show, the Sunbeam Tiger in the foyer, etc. I don't remember Max being highly overwieght in the beginning, but that just added to the character development.
From an action movie standpoint, it was good too- lots of explosions, fight scenes, etc.
The "dusty uterus" was a crack up also....

Another favorite scene was the stapling stuff....that was great. And of course, Himey.