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richard
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GREX GOES TO THE MOVIES!!!
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Dec 22 15:41 UTC 1999 |
This is the movie reviews item-- have you seen a cool movie lately?
Whether you rented it, saw it in the theater, ordered it on ppv .etc
Give us your opinions/reviews so if its good we'll go see it, and if
its bad we wont waste our money.
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| 229 responses total. |
richard
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response 1 of 229:
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Dec 22 15:48 UTC 1999 |
I saw the Shawshank Redemption recently for the first time-- really
good movie about two guys who become friends in prison. Tim Robbins
(the innocent white guy protaganist you see in all prison movies) and
Morgan Freeman as the longtime inmate who befriends him. The underlying
theme of the movie (well its actually stated at the end), is that
redemption comes from within-- and you see that Robbins spends his time
in prison attempting to redeem himself by helping the other prisoners,
building a library and doing the tax returns for all the prison guards.
But ultimately his redemption is an inner, spiritual thing. It is a
lesson he teaches Morgan Freeman, who has to learn how to deal with his
own fears. I particularly liked the ending of the movie which shows
their friendship survived. (SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION-- **** four stars
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omni
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response 2 of 229:
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Dec 22 21:06 UTC 1999 |
Gone with the Wind
It was recently on cable, presented uncut complete with intermissions and
an overture and it was completely awesome. I don't think I need relate the
plot or storylines, but the most magnificent thing about it was seeing Vivian
Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia DeHavilland, Hattie Mc Daniel, Leslie Howard and
Butterfly McQueen give stellar performances. The print was recently restored
and was clearer and brighter than ever before.
I have never seen this movie presented in this fashion before, and I think
it is an affront to all that is holy to present this treasure of a movie in
any other form than this. 4 stars all around.
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drewmike
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response 3 of 229:
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Dec 23 04:06 UTC 1999 |
I just saw "Man On The Moon".
I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did.
On the plus side, Jim Carrey and Paul Giamatti don't so much play Andy Kaufman
and Bob Zmuda as they inhabit them. And that's especially fitting given that
one of the film's central issues is the role of The Self. (Yes, my minor was
Film/Vid Studies. Why do you ask?)
But I was irked by the fact that it played so fast and loose with chronology.
Off the top of my head (and I'm sure there's a lot more...)
* Andy is shown playing Ms. Pac Man while debating whether to accept the role
on "Taxi". That's a handy feat, given that "Taxi" debuted four years before
the Yellow Disc Lady did.
* The present-day sets of "Saturday Night Live" and "The Late Show" can be
clearly seen in scenes which are set in 1975 and 1982, respectively.
* While Lorne Michaels donned a dark wig for his early appearance, precisely
no effort was put forth to make David Letterman or Paul Shaffer look any less
like their current selves. In fact, Anton Fig was shown playing in the band
that he wouldn't join until 1986.
* Lorne Michaels is shown presiding over "Saturday Night Live" in 1982.
Friends, in 1982, *I* made exactly as many executive decisions about "Saturday
Night Live" as Lorne did... and I was a 12 year old boy who had barely ever
left Michigan.
Those are fairly minor in comparison to this next one...
* Andy is shown fulfilling his lifelong dream of playing Carnegie Hall as his
great swan song, after he had learned he was ill--possibly terminally. You
might have heard of this performance. It was a giant event that culminated
with Andy sending the audience away in rented buses for milk and cookies. It's
a poignant moment. The only problem is that it happened several years before
he became sick.
Now, yes, I know. It's a flick, and flicks is fake. Michael J. Fox didn't ride
any Deloreans into 1955. Tom Everett Scott did not hit the top of the charts
by drumming on "That Thing You Do". Buzz Lightyear did not really battle his
nemesis in an elevator shaft. Buzz Lightyear is just an actor. But when such
significant errors are made as I've detailed, that makes an audience member
step back and take notice, derailing the act of storytelling. And that's why
they're doing a movie in the first place.
On the other hand, Milos Forman is no hack. Perhaps this "mistakes" were
deliberate. They could have been willfully put in, just like the intentional
flaws in a Persian rug. Maybe the intent was to highlight the fact that, as
a film, it is not reality, but rather a constructed approximation of it.
I don't know. Andy Kaufman on stage was frustrating to many people because
not once did he wink to the audience to say, "Yes, I know that I'm doing
something funny for you." Perhaps it's just as fitting that his biopic does
the same thing.
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aaron
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response 4 of 229:
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Dec 23 17:26 UTC 1999 |
Bicentennial Man (B) - Would have been better as "Sesquicentennial Man" --
it felt about fifty years too long. It is an interesting film, but too
often feels like a Star Trek, The Next Generation episode, and its attempts
at forced sentimentality seemed forced, and were not successful.
The Green Mile (B+) - Steven King's *other* prison movie. It doesn't
measure up to The Shawshank Redemption, and gets wrapped up in a pseudo-
religious eccentricities and strange special effects. (I think King may
have been partially inspired by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but he
lacks Ken Kesey's touch for Christian allusion.) As is the norm for a King
movie, there are clear "good" and "evil" characters without much shading,
with a standard "you will be punished for your sins" morality play story
line. Some good performances, with very good cinematography making it
rather convincing that Michael Clarke Duncan is in fact a 7-foot giant.
Although I have not read the story that inspired the film, I sensed some
of King's literary excesses that had not been wrung out of the final work
-- at times, it seemed that the tenor of the film shifted a bit far to the
weird.
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omni
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response 5 of 229:
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Dec 23 18:55 UTC 1999 |
At least the book was good. I'll still not forgive him for stretching out
over 6 months. That was wrong.
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senna
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response 6 of 229:
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Dec 23 19:56 UTC 1999 |
Give me a break, I was supposed to be on sabbatical at the time :)
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goroke
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response 7 of 229:
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Dec 23 23:50 UTC 1999 |
Actually, I found the experience of having to wait for the next chapter to
have been wonderful. A throwback to slower times in this age of instant
gratification. I'd like to see more of that sort of enforced "can't turn to
the last page early" mode of publication. Some things are worth waiting for.
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mary
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response 8 of 229:
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Dec 24 00:58 UTC 1999 |
I too thought the serial release was a fun touch.
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omni
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response 9 of 229:
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Dec 24 09:09 UTC 1999 |
None of you people were doing chemo, either.
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giry
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response 10 of 229:
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Dec 24 14:48 UTC 1999 |
agora 20 <-> cinema 36
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richard
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response 11 of 229:
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Dec 24 20:45 UTC 1999 |
Tonight I will continue a yearly christmas eve tradition and watch "IT'S A
WONDERFUL LIFE" on tv-- This movie is a celebration of the average,
normal, work-a-day life. Its actually a fairly dark story of a man whose
dreams are crushehd, feels worthless, and is contemplating suicide. And
who of course is rredeemed by the love of those around him, and the angel
who teaches him that one is never a failure so long as one has friends.
Ive seen this movie so many times the characters are like old friends--
Mr. Gower the druggist, Mr. Martini the saloonkeeper, Bert the Cop, Ernie
the Cab driver, Nick the Bartender, the evil Mr. Potter, Uncle Charlie, Ma
Bailey, Mary Bailey, the Bailey kids including little Suzoo and her rose
petals, and of course George Bailey (ourhero) and Clarence the angel (who
always has his copy of Tom Sawyer handy)
Will Clarence get his wings? Will Harry Bailey make it through the
snowstorm to be with his brother? Will George save Mr. Gower from kiling
himself? Will George see what life would have been like if he'd never
been born and want to live again?
I get teary eyed every time at the end of it. It's one of my alltime
favorite movies-- because it IS realy a wonderful life when ya think about
it!! Merry christmas!
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jep
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response 12 of 229:
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Dec 26 03:38 UTC 1999 |
I took the kids to see Toy Story 2. It was, like Toy Story, a kind of
nice movie. The kids liked it a lot, and I really did, too.
It has impressive graphics, but that doesn't have anything to do with
why I liked it. If you're marveling at the graphics, you aren't paying
attention to the story, and if the story doesn't hold your attention,
the movie is not going to be good. I enjoyed the story.
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gregb
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response 13 of 229:
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Dec 26 06:25 UTC 1999 |
Re. 12: Ya gotta be a 'puter geek to do both. 8-)
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hhsrat
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response 14 of 229:
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Dec 26 17:49 UTC 1999 |
saw Any Given Sunday last night.
Overall, a decent movie. Pretty good plot, although it took too long
to develop. Decent acting. I'm not sure if it needed to fill 3 hours,
there were some parts that could have been cut out without hurting the
story. The camera work was, by far, the worst part of this movie. The
camera was never still for very long, usually pretty shaky. Maybe this
was intended to make it feel more like the camera was right there in the
game, but it didn't do much for me. A lot of too-fast cuts along with
the shaky camera made me think I was watching "Blair Witch Project
Overall: B-
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senna
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response 15 of 229:
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Dec 27 06:37 UTC 1999 |
The add showed a front flip, presumably by an athletic quarterback into
the endzone. This strikes me as a fairly unoriginal piece of
choreography, since that action has occurred twice in college football
in the past two years, most excitingly when Arizona's Ortege Jenkins
somersaulted over two Washington defenders to win the game on the last
play last year.
All I can say is that Stone could have hired me to do art direction
better than that out of the box.
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md
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response 16 of 229:
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Dec 27 13:22 UTC 1999 |
GALAXY QUEST (B+) -- A surprisingly gentle look at
a much-parodied corner of fandom, with a massive
surprise reward for some of the geekiest fans at
the conclusion. Alan Rickman is almost *too*
convincing as the frustrated Shakespearean, Tim
Allen is excellent, Sigourney Weaver plays a kind
of anti-Ripley. Silly fun.
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maeve
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response 17 of 229:
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Dec 27 15:53 UTC 1999 |
Mansfield Park:
A terribly lovely film. Apparently it was tweaked from the original, but I
don't remember the book enough to tell you if it was good or bad changes. Some
cute modern-y bits, only one character in strange costume, and the knowledge
that since it's Jane Austen, everyone will marry precisely who they should.
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richard
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response 18 of 229:
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Dec 27 16:02 UTC 1999 |
THE IRON GIANT-- Watched this christmas day with my nephew (he got it
from somebody for as a present) This is a wonderful animated movie about
a boy who befriends a giant iron robot. The robot is built to be a
weapon, but learns from the boy that he can be who he wants to be, not
who others tell him he should be. The movie also has a strong anti-
nuclear, anti-weapons message. The animation is wonderful, and the
story is really moving. This movie is on a lot of year-end ten best
films of the year lists.
THE IRION GIANT (**** FOUR STARS)
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other
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response 19 of 229:
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Dec 27 16:54 UTC 1999 |
i enjoyed iron giant, and as soon as it was over, i realized that IRON GIANT
is ET in different clothes.
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mcnally
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response 20 of 229:
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Dec 27 17:47 UTC 1999 |
The Talented Mr. Ripley -- C+
About an hour too long. Not particularly faithful to the book.
Not mysterious enough to be a mystery. Not suspenseful enough to
be a thriller. Too shallow to be a psychological drama. About the
only thing really worth watching here is the scenery of Italy..
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omni
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response 21 of 229:
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Dec 27 20:41 UTC 1999 |
Lady and the Tramp-
I know it's a little old, but no one should miss seeing it. Disney showed
the letterbox edition last night and it was superb. 4 stars.
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drewmike
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response 22 of 229:
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Dec 27 22:09 UTC 1999 |
One of the guiding principles of American economics is that better
things cost more.
The DVD of "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" retails for $30, while
the VHS version of the same title is over $100.
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mcnally
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response 23 of 229:
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Dec 27 22:19 UTC 1999 |
VHS tapes often cost that much when they're priced for sale to video
stores and not ordinary consumers.. Probably there'll be a consumer-
price (~$20) VHS release soon..
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janc
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response 24 of 229:
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Dec 28 06:41 UTC 1999 |
I accidentally acquired a video I'd never heard of called "The Zero
Effect" - the directorial debut of the 22-year-old son of Lawrence
Kasdan. It looked like yet another action flick, but I watched it.
Possibly partly because I came to it with no expectations, I liked it a
lot. You keep thinking it is about to turn into an action flick,
breaking out in gun fights and car chases, but it never does. Instead
it's a mystery in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes (in fact, it is a
remake of Sherlock Holmes), never quite taking itself seriously, never
quite going over the edge into utter silliness.
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