response 163 of 284:

Jul 31 12:51 UTC 2001

Hearts in Atlantis is coming out, with Anthony Hopkins.

response 165 of 284:

Jul 31 14:36 UTC 2001

I really hated the book for Hearts in Atlantis.  It told what were basically
three very very loosely connected stories...actually, it didn't even tell 
stories, but just followed characters for a while with no real plot or 
resolution.  I can't imagine what they did to it to come out with a movie.

response 167 of 284:

Jul 31 19:48 UTC 2001

X-men did a very good job, I felt.  It would be difficult for anybody not of
immense budgetary means to keep up with all the backstory, so side projects
of X-men inevitably reinvent everything.  The television show, for instance.
For the most part, everything they put into the movie was well done, and they
didn't overload us with information that would have done no good.

I was expecting it to suck, and it didn't.  Bravo.  Batman, in theory, could
just rehash what's known, because there's a lot less happening than in X-men
(this isn't an insult, just an observation.  It's a lot easier to follow one
character than an everchanging cast of, literally, hundreds).  After the
plunge the series took, though, future Batman movies would have to be yet
another reinvention.

response 169 of 284:

Aug 1 16:19 UTC 2001

That's just cool. :)

response 171 of 284:

Aug 1 21:54 UTC 2001

You have "V"???  I'm SO jealous!  I remember watching that on TV when the
mini-series first came out...

I watched "Cast Away" and "The Wedding Planner" on DVD this morning.  Cast
Away was good, but it wasn't great.  Parts were funny and interesting, and
the effects were good, but it didn't grab me like I hoped,, an had been told
it would.
Wedding Planner has Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConnoghey, and I'm not sure
if I liked it either.  Again, it had parts that were funny, but the core of
the relationships in this bothered me.  A lot of it was to do with the
relationship of these two, or rather attraction of them, even though he is
engaged to Bridgette Wilson-Sampras and Lopez is hired to plan their wedding.
While parts were funny, it still had the slimy quality of the groom to be
cheating, lying to his fioncee, amongst other things.  Blah...

response 173 of 284:

Aug 2 05:26 UTC 2001

Speaking of characters wandering around without a plot... <shudder>

I appear to have seen only four John Cusack movies: High Fidelity, Bullets Over
Broadway, Grosse Pointe Blank, and Better Off Dead.  (No, I haven't seen "Being
John Malkovich," and yes, I'm aware that even Amish people who don't use
electricity have seen it.  I haven't seen "American Beauty" either.  I tend to
see  really, really hyped movies -- think "Jurassic Park" and "Braveheart" --
about a year or three after they come out, generally under duress.)  I think
it's a sign of how neat he is that I'd thought I'd seen several more than
that... he's been the best thing about each of his films.

response 175 of 284:

Aug 2 13:46 UTC 2001

I thought "V" was about aliens who come to earth to force everyone to use cell
phone services.

response 177 of 284:

Aug 2 16:02 UTC 2001

        I have just seen that Star Wars, Phantom Menance will be out
on DVD October 16; Disney's Snow White October 9 and Dumbo on October
23.

response 179 of 284:

Aug 2 17:58 UTC 2001

Hey, maybe there's a trend here after all. Top grossing movie of each year:
Shrek (01) [so far] -- green hero
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (00) -- green antihero
Star Wars Episode 1 (99) -- green guru
Saving Private Ryan (98) -- no green, but Tom Hanks
Titanic (97) -- green monster of jealousy ;}
Independence Day (96) -- little green men from mars (ok, I don't think they
were really green, but I'm having fun here)
Toy Story (95) -- He has been chosen! Green aliens had a bit part, but stole
the show
forrest Gump (94) -- If we can't have green, give us Hanks!
Jurassic Park (93) -- Big green dinos
Alladin (92) -- Blue. Dang. And I thought I had something.
Terminator 2 (91) -- Help! My whole theory's falling apart.
Home Alone (90) -- New theory: filmmakers discovered the Green Gene in 1993.
Batman (89) -- GREEN! YAY!
Rain Man (88) -- No green, but this one's not even in the top 50 films anymore
(it's 58)
1987: Not even on Movieweb's top 50 (well, 59 now)
Crocodile Dundee (86) -- Crocodiles are green, ain't they? ;}
1985: All right, this one's not here either, so I'll quit now... besides, 1984
is Indiana Jones, and there's no green there, either.

response 181 of 284:

Aug 2 19:31 UTC 2001

I'm glad you're on our side, brighn...  That brilliance is dangerous :)

response 183 of 284:

Aug 2 22:29 UTC 2001

Re: Rain Man in '88 - Tom Cruise was in it, and he was also in The Color of
Money, which is, as we all know, ...  ;-)

response 185 of 284:

Aug 3 14:16 UTC 2001

Heh. Bright white for Castaway, but that got beaten out anyway. ;}

Saw "Angel Eyes" last night. Good movie, but what was up with the advertising?
We went (dollar show) because we were looking for a thriller, and all the
teasers and adverts I'd seen made it look like a stalker movie (like "The
Watcher," although I haven't seen that yet, so maybe THAT's wrong, too ;} ).
It was a *gasp* chick flick! A relatively mature and serious one, at that,
although moments of unmitigated touchy-feely smarm (requisite in a chick
flick) were provided by Catch's mother-in-law. Also interesting was the
casting of a romantic lead who spends most of the movie looking like the
afore-mentioned and promised psychostalker, instead of the sleek-chic
I'm-too-sexy-for-this-film that's usually picked. The even spend time making
J-Lo look plain enough to be street-pretty instead of "get your jaw off the
floor, boys" beautiful that she really is.

Definitely worth seeing, although there are bits where it drags, and it tries
to be coy about why Catch is interested in J-Lo the Cop, which is silly
because it's obvious from the first scene (the one-year-before prologue).
There are other spots where it tries to be oh-so-coy (the neighbor kid, for
instance), enough to keep it from my full recommendation. If anything, it's
a rare glimpse of "real people" in the chick-flick genre usually reserved for
plasticheads like Hugh Grant (a cute/sexy plastichead, don't get me wrong ;}
).