This is the Grex movie reviews item-- seen any good movies lately? renting
anything interesting? Want to vent about Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars? 

Post away!

348 responses total.

just this past weekend got the new dvd collector's edition of "Taxi
Driver"  Comes with a nice hour-long making of documentary, artwork and
publicity stills from the film, the movie trailer, and nicest of all the
script.  It has a cool feature that lets you watch the movie and jump back
and forth to the original movie script, so you can read the dialogue and
also see how scenes were changed or modified during filming.  you can even
leave the script up on your tv and play the sound of the movie, so you can
scroll down.  

Also rented (but didnt buy) the new dVD's of "Alien" and "Aliens", both of
which are excellent.  The audio and video quality of both are exceptional.
On the "Alien" disc, it has a number of deleted scenes including a bizzare
one where Sigourney Weaver enters the Alien nest and encounters her crew
members entombed in the webbing.  I cant figure out why they didnt leave
that in the movie.  Also has alternate soundtrack featuring running
commentary by director Ridley Scott, explaining each scene and how/why it
was filmed.  most interesting.  The "Aliens" DVD comes with James Cameron
commentary, and features the uncut version of the movie which is some
twenty minutes longer.  It also has a cool screensaver that comes with it.

  re #1:  Is it just me or does anyone else think that the people who
  put together the "Taxi Driver" collector's edition missed a bet when
  they neglected to include footage of the Hinckley/Reagan assassination
  attempt as a "bonus"?

re 2:   I don't get the connection.  Can you explain?

Um, okay. Whoa?

John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan in an effort to get the attention of Jodi
Foster, who he had seen in Taxi Driver and become obsessed with.

re #3:  Are you talkin' to me?

Re #2:  I don't know, Mike, I've seen that footage so many times, I really
wouldn't want to see it again.  Then again, I'm not going to rent Taxi Driver,
either.

#3-- the connection is that John Hinckley, who shot President Reagan,
was absolutely obsessed with the movie "Taxi Driver", having taken to
watching it over and over again.  He claims to have seen it at least 75
times.  In the movie Robert Deniro's character, goes
psychotic after he cant win the heart of Cybil Shepherd, and decides to
assassinate the Presidential candidate her character was working for.
Hinckley apparently became mentally imbalanced and started to imagine
himself as actually being IN the movie, and decided to shoot President
Reagan to impress Jodie Foster.  

This is brought up in the "making of" documentary, where writer Paul
Schraeder mentions that both he and director Martin Scorcese were grilled
by the FBI after the shooting.  Hinckley was apparently one of a number of
men who too strongly identified with the main character in this movie.
eerie in a way.

#7...but Aruba, why wouldnt you want to rent "Taxi Driver"?  After all,
it routinely makes the top ten lists of the greatest american films
ever made.  Siskel and Ebert have it in their top five.

        So it needs to have the Hinkcly foootage to remind others who are
obsessed with watching the movie multiple times of what they could do?

Re #9:  I have nothing against it, Richard.  I just don't like violent movies.

Agora 20 <-> Cinema 31

Uh.... welll... Monday I was in the production offices of Julia Roberts' next,
"Erin Brockovich", and I passed the offices of "Nutty Professor II".
 
I bet I know which movie is going to have more ass jokes.

I'm dying to see "Tarzan" and "Wild Wild West"  They are in theatres over 
here and I haven't seen either.

  re #13:  you're not going far out on a limb with that prediction, are you?
           for more of a challenge, try to predict the first movie to be made
           *after* "Nutty Professor II" that will feature more ass jokes.
           If you can make that call correctly I'll be *very* impressed..

        Thusfar, I heard that "Wild Wild West" is Avengers '99...take a
TV show, fondly remembered, and mess with it.

 Wild Wild West doesn't impress me to the point I'd go and see it. I still
am a very big fan of the old one with Robert Conrad. Maybe the movie will
catch on so that some pimp station will begin showing the tv show again just
for the sole value of tying in.

Re 15: If they were doing a remake of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", that would
be a shoo-in.

So far, "Wild Wild West" has provided a feast for fans of really 
negative movie reviews.  "Not As Bad As 'The Avengers'" was about 
the most positive evaluation I found so far.  Anyone actually seen it?

I was tempted, but I think I'll wait until video.  The previews did not 
impress me much at all.  When that happens, you know there's trouble.  

Wow, to me it looks like a whole lot of fun.  I like Kevin Kline.  He has
one of those forgiveably-naughty smiles.

A Simple Plan is now available on video.  I think it was last year's
best movie.

Yeah, I think Wild, Wild West looks like fun.

  I always liked the show "Wild, Wild West" -- it was one of the trippiest
  concepts for a television show ever ("I know -- let's make a science-fiction
  western!")

  I was hoping the movie would be good -- sounds like I can can kiss those
  hopes goodbye..

Well, WWW looked like fun from the trailers. ;-)

It had it's moments.  All two of them.  (sigh).

I wonder if this WWW movie is web-based...  ;-)

This response has been erased.

I sw Wild Wild West, it was cheesey. Actually, it was double cheesie

Is that a bad thing?

Pizza, no. Movies, Yes.

Recently saw "The Zero Effect" on video - liked it quite
a bit and suspect it did not do well in the box office
because though it has many parts that make one smile,
it is not a "comedy".

It is a good portrayal of that "Greatest Detective In the World"
idea - amazing while on a case, but socially completely inept;
finds love and so on, but all develops in an unexpected
and entertaining way.

I enjoyed Zero Effect as well.

The original _West_ was almost before my time, but I remember a few bits and
pieces about it.

* They had a private train which also served as their base of operations. All
   you ever saw was the caboose, which looked *enormous* on the inside. I
   wondered how that caboose managed to fit on the tracks.

* West had a small two-shot pistol in a power holster, and a few other hidden
   devices.

* The railroad car was equipped with a "telegraph" that I thought would have
   had to be a radio tranceiver. How do you connect to wires from a moving
   train?

* The plots often involved fighting villians who were inventing various 20th
   Century devices to use in various attempts of world domination and other
   mischief.

* There was a Time Travel episode (an ex-Confederate general tryinmg to change
   the outcome of the Civil War), and an episode with Space Aliens! (details
   forgotten.)


I don't know why I lost track of this one. I think I'd watch it if it showed
up on broadcast television. There have already been a couple of movies made,
both of them shown on television, which I thought were okay.

BIG DADDY (B) - Pretty good.  Adam Sandler is one of
those actors you never expect to mature, but that's
what he seems to be doing.  Who knew?  Sandler's
character's parenting philosophy reminded my son of
me, which I guess I have to take as a compliment.

WISHFUL THINKING (B-) - Too talky and too long, but
the writer/director's use of point-of-view shifts
and one or two neat plot twists kept my interest up.

THE FACULTY (C) - I wasn't crazy about it, but my kids
thought it was scary and cool.

Jon Stewart is in all three of the above movies.

re resp:32

 * The railroad car was equipped with a "telegraph" that I thought would have
    had to be a radio tranceiver. How do you connect to wires from a moving
    train?

The train is not attached to the wires, it travels *on* them.

        Since a number of folks here seem to have picked up Pullman's _Zero
Effect_, it's worth asking - have any of you seen _The End of Violence_?

Yes, saw _The End of Violence_ and liked it a lot.

anyone seen South Park yet?

After much mucking about, I finally witnessed both Pulp Fiction and 
Lawrence of Arabia.  Here we go.

Pulp Fiction was a lot of fun.  It neither panders to the senses nor 
denies them entirely.  The dialogue is vivid, the characters are 
splendidly developed, and the stories are the sorts of things that don't 
pop up every day.  The nonlinear presentation is really the icing on the 
cake, elevating this beyond any other movie.  The acting's nice, too :) 

Lawrence of Arabia was viewed with two prominent issues in mind.  1) It 
is meant to be viewed in a movie palace.  I couldn't agree more.  
Someone warn me when the Michigan plays it.  2) It is a "classic," and 
thus carries way too many expectations on it.  "Classic" movies tend to 
follow entirely different rhythms from today's modern film.  The 
differences are so great that comparing two films (the two I watched, 
for instance) is like comparing two completely different languages.  
Lawrence of Arabia essentially followed this pattern, and I was prepared 
for a long classic.  The first half in particular was terrific.  It 
trickled off at the end, leaving me somewhat unsatisfied, but it is 
still a magnificent work of art.  C'mon Michigan.

HHS: Twice, byotch!

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss