|
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 327 responses total. |
mynxcat
|
|
response 121 of 327:
| 
Jan 9 18:20 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
tod
|
|
response 122 of 327:
|
Jan 9 18:23 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
mynxcat
|
|
response 123 of 327:
|
Jan 9 18:39 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
tod
|
|
response 124 of 327:
|
Jan 9 18:52 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
richard
|
|
response 125 of 327:
|
Jan 10 09:59 UTC 2003 |
THE HOURS-- This is just the film to see if you want to escape from it
all, a movie about suicide. This movie follows the stories of three
different women, all seriously depressed and contemplating suicide, who
live in three different eras. It has as its basis the Virginia Woolf
novel "Mrs. Dalloway", and one of the women is a contemporary version
of Mrs. Dalloway living in 1991 played by Meryl Streep. The second
woman is a repressed woman living in 1951 America, who is escaping from
her own anguish by reading the novel "Mrs. Dalloway", played by
Julianne Moore. And the third woman is the author Virginia Woolf
herself, who we see in England in the 20's writing Mrs. Dalloway. You
have thus an author, her charcter, and her reader.
The movie effectively jumps back and forth between the storylines,
linking these characters as we see common causes and also differing
causes for their depressions. Essentially we are seeing three
versions of Mrs. Dalloway, living in different times with different
levels of personal freedom, and each woman has certain strengths and
also lacks certain things. Julianne Moore's character is seemingly
lacking in the ability to have either love or passion, and she seems to
feel that her son and husband don't love or really know her as a
result. She wants to kill herself. Meryl Streep's character is
perfectly capable of loving, but feels she is incapable of passion in
her life, and the most passionate person she's ever known, her gay ex-
husband, is bitterly depressed and dying of AIDS. He also lacks the
ability to love. Thus the ex-husband also wants to kill himself (he is
brilliantly played by Ed Harris btw). Nicole Kidman's character,
Virginia Woolf is both a loving and passionate woman, but feels she
lacks sanity-- she has had a history of mental breakdowns and is
deseperately afraid of having another one, and does not want 0to put
her husband through it again. She wants to kill herself to spare her
husband more pain. Like I said, light escapist fare this movie isn't!
'The Hours' has a wonderful script and is exceedingly well made and
well written. In fact there's a plot twist towards the end that links
two of the storylines, that I didn't even see coming. For some suicide
is a desperate act. For some it is a courageous act. For some it is a
cowardly act. This movie explores the question of why some people who
find themselves at pivotal points in their live find the courage to
live, and others find the courage to die. All the performances in this
are great, particularly Kidman and Harris
I enjoyed and recommend this movie highly BUT "The Hours" is not for
everyone. This is a movie about seriously depressed and suicidal
people, and it deals with them on real terms. Be sure you're
comfortable with the subject matter, and with sitting in a dark room
for two hours watching people think about and discuss killing
themselves. **** (four stars-- one of THE best movies of 2002)
|
krj
|
|
response 126 of 327:
|
Jan 10 17:55 UTC 2003 |
Back in #109, jep asked if he should take his son to see
"Star Trek: Nemesis."
If's he's not already a Next Generation fan, skip it.
The movie is incomprehensible if you didn't watch the TV series.
Violence content is on the high side for pre-teen children,
with one very graphic killing by impalement and one "psychic rape".
There's a ridiculous chase scene with a dune buggy and shooting.
Oh, and the movie opens with the entire Romulan senate getting
assasinated in rather ugly fashion... But there is not a
lot of in-person combat (compared to "Spiderman"), mostly
it's spaceships shooting other spaceships.
I'm not certain, but overall I'd say the PG-13
on this one is a deserved rating and if I remember the age of jep's
son correctly (7-8?) I'd say try to wiggle out of going to this one.
|
jep
|
|
response 127 of 327:
|
Jan 10 20:18 UTC 2003 |
John is 6. Definitely this sounds like a good one to skip. Maybe I'll
go myself tonight.
Thanks!
|
krj
|
|
response 128 of 327:
|
Jan 11 03:14 UTC 2003 |
Has John seen LILO & STITCH? That's a science fiction story which may
be more suitable; as grownups, we liked it a lot. (In the Earthling
plot of LILO, there are some family issue which might be resonant
in your situation; I hope they wouldn't be too traumatic.)
|
jep
|
|
response 129 of 327:
|
Jan 12 04:35 UTC 2003 |
Nope, we haven't seen Lilo & Stitch yet. John's not upset by the
family situation. Maybe we'll give this one a try some time. Thanks
for the suggestion!
|
krj
|
|
response 130 of 327:
|
Jan 12 07:38 UTC 2003 |
The International Channel (Ann Arbor cable 33;
http://www.internationalchannel.com) has axed the long running Saturday
night French film (*waaaah*) and they are packing in Asian movies.
Tonight we saw a 1994 Peking Opera production of "Saga of Mulan."
I can't compare it to the Disney version, which I haven't seen.
This one was pretty neat, though, with singing *and* martial arts.
Bai Shuxian stars as Mulan/General Hua; I guess Peking Opera singers
are supposed to do their own Martial Arts choreography. I don't know
how common fight scenes would be in their productions.
I'd recommend it, except that there are few signs on the web that the
movie exists, much less is available to buy, rent, or view again on
Broadcast. IMDB does not list it; Google only found two pages
|
russ
|
|
response 131 of 327:
|
Jan 12 17:17 UTC 2003 |
Lilo & Stitch is *fun*. I recommend it.
|
mynxcat
|
|
response 132 of 327:
|
Jan 13 15:45 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
albaugh
|
|
response 133 of 327:
|
Jan 13 16:54 UTC 2003 |
I totally hated the noses on the "Hawaiian" humans in L&S - horrible.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 134 of 327:
|
Jan 13 19:34 UTC 2003 |
"As Good As It Gets" got a bunch of nominations but the only Oscar I
remember it winning in a major category was a "Best Actress" for Helen
Hunt. Then again, I don't pay much attention to the Oscars -- it may
have received more, but it received at least one..
|
mynxcat
|
|
response 135 of 327:
|
Jan 13 19:41 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
edina
|
|
response 136 of 327:
|
Jan 14 17:39 UTC 2003 |
he did. But the one who deserved it most, Greg Kinnear, did not.
|
mynxcat
|
|
response 137 of 327:
|
Jan 14 18:06 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
richard
|
|
response 138 of 327:
|
Jan 14 18:57 UTC 2003 |
re: #134-- Nicholson also won an oscar for "As Good as it Gets". IMO he was
better in "About Schmidt" Also he was great in the sean penn-directed film
from last year called "The Pledge", which is recommended if you are looking
for something at the video store
/.
|
katie
|
|
response 139 of 327:
|
Jan 15 18:16 UTC 2003 |
I thoroughly enjoyed "Nicholas Nickleby" the other night.
|
scott
|
|
response 140 of 327:
|
Jan 15 18:51 UTC 2003 |
"Enemy at the Gates" (rental). Been wanting to see this one for a while.
I mostly agree with the reviews; the love story seems a bit pointless -
actually a lot of the character motivations seem a bit weak. But hey, Ed
Harris was good (as usual).
|
scott
|
|
response 141 of 327:
|
Jan 16 14:31 UTC 2003 |
"Fail Safe". This is the movie spoofed by "Dr. Strangelove". Great 1960's
movie (in very stark black&white) about a mechanical failure in the high-tech
control systems nearly causing nuclear war. Very dark, unhappy ending, and
Henry Fonda is wonderful as the President.
Very highly recommended. This film has lost very little of its impact.
|
mynxcat
|
|
response 142 of 327:
|
Jan 16 14:54 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
jazz
|
|
response 143 of 327:
|
Jan 16 15:01 UTC 2003 |
But they don't ...
|
mynxcat
|
|
response 144 of 327:
|
Jan 16 15:25 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
scott
|
|
response 145 of 327:
|
Jan 16 15:41 UTC 2003 |
Ah, the ending was great - nice reverse on the usual Disney ending. And the
message is "who cares about beauty, anyway?".
|
