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Grex > Cinema > #23: ---<<<< AT THE MOVIES >>>>--- |  |
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| 25 new of 146 responses total. |
omni
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response 78 of 146:
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Nov 16 15:38 UTC 1998 |
Nope.
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gregb
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response 79 of 146:
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Nov 16 17:09 UTC 1998 |
Re. _The Stand_: I watched/recorded it when it originally aired on network
TV (ABC, I think) a couple years ago. For anyone who's seen both, were there
any alterations/additions/deletions this time 'round? I saw a scene in a
commercial that I didn't recognize.
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katie
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response 80 of 146:
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Nov 16 21:04 UTC 1998 |
(Then how do you know whether your $7 would be better-spent on the original?)
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qui1
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response 81 of 146:
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Nov 17 04:20 UTC 1998 |
I saw "Belly" recently. DMX, Method Man, T-Boz, etc, etc. :) It rocked, if
you're into the whole
"thuggish-ruggish-let's-sell-drugs-and-shoot-people-and-screw-everyone-over"
kinda movie. ;) For real, it offered an interesting insight...
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omni
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response 82 of 146:
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Nov 17 09:08 UTC 1998 |
Not that I judge books (or films) by thier cover, but I know that Freddy
March never made a bad movie, same goes for Edgar G. Robinson and Gary Cooper.
Brad Pitt, on the other hand, remains open for discussion.
Leonard Maltin, who is my guide in these matters, tells me that "Death takes
a Holiday" is 3 1/2 stars. Newsweek said that "Meet Joe Black" was a dog.
I tend to share that opinion. (No, I have not heard Maltin on the subject).
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mary
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response 83 of 146:
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Nov 17 13:05 UTC 1998 |
Jim is very devoted to Newsweek. He reads every issue cover to
cover, sometimes twice.
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katie
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response 84 of 146:
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Nov 17 14:16 UTC 1998 |
Seems you should ask Leonard fro his opinion, then.
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omni
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response 85 of 146:
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Nov 17 15:40 UTC 1998 |
Mary, your making me sound like an idiot, which I am not. I subscribe
and I do read it very carefully. As for believing everything that's
printed in it, I don't think so.
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gregb
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response 86 of 146:
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Nov 17 16:38 UTC 1998 |
Re. 82: I never listen to critics. If a flick looks interesting, I'll give
it a view. What qualifications do these guys have to tell us what to see/not
see? They're not actors, directors, producers, etc. There's no training to
be a critic, no guidelines...nuttin'.
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hhsrat
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response 87 of 146:
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Nov 19 01:36 UTC 1998 |
Chris Potter, the lead critic for the Ann Arbor News, judging from his
reviews, hates everything. He is even more critical of theatre
productions than movies.
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eieio
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response 88 of 146:
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Nov 19 06:13 UTC 1998 |
What Potter likes:
Brynn O'Malley
Kathy Marrero
Kandy Harris
Bronwen Rae (do we sense a pattern?)
skin on stage
implied homosexual undertones
What Potter does not like:
sudden very loud noises
blatant sexual content (of any affiliation)
wearing a belt
or underwear
(Thus, Erik does not like sitting near Potter in an audience, in case he drops
his pen. And he ALWAYS drops his pen. I'm so serious about this one. When he
leans down to retrieve his apparently irreplaceable Bic, the acoustics of the
room change.)
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senna
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response 89 of 146:
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Nov 19 07:45 UTC 1998 |
I read Newsweek. Not every article, but I do stick my nose in it every week
for a decent amount of time.
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mary
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response 90 of 146:
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Nov 19 13:04 UTC 1998 |
Me too.
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remmers
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response 91 of 146:
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Nov 19 15:48 UTC 1998 |
Re resp:88 - I don't know who those people you listed are, so I can't
sense a pattern.
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mary
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response 92 of 146:
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Nov 19 22:07 UTC 1998 |
I really liked "Meet Joe Black".
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other
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response 93 of 146:
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Nov 20 02:45 UTC 1998 |
potter likes female actors, more if they appear scantily clad.
that's the pattern above...
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eieio
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response 94 of 146:
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Nov 20 05:29 UTC 1998 |
Yep.
In his review of "A Little Night Music", he did everything short of
salivating over Brynn O'Malley; praising her talents (yes, she's good)
and lusting after her.
Problem was, she was 16 at the time.
So theoretically, you could laugh it off, saying, well, she was dressed
and made up to look a few years older, so it really could be classified
as an honest mistake.
Except he kept harping on the fact that she was 16. And then drooled
more.
Several people's gut reaction to Potter for many months afterwards:
"EEEYEW!!"
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md
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response 95 of 146:
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Nov 22 22:15 UTC 1998 |
Recent rentals:
CAN'T HARDLY WAIT (C+) - A story about two young couples learning to
be in love. Since it's also a highschool graduation comedy, the love
affairs are between pairs of cliches: the prom queen who admits to
herself, almost too late, that her football hero boyfriend is a moron
who gets off on mooning the cashier at Burger King and giving the
freshmen wedgies, and the quiet young writer-to-be who has idolized
her for four years and whom she's never so much as noticed; and the
painfully virginal boy who wants more than anything else to be cool
and who vows to get himself laid at the party, and who ends up falling
in love (and, yes, having sex) with a childhood friend, a dumpy little
girl he abandoned freshman year because she was in all the smart
classes and had no money. The former couple are kept apart until the
very end of the movie, while the latter couple spend the entire movie
locked in a bathroom together. Nice symmetry. Many subplots and
incidental characters, and some memorable scenes descended from
National Lampoon's Animal House. Jennifer Love Hewitt as the prom
queen girl didn't seem half as desirable to me as the supposedly
"dumpy" little bluestocking, who was in reality a cupcake. Hewitt
has all these facial expressions she makes, rather like the visual
counterparts of the way girls that age talk nowadays. Highly annoying,
but I guess she has her fans.
DIRTY WORK (C) - Either you love Norm MacDonald or you hate him.
I happen to think his comedic bits are funny. This movie made me laugh
out loud in a few places. The comdeic bits have to be strung on a plot
of some kind, naturally, and this is where the movie fails badly.
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mcnally
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response 96 of 146:
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Nov 23 02:44 UTC 1998 |
"There's Something About Mary" (B-) A comedy about a man who's
been mooning over a lost high-school sweetheart and the troubles
that ensue when he decides to find her. Enough jokes actually worked
to make up for the majority that failed to move me but not enough for
me to really be thrilled. B- is probably on the generous side, I'm
giving it a bit of extra credit because the rest of the audience
apparently thought it was hilarious. I enjoyed the contrived and
contorted plot and liked the couple of incidents in which the main
character's life would spiral nightmarishly out of control but didn't
much like the physical humor, nor am I big on comedies that rely on
embarrassment and humiliation for laughs. Showing at Ann Arbor's
2nd run theater, worth $1.50..
"Enemy of the State" (B+) Enjoyable paranoia thriller about a
Washington D.C.-area lawyer whose life suddenly careens completely
out of control when the wrong people decide that he's got the
MacGuffin they want. He of course has no idea what's happening.
Directed by Tony Scott, so you can count on plenty of explosions
and helicopter chases, but the plot is better than average for a
modern suspense movie (but then I've got a pretty low opinion of
your average suspense movie..) Will Smith and Gene Hackman are
unexceptional in their roles but things move quickly enough that
you don't have time to dwell on the movie's deficiencies.
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shf
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response 97 of 146:
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Nov 23 05:26 UTC 1998 |
( For a much better Ben Stiller see _The Zero Effect" Bill Pullman is very
good in this also.
)
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mcnally
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response 98 of 146:
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Nov 23 08:17 UTC 1998 |
I'd second that -- I liked "Zero Effect" much better than "Something
About Mary" but fans of the latter should be warned that "Zero Effect"
is not very much like it, though it is funny in an offbeat way..
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remmers
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response 99 of 146:
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Nov 23 11:04 UTC 1998 |
I third the recommendation of "Zero Effect".
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md
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response 100 of 146:
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Nov 23 12:26 UTC 1998 |
I like Zero Effect, too, but I thought Stiller and Pullman were
both miscast. I don't know if it's been noticed or remarked on
that the "something" about Mary in There's Something About Mary
is that she is an incredibly good person who looks like Cameron
Diaz. I mean, a really, really nice young woman, whose niceness
positively radiates like a beacon from a lighthouse. Her goodness
elevates all the men smitten with her -- ie, literally all the men
in the movie -- at least a notch or two. It's a sweetly Capraesque
kind of movie, as if a Capra had made a movie when he was in his
teenage gross-out phase. It's the people-are-basically-good message
that makes the movie so popular, not merely the gross-out stuff.
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mcnally
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response 101 of 146:
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Nov 23 20:03 UTC 1998 |
I'm not sure I'd agree with that. The Mary character is certainly
idealized -- almost without flaw in fact. But the way I saw it,
infatuation with Mary drove the men around her to elaborate deceptions,
betrayals, and foolish behavior -- they'll do anything or say anything
to get her (hire detectives to watch her, spy on her day and night,
insinuate themselves into her life under false pretenses, take any
chance to back-stab their competitors, etc..) This is what it means
to be "elevated a notch or two"?
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remmers
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response 102 of 146:
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Nov 24 01:13 UTC 1998 |
Re resp:100 - I've read the suggestion that Stiller and Pullman should
have switched parts in "Zero Effect", with Stiller playing the detective
and Pullman his assistant. But I think the casting was exactly right
just as it was.
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