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Grex > Cinema > #59: Grex goes to the movies-- the fall movie review item |  |
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| 25 new of 225 responses total. |
krj
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response 93 of 225:
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Nov 17 22:04 UTC 2003 |
I just found out that I missed the rebroadcast of "Saga of Mulan,"
a 1994 Chinese film presenting a Chinese Opera version of the same
story as the Disney animated film. I did get to see it this spring,
but the videotape had a little accident. It's not commercially
available, last I saw. Whine.
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twenex
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response 94 of 225:
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Nov 17 22:50 UTC 2003 |
Bummer, x2. Maybe if Nixon is still alive you could ask
him to go get it for you...
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scott
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response 95 of 225:
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Nov 19 03:58 UTC 2003 |
Finally got around to seeing "Pirates of the Carribean" at the discount
theatre. It was amusing... well, that was about it. Johnny Depp was pretty
funny, anyway.
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gull
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response 96 of 225:
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Nov 19 15:17 UTC 2003 |
Yup, Johnny Depp made the movie enough fun to be worth it, for me. :>
I wasn't expecting a great plot from a movie named after a theme park ride.
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twenex
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response 97 of 225:
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Nov 19 16:57 UTC 2003 |
Actually, I really enjoyed POTC. Possibly because I was expecting it to be
a bit of a joke, but it wasn't.
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anderyn
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response 98 of 225:
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Nov 19 18:24 UTC 2003 |
I loved it. Am planning on putting it into the permanent film library. I even
loved Orlando Bloom's character quite a bit, though most think him too stodgy.
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mynxcat
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response 99 of 225:
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Nov 19 18:27 UTC 2003 |
Pirates of the Caribbean was the kind of movie I expected to hate. But
I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks to Johnny Depp.
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gull
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response 100 of 225:
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Nov 19 18:37 UTC 2003 |
"But...why is the RUM gone?!"
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mynxcat
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response 101 of 225:
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Nov 19 19:14 UTC 2003 |
Haha.
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richard
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response 102 of 225:
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Nov 26 03:11 UTC 2003 |
"21 GRAMS"-- This is the first english language movie by famed Mexican
director Alejandro Gonz lez I rritu, and it blew me away. I found the
movie really moving on a number of different levels. I don't want to
give away too much of the story, because you really should experience
what happens as it unfolds. But basically it is the story of three
individuals, each of whom has a past they have escaped from, whose
lives are inextricably linked by an accident. These are three people
from different worlds, who should never meet or know each other. But
fate has different plans for them. This is a movie about suffering and
surviving, and living through pain, and redemption.
The three leads are played in great performances by Sean Penn, Benicio
Del Toro and Naomi Watts. Penn is the center of the movie and if
anything he as good or better than he was in the recently
released "Mystic River". Del Toro (who won an Oscar for "Traffic") and
Watts (who was terrific in "Mulhulland Drive") give the performances of
their careers.
The director, I rritu, wants the emphasis to be more on character
study than plot narrative, so he dispenses with the usual chronological
storytelling, and leaps back and forth to present, past, and future
events surrounding the incidents in question. This is done with great
effectiveness, I think, although if you don't like movies that mix up
timelines, you might find the technique annoying.
The movie's title, "21 Grams" is how much weight the body is said to
lose automatically at the time of death. The difference between your
body alive and your body dead moments later is 21 grams. Is that the
weight of a soul? Is that what you lose when you die? Anyway, this
was the best movie I've seen this year, although it is a very dark film
and you want to be in the right mood when you see it. ***** (five
stars)
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rcurl
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response 103 of 225:
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Nov 26 05:52 UTC 2003 |
The body can only lose weight if it loses real mass, by exhalation or
secretions. Therefore "21 grams" is some kind of metaphor. Does the movie
divulge the basis for the choice of exactly 21 grams? It sounds like
"numerology" (number magic), but that then means nothing as mass is
essentially continuous and the gram was defined by the French.
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richard
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response 104 of 225:
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Nov 26 07:59 UTC 2003 |
well the movie specifically says that is what "21 grams" means. When a person
dies, his heart stops beating, his blood stops flowing. That is "kinetic
energy", energy of movement. Once a body dies, no more body heat is created
and the theory is that there is an instant measurable loss of kinetic energy.
Somebody did a study indicating there is a loss of 20 calories of kinetic
energy at the moment of death. Which in theory translates into a literal loss
of twenty grams of mass.
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bru
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response 105 of 225:
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Nov 26 13:47 UTC 2003 |
Thats how much the human soul weighs.
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gull
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response 106 of 225:
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Nov 26 14:43 UTC 2003 |
I predict this item is about to devolve into yet another religious
argument. ;>
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mynxcat
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response 107 of 225:
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Nov 26 15:10 UTC 2003 |
I always thought it was 13 grams.
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rcurl
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response 108 of 225:
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Nov 26 15:23 UTC 2003 |
Kinetic energy has no measurable mass until you approach the speed of
light. The relation would be e = mc^2. Likewise, "heat" has no measurable
mass. Put another way, the energy equivalent of 21 grams of mass is the
largest nuclear exposion you can imagine (somewhat like a star going
"nova").
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twenex
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response 109 of 225:
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Nov 26 15:55 UTC 2003 |
Re: #106: Praise the Scales!
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bru
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response 110 of 225:
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Nov 26 16:37 UTC 2003 |
rcurl testifies to the power of the human soul.
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other
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response 111 of 225:
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Nov 26 18:20 UTC 2003 |
bru testifies to the persistence of human defiance of cognition.
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gregb
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response 112 of 225:
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Nov 26 18:53 UTC 2003 |
A friend and I went to see the Loony Tunes movie. It wasn't one I was
planning on seeing, but my friend bought the ticket, so what the @#$%.
Turned out I loved it. Naturally, it had all the zaniness of the
cartoons, but had a lot of puns and commercial references that make it
really funny to me, like a Wal-Mart in the middle of the dessert.
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albaugh
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response 113 of 225:
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Nov 26 19:38 UTC 2003 |
Stumbled across a made-for-TV movie called "Skinwalkers" on PBS (Detroit
Channel 56). It's a movie about [American] Indians with Indian actors
involving the Navajo Nation, set in Utah. One of the lead male actors is Wes
Studi, whom you may recall from "Last of the Mohicans" and "Dances With
Wolves" (among others). I have a "weakness" for "authentic" Native American
movies, and just settled into this one, without intending to. More info can
be found at http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0312278/
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mynxcat
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response 114 of 225:
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Nov 26 20:02 UTC 2003 |
With all that discussion on the soul and stuff, I nearly posted that
gregb had the wrong item :P
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mcnally
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response 115 of 225:
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Nov 26 21:28 UTC 2003 |
re #113: PBS has been doing television adaptation of Tony Hillerman's
Joe Leaphorn / Jim Chee mystery novels. "Skinwalkers" is one of them.
I don't know very much about the Native Americans of the southwest
and have only read a couple of Hillerman's novels but he seems to get
the atmosphere and settings right (based on my travels through the
Four Corners area) and an acquaintance who's married to a dentist
formerly in the Indian Health Service and who has worked and lived
around the Navajo reservation says that Hillerman's research is pretty
good.
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jaklumen
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response 116 of 225:
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Nov 27 02:25 UTC 2003 |
I didn't see this myself-- was online, but Julie seemed to be enjoying
it.
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bru
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response 117 of 225:
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Nov 27 03:04 UTC 2003 |
There are a couple of these movies out there. "Coyote Waits" and
"Skinwwalkers". I hope there are more of them. I enjoyed them.
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