This item is for discussion of movies.

304 responses total.

The boys and I went to see "Ice Age" last night.  The boys are 10 and 
5.  They both thought it was a very funny movie, and so did I.  No 
movie can be bad if it has a 5 year old pealing with laughter, in my 
book.

"Ice Age" is an animated film about an incoming ice age, and three 
prehistoric animals (wolly mammoth, sloth and sabre-tooth tiger) who 
come across a Neanderthal boy (I thought of him as a Neanderthal, 
anyway) and their adventures as they attempt to return him to his 
tribe.  There's a squirrel as a side-plot through the whole movie, and 
his hilarious adventures dealing with a nut.

It's kind of nice to have a prehistoric movie that's not about 
dinosaurs, since there have been 1000 of them in the last decade or so.

The movie is rated PG as there is a little bit of violence, but I 
didn't notice anything I minded having my 5 year old see.  There was no 
toilet humor, and not much meanness.  It was a nice movie.  It was not 
very realistic, but it was fun, and that was enough for all of us.

Went to see "The Time Machine," the new one. It was at the new Birmingham
Palladium, which was mucho keeno cool, very modern while being very retro.
Definitely an experience if you're ever in that neighborhood (it's north of
Maple, on Old Woodward, a few blocks north of the Birmingham Theater, which
is also nice but not as wowser!).
 
ANYwho, the movie itself was ok. The execution was mediocre, and the age of
Wells' original plot is really starting to show (expecially the Lamarckian
aspect: I haven't read the book, but Lamarck has been in the three movie
versions I've seen, so I assume it's in the book). The speciall FX were very
cool, and worth seeing on a big screen, but even those were lacking in a few
spots. Orlando Jones' appearance was silly from a technical standpoint
(hackers, prepare to cringe), but fun from an entertainment standpoint. Jeremy
Irons, as always plays an excellently creepy bad guy (Uber-Molock, in this
case). I felt Guy pearce was miscast in the main role, though, but maybe
that's because I'm getting sick of seeing him (I saw Count of Monte Cristo
recently, and Ravenous not too long ago).

        I had some real problems with the movie version of "The Time Machine",
as it, much like "Planet of the Apes", was remade with prettier special
effects but no sense whatsoever of the original message.  Instead of a
decadent and hopelessly dependent Eloi being fed, cared for, and preyed upon
by a sinister but practical group of Morlocks, we now have a group of noble
savages living in a paradise of their *own* making, being preyed upon by
genetically engineered opportunists.  It completely misses the point.

No it does not.  It expands upon the point in a way not in direct conflict
with the original work.  Want to see just how brilliant it is?  agora is the
earth, you are all Eloi, and I am a Morlock.  It's the way it must be.  

        Except, odds are this "Eloi" is considerably bigger and likes meat
more than that "Morlock".  Though, given the behaviour of the Morlocks, I
won't argue the point further.

That is the most bizarrely ironic analogy I think I have ever seen.

#3> That's a good point. Probably the best version of the *dynamic* intended
in the distant future of The Time Machine was in a Star Trek episode called
"The Apple." Interestingly, the portal in "The Time Machine" looked like it
was stolen from Vaal in "The Apple."
 
("The Apple": The crew of the Enterprise find a planet where there is no
death, no violence, and no sex... everyone lives in peace and tranquility,
so long as they continue to appease Vaal, a computer which has a snakehead
as a portal. Vaal captures the Enterprise in a tractor beam, and must be
destroyed if the Enterprise is to ever escape. Of course, destroying Vaal
means forcing the natives to learn how to reproduce and fend for themselves.)

        The message I took away from it was about the exploitation of
Industrial labour;  eventually those who put food on your table may feed upon
you.  But YMMV.

resp #1: No toilet humor?  I think you must have been asleep during the 
first 15 minutes of the movie.

GHOST WORLD-- watched this on video tonight.  Its really good, one of the
best movies of last year.  Movie is about a girl who graduates high
school and has no interest in anything and is completely cynical about
everything.  She sees herself as stuck in a "ghost world" where everything
and everyone seems shallow and phony.  This sets up a situation where she
and her friend answer a personals ad as a joke and she meets a loner named
Seymour (played by Steve Buscemi) who collects old blues records.  At
first he's a joke to her and she strings him along, but eventually she
starts to like him.  She hates the present and here's a guy who lives in
the past.  Gradually she becomes alienated from everyone in her world BUT
him, someone who feels just as lonely and out of place as she does.  The
girl by the way is played wonderfully by Thora Birch, who played Kevin
Spacey's daughter in American Beauty (that character very similar to this
one actually)  Good movie.  Wish I'd watched it before now, I completely
missed it in the theaters.   (**** stars)    

"Ghost World" was excellent.  I loved Thora Birch's character, Enid.

  I would also recommend "Ghost World".  Based on familiarity with 
  writer Daniel Clowes' work in comics (but not with the comics version
  of "Ghost World" specifically) I was expecting something offputtingly
  cynical, bleak, and mean-spirited.  Instead it's turned out surprisingly
  warm and human -- I would guess Clowes' work must have been somewhat
  moderated by the filmmaker.

i really liked ghost world too. i want the soundtrack as well.

i rented k-pax last night. it was feely-good okay. i'll watch just about
anything with kevin spacey in it.

  Yeah, I've been tempted to find the soundtrack if only to get a copy of
  "Jaan Pechechaan Ho", the frenzied Indian dance number featured in the
  movie clip Enid likes to watch.  I imagine I'd enjoy hearing full versions
  of some of the obscure blue tunes featured, too..

        I enjoyed Clowes' _Ghost World_ comic, though I've not read anything
else by him.  It was cynical, and somewhat bleak.  I don't know about
mean-spirited, though it did deal with people being mean-spirited to one
another.

        I was very surprised to see several things unfold in the movie that
I'd seen or experienced firsthand, but had never seen in a story before, such
as Enid's simultaneous rebellion from society's judgements of her, and her
enthrallment with society's judgements of Seymour, until another woman appears
to make her question her peception of those judgements.

        Definitely a great piece of "found art".

I'll chime in with my own strong recommendation for "Ghost World",
both the comic book and the movie.

Thanks, mcnally.  I want a copy of that song, and now I know the title.  :)
It's played in full at the end of the movie, over the credits, and I kept
rewinding it so I could dance.

In the theatrical release (K-Pax) a significant scene is left
until the very end, coming after the credits.  When I saw the 
movie only a handful of people where left to see it.  Did they
change that with the DVD or VHS release?

I hope not.  

Wow.  My wife and I always stay through movies just in case, but that *never*
happens any more...

        #(*@#(*@#, I missed that scene.  What happens?

  re #17:  fyi, the All Music Guide at http://www.allmusic.com is
  invaluable for looking up stuff like that -- definitely one of the best music
  sites on the web.  You can find out everything that's on the soundtrack by
  doing a search on "Ghost World" by album title..

  And yeah, it's a great song and works excellently in the movie..  The DVD
  even has the film excerpt as one of the DVD extras..

*mutters to self*  Must get DVD player...

yea, it's the same on the dvd - plus they have an 'alternate ending'.
(the k-pax ending)

My son and I saw "The Rookie" tonight.  It's a baseball movie about an 
older guy (36) who gets a shot at making it to the big leagues as a 
pitcher, based on a true story.  It was a pretty good movie; it held 
our attention.

Like almost all baseball movies, it doesn't help to know anything about 
baseball when watching it.  I was left wondering why the left-handed 
pitcher was brought in to face one batter, who was right-handed.  (If a 
left-handed pitcher is brought in to pitch to a single batter, it's 
always one who bats left-handed.)

Also, why in the world are they releasing a baseball movie at the start 
of baseball season?  Surely anyone would at least consider going to the 
game instead of the movie, right?  We didn't because it's warm in the 
theater; maybe everyone else did that, too.

Anyway, this movie was worth watching.  I thought "Ice Age" was better, 
though.

Just finished Ang Lee's _Eat,Drink,Man,Woman_ again.  Although it
is in mandarin (taiwan) with english subtitles and is set in taiwan
culturally it is still a funny and touching movie.  Definately a
'chick flik' its about a chinese master chef widower raising 
three daughters. No martial arts, is maritial arts film.

I liked "Eat, Drink, Man and Woman" a lot. I also liked the 
remake "Tortilla Soup" but not as much as the original. 

FWIW, I also liked Ghost World which I rented quite by accident. You 
see, happyboy was playing a funny on me and he told me to go rent 
Ghosts of Mars and I rented Ghost World by mistake but, of course, 
ended up liking it better than Ghosts of Mars. 

It's easy to like almost *anything* better than "Ghosts of Mars".

I saw two movies last year that were worse than Ghosts of Mars. I was 
at least able to watch Ghosts of Mars all the way through. These other 
two movies were so bad, I couldnt even watch them and had to turn them 
off. They were:

1) FReddy Got Fingered
2) Moulin Rouge

Hmph. Moulin Rouge was one of my fave films last year.

i watched 'don't say a word' last night. it was boring, but i did finish it.
another really bad movie from the blockbuster dvd crap-ass selection was
'bagdad cafe'. total shite. *almost* laughable. another shitass one was 'haiku
tunnel'. be warned!

we also watched 'midnight express'. i can't believe i'd never seen it before.
it was pretty good, though i was disappointed to find out they changed the
ending for the movie to make it more 'exciting'.

        I was forced to watch "Freddy Got Fingered".  It was an excruciating
experience.  One out of ten jokes Tom Green makes is actually funny, and the
rest really make me want to hurt him.  Badly.  

I rather like "Bagdad Cafe".

i wavered from love to hate throughout, but the ending pushed it over the edge
for me...

Need a taste of movie badness? Here's a good cure!

For those of you not in the know (and those that need a refresher) here's 
the URL that explains everything and then some:

http://www.smitheeawards.com/

...and the short and sweet for the eternally lazy:

The Smithees are, in a very very remotely sorta similar way, something 
kinda like the academy awards for bad cinema. Except they "honor" films 
from any time/era/genera. And the winners are not usually present to 
tearfully acknowledge their induction into tasteless movie fame. Oh, and 
the audience votes for the winners, not some nebulous "committee". Ahhh, 
errr...and there is usually some sort of drinks in colors not found in 
nature as well as truly obnoxious munchies (circus peanuts anyone?) 
floating around but other than that, almost exactly like an academy awards

presentation.

So come on down to 1800 Chem this Saturday (the 20th) at 7pm, check your 
brain at the door, grab a pencil and pad of paper and prepare to make your

vote count. Or, just come to watch the clips of horrible horrible movies 
that exemplify what it is to be bad cinema. Either way, it's a lot of fun 
and a great way to spend a Saturday. No really! Bring a friend even.


...and lastly, from on of the founding members:

>OK folks, you have less than a week to prepare yourselves! The Smithees 
>are this Saturday! Room 1800 Chemistry building, 7pm to midnight-ish.
>Admission is free, and strange snacks will be provided!
>
>As an added bonus, here's a poster for you all to download and enjoy...
>
>http://141.214.85.112/smithee/2002/Poster_2002.pdf

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Well, the idea is that any director who wishes to dissociate himself from 
a film because he or she doesn't believe it to be a good career move to 
have it identified with his or her own name traditionally credits Allan 
Smithee with the direction.  Whether the film is or is not BAD is moot.

What I read is that the directors' guild only allows a director to do that
if the movie was somehow taken out of his control.

Saw "Frailty" tonight. Very creepy film, from a psychological perspective.
There were some holes in plot, directing (Bill Paxton), and writing, but the
premise was original enough to compensate and, despite the theme (serial
murder), there was very little actual gore. Since it was compared to The
Shining, I didn't tell Val what it was until I'd already bought tix (she found
The Shining to be mostly dull), and that was good... she was very creeped out
by it. It does have a very religious theme, which gets redundant in parts,
and the ending was anticlimactic (I found myself wanting to don jacket about
five minutes from when they actually got around to rolling the credits... I'd
probably see it again, but there are enough weaknesses to it to make me wonder
how many times. Some swearing, for people who care; the suggested violence
is VERY violent. Oh yeah, and claustrophobes will definitely leave with sweaty
palms (ironically, I chose this one over Panic Room, and there's a scene in
here which is bound to be worse).
 
Hmmm... that's about it. Overall, balancing the bad directing and plot holes
with the interesting premise and entertainment value, I'll give it a 2.5 out
of 4.

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