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- Thread starter Rustam
- Start date
Last night we went semi-retro and watched The Silence of the Lambs. Not as good as I remember it, but still worth watching every now and again. The movie had some shock factor and time had worn it down somewhat. The miniskirt complex: shocking in 1960, almost expected today. Not to diminish the movie's quality, but it had some rather stretched scenes. It also seemed quite dated in places. Regardless, Anthony Hopkins' performance still shines after some 16 years. I wonder what an 18 year old today would think?
Now I have to see how The Silence of the Hams stands up. Ummm... upon further reflection I'll move on to other things...
Now I have to see how The Silence of the Hams stands up. Ummm... upon further reflection I'll move on to other things...
beer good
Well-Known Member
You probably didn't realize that Hard Ticket to Hawaii is a sequel and you're life is not complete until you see Malibu Express. A true masterpiece of late nite 80's cable. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it will become a part of you.
Actually, I did realize that afterwards when we watched the trailers for the 11 other Andy Sedaris movies that are out on DVD. All of them look to be just about the same. Except this one had a snake. On a plane. The man was truly ahead of his time.
lenny nero
New Member
Indeed he was. I believe he passed away earlier this year.
Libra6Poe
New Member
Star Trek: The Menagerie
Last night (Tuesday), my boyfriend and I went to see Star Trek: The Menagerie in the theatres. It was awesome (I don't care what you think Lenny!). It started with a message from Roddenberry's son about the making of the film... about the remastering of the series...
Fascinating.
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/2308573.html?page=1
Last night (Tuesday), my boyfriend and I went to see Star Trek: The Menagerie in the theatres. It was awesome (I don't care what you think Lenny!). It started with a message from Roddenberry's son about the making of the film... about the remastering of the series...
Fascinating.
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/2308573.html?page=1
BeerWench13
Active Member
I am embarrassed to admit that I haven't been to the movie theatre since I was so gravely disappointed by Star Wars: Episodes I and II (I saved my money and waited for III to come out on HBO). However, I have just about every movie channel at home and spent last evening wallowing in my hungover state and watching Happy Feet for the first time.
Though the plot was similar to just about every other animated movie/fairy tale - the main character is different from the rest of the group and lacks some skill or look that requires him/her to fit in with the pack - it really was rather enjoyable. The animation was very good, the plotline had its political undertones if you looked for them, and the music was well-presented. In all, not a bad flick. It's no Finding Nemo (which I loved!), but it was cute and soothed me into a calm drowsiness that overcame the headache and nausea brought on by succumbing to my neighbor's request that we join them for karaoke on a weeknight.
Though the plot was similar to just about every other animated movie/fairy tale - the main character is different from the rest of the group and lacks some skill or look that requires him/her to fit in with the pack - it really was rather enjoyable. The animation was very good, the plotline had its political undertones if you looked for them, and the music was well-presented. In all, not a bad flick. It's no Finding Nemo (which I loved!), but it was cute and soothed me into a calm drowsiness that overcame the headache and nausea brought on by succumbing to my neighbor's request that we join them for karaoke on a weeknight.
helgi
New Member
I saw Rocky II. When Rocky was beat up and bleeding Apollo said "You got lucky!" And Rocky said, "Do I look lucky?"
Hey BeerWench, you shouldn't succumb to your neighbor's request. There are so much better requests to succumb to.
Everybody thinks they're going to paint the town red. I used to work at a restaurant, and all the waitresses would talk about was going out to karaoke and finding ill tempered man-buddies. They were a bunch of swingers, I think.
Hey BeerWench, you shouldn't succumb to your neighbor's request. There are so much better requests to succumb to.
Everybody thinks they're going to paint the town red. I used to work at a restaurant, and all the waitresses would talk about was going out to karaoke and finding ill tempered man-buddies. They were a bunch of swingers, I think.
beer good
Well-Known Member
Two low-budget horror flicks watched over the weekend:
The Initiation of Sarah (2006). Despite the fact that the title sounds like a porn movie (and a somewhat iffy one at that) this is actually a made-for-US-TV feature film that tries to be an actually scary horror movie despite the lack of nudity, gore or foul language; admirable these days. Plus, it co-stars Firefly/Serenity star and future Terminator Summer Glau, as well as Jennifer Tilly, which I'm not ashamed to admit is a plus in my book.
Problem is that it all plays like a Buffy episode - to be precise, 2.04 "Reptile Boy", one of the worst episodes of the whole series - stretched out to 90 minutes and with all clever dialogue surgically removed. Once we've established that we're at college, that there's a Good Magic Sorority and a Bad Magic Sorority and that our heroine has Mystical Powers, the entire thing just plods along in a straight line with no surprises, no twists and very few scares. In a sense, I suppose it's timely to watch this now; the striking WGA members could make excellent use of this as an example of what happens when TV companies won't hire good writers. Some decent acting, and not a complete waste of time, but a weak 2/5 nonetheless.
Satan's Little Helper (2004) sounds like such a good idea, plus it's actually got some fun dialogue ("Jesus is Satan!"). The plot is delightfully wrong: teenage girl and her boyfriend come back to her calm little hometown to celebrate halloween by going trick-or-treating with her little brother, who has some issues when it comes to separating reality from video games. Since the kid has dressed up as a little devil, the boyfriend is supposed to dress up like Satan. Unfortunately, the town is also home to a very inventive serial killer who has decided to make halloween his big night... and he's also dressed up as Satan. And wackiness ensues when the boy goes trick-or-treating with the wrong Lucifer. Plus, you've got Amanda Plummer playing the kids' eternally stoned hausfrau of a mother.
That's fun (and it IS fun) for about 40 minutes. Then it all falls apart into the usual slasher fare with characters whose IQ seems to dwindle by the minute, plot holes the size of Michael Myers' patient journal, and Amanda Plummer screaming in terror at the lack of a script. Even a cameo by rock biographer Larry "Ratso" Sloman in a Bob Dylan costume can't save this mess at that point, the movie simply plummets, and by the time it splats to the ground on a not-completely-disastrous darkly humorous ending, you've almost forgotten how good an idea it really was to start with. 2/5.
Then I also watched Polanski's The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971) which I hadn't seen for about 10 years and which is still one of the most visceral Shakespeare adaptations I've ever seen; grimy, dirty, and more than a little creepy when you consider what had been happening in Polanski's private life recently. (For those who don't know, his wife was brutally murdered by the Charles Manson gang in a scene that must have occurred to him more than once in directing this 2 1/2 hours of assassination, rapes and fight scenes.) I've seen a few versions of Macbeth, and this isn't really the most violent (that honour goes to the ridiculous Australian adaptation that came out last year) but I do believe it's the best one, staying true to the mediaeval feel of the original but still with every line stinging like a whip. 5/5 despite the somewhat silly fight scene at the end.
The Initiation of Sarah (2006). Despite the fact that the title sounds like a porn movie (and a somewhat iffy one at that) this is actually a made-for-US-TV feature film that tries to be an actually scary horror movie despite the lack of nudity, gore or foul language; admirable these days. Plus, it co-stars Firefly/Serenity star and future Terminator Summer Glau, as well as Jennifer Tilly, which I'm not ashamed to admit is a plus in my book.
Problem is that it all plays like a Buffy episode - to be precise, 2.04 "Reptile Boy", one of the worst episodes of the whole series - stretched out to 90 minutes and with all clever dialogue surgically removed. Once we've established that we're at college, that there's a Good Magic Sorority and a Bad Magic Sorority and that our heroine has Mystical Powers, the entire thing just plods along in a straight line with no surprises, no twists and very few scares. In a sense, I suppose it's timely to watch this now; the striking WGA members could make excellent use of this as an example of what happens when TV companies won't hire good writers. Some decent acting, and not a complete waste of time, but a weak 2/5 nonetheless.
Satan's Little Helper (2004) sounds like such a good idea, plus it's actually got some fun dialogue ("Jesus is Satan!"). The plot is delightfully wrong: teenage girl and her boyfriend come back to her calm little hometown to celebrate halloween by going trick-or-treating with her little brother, who has some issues when it comes to separating reality from video games. Since the kid has dressed up as a little devil, the boyfriend is supposed to dress up like Satan. Unfortunately, the town is also home to a very inventive serial killer who has decided to make halloween his big night... and he's also dressed up as Satan. And wackiness ensues when the boy goes trick-or-treating with the wrong Lucifer. Plus, you've got Amanda Plummer playing the kids' eternally stoned hausfrau of a mother.
That's fun (and it IS fun) for about 40 minutes. Then it all falls apart into the usual slasher fare with characters whose IQ seems to dwindle by the minute, plot holes the size of Michael Myers' patient journal, and Amanda Plummer screaming in terror at the lack of a script. Even a cameo by rock biographer Larry "Ratso" Sloman in a Bob Dylan costume can't save this mess at that point, the movie simply plummets, and by the time it splats to the ground on a not-completely-disastrous darkly humorous ending, you've almost forgotten how good an idea it really was to start with. 2/5.
Then I also watched Polanski's The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971) which I hadn't seen for about 10 years and which is still one of the most visceral Shakespeare adaptations I've ever seen; grimy, dirty, and more than a little creepy when you consider what had been happening in Polanski's private life recently. (For those who don't know, his wife was brutally murdered by the Charles Manson gang in a scene that must have occurred to him more than once in directing this 2 1/2 hours of assassination, rapes and fight scenes.) I've seen a few versions of Macbeth, and this isn't really the most violent (that honour goes to the ridiculous Australian adaptation that came out last year) but I do believe it's the best one, staying true to the mediaeval feel of the original but still with every line stinging like a whip. 5/5 despite the somewhat silly fight scene at the end.
BeerWench13
Active Member
I had a few hours to kill before a poker tournament on Saturday, so as I was surfing through the movie channels I came across The New World with Colin Ferrell and Q'Orianka Kilcher. Released in 2005, I never heard much buzz about this film. In fact, prior to Saturday, I had not heard of it at all. Woe is me for not having found this movie sooner!
The story is based on Capt. John Smith and his meeting Pocohantas' tribe while trying to clear his name and settle a colony. The plotline is very good and historically sound with some narrations and very little dialogue. Surprisingly, the lack of dialogue makes the film that much better. The cinematography is extraordinary. The portrayal of Virginia in 1607 was phenomenal and the roles of Pocohantas, John Smith, though Ferrell's accent was a bit shaky, and John Rolfe were exquisitely performed. It's a heartbreaking yet inspirational film that excellently portrays not only the time period, but the situation in which John Smith must have found himself. 5/5
The story is based on Capt. John Smith and his meeting Pocohantas' tribe while trying to clear his name and settle a colony. The plotline is very good and historically sound with some narrations and very little dialogue. Surprisingly, the lack of dialogue makes the film that much better. The cinematography is extraordinary. The portrayal of Virginia in 1607 was phenomenal and the roles of Pocohantas, John Smith, though Ferrell's accent was a bit shaky, and John Rolfe were exquisitely performed. It's a heartbreaking yet inspirational film that excellently portrays not only the time period, but the situation in which John Smith must have found himself. 5/5
helgi
New Member
You guys write like your movie watching is important stuff, like it's a fine thing for you to partake of cinema. How wierd!
...at poetry huts, I have seen how people pick up their odd mix drinks with limp wrists, or characteristic swirls, acting as if they are using some great skill or finesse to partake. I've rarely understood whose benefit it is. Do the people who drink in such a way enjoy acting better than they are?; If one says that here I underestimate their worth, I then ask why should any grand worth of poetry-house-hipsters be expressed by limp wristed partaking? I doubt the worth of many such partakers!
...this applys just as well to such lavish discussion of movies. I will admit, when I am watching a movie it's because I'm bored. But you guys make it seem like you're forwarding culture whenever you merely stare at the screen. And you seem to respond well to this facade among yourselves, alerting eachother to excellence in cinema like it's oil struck, and also wanting to share the great wealth, out of great generosity. But when saying what is and what is not excellent, you achieve a smallish charisma, and small suspicion that you are excellent, and this is all what you're all after, I think. You all write in such a way; as if upon speaking you think your tongues could rise to the occasion to tie the shoes of a sultan. Or that your tongues are even fit for such assistance! Of my self I must admit that I have not such ability, and my tongue is only fit to be tied!
...I suspect you write your great posts just under your par, and act as if it is how you write when you're not invested in any concievable measure, as if you are gods and goddesses letting your arms linger from the clouds with scrolls to be dispatched by mercury in a fine spirited correspondence across great distances. But this is a romantic exaggeration of snide internet correspondence.
...at poetry huts, I have seen how people pick up their odd mix drinks with limp wrists, or characteristic swirls, acting as if they are using some great skill or finesse to partake. I've rarely understood whose benefit it is. Do the people who drink in such a way enjoy acting better than they are?; If one says that here I underestimate their worth, I then ask why should any grand worth of poetry-house-hipsters be expressed by limp wristed partaking? I doubt the worth of many such partakers!
...this applys just as well to such lavish discussion of movies. I will admit, when I am watching a movie it's because I'm bored. But you guys make it seem like you're forwarding culture whenever you merely stare at the screen. And you seem to respond well to this facade among yourselves, alerting eachother to excellence in cinema like it's oil struck, and also wanting to share the great wealth, out of great generosity. But when saying what is and what is not excellent, you achieve a smallish charisma, and small suspicion that you are excellent, and this is all what you're all after, I think. You all write in such a way; as if upon speaking you think your tongues could rise to the occasion to tie the shoes of a sultan. Or that your tongues are even fit for such assistance! Of my self I must admit that I have not such ability, and my tongue is only fit to be tied!
...I suspect you write your great posts just under your par, and act as if it is how you write when you're not invested in any concievable measure, as if you are gods and goddesses letting your arms linger from the clouds with scrolls to be dispatched by mercury in a fine spirited correspondence across great distances. But this is a romantic exaggeration of snide internet correspondence.
helgi
New Member
hey Mrs. Beer Wench, instead of saying 5/5, say that you give it a 1. That's how my proffesor would advise you! How lucky you are to hear it from an astute student such as I, who may forward his proffesor's wisdom at marry and in good spirit of sophmoric correction. Indeed, it shows that a worthy proffesor results in students who can instruct! You must delight that I speak so brilliantly to you! Chow!
Tasku
kickbox
Hmm... kay... 
Anyways, I watched Love Liza today. Was an okay movie. "Tragic Comedy" was the tagline of it. Drama comedy of a man who losses his wife to suicide, and can't quite cope with it, and slips into sniffing gasoline. Was funny at first, but in the end it got a bit more serious. Philip Seymour Hoffman was good as usual.
At IMDb I gave it 7/10...
Anyways, I watched Love Liza today. Was an okay movie. "Tragic Comedy" was the tagline of it. Drama comedy of a man who losses his wife to suicide, and can't quite cope with it, and slips into sniffing gasoline. Was funny at first, but in the end it got a bit more serious. Philip Seymour Hoffman was good as usual.
At IMDb I gave it 7/10...
beer good
Well-Known Member
Tasku
kickbox
helgi
New Member
Psh! That's what mums are for!
and that's it?
beer good
Well-Known Member
[Rec]. Spanish horror movie that's gotten some buzz on the festival circuit. A young female TV reporter and her cameraman are supposed to do a really boring report on life at a fire station, and when the firemen respond to a routine call - an old woman locked inside her flat - they tag along. Of course, once they get to that flat the woman turns out to be infected with something that turns you into a raging zombie once bitten, and so the police arrive and seal off the entire house, leaving everyone within to fend for themselves.
With the whole movie shot entirely from the unseen cameraman's POV, effectively trapping us in the house with him, it really does get pretty intense and paranoid - a microperspective on the same sort of thing that 28 Weeks Later did as a semi-political national crisis, with characters that crack under pressure, throw blame around or fight for their lives in a way that feels realistic. Unfortunately it runs out of ideas in the last 20 minutes and just settles for clichéd something-jumps-out-at-us scares and a half-assed exposition scene (there's a reason George Romero never bothered explaining WHY people were turning into zombies). Still, a nice effort. 3/5
Eagle Vs Shark. Quirky romantic comedy from New Zealand about two complete outsiders trying to fall in love with each other. Reminded me a bit of Harold And Maude filtered through a young Peter Jackson, though that might be more the accents. Very enjoyable, a few clichés aside, and if you switch off any attempt to think too deeply about it... utterly adorable. 4/5.
Descent. Not to be confused with the fantastic British horror flick with the same name from a few years ago; this is a modern rape/revenge film starring Rosario Dawson and set at a US college. As much as I love slow, introspective character studies about people having to plumb their own depths to survive, this bored me to tears. Flat, dull characters delivering flat, dull dialogue for 90 minutes, interrupted by two rape scenes that don't even manage to be shocking. Utter crap. Avoid. 1/5.
With the whole movie shot entirely from the unseen cameraman's POV, effectively trapping us in the house with him, it really does get pretty intense and paranoid - a microperspective on the same sort of thing that 28 Weeks Later did as a semi-political national crisis, with characters that crack under pressure, throw blame around or fight for their lives in a way that feels realistic. Unfortunately it runs out of ideas in the last 20 minutes and just settles for clichéd something-jumps-out-at-us scares and a half-assed exposition scene (there's a reason George Romero never bothered explaining WHY people were turning into zombies). Still, a nice effort. 3/5
Eagle Vs Shark. Quirky romantic comedy from New Zealand about two complete outsiders trying to fall in love with each other. Reminded me a bit of Harold And Maude filtered through a young Peter Jackson, though that might be more the accents. Very enjoyable, a few clichés aside, and if you switch off any attempt to think too deeply about it... utterly adorable. 4/5.
Descent. Not to be confused with the fantastic British horror flick with the same name from a few years ago; this is a modern rape/revenge film starring Rosario Dawson and set at a US college. As much as I love slow, introspective character studies about people having to plumb their own depths to survive, this bored me to tears. Flat, dull characters delivering flat, dull dialogue for 90 minutes, interrupted by two rape scenes that don't even manage to be shocking. Utter crap. Avoid. 1/5.