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[Halo_n_horns]

The Last of the Mohicans

The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, was pretty disappointing dispite how good everyone said it was. My biggest problem with the movie was that it wasn't a story about the last of the Mohicans. It was a story about the last white guy to be raised by the last of the Mohicans and his fluffy love story about trying to to get some trim outside of the tribe.

Another mistitled movie was "The Horse Whisperer" with Robert Redford. It was a good chick-flick, but it wasn't a story about the abilities of the horse whisperer or the various results that he was able to achieve to the extent that the movie was capable of. Just more fluff.

 

[Dar~]

I really enjoyed Sideways. I got it I guess.
One of my favorite movies is Duets. I never saw a review on it, it was purchased for video stores in pairs not en masse. I grabbe dit b/c I needed a movie I hadn't seen and I had been watching a lot of movies. I bought it the next day.

The plot is so real to my way of thinking. all these people with different lives and motivations who never would have met but for little circumstances. And their lives are affected greatly. I love the plot, I love the music, and I get it. My kind of movie.

 

[BlackShanglan]

For my own movie input: The Village has taken a bad reputation for little reason. The movie was well-filmed and very suspenseful. Very well-acted as well as well-written. Why are people so convinced that the only part of the movie that matters is the last five minutes?

Q_C

There was quite a lot of The Village that I liked, but there were also places where Shyamalan's control and structure really didn't show his best work. The plot line with Ivy's sister and her attraction for (forgot his name) was pointless and should have been cut. Ditto on Sigourney Weaver's character's interest in the male leader. I know that MNS was trying to do a cool multiple-levels-of-same-theme thing, but it wasn't working, and it's better to cut it than to force it. If you can't stand to cut it, then you have to go back and make it actually work. Ditto on the pit Ivy falls into on her way to the "towns" and on Noah chasing her in the creature get up. They really didn't make any sense and felt very forced. If nothing else, who dresses up in disguise to chase a blind woman? I know he wanted the pit of despair/losing your way image and the "we are the thing we fear" theme, but it was too heavy-handed to work well.

(Just my thoughts. I think MNS can be brilliant, but he needs someone scrutinizing his every move and forcing him to prove himself like he did with 6th Sense.)

The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, was pretty disappointing dispite how good everyone said it was. My biggest problem with the movie was that it wasn't a story about the last of the Mohicans. It was a story about the last white guy to be raised by the last of the Mohicans and his fluffy love story about trying to to get some trim outside of the tribe.

You can blame James Fenimore Cooper for that. I highly recommend Mark Twain's essay "The Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper," in which he takes him delightfully to task for such choices as having a character track a cannon ball's trail through pitch darkness to a fort, having someone else divert a running stream to find his foe's footprint still clearly visible on the bottom, and having a riverboat 100 feet long travelling a stream with curves 120 feet long, with Indians leaping from the branches overhead repeatedly unable to land on the 100 foot boat as it tries to squeeze through a curve only slightly longer than it is. "All the laws of Nature must stand in abeyance when Mr. Cooper wants to put up a delicate job of woodcraft," Twain tells us, and that seems indeed to be the case.

Shanglan

 

[Guest]

The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, was pretty disappointing dispite how good everyone said it was.

Are you nuts? I cried when Daniel Day-Lewis' adopted brother got killed and the girl jumped off cliff.

"I will find you! No matter where you are! How ever far you may be! I will find you!" (Yeah, OK. My punctuation suck, but the words are correct more or less.)

 

[The_Fool]

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

A tad iffish on the story line. Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie, so eye candy. Very much stretched on the ending. I loved it.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Are you nuts? I cried when Daniel Day-Lewis' adopted brother got killed and the girl jumped off cliff.

"I will find you! No matter where you are! How ever far you may be! I will find you!" (Yeah, OK. My punctuation suck, but the words are correct more or less.)

Good scene where Alice steps off the cliff. I like that last cut to Maqua (sp?) in which even he has a moment of pity and motions to her to come back.

 

[Guest]

Good scene where Alice steps off the cliff. I like that last cut to Maqua (sp?) in which even he has a moment of pity and motions to her to come back.

Yeah. I don't know his name, but that Chicano actor is pretty good.

 

[Kassiana]

The English Patient won a bunch of Oscars, but I couldn't wait to get out of that theater. Nearly three hours of mind-numbing, dreary story-telling about unlikeable, boring characters. And sand.

Not to mention its utter predictability. Gods, I couldn't wait for it to end. The only good part is where you found out what the stick figures in the beginning were doing. The rest should be decently burned.

 

[Guest]

Not to mention its utter predictability. Gods, I couldn't wait for it to end.

Me too!

 

[Lovepotion69]

I watched "Love Actually" for the 4th time the other night. I'm sorry but I absolutely love that movie for some reason. I enjoy that the camera follows various characters and how they all are connected somehow. Ok, so Hugh Grant plays his usual shy Englishman, but the whole movie is so darn charming, sweet and a great date movie. (No, I didn't see it with a date. I saw it with my friend).

My favourite characters are the little boy who's in love with a girl from his school and I also liked the woman who's madly in love with her work mate. See the movie!

So, is Batman begins worth spending money on, or should I just wait till it comes on cable?

 

[JamesSD]

I watched "Love Actually" for the 4th time the other night. I'm sorry but I absolutely love that movie for some reason. I enjoy that the camera follows various characters and how they all are connected somehow. Ok, so Hugh Grant plays his usual shy Englishman, but the whole movie is so darn charming, sweet and a great date movie. (No, I didn't see it with a date. I saw it with my friend).

I liked Love Actually, especially as far as the romance genre goes. Telling several stories allowed the filmmakers to avoid having every storyline end in a neat, Hollywood ending. If I recall at least one was bittersweet, while another fulfilled the "happy ending" requirement.
The interconnections were occasionally contrived, but generally worked.

 

[Lovepotion69]

I liked Love Actually, especially as far as the romance genre goes. Telling several stories allowed the filmmakers to avoid having every storyline end in a neat, Hollywood ending. If I recall at least one was bittersweet, while another fulfilled the "happy ending" requirement.
The interconnections were occasionally contrived, but generally worked.

There were happy endings in it, some more than others, but I did like the bittersweet one the best. That was the one with the girl who had a crush on her work mate. She also has a brother who needs constant care which messes things up for her. Did like Laura Linney in the role and the guy playing her love interest looks scaringly much like a friend of mine.

 

[Seattle Zack]

At the Seattle International Film Festival, I saw an awesome South Korean movie called 3-Iron. Kind of a zen take on Postman or Double Indemnity.

Definitely an arthouse flick, subtitled and all. Don't bring a date, or she will be asking "What did they say?" or "What was that?" throughout the movie.

--Zack

 

[Kassiana]

At the Seattle International Film Festival, I saw an awesome South Korean movie called 3-Iron. Kind of a zen take on Postman or Double Indemnity.

Definitely an arthouse flick, subtitled and all. Don't bring a date, or she will be asking "What did they say?" or "What was that?" throughout the movie.

--Zack

Unless, like some women, she actually likes subtitled movies. Like I enjoyed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

So, is Batman begins worth spending money on, or should I just wait till it comes on cable?

Being that I've been a fan of the Batman since I was four, I'm a bit partial, but I can honestly say that this is probably the Batman movie that should have been made right at the beginning. The movie makes very good use of the big screen in all the visual ways that you would want a movie to do, and Christian Bale's portrayal departed from the whispery, low-toned Batman of all the previous films. That by itself was incredibly refreshing for this character.

If you're in doubt, catch it at a matinee time so you're not paying so much. You'll at least find it worth that money. I'm confident that you'll find it worth the full price of admission afterward.

On to another movie...

We watched "The Life Aquatic" with Bill Murray (one of Tim Burton's casting ideas for the first Batman movie, believe it or not) last night. It was a dry movie despite the setting of the film. Though it wasn't as dry as "Sideways." I'm glad I didn't spend the money on seeing this in the theater, but it was just good enough to sit through once, and then say to myself, "Ok. I've seen it. What's next?"

In the next night or two we'll be watching "The Audition." It's a horror suspense film from the orient and in the same class as "The Grudge." I'm looking forward to that one.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Definitely an arthouse flick, subtitled and all. Don't bring a date, or she will be asking "What did they say?" or "What was that?" throughout the movie.

--Zack

And if you've got a subtitle-watcher, as I am blessed to - watch "Farewell My Concubine" for some of the best acting you'll ever see, and a brilliant commentary on art, history, and society.

 

[Lovepotion69]

Being that I've been a fan of the Batman since I was four, I'm a bit partial, but I can honestly say that this is probably the Batman movie that should have been made right at the beginning. The movie makes very good use of the big screen in all the visual ways that you would want a movie to do, and Christian Bale's portrayal departed from the whispery, low-toned Batman of all the previous films. That by itself was incredibly refreshing for this character.

If you're in doubt, catch it at a matinee time so you're not paying so much. You'll at least find it worth that money. I'm confident that you'll find it worth the full price of admission afterward.

Halo_n_horns, I'm a comic book fan either way. Read all the Marvel ones and Batman. Heck, I even went to my professor's book launch (his Ph.D book was on Batman! The British tabloids had a lot of fun with that... He's very into populat culture. Did academic essays on Star Wars and Dawson's Creek too. LOL I'm quoted in a few of his essays.)

I've seen the previous Batman movies and honestly wasn't keen on the last few. The crooks were awful. I admit it's surprising they didn't make this movie first as it's the beginning of the story of Batman. Maybe I'll try to catch it. Doubt anyone will join me though!

 

[rgraham666]

Caught a couple of good ones in the last couple of days.

Yesterday I watched Final Cut starring Robin Williams and Mira Sorvino (mmmm, Mira Sorvino). It's an SF movie about a future technology and it's effects both good and bad. It was very interesting. I'm still thinking about it.

Just finished Master And Commander. From what I know of that period it was a very good recreation of Napoleonic naval warfare. The acting was pretty good and the action was great. Enjoyed it a lot.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Caught a couple of good ones in the last couple of days.

Yesterday I watched Final Cut starring Robin Williams and Mira Sorvino (mmmm, Mira Sorvino). It's an SF movie about a future technology and it's effects both good and bad. It was very interesting. I'm still thinking about it.

Just finished Master And Commander. From what I know of that period it was a very good recreation of Napoleonic naval warfare. The acting was pretty good and the action was great. Enjoyed it a lot.

I saw both of these also and enjoyed them both a great deal. I thought that Final Cut was missing some key ingredients that would have made it a much better movie, but it definitely wasn't bad as it was.

Master and Commander was spectacular, though I must admit that I had some difficulty with the amputation scene being that I have a young son. That scene found the one or two heart strings that I possess and gave them a pretty good tugging.