Movies

[Ankaa]

lol every time 42 appears, I start laughing hysterically and only one of my friends has read those books so most of them have no idea what's funny. of ever 41 or 43--I'll say stuff like, "Ha ha! That's one away from 42!" and I think by now they've given up on me and my beloved 42...

[Kathy Li]

BTW, for those of you not as ancient as I who do not remember the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Infocom game, may I mention that it's been ported to Java on the BBC website, and that you can get an infocom interpreter on the OS of your choice, such as Frotz if you have the old Infocom game files.

[alla]

HEHE... I bet no one can guess what movie I'm gonna recommend that you all see

<span class="ev_code_WHITE">The Phantom of the Opera</span>

Any surprises?

Does anyone have any other recommendations incase I can't drag family members along with me (being the only musical one in my family)?

[Kathy Li]

Alla, I'm not sure I can recommend it for family viewing (too much sex. ) but I loved A Very Long Engagement, which was gorgeous, very French, and very heartbreaking and lovely. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, (Am&eacute;lie, Les citie de enfant perdus, and (surprisingly) Alien: Resurrection).

A Series of Unfortunate Events was fun!

BTW, has anybody else seen the Weta workshop clip on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Omigod. The creature/weapons design stuff looks better than LotR.

[Ankaa]

Yeah, Unfortunate Events was really good. I liked the clothes (I want Violet's dress!) and buildings; they reminded me of the re-designed Hogwarts from Harry Potter 3.

[EWizard11]

Ankaa: 42.

And Violet's dress is mine.

I'm trying to remember what I've seen recently...ASOUE, obviously...and since we got a DVD player at Christmas I've re-seen ROTK, SW: Episode 4, and 13 going on 30. I've seen, newly, Chicago, which I loved, and The Terminal, which is good but waaaaayy too long. Also I recently saw Ocean's 12 and Ocean's 11 (it was probably bad that I saw Ocean's 12 first, but I had no choice) and Down With Love, which is perhaps my new fave romantic comedy. It is sooo cute. Not to mention fantastically weird.

[Agent M]

Terminal was good I didn't think it was too long... i like long movies Ocean's 12 was cool too But I liked 11 better.... It had more stuff with the characters, notice how hardly anyone in 12 had lines but Ocean, Brad Pitt's character and Matt Damon's character. But I liked it cuz it was confusing

[Kathy Li]

I looooved Chicago. Also enjoyed The Terminal a lot, but felt that bits of it could've been stronger. Never got what the big deal about the fountain was, especially since they never got it to turn on. Loved the shot with the teeny-tiny mop guy and the big big plane, but never really BELIEVED it, if ya know what I mean. Figure I'll wait for HBO on Ocean's 12, since sequels tend to be weak and given that we're talking a sequel to a remake...

E, if you think Down With Love is fantastically weird, you should see some of the Rock Hudson/Doris Day flicks it's parodying (and even weirder when you know Rock Hudson was gay, because his characters would pretend to be really swish to get Doris Day off her guard so he could seduce her. The '50s were a very odd time, apparently).

Movies I most wanna go and see right now: House of Flying Daggers, Phantom of the Opera, The Aviator. Films that haven't arrived yet that I wanna see: Aliens of the Deep (but only if I can see it in 3d IMAX) and Elektra.

[EWizard11]

I thought Ocean's Twelve was pretty good, even though I couldn't figure out what was going on half the time, especially in the beginning because I hadn't seen the first one...I'd like to see the original Ocean's Eleven.

I haven't seen The Aviator, but my friend did. She said there's some parts in the middle when he's struggling with mental illness that are a little disturbing.

[db_pr]

Anybody see Alexander? I liked the frisking scene.

No wait... that was Taxi.

Ugh... Alexander... he was a wimp, stupid, bloodthirsty, fame-addicted...

Though it WAS a good movie I can't really relate to movies in which I don't like the main character... (the only reason I loved Troy was because of Hector)

[Kathy Li]

So, I saw Phantom of the Opera and enjoyed it greatly, but can anybody tell me why the heck the director thought it was a good thing to be visually quoting Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast?

And I'm sorry, but turning "Masquerade" into a black and white ball? and not even giving Erik his big <span class="ev_code_red">RED</span> plume-laden hat? Stoooooopid.... Even the hand-tinting on the 1925 silent version of Phantom made the Red Death have more impact.

I can understand how some of the recitatives got turned into spoken dialogue, but it then sort of invites the question, "why are all these people suddenly bursting into song?" I'd have preferred it if they'd kept it through-sung, I guess.

OTOH, damn fine performances and singing from all involved, and some lovely costumes (although Maria Bjornssen's for the stage show were better). And for "Notes/Prima Donna" alone, the flick was worth the ticket price.

[Kathy Li]

omg omg omg. Scifi Wire article on Cameron's latest.

I soooo love James Cameron movies (Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2, The Abyss, Titanic, ...), and Ghosts of the Abyss completely rocked in 3D. And the idea of Cameron doing a manga-based movie? Swoooon.

[Ankaa]

Can you refresh my memory--how does the plot of tPotO go again? And isn't the Red Death from The Mask of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe? I read it, and it had nothing to do with opera...or phantoms, really...sorta...

[Kathy Li]

I can't remember how it goes; I have a teflon-coated brain . Thankfully, Really Useful have a full plot synopsis of the show; and University of Virginia has a full e-text of an English translation of Gaston Lerou's original novel.

Dunno if Leroux was referencing Poe or if it was the other way around or parallel evolution, but there's definitely a bit where the Phantom dresses up as the Red Death during the Masquerade Ball in both the show and the book.

[alla]

*looks at e-text* ohhh... I have something to read again Thanks for the link Kli! Amelia says thank you too. I've looked all over in bookshops for the novel and I can't find it.

*hums music*

gotta go... food time