Movies

[bookworm6]

I saw The Da Vinci Code last weekend, and it definitely wasn't worth it. The book was much better. In Her Shoes wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favourite movie ever. I saw The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a couple of times. It's not as good as the radio show, but it's not bad either.

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by bluesalamanders:
... my mom and I watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast that evening. That is another wonderful movie, I love the music. The only thing I don't like about it is how the animators totally failed at making any males the slightest bit attractive. Yup. It's bad that I liked him better as the Beast.

Blue, this is a problem with EVERY version of Beauty and the Beast not just the Disney one. For the movie to work successfully, you have to learn to fall in love with the Beast, as Belle does, and you've been around him all movie long. The prince never measures up. Not even in the Cocteau version. It's just part of how the fairytale works, alas. I think the Disney guys did a pretty decent job, given the impossibility of the task. I also like that Glen Keane studied kisses for weeks. I didn't know that Glen Keane was the son of Bill Keane (the guy who draws The Family Circus).

Cress, the book of The Prestige was better, imho, but the problem is that once you know the plot trick, it won't work again. But the ending is genuinely a lot creepier in the novel--as is the final fate of Angier. The machine worked differently in the book.

Bookworm, I know what you mean, but I still had a good time with the prettiness of The Da Vinci Code and all those gorgeous shots of the Louvre.

I finally got around to see Casino Royale and had a great time, but felt oddly cheated that Sebastien Foucan in the parkour/free-running stunt sequence at the beginning of the film was the best part. And now I have to go find some silly Luc Besson film called District [B]13 to see more parkour.

I also made it to History Boys which I loved, but not as much as the play. It's like History Boys-lite. They had to excise the entire present-day plotline and all the fourth-wall breaking monologues to simplify the storytelling, so that the fates of Posner and Irwin had to be softened and happy-ended (sigh).

Thanks for letting me vent. I know that nobody has any idea what I'm talking about with the previous paragraph.

Still want to see Stranger Than Fiction, but not much liking of the Will Farrell. And a lot of folks keep talking me out of seeing Happy Feet.

[Dragon Writer]

i started watching finding neverland once, i think, but due to a mixture of preconsieved notions after watching other things of that basic gandra, and being busy, i think, i'm not sure, it's been a while, i never got in too it or saw the end.

[Rubywolf]

Finding neverland? yuck. I like:
princess mononoke
Howl's moving castle
Laputa
spirited away
castle in the sky
V for Vendetta
The castle of cagliostro

Most of the movies that come out now a days are rather bad. I don't know. They remind me of yellow Journalism. You know, reporting scandal after scandal, all the violent crimes, anything to sell the newspaer or in this case, the movies. It gets sad after a while. Oh well. anyway, I revived the thread!

[Kathy Li]

Miyazaki fan, eh, Rubywolf? Have you see Future Boy Conan? I love Miyazaki, but I wish more people knew about Takahata as well.

I enjoyed V for Vendetta very much, but somehow I still like the comic book more. In some ways, I really wish they'd reprint it the way it was originally print: in black and white. I loved a lot of things in the movie, but I kind of miss the part where Evie becomes the new V. Oh, and the Beethoven. I definitely miss the little bit where someone hums a bit from Beethoven's Fifth: da-da-da-DUM, and then observes, "That's Morse code for V."

[Rubywolf]

Miyazaki is the best. I don't think that i have ever seen anything by Takahata. I'll look into it, though.

They left out a lot of stuff in V for Vendetta. It's too bad.

[Rubywolf]

Did anyone see Pan's Labrynth?

[meteorite]

I've been fairly disgusted by the caliber of movies that have come out for about the last 2 years. The ones I am curious about either come here for a weekend, then slink away, or don't show here at all. Everything else is largely drivel. I can count on the fingers of one hand the movies I have felt were worth picking up on DVD when they came out over that same time span. My only respite is one of my friends who is addicted to downloading movies; he offered a copy of Pan's Labyrinth if I wanted to see it. The visuals look stunning, but I have a big presentation tomorrow, so it must wait.

[Kathy Li]

I saw Pan's Labyrinth. It's good, but I was really hoping for something a bit more... I dunno, profound. The villain's evil through and through, the heroine's valiant. And overall, it's a rather simple story told gorgeously and well, but I was hoping for something more ambitious. Or maybe just more like The Company of Wolves. Still, worth viewing.

I recently watched a few movies on cable and dvd. Stick It was great fun. I keep rewatching the balance beam routine at the end and laughing my head off. I also finally grabbed a $5 copy of Banlieu 13 from Blockbuster and watched it. Lots of high-octane empty-calorie viewing. Parkour up the wazoo.

Oh, and I went to see Music & Lyrics because I needed a romantic comedy. It was fun, and silly and just plain cute, which is all you can ask a chick flick to be. Still trying to figure out why everybody wants to see 300, though. I mean, I read the graphic novel and didn't really enjoy it. So, why would I go see the movie?

[meteorite]

I did go to see 300 this weekend. If you see it, be prepared for some testosterone poisoning. As one of my friends put it, "We are men, manly men, doing manly men things, because we are MEN!!! Let us sing a song of men..." There isn't a drop of olive oil left in Greece, because it's all been apparently poured onto the torsos of King Leonidas and his men. As a bookend, I am now tempted to borrow Reign the Conqueror from one of our friends. 300 is a highly colorized version of the battle of Thermopylae; check your Greek history for the real account. To channel Joe Bob Briggs, "Decapitation fu. Blood spatter fu. Gratuitous mostly naked chick fu. Mutant monsters and elephants and battle rhinos. A ruler who looks like he should be on ***** Eye for the Straight Guy, stat!"

*I guess the forum doesn't like the TV show title. Sorry.*

[Kathy Li]

meteorite: you have confirmed all my worst suspicions about 300. Thank you for saving me from testosterone poisoning by film. I salute you for your bravery in cinema-going. And yeh, that's pretty much what the graphic novel was, too, so at least it's being true to its source material.

Now, can I steel myself up to see Spiderman 3... (wherein the ads they at least pay homage to the fact that moviegoers can be female and play up the romance angle)?

[Cress]

I saw Pan's Labryinth and really liked it. I agree with Kli on basically everything, except I didn't really expect a ton more. I didn't really like the first task that she had to do, I thought it was kind of lame, but other than that I thought it was rather gorgeous and I did like the open to your interpretation ending. Everyone says she just created her own world to hide from the violence...well if she did, then why could her step-father see the mandrake root? And where did she get it from???

I also saw Music and Lyrics, which I thought was quite cute. Obviously very chick flicky, but Hugh Grant is cute, and it's not QUITE as sappy as some chick flicks. Of course I was very much in a good mood as I was on a first date that was absolutely FAB, so the movie might have been terrible and I would have barely noticed. But I thought it was funny. Lots of jokes about tight pants and so on.

Also, Because I Said So was HILARIOUS! Very very dirty, but really funny. Amazingly enough, it manages to have two guys in it and one of them isn't a complete jerk, which is more than I've ever seen in a chick flick. Usually one of them is OBVIOUSLY horrible, not just a bad match for the female lead. Notice how I like ALL the movies I see? I guess I'm not a particularly harsh critic.

[Rubywolf]

Mandrake is a highly poisonous plant that is common in the forests of Europe. How do i know? i once chewed on a mandrake leaf when I was little, thinking it was lettuce. (*someone screams* "omg, call the ambulance!") It would have been easy to find.

The mind creates its own society. Her imagination was real, therefore her adventures were real, even if only to her. The irony is, if she hadn't had her adventures, she would still be alive. However, because she had her adventure, she died happily, imagining a better world.

I thought it was the most beautiful movie since Princess Mononoke.

[Dragon Writer]

SPIDER MAN THREE RULES! or rather...i really HOPE it will rule. cause otherwise this entire waiting, and hoping, and expecting is for nothing...which just STINKS as far as i'm concerned. *tries to think of movies to topic about, but i saddly unable too, since i haven't seen any movies lately...just previews of things i WANT to see*

[Cress]

Rubywolf-I understand that mandrake actually exists...but how would she have known what it was? It just appeared in her mother's room, she didn't go out and FIND it. I personally think that it's open to any interpretation. I believe her "fantasy" world was real, but that's just me. Although no one could see the fawn at the end, there were other pieces that made you think it could go either way.