Let's Talk Movies v.16! (Sci-Fi, Oscar Bait, Horror, Golden Oldies...It's All Good!)

[jenny12]

Saw Ides Of March last night. Very good movie!

I saw The Ides of March as well. I enjoyed it and was impressed with the acting of everyone in the cast, especially of course Clooney, Gosling, and Hoffman. However, I thought what it had to say about power corrupting people was pretty cliche and there was a sub plot that I thought took the movie in a direction where it didn't need to go.

[Vash01]

I have yet to see any of these new movies. I have 'Ides of march',. '50-50' and 'Contagion' on my list, but very little time. I did rent a DVD of a very old movie 'Starman' and liked it quite a lot. Jeff Bridges looked considerably younger (27 years do make a difference!), and he portrayed the Starman character really well. I don't know why Karen Allen looks the same no matter which character she is playing. She reminded me a lot of 'Raiders of the lost arc'. She acted well, but she still seemed more Karen Allen than Jenny Hayden to me. The movie was good though. I liked the idea, and the fact that the Starman never really became comfortable on earth. It was not clear to me why he was on earth for just 3 days. I will watch it again to get it answered.

[PeterG]

Catching up on my Entertainment Weekly's and was about this upcoming movie:

...the 1983 sci-fi cult novel A Rebel In Time, about a racist who travels back in time to arm Confederate soldiers with machine guns.

Yuck. Sounds like a horrid project all around.

[HeatherC]

Last Wednesday night, a friend and I went to see an advance screening of Real Steel, the movie with Hugh Jackman and the boxing robots, and I am stunned to report that it's a really great movie! Didn't think I would enjoy the boxing aspect of it but at its core the movie is really about a father and son connecting after years of being apart. The effects and boxing are awesome, we all really did cheer at different parts, but the father/son stuff and emotional aspects of the story are what make this movie so wonderful. Don't let the promos tell you otherwise...it's more than just a robot boxing movie! Definitely two thumbs up from me. I saw some preliminary numbers earlier tonight and apparently it did very well at the box office for it's opening weekend which makes me very happy!

I also just saw Soul Surfer for the first time tonight (we showed it for my youth group) and it's such a wonderful movie. Great story and the fact that it's all about a real girl and her story makes it even better. Definitely recommend that one too.

[Nell411]

Last Wednesday night, a friend and I went to see an advance screening of Real Steel, the movie with Hugh Jackman and the boxing robots, and I am stunned to report that it's a really great movie! Didn't think I would enjoy the boxing aspect of it but at its core the movie is really about a father and son connecting after years of being apart. The effects and boxing are awesome, we all really did cheer at different parts, but the father/son stuff and emotional aspects of the story are what make this movie so wonderful. Don't let the promos tell you otherwise...it's more than just a robot boxing movie! Definitely two thumbs up from me. I saw some preliminary numbers earlier tonight and apparently it did very well at the box office for it's opening weekend which makes me very happy!

My problem is that everytime I see the trailer for Real Steel I keep called it Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots the movie and making Wolverine jokes. I think I may need to find other people to go to movies with.

[HeatherC]

My problem is that everytime I see the trailer for Real Steel I keep called it Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots the movie and making Wolverine jokes. I think I may need to find other people to go to movies with.

My friend called it that too! One of the robots even looks like a Rock Em Sock Em one, LOL She also enjoyed it though so don't let the promos steer you away if you want to see it. He's not Wolverine at all so you should be able to get past that pretty quick!

[Holley Calmes]

Hope this isn't a duplication but I couldn't read through all 11 pages. I got through 4 and said "what the hell..."

I have been seeing previews on TV for yet another production of "The Three Musketeers." It looks beautiful-don't know how it will be or if they'll screw the story up, as usual, but visually, it looks wonderful. Good cast, too. Nice to see a d'Artagnan who actually looks 17, although Michael York was perfect in the old 1973 edition. The 1990's version was atrocious.

"Musketeers" is one of my favorite books of all time, and if this is a good version of the story and sticks even halfway to what Dumas wrote, I'll love it.

Edited...ok, I saw two messages mentioning this. At least somebody besides me wants to see it. I think Orlando Bloom will be perfect as the Duke of Buckingham....)

[emason]

TCM alert for anyone who likes Ray Milland and ghost stories - The Uninvited is on tonight at 9:15 ET.

[Nell411]

My friend called it that too! One of the robots even looks like a Rock Em Sock Em one, LOL She also enjoyed it though so don't let the promos steer you away if you want to see it. He's not Wolverine at all so you should be able to get past that pretty quick!

It honestly has nothing to do with the character he's playing. My friends think it would look cooler if it was Wolverine beating up robots. I think they are just trying to find a way to burn the atrocity that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine out of their heads.

[Rex]

Catching up on my Entertainment Weekly's and was about this upcoming movie:

Yuck. Sounds like a horrid project all around.

Who wrote this? The same guy who wrote The Turner Diaries?

[HeatherC]

It honestly has nothing to do with the character he's playing. My friends think it would look cooler if it was Wolverine beating up robots. I think they are just trying to find a way to burn the atrocity that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine out of their heads.

LOL! Glad I never saw that movie if it was that bad!

[Nell411]

LOL! Glad I never saw that movie if it was that bad!

It was brutal. Even worse considering I ended up seeing it twice in one day. It's worse when you're a fan of the comics. It pretty much butchered the whole thing.

[Grannyfan]

TCM alert for anyone who likes Ray Milland and ghost stories - The Uninvited is on tonight at 9:15 ET.

Love that movie. Beautiful music, too--Stella by Starlight.

[PeterG]

Who wrote this? The same guy who wrote The Turner Diaries?

In Entertainment Weekly, it says that Jeff Goldsmith is adapting the script, but it's based on a novel by Harry Harrison. Wikipedia says of the original novel...

It centers around a racist colonel, Wesley McCulloch and his black pursuer, Troy Harmon.

...

Before long, Harmon comes to the conclusion McCulloch has used a secret experimental time machine to try and change the outcome of the American Civil War, giving victory to the Confederacy through the introduction of the easily produced Sten Gun. Harmon determines he must follow McCulloch into the past to bring justice. During the ensuing chase, Harmon discovers first-hand the prejudices of the people at the time.

This sounds very different from the short blurb in EW in that Harmon, not McCulloch is the hero. Whew. Still a gross idea for a story, though...

[Rex]

^^^Maybe they can make something decent out of it? Nahhhh.

[DarrellH]

Watched one of my favorite old movies this weekend...Portrait Of Jennie. Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten! Once you buy into the premise of the film, it is a haunting film.

[Rex]

Watched one of my favorite old movies this weekend...Portrait Of Jennie. Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten! Once you buy into the premise of the film, it is a haunting film.

Ahhhh, Jennifer....acting lessons from Our Lady of The Fluttery Mannerisms, but cheekbones that could cut glass .

[ice dance]

Saw the remake of Footloose a couple of days ago. Loved it! It is pretty much a scene-by-scene remake of the original.

[agalisgv]

Saw a bunch of stuff--all low-brow

Memoirs of a Geisha was interesting. Better in some respects than I thought, but worse in others. Was visually appealing though.

Watched Charley. That was way worse than I remember. I was terribly disappointed.

Saw The Exorcist. That was better than I remembered. I've found rewatching old movies, they often aren't that great compared to movies today . The Exorcist IMO was one of the few that was still good however many years later.

Watched a bunch of sci-fi flicks. The Core was panned, but I liked it well enough. Obviously unrealistic in terms of being able to travel to the core of the earth and back in a ship that could withstand 9,000 degree temperatures, but it still worked for me.

District 9 was very different than I expected. It's an alien movie shot in South Africa where aliens simply become the latest immigrant group, and are systematically discriminated against in apartheid fashion. The movie is shot like a documentary with a lot of hand-held camera work, so it has a Cloverfield feel to it. It's not an adrenaline rush kind of movie, but it does make you think. If you compare it to The Fly, it's interesting that the lead character loses his humanity as he transforms into another species in The Fly, while in District 9 he gains his humanity. Again, it's rather dispassionate (like Contagion), but tries to examine what having aliens would look like realistically if they were to become part of the earth's population.

Battle: Los Angeles also got mixed reviews, but I quite liked it. Here the aliens are clearly hostile, but like District 9, the movie tries to show how a battle with aliens would look like with today's technology. So the action scenes aren't other worldly or one big CGI-fest. I thought the military unit followed throughout was compelling without being overly sentimental. It is definitely a military movie though (sans gore), so if you don't like seeing military patriotism in the course of battle, this may not be for you. Overall, I don't really get the negative reviews for this movie.

Saw Running Man again. Was disappointing (not as good as I remembered).

Oh yeah, and I saw Babylon 5 sequel. Very low budget. Bit disappointing, but reminiscent of the old Twilight Zone series that were big on dialogue and plot twists arising out of that. Since it touched on theological questions, it was okay. But I suspect for others it would be rather boring.

Not that there are many Babylon 5 fans to begin with

[Vash01]

I saw a part of a movie about gymnastics, with Jeff Bridges as the coach. The girls rebel against the (unfair) judges and get 0.0's intentionally. Does anyone know the title of the movie? I would like to rent it.