Let's Talk Movies v.20! (Period Dramas, Skating Movies, Underrated Films...& More!)

[immoimeme]

I must admit I've never seen "Heaven's Gate" though I want to see it the way Cimino intended us to see it. That also goes for "Once Upon A Time in America" as I was befuddled when I first saw it and then found out that movie was sliced and diced to pieces. As for "Deer Hunter" I guess it reminded me of a lot of people like them that I know in New Jersey. It rang true to me then and now.

Well eys, I also think the characters ring true, for sure. All the scenes in "Claaaaaaaaaton" as Chis Walken's character pronounces it, seem extremely real, and true-like you are there yourself. Maybe that's why it won? I still don't remember.........

I have the director's cut of "Heaven's Gate" on two bulky VHS tapes. It's about 4 hr long.

[galaxygirl]

I just finished watching Billy Elliot. Wonderful movie. I highly recommend it.

[smurfy]

I just finished watching Billy Elliot. Wonderful movie. I highly recommend it.

I agree! Just a wonderful movie. great cast
I did see the musical in London and really enjoyed it, captured the spirit of the movie.

[galaxygirl]

Billy Elliot is still making me smile this morning.

[peibeck]

Lincoln trailer.

[peibeck]

Oscar noms to be announced before Golden Globes ceremony.

[martian_girl]

Extended Les Mis trailer: Basically a behind the scenes look at the various actors singing live on set.

[PeterG]

Of the smaller films being released this week, there are three which star Jake Gyllenhaal, James Franco and James Van Der Beek. And there are three that I want to see. But none that I want to see star Jake Gyllenhaal, James Franco and James Van Der Beek! (Can't believe I don't want to see the Jake G. movie as I'm madly in love/lust with him....but I hate crime dramas, they are so horribly depressing... ) The three which I'm adding to my To See list are in boldface. Here's this week's list:

Sep 21 End of Watch (Crime drama with Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, Anna Kendrick and America Ferrera)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf2K9GzgiF0

Sep 21 About Cherry (Drama with James Franco, Heather Graham, Dev Patel and Lili Taylor)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9URwsSuEdys

Sep 21 Backwards (Romance with James Van Der Beek and Margaret Colin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrf8xoQJ5Ms

Sep 21 Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (Documentary. From imdb.com: “A look at the life and work of the influential fashion editor of Harpers Bazaar, Diana Vreeland.”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5EEbX7ph_A

Sep 21 The Other Son (French drama. From imdb.com: “Two young men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, discover they were accidentally switched at birth.”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Xk7_Jk0TA

Sep 21 Head Games (Sports documentary. From imdb.com: “A documentary that follows football player and wrestler Chris Nowinski's quest to uncover the truth about the consequences of sports related head injuries.”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzQqEos6LVI

Sep 21 How to Survive a Plague (Documentary. From imdb.com: “The story of two coalitions -- ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) -- whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition.”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwhFS1mUaVY

Sep 21 Unconditional (Drama with Lynn Collins and Michael Ealy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsEEUgyPmaI

Sep 21 You May Not Kiss the Bride (Romantic comedy with Katharine McPhee, Dave Annable, Kathy Bates, Tia Carrere, Rob Schneider and Mena Suvari)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eC3h2A9U3Q

[Wyliefan]

oh and heeeelllllppppp meeee! out of curiousity I picked up "Twilight" -ruh-roh. I'm already up to "Breaking Dawn" part 1--eeeek!!!!!!!!!!

Quick, get the RiffTraxes! The Twilight series should not be watched without them!

[jenny12]

Extended Les Mis trailer: Basically a behind the scenes look at the various actors singing live on set.

Thanks martian_girl. Very cool that they all sang live on set and aren't doing glee-ified versions of the songs.

[orbitz]

Extended Les Mis trailer: Basically a behind the scenes look at the various actors singing live on set.

Can't wait. Opens Xmas Day.

[Grannyfan]

I just finished watching Billy Elliot. Wonderful movie. I highly recommend it.

Love Billy Elliot. My favorite part is the very end, the look on his dad's face when he sees the grown-up Billy onstage.

[DarrellH]

Love Billy Elliot. My favorite part is the very end, the look on his dad's face when he sees the grown-up Billy onstage.

My favorite thing in the movie is the love the family shows for one another. Once the father saw that Billy had found a way to get out of their situation, he did all he could to make it so.

[Artemis@BC]

My favorite thing in the movie is the love the family shows for one another. Once the father saw that Billy had found a way to get out of their situation, he did all he could to make it so.

Yes, to the point of putting aside his own deeply-held beliefs -- i.e. scabbing. One of the most powerful demonstations of family love ever on film.

It's definitely one of my favourite films of all time. The stage version, which I saw in London, was just a tad disappointing for me just because I expected more from the music, considering who wrote it. But it's still the same story, and there are some great moments and stage treatments. I don't think I'll bother seeing the touring version when it comes to Vancouver in a few months though, just because I know the accents will be bad, and that drives me nuts.

[Grannyfan]

My favorite thing in the movie is the love the family shows for one another. Once the father saw that Billy had found a way to get out of their situation, he did all he could to make it so.

Yes, and I think that look on his face at the end reveals his sure realization that all he had sacrificed was worth it. It just makes me tear up every time.

[Artemis@BC]

Meanwhile the Vancouver International Film Festival schedule is finally available. I was away during VIFF last year so am aiming to make up for it this year.

[PeterG]

My holds at the library were close to maxing out, so I watched a bunch of movies over the last week or so...

10/10 The Hunger Games – Wow. I looooooved this movie!!! I liked it right from the opening scenes which seemed dark and still and chilling. Not at all the tone I expected from a movie based on a teen book series phenomenon. Everything about the movie was great, the script, the performances, the costumes and the cinematography. A real bonus for me was the underlying subversive storyline. The rich sitting back and watching youth go into battle where they fight for some “purpose” (on behalf of the rich) - with great odds of dying. Wow, I wasn’t expecting such a fantastic political statement from a movie like this! Is part two out yet??

8/10 All About Steve (Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper) – So this one got smashed around as one of the worst movies of all time (seemingly), so of course my expectations were low. Not sure how much that worked in its’ favour, but I quite liked this! Sandra had a few moments that made me laugh out loud, not to mention the other moments where she was at her charming best. Bradley Cooper looks aptly great and the ending was quite cool, unlike another movie I will mention in a bit.

7/10 We Bought A Zoo (Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson) – This one seemed to come and go as far as movie releases go. So I was thinking that it must not have been very good, but I found it to be quite enjoyable. The first half is better than the second half, however. The first half is more of a serious drama and is quite original. But the second half has too many clichés and becomes a bit too silly compared to the realistic beginning. Maggie Elizabeth Jones as Rosie is beyond adorable. And John Michael Higgins is great (hilarious) is his small role.

6/10 Haywire (Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender) – This kind of seemed like an arthouse version of the Bourne movies. Some action/escape sequences went without the overdone dramatic music…might have even been shown without any musical score at all. Overall, it had a somewhat relaxed pace compared to action movies which wind you up so tight. Not that the movie got boring, it just seemed a bit more realistic than how these types of movies can be so cartoon-y. Gina Carano is quite believable as an action hero. Her days as an American Gladiator and MMA fighter prepared her well.

6/10 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner) – The first half was much better than the second half, which got bogged down in obvious plot points. Overall, it’s a fairly standard romantic comedy, but the leads are great and there’s some originality in the script (well, at least the first half!) But as the film came to a conclusion, I was thinking, “I wish Garner’s character wouldn’t just fall into McConaughey’s arms at the end, but instead say, ‘why don’t we try being friends for a while and see what happens’.” That’s what I liked better about “All About Steve” in that Bullock’s character was cordial to Cooper’s character, but walked away and had little interest in the man who had not treated her very well. Much better message than in this movie.

5/10 Too Big To Fail (William Hurt, Cynthia Nixon, Topher Grace, James Woods and Paul Giamatti) – I watched this pretty much because it’s about the 2008 banking mess and I figured it would be good for me to have more info about this event. I found the beginning a bit dry and tough to get into, but it picked up steam for the second half. Worth seeing if you like financial crisis movies or all-star-casts movies.

1/10 God Bless America – I saw a trailer for this and thought it looked original. An interesting premise, albeit one with a rather slow start. I liked the movie okay while watching it, but in the days that followed, the more I thought about this movie the more I disliked it and the more I felt less of myself for enjoying it in any way.

0/10 Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy – I picked this up from the library because there were cute guys on the cover. I probably shouldn’t have rated it or even mentioned it here because after twenty minutes I scanned the rest of the movie in triple time and it looked stupid so I didn’t bother with it. Oh well.

[immoimeme]

just finished watching "A Separation"-watched it twice w/subtitles, then watched all the special features, and finally watched it with translated director's comments, which helped explain to me some of the cultural thingies. Anyway, it's a very fine film, and very deserving of its Oscar; I would have gone further and given it the Oscar for best original screenplay too.

It's not a "little" film, even tho that might think that at first. It's BIG--big issues are brought up, and out, and examined, or not. It's extremely thought-provoking-in a "wow this is so univerally applicable" kind of way. I highly recommend it.

I can only give a "only if you are like, soooooooooooooo bored" recommendation to the Twilight Saga series-the last film put me to sleep until I discovered the "Team Edward" button lol, and the 3rd film had the two best lines of ALL the movies (these are NOT films): "Doesn't he have a shirt?" and "Face it, I'm hotter than you.

Then I had a lil mini-Rob Pattinson film fest: "How To Be" (skip it-strike that, run away from it as fast as you can!!) and "The Bad Mother's Handbook" (which I had a lot of trouble 1)understanding, thank you subtitles!, and 2)with the plot memes, but 3)Rob was fine in it, such as his role was). I SWEAR I saw him and Colin Firth in a remake of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" just a minute ago, but I guess not? who DID I see then? haven't a clue............

[immoimeme]

Quick, get the RiffTraxes! The Twilight series should not be watched without them!

can't-no compatible media/computer format available to me. but if they didn't make Stephen King the preacher in B.Dawn Pt 1 I'd be v v dissapointed.

[Buzz]

Saw Dredd today and while it was light on plot and meaningful dialogue, it was a lot of fun. But if you do not like a lot of violence in moviies stay FAR away from this one. Liked it a lot however and wouldn't mind a part 2. Dredd got mostly positive reviews from rotten tomatoes.