Let's Talk Movies! #21...Oscar Bait, Christmas Movies, "Bad" Movies You Loved......)

[olympic]

I generally get turned off by films that rewrite history. So, when I saw Inglorious Basterds, I was less of a fan because being a WW2 history buff and having read just about every book on the war, I knew that attempts to assassinate Hitler were virtually impossible. Hitler later in the war was very rarely seen in public. That ruined the film for me.

But, I saw Django Unchained this past weekend and despite the length of 2:45, it kept me riveted. Yes, it was full of 'cartoonish violence' but I realize that that is Tarantino's style and the rewriting of history was more acceptable to me for some reason, IDK. Maybe because I know less about the history of slavery than I do about WW2 or that attempts on the lives of overseers / planters were more plausible.

[Vash01]

Hopefully, I'll enjoy Lincoln. I sort of loathe Spielberg's films. Especially ones where he tries to be profound or artistic like in Munich because it just shows off his lack of real depth for me.

If you loathe Spielberg's films, chances are you will hate this one too. I loved it.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

I generally get turned off by films that rewrite history. So, when I saw Inglorious Basterds, I was less of a fan because being a WW2 history buff and having read just about every book on the war, I knew that attempts to assassinate Hitler were virtually impossible. Hitler later in the war was very rarely seen in public. That ruined the film for me.

But, I saw Django Unchained this past weekend and despite the length of 2:45, it kept me riveted. Yes, it was full of 'cartoonish violence' but I realize that that is Tarantino's style and the rewriting of history was more acceptable to me for some reason, IDK. Maybe because I know less about the history of slavery than I do about WW2 or that attempts on the lives of overseers / planters were more plausible.

There's a theory about Tarantino's films all existing in the same universe. There are two types of Tarantino films, ones that exist in "real life" and ones that the characters in his films would actually see in a movie theatre (like Kill Bill). The reason why all of his characters are so into movies and movie trivia is because their World War II ended in a movie theatre where Hitler and a bunch of Nazis and Nazi enthusiasts were all shot up in a movie theatre massacre then subsequently blown up. Because of that, movies play such a pivotal role in the course of 20th century history in Tarantino's world, and that is why Kill Bill is ultra violent because Kill Bill was a movie that say John Travolta's character in Pulp Fiction would watch and their world is already so violent (thanks to the way World War II ended in Tarantino's reality) that a movie made in that world would have to be super violent to try to shock any of the characters that would watch a movie in that world.

[olympic]

There's a theory about Tarantino's films all existing in the same universe. There are two types of Tarantino films, ones that exist in "real life" and ones that the characters in his films would actually see in a movie theatre (like Kill Bill). The reason why all of his characters are so into movies and movie trivia is because their World War II ended in a movie theatre where Hitler and a bunch of Nazis and Nazi enthusiasts were all shot up in a movie theatre massacre then subsequently blown up. Because of that, movies play such a pivotal role in the course of 20th century history in Tarantino's world, and that is why Kill Bill is ultra violent because Kill Bill was a movie that say John Travolta's character in Pulp Fiction would watch and their world is already so violent (thanks to the way World War II ended in Tarantino's reality) that a movie made in that world would have to be super violent to try to shock any of the characters that would watch a movie in that world.

Thanks, but WOW, that takes some re-reading

[allezfred]

Saw "Argo" last night finally and loved it! Nailbiting stuff despite knowing how it all ends.

The only thing that felt slightly off was the OTT cliched "everybody celebrating in triumphalist way when mission is accomplished".

[PRlady]

Saw "Argo" last night finally and loved it! Nailbiting stuff despite knowing how it all ends.

The only thing that felt slightly off was the OTT cliched "everybody celebrating in triumphalist way when mission is accomplished".

I finally saw it yesterday too! (It had been sold out twice previously when I tried to see it, but this is Washington. I think everyone here either sees the movie or gets deported....)

Loved the film. Loved the 1979 vibe -- gee, if no-one is around to answer the landline, it doesn't get answered! Loved the acting. My only problem was the slightly too-thrillerish race between the militants and the SwissAir flight, but it was obviously for dramatic effect.

Much better than Les Miz as Oscar bait.

[Vash01]

Saw "Argo" last night finally and loved it! Nailbiting stuff despite knowing how it all ends.

The only thing that felt slightly off was the OTT cliched "everybody celebrating in triumphalist way when mission is accomplished".

It's a movie. They had to dramatize it. I had no problem with it. Excellent movie.

[Buzz]

The Ellison brothers have purchased the rights to the Terminator franchise. This fan is very happy and hope that the rumours of two new movies are true.

http://www.examiner.com/article/term...-movies-coming

[Cachoo]

Took my younger nieces to "Wreck-It Ralph" and saw the previews for "Oz." Now that is one movie I want to see and soon.

[olympic]

I finally saw it yesterday too! (It had been sold out twice previously when I tried to see it, but this is Washington. I think everyone here either sees the movie or gets deported....)

Loved the film. Loved the 1979 vibe -- gee, if no-one is around to answer the landline, it doesn't get answered! Loved the acting. My only problem was the slightly too-thrillerish race between the militants and the SwissAir flight, but it was obviously for dramatic effect.

Much better than Les Miz as Oscar bait.

Did you see the circa 1980 McDonald's bag next to Ben Affleck while he was in bed?? Just the golden arches on a white bag. I love seeing the attention to detail like that in quality movies / TV!

[PeterG]

Smaller movies coming out this week below. The first two are ones I want to see. The last two...well, it's not a good sign when the movie is listed online as having different titles, or doesn't have a definite (or contradicting) release dates, or doesn't have a wikipedia page or has a trailer that just plays a song while short clips of the movie are shown. We are in the age of talkies now, right?

January 4 A Dark Truth - or “The Truth” (Action thriller with Billy Bob Thorton, Forest Whitaker, Deborah Kara Unger, Eva Longoria, Andy Garcia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6TAKbJNXaA

January 4 56 Up (Documentary by Michael Apted)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-U6RfKVzCs

January 4 “Allegiance” … or … “Recalled” (Thriller with Aidan Quinn and Bow Wow)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7W7dRzr1UA

January 4 Sushi Girl (Crime thriller with Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Mark Hamill and Danny Trejo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4vjdm3QgKw

[Artemis@BC]

... January 4 56 Up (Documentary by Michael Apted)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-U6RfKVzCs ...

Y'know, I thought this series would burn itself out ... but it hasn't yet! I've seen all the previous ones, so I'm looking forward to the latest installment.

[Sofia Alexandra]

Been to see three films in theatre these holidays. I rate them thusly:

1. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (it stood up to a second viewing)
2. Rise of the Guardians (loved it! Made me feel like a little kid again )





3, The Life of Pi (meh)

[Cachoo]

I watched "Take Shelter" for the first time on tv last night. I like how understated Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain are in this film. Especially Shannon as this was a role that could have easily been taken right over the top. He didn't do this and I liked him all the more for it.

[orbitz]

I have a bad feeling about the upcoming Superman from looking at the trailer. It looks like Snyder is going for a grittier, psychological study of the character as in Nolan's The Dark Knight. It potentially could make Superman a big bore to watch.

[Buzz]

I have a bad feeling about the upcoming Superman from looking at the trailer. It looks like Snyder is going for a grittier, psychological study of the character as in Nolan's The Dark Knight. It potentially could make Superman a big bore to watch.

I am looking forward to it. A reboot of the character is just what the franchise needs. IMHO On a totally different note, I saw Anna Karenina today and never thought it was possible to ruin such a time tested story, but they did. This latet version of Tolstoy's novel gets a big F from me.

[martian_girl]

Producer's Guild Nominees (usually a pretty good indicator of Best Picture):


Feature Film Nominees:

Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty

Animated Film Nominees:

Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph

[Nell411]

I saw Silver Linings Playbook today and really liked it. The ending felt a little rushed, but the acting was amazing. I had forgotten how good Bradley Cooper could be when he tries and Jennifer Lawrence was amazing.

[Artemis@BC]

^ My only complaint with the movie was that Bradley Cooper appeared to be "trying" in just about every scene. To be fair, it's hard to be up against Jennifer Lawrence who is just so darned natural in every performance she does ... but still. But I did like the film very much, and thought it was a refreshing change from how mental health issues are usually depicted in movies.

[PeterG]

Four movie recommendations (and two to avoid like the plague...)

Oranges and Sunshine (Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving) - As soon as I saw the trailer for this movie I knew I wanted to see it. But sometimes when you wait a while before actually getting to see something high up on your To See list, it ends up being a disappointment. Not this one. I liked it even more.

Young Adult (Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt and Patrick Wilson) - Another one that I had high expectations for and liked even better than I thought I would. Definitely not as much a comedy as I thought it would be, although it did have some hilarious moments Charlize just nails her role and I think maybe she should have received an Academy Award nomination for this one. Theron is really on a winning streak of late, her performance in Snow White and the Huntsman is one of the few good things about that movie.

Song of Bernadette (1943, Jennifer Jones, Vincent Price and Lee J. Cobb) - Some older movies seem a bit too dated for me, but this one has enough good stuff in it to sneak past that complaint. Jones is so sweet in this and the Academy agreed, giving her the best actress Oscar for her performance. I believe this is the earliest performance of Vincent Price in this movie...and he was kinda handsome! Tall but well built, a look that's catching my eye a lot of late (this means YOU, Timothy Olyphant!) Plus I really liked Gladys Cooper's performance as one of the older nuns. Her performance is kind of getting trashed on the imdb.com message boards, but very much unjustly so IMHO.

Like Crazy (Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones and Jennifer Lawrence) - A very interesting movie. Moody and somewhat unpredictable...perhaps trite at times but then totally new and unexpected at other times. Very well directed, although I read that a lot of the movie was improvised by the leads, so maybe I should say very well self-directed?

And the two to avoid:

Hugo (Martin Scorsese's yawn-fest). Wow...I kept waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. I'm fine with watching a slower movie at double-time with the sub-titles enabled. But I just didn't care about the story or any of the characters. I watched most of the last hour at triple-time and only stopped the movie when it appeared a plot point might have finally arisen...

The Avengers. Double-yawn. What happened??? I liked the Iron Man movies. I quite liked Thor. Was expecting something great with this movie. But it was like The Lord Of The Rings (walk, fight, walk fight, etc. ad nauseum) except that "walk" should be replaced with "fly". And it was directed (and co-written) by Joss Whedon...I should have loved it! But the story was so lacking. And like Hugo, the last hour...which was just one looooooooooooong, drawn-out fight - I watched at triple time only stopping to see if anything of importance happened. I went to check out the message boards at imdb.com...and the movie has an 8.4 rating, perhaps the highest I've ever seen! And the uberfans have created ten pages (another ) of threads about how much the looooove this movie. WTF???