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

[Cachoo]

Bump

[PeterG]

I stopped watching a handful of TV shows, so I now have time to watch more movies. Here's some recent viewing:

10/10 – In The Land Of Blood and Honey – I think we might have another Ben Affleck in Angelina Jolie who might be better behind the camera in front of it. A movie about ethnic-cleansing through a war in Bosnia is not something you expect to get into, but watch because it can bring attention to something important about what has happened in our world. But Jolie was able with her script and direction to not totally depress me. BONUS FEATURE: major issues at the imdb.com message boards about this movie. Have never seen a message board be so vitriolic before!!

9/10 – The Amazing Spider-Man – Wow, I loved this. Garfield is a billion billion times better than Tobey Maguire. )Imagine a Spider-Man capable of facial expressions!! :lol) And of course, Emma Stone is a delight as well. Overall, a very well-paced and enjoyable movie.

9/10 – The Cabin In The Woods – I remember others posting about this in older threads and either loving it or hating it. I loved it! Tough to talk about without spoiling, so I’ll just say it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Great stuff.

8/10 – I Love You Beth Cooper – Very well written with characters I wanted to take home with me afterwards! It’s like the Breakfast Club, a teen movie written for intelligent teens…who might be smarter than most adults.

7/10 – Helen (Ashley Judd and Goran Visnjic) – Okay, so this is all about depression. Fun, right? So it was tough to get through this one, but it was well done. Not sure how you can accurately make a movie about depression without it having that heavy tone. Judd does a good job, but I’d like to see her branch out into zany comedies, wild musicals or historical dramas. She seems to have a limited number of roles she does.

5/10 – The Artist. BORING! Boy, am I expecting flack for that comment! When I put this movie into my DVD player, I thought, “okay, don’t get too excited, you’ve set your sights pretty high for this one…settle down and just take it for what it is”. And it was BORING! It’s beautifully produced, filmed, directed and acted. But a very simple (and outdated) story that’s been done so many times before. The only difference is that this version has better production values. I’m afraid to go to Wikipedia and see all the movies and performances that this movie stole Oscars from…!

[michiruwater]

Angelina Jolie is a significantly better actress than Affleck is an actor, IMO Not sure I would compare those two.

[Buzz]

I was one of those who hated Cabin in the Woods. The only good thing about that movie is that the ending left no possibility of a sequel.

As for Spider-Man, Mary Jane has been cast so that can't be all good for Stone's character.

[michiruwater]

Well, Gwen was always going to have to die eventually And Emma knew that when she took the part. But I'm glad that Shailene Woodley is in talks for the role. She was so good in The Descendents (one of the films PeterG probably thinks The Artist stole awards from - and indeed, my pick for BP was definitely The Descendents).

[Buzz]

Saw neither The Descendants nor The Artist, so no comment but then again I rarely see any of the movies up for best picture.

[michiruwater]

Things I apparently can't spell today: descendants. Whoops. Sorry.

Also, The Descendants is a really good movie. Seriously. I don't know anyone who didn't like it, whereas I got mixed opinions about The Artist (which I did like, just not as much).

[Vash01]

Saw neither The Descendants nor The Artist, so no comment but then again I rarely see any of the movies up for best picture.

I liked the Descendants a lot because I had no expectations when I went to see it. 'The Artist' was slightly disappointing because I went in with not just expectations but a lot of curiosity. I liked Hugo more than The Artist, even though I saw that too with very high expectations and it came up slightly short (although a delightful movie). I try to see as many BP nominated pictures as possible.

[michiruwater]

Hugo was just gorgeous and wonderful. I loved it.

[Buzz]

On a slightly different topic, Marvel is coming out with another movie called Guardians of the Galaxy and of course it is connected to the other Marvel movies that are either planned or already out. The movie involves super villain Thanos trying to get his hands on the infinity gauntlet and set for release in 2014. I LOVE superhero movies and if the rest of Marvel's movies are as good as the previous ones, then we are in for a treat!

[PeterG]

I love quirky movies that don't always telegraph the action from scene to scene so I was delighted watching Safety Not Guaranteed last night. I don't know much about Aubrey Plaza (sp?) and Mark Duplass but they impressed me in this film.

I am #112 on the hold list for this at the library. I will get back to you with my review in the next thread! Actually, there's twenty copies of this movie so my wait probably won't be that long.

There are a lot of great movies coming. I want to see Gangster Squad, Django ( even if it does have Leo in it), Last Stand,

I hear there might be violence in one or more of these movies. Just so you know.

[smurfy]

I just saw 'West of Memphis' in my movie preview club. Very powerful and distubring documentary about the murder of 3 little boys in Arkansas and the conviction of 3 young innocent men. Why anyone would think they are guilty is shocking. The documentary unfolds the story is very compelling. It makes one angry that this can happen, and is not an isolated case.

[Vash01]

I saw 'Life of Pi' today. The visuals are stunning. The symbolism was not clear to me, and I attribute it to an overload of CGI/3D. I had to read others peoples comments to 'get it'. I suspect this is one of those movies you have to see more than once to really get it (or I may just be dumb/slow).

[peibeck]

Copying over from the last movie thread... as I didn't see we had started a new one.

Last weekend caught "Skyfall" and thought it was good, the action sequences are amazing. I have to say, I didn't really find the Javier Bardem villian with a mother-fixation particularly compelling however.

Yesterday I saw "Life of Pi," which was visually amazing, especially in 3D (which I rarely ever spring for). I hadn't read the book, so I had no idea what to expect. It's definitely not the type of movie that one normally associates with using the 3D technology, but it did work well. I think it may not be the choice for every type of film, but someone like Ang Lee who has excellent [i]mise-en-scence[/e] technique to begin with is able to pull it off. I can easily envision this film getting quite a few technical Oscar nominations. I have some conflicting in my mind regarding the whole spiritual journey the character takes, but I guess that just means the film was pretty effective, as I am still thinking about it.

[PeterG]

Trailers for smaller movies coming out this week listed below. None are going on my To See list... But that's okay, my To See list is pretty long!!! (I've stopped watching a number of TV shows, so now I have time to make a bigger dent in that list.) Anyway, this week's list is in rough order of what I think looks to be decent films to...less interesting. I actually deleted five or so that looked beyond boring...enough so that I thought you would all agree! But some comments on the first few....

The Big Fix looks good, but the message of "oil companies are bad" is a message I've gotten. Don't need to see that story told for the umpteenth time. In Our Nature looks good, but I'm tiring of the family struggles dramas that are not from a more enlightened point of view. (Dad arguing with some about being neglected instead of taking on the responsibility of his role of father...) But check out Gilford's biceps early on this trailer!! Ernest Borgnine's last movie could be a sleeper...and Bad Kids Go To Hell might be a good movie with a bad trailer. The middle half shots of the cast set to music (no dialogue). This is fine if it's a movie in another language, but not a good sign for an english language movie!

December 2 The Big Fix (Documentary. From imdb.com: “A documentary that examines the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico following the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.” - This movie might have come out this summer.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuSlXs5AG_s

December 7 In Our Nature (Drama with Zach Gilford, Jena Malone, Gabrielle Union and John Slattery)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjnmhYrHlHc

December 7 The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez (Drama/western with Ernest Borgnine, Barry Corin and Robert Morse – Borgnine’s last film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwW7H44fU3w

December 7 Bad Kids Go to Hell (Comedy thriller with Judd Nelson and Ben Browder)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGTYl1oAlwg

December 7 Flying Lessons (Drama with Maggie Grace, Christine Lahti, Hal Holbrook, Cary Elwes and Joanna Cassidy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4uPh5zTD8

December 7 Lay the Favorite (Comedy with Rebecca Wells, Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joshua Jackson and Vince Vaughn)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze7YtJXaF50

December 7 Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (Comedy drama with Elizabeth McGovern and Luke Treadaway)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tyhvd6t75A

December 7 The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (Drama with Edward Burns and Connie Britton)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxVeEHlr7oA

December 7 Heleno (Drama. From imdb.com: “A biography of the tragic life of one of Brazil's greatest soccer players, Heleno de Freitas.”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVXTJsitzhA

December 7 Delhi Safari (Animated with Cary Elwes, Christopher Lloyd, Jane Lynch, Jason Alexander, Vanessa Williams and Brad Garrett)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9oljIvNEHo

December 7 Dino Time (Animated with Jane Lynch, Rob Schneider, Stephen Baldwin, Melanie Griffith and William Baldwin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhEYLO6MetU

[AragornElessar]

And we're off...

The 2012 New York Film Circle Critics Awards

Some surprises there from all the buzz I've been hearing up to now.

[Sofia Alexandra]

I've got a ticket to a showing of The Hobbit that starts at 00:01 on 12/12.

[Simone411]

Peter, thanks for all the links, especially the smaller movies. "The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez" looks pretty interesting. I love movies with Ernest Borgnine. I'll probably like this one, too.

[PeterG]

Peter, thanks for all the links, especially the smaller movies. "The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez" looks pretty interesting. I love movies with Ernest Borgnine. I'll probably like this one, too.

Thanks for this. Was wondering if I was wasting my time finding/watching links for the smaller movies. I should keep a separate list for trailers that were so awful, I couldn't even consider sharing them with you. Then post a list of the ten worst so you can see the sacrifices I go through for all of you!!!

[peibeck]

And we're off...

The 2012 New York Film Circle Critics Awards

Some surprises there from all the buzz I've been hearing up to now.

To me Weisz is the biggest surprise, followed by McConaughey (although he did just score Indie Spirit nods, so maybe this win isn't completely out of left field). Considering it's the NY Film Critics, one comes to expect more less mainstream choices, and Weisz seems to fall into that category the most. The voting must have been pretty interesting, considering the voting process ended up lasting a record five hours.