Let's Talk Movies #35 – Sparrows and Panthers and Dinosaurs…Oh My!

Which Movies Might You See? (Multiple Votes Allowed)

  • Feb. 16th - Black Panther – Action adventure with Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and Lupita Nyo

    Votes: 32 60.4%
  • March 2nd - Red Sparrow – Mystery thriller with Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton and Mary-Louise Pa

    Votes: 15 28.3%
  • March 9th - A Wrinkle In Time – Adventure fantasy with Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Oprah Winfr

    Votes: 26 49.1%
  • March 16th - Tomb Raider – Action adventure with Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins and Kristin Scott T

    Votes: 10 18.9%
  • March 30th – Ready Player One – Sci-fi adventure with Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke and Simon Pegg

    Votes: 10 18.9%
  • May 4th - Avengers: Infinity War – Adventure fantasy with nobody famous

    Votes: 27 50.9%
  • May 18th - Deadpool 2 – Adventure comedy with Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin and T. J. Miller

    Votes: 19 35.8%
  • May 25th - Solo: A Star Wars Story – Adventure fantsy with Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover and Woody

    Votes: 27 50.9%
  • June 8th - Ocean's 8 – Action thriller with Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway

    Votes: 24 45.3%
  • June 22nd - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – Action sci-fi with Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and

    Votes: 22 41.5%

  • Total voters
    53

misskarne

Handy Emergency Backup Mode
Messages
23,457
Finally got to watch Top End Wedding. It's gorgeous, a lovely movie. No Oscar-winner, very classically Australian so it probably did not do so well overseas, but it's wonderful. Lots of humour, a road-trip plot, a beautiful melding of cultures and traditions. And at its heart: where is home? What does home mean?

Well-acted, too. I would definitely marry Gwilym Lee's Ned in a heartbeat, he's frippin' adorable.
 

Vash01

Fan of Yuzuru, T&M, P&C
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55,385
I saw ‘The Goldfinch’ Yesterday. Had mixed feelings. It is a wonderful story but the adaptation of the novel (I have not read it) needed to be better. It is bogged down by slow pace, too many characters, being too faithful to the book, and losing the intensity as a result. 7/10.

This is the story of 13 year old Theo who loses his mother in a terrorist attack at the metropolitan museum, and finds a famous painting ‘The Goldfinch’. He has nightmares about the blast. He blames himself for his mother’s death, and goes through one tragic situation to the next, through his adulthood. He makes some friends along the way.

On the positive side, it is very well acted, particularly by Nicole Kidman (no surprise), young actor Oakes Feadle who plays the young Theo. Great talent. Ansel Elgort (adult Theo) and Jeffrey Wright (from the Hunger Games series) as his mentor/friend are also very good. I would love to see Nicole and Oakes get best supporting actor Oscar nominations for their marvelous works.

For Theo’s Ukrainian friend Boris (young and adult), why couldn’t they find Eastern European actors? They were both miscast. The actors are British and Canadian and they couldn’t really portray the character effectively. The accent was terrible. JMO. Other castings were ok, though I would have liked the adult Pippa to look younger- same age as Theo/Ansel. It may be a minor point though.

The flashbacks told the story through the eyes of Theo (boy and young adult), and were well connected. Young Theo had more screen time but I didn’t mind it.

Since I had not read the book, I had no idea how the story will end. That made it interesting to me. Overall I liked it, despite the flaws.

I really want to read the book now.
 

emason

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,652
Spare yourself the book; in my humble opinion it is godawful and contains some serious grammatical howlers. I lasted until page 317, in the middle of the extended Las Vegas section. I just suddenly stopped; what happened in Vegas should have stayed in Vegas. I did not want to waste 5 more minutes of my time on any of those folks. I know others loved it, but for the life of me I can't see why.
 

snoopy

Well-Known Member
Messages
12,274
Saw the hustlers. Okay movie based on a true story of strippers post financial crisis in ny. Good performances by Jennifer López and Constance Wu. Constance Wu oddly has better facial structure with a couple extra pounds on her.

And I still hate reserved seating. Some woman tried to kick me out of my seat but she was in the wrong row. Then I had to sit next to someone because they HAD to sit in their assigned seats despite the theater being only 20% full. Until I moved and no longer sat in my assigned seat. Movies shouldn’t be this troublesome.
 

annie720

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,303
We watched The White Crow (2019) last night, Ralph Fiennes' biopic of Rudolf Nureyev. Hubby chose this so I really didn't know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised at the amount of dancing. I liked that the role of Nureyev was played by a dancer, Ukrainian Oleg Ivenko, who currently dances professionally in Kazan. I was also surprised at the amount of Russian. Much of the movie is in Russian with English subtitles. In addition to directing, Fiennes also played a major role and spoke Russian. The movie is mainly about the time surrounding Nureyev's defection and ends there, but it touches on his childhood and his training in St. Petersburg. If you're not a ballet fan, or have an interest in Nureyev's life, I'm not sure the film would hold your interest, but I am a ballet fan and enjoyed it, primarily for the dancing.
 

Foolhardy Ham Lint

Well-Known Member
Messages
6,277
There's going to be another Zombieland! :cheer2:

I don't typically like zombie movies but I can't wait for this one. The other one I really liked was Warm Bodies.

I don't really go in for zombie movies, either. But I have to agree with you. Warm Bodies was a trip, with an excellent story, pacing, and heart.
 

LeafOnTheWind

Well-Known Member
Messages
17,506
I forgot to mention the 3rd zombie movie I really liked.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I'm not going to lie. The scene that sold me on the movie was watching the sisters strap on knives and guns as part of their preparation to dress for the ball.

This one seems to be a love it or hate it movie. Maybe the 2 genres don't have enough of an overlapping fanbase to get much popular appeal. But I'm fine with quirky and weird. :p

The best review I ever read about this movie simply said "This movie is dumb but I loved it." :rofl: Yep.
 
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annie720

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,303
We saw Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins (2019), a documentary about the Texas political columnist. Neither my husband nor I were that familiar with her, but she was quite the character. Entertaining film about a witty intelligent lady with lots of laughs. Our theater crowd thoroughly enjoyed it.
 

Kasey

Fan of many, uber of none
Messages
16,343
Just saw "Joker" today. Wow. Not usually my kind of movie, but I'm a sucker for the excellence that is usually Joaquin Phoenix. He was totally phenomenal, right down to every body movement, totally in the role. The movie was dark, and disturbing; I felt as uncomfortable watching it as I did with "3 billboards outside of Ebbing Mo". I read somewhere that the movie got a 20 minute standing ovation at one of the film festivals; while I didn't feel like that, if Joaquin walked out at the end, I'd give him one for sure.
 

annie720

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,303
Just got back from seeing Judy. It was OK, almost put me to sleep in the beginning and this was at noon. Renée Zellweger, however, was very good. I expect her to get an Oscar nomination. I also enjoyed seeing my new favorite actress Jessie Buckley. She looked and sounded completely different from her character in Wild Rose.
 

Aussie Willy

Hates both vegemite and peanut butter
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27,871
I saw The Dead don't Die yesterday. I really enjoyed it. I am not a zombie movie fan but it wasn't too gory. It had a lot of funny moments and I think the actors had fun making it. There is also quite a bit of satire in there, particularly on current events.
 

mrr50

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,357
We saw Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins (2019), a documentary about the Texas political columnist. Neither my husband nor I were that familiar with her, but she was quite the character. Entertaining film about a witty intelligent lady with lots of laughs. Our theater crowd thoroughly enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the documentary too. Molly Ivins wrote a slew of very good books.
 

twinsmom

Active Member
Messages
133
I saw Toy Story 4 on a plane this weekend. OMG, if I hadn't been in public, I would have been bawling! As it was, I was still crying but in a swallow my sobs kind of way.

I saw it on a plane as well, and I had the same reaction. I was very skeptical about another Toy Story movie because I thought the ending of #3 was perfect, but I thought this was a great ending too.
 

Vash01

Fan of Yuzuru, T&M, P&C
Messages
55,385
Saw two old movies recently.

Kramer vs Kramer- loved the acting by all. Meryl Streep looks so young and luminesce (sp?). The kid (Justin Henry) is unbelievable. Did he ever act in another movie? Sorry if this is a dumb question. Is Dustin Hoffman a three time Oscar winner? (Rainman, K vs K and Tootsie?)

Close encounters of the third count - I have always loved ET movies. Loved the idea and presentation in this. Richard Dreyfus looks so young in this! As Usual, great story telling by Steven Spielberg.
 

Jay42

Between the click of the light
Messages
5,051
Saw two old movies recently.

Kramer vs Kramer- loved the acting by all. Meryl Streep looks so young and luminesce (sp?). The kid (Justin Henry) is unbelievable. Did he ever act in another movie? Sorry if this is a dumb question. Is Dustin Hoffman a three time Oscar winner? (Rainman, K vs K and Tootsie?)
Hoffman won twice, for Rain Man and Kramer vs. Kramer. He was nominated for Tootsie. According to IMDb Justin Henry did keep acting but it's been pretty sporadic. Nothing new since 2014.
 

Vash01

Fan of Yuzuru, T&M, P&C
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55,385
Just saw this bio for Justin Henry. I have not seen any of his movies after K vs K.

 

Aussie Willy

Hates both vegemite and peanut butter
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27,871
I saw a German movie tonight called Balloon. Got a free ticket from a competition. It is based on a true story of families who escape from East Germany in what else but a balloon.

Quite good although I found the soundtrack a bit annoying.
 

pollyanna

Well-Known Member
Messages
9,656
Just saw this bio for Justin Henry. I have not seen any of his movies after K vs K.


I remember he was Samantha's younger brother in Sixteen Candles, but haven't seen him in anything after that.
 

Foolhardy Ham Lint

Well-Known Member
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6,277
Justin Henry was amazing in Kramer vs. Kramer. I remember seeing the movie with a friend when it first came out 40 years ago. We were both 12 at the time, and the two of us really loved it.

There is a moment when Billy and his father are making French toast for the last time, knowing that things won't be the same, and the tearful smile he gives Ted (Dustin Hoffmann) just breaks my heart every time I see it. Superior direction from Robert Benton brought out a natural and convincing performance from Henry. I must watch the movie again some time.

 

Vash01

Fan of Yuzuru, T&M, P&C
Messages
55,385
Saw two Meryl Streep movies today. First, ‘Sophie’s choice’ was really bad, though she was very good in it. Then I saw ‘Out of Africa’. I had seen it many years ago and there was so much that I didn’t remember. It was very good but a bit too long. Meryl Streep was great (she was robbed of an Oscar, IMO), and Robert Redford was good as Denys. However, I had a problem with him being American, when in real life Denys Finch Hattan was British.
Loved the cinematography and the sweeping score. Would love to visit this land some day.
 
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Aussie Willy

Hates both vegemite and peanut butter
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27,871
There's going to be another Zombieland! :cheer2:

I don't typically like zombie movies but I can't wait for this one. The other one I really liked was Warm Bodies.
I watched this the other night for the first time and really enjoyed it. I am not really into zombie movies but this was great. Now I must see the second one. It is on here in Australia at the moment.

On the weekend I saw Judy and Maleficent.

I enjoyed both. I thought Renee Zelleweger was very good in the role. I thought the best moment was with the two fans.

Maleficent - I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the first one. A bit too much collateral damage for my liking. Still had some enjoyable moments.
 

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