Finally saw The Muppets yesterday. Quite good if a little quaint at times. Interesting how they attempted to sort of test the waters for how popular they were with the onscreen audience and the offscreen audience at the same time. A clever way of breaking the fourth wall.

Thanks for pushing me towards hating it wxwax. I won't lie, I was interested in it, and so was my girlfriend. I almost hope I don't like it now so you won't kill me.

Edited January 16, 201214 yr by ace

Watched 'The Reader' last night, I thought it was a very good film, and Kate Winslet probably deserved her Oscar for it.

It was quite a slow burner, but if you want to watch something that makes you think its worth it.

Strangely for a bloke, my only problem with it was that Kate seemed to spend most of her time with her kit off!

Yes, I agree, shedpensioner - a very thought-provoking film.

I've cancelled my plans to go to see Drive tonight

1. because I really would rather see it in the English original

2. because it has turened very forsty and the roads will be icy on the way home ..but

3. and most importantly The Unforgiven is on telly tonight - wonderfulk Clint eastwood film with Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackmann

Thanks for pushing me towards hating it wxwax. I won't lie, I was interested in it, and so was my girlfriend. I almost hope I don't like it now so you won't kill me.

Ha! Sorry, didn't mean to be so pushy. Perhaps you could get a second movie for backup, in case you don't like it? I thought I was going to like it. I learned once again that the enemy of happiness is high expectations. They're deadly, they are. :)

3. and most importantly The Unforgiven is on telly tonight - wonderfulk Clint eastwood film with Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackmann

Ooh, ooh, ooh!

One of my all-time favorite films. I love that movie. Great acting, writing and message. Thought-provoking. Ironical. Great stuff.

yes, I keeplooking at my watch to see what the time is. I can't wait for it to start!

The Unforgiven - wonderful Clint eastwood film with Morgan Freeman

I've got a pile of old movie magazines next to my bed that I like to flip/read through when I'm having trouble falling asleep. Just the other night I read a story about how Morgan Freeman got the part in Unforgiven. He'd been a fan of "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and he just casually mentioned this to Clint Eastwood and said: "If you're ever doing a Western, I'd love to ride along with ya". So some years later, Clint called him and asked Morgan to ride along with him. It's lovely how simple it is sometimes. All you gotta do is ask. Then again, it might help a bit if the one who asks goes by the name of Morgan Freeman.

I've got a pile of old movie magazines next to my bed that I like to flip/read through when I'm having trouble falling asleep. Just the other night I read a story about how Morgan Freeman got the part in Unforgiven. He'd been a fan of "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and he just casually mentioned this to Clint Eastwood and said: "If you're ever doing a Western, I'd love to ride along with ya". So some years later, Clint called him and asked Morgan to ride along with him. It's lovely how simple it is sometimes. All you gotta do is ask. Then again, it might help a bit if the one who asks goes by the name of Morgan Freeman.

Indeed, which makes it all the more sickening that there is now an advert on ITV with Morgan Freeman doing a voice over extolling the virtue of MoreThan Insurance. Why on earth does a great actor like him have to descend to that to make a few extra dollars? And he pronounces his name as Morganne!

Edited January 16, 201214 yr by moi

Indeed, which makes it all the more sickening that there is now an advert on ITV with Morgan Freeman doing a voice over extolling the virtue of MoreThan Insurance. Why on earth does a great actor like him have to descend to that to make a few extra dollars?

Well, Orson Welles did an advert for frozen peas...

Watched "Blue Valentine" tonight. Pretty depressing stuff, but I expected that. The story was a little weak, but I still enjoyed Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling's performances enough to give it a B rating.

Probably one of my biggest disappointments was the soundtrack (or lack thereof). I pegged this as a movie that would have some great songs on it, and it really didn't. Oh well.

Edited January 18, 201214 yr by ace

Totally random fact, Clint Eastwood is exactly 30 years older than me, and I smoke cheroots.

Saw the first Napoleon Dynamite cartoon on Sunday, and was not very impressed. I really liked the movie, so I will give it another chance or two.

I watched Neil Jordan's Butcher Boy tonight for the first time since I saw it at the cinema when it came out in 1998. I'm glad to say it was just as good as I remembered. Young Francie Brady increasingly loses touch with reality in a film which is both dark and funny.

things are slow here today. So I thought I'd make an effort to dispel the vicious rumour that I'm too snotty to enjoy an action movie. :)

Here's what I wrote after seeing Hanna, a film I think is well worth seeing.

Hanna

Saoirse Ronan

Cate Blanchett

Eric Bana

Directed by Joe Wright

In life it's the journey, not the destination. In Hanna it's the story-telling, not the story. The story is a weird mash-up of movie cliches, paranoid Bourne Identity meeting coming-of-age Sixteen Candles.

What makes Hannah so enjoyable is the craftsmanship of the story-telling. It's the acting by the stunning but asexual Saoirse Ronan and the not-quite-soulless Cate Blanchett. It's the visually sophisticated photography, which is serially beautiful. It's the music and the direction and the pace, which never flags but never rushes.

The story is of a 16 year-old girl who's trained to be a killing machine by her guardian (Eric Bana), an on-the-run CIA operative. You could drop Matt Damon in her role and you'd have Bourne. But layered into Hanna's strange trip is her discovery of what her life has been missing: family and relationships.

Director Joe Wright has taken his assemblage of cliches and orchestrated them into both an effective action thriller and an occasionally touching coming of age story. It's a fun ride.

I've been interested in "Hanna" since I saw it make some people's top 10 lists.

Watched "Beginners" tonight and enjoyed it. Christopher Plummer is very good, would be nice to see him win the Oscar for Supporting Actor.

(Whatever good I did with the Hanna review, I think I'm about to undo. Oh well, here goes anyway.)

Tintin

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Maybe it was the poor print, with its huge vertical scratch and a button-hook hair. Maybe it was the theater packed with kids, although I'd braced myself for that. Or maybe it was the movie.

I think it was the movie. And I think it's Tintin. The boy, not the movie.

There's no question that Tintin, the movie not the boy, is great to look at. Steven Spielberg has impeccable visual taste. He's taken the books, which are famously beautifully drawn themselves, and translated their look into something that is both familiar yet its own self. I grew up reading the Tintin books. I love the art. I have half a dozen framed posters waiting to be hung in my home. The movie isn't quite as satisfying as a Hergé drawing, but nothing could be, really. Still, it's close enough and it's mighty fine. The movie even begins with a couple of visual jokes to help the viewer make the transition from book art to movie art, and they're well executed.

Tintin, the movie not the boy, has an original story. Although not based on the books, it's full of the rollicking adventures and exotic foreign lands one associates with the series. And it has plenty of visual reminders -- ships, floatplanes, exotic noses -- to make one feel at home. So one can't blame the story really.

No, I think the issue must be Tintin. The boy, not the movie.

I think it's a truism that movies -- regardless of their source material -- must stand and be judged on their own merits as dramatic works. One of the essentials of drama is some kind of character development. We get plenty of that with Captain Haddock. Almost too much, truth to tell. The story revolves around him and his foibles. But we get absolutely no characterization of Tintin himself. Basically, from the moment the movie begins he's thrust into the story and we never get to learn much about him. Plucky reporter? Check. Colorful history? Check. Sneaky smart dog? Check. But who is he? I left the theater no wiser than I went in.

And that, I think, is the reason I felt oddly disengaged from the whole story, the whole movie. Things happened and then it was over. But I didn't really care. Some may blame the "uncanny valley" -- the alienating effect -- of the motion capture technology used to bring life to the characters' faces. Maybe they're right. But I rather think it was something more fundamental to all story telling. I just wasn't involved with my main character, my central protagonist. I watched him, but I didn't feel for him. Contrast that to a Toy Story movie, where you feel strongly for the characters.

Perhaps others don't care. The many parents and their children seemed to enjoy the thing, with a smattering of applause breaking out at the end. Maybe a few years from now I'll watch it again on TV and think it's great.

But as it stands, I find myself disappointed in Tintin -- the movie and the boy -- in a way I wasn't expecting.

Watched the Inbetweeners movie on Saturday, it was ok I guess!

I was never really into the series so thats probably why I found it just ok!

I see that The Guard is a rental now. An excellent black comedy. Well worth getting.

Edited January 23, 201214 yr by wxwax

I see that The Guard is a rental now. An excellent black comedy. Well worth getting.

Watched it the other day.....fantastic.

A low-key, indie film that's well done. Truthiness to the characters and how they respond to a difficult situation. A dash of crime to make things interesting.

Ulee's Gold, with Peter Fonda and a very young Jessica Biel.

Good one, worth renting.

Watched "The Help" tonight with my girlfriend. I liked it and thought the Oscar nominations for Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were deserved; Jessica Chastain I was less sure on. I feel like the (predominately white) voters feel fine voting for the nice white lady who was pleasant to her maids during segregation but can't vote for Bryce Dallas Howard, the one who is evil to her maids. I also felt like some of the message was "Gee, look how nice this white girl is to get these black maids' stories out there." I'd give it a B overall, and it even induced some tears at certain points (that's not really an accomplishment for me, there's something about me being engrossed in a movie that make me get emotional very easily), but I doubt it's a movie I'll think of much down the road.

Next up: something that wasn't nominated for any Oscars but one I've been waiting a long time to see: 50/50

EDIT: This is what I just found on Wikipedia and I found it interesting and kind of pinpointed why I felt so-so about the message of the movie: Ida E. Jones, the national director of the Association of Black Women Historians, released an open statement criticizing "The Help" in An Open Statement to the Fans of The Help. The letter stated that "[d]espite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers." The group of scholars accused both the book and the film of insensitive portrayals of African-American vernacular, a nearly uniform depiction of black men as cruel or absent, and a failure to acknowledge the sexual harassment that many black women endured in their white employers’ homes. Jones concluded by saying that "The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women’s lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment."

Edited January 25, 201214 yr by ace

Next up: something that wasn't nominated for any Oscars but one I've been waiting a long time to see: 50/50

I liked it very much.

Jones concluded by saying that "The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women’s lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment."

*snigger* That hardly maks them unique in Hollywood history. Complaining about Hollywood sacrificing truth for entertainment is like complaining that the Pope is too Catholic-ish.

*snigger* That hardly maks them unique in Hollywood history. Complaining about Hollywood sacrificing truth for entertainment is like complaining that the Pope is too Catholic-ish.

I know, I know. I'm getting a little too worked up over this movie, but even though I enjoyed it while I was watching it, something about the message just didn't really click with me. I think I just need to forget about it.