1 - LotR:RotK. ---------------------no comment necessary. Saw total of FOUR times.
2 - Cheaper by the Dozen -----------funny, nothing memorable.
3 - Cold Mountain ------------------two words: great drama.
4 - Something's Gotta Give ---------funny as hell. fell in love with Keanu again, even if he's a schmuck.
5 - Paycheck -----------------------Lost effort down the tubes.
6 - Mona Lisa Smile ----------------Yawn.
7 - Peter Pan ----------------------Better than previous screen adaptations, but not as magical as I expected. The leading boy wasn't as stellar.
8 - The Last Samurai ---------------Well, I did love this one. Mostly because all the supporting actors were beyond stellar.
9 - Bad Santa --------------------- Instant Christmas classic. People you need to go see this one. Why we call the Coens geniuses. Absolutely demented and hilarious. The best comedy of the year!
10 - Elf --------------------------OMG, brain tumor. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to see this one. I was blinded by the light.
11 - Stuck on You -----------------Didn't see. Will wait for it on cable, and even then maybe.
12 - Love Don't Cost a Thing ------Wake up dude. The story's been beaten to hell and back. Nothing notable. Saw it cause I like the boy from Drumline.
13 - The Haunted Mansion ----------Could not get the big deal about this one either. Also unmemorable.
14 - Big Fish --------------------- Awesome. Tim Burton rocks. Big yes to surrealism.
15 - House of Sand and Fog -------- everybody should see this one. For me the best of the year and with a distance from the second one too.
16 - Honey ------------------------Funky. Loved it. Body language movies always speak to me, and this one was fluent.
17 - Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat --I know you people grew up on the books and you hated the film. Oh well. Myers did do his best. I went to see it for the girl; she has amazing talent.
18 - 21 Grams ---------------------Didn't see yet. Focus on the YET. Will remedy this weekend. They don't show it near me; will have to hop to Wilson town for this one. Naomi Watts is also worth it.
19 - Master and Commander ----------Well yahoo! We did love this one.
20 - In America -------------------Didn't see. Heard good things about this one, but like 21 grams, not near me. Will see.
21 - Love Actually ----------------Beautiful english humor.
25 - Calendar Girls ---------------Hey, it just came out. I will see it this weekend, just wait and see. Looks good.
26 - Lost in Translation ---------- Just plain brilliant. A masterpiece.
27 - Mystic River -----------------Have to admitt, quite good.
28 - The Cooler -------------------Didn't see. But I want to see. Hell, it's nowhere near me. I really want to see.
29 - School of Rock ----------------Regrettably did not see. Oh well, will wait for video.

American Splendor did not make the list, but it should have. Excellent work of art, far better than most of the junk on the heap.

[This message was edited by striv on January 03, 2004 at 12:28 AM.]

Bad Santa - "Are you fuckin' with me?!"

Last night's before bed movie was 'Higher Learning'. "Mista Williams...."
Ice Cube is , actually everyone is great in this film.
'Cube's character is my favorite, but i think the best performance should be credited to Michael Rappaport's portrayal of Remy.....

I love this thread :
I had never heard about Big Fish, and I did not expect anything from Burton right now.
I didn't know the Coen bros had anything to do with Bad Santa.
I really have to see these two as soon as they are realeased.

I watched Hard Eight yesterday, and I really feel stupidj for not having known it existed. P.T. Anderson is a true master.

--
ArkanGL

quote:

---

Originally posted by charmakarmacat:
Bad Santa - "Are you _fuckin'_ with me?!"

---

Hey Cat, do you remember the slogan on the kids t-shirt at the end...? You know, the christmass present? (I think it was something ,,,nude or something.)

ArkanGL it's a Coen brothers story. directed by Terry Zwiggof.


Edit: one picture is a thousand words...

[This message was edited by striv on January 04, 2004 at 08:45 AM.]

I'm sick. Sick, sick, sick.

All I can really do is focus (somewhat) on movies,
so when I ran out to grab some emergency flu
supplies, I picked up the Cowboy Bebop movie.

Never seen it before, but I'm not surprised that I
really enjoyed it. One of these days, I need to pick
up the show.

I think Yoko Kanno helps to make CB as good as it
is. Great music.

I've watched Cypher this afternoon.
I had been told it was alright, and I found it better than I expected.
A twisted and cyberpunked spying movie.

--
ArkanGL
I guessed the ending quite early

watched 'Solaris' last night.
geez i shoulda seen it sooner. Soderbergh directed, based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem, starring George Clooney who hasn't shit the bed yet, produced by James Cameron.... why was i so hesitant to watch this?!?

great film on so many levels.
Visually deliberate (reminiscent of Kubrick's work), great acting during flashback scenes without much context, intellectually provacative,
and Jeremy Davies was so brilliantly...vague.
i think i'll check imdb when i'm done here to find more stuff with him in it.

as of yet, no one has really mentioned kid's stuff. i have THE BEST 19 month old nephew, armed with an assortment of 'Baby Einstien' videos. these vids are absolutely wonderful things. for anyone with young kids who has never heard of these i urge you to check them out.

Striv, i believe it was along the lines of " i ride naked" or close to.

quote:

---

Originally posted by charmakarmacat:
and Jeremy Davies was so brilliantly...vague.
i think i'll check imdb when i'm done here to find more stuff with him in it.

---

That Solaris I did like a lot better than Stanislavs version. But you can't really compare the two. Yeah, it was a pretty good film.

But Jeremy Davies I love. I love his talent ever since I saw him in Wim Wenders Million Dollar Hotel. Actually I liked the directors "making of the movie" documentary a lot better than the movie itself. They used to show that on IFC. So very surreal and atmospheric.

And I certainly love anything by Wim Wenders. "Wings of Desire" and "Faraway so close" were nothing short of masterpieces.

"Cowboy bebop: the movie" I liked far better than the series actually; that doesn't mean it's bad. The series soundtrack is mainly bebop, but I really loved the classical pieces in the film. As for the action sequences, they were brilliant. Especially for an MA geek the way they had the moves so accurate; it just blew me away... the sidekicks, the spinning kicks. They animated everything with such detail to the actuall physics/sequence of the movements, you can easily use it as instruction reference.

Edit:Oh, yeah. Last movie I saw was "Read my lips" with Emmanuelle Davis and Vincent Cassel. Pretty interesting.

The French Connection



Watched it earlier this evening, after at least fifteen years since I last saw it. My girlfriend magically produced a DVD set of of both the original and sequel; turns out her brother'd gotten them as a Christmas gift a few years back.

This film still holds up after 33 years, even with Frog One's appalling French. And perhaps the most incompetent rooftop sniper in cinema...

House of Sand and Fog

I had looked forward to seeing this...the reviews were good and I thought it would be interesting. I'm sorry to say it was absolutely the worst movie I've seen in years! My Iranian husband liked it, though. I really can't understand why. Although there was some truths about how many Iranians live here in this country, I thought it was demeaning. I also couldn't stand the American characters in the film. The story was incredibly depressing...maybe it would have played better as an opera. At least then there would have been some passion in the performances.

The only highlight was that the guys who sang at my husband's brother's wedding sang at the wedding scene in the movie.

ok, take a deep breath and sit down.....

a very guilty pleasure viewed on a relic of a vhs to vhs copy.....

Iron Eagle. a veritable forest of cheese.
if i hadn't seen this movie all those years ago....well, you figure it out.

the best part....doug's dad shot down and captured by "hostile forces"
i loooove movies where the antagonists don't even deserve a nationality or anything.:
enemy nation
general blah blahblah
evil dictator "somewhere in the eastern bloc"
geez, i even watched the whole thing.
in the credits, the third character listed after Jason Gedrick and Louis Gossit Jr was David Suchet, and the character was Minister of Defense. no name!!!! what a riot.

last night watched Fargo again. must be the weather here or something. cold as hell with snow.

for some odd reason i am totally relaxed and soothed by war films. shrug.
watched this last night after work.
maybe it's the earthtones being clashed around as flying earth and smoke, bullet strafings and churned cities.>sigh<

Clerks
A nice little movie.

Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien
A nice little 14 episodes anime.

--
ArkanGL
Just waking up

was on tv tonite. i LOVE this movie SO much. it never gets old. i must've seen this now 20 or 30 times (everytime it's on tv. that's alot over the years.)

i imagine 'Big Fish' to be along these lines.
now i'm gonna check it out sooner rather than later.

"if you build it, he will come..."
maybe Tim said to a buddy he has in broadcasting:
"if you play it(FOD), they will come(to my movie)..."

Saw today in the presented sequence.

Chasing Liberty Yes, it is a juvenille bullshit, and she is an unbearable bimbo. BUT allow me to have a rare girl moment here when I say: Matthew Goode is The babe. I kept thinking, while watching it, get real dude; why don't he ditch the bimbo already. The story was made bearable by the small romance from the sidekicks - Jeremy Piven and Annabella Sciorra.

Calendar Girls The first half of the film was laugh non-stop. The second half left things to be desired, but still not bad.

Monster Charlize Theron is truly unrecognizable here. I kept looking for that beautiful face and couldn't see it anywhere. Her and Christina Ricci gave some excellent performances. Hardly any sex scenes guys, so no need to start drooling when you read the story line. which is interesting to say the least. As a character study it's perfect.

I just watched Pi for like the 5th time and it is FUCKING AMAZING. If you haven't seen it, see it. Don't bother trying to give some pithy critique of it, the movie is brilliant. Not the best movie ever made but probably my favorite, right next to The Godfather and some others(including Usual Suspects and Brazil) that changed cinema as a whole(yes Pi did change cinema as a whole).
So, what are you lookin' at?

I feel certain there's more, always is.

Pi was Ok.

No, feta cheese is ok, Greek olive oil is ok(Italian is better), your Madza 626 is ok. That movie is the shit.

Sorry, I get a little upset when people don't agree with me 100% all the time like they should

I feel certain there's more, always is.

Yes, yes, I got the point. Crazy Irish-Italians....Hail Caesar dude!

I'm Ukrainian and Italian. But crazy, yes.
Seriously though Italian olive oil is better.
Hail Ceasar!

I feel certain there's more, always is.