movie recommendations

[fragger]

That presidential talk reminded me of a line from an old Creedence Clearwater Revival song called "Ramble Tamble": "There's actors in the White House..." that was written many years before Ronnie Raygun became president. They must have known something... :-()

About Arnie, I can't ever see him winning any oscars but he definitely has appeal. I thought he displayed a pretty good comedic talent on the odd occasions when he's done comedy films.

Sandra Bullock is one of my favourite female actors, I've always thought she was a solid pro who can be relied upon to deliver the goods :-X She seems real, very bright and grounded, judging by interviews with her that I've seen.

[Art Blade]

agree about Arnie and comical roles.  :)

Sandra Bullock, well, I have to think hard to even come up with one title she's playing in (apart from Speed) and at the time worth watching. I like her in a way but wouldn't go as far as to say I thought she was a good actress.

[Fiach]

I went to see Rise of Planet of the Apes.

It was really good, its amazing how well it is made, in the hands of a different director, or, if Andy Serkis wasn't in it, then it would probably be something that SyFy channel would churn out. The Special Effects, the ape choreography and animations, facial expressions etc. are out of this world.

The story concerns a lab technician working on a cure for Alzheimers for his father, testing the chemical on apes in their labs goes pretty awry at show n tell for the stockholders, resulting in the project being terminated and all the apes killed ..... except one, Caesar, a baby chimp, that they didnt realise had just been born to the ape from the show n tell mentioned above.

The baby grows up and for the final segment of the film Caesar is 8 years old.

The movie has a great storyline involving the lab technicians dad and his condition, which improves dramatically, causing the project to be restarted, then the poo hits the fan, culminating in a face off on the Golden Gate bridge.

I'm not quite sure about the connection to the original PotA movies, well I can see the genesis of the story, with the apes getting intelligent, but with the ending of this movie, it would nearly be crass to make a sequel, conforming to Pierre Boulles series of novels as this has a happy(-ish) ending.

Anyway, open your wallets and let the moths flutter around in the cinema lobby for 106 mins as you watch the movie. :)

Fiach : Watching movies that you should watch too.

[Art Blade]

Hehehe, nice.  :) I watched all prequels and was just thinking about Charlton Heston who unfortunately died in 2008.

[Fiach]

I didnt know he died mate :( first movie I saw him in was Ben Hur, but one of my favourite movies of all time was El Cid, check it out if you ever get a chance.

[mandru]

 ;) :-X @ Fiach

Ben Hur?  El Cid?  Now you're talking about movies from a time where I actually know the actors, actresses, musicians and other celebs and could put names to their faces which is something I've not been able to do for a long time.

Somewhere around the time when Donald Southerland's son (Reefer or something like that) got grandfathered into the Biz I pretty much stopped caring about trying to keep track of that kind of inconsequential detail.  Unplug one actor plug in another and it makes no difference to me.  If a story line's good enough it will survive even the most intolerable schlub's efforts and might catch my attention but I'll wait for it to show up on DVD either way.

I honestly don't think I could pick 10 of today's hottest actors/actresses or musicians out of a line up and match them to their names.   8-X

[Art Blade]

"schlub" ?  ^+-+ Man, I keep gathering your expressions ^+-+

I think I know what you're on about. When you, I, and the rest of the more mature people here read names like Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Charlton Heston, maybe Jerry Lewis, Rita Hayworth, Gina Lollobrigida and god knows whose names we could come up with, we can come up with some of those without hesitating or thinking too much. Today's actors.. well.. not as easy.  :-D

[Fiach]

Kiefer Southerland, check out 24 (seven seasons, plus an offshoot called 24 Redemption), or The Confession, each episode is only about 10 minutes long and its pretty rivetting TV,  he is a great actor imo.

but yes, the current chinless wonders do tend to blur into each other :)

[Art Blade]

nice, Fiach ^+-+ :-X

[RedRaven]

Spent all weekend away from the PC watching films. Here is what I saw -


MAX MANUS - MAN OF WAR. Very good WW2 film about the Norwegian resistance Hero. An area of the war that has had very little coverage, was familiar with the name but knew little about him. well worth seeing.


COLLATERAL DAMAGE - An Arnie film from 2002 had not seen before. The usual Arnie action stuff.


LOST IN SPACE - My son had not seen it so sat and watched it Friday night. I used to watch the old TV show as a kid and saw the film when it came out. Funnier than I remembered but nothing too special. Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith is probably best part in it.


THE SCORE - Robert DeNiro, Marlon Brandon and Edward Norton all on good form. A good heist film but not as good as Heat.


THE LAST BOY SCOUT - Bruce Willis as a dead-beat P.I. Typical action stuff, some good action shots and enough humour to balance it out.


WEDLOCK - Rutger Hauer in one of his cheap and cheerful scifi films, not his best but not too bad.


DEJA VU - Denzel Washington in a time travelling detective role, not his best w@&k but a pretty well put together story.


INNER SPACE - Cheesy and funny scifi, the remake with Dennis Quaid not the original. Good for a laugh.



There were a couple of other but its been a long weekend and my memory is not as good as once was.
Out of all of them have to say Max Manus was the best of the bunch.

[JRD]

 ??? Did you sleep, Red?

[PZ]

I love the old series Lost in Space!  I still remember watching the first episode in the family room with my brother and parents when I was just a kid - my most memorable one was the episode with the cyclops.

Oh, and I wanted the chariot as my first car.  :-()

[Fiach]

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!! :) The movie remake with Joey from Friends was pretty cool :)

Apocalypto, what an astounding movie directed by Mel Gibson. Set in an early civilisation in South America, just prior to the Conquistadores arrival, it is both beautiful and terrifying, I saw it on Blueray and it is a visual treat, havent checked the Special Features, but it is a great looking movie, the jungle is so alive and vibrant. It is fully subtitled, but the acting is so superb, no subtitles are needed as the actors expressions convey everything you need to know.  :-X

[JRD]

Apocalypto did a great job in the jungle and all ancient languages setting the mood. The story, however, is pretty shallow: good guy goes on a dangerous journey to save family from bad guy and uses all his hunter skills to do so. You've seen this movie several times, only with different clothes, background and actors speaking other languages.

Still, I enjoyed the movie.  8)

[Art Blade]

hehe, agree with both of you  ;D

[PZ]

Same here - enjoyed the movie but is not one that I would watch repeatedly like Duel, Rio Bravo, Rio Lobo, Shooter, It (Stephen King in general), and many others that I can watch again and again.

[Fiach]

Same here - enjoyed the movie but is not one that I would watch repeatedly like Duel, Rio Bravo, Rio Lobo, Shooter, It (Stephen King in general), and many others that I can watch again and again.

Loved Duel and the Duke, man I love his movies, The Sons of Katie Elder, Big Jake are two of my favourites, the Rio's are awesome too, I have about 12 of his movies under my TV as I always return to them. The Quiet Man set in Ireland was shot near where I grew up in the west of Ireland, so I have a particular fondness for that, I actually get a bit teary eyed when the lake isle of inishfree is played.

An irish movie you should check out is The Field, its a very serious movie, nothing like TQM, but it paints a more realistic picture of rural life in Ireland, It stars Richard Harris and John Hurt, both in top form :)

King movies have been hit and miss with me, I love his books, so when the film comes around, I already have the characters in my head from the book and the movies kind of jar with that. The Shining and Carrie I love though.

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[PZ]

 ^+-+ :-X

The movie you mentioned in another thread "Canyon" was an interesting flick about stupid people.  I enjoyed watching the movie, but it is hard to believe that people are actually that stupid.  ^+-+

Probably my favorite movie is Duel - Dennis Weaver plays a perfect idiot; my favorite line of his in the movie is "...how can he go so fast!" as he is trying to unsuccessfully outrun an old Peterbuilt gasoline semi.

Another favorite Duke movie is Eldorado - favorite line: "...can't miss with that!"

... and Big Jake - favorite line: "...hey fatty!..."

[mandru]

I have to admit that our house grinds to a halt any time The Quiet Man is discovered on one of the classic movie channels.   ;)

[Fiach]

Big Jake .... I thought you were dead. :)

Ooops forgot Eldorado, mixed it up with Rio  :-[

[PZ]

Eldorado: "hey fancy vest!..."

Once Upon a Time in the West - those dusters on the bad guys are cool.  Jack Elam traps a fly in the barrel of his revolver.

[Art Blade]

Favourite movie quote of all times? Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

Juliet Forrest: What are you doing?
Rigby Reardon: Adjusting your breasts. You fainted and they... shifted all outta whack. There.
Juliet Forrest: Thank you.
Rigby Reardon: You're Welcome.

  ^+-+

[PZ]

 ^+-+

[fragger]

Dunno if this movie has been covered here already (I don't feel like slogging through 60 pages of posts to find out :-\\ )

I watched The Mothman Prophecies last night, and I found it a most intriguing and thought-provoking movie. It's not a flashy, special effects driven affair - well, except toward the end where there's quite a remarkable sequence - instead the emphasis is more on how ordinary people try to deal with something that's totally beyond their normal range of experiences. The photography is innovative and fascinating to watch at times, and the cast is solid. Richard Gere turns in a pretty commendable performance, I usually find him a bit wooden.

But what fascinated me more than the film itself was the content of a Special Features disk which was included, in particular an hour-long documentary about the real events in and around Point Pleasant, WV in 1966-67 that the film was based on. The real story was even more bizarre and scarier than the actual movie was, with not only accounts of numerous unnerving encounters with the so-called "mothmen" but also nightly UFO sightings witnessed by scores of townfolk, cattle mutilations, strange lesions, burns and nightmares afflicting some witnesses, bizarre anonymous phone calls, harassment of people by mysterious unblinking "Men in Black" - just about the whole paranormal spectrum, which went on for exactly thirteen months before the horrible culmination. It contained interviews with many of the folks who were affected, and they certainly don't come across as kooks – they are all very bright and together people who have clearly been distressed and traumatized by the whole experience. Even today, fear drives some of them to refuse to discuss it. There were also interviews with investigators, one of whom, John Keel, is the author of the original non-fiction Mothman Prophecies book (his fictitious counterpart in the film is surnamed "Leek", played by Alan Bates).

What struck me was how many people were affected. If just one or two individuals report something eerie it may be permissible to diss it, but when you're dealing with a whole town and surrounding countryside seeing fearful anomalies and living on a knife-edge of apprehension for over a year - well.

The name "Mothman" was coined by some reporter at the time, which he borrowed from a character in the Batman comics, but of course the reported creatures looked nothing like moths - more like gargoyles (and I wonder what the inspiration for those were?) These weird cryptozoological creatures ("Mothman", "Garuda", "Thunderbird" - different cultures have different names for them) seem to have appeared to and been depicted by peoples all over the world throughout history and are often considered harbingers of catastrophe – apparently they were seen in spades around the Chernobyl area just before the disaster.

It's a strange world we live in.

[fragger]

Another one I watched was Black Swan with Natalie Portman. Strange and surreal film (must have been my night for picking out-there movies) with a great performance by Portman as a young ballerina gradually descending into madness. Not a fast-paced film and probably not everyone's cup of char, but I found it somehow compelling.

A third film I rented was The Shaft. And that's exactly what this B-grade stinkeroo of a movie should have gotten before they wasted perfectly good celluloid filming it. It's about a killer elevator (yes). What can I say - I neglected to take my specs to the shop so I couldn't read the blurb properly and got the wrong idea about it. God knows what sad Hitchcock wannabe chundered up that drivel. If you have any respect for your own intelligence, don't go near it >:((