What are you watching?

[Melissa_W Moderator]

We have a music thread but I think we also should have a movie thread, too.

I was thinking about this because I went with some friends to the Transformers 2 midnight opening last night.  Now, I like to be decently entertained when I pay my $10 at the movie theatre, otherwise it's like highway robbery if the movie is bad (nah, it's still highway robbery even when the movie is enjoyable but that's beside the point), and Transformers 2 was quite enjoyable with some pretty awesome CGI work and cutesy jokes and humor. 

But the humor was definitely aimed at the 13 year old boys in the audience - it was a bit wasted on the 30 year old booksellers/cinephiles in my group who thought the obvious shot of a Decepticon's "man parts" was funny but completely unnecessary to any point at hand (and getting old because it was like the tenth joke about testicles).  I also thought that a few characters were dumped halfway through the movie (like the NSA guy and the little Decepticon that Mikayla "trains" ) almost like the characters were forgotten in the rush to have a really, REALLY big battle sequence.

Overall, it was a nice summer blockbuster and thousands of times better than Indiana Jones 4 for which I quite haven't forgiven anyone involved in the making of that disaster.

(Did I mention that I never saw the first Transformers movie in 2007?  So if you're up for watching very large animorphic machines kick the snot out of each other with good graphics and a Hans Zimmer score you don't really need to have watched the previous installment.)

[Ryan_G]

In about 10 minutes I will be watching

After the Thin Man.  I tend to go through this series once or twice a year.  This is the second movie in the series.

[MichaelN]

I just finished watching the final episodes of Joss Whedon's Firefly. I can see why it has earned such a cult following. The final episode, especially, was a stand out. Still have not seen the Serenity movie.

[twilightfann]

The last movie I saw in theaters was UP. It was such a great movie - it made me laugh and then cry at the same time. Pixar just makes the best animated movies. I mean, there's Finding Nemo, Toy Story, The Incredibles, WALL-E, Monsters Inc, and so much more. After leaving the movie theater when I saw UP, I really just felt happy. I can see why all of the movie reviews gave it four stars.

[dulcinea3]

I'm still working my way through the extra features disc for

X2 - X-Men United 

I was at Walmart recently, and their $5 case is always dangerous!  Aside from this one, I got six others!

[IBIS]

The Stoning of Soraya M

I highly recommend this indie movie... it's the shocking story of Soraya, a kind woman whose cruel husband conspires against her, trumping up charges of infidelity... a crime, if convicted, carries an unimaginably heartless penalty. 

It's a message that we should pay attention to...

Despite our openmindedness about the relative values of enacted laws, this movie reminds us that there are definitely very bad laws on the books today...

And those bad laws are strictly enforced by legally recognized governments in our world today.

[TiggerBear]

Doc Martin 1 

Doc Martin: Series 2  

[Ryan_G]

Another Thin Man  

[Melissa_W Moderator]

Born to Be Wild: The Leading Men of American Ballet Theatre  

 I love my ballet boys!

then (because my ballet boys have to go back to Netflix tomorrow)

Gosford Park  for laughs!

[TiggerBear]

Emma: A Victorian Romance - Season One Collection 

Well I'm off to watch another disc of Emma.

[Ryan_G]

Love Gosford Park

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pedsphleb wrote:

Born to Be Wild: The Leading Men of American Ballet Theatre  

 I love my ballet boys!

then (because my ballet boys have to go back to Netflix tomorrow)

Gosford Park  for laughs!

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[Jon_B]

Last night I watched Guy Ritchie's Revolver which was very different from what I was expecting. It's billed as a "fast-paced crime drama" like his earlier movies and while it is indeed a crime drama, it's not fast-paced nor is it anything like his earlier movies, which are not only flashier but also have a lot of humor in them.  This doesn't, it's a very dark movie, and it's also rather slow and meditative.  It's loosely about chess, game theory, psychology, and self possession.  It was very interesting and there are a lot of layers, and a lot of spiritual symbolism in the movie.  It reminded me more of what I'd typically associate with someone like David Lynch or even Peter Greenaway than the kind of films Richie became known for.  As such I think it's a rather underrated movie because it's nothing at all like it's expected to be, people saw it looking for another Snatch and were understandably disappointed - but it's still a very good and thought-provoking movie.

[Paul_Hochman]

I recently saw Appaloosa and was completely disappointed. Aside from a few good Viggo moments, the film was unforgettable at best.

I'm a huge fan of the Western. Here are a couple favorites:

Unforgiven 

Magnificent Seven 

Any other Western fans out there?   

[TiggerBear]

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Jon_B wrote:

Last night I watched Guy Ritchie's Revolver which was very different from what I was expecting. It's billed as a "fast-paced crime drama" like his earlier movies and while it is indeed a crime drama, it's not fast-paced nor is it anything like his earlier movies, which are not only flashier but also have a lot of humor in them.  This doesn't, it's a very dark movie, and it's also rather slow and meditative.  It's loosely about chess, game theory, psychology, and self possession.  It was very interesting and there are a lot of layers, and a lot of spiritual symbolism in the movie.  It reminded me more of what I'd typically associate with someone like David Lynch or even Peter Greenaway than the kind of films Richie became known for.  As such I think it's a rather underrated movie because it's nothing at all like it's expected to be, people saw it looking for another Snatch and were understandably disappointed - but it's still a very good and thought-provoking movie.

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One of those movies that starts an arguement an hour later. Cool looks, but a little too much Jung for entertainment.

[Melissa_W Moderator]

I don't know what's more fun when watching Gosford Park - watching the actual movie, watching the movie with the commentary by Robert Altman, or watching the movie with the commentary by Julian Fellowes.

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Ryan_G wrote:
Love Gosford Park

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pedsphleb wrote:

Born to Be Wild: The Leading Men of American Ballet Theatre  

 I love my ballet boys!

then (because my ballet boys have to go back to Netflix tomorrow)

Gosford Park  for laughs!

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[dulcinea3]

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pedsphleb wrote:

I don't know what's more fun when watching Gosford Park - watching the actual movie, watching the movie with the commentary by Robert Altman, or watching the movie with the commentary by Julian Fellowes.

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How many people do watch the commentary versions of movies?  At first I thought it was a neat feature, but after a while I stopped.  First of all, I find it difficult to find the time to watch a movie two or three times through, and after I've just watched it, I'm not usually in the mood to watch the whole thing again right away.  By the time I get around to wanting to see it again, I want to see and enjoy the actual movie.  A few times I've started to watch the commentary, and found it boring - "ummmm, here we were doing this...[pause for several minutes]... oh, yeah, and then we had to..."  Sometimes I have been concentrating on what was being said and not been able to actually follow what was going on in the movie at that moment that they are talking about.

What's the general opinion?

[Jon_B]

I do it very rarely.  Sometimes I'll watch a particular scene with director/actor commentary on, if I want to know more about how they filmed that particular scene.  But even that is frustrating because sometimes they stop paying attention and are telling only vaguely related anecdotes about something or other instead of actually describing the filmmaking (probably because they are, understandably, sick of talking about it).  In general I agree it's usually fairly boring, but useful on rare occasions.

[TiggerBear]

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dulcinea3 wrote:

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pedsphleb wrote:

I don't know what's more fun when watching Gosford Park - watching the actual movie, watching the movie with the commentary by Robert Altman, or watching the movie with the commentary by Julian Fellowes.

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How many people do watch the commentary versions of movies?  At first I thought it was a neat feature, but after a while I stopped.  First of all, I find it difficult to find the time to watch a movie two or three times through, and after I've just watched it, I'm not usually in the mood to watch the whole thing again right away.  By the time I get around to wanting to see it again, I want to see and enjoy the actual movie.  A few times I've started to watch the commentary, and found it boring - "ummmm, here we were doing this...[pause for several minutes]... oh, yeah, and then we had to..."  Sometimes I have been concentrating on what was being said and not been able to actually follow what was going on in the movie at that moment that they are talking about.

What's the general opinion?

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Honestly we don't buy a DVD unless we are going to watch it more than once every six months. And we stopped keeping counting the DVDs when it went over 800. Most of which get put in the player and played over and over. A new weekly addition usually gets watched about 20 times that week. The few I just want to see once, I rent. If I buy something and end up hating it; give it or sell it.

Unless the extra specials are more than 5 hours long, I'm going to watch it. And any move you seen more than 10 times, the commentary version gets kinda cool (at least once).

[dulcinea3]

Well, if I buy a DVD, it's usually because it's something that I want to watch multiple times (especially if it's something that I tend to watch whenever I see it being shown on TV).  But I don't usually want to watch it over and over again in a short period, like you do.  I do that with music, though!  Sometimes I listen to a new CD exclusively for a week or more if I love it!

I like to watch the special features.  Usually I look to see if there are any trailers for the movie, and watch those first, before I watch the movie itself, since normally you would have seen those before the movie came out or before you saw it.  Then I watch the movie, and then the other features.

[TiggerBear]

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dulcinea3 wrote:

Well, if I buy a DVD, it's usually because it's something that I want to watch multiple times (especially if it's something that I tend to watch whenever I see it being shown on TV).  But I don't usually want to watch it over and over again in a short period, like you do.  I do that with music, though!  Sometimes I listen to a new CD exclusively for a week or more if I love it!

I like to watch the special features.  Usually I look to see if there are any trailers for the movie, and watch those first, before I watch the movie itself, since normally you would have seen those before the movie came out or before you saw it.  Then I watch the movie, and then the other features.

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Well back when we actually bought CDs we did likewise. But switched over to using music browsers years ago.

Depends on the movie. Sometime special feature and a easter egg hunt first. Sometimes the movie.