movie reviews and recommendations

[Alice I]

ooh ooh...I love movies...

PP the blonde geeky kid's name is Anthony Michael Hall.

I too recommend anything by John Hughes (ie Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen candles) yet my all time favorite John Hughes film is Mr Mom it is about a young man who looses his job in a car factory and becomes a home maker while his wife ventures out into the booming world as a business executive...just out right hilarious

Amelie is another film I adore. It is just so whimsical and light, yet all the while secretly teaching the values of living life to the fullest...Our Bones are not Made of Glass...

White Christmas Something between the blue organdy dresses and the red velvet capes, tap dance numbers and the velvet vocals of Bing Crosby I have fallen in love with this 1950's movie musical.

Indiana Jones I love this triology, although it does not compare to Back to the Future...hehe...Harrison Ford is so cool in these movies, that is all that needs to be said


Ten Things I Hate About YOU It's like a modern day John Hughes film, but with really cool girl-ska music and a lot of hilariously witty lines..."i down wit it, i got the 411 and there ain't no way i'm going to let you get jiggy wit some guy--i don't care how dope his ride is...momma don't raise no fool"

Animal House Um this film has no real value except for the fact that is just one of those funny ones that is just ranchy and has no meaning..."was it over when the germans bombed pearl harbor? -Germans? --Shut up, he's on a roll..."

The Blues Brothers Not only are John Belushi and Dan Akyrod incredibly hilarious with out trying to be in this film, the music rocks...the movie is a modern day musical with tributes to not only real r&b music but to rock, jazz, classical, polka, country...everything..."We're on a mission from God"

there are so many films i really like, but i'm blanking out so i'll have to come back and talk about them later...

How old are you again???

These films seem to be genre films for such a lovely young lady.
All very good films btw
I'll add a couple of good choices:

Ever After with Drew Barrymore - a film for the true romantic at heart.

The Divine Secrets of The YaYa Sisterhood - Good film but a much better book. I strongly recommend reading it to any young/old/middle aged woman in the world!! You can not help but identify with the fragile and strong as steel women in this marvelous tale of four magnificently strong yet somewhat dysfunctional women.

Meet Joe Black with Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt. Ok Brad is cute but you watch this movie for Hopkins' portrayal of a man facing his end and coming to terms with the ultimate journey that we all will face.

Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger - All I can say is watch it. It will be two hours well spent. (Make sure you have a box of tissue with you - yes and that goes for the guys as well.)

[Meg Boyd]

I am seventeen...

also am a fan of

Escanaba in Da Moonlite just because the people remind me of my family and my family is also orginally from Escanaba so my cousins are in the town scenes! "My chevy shook a chitz!"

West Side Story Modern day Romeo and Juliet with just amazing music, 'nough said "Are there enough bullets to kill all of you and still have one left for me?"

Say Anything wow, John Cusack is just amazing in this film as the young Lloyd Dobbler who sets a goal to fall in love. "I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen!"

Hercules in New York Not the best epic film and the screenplay makes no sense, but it is one of those its so bad its good movies. It stars a young Arnold Schwartzenegger right after he was crowned Mr. Universe. Arnold's accent is so thick you really can't understand him and the billing has him as Arnold Strong because back then they thought his name was too ethnic. "I'm going to go take a shower"

Ghostbusters Pretty much my favorite film as a kid. Ghosts, Bill Murray and Dan Akrod...how can you go wrong? "Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!"

Le Diner De Cons: The Fools Dinner This is a french film that I saw when I was in level one french lessons. I still don't understand all of it, but i have the DVD so I have nice subtitles! It is about a guy who looses his wife over the fact that he participates in a heckler's delite A Fools Dinner (kinda like a Dog Dinner). I'd quote this one, but I don't speak french!

Down And Out in Beverly Hills This is about a bum in Beverly Hills who teaches a rich family the importance of the little things in life.

[Paul]

Sorry about any missing posts in this thread - li'l monster seems to have been hungry....

I found out something interesting and cool about the making of the movie Signs with Mel Gibson.

In pre production they came to my home town Rochester NY to create two of the Crop signs that are in the movie.

It was in the bonus materials on the DVD under the making of Signs.

Cool and neat but I never knew that.

[Nobby]

hell! lil monster has been hungry!

[Won Wheezy]

I think that was Alice I's post, but not sure. Stupid lil monster, BAD!

[Nobby]

yeah i think Alice is from NY

[Alice I]

Yep that was me posting about the Signs movie

[Athena Appleton]

I really didn't care for Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood... well, maybe I enjoyed it, I just couldn't get past Maggie Smith being a southern belle from Louisiana... that's just not right...

I saw "Big Fish" with Ewan McGregor Friday night... AWESOME movie!!! Just, if you watch it, watch it realizing from the very beginning that it's the son telling the story of a man who tells stories, and therefore, EVERYTHING is fantastical, obviously not real, and over-the-top. But Albert Finney (my goodness, I didn't recognize him!!!) was awesome, it was kinda like watching a movie about my Poppaw.

Both the 1970's version and the 1990's version of "Romeo and Juliet" is worth watching.

Meg, did you know that "Ten Things I Hate About You" is a modernized version of "Taming of the Shrew" (and "Kiss Me Kate," which is an old modernized, musicalized version of "Shrew")?

I don't remember if I mentioned it, but there's an old Gwenyth Paltrow movie called Sliding Doors that's worth a look... just don't watch it when you're tired, you need to be alert to understand the movie.

Of my favorite musicals, I LOVE "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat"... just the little weird stuff on the side makes it great to watch, and the funny little bits, not to mention it's got some awesome Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff goin on... the best part: the baker and the butler are trying to ask Joseph about their dreams when he's in jail, and since the baker can't fit between the bars, Joseph opens his own cell to let him in (meaning, of course, that Joseph could have, at any time, freed himself)

I also love the newest version of "Jesus Christ Superstar"... not many notable names, but they did a GREAT job of making it relavent again (the original 1970's version was starting to not be a telling-the-story-of-Christ-in-a-new-way like Rice and Webber wanted it to be... so it's cool.

Into the Woods is great, it's got some notable faces, and some GREAT funny lines and stuff... As Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk) says to his cow, Milky White, "I hate to see us part, old pal, you've been a perfect friend. I'll see you soon again, I hope that when I do, it won't be on a plate!" Classic.

By the same guys, Sweeney Todd just came out on DVD... a wonderful story of a barber with a score to settle... never ever trust an angry barber to shave your beard with a flat razor. ever. Especially if he has a woman selling meat pies during a famine in the shop below.

[fierce]

Athena, i have never heard of Sweeney Todd, but from what i can tell from your post it's about a barber supporting a cannibalistic meat trade?

I just saw Monster. So gross. Everything was sordid and dirty. Fairly well executed, but even that didn't really make up for the horridness of it all.

I also saw Gothika this weekend. And why was it called Gothika? I haven't got a clue. There are so many holes in the plot.. it was fine if you just blindly accepted everything that happened, and okay so i could for the duration of the movie because in the moment it was a bit freaky, but once we were out of the dark cinema, i just went "what the...?". The only reason I can think it was called gothika was because it had an old farmhouse in it like that painting american gothic. oh and plus i hate that song by limp bizkit... behind blue eyes. Quit whining why doncha?

A couple of golden oldies though:

City of lost children: a french film, very weird, but very good. I always forget about this one. I really like it. Watched it first when I was about 10, and then again about a year ago. The world that the characters live in is so intricate in it's strangeness... you kind of have to really concentrate on the entire movie or you might miss something and then nothing makes sense...

Spirited Away: Not so old, but already a classic. The animation is gorgeous, but it's the story that really makes it brilliant. My cousins (who still have my DVD) complained that Chihiro sounds like she's yelling all the time... and i hadn't noticed it before but after they said that it sort of did sound that way... Still it's one of my favourites.

About a boy: This movie is so hilarious! There are so many quotes that my sister and I use in every day conversation... especially from the grandmother "are we having duck? delicious!" "are you a professional santa? How lovely". I really love the narration of the two main characters, hugh grant as Will and Marcus, the weird kid. The movie also introduced me to the music of Badly Drawn Boy, which I love

I saw cat in the hat with my cousin and my sister, and it was terrible. We laughed pretty hard at how bad it was. Mike Myers was quite lazy in his creation of the Cat in the Hat character, in that he didn't actually create a character at all, it was kind of just a conglomeration of his austin powers characters. I think at one point he called the little girl a dirty ho, and then when the camera was on him again he was holding a garden hoe with dirt on it... that was kind of unnecessary and didn't really have a place in the movie.

[Alice I]

I really didn't care for Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood... well, maybe I enjoyed it, I just couldn't get past Maggie Smith being a southern belle from Louisiana... that's just not right...

We think alike in so many ways but not here. I loved Maggie Smith in that film. The book was of course better but I really liked her strong character. One of my favorite lines is when Charo says to Sidda lee "You talk to me when you want to get all scrappy!" "or something like that. The O2 that she carried around was hysterical.

Meg, did you know that "Ten Things I Hate About You" is a modernized version of "Taming of the Shrew" (and "Kiss Me Kate," which is an old modernized, musicalized version of "Shrew")?

I don't know if Meg knows it but I did not. Of course I have also never seen the film.

I don't remember if I mentioned it, but there's an old Gwenyth Paltrow movie called Sliding Doors that's worth a look... just don't watch it when you're tired, you need to be alert to understand the movie.

We are of the same mind on this one. This was an excellent film and very true you want to be with it when you watch it.

I saw cat in the hat with my cousin and my sister, and it was terrible. We laughed pretty hard at how bad it was. Mike Myers was quite lazy in his creation of the Cat in the Hat character, in that he didn't actually create a character at all, it was kind of just a conglomeration of his austin powers characters. I think at one point he called the little girl a dirty ho, and then when the camera was on him again he was holding a garden hoe with dirt on it... that was kind of unnecessary and didn't really have a place in the movie.

This assesment is bang on target fierce.
Mike Myers does an unbelievably poor job with this character. His potrayal is a furry Austin Powers and wholely inappropriate at some points.
The boyfriend thing was dreadful!!!!
What on earth were they attempting there?
Poor Dr. Suess must be rolling over in his grave!

My kids watched Duddly Dooright last night and laughed their heads off.
Now that I have had to sit through it a couple of times I still think it is stupid but not as bad as I did in my last post about it.
OMG it's like Barney
(For those who don't know Barney is a six foot tall purple dinosaur that sings stupid sappy songs and todlers love him. Parents usually wretch when Barney comes on uugh!)
Anyway Barney is insidious and after awhile you find yourself humming that "I love you you love me" tune under yore breath!

Did anyone like Independance Day? I am a sifi fan and I liked the movie a lot. My favorite scene in the movie is the speach that the president gives right before the final battle.

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

Anyone seen the movie Brazil? Its directed by Guilliam. And Robert DiNiro cameos in it. Anyways, we're watching it in english class and so far its a really weird movie, kinda skeery-weird. But it reminds me of that game where I would say 2 words and the next person says 2 words and you try to make a story out of it...that's how this movie is! And we have a 60 pt 15 question quiz on it the day we finish it. So if anyone's seen it help would be appreciated.

[pallas artemis]

Has anyone here seen the Kenneth Braughn (sp), a.k.a. Prof. Lockhart, version of Much Ado About Nothing. It also has Emma Thompson and Kate Beckinsale in it. very good!!

[Athena Appleton]

alice, i'll hate you forever for reminding me of Barney when I don't already have to listen to it in real life... or at least til the end of this paragraph.

Athena, i have never heard of Sweeney Todd, but from what i can tell from your post it's about a barber supporting a cannibalistic meat trade?

YEG-ZACKLY!!! (say it out loud and it'll make sense)... it's great... if you ever come across the DVD (they just released it) WATCH IT!!!

As far as Ya-Ya Sisterhood goes... I liked the movie okay, and I liked Maggie Smith's character... I just didn't like the fact that they had her playing a woman from Louisiana... like, if Maggie Smith were still Maggie Smith without having always been so "veddy British" then I could have handled it better... but I did love her acting in it...

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

Gahh! Too bad that wasn't me, it was fierce that wrote that. LoL, I thought I was losing my mind *I don't remember writing about canibalistic meat trading*

[Athena Appleton]

my bad...

OOO OOO OOO!!!! My husband is going on his lunch break to get the new Peter Pan movie for me!!!! he's the coolest!

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's SO good!!! It's a movie that can only be described as beautiful. Not to mention, Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) is GREAT as a wimpy Mr. Darling/evil Captain Hook. Bit of theater trivia: did you know that according to theatrical tradition, dating back to the first stage production of Peter Pan, the same actor plays Mr. Darling and Captain James Hook? It's been that way in every Peter Pan movie, even the Disney one.