Early birthday present. Documentary about the Apollo missions. The footage and astronaut voice-overs was culled from NASA archives. Amazingly beautiful and moving stuff. There is no music, and the narration is purely from the astronauts. There's no overall narration.

Okay. I want that.

sahara

I have a co-worker who digs these Clive Cussler books. Admittedly I thought from the getgo that just sounded to dumb and I recall Ebert's review of this being pretty much as I expected.

However, for a dumb flick to watch on a saturday afternoon I suppose it can be amusing.
Steve Zahn kinda makes this movie really being the bumbling sidekick who actually has a few active braincells to work with. While part of me would admit he probably gets typecast for these things. He does succeed in getting a good amount of work one way or another. One of these days he'll one up the quality of rolls not unlike Phil Hoffman.



red eye

I caught the end of this less than thrilling thrill ride and while I certainly still find Ms McAdams as hot stuff but the actual plot of this just came off as dopey if not merely pointless.

100% true.

First up:



Next up:

Dig the audio tracks on What's Opera Doc, #10OX! 2 commentaries and Mel Blanc & Arthur Q Bryan's vocals sans orchestra.

I just watched the first couple of cartoons last night before bed. I'll dig into the features after I've viewed the remainder. (Won't be too long; I'm not a fan of Sylvester & Tweety and Fritz Freeling.)

I've grown to appreciate his work because of these sets.

Shockingly, none of the Golden Collections thus far have Freleng's excellent "Knighty Knight Bugs" which won the Academy Award. At least #3 has the very adult-themed "Birds Anonymous".

How cna you not like Freleng? his comic timing was just the best.

I like Freleng, but still, IMHO:

Jones>Clampett>Freleng>McKimson>everyone else in Warners

I'm probably not qualified to review this film, as I've never seen any other films by Hou Hsiao Hsien. I'm sure Tony would be more qualified.

For what its worth, I enjoyed the film. All three stories were interesting, the acting was great, and i particularly enjoyed Hou's visual style. The music in the film was also excellent.

As an added bonus, the female lead (Shu Qi) is one of the most stunning females i've ever seen.



I'll give Three Times an unqualified thumbs up.

Tex Avery is probably ahead of Jones.

His comic timing is OK (although I think McKimson's is much better, as was Tex Avery's), but he goes back to the well too many times for the same jokes. Granted, there are limitations due to the Tweety v. Sylvester, but I find his stuff tedious.



I'd disagree with that statement in that Tex was incredibly inconsistent. He had fantastic ideas, but his execution was uneven. Jones had the ability to take any situation and find the comedy in it. He had the freshest ideas, and allowed ideas from other genres and media to flow through his work in a way where it didn't seem contrived.

But that's just me.

Watched over the course of the past two months, not in one sitting like I probably deserve for even seeing them again at all.

The Departed---***

But I think I'm being a little too generous, cuz I'm such a Scorsesist.

... Looks like someone's havin' a second childhood.

I'm kinda havin' a warped one myself while watching cartoons today:

Just watched the mini-series, will start the actual season shortly. But, uh...



I want to watch this again before...



This comes out in a week and a half. I've already seen it all, but I want to be all caught up in it again before season four premieres in November.

"A Bronx Tale"

Somehow I never saw this before. Kind of a poor man's "Goodfellas" or something.
Pretty decent acting, but more contrived. Enjoyable but not a masterpiece.

Amazing shows. I don't really care for the oblongs though. It has it's good moments but not nearly as many as the other two.

(side note: How are the extras on the Venture discs? I've been on the verge of buying it for months.)

How could I forget Avery?! Ahead of Freleng, but behind Clampett. Avery really flowered at MGM, of course.

Already seen the first series, but this was a nice birthday gift. I'll enjoy watching a mini-marathon the next time it's really snowy out and I don't want to go anywhere.

i cosign all this. esp the part about the oblongs. tries too hard.

dreamer: inspired by a true story.

nothing about this suggests that it would be worth watching. the actors are all good performers but no one is adding anything particularly extra. the plot that sort of resolves itself within the length of the trailer doesn't suggest you'd be missing out on something by passing this one over. yet, I didn't and it wasn't bad for a rainy afternoon.




walk the line

well I'll be damned. james mangold pulls off a stellar bio pic and doesn't even get a nod?
I kinda wish he'd gotten a little more credit. (I realize the pic won a globe but I think he had a lot more to do with the look and feel of this than just the performers alone) It seems joaquin finally had a role to sink his teeth into cause that was the best I'd ever seen him do.

since everybody seems to be in a Bukowski mood lately

Great comedy. Like most Americans, I've underestimated Rowan Atkinson.

Rowan Atkinson is a genius. Here's the proof:



Also, check out The Thin Blue Line. There's some priceless stuff there thanks to an incredible supporting cast.

Cool. Glad to see some praise from the boards resident cinephile. Yeah, Mangold deserved at least a nomination. I think Ben and a few others here thought it was just another by the numbers bio. I think it's hard to bring something original to a bio picture when you have only 2 hours to tell a life story...so I think it's more important as a director to bring out the most in your actors and to infuse every scene with vitality. Mangold succeeds on both levels. I thought it was a great picture.

Shaolin Wooden Men - Starring a very young Jackie Chan in a typical "Young Man goes to Shaolin to learn Kung Fu to Avenge his Father's Death, Trains Hard, Gets Into Many Fights, and Suffers From Many Plot Twists (Some Occasionally Advancing The Plot) Along The Way" Chop Sockey plot. Jackie's good but the print is awful (nearly 10 minutes of important plot exposition are missing from the beginning), but it's still well worth the "2 for $.99" price I paid.

Potential film of the year for me.

Yet another book I love that's a movie this fall/winter.

Can't fucking wait.

N

So it's The Postman?

don't waste your time.

Looks like Ghost World from the packaging.

It's another comic from the same artist/writer. Different director though.
I know you're probably right breather but I want to see this one just the same.

Same director. Director of CRUMB also.

.... yeah. It's Zwigoff. I'm slippin..


Daniel Clowes wrote the script too.


Theremin, you familiar with Tinto Brass? Just curious.

Is that like brass, but with a particular tint to it?




But seriously, I've only seen Caligula. Apparently, he seems like a director that I would like, based on the following covers:







I mean, hey! I like ass!!

I caught this last night at the Music Box and it's certainly a different one.

The little girl is amazing, and the mood and the look of the movie (innocent/grotesque/childlike/creepy) is really impressive and effective, but it ends up going too far for my tastes. There's just too much "unpleasantness" (to steal Jonothan Rosenbaum's phrasing) to sit through without an apparent point.

I'm a pretty big Gilliam fan, but I would recommend skipping this one unless you really want to sit through some disturbing shit. Gilliam's (hilarious) disclaimer before the movie was helpful for keeping me in the perspective of the characters for the most part, but at times I was taken out of the movie because I couldn't help but feel bad for what the little actress had to go through. I think that a lot about kid actors in weird movies; maybe I'm just a wuss about that sort of thing.

Definitely not a date movie.

EDIT: I'm now in the middle of a discussion on another board that is helping me see that there are some pretty remarkable things about this movie if I look past the parts that bothered me.

Big fan of Gilliam so I'm looking forward to it. Has there ever before been a film where the director comes on screen to acknowledge that he expects many viewers to despise the film?

Saw 'Little Children'. Real good stuff. Anyone catch it yet?

I just saw this last night. There are MANY unconfortable moments. I'm glad I saw it but I can't say that I loved it or hated it. I would like to ask Gilliam why he felt he needed to make it. It almost feels angry. It's based off a novel. I wonder what idea's he nabbed from it. Has anyone read the book? Any comments?

Just bought this on DVD. Seen it close to half-dozen times and i still get choked up at the end. Great Film. Sam Mendes' best for sure (Jarhead was blah and American Beauty is great... but Perdition is better).


This was pretty good. I really like Kirsten Dunst and I know a lot of people hate on her, but I think shes a pretty great actress.

Dudes, please keep this thread SFW. Thanks!

The Island
It's crap. Reminded me of a really long DuranDuran video, only w/worse music

Over The Hedge was excellent, finally besting my beliefs that no one could acheive as much as Pixar. Loved the suburbia and religion satire sprinkled here and there.


Saw 2046 before this one, and now it makes a lot more sense. Elegant and sensual. Won Kar-Wai is a difficult director because he doesn't care if you aren't paying attention. You have to be really patient for the first 20 minutes or so before the plot actually kicks into gear. The Criterion edition contains some revealing deleted scenes that would have taken the film into different directions.

Mark of the Vampire
Basic vampire movie with an awful twist at the end that makes you feel completely cheated.

Yeah, I'd been staging my own anti-Cash backlash but ended up catching just the end of this last weekend and decided to watch the whole thing. Good movie, & can't think of anyone who'd have done better in the lead roles.

Watched this a couple of nights ago:

Stunning. edit: darn, that's what I planned to say before I found the poster!

watched this last friday night -- simply brilliant and amazing movie -- but damn you have to pay attention. things happen fast.

That's next on my list. Sounds like it was very well done.
Looks like Todd Field may have an impressive directorial career.