Lady In The Water and OTHER movies opening tomorrow

Cafe Society
1

First, I don’t want this thread to turn into yet another M. Night Shyamalan-bashing thread. I want this to be about the MOVIES that are opening tomorrow, with postings by people who are planning to see them and those who HAVE seen them. If you’ve seen the movie Lady In The Water, and didn’t like it, fine, but please, if M. Night Shyamalan killed your brother or something, there are already 3 recent Cafe Society threads and 1 Pit thread. Go there or start your own. I promise I won’t read the thread, let alone come in and call you a wanker.

Tomorrow’s a big day for the summer season. Opening are:

**Lady In The Water

Clerk’s II

Monster House

My Super Ex-Girlfriend**

I know for sure I’ll see the first 3 (hopefully all of them tomorrow), and I have to see some general consensus about the last one. I like Uma Thurman, and the concept is cute, but I don’t know. It’s an iffy at this point.

My husband has already seen LITW and liked it a lot, as did his brother, neice, and his brother’s girlfriend (they had free passes in Kansas City, where my husband is working). I’ve been looking forward to Clerks II since it got an 8-minute standing ovation at Cannes, and I’ve heard good buzz about Monster House.

We’ll see.

2

Well, that was monumentally stupid. I meant to start another thread right after reading this one, but my husband called and half way through I hit submit, distracted. Sigh.

3

Try try again…

First, I don’t want this thread to turn into yet another M. Night Shyamalan-bashing thread. I want this to be about the MOVIES that are opening tomorrow, with postings by people who are planning to see them and those who HAVE seen them. If you’ve seen the movie Lady In The Water, and didn’t like it, fine, but please, if M. Night Shyamalan killed your brother or something, there are already 3 recent Cafe Society threads and 1 Pit thread. Go there or start your own. I promise I won’t read the thread, let alone come in and call you a wanker.

Tomorrow’s a big day for the summer season. Opening are:

**Lady In The Water

Clerk’s II

Monster House

My Super Ex-Girlfriend**

I know for sure I’ll see the first 3 (hopefully all of them tomorrow), and I have to see some general consensus about the last one. I like Uma Thurman, and the concept is cute, but I don’t know. It’s an iffy at this point.

My husband has already seen LITW and liked it a lot, as did his brother, neice, and his brother’s girlfriend (they had free passes in Kansas City, where my husband is working). I’ve been looking forward to Clerks II since it got an 8-minute standing ovation at Cannes, and I’ve heard good buzz about Monster House.

We’ll see.

4

Okay, your two posts in the other thread have been extracted and used to create this new thread. Have fun!

5

I was totally turned off to Monster House by the awful commercial they ran for it in my area. “Shut up! You make me want to throw up in some tinfoil and eat it!” is just gross and incredibly un-funny.

If the ad’s not at least vaguely humorous, it doesn’t give me much confidence that I’ll enjoy the film.

6

I love 3D movies, so I may see Monster House. But I may instead see My Super Ex Girlfriend as that looks like it could be fun. I have a theory about the twist in The Lady In The Water - but I don’t care enough to go see it. So it is between the first two.

7

I’ll definitely see Clerks II. It’s playing at the big single screen theater in town.

I’m also interested in Lady in the Water. I really like everything Paul Giamatti does, and I just like Shamalamadingdong movies. I think he’s been pigeon-holed as the “twist guy” but I think he’s an excellent master of mood, and seems to get interesting things out of his actor. I"ll need to see where it’s playing.

Monster House looks much too much like a kids movie, although that line that Lissa posted was funny.

I like the stars of Super-Ex, too, but there’s only so much time in a summer.

8

Of those four, the only one I’m really interested in seeing (in theaters) is Clerks II.

I’ve been sold on it ever since I saw the commercial with Kevin Weisman fuming “They’re not gay, they’re hobbits!”

But I’m still probably going to wait a week or two.

9

I’d like to see Lady in the Water. I love some of Shaymalan’s movies, hate others, but they always have something interesting and different to offer.

10

Lady in the Water has been getting some awful reviews all over but I have to wonder if it’s because of all the baggage that comes with making an M.Night film.
Critics have been criticizing Night for casting himself in the role as the “savior of the world writer” and for having a movie critic character who plays the role as an idiot know-it-all.
I wonder how the movie plays without all the baggage. If you didn’t even know who M.Night was or saw any of his previous films does the film stand alone as good.

11

Every time MNShamma comes out with a new movie, God kills a kitten.

12

Thanks SkipMagic. I’ve figured out my schedule and I will be seeing Lady In The Water and Clerks II tonight. I can hold off on Monster House and Superex.

I’ve avoided reading any of the reviews (of either movie) so they wouldn’t factor in anyway.

Lissa, I havn’t seen that ad for Monster House. I want to see it anyway, but I don’t blame you for being squicked.

13

What I’ve heard is that movies are advertised in different ways in different areas. It’s supposed to be based off of some sort of demographic. I’m vaguely insulted by the notion that my area has been deemed one which would find that line funny.

14

I just got back from the movies.

I didn’t really care for it, though I liked some elements of it. It’s the first one of his that I haven’t enjoyed very much. It will certainly appeal to some people (my husband and his family liked it) but I didn’t think the script was up to snuff.

LOVED IT. Very funny (especially the part that Joel Siegel walked out on) and surprisingly (to some maybe, not to me) very sweet.

I shouldn’t have tried for 3 because I was very tired and kept nodding off. I don’t see that as a reflection of the film. I thought it was decent (special mainly because of the house itself) and I will go see it again at a bargain showing or DVD rental. I loved that they played Siouxsie & the Banshees’ song “Halloween” over the end credits. I whooped loudly when the song started and got many strange looks.

I saw the first 40ish minutes of My Super Ex-Girlfriend because I had a lot of time to kill between Clerks II and Monster House. MSEG was playing across the hall from Monster House (which hadn’t even let out yet from the previous showing) and I went in just as the previews were showing. I was enjoying it (Uma’s very cute), but hadn’t even gotten to the part where he discovers she’s a Superhero and they break up before I had to leave. I definitely will go back and see the whole thing.

So, my favorite, by far, was Clerks II.

I saw a lot of great trailers, especially in front of Lady In The Water. The best ones were:

Children Of Men, the new one by Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también, Prizoner of Azkaban), starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It’s set in the not-too-distant future and something had happened so that women can no longer get pregnant. Society is falling apart when a pregnant woman is discovered and has to be whisked to safety.

The Fountain, by Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. An epic “spanning over one thousand years” and has something to do with the Fountain of Youth. I’ve tried to stay away from articles and reviews and kept my eyes closed for most of the preview because I’m dying to see this and I want as much of it as possible to be fresh. This is Aronofsky’s baby, which he’s been trying to get made for several years. I have no doubt it will be amazing, even if only visually. Mygod what I saw was beautiful!

The Prestige, by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins) starring Hugh Jackman, Christopher Bale, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine (busy guy). It’s set in turn-of-the-century London and is a fantasy-thriller about two magicians who are intense rivals. Some of the other cast members: David Bowie, Andy Serkis, Piper Perabo, and Ricky Jay (yay!).

Those three are first day movies for me. They all open in the fall. I also saw previews for:

The Reaping, by a director named Stephen Hopkins (The Ghost and the Darkness, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) starring Hilary Swank as a former Christian missonary turned investigator of religious phenomena who’s lost her faith, and investigates a town that seems to be suffering from Biblical plagues. What was on the screen looked pretty impressive (perhaps a bargain show if the buzz is decent), and my favorite part was when Swank confronts the mother of the little girl who seems to have something to do with these bad things happening. The mother is crying and says “Are you going to kill my little girl?” and Swank, with a horrified expression on her face, says no. Then the mother stares at her and says “Why not?” THAT was interesting and original. When this comes out on DVD it might make a good double-feature with The Skeleton Key (which I haven’t seen).

The Protector is a modern-day Hong Kong-type action film (though according to IMDB it’s Thai in origin). It looks like it’s set in Australia, not Thailand. It’s also known as Ong Bak 2 in Thailand, and Warrior King in the UK. Martial arts, avenging a father’s death, evil gang types…it’s all standard issue stuff, but boy the lead, Tony Jaa, was impressive! He did stunts I’ve never seen before, and I like Hong Kong-type action films (we have about 100 or so DVDs).

Pathfinder is set several hundred years before Columbus, and the IMDB blurb is: “A Viking boy is left behind after his clan battles a Native American tribe. Raised within the tribe, he ultimately becomes their savoir in a fight against the Norsemen.” There aren’t all that many serious movies about Vikings so I might be interested. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to this director Marcus Nispel’s next film, Alice, which stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as “Alice in Wonderland” (or, depending on your point of view, a disturbed mental patient), and Marilyn Manson as The Queen of Hearts! I’ll pay to see THAT!

Other trailers I saw:
Pulse (good, creepy special effects, but an otherwise looks to be a Dead Teenager Movie)
Beerfest (looks to be a very stupid comedy that will offend Germans)
Zoom (superhero kids, could be cute…I did like Sky High)
Open Season (forest animals warring against hunters)
The movie about eating worms (grossorama, so kids will love it)
Ant Bully (great cast but I don’t know, haven’t there been enough animated ant movies?)
Barnyard (it has some funny lines, I’ll have to wait and see)

15

I am very much looking forward to Lady in the Water and Clerks II. I love M. Night’s work (I thought the village was brilliant even if it was bashed by most critics) and Kevin Smith is a genius. I saw him speak at a comic convention about 2 years ago and he was just as funny in person as he is on screen.