**Surrogates **- Sci-fi action flick starring Bruce Willis. People are living vicariously through android bodies. Not a good movie but kind of entertaining to watch. It was fun to see the barbie-dollish android versions of the actors. Rosamund Pike is ridiculously beautiful.
**Creation **- Drama about Charles Darwin’s struggle with the death of his daughter while trying to decide if he should publish his Origin of Species. Starring Paul Bettany and Jennnifer Connelly. I liked it.
To Kill a King - Historical drama about Oliver Cromwell, starring Tim Roth. The best I can say is that the costumes were great. It seems to have been shot mostly at Hampton Court Palace, which is very recognizable if you’ve been there, so it was distracting to see it in so many scenes, including the execution of the king. Rupert Everett does a surprisingly bad job as Charles I.
The Matrix - watched this with my oldest son, who thought it was really weird.
Dispicable Me: Fun movie, great for kids, a lot of laughs. Tried to hard to be clever in parts and mostly came off more cartoony than most animated fare that comes out these days.
**Food Inc.: **Hard to watch but a really fantastic documentary. Really informative. I haven’t had a burger since (though I haven’t given up my chicken.)
Yes Man: More entertaining than I’d expected. Jim Carrey did his regular schtick but the movie had some great supporting performances, namely from Rhys Darby (Murray in “Flight of the Conchords.” Zooey Deschanel was wonderful as well.
The Karate Kid Part II: My son had just finished watching the original Karate Kid and wanted to see the sequel. I hadn’t seen it in years and years. I really liked it when it came out though (when I was in 6th or 7th grade) and I still found it pretty watchable. Gotta love a good Moody Blues montage.
Three of these were from SDMB movie thread recommendations.
Dark Star.
Very early (film school?) John Carpenter movie. It’s a cult item, but after 25 minutes I took a break to eat dinner and the disk ended up atop the TV for the next 10 days.
Hate it when that happens, but it seemed like there was always something better to do. Eventually the missus asked, “Can this go back?”
7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
Not what you’d expect from the title. A western (early 1900s) featuring Tony Randall in multiple roles. Dr. Lao is a laughing Oriental mystic who brings his circus to town and changes things for the better. There are some scenes with stop motion “monsters.”
I can understand why it gets recommended in cult film threads, but it wasn’t quite good enough to tell the rest of the family they need to see it.
Flirting
1991 Australian film about a romance between a boy and girl attending boarding schools separated by a lake. Charming leads and non-trite dialog. Racial issues, sexual issues, political issues are all handled in a way that won’t make you cringe.
Not great, but very good. Has the young Nicole Kidman in a non-essential role.
Toy Story 3
One of the best Pixar films. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry.
I’ve seen three movies in the theater in the last week, so let’s start there:
Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky: Caught a matinee mostly because it’s beastly hot here and I don’t have A/C, and of what’s playing at the local indie theaters this is the one none of my friends would want to see. Picks up where Coco Before Chanel left off. Visually wonderful, but a little long – started getting real dozy late in hour two. The three lead actors were all very good.
Metropolis: The recently restored full (2.5 hour) version. Never seen it in its entirety before, though I’ve of course seen stills and snippets. Visually amazing – it really doesn’t need to be two and a half hours, though. I hope someone will do an edit with some of the new footage, which fills in some otherwise lost gaps in the action, but with a slightly brisker pace.
Inception: Yet another visual stunner – saw it in Imax. Liked it just fine – great freakin’ visuals, but I do hope that Nolan will at some point decide that it’s not pandering to the audience to edit action scenes in a way that makes it clear WTF is going on.
And, prior to that … hm… last movie in a theater was back in May, City Island, Andy Garcia and Juliana Marguelies, comedy, enjoyed it.
You’ll want to see the 2005 remake of Pride & Prejudice, then. She and Keira Knightley are simply luminous in that movie.
Just saw:
Seven Days in May - 1964 political thriller about an attempted military coup in the U.S., based on the book of the same name, with a pretty good script by Rod Serling. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas chew scenery with great abandon. Ava Gardner is curiously dowdy in a small part.
Dark City - One of my all-time favorite sf movies, about a man who wakes up in a city where it’s always nighttime. One of the few DVDs for which I listened to the director’s commentary (this was the director’s cut, too), and I’m glad I did, as there was all sorts of interesting detail. Ebert also supplied a commentary; it’s on his “Great Movies” list.
Surrogates - An incredibly silly premise (how can all of these people afford all of these lookalike robots?) but pulled off pretty well. Bruce Willis does his customary “world-weary but tough cop caught in a strange situation” shtick with his customary skill.
Bob Ducca, I saw Yes Man when it came out, and liked it a lot, too. Zooey Deschanel is simply adorable.
The Day After Tomorrow - kicked ass. Bad weather.
2012 - kicked ass. Bad world.
Boondock Saints - kicked ass. Bad assed brothers.
Drop Zone - kicked ass. Bad skydiving by Wesley Snipes
Yes, I’ve seen it. She’s much more beautiful than the woman who played Jane in the A&E miniseries.
We watched **Avatar **last night, and I thought it was terrible. What a waste of the pretty.
Avatar - I don’t understand why this was so popular. I found it dull, the plot was asinine, and for all the money spent on special effects everything still looked fake and cartoon-like.
Inception - One of my favorite recent movies. So beautifully structured and well cast. This, The Dark Knight and Memento means that Nolan is now on my list of must-see directors.
A Single Man - I disliked this movie. I couldn’t get into it, or understand why it existed - the story seemed dull and pointless. I’m willing to accept I missed something entirely, because a lot of people enjoyed this and must have seen something I missed.
The Girl Who Played With Fire - A nice solid mystery / action movie with compelling characters. This and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo compelled me to read the books, which are quite good too.
I can’t even name the last four movies I saw in the theater. But the last four at all:
12 Angry Men: Really superb movie, even though I’ve never been a huge fan of Henry Fonda. So chock full of “Hey, it’s that guy!” moments.
Toy Story 3: Very cute, very funny, and very teary. I really enjoyed it.
Blazing Saddles: I thought my late husband was the only person who would have declared this his favorite movie. And then I met my boyfriend. I date weird men. But it does have it’s moments, and Madeleine Kahn was a funny, funny lady.
Up: I bawled for the first half. I don’t think the movie lived up to that incredibly tough and beautiful beginning.
Really? I hate it, personally, but it seems like a lot of people love it. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it as a favorite movie for men in their late thirties or early forties.
Visioneers - Zach Galifianakis plays George Washington’s descendant waiting for his moment of greatness in a distopian society, but he is so dead inside he barely talks or does anything, which I suppose is the point. Unfortunately, the same can be said of the plot. Snoozefest.
Green Zone - Matt Damon unravels the entire gulf war in less than a day. One of the best gulf war II movies, but that isn’t saying much.
Avatar - What hasn’t been said about it? I’m just pissed that, in this entire huge world, we only see a handful of animals larger than insects and they all become important to the plot later. They aren’t showing us an amazing world, they’re just setting up plot points through the entire film.
Toy Story 3 - Same toys from the first two movies do similar things as before in an overly sappy way. Even my 4 year old was bored.
You’re typing well, Bob, are your extra-sensitive fingerpads doing better?
The Pacifier: Excruciatingly bad, but not really Vin Diesel’s fault. It was on TV today so, I watched it.
Southern Comfort: I had not seen this since it came out on video, probably back in the '80s. A very interesting concept, probably done better in “Deliverance,” but still compelling in the sense that even in America, not everyone understands all American cultures. Bad ending in the “c’mon” sense, though.
**The Spanish Prisoner: **I have a soft spot for Mamet. Seen it before, still like it. Rebecca Pigeon may be the worst actress in the world.
**Memento: **Saw it recently and only once. Very intriguing and I need to see it again. Really liked it, though