Movies you've just seen (Pt. II)

[b.banner]

Flags of Our Fathers- it was great and well put together

Smart People- Ellen Page is always good and i loved Thomas Haden Church and Dennis Quaid very funny

Batman Gotham Knight- Interestin art for each episode but i thought the stories got better towards the end

[hectorberlioz]

Flags Of Our Fathers. Very good movie, very sad and touching.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

It can't work for both. Her Royal Highness? I do remember in the film saying Diana was "no longer an HRH."

King and Queen = HM. Other royals = HRH. Monarchists tend to pick up random tidbits like this.

Anyways, mr. snooty pants , I have a review of Brideshead for you here: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...5/442efusc.asp

(spoilers, though it might not mean much since you know the book.)

Ironic that the review is called "Waugh contra mundum". I saw the film last night, and there was precious little Waugh there. The iconography was present (diamond studded tortoises, skulls, teddy bears named Aloysius, Nanny Hawkins, Antoine), but the form had no content beneath it. It astoundingly turned the book all the way around, upside down, and inside out, the opposite in every way, but still called itself by the same name.

I didn't really see any hints of incest between Sebastian and Julia; this is simply a rumour perpetrated by outraged purists, I feel.

The article doesn't really say much about the movie, though. It's mostly an indictment of Waugh. As far as I can tell, the greatest crime is that it is a novel without a Father Brown, without a terribly clever religious figure spouting philosophical and metaphysical paradoxes which instantly convert the most hardened of criminals, and that the attempts the characters make at apologetics are clumsy. Well, if you want a Chesterton fairy tale, have your Fr. Brown. I'll take my flawed Flytes over him any day.

[hectorberlioz]

Hey, don't unload on me. I didn't write the review . I haven't even read the book (or watch any dramatization.)

I just know you love the book .

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Well, then READ IT, you git! Surely there's a library you can access, or you can get it very cheap on ebay. I can't believe GMouser and I are the only one's who've read it; such a popular book, for those who's literary tastes rest a few notches above Anita Blake.

[hectorberlioz]

As Piglet would say, "I wish I could, but I can't!"

I just stacked myself a tower of must-reads-by-next-summer. Les Miserables. Tale of Two Cities. Pickwick Papers. Dorothy L Sayers.

Have you finished War & Peace yet? Did you make through the Second Epilogue without crying out all the boredom within you?

[Grey_Wolf]

Saw Cloverfield - ABSOLUTE crap! all the time swishing around with handycams and cellphone vidcams. BLAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEH!

[Acalewia]

Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf

Saw Cloverfield - ABSOLUTE crap! all the time swishing around with handycams and cellphone vidcams. BLAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEH!

If you hated that, I really don't recomend this upcoming movie about people trapped in an apartment building with some sort of creature that I'm sure picks them off one by one. The whole time a reporter and her cameraman are filming everything that's going on. The trailer was a real turn off. I really hate movies that look like they were filmed with a HandyCam.

Death Race was awesome! One of the best race movies I've seen

[Grey_Wolf]

Thanks for the warning, Acally!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

As Piglet would say, "I wish I could, but I can't!"

I just stacked myself a tower of must-reads-by-next-summer. Les Miserables. Tale of Two Cities. Pickwick Papers. Dorothy L Sayers.

Have you finished War & Peace yet? Did you make through the Second Epilogue without crying out all the boredom within you?

That's like a mole-hill of must-reads by early November that you describe there.

Yes, I finished it yesterday. Took a hell of a long time to plow through that blasted second epilogue (or, in my edition, Epilogue: Part Two), though. Unggghhhh....so repetitive.... That said, the book is just magnificent. I already plan on definitely re-reading it within the next ten years, probably within the next five.

[hectorberlioz]

If I read it again, you can bet your penny whistle that I'm not reading the second epilogue.

I am interested in seeing how bad the movie version is, though [Thread Subject Injection/]

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I hear the Italian/American (Audrey Hepburn) version was dreadful, and the Russian version spectacular. I tend to dislike Soviet films, though, so I don't know how I'd feel about it.

The 17-hour miniseries with Anthony Hopkins as Pierre intrigues me.

[hectorberlioz]

It probably is, afterall how good can you do with one of the best and largest novels ever written with only three hours film time? And yeah, definitely mis-cast. But still, it could have charm .

17-hour miniseries!? Holy smokes. That could be comprehensive indeed, though perhaps not of the highest quality (Hopkins=bleh).

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Um...Anthony Hopkins is a really good actor.

[hectorberlioz]

He's not bad. Just horribly overrated. And in a Russian setting? At least Hepburn fits somewhat.

[Acalewia]

Originally Posted by Grey_Wolf

Thanks for the warning, Acally!

No problem, Doc. I just hope my Fiance doesn't drag me to it.

[Grey_Wolf]

Originally Posted by Acalewia

No problem, Doc. I just hope my Fiance doesn't drag me to it.

Indeed - not to be recommended.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

He's not bad. Just horribly overrated. And in a Russian setting? At least Hepburn fits somewhat.

No, you are (apparently) horribly under-appreciative. What's you're idea of a good actor? Harrison Ford?

[hectorberlioz]

You obviously lump all actors into the same category . Harrison Ford is COOL actor, a good B-movie actor action-hero. He's never been one for the Oscar-material movies, except for Witness, or Mosquito Coast (which were OK movies).

Nobody argues Harrison Ford is a "serious" actor. Anthony Hopkins almost always does Oscar-material movies, and critics always praise him to the sky.

As I say, overrated .

my idea of good actors: Ralph Fiennes, Alec Guinness, heck Matt Damon is pretty good too, even though I dislike him .

[Rosie Gamgee]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

Nobody argues Harrison Ford is a "serious" actor.

What does this mean, "serious actor"? Is he humourless? Does he doggedly pursue the challenges of his vocation?

Anthony Hopkins almost always does Oscar-material movies, and critics always praise him to the sky.

I.... beg to differ. I have seen Anthony Hopkins in a number of movies that I would not rate as Oscar-material (try Mission Impossible 2, and The Mask of Zorro for instance), and I contend that Anthony Hopkins makes movies Oscar-material. Take Fracture, for instance. That, in the hands of another lead, could have been nothing more than a lame teen-thriller. But he made it something great to watch. Hopkins is one of those actors that draws a movie up just because he's in it. He pulls his co-stars up to a different level of acting, raising the bar on whatever film he is involved with. And it's not that he's well-liked, either (I can't say Anthony Hopkins is on my top-ten-favourite-actors list), it's just that he's that good.

my idea of good actors: Ralph Fiennes, Alec Guinness, heck Matt Damon is pretty good too, even though I dislike him .

Alec Guinness isn't overrated?? *blank stare* Oh...