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sbenois
Citizen
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 12822
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 12:03 am: |     |
As Christmas Day is generally also known in some circles as Jewish Movie Day, I am pleased to announce that I had the pleasure of taking in three films today:
The Aviator
A Life Aquatic
Meet the Fockers.
Of the three, I thought that the Aviator was definitely the best and is a must see. I would give it 3 stars. A little too long but a terrific film all around. Leonardo gives another strong performance.
Bill Murray in A Life Aquatic was great, but the film was a bit disappointing. Probably a 2.5 star effort. It's definitely quirkly, and you have to like Wes Anderson's style, but I liked both The Royal Tennenbaums and especially Rushmore much better.
Meet the Fockers was hysterical. I'd give it 2.5 stars. Nothing new there.
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Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1462
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 7:26 am: | |
I am really intrigued by the Aviator, but I don't know if I'll be able to get past the "Tiger Beat" aspect of Leonardo di Caprio. Wasn't it like watching Ricky Schroeder in NYPD Blue? |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1631
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 7:45 am: | |
Let's not forget the ultimate Christmas Day move: the Channel 11 Yule Log!
Mixed religion families also celebrate Christmas Movie Day. My husband goes to the video store before every holiday celebrated at his mother's house and tries to find a "family friendly film." Not always easy given the range of ages and viewpoints and friendliness in our family.
This year's choice was "Dodge Ball" which also turned out to be the nephew's Christmas present.
Anyway, it was funny, and a great alternative to channel surfing or watching stupid pet videos or airhead pop star interviews or It's a Wonderful Life. |
wendy
Supporter
Username: Wendy
Post Number: 551
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 9:59 am: | |
Yeah, but Sound of Music was on too! You can't really dislike that could you Nan?  Speaking of movies check out Mark Fuhrmans's (spelling?) blog. He tells a sweet story about going to the movies yesterday in Montclair. |
Soda
Citizen
Username: Soda
Post Number: 2212
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 10:14 am: | |
Saw "Closer" yesterday, and thought it excellent, but wasn't sure I liked it. Is that possible?
"Doctor Zhivago" was great, as usual, last night on WNET. That last line always nails me.
Had company while watching "IAWL" this year, so I couldn't cry, but more than compensated for that with the reliable lump in my throat from Alistaire Sims as Scrooge.
"A Christmas Story" always make me wish Shep were still around.
"Little Jack" is the best thing in "Meet The Fockers"
You can DOWNLOAD the Yule Log at WPIX's website!
Finally, I love watching movies at home while sipping "43"!
-s.
BTW: I wish I could create wav's of Alec Guinness or Rod Steiger reading my MOL posts aloud. (My credibility would skyrocket, theirs would plummet...) |
gemini
Citizen
Username: Gemini
Post Number: 341
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 1:27 pm: | |
the Yule Log!! remember "my father works for channel 9..."?
if you're looking for a stupid-funny laugh-out- loud film, I saw Soul Plane on a trip to Europe (i hate to fly so i loved the laughs). Tom arnold and i think a wayan brother is in it; So (stupid) Funny! |
phyllis
Citizen
Username: Phyllis
Post Number: 312
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 3:46 pm: | |
Leonardo DiCaprio is such a great actor, IMHO. Before the hype of Titanic, he did such great work for a young actor - particularly The Basketball Diaries. I think he's the real deal. Seems like Titanic was the best and worst thing that could have happened to his career. |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1635
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 4:17 pm: | |
Wendy,
I would not have minded seeing Sound of Music again, but I would have been outvoted in about 2 seconds.
I remember my mother taking me and my sister to see it in the 1960s. I enjoyed it, but was surprised to hear my mother announce, as soon as we got out of the theater, "Well, THAT was lousy." She's never had much tolerance for any musical, never mind a sappy one with Nazis.
Later I had a roommate whose family considered SOM the best movie of all time. I do plan on making my kid watch it at some time, I'm not sure when. I liked Julie Andrews better in Victor/Victoria. That was a cute movie. |
yabbadabbadoo
Citizen
Username: Yabbadabbadoo
Post Number: 186
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 6:49 pm: | |
Mary Poppins tonight at 8:00 on the Disney Channel!!
FF |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1638
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Monday, December 27, 2004 - 12:27 am: | |
I recently gave our Mary Poppins tape to an afterschool program. My son thought it was boring and the last time I tried to watch it I thought so too.
When it came out I loved it--although I remember my mother thought it stunk. Come to think of it--I don't think my mother liked Julie Andrews, no matter what she was in. I'll have to ask her about that next time we talk. |
Mark Fuhrman
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 1025
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Monday, December 27, 2004 - 7:58 am: | |
Kinsey was a good movie, even though by its nature it has a feel of a Disney movie on Viagra. They skimmed over his and his wife's life so quickly that key transitional scenes (such as when his research assistant suggests live interviews over paper surveys) feel forced. But it does convey the sense of scientific discovery covering personal obsession that drove Kinsey.
Lemony Snicket--My kids did not like it! Best reason of all--"it totally ruined my own pictures of the characters in my mind from when I read the books." Yes, they are becoming READERS! They understand the magic of imagination!!!
Water World on SciFi. Definitely one of the worst, unintenionally laugh-out-loud movies ever made.
Liar, Liar--One of the outtakes at the end has the defense attorney turn to Jim Carrey and call him an "overactor". They all crack up, and I think it is the only real line in the whole movie. Carrey is so bad as to be almost unwatchable, like an obnoxious insecure kid who you just want to banish from the classroom.
Dr. Zhivago--still puts the "move" in "movie".
All in all, after all these movies, I would rather have gone skiing. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 4912
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, December 27, 2004 - 3:07 pm: | |
nan, I can't believe you found Mary Poppins boring. Saccarinny sweet, yes, but not boring. And Julie Andrews was a GREAT singer. Like a bell! Too bad her voice is shot now.
My father took me and my sister to The Sound of Music. He loves Julie Andrews but couldn't sit still for the picture. He told us he was going to the back for a cigarette, but he really went across the street for a drink. |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1640
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Monday, December 27, 2004 - 9:52 pm: | |
MP drags on too long. The music holds up--I would not mind listening to the soundtrack--but, the movie is dated. Had I known you were such a fan, I would have dropped the tape off with you. 
I loved MP when it first came out--thought it was the best movie I'd ever seen. Of course I'd only seen about 10 movies at that point. I still like that scene when all the mean nannies get blown away in the wind. I always wished that would happen to my elementary school teachers. |
woodstock
Citizen
Username: Woodstock
Post Number: 845
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - 12:20 am: | |
Darkness. A little slow, but scary as all get out. First movie the wife and I saw in a theater in months. |
luv2cruise
Citizen
Username: Luv2cruise
Post Number: 315
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - 4:13 am: | |
Phantom of the Opera is a must see! |
Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 598
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - 10:00 am: | |
We saw Finding Neverland on Christmas Day. It was a beautiful, if not entirely factual, movie. Highly recommended! |
Hank Zona
Citizen
Username: Hankzona
Post Number: 1890
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 7:49 am: | |
Lemony Snickets' Series of Unfortunate Events...my daughter who has cut through 7 or 8 of the books in this series so far, hated it..two wiggly thumbs down. I told her that in life, great books dont always make for great movies (or the people who make the movies dont make great movies of them). The problem with the movie...Jim Carrey. He gets $20 million a movie? His box office success is surely a clear indication of the decline of western civilization.
Its A Wonderful Life...was very fortunate to see it on a big screen in a most fortunately saved and in the process of being renovated theatre in Jersey City..the Loews (one that Sbenois has written about a few times). To see a classic movie on a big screen in a classic movie house was very special. The kids, seeing it for the first time, gave it big wiggly thumbs up. Yeah, its sort of a Christmas-y movie, but there is nothing objectionable about the message, regardless of how you feel about Christmas or Christmas carols. Tickets were $6 for adults, $4 for kids, $1 for popcorn...all the money goes to the continued restoration of the theatre. Walking around the blacony over the lobby, my daughter said she thought there were ghosts there...of old movie stars. They must be happier then. At the end of January, they will be showing The Thief of Baghdad, The Adventures of Robin Hood (not the Kevin Costner one), and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Meet The Fockers..havent seen it, but a friend was supposed to come to a concert with me Monday night but couldnt because his wife passed out at this movie Sunday night..not sure it was because of the movie or the flu though.
And other recommended movies from the month of December...Sideways (the best Ive seen this year..a really good grown-ups movie with a fine ensemble cast), Ray (great music, great job by Jamie Fox) and Kinsey (Liam Neeson is a great actor, Laura Linney is one of the more underrated actresses..have seen her do wonderful things on stage and on the screen...and the director, whos name escapes me, makes really good movies..I liked "Gods and Monsters" better, but this is definitely worth seeing). |
drewdix
Citizen
Username: Drewdix
Post Number: 790
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 10:16 am: | |
Hank,
my 7 yr old daughter is also on book 5 and thought the movie was great fun.
She wants to go again when we have a "date" friday.
She somehow appeciates the movie versions of the characters alongside her own vision.
I too, feel totally burned and confused by Jim Carrey, so I'm skeptical. His portrayals always ifuriate me, andI swore I'd never see another of his films after some assinine film where he was the father of two African-American boys(?).
Happily forget the name. |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1653
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 12:51 pm: | |
Hank,
I saw Sideways the other night and thought it was great--well cast and well crafted script with believable people and dialogue.
I also took the 8 year old to see LS movie on opening night. I had been dreading it because I loved the books and I hate Jim Carey. I thought it was the worst casting choice since Shirley Temple was signed on to be in the Wizard of OZ (which fortunately got changed).
But, honestly I did not think he was as bad as I had feared. And the character(s) he plays are all the same character in the book--so it's not as if he's really playing multiple characters.
I still liked the movie. The way the kids looked did take some getting used to since in my head they looked completely different.
Meryl Steep was perfect as Aunt Josephine, though. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 4975
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 1:09 pm: | |
Meryl Streep is perfect as anything she does. |
Hank Zona
Citizen
Username: Hankzona
Post Number: 1891
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, December 31, 2004 - 7:57 am: | |
Nan,
I caught a few minutes of an interview with Anthony Haden Guest or whatever the actors name is who was opposite Paul Giammatti (son of former MLB Commissioner and Yale head Bart Giammatti)...he said that he had given up on Hollywood for the most part and moved to Texas, but kept in contact with the director who he had tested for for Election. George Clooney wanted the role, but the director was steadfast in wanting the cast as he wanted it, telling Clooney that the joke of this most appealing actor playing a washed up actor would override any other humor in the movie. I guess not having to pay Clooney's pricetag helped too.
Another movie for the pile...
Finding Neverland...a really good and a really nice movie. Johnny Depp is just one of the best actors (he does a fine Scottish accent too)...Kate Winslet and Julie Christie arent too shabby either. A PG movie that isnt aimed at kids but is a good family movie is rare to find..when its this appealing makes it even more rare. I suppose when we were kids, we saw more of this type of movie since more movies were made for general or mainly general audiences. Today, most of the movies with G or PG or even some PG 13 ratings seem to be geared towards kids of some age bracket. But kids dont have to just see cartoons or musicals or action movies or edgy teen tales...dramas and bittersweet movies that are age appropriate arent so bad for them. |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1662
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Friday, December 31, 2004 - 1:31 pm: | |
Thanks for the recommendation. We were actually going to go see Neverland the other night, but the kid dragged his heels because he hates Peter Pan. We decided not to go because we were not sure it was going to be good for families anyway. Sounds like we should reconsider.
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