Seen any good films lately?

Great film.

I JUST SAW THE HUNGER GAMES!!!! It's a great film if you haven't read the books and a great film if you have, so I suggest going to see it! It's not really for kids under the age of 13 really, because it's kind of gruesome (however, that didn't stop some of them from going. And they applauded at all the wrong times ) But I love it, mainly because it's an accurate protrayal of what we're headed to if we let the people with the power control us through media.

'2001: A Space Odyssey' Premiered 44 Years Ago Today: 5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Film

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/2001-a-space-odyssey-premiered-44-years-ago-today-five-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-film?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#

Just saw The Portrait of a Lady with Nicole Kidman looking almost unrecognizable, Malkovitch and Viggo, really stellar cast. great film.

Cute film! I agree, I could hardly see that that was Nicole Kidman
Viggo?

yes Viggo plays her boyfriend, she has four of them greedy girl! and this film was long before Nicole started messing with botox.

is viggo in the trailer?
I don't see why actors do botox, I mean after a while it is clearly botoxed faces and you can't do certain roles. Like victorian costume dramas and so on.

Vigg is in the trailer but you dont see his face, I agree about botox, it completely changed her face, her eyebrows now point upwards, its weird how much she changed.

her face looks almost like it's angry all the time ..but she's a good actress though.

she is one of my favourite actresses, loved her in Moulin Rouge.

The brilliant Kung Fu Hustle.

Just watched Avatar. I forgot how visually stunning that movie is.
Also watched Immortals. Average.

Well I just watched the Wicker Tree- the 'companion film' to my all time favourite film The Wicker Man. I've been putting off watching this- the original film is so dear to my heart.



Don't be fooled by Mr Lee in the trailer- he has a cameo that lasts about two more lines of dialogue than whats in the trailer.
The premise is largely the same as the first film only this time its on the mainland and instead of a cop inverstigating a missing child its an american evangelist born again Christian singer and her fiancee bringing God to the um, heathen masses of Scotland (good luck there!)
Thats definently a bit of the problem I think, their reasons for being there are not as compelling as the hunt for a missing child.
It also feels rushed at the wrong moments- hugely important bits seem to happen in the blink of an eye or unsatisfactorly whilst other stuff unwinds at the pace of a novel (moe like the original film) but there is something a bit off in the balance. There are hinted at subplots that dont go anywhere- there is a detective pretending to be a normal copper investigating rumours of a cult- but nothing is made of it, there are questions raised about what exactly the cult leader really believes and why, that again don't go anywhere. And some of the characters, one in particular, who acts in a particular way towards the end without developing the charcater enough previously to explain why they would act that way.
But the main problem is if you have seen the first one you know where this going and its just a matter of getting there- and thats the biggest problem because what the original had was not knowing where it was going, ever, at any point. The first film is a masterclass in deception and uncertainty, this is utterly predictable.
The cast are fine, there is still a good use of song similar to the original and I still found its underlying mood unsettling, it certainly feels more like Wicker Man than any other film thats attempted to copy it (including the remake) but did the oirignal need another film at all? On the basis of this I'd sadly have to conclude no.
There is some good stuff in there- the Christian Hymn about Jesus 'The Power of Blood' takes on a wonderfully sinister aspect when the pagans start singing it and it nicely highlights the whole death/resurection at the heart of Chrisitianity that the pagan religions were based on long before Christ, drawing a neat parrallel, but these bits are glossed over.
This fortuntely doesnt undermne or ruin the original (the way Highlander 2 undermined Highlander say!!!) but nor does it add anything at all to the original.
If you only ever watch one the choice at least is simple- watch the Directors Cut of the original Wicker Man.
And I prefer the music in the original, but thats just taste.

(You Tube have censored Willows Song incase the sight of some nipples bring about global disaster-why are Americans in particular so upset at the spotting of nipples?! We've all got em you know even if for half of us they are totally useless and you cant even tune the radio in with them. But banning them? )

Talking of useless bits of the body, why do we cry when we are sad? does it have any biological reason?

This is the only link I found that (briefly) cites some actual physiological research:

http://scienceline.org/2006/10/ask-driscoll-tears/

Though I'm not convinced. Personally I think we cry so the nice doggy will come up and lick us and make it all better.

Saw the Avengers the other day. Give it a 6.5. Love the 3D and the sfx.

6.5- so either half as good as a good film or nearly half way to completely awful! thank Eru I never got into Marvil but had the good fortune to be comic reading during the UK comic golden era and its multile flourishing independant publishers.

My wife brought home Wilde with Stephen Fry. I normally don't like films where someone finds true love at the expense of their current loved one, but it made for an interesting story in this case. And Fry played a very gentle, kind, loving Oscar Wilde. It was impossible to dislike him, even when he was cheating on his wife. And it was devastating to see how society destroyed him because of his sexuality.

He'll be an awesome Master Of Laketown. Will he make that character likeable, too?

I used to be so sure that The Avengers would suck even harder than Iron Man 2, but it's gotten so much hype and attention even outside the core comic book fanboy demographic that I'm wondering if perhaps I was a bit too hasty in my initial dismissal of the film. I'll probably go see it, especially if I have the chance to go with my brother, who's more a superhero fan than I am. Although he's more interested in seeing Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator, which comes out only a week after Avengers in North America.

Fry makes an incredibly accurate Oscar WIlde, he even looks like him as well as having a similar reputation (intelligence, wit and homosexuality). Fortunetly Fry is treated as a natonal treasure for it however whereas Wilde just got to live at Her Majesties Expense for his trouble (did give us the wonderful and moving Ballad of Reading Gaol however).
Its long, but heres a favourite extract:

V.

I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in goal
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.

But this I know, that every Law
That men have made for Man,
Since first Man took his brother's life,
And the sad world began,
But straws the wheat and saves the chaff
With a most evil fan.

This too I know--and wise it were
If each could know the same--
That every prison that men build
Is built with bricks of shame,
And bound with bars lest Christ should see
How men their brothers maim.

With bars they blur the gracious moon,
And blind the goodly sun:
And they do well to hide their Hell,
For in it things are done
That Son of God nor son of Man
Ever should look upon!

The vilest deeds like poison weeds
Bloom well in prison-air:
It is only what is good in Man
That wastes and withers there:
Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate,
And the Warder is Despair.

I adore Stephen Fry. He is even adorable when making filthy gay jokes, I don't know how he does it. (Being adorable that is, not the filthy bits.)

Sort of looking forward to seeing the Avengers, I do love superhero movies, cheesy and hilarious as they are.
We watched Captain America this weekend, quite prepared that it would be sickly patriotic. I did giggle a bit each time I saw the big white star, and that shield was rather supernatural.

As for the "Norwegians" in Tønsberg... why can't they cast people who actually speak Norwegian? It's hilarious!

We have seen Thor (lol!!), Iron Man 1 and 2, and the Hulk. Are there more the Avengers who have their own movies?

Amarië wrote:As for the "Norwegians" in Tønsberg... why can't they cast people who actually speak Norwegian? It's hilarious!

wait! what? Which movie??

Captain America. There's a brief conversation early on. One guy had like one line, why can't they just hire a proper Norwegian (speaking) to do it? There's a stone church (?) with a Viking king's tomb a stone throw from the entrance, you know, to keep it safe and hidden and all that. And the Germans speak German for a second or two, I believe, before they logically starts talking English with a "German" accent, az we all know all Germanz do when they are zpeaking amongzt themzelvez.

Of course, who would waster their time speaking german if they didn't have to? It's a jaw-cracker of a language.

http://german.about.com/library/blmtwain01.htm

http://www.kombu.de/twain-3.htm

And if you thought Captain America was fun you should really see Team America.

to make sure you don't miss the best quote:

"The Germans have an inhuman way of cutting up their verbs. Now a verb has a hard time enough of it in this world when it's all together. It's downright inhuman to split it up. But that's just what those Germans do. They take part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they take the other part of it and put it away over yonder like another stake, and between these two limits they just shovel in German."
- Mark Twain's Speeches, "Disappearance of Literature"