What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

I can honestly say that I've tried to watch the first Harry Potter movie 3 times now. Twice I've fallen asleep and the third time I just got bored and started watching something else.
 
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I'm saving Harry Potter for some other time on one hand, on the other I'm almost thinking that it's time to give in and just blaze thru the books and movies and see what all the fuss is about. It's crazy, the mania has even run rampant in my D&D group, so much Potter cross talk we barely got anything done. I must be missing something that's truly great. Either that or it's just some fad. Prolly a little of both to some degree!
 
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I can honestly say that I've tried to watch the first Harry Potter movie 3 times now. Twice I've fallen asleep and the third time I just got bored and started watching something else.

All I can say is that if you like action movies, fantasy movies, and the like at all then you are being disingenuous or allowing a bias of 'that is popular tripe for kiddies' to influence your choice. They are not the best of all time, nor up to the LotR level, but are certainly better than *any* of the superhero movies of the period, and honestly are not really that far below the LotR stuff IMO.

Being knee-jerk anti-anything popular is no better than flowing with the popular trends, really.

The Harry Potter books have brought millions back to reading who had left it behind, and have inspired kids to be better readers before their time than they would otherwise have been. The books are written at a middle school level but with a high school length for the last four, and are a nice set of tales.

Is there a 'fad' aspect? Sure, but pretty much *anything* popular has that element - look at some of the biggest movies this year - Spidey, Pirates, Shrek and Transformers ... all of them over-hyped crap. The quality level in Harry Potter movies, which doesn't rise to the level of the books, *greatly* exceeds any of that stuff.
 
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Alright so I'll put the first Harry Potter film on my list, the only problem is that I'm not really a reader and since maybe the books are a lot better than the movies I would have to read them, but I don't think I will really do that. I'm too lazy :(
 
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The first two Harry Potter books still lie dormant on my night table for some unknown reason, but I've seen all the movies so far and must agree to everything Gorath said about them. My personal favorite so far was the third one, though.
 
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The third is probably the best made - but starting at that point there is a real problem. Time. As Gorath says you simply cannot squeeze all of the material into the time allotted. When it was 309 pages it wasn't so bad, at 341 no biggie. But then we jump to 435 and then the mammoth 734 page Goblet of Fire and then to the densely packed 870 page Order of the Phoenix and then back to 652 for #6 and finishing up with nearly 760 pages in the last one.

I really liked #5 but they had to make cuts with a double ended axe to shoehorn it into 2.5 hours.
 
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Thanks everyone. Once I get back from vacations I'll get the first one then.

I saw Ratatouille today. It's a nicely made movie with a good story, but I won't recommend it to anyone above the age of 20 except if you like those kind of stories.
However, I'd say bring your kids to see the movie ASAP. Of course it has a 'hidden' message about anyone being able to achieve whatever he wants, but I'd say it's a great movie for kids. I found it cute, but nothing special, for adults, that is; Certainly not Shrek II worthy for adults.
 
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I just saw Cold Mountain. Let's see..about three English actors, one Australian and one Canadian all playing Americans. They were darn fine too. American movies don't usually end that way. The one major flaw in it I could see was character development. You could tell it was from a book the way characters kept popping in and out.

After that I just watched Shane for the first time in 30 years. Didn't remember it except for one scene - we all know what that is. I had my wife watch it for the first time. Thanks to TiVo that aforementioned scene didn't record. My wife couldn't figure out why I was freaking out. Thank goodness for Youtube. We'll have to enjoy Youtube while we can - since Google took it over its all set to go down ..the tube..in a matter of months.

The other night I saw Spider Pig. There's a song about that but it escapes me...

My wife loved all three movies. She counsels old people and brought Shane up with them and so they all reminisced about it. They don't make movies like that.

I just got The Queen from Netflix. I've always wanted to watch this life story of Freddy Mercury. It should be entertaining. It'll be a good reminder of our trip to London when we got off the Tube to go the Museum and had to walk by about 100 16 year olds going to the show. That was just after our visit to Buckingham palace and seeing a state visit procession for the President of Ghana.

@slam
In Canada a couple of leftist documentarians revealed that, among other things, Moore actually did interview Roger Smith for the his movie Roger and Me for about 15 minutes. It s well known in Canada but its being virtually ignored here. Its called Manufacturing Dissent.
 
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All I can say is that if you like action movies, fantasy movies, and the like at all then you are being disingenuous or allowing a bias of 'that is popular tripe for kiddies' to influence your choice. They are not the best of all time, nor up to the LotR level, but are certainly better than *any* of the superhero movies of the period, and honestly are not really that far below the LotR stuff IMO.

Being knee-jerk anti-anything popular is no better than flowing with the popular trends, really.


Kind of surprised by your response there Mike because your post are usually better thought out.

Maybe you misunderstood my comment, try reading the first sentence again.

Simply having a different opinion doesn't make something a knee-jerk anti-anything popular response.
 
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@Lucky Day: i was aware of the fact that Moore does stage some situations which he then portrays in the docs as occuring spontaneously (like with him gettin' a gun with opening an bank account in Bowling for Columbine) but I wasn't aware of the fact that he deliberately left out something that's actually the central point in Roger and me. It's too bad that Moore seems to justify his means to an end while sacrificing the principles of good journalism. In my view that makes his effort to wake people up and get them thinking less strong. Thanks for the link though, I'll be interested to see it, probably have to search the p2p for it though because it won't air or be rented out at where I live.

I've been watching the series Wonder Years of late, great viewing it again after so many years. I'm a sucker for nostalgia, even when it's not actually something I particularly can share downright (not living in the States), but the feeling of lost youth, the timelessness of spending your days playing in the house or at the corner of the street not bothered by duties and the fate of the world at large, the first flutters lovesickness, the fending for yourself at school, the weird teachers. Those are universal things.
 
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Suddenly, Last Summer(1959)

It's TCM's "summer under the stars" deal going on right now, and as such, they play all-day marathons of different stars all summer long. Today was the day to spend some time with Liz Taylor (that's one star I'd certainly have loved to have been under!), the highlight for me being this film which has eluded me for so long. I think it's one of her best films that Ive seen, though I hesitate to truly call it "her" film, as Kathryn Hepburn warbles her way thru one of the best depictions of an unhinged woman that I've seen yet. Taylor, she's both stunning in her beauty, and a great actress. I've wanted to diss her but I cant, she really is all that. Mongomery Clift on the other hand, he's the usual goddamn one-note wooden post that I remembered from A Place In the Sun. He broods, he looks at his feet, he mumbles, he does his "perplexed" or "yearning" look, and I seriously have no idea what he's doing in a film beside such great actors.

In the film, Liz knows a secret basically, one so terrible that it shocked her into a state of hysteria that landed her in the psych ward. Reclusive, obscenely wealthy Aunt Hepburn both doesnt want it to get out, but also doesnt want to admit it to herself. So, she gets the legal paperwork going to promptly have Liz lobotomized so she cant ever reveal the truth. Clift is the lobotomy-pioneering doctor caught between a hospital which would benefit from a huge grant from Hepburn, and his slowly dawning realization that maybe Liz is not the crazy one after all. The scruples dont end there, as even Liz's own mother will get some big bucks too, providing the procedure is carried out.

It's a good film, and quite dark, touching on some pretty taboo things especially back when it was made in '59. It's also one of those films I cannot see being anything but black and white, it just fits so well, color would mess it up imho. It was worth the wait.

edit- Oh yeah, I have to give a shout out to Ingmar Bergman who just passed away. May he rest in peace!
 
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Kind of surprised by your response there Mike because your post are usually better thought out.

Maybe you misunderstood my comment, try reading the first sentence again.

Simply having a different opinion doesn't make something a knee-jerk anti-anything popular response.

Sorry - I wasn't referring to you in particular, but more of a tendency towards hating things that are popular. I had meant to preface that statement in order to more clearly separate it from my prior paragraph.

Certainly there are reasons to criticize the Potter books (movies aside) - having been the person who has read aloud all 6 prior books and am working on #7 now to my wife and kids (wonderful family time, BTW) I can certainly feel the weight of all of those pages ... and most specifically I have found that since #4 there was a real need for a sharper editor.
 
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2001 Maniacs
=======

I don't know how many horror film starts with bunch of horny college guys and girls going to fun places but end up dead in various ways, but here's another one.

They took a detour on the way, which unfortunately, end at mysterious village with creepy villagers all still live on the traditions of Old South. The fun turn up a notch when a black guy and Chinesewoman also arrived (called coloured people). And of course, everything start with beers, fast cars, horny guys eyeing hotties, sex jokes, and then real sex, then got chopped up, decapitated and served on table...etc.

The whole thing can be sums up by dialog lines below in a gas station scene:

Horny College guy: "The way i see it, we'll be quaffing beers by noon,and boffing chicks by 5:00."

Gas Attendance:"...And pushin' up daisies by midnight."
 
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We rented The Fantastic Four yesterday (older son was sick Saturday, younger son sick on Sunday ... fun weekend). We had low expectations ... but it was still pretty mediocre.
 
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Took the Wild Dogs to Harry Potter 5 Friday night. A good time was had by all, although this was the first time I really felt like the story had no purpose beyond setting up the next installment. I did think it was interesting all the tricks they pulled to make Emma Watson appear to have the bust size of a young teenager. It was a really bad combination of camera angle and costuming in her first scene that got me paying attention, not any latent perving.
 
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I thought she was a young teenager!! Have I missed something? :)
 
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I thought she was a young teenager!! Have I missed something? :)
She is, but apparently there is some big deal about accentuating certain female aspects to highlight how she is 'maturing' ... and where nature fails technology helps.
* I don't mean 'fail' as in she has failed to mature properly but that her own natural 'maturation rate' apparently doesn't meet that of the expectations of some. Which is childish and annoying.
 
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Actually, it appeared to me they were working it the other direction. I'm guessing Emma is into her early 20's now. They had her in baggy clothes and scarves, and often had her turned away from the camera. I figured she had "flowered" and they were trying to hide it without resorting to bindings.
 
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I'm guessing Emma is into her early 20's now.

Of the three she is the youngest - Daniel Radcliffe just turned 18, Ruper Grint will be 19 soon and Emma Watson is ~17.5.
 
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