Movie Reviews

Watched the King's Speech, great movie. Highly recommend it. You don't have to know a lot
about that period of history to enjoy it. A side bar here. I didn't recognize Derek Jacobi and Clair Bloom.
Great cast, cinematography and great score.

I give it

Sue Short wrote:

Watched the King's Speech, great movie. Highly recommend it. You don't have to know a lot
about that period of history to enjoy it. A side bar here. I didn't recognize Derek Jacobi and Clair Bloom.
Great cast, cinematography and great score.

I give it

Second that. VERY good movie! If you're expecting some dull English historical thing, think again!

Suzzzz wrote:

Sue Short wrote:

Watched the King's Speech, great movie. Highly recommend it. You don't have to know a lot
about that period of history to enjoy it. A side bar here. I didn't recognize Derek Jacobi and Clair Bloom.
Great cast, cinematography and great score.

I give it

Second that. VERY good movie! If you're expecting some dull English historical thing, think again!

I WAS expecting just that Suzzzz (and I'm a Royalist) however I thought the casting, acting, scripting, darn it everything about it, was terrific. I'm not a big Helena Bonham Carter fan (although she was great in Sweeney Todd) but as the Queen Mother she really played the part well.

I'm a shameless Anglophile, myself (and NO one grovels at the feet of British Royalty like an American; I think it's some sort of leftover guilty nostalgia thing) but I, too, thought it would be dull. How nice to be proven wrong!

Today I "impulse bought" a used copy of Gilbert Grape on Amazon. I had some gift card credit and the used copy only cost me $3.75 including shipping. I hope it's watchable, but I must say I've never had a problem buying used DVDs from Amazon. For some reason that movie has been in the back of my mind lately. So long ago, yet Depp and DiCaprio were brilliant in it IMO, young as they were. Maybe it's because I recently saw Juliette Lewis (played one of the sisters) in Drew Barrymore's Whip It. Now, there's a cool little movie for all us cowgirls!

Loved Gilbert Grape.

Saw 'Contagion' and Puss In Boots' today. What an odd mix I hear you say.
Contagion was an okay movie. But there were any number of occassions when you wonder why on earth they reacted as they did. One such time was when they contact someone they think may be contaminated by mobile phone. He is on a bus, but instead of telling him to stay put and to tell the driver to take the bus and passengers to a secure area they tell him to get off. Silly as all the passengers are contaminated by him and they're letting him loose in the city.


Puss In Boots is absolutely brilliant. I love the character from the Shrek movies so to see him in his own movie is a bonus. Antonio Banderas gives voice to the feline charmer and Selma Hayek is the voice of Kitty Softpaws.

The whole idea behind Contagion didn't do a lot for me. I can't wait to see Puss N Boots.
I love Antonio Banderies. Antonio is named for him. I love my suave, elegant men in tuxedo's.


Watched Rio Grande, the second in the Ft Apache trilogy.
Classic John Wayne, with his first pairing with Maureen O'Hara.

I don't plan to see Contagion. First of all, I'm OCD enough about germs as is, being raised by a germ conscious mom & doctor dad, though I think I've balanced it pretty well being a firm believer in the 5-second rule and the old saw that we all eat at least 2 pounds of dirt in our lives. Besides, I distinctly remember eating a handful of sand from the backyard sandbox when I was 5, and I'm still here. Bob just clinched it. Illogical nonesense in a supposedly tightly smart movie drives me crazy.

I also wasn't planning to see Puss N Boots, but everywhere I turn I hear it's great, so maybe I will.

On the other hand, I'm willing to sit through a cute-ish, dull-ish, cliche-ridden movie just to see my sweet John Candy. Watched Cool Runnings last night and, while I can't give it many stars, I can't say I'm sorry, either.

I've seen that movie a couple of times. I agree with your view of it still it was clever and
the end was so touching.

The end was wonderful. I'll watch anything John Candy's in. Even if I can only give a film of his 2 stars, they are all 4 stars to me.

A movie marathon took place yesterday. I wanted to have a jolly good laugh so I dug out my copies of 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines', 'Monte Carlo or Bust' and 'The Great Race'. Nice links with Terry Thomas as Sir Percy Ware-Armitage in the first and second film and Tony Curtis in the second and third. Have to admit The Great Race cracks me up every time. Jack Lemmon at his magnificent best as the drunken prince surrounded by pugs.
The sad part was realising how many of the people in the films are no longer with us.
Hoiwever.
Those Magnificent Men etc etc.
Monte Carlo.
The Great Race. Always finish on a high.

I've seen the first and third movie, they're always good for a great time. But I never heard of the second one.

Watched the new Tintin movie today.
It's absolutely brilliant. Action, adventure and all out humour too. Full marks to Mr Spielberg for making this film. So many references to other genre (there was even a slight homage to Sherlock Holmes with a mention of the giant rat of Sumatra).
All round I give it It would have been five but Snowy didn't have a speaking part.

Watched the Secret of Roan Inish(Island of the Seals). I checked this movie out from the library
and I know it's available on Netflix. It's an Irish production and totally shot in Ireland. It's a wonderful
retelling of a very old legend of the Selkie. The cinematoprahy is awesome and the music sublime. For those of
you who think that Irish music consists of the Chieftans or Tommy Makem and/or the Clancey Brothers think again.

I don't know if it's a local thing or what, but Irish stuff has been so big here in recent years that I can hardly stand it any more. I'd have trouble watching that simply because everyone thinks they're Irish around here and I've heard enough reels and jigs to last me a long, long time.

I know what you mean BC. It has gotten out of hand all over.

Oh! I saw Secret of Roan Inish several years ago! Wonderfully sweet and spooky, and I still think of it sometimes. I think I need to see it again. I know nothing of this Irish obsession of which y'all speak.

Bob, can one not versed in the history (or other genres) enjoy Tintin? I'm not even sure who he (?) is. In any case, I'm glad you thought they did a good job with it, and enjoyed!

It's not as bad in Dallas as it can be in Chicago. I think with Chicago it's because the Daley family ran the
city as their own personal fiefdom. In Chicago it used to if you weren't Irish you were no one.

Suzzzz wrote:
Bob, can one not versed in the history (or other genres) enjoy Tintin? I'm not even sure who he (?) is. In any case, I'm glad you thought they did a good job with it, and enjoyed!

I was raised on the books and the cartoons. It was the staple diet (along with the German version of Robinson Crusoe) during the school holidays. I think it's a film that anyone can enjoy. They do explain that Tintin is a reporter and hint at other stories in the film so I'd say yes, anyone can enjoy the film.
Given that Mr Spielberg was so keen to make the film I thought Tintin was fairly well known across the pond.

Watched the remake of The Wolfman again yesterday and I still love it. They put a nice plot twist into the story and a reasonable ammount of humour (have to admit it's the barest minimum though), plenty of shock moments so it appeals to me.
All in all, and bearing in mind that the wolfman is still one Larry Talbot (as in the original Lon Chaney Jnr version. Still one of my all time favourite Universal films) I really rate this film and give it:

The local PBS station ran Charade. This is one my favorite movies. Stars Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant
great supporting cast, a classic Henry Mancini soundtrack. I'd have to look up but I think Chanel did Hepburn's
wardrobe. What's not to like?.

Total agreement on that Sue. Charade is an absolute classic and deserves the five popcorns you gave it.

Bob, maybe it's me but what I think that made movies like that so special was they told a story.
There wasn't a lot of special effects if any. Everything depended on writing and directing. Then again
that's still true, the actor is only as good as the material that he has, and the material is only as good as
the actor can make. The director is the coach.

i've only seen pages of TinTin but not whole stories....the artwork looks beautiful. i love snowy..he's so cute:)
there's an ad..i can't remember what its for! that has ...oh! Purina Dog Chow! it has TinTin,Snowy and some guy i don't know in it. very cute.

of course i want to see it...just look who wrote it! one of the best story tellers out there! ( love to hear him read his own descriptive parts of the stories)..yesh, TinTin is Moffatized;)

Sue Short wrote:

Bob, maybe it's me but what I think that made movies like that so special was they told a story.
There wasn't a lot of special effects if any. Everything depended on writing and directing. Then again
that's still true, the actor is only as good as the material that he has, and the material is only as good as
the actor can make. The director is the coach.

Again I totally agree. Good writing and direction make all the difference. Audrey Hepburn wasn't the greatest actress in the world but she had a quality about her that worked.
I thinkI like Charade because it kind of keeps you guessing and the business with the trap doors in the theatre had me on the edge of my seat.

That was great, the disembodied foot steps and the music. Goose bumps and shivers

Got My Neighbor Totoro from the library and watched it last night. I want to go to work every day on the Cat Bus!!!!!