We watched a disturbing movie called Trade. Kevin Kline was the lead in this film about women and girls being sold into the sex slave trade. It was disturbing and also able to hold our attention. Not for the squeamish but worth a rental.

We also watched a movie called Saving Sara Cain . It was directed by Michael Landon Jr. and had his usual up lifting message. It was a good family movie and we enjoyed it.In the past we watched one of his movies the Ultimate Gift that we enjoyed also. Johnathan

Watched all 4 of the "Die Hard" movies in the last 5 days.
New combo pack of the first 3 movies have DTS tracks and are also THX certified.
Great looking and sounded top-notch.

The latest wasn't THX certified and Dolby 5.1 only.
They put both the Theatrical and the Un-Rated versions on the same disc and it showed in a couple of areas but over-all, made for a great view.

All 4 movies were great!

4 out of 5 popcorns!

-t

Love the original series - any order works for me.

Captain Randal T. Murray
Starfleet, retired

Proof (ok, out of uniform, but I am retired!):

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2163/1811324630_489911ced4.jpg

Friday night my wife, daughter and I watched "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home". It's long been one of my wife's favorites - she's not the Trekkie, I am.

My daughter only knows "Enterprise" - we watched it together when it was on and enjoyed it. Now with "Star Trek" coming next year, she's interested in learning more. I couldn't convince my wife to start with "Wrath of Khan", so my daughter and I will do that - watch II, III, skip V, VI, then Generations and First Contact. We'll probably watch some of the key original series episodes, too.

I get a kick out of her - she's getting to be a scifi fan - loves Battlestar, is becoming a Dr. Who fan, and now Trek. She's embarrassed to let her friends find out, but for me, someone who watch TOS when it first aired, it's the Next Generation!

Randy

Randy and Bob and other Trekkers. I just HAVE to add my little trivia for ST.

My sister is the computer voice! Nope, she's NOT Majel Barret, she is the OTHER voices of the computer (heard mostly the full length feature films, but also ST-DSN and STTNG) For instance, she is the voice of the lady at the bar ("Suck salt?") in a STTNG series episode that sings the Klingon opera song with Worf.

It's what she does. She is into a profession called "voice casting".

Cool huh?
Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

Proof (ok, out of uniform, but I am retired!):

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2163/1811324630_489911ced4.jpg


Is that where the Cptn part of your name came from ?

Art

My sister is the computer voice! Nope, she's NOT Majel Barret, she is the OTHER voices of the computer (heard mostly the full length feature films, but also ST-DSN and STTNG) For instance, she is the voice of the lady at the bar ("Suck salt?") in a STTNG series episode that sings the Klingon opera song with Worf.

Nifty!

Is that where the Cptn part of your name came from ?

Art

Mostly.

Got a bunch of Captains that were fundamental in shaping my psyche. Kirk is a big one. Kangaroo has his place as well!

And this was one of my favorite childhood toys: Captain Action (I had his Batman outfit, too!) http://www.classicactionfigures.com/Mycollection%20photo/CAIdeal/CaptainActionID0102.JPG

Mostly.

Got a bunch of Captains that were fundamental in shaping my psyche. Kirk is a big one. Kangaroo has his place as well!

And this was one of my favorite childhood toys: Captain Action (I had his Batman outfit, too!) http://www.classicactionfigures.com/Mycollection%20photo/CAIdeal/CaptainActionID0102.JPG


I see my new avatar !:D

Art

I see my new avatar !:D

Art

He'll need a goatee!

Of course that would make him the mirror universe Captain Action . . .

Randy

Last night after the Superbowl I watched The Hustler. Very interesting to see a black and white scope film. Paul Newman is one of the greatest actors of all time IMO,Gleason played an incredble part.

Art

Absolutely agree here. I have gone back and watched as many of his movies as I could.

The Hustler
HUD
Hombre
Torn Curtain
Cool Hand Luke (notice my moniker)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Sting
The Towering Inferno
Slapshot
The Color of Money
Nobody's Fool
Road to Perdition

Great filmography.

edit:
left out-

Long Hot Summer
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Rachel Rachel
Absence of Malice
The Verdict

I watched "28 Days Later" yesterday afternoon upstairs in the sun-lit living room. I thought it was decent for a zombie movie. I imagine it would have been pretty creepy to watch late in the evening.

Also, my wife and I went out the other night and saw "No Country for Old Men". Just outstanding! She didn't like it much though since she doesn't like to be "scared" like she used to. It was much more suspensful than I expected. The audio was superb. I really dug the extended tension-filled scenes with no dialog - just the sound of boots in the dirt in middle of nowhere. Having practically no one else in the theater was a huge benefit as we could enjoy the whole dynamic range and take in all of the tiniest audio cues. Just loved it. Hmmm....goin out to the movies can still be fun too... :)

Dan

Last night we watched "Music and Lyrics". Light and fun.

Randy

Watched Saw IV [Blu-ray] (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001053038). Nothing new; not as good as one. I enjoyed Saw One, because it offered the interesting premise of personal growth and life; through extreme personal risk, courage, and self sacrifice -- in ways with consequences simply laid out and yet alarmingly hard to actually do. Saw 4 is two stories, neither which are a must see: jigsaw backstory (why he became jigsaw), and a long running 'break a guy of a rescue compulsion' -- which certainly isn't one of the 7 deadly sins.

Watched Dragon Wars - D-War [Blu-ray] (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YDOOFA). Reminded me a lot of the original Godzilla films in that the plot was weak and poorly delivered, but the monster scenes were entertaining to watch. I was surprised to find out the special effects weren't done by ILM, since some of the creatures and their tactics reminded me of Star Wars. The exposition will leave you wanting them to move on to anything else, but I'll say it again: the monster scenes were entertaining to watch, and surprisingly well done on a couple of levels. It's a low budget film. I'm glad I saw it, unlike saw 4 which was more of a take it or leave it kind o thang.

Watched "Rooster Coburn" with John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn since I'm waiting for my copy of "3:10 to Yuma" to come in....

Filmed in widescreen (2.35:1) but formated to fit 4:3 screen, so black bars all round the image! Image wasn't very clean anyway so if it had been larger I really wouldn't have liked it.

Too bad....2.5 out of 5 popcorns.

-t

The wife and I watched "The Brave One" Saturday night.

It took me a bit to get into it - disjointed and a very violent opening, but I thought it worked.

Randy

I watched Apocalypto this weekend, very good movie. except for the jaguar attack scene I never seen anything so fake it looked like a muppet jaguar but other than that I thought it was very good.

A bit of a movie-fest this weekend...

Good Luck Chuck - Not great. I have a feeling the 'unrated' version was worse than the regular version.

Elizabeth - Good stuff, makes me want to see the 'sequel' : Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Poolhall Junkies - Good flick!

Poolhall Junkies - Good flick!

I love this movie. Very high up on my most underrated list. Walken has a great speech too. Highly recommended.

Bunches of movies this weekend.

Oldboy wasn't exactly what I expected. Got crazy by the end. In a good way (kind of???)

Sunshine was a bit of a disappointment. Too many different directions with no real development in any of them.

Disturbia seemed to be everyone's favorite. Good movie. If you haven't seen it check it out. A little bit predictable but they do the character development right and you end up invested.

With the Dog Show in NY...
I decided to watch "Best in Show" 4.5 out of 5 popcorns.
Hadn't watched it in a while and it's hilarious.

Then watched "A Mighty Wind" 3.5 out of 5 popcorns.
Might have stood better had I not watched the above movie first.
Same writers and actors ( for the most part) just not as good as I hoped.

-t

caught 'the game plan' last night.... i thought the Rock was a natural for the main role. a good disney movie!

Watched "We own the night" .....it kinda dragged sometimes but I actually liked it...Wished Markie had more lead role (Im a fan) but it was all good. Also watched "Eastern Promises" and had a blast with that. That bathroom fight was one of the most intense, brutal, NATURAL fight scenes I've ever seen in a movie. I'd give both movies an "A"

Last night the wife picked "Catch and Release" as a Valentine's Day flick. OK - nothing stellar.

Randy

Watched the Justin Timberlake: Live at Madison Square Garden (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1329/justintimberlake_liveatmadisonsquaregarden.html) Blu-ray last night. This is a nice disc, performance was good too. You have to hear the uncompressed 5.1 PCM on this disc. The video is top notch too. If you like JT, you need this disc.

I watched it on my 92" Front projection system, via PS3 with a Onkyo 604 AV receiver, Polk R50 fronts, Polk CSR center, velodyne 10" subwoofer. 13.5' x 15' gameroom with 3 walls, open on one side.

Last night we watched "The Terminator".

My daughter (15) had never seen it and we'd watched the first couple of episodes of the new "Sarah Conner Chronicles".

The original is still terrific, but firmly an 80's movie!

Randy

T2 stands up better and is more pertinent to the new TV show (which I like a lot by the way).

last nite we watched the popcorn special, 'sahara'; the hd dvd on my 108" screen. kept my attention, it looked great, i liked it.

nothing tonite.

Watched "American Gangster [HDDVD]"
Good film. Denzel Washington portrays a fellow who's good to his mother, and stands when a lady leaves the table, and shoots people in the middle of the street and deals a billion dollars of drugs.

Watched "Michael Clayton [BluRay]"
Good film. Has some tough language that's not for all viewers. Some have said the ending is too hollywood-ish, and it was, but I didn't mind it.

Watched "The Kingdom" with Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner. In SD upconverted.

Very good film. Lots of language and violence but due to the nature of where and what the film is about, understandable. Friend of mine who served 18 months in Saudi Arabia tells me that it depicts pretty accurately what things are like there. He recommended the film to me.

-t

T2 stands up better and is more pertinent to the new TV show (which I like a lot by the way).

We watched T2 last night. We enjoyed it a lot, but for my taste, the original is the most relentless, best version.

Randy

We had a few stored on the DVR that I wanted to clear. Friday night we watched "We are Marshall". As a kid in High School in southern Ohio, this event had a great impact on me. It was an okay movie. Matthew McConaughey's part as the coach really annoyed me. I am not sure if it was MM or the role he played.

We then watched "Magnificent Seven". How's that for a contrasting evening? I really enjoyed both. Both were in HD, so they looked great. Cleared them from the DVR and looking to refresh with some new films soon.

Watched 'September Dawn' last night. Interesting how religious fanaticism can take over people's lives and make them believe what they are doing is right. This is an account of a band of Mormon militiamen and Paiute Indians who slaughter a wagon train of westward-bound settlers.

We watched T2 last night. We enjoyed it a lot, but for my taste, the original is the most relentless, best version.

Randy

I don't disagree at all. How did your daughter enjoy them?

Last night, it was "Death Sentence". Pretty good but The wife & I thought it was predictable.

I don't disagree at all. How did your daughter enjoy them?

She liked them a lot - I think she was surprised. But of course, she's 15 and you have to drag any information out of her!

She's embarrassed to be such a scifi geek, just like her old man. She can't tell her friends that she loves Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Dr. Who and more.

She's got the reader's bug, too.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2043/2273854081_dc9606cd1f.jpg


:)

Watched American Gangster last night. Pretty good but expecting more. Not much action for a almost 3 hour movie

Nice pic Randy.

Watched "Last Holiday" with Queen Latifa and LL Cool J

Romantic Comedy fare. Done very well. Recommended.

-t

Watched American Gangster last night. Pretty good but expecting more. Not much action for a almost 3 hour movie

Agreed. My wife and I watched it Wednesday night. It was good but not memorable.

Dan

She's embarrassed to be such a scifi geek, just like her old man. She can't tell her friends that she loves Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Dr. Who and more.


:)

Tough thing for a 15 yr old girl to inherit. Dr Who?? She is a geek... (I grew up with Tom Baker myself).

I grew up with Tom Baker myself
I believe I have all the available Tom Baker Dr Who DVDs.
I'm waiting for "Dr Who – Deadly Assassin" and "Dr Who – Invasion of Time" to be available on DVD.
Invasion Of Time might be coming out 2nd quarter this year with Black Orchad, although I haven't heard any rumors of Deadly Assassin on DVD.

"Invasion Of Time was a last-minute replacement for a six parter called the Killer Cats of Geng Singh (or similar), with giant cats. At the last minute, the producers realised they could never possibly do justice to the script, which had an arena full of cat-people. "

Friday night we had both girls (really unusual) home and watched "The Red Violin". A very good flick.

Last night the wife and I watched "Michael Clayton" - I liked it a lot - terrific performance by Tom Wilkenson.

Randy

ok, popped in :

Star Trek: The Motion Picture:

Wow. what a horrid, looooong, and boring movie. I hate to say it, but it was. I enjoy the characters, but dang. . . what were they thinking. This movie holds no water to the rest of its sequels.

Then we watched: Star Trek 2:Wrath of Khan.

SOOOOO much better. still my favorite. character driven as they all should have been, with great lines and a hint of overacting that makes it stand out in a weird way.

so today we're popping in Star Trek 3. We'll see how it goes. . .

Rented American Gangster for $1 from Redbox. The extended version held my interest. If you ever wondered what happened to Sol from Deadwood, after running the hardware store he moved to New Jersey and became a cop.

There were so many drugs on the screen that I had to dust off the screen today.

ok, popped in :

Star Trek: The Motion Picture:

Wow. what a horrid, looooong, and boring movie. I hate to say it, but it was. I enjoy the characters, but dang. . . what were they thinking. This movie holds no water to the rest of its sequels.

Then we watched: Star Trek 2:Wrath of Khan.

SOOOOO much better. still my favorite. character driven as they all should have been, with great lines and a hint of overacting that makes it stand out in a weird way.

so today we're popping in Star Trek 3. We'll see how it goes. . .

I loved #1 right from the day it was released. It’s such a logical story line. Of course it isn’t better then Wrath of Khan (my favorite) but 1 is way the heck better than some of the ones after it.

On that note, we watched "Crank" last night which I have had for a month and got a good deal on. Wife walked out half way into it. That has to be the stupidest movie I have seen in years. I’m one of those kinda guys that can get enjoyment out of 99% of the movies I watch no matter what they are and I still think it sucked (and I think I can only say that about a few movies I have seen in the past 20 years).

Watched "Michael Clayton." I enjoyed it but then I like movies that make you pay attention to the details of the film. There is a lot that can be speculated about the end of the movie. I'm thinking its mostly doing the job with a hint of sweet revenge.

Acting is very good and so is the film quality (Oppo DVD player).

A note on Star Trek. When watching #1 the viewer should keep in mind that it is the premier of the movie series. The cast is being reunited for the first time in a live action episode since the series went off the air 10 years before. By this time Star Trek had reached cult status but the producers knew that in 10 years not everyone knew who or what Star Trek was so they had to reintroduce the characters. The ship is a big character and consumes almost a 1/3 of #1. The slowness of the film was also how things were shot then. The Indiana Jones movies has not yet changes the pace of films. Even Star Wars, while having action, is comparatively slow to move modern films. Yes #1 is dull. But look at it as a film of the times and it take on a whole new dimension (of sight and sound :) ).

Ever watch 2001 a Space Odyssey? Another movie that was cutting edge but now, give me a liter bottle of Jolt Cola and I may stay awake.

Back to the subject, I'd recommend Michael Clayton.

PS - Cptn Randy, Since when were the Clique series of books Sci-Fi? :) lol.

Shattered aka "Butterfly on a Wheel" w/ pierce brosnan & gerard butler

good movie, kinda predictable though. nice acting but not Oscar worthy worth a rental if everything else you want to watch is out of stock! :)

Watched 'Bourne Ultimatum' (HD-DVD) AND 'Die Hard 4' (BLU-RAY)

LOTSA bang bang!! :-D

Oh... AND Mr. Brooks, which was waaaay OVERLY-plotted but still managed to hang in there on the side of good.

Watched The Game Plan on Blu-Ray with the kiddies Saturday night in the HT. Very cute and the kids really liked it. I may have to buy that one now. Last night my friend cam over and we were blown away by the Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds Live at RCMH Blu-Ray. Just amazing!!! A must own.

Carl Holt:
StarTrek-TheMotionPicture ... The slowness of the film was also how things were shot then.
Actually it has to do with the script.
It's based on a short story, which was only two paragraphs long. They made a 143 min movie out of it (IMDB). There's bound to be spots with little happening, yet I don't recall a single GNDN pipe anywhere.

The best part of the film is for StarTrekOriginalSeries fans -- the long flyby of the new ship. And Uhura's confirming the legendary status (for those of you who play Star Fleet Battles -- that definition of 'legendary') of Kirk when Kirk takes over as captain, by Uhura saying "Lieutenant, our chances of returning in one piece have just doubled."

Other than those two bits, I didn't enjoy StarTrek-TheMotionPicture.
The Kobyashi Maru opening sequence in Wrath Of Kahn on the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me if elderly Star Trek fans had cardiac infarctions.

I like ST:TMP as well.

But you have to savior it. Think of it as a bottle of fine wine. Get comfy in that beautiful home theater you've built. Watch it alone, in the sweet spot. Dim the lights, but not all the way, and let the overature play. Accept the pace and simply enjoy.

Of course, that works best if you've lived Trek since a small child! :)

Here's my story and a hint as to why I might like it so much: I was in college when the movie was released, but couldn't get away for the premiere. My buddies knew how big of a fan I was, so a couple of days later we jumped into a car and drove the hour and a half to Des Moines to see it. Seated to my right in the theater was a freshly ex-Marine.

When the picture starts, it opens with a big drum beat and the title flashes up on the screen. At this point, I shouted with joy, reached down and ripped the arm off the chair and waved it around, with my Marine friend cowering on the floor.

I still have the arm!

Randy

...we've watched lately.

Michael Clayton: Great movie, IMHO; and I do NOT like whats-his-name AT ALL. Super acting, good story, 4 out of 5 easy...

Italian Job: Fun movie, a bit thin on plot, but fast and furious to start it out, then kind of faded...

A Bridge too Far: EXCELLENT war movie, the flight and jump scenes MAY BE the best I've seen in movies. Good action, believeable characters... 4 out of 5

Anyone following the "Terminator:Sarah Connors Chronical"? I admit I am, and I don't really watch much "TV" either. This is a fun to watch series, good plots, a bit hard to follow, but I admit I watch in part just to see the female "good" robot-she is pretty easy on the eyes. Her character is VERY reminiscent of the character she portrayed on "Firefly".

Anyone remember that one?

Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

Saturday night my wife, daughter, and I watched "Amadeus".

Still holds up - remarkably entertaining film.

And yes, we're also watching "Terminator: Sarah Connors Chronical"- and yes, I like it a lot.

Randy

...we've watched lately.

Michael Clayton: Great movie, IMHO; and I do NOT like whats-his-name AT ALL. Super acting, good story, 4 out of 5 easy...

Italian Job: Fun movie, a bit thin on plot, but fast and furious to start it out, then kind of faded...

A Bridge too Far: EXCELLENT war movie, the flight and jump scenes MAY BE the best I've seen in movies. Good action, believeable characters... 4 out of 5

Anyone following the "Terminator:Sarah Connors Chronical"? I admit I am, and I don't really watch much "TV" either. This is a fun to watch series, good plots, a bit hard to follow, but I admit I watch in part just to see the female "good" robot-she is pretty easy on the eyes. Her character is VERY reminiscent of the character she portrayed on "Firefly".

Anyone remember that one?

Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

I was horribly disappointed in The Wild Bunch. Hadn't ever seen it. It was like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid without the fun or excitement.

Saw Vertigo off my DVR from HDNet movies. Obviously a great movie but what a wonderful transfer! Still have Psycho to watch and that looked amazing too. Very pleased with what they were able to do with those movies. I hope there are some BDs on their way.

Shoot 'Em Up- Awful movie but I knew it was going to be. Kind of didn't mind it. Lots of cartoony action that while not wholly plausible was atleast mildly amusing.

I watch the Sarah Conner Chronicles as well. I like it quite a bit. I like Summer Glau but Lena Headey (mom) sure isn't bad either. First older woman I have found myself enamoured with in a looong time.

3:10 to Yuma (2007) - Very good story and acted well too.
Though different than the 50 year old version it was done well.

It was a crowd pleaser and I'm the only one who likes Westerns out of the 6 of us who watched it!


-t

3:10 to Yuma (2007) - Very good story and acted well too.
Though different than the 50 year old version it was done well.

It was a crowd pleaser and I'm the only one who likes Westerns out of the 6 of us who watched it!


-t
One of the better Western movies in the last decade. Kind of funny, my wife liked it too. She will never watch any old spaghetti westerns or 50's era that I enjoy - too boring.

For some reason, anything with Russell Crowe has my wife's interest. I can't figure it out??

Watched "Into the Wild" The wife and I agreed it was an ok story but the narrative viewpoint turned it into a more indie type feel to the movie.

With that said I think my review is a effect of just watching the movie. I don't think I have ever used the phase "narrative viewpoint" in my life.

I finally got The Mummy on hd dvd today (bb sale) so that was my movie for tonight. Probably one of my most-watched sd dvds, no need for that copy anymore :)

edit-i put in wrong title (?)-long day! i did not watch 'a lawless street'. yet.

just watched dvd (on tosh hd-a2) of 'rage at dawn' (1955) w randolph scott, edgar buchannon, forest tucker. pq (very soft focus, overexposure?)/aq (mono) sucked; it seemed that those qualities came from the original source. geez, i hope thats not true. it deserved to look better than it did.
story was pretty good, i didnt get bored, i just wanted something light to watch.
at least it was anamorphic widescreen.

tonite, watched hd dvd of t3. saw dvd a few yrs ago but it was actually fun to watch it again, 'specially in hi def.
used tosh a30 tonite. i thought minor scratches on disc might cause issues, but nope.

replayed parts of the other nites viewing of 'rage at dawn' (terrible transfer or source-dont know which ?) on the a30 to see if it improved pq over the a2.
it did! quite a bit! :eek::D

Im 35 and an avid movie nut for most of it so people might find it strange that I watched "The Godfather" for the first time tonight. I approve of the movie! :D:D:D

Last night "Escape from New York". Frankly, it doesn't hold up well. It's what I would have rated as great 20+ years ago (released in 1981) is slow and shallow - especially when compared to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" from the same year and "Terminator" from 1984.

Randy

Was off work last week and watched These with my wife.
The Brave One ----It was enjoyable but not a purchase disk for me.
Into The Wild ----- A little on the corny side to me.So much fluff to his part.
30 day's of night---- Gory but not scary at all.
No Reservations ----- Good chick flick.
Things we lost in the fire---- Well acted almost made for T.V. like but entertaining.
China Reviled Discover Atlas---- Very interesting and amazing photography .

Had a great week. Loving the home theater on it 's up coming one year anniversary. Johnathan

Almost forgot - the wife and my daughter watched "The Sound of Music" Friday night. I didn't bother to sit thru it this round!

Randy

Friday night I had a theater full for ""The Hallelujah Trail""

SD-DVD WS DDEX sountrack.


Epic Western Comedy


Two big thumbs up for this old gem. A+ cinematography, A+ direction, A+ extremly hip for the time narritions, I'd give the acting at least an A if not higher.


No less than 1000 awkward moments in this one.... Hard to really convery the scope and breadth of this movie. I'd call it a must own.

Will Ferrell's Semi-Pro (2008) (http://ia.imdb.com/media/imdb/01/M/==/QM/1g/TN/3c/TM/wc/TZ/tF/kX/nB/na/B5/lM/B5/1M/3c/TN/4Q/jM/1c/TM/B5/VM._SY140_SX100_.jpg) was #1 in the box office last Thursday.

Is it time to give up this Home Theatre thing ?

Will Ferrell's Semi-Pro (2008) (http://ia.imdb.com/media/imdb/01/M/==/QM/1g/TN/3c/TM/wc/TZ/tF/kX/nB/na/B5/lM/B5/1M/3c/TN/4Q/jM/1c/TM/B5/VM._SY140_SX100_.jpg) was #1 in the box office last Thursday.

Is it time to give up this Home Theatre thing ?

It was #1 with a meager 14M (something like that anyways). It was expected to bring in 45M.

We watched it the other night. Good 2:35 format, great Bond women, the whole shebang.

This Bond Movie had a few firsts-First Bond Movie in 6.1 sound (pretty cool sound effects during shooting scenes-my wife and I were both dodging the bullets!)

First time a Bond leading lady was the major villain, AND killed by 007.

All and all pretty fun-Like so many Bond movies, GREAT starting sequence, then kind of "slowed down" a bit.

Still, a strong 3+ out of 5. Good addition to the Bond Library.

Best
Tom
Chinaclipper

tonite, watched 'the beast' (george dzundzas sp?, steven baldwin), set in afghanistan russion invasion. i didnt get bored at all. good flic.

Screened Beowulf last night.... Wife watched American Idol.

Certainly not all I had hoped it would be. The extensive CGI which seemed uber cool at the start of the flick, overtime, gave the presentation an awkward feel for me.
I did not really like the end either, I wish I was more familure with the original literature, but I am pretty clueless on it.


6 out of 10 for me.

My kids and I recently watched "Magnificent Desolation - Walking on the Moon (IMAX)." We had missed it in the theaters and I was glad to see it on DVD. It was one of the better IMAX movies I have seen, with some good recreations of what it was probably like to walk on the moon and good quotes from the astronauts. I'd recommend it, though I don't know how it compares with the new "In the Shadow of the Moon" DVD.

Today, home, sick - felt a little better and watch "The Sweet Smell of Success". What a terrific flick. If you haven't seen this one, add it to your list right now. Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis are stunningly good.

Randy

Last night, wife's pick. We watched "Just Like Heaven", which is pretty good for a romantic comedy.

It does have one killer line when the hero asks his friend to help kidnap the body of his comatose girlfriend, and he agrees, saying,

"Because someday, trust me, I'm gonna need help movin' a body. When that day comes, I don't wanna hear any **** from you."

:D

Randy

Good week for movies, I watched, Into the Wild (liked it a lot), No Country For Old Men (BR) and thought it deserved the Best picture AA and The Brave One, Jody Foster looked great and I enjoyed the movie a lot. Really looking forward to There Will Be Blood.

I rented and watch Apocalypse Now last night. I had thought I had already seen this movie (all the Nam movies like Platoon and such kinda blend together for me). I was amazed that I had never seen it. After hearing about how great this movie is for the past 20+ years, I am shocked to say that man, it really sucked. I didn’t like it in any way. Felt like the movie is strait up designed to just be an acid trip. It looked pretty good on the system for a movie that old but I just don’t like that movie. Too much of a brain trip that made no sence most the time.

Im 35 and an avid movie nut for most of it so people might find it strange that I watched "The Godfather" for the first time tonight. I approve of the movie! :D:D:D


Lucky you. Now you get to watch Godfather II. Just as good as the 1st if not better in my eyes. (don't look forward to GF 3)

Watched
Michael Clayton--- Enjoyed this movie it was a perfect role for George Clooney. I do think that Tilda Swinton deserved the Oscar she received for her part!Liked the ending!

No Country for old men--- Enjoyed this one but I really thought Josh Brolin did just as good a job as Javier Bardem. Didn't care for the ending.

Both of these are good entertainment ! Johnathan

I wanted to add I watched The Look out --- I like the movie it was well acted and really had me involved with the main charters. A recomended view !

Watched Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle last night with my wife. Very moving movie about friendship and a man struggling with life post 9/11 when he lost his family in the attack. I have always like Cheadle in everything he has done and Sandler was outstanding in a very different role for him. Highly recommend this one.

My father brought me an obscure one a few days ago and I just watched it tonight - The Man from Earth. Highly recommended! Nearly the entire movie takes place in one room of a small cabin and it's just riveting.

Dan

Watched two movies on Saturday night. The first was a kid flick: Veggie Tales, Josh and the Big Wall. Excellent biblical cartoon about Joshua and the Walls of Jerico.

The second was Apocaliptco. The wife and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

CJ

Friday night I screened Bee Movie, I really like this one. 8 out of 10 for me.

Saturday night I screened No Country For Old Men, my wife and I thought it sucked. Tell me who got the money and I may give it a better rating. It was OK entertaining but with no pay off ever, no resolutions at the end... UUUHHHGGG

Sunday night for Palm Sunday, we screened the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar", My memory was refreshed as to why this remains one of if not my favorite musical. No dialog!!! Zero, zilch... The story is told entirely in song.

Watched Into the Wild. Very, very good. I read the book a few years ago, which is purportedly an accurate account of what actually happened, based on interviews and McCandless' own journals as researched by the author. Took a small liberty with the ending, but beyond that, seems true to the real life events.

So for those who complained about it, consider that these events actually DID happen.

... Saturday night I screened No Country For Old Men, my wife and I thought it sucked. Tell me who got the money and I may give it a better rating. It was OK entertaining but with no pay off ever, no resolutions at the end... UUUHHHGGG ...



sorry for the spoiler,
the mexican bandits took the money from the hotel after they shot up the place.

this weekeknd i screened No Country for Old Men. it is creepy and provocative. i don't think a movie has ever made me think so much about its meaning. ask a hundred people and you will hear many different takes, probably a hundred.

Thanks Darryl.. That did help some....
There is only one phrase of dialog after that where it alludes to that being the case. I guess for me, they should of ended the movie right there then. :)

darryl b,

I'm not so sure it's that cut and dry. Don't forget, the sherrif saw that dime by the open vent, which means that Anton looked in the same place that he did at the other motel when Moss hid it. Also, when he got into that accident he paid the boy $100 for his shirt, which means he possibly got the money which were stacks of $100s.

I think the fact that no one REALLY knows who got the money is one of the great things about this movie. Money was the driving factor in the whole thing, yet it played such a small part in the actual film. It was Anton's cruelty, Moss's stubborness, and the sherrif's coming to copes that the world around him has changed to the point where he is too small of a player to make a difference in the battle between good and evil.

At the beginning, the sherrif talked about how those before him use to never carry guns. Back in "those days" the battle of good and evil was more balanced. By the end of the movie he knew that he'd cheated death because there was a strong possibility that Anton was still in that room or nearby since the bathroom window was locked. He'd seen the man's handiwork all across his county, and it finally sunk it at that point that the rules had changed and "evil" became something worse than he could possibly comprehend or defend against.

That's just my take anyway.

Roger
I'm with you. Just makes you wonder what ended up on the editing room floor. I thought there would at least be a battle between Moss and Anton. Such is Hollywood. Johnathan

Friday night I screened Bee Movie, I really like this one. 8 out of 10 for me.

Saturday night I screened No Country For Old Men, my wife and I thought it sucked. Tell me who got the money and I may give it a better rating. It was OK entertaining but with no pay off ever, no resolutions at the end... UUUHHHGGG

Sunday night for Palm Sunday, we screened the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar", My memory was refreshed as to why this remains one of if not my favorite musical. No dialog!!! Zero, zilch... The story is told entirely in song.

re j.c. superstar, did u watch the letterboxed non anamorphic dvd or is there a different version now available?
about 3 yrs ago i think it was hdnet that had on in hd. i recorded it onto my sa8000hd dvr and made a dvd-r out of it.

BUT at the time i didnt know my toshiba dr2 dvd recorder could make anamorphic dvds or that the sa8000hd had the proper stretch mode for the same purpose.
so i ended up with 'another' letterboxed non-anamorphic version. if i had known about my dr2s and the sa8000hds ability, i'd have a nice widescreen anamorphic version of the the film.

it took me 6 mos be4 i realized the dr2/sa8000hd combo had the ability to do proper anamorphic w/s dvds. the dvrs 4 page 'manual' gave no idea of the ability.

i just love that music, have the lp, and saw the show live back in '71!

Most scary movies are just gory. This one had some real bizarre twists and some good "make you jump" moments. If you're looking for a scary movie I'd recommend it:)

tonite, we watched 'the blob', the newer version with shawnee smith. last time i saw it was most likely on vhs years ago.
a fun flic.

Roger
I'm with you. Just makes you wonder what ended up on the editing room floor. I thought there would at least be a battle between Moss and Anton. Such is Hollywood. Johnathan

I seriously doubt it. It's my understanding that the movie as shown in theaters is substantially the story the author laid out in the book.

On of the things that made me really like this film is how un-Hollywood the story is. And how much more life-like.

Randy

We have seen many films lately on the HDNet cable. I record the ones that look good then watch 'em when time permits. (when WE want to)
This one was the latest we saw last night.

It's in 1:78, but it still is a visually stunning/stark look at what the Sanitarium-like hospitasl must have been in those days. Of course, Jack is phenomenal;I don't like the guy at all but he can sure act.

Easily 5 out of 5 stars.

Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

Over the past week or so I have watched:

- Live Free Die Hard (Blu-Ray). I enjoyed the movie. Very action packed. Great PQ/AQ. Obviously over the top and corny, but sometimes you just want to watch a movie like this. Especially on a 100" screen in hidef.

- Oceans 11 (Blu-Ray). Have not watched this movie in several years and forgot how much I liked it. Great story, great cast, fun ending.

- Oceans 12 (Blu-Ray). Actually had never seen this one even though I loved the first one. With a kid and everything else in life just simply forgot about it until I picked up the Ocean's boxset on Blu-Ray. I liked the movie, but not nearly as much as the first one. It dragged on and just was a little too much for me. Again, great cast, but it was like they tried to hard...

- Hoosiers (Blu-Ray). In prep for March Madness, I watched this movie (probably the 3rd or 4th time I had seen it) and really enjoyed it. Great feel good story, and and at certain points I found myself wanting to jump off the couch.

This weekend we hope to watch Enchanted (picked it up for my wife) and I am hoping to have time to watch I Am Legend.

Just finished watching I am legend (Blu-ray) very nice PQ, but horribly stinky movie...argh

Finally opened my theater, went with transformers. Some of the impact was sucked out from seeing a lot of clips in demo. But fun popcorn flick. Gotta go through a bunch of movies before I have to move for my job. Not much time.

just finished watching dvd of 'threshold', a no name, low budget 'creature feature'!
the fairly decent acting sort of 'saved' it from being a total trainwreck.
the biggest special effects budget piece had to be the moths :eek:they used for 'aliens'.
and the ketchup for blood!:eek:

all in all tho, i enjoyed it.

but if it had been any longer than its 1:26 i might have started having issues w it.

Watched Enchanted. Actually watched it two times with my daughter. It is just a good, entertaining movie. One of those keeping movies that you can watch several times and never get tired of.

I forgot about the change in aspect ratio at the beginning, from the animated to real-life sequences then remeber it was that way in the theaters too.

Fry's Electronics has been clearing out their HD DVDs so I picked up "Feast" for $7.99. I did not expect all that much from this movie, but thought I would give it shot anyways for the cheap price I got it for. Can someone tell me now how I can get back those 90 mintues of my wasted life watching this suck-as* movie.

.5 stars out of 5

Don
---------------------
The Alien Seeker News

Fry's Electronics has been clearing out their HD DVDs so I picked up "Feast" for $7.99. I did not expect all that much from this movie, but thought I would give it shot anyways for the cheap price I got it for. Can someone tell me now how I can get back those 90 mintues of my wasted life watching this suck-as* movie.

.5 stars out of 5

Don
---------------------
The Alien Seeker News
i only have the sd version; unwatched, i might add.
maybe forever:eek:!
90 mins is important to me!:D

Whew. Was able to watch quite a few films over the past 3 days or so.

Dan In Real Life (Blu-Ray). This film was purchased mostly for my wife, but I really enjoyed it. Good clean movie with some very funny moments. Good movie and a decent compromise to keep the wife happy. 7/10 for me :)

Ocean's 13 (Blu-Ray). I enjoyed this one much better than Oceans 12 (still liked 11 the best). Definitely worth watching/owning. 8/10

Enchanted (Blu-Ray). My wife really wanted this one and we popped it in late last night. I had mixed feelings about this one going in, but will admit that I really enjoyed it. Kinda like Princess Bride for me. PQ/AQ was top notch. 8/10

tonite (wed pm), watched 'captivity'; a little bit of gore but didnt get bored.
sd pq (a30) was pretty good.

"7 Days in May" - Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster...

Screenplay by Rod Serling so you know it's going to have an edge.

-t

Primer - really a complex film about time travel, I enjoyed it immensely. My brain hurt a bit by the end trying to figure it out though.

Tron - Gotta love netflix. Haven't seen this in years!

Primer - really a complex film about time travel, I enjoyed it immensely. My brain hurt a bit by the end trying to figure it out though.

Tron - Gotta love netflix. Haven't seen this in years!

i watched primer last yr, but need to watch again to understand parts i got lost on 1st time.

Primer - really a complex film about time travel, I enjoyed it immensely. My brain hurt a bit by the end trying to figure it out though.

Tron - Gotta love netflix. Haven't seen this in years!

I loved Primer as well. Great movie for the budget it was made with.

Over the last few days I watched:

3:10 to Yuma.

Overall not too bad. I'm glad it had Cristian Bale in it, I think I would have gotten bored with just Russel Crow. 8 out of 10

Wish I had more time to watch all the movies I own but haven't watched!

Bought
- The Seeker
- Civilization of Maxwell Bright
- I Am Legend (BluRay)
- Shake Hands With the Devil
- The Mist
- The Shepherd
- The Comebacks

Looked at them there in the pile.

Decided to re-watch The Abyss (Special Edition DVD, 171 minutes). I have to say I was very happy with my choice. There's originality that still hasn't been replicated in every few minutes of this movie.

teknoguy:

If you liked "Seven Days In May", you'll probably enjoy the 1994 HBO remake The Enemy Within (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GAKDOW) with Forest Whitaker.

i watched atonement on hd dvd , fantastic story , great acting , very sad aswell but the pq and audio was great i would give it 10 out of 10:)

tonite (sat pm), we watched 'the last legion', a sort of prequel to king arthur stories/films.
pretty darn good!
didnt get bored (that seems to be how i measure the quality of a movie nowadays).

Atonement: Great flick. Loved Vanessa Redgrave at the end. And that nearly 5 minute continuous shot.

30 Days of Night: Meh....not great, not total crap. Still, too few good vampire movies these days so this one had to do.

Watched The Mist (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010X745K)
Not bad. About half an hour in, I thought, if this were happening to me my adrenaline would be pumping on all twelve cylinders.
A lot of people really hated the ending. The director said in the commentary that he was influenced by the short story Shirley Jackson's The Lottery (http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html) which is also a story of scapegoating, man's inherent evil, and the destructive nature of observing ancient outdated rituals, with a much hated ending.

For a change of pace, I decided to watch an episode of Primeval (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primeval_(TV_series)). I'd forgotten what it was about. Whereas "The Mist" is about tenticle like worms and flying creatures and really big insects coming through a space-time portal with their fog and chasing humans, tonight's episode of Primeval was about tenticle like worms and flying creatures and really big insects coming through a space-time portal with their cloudy sulfur atmosphere and chasing humans; which of course is a totally different thing.

Just finished watching "Rescue Dawn" on Blu-Ray. What a great movie. Wonderful cinematography. Terrific acting. Nice story. It can feel pretty depressing and dark at times, but it should. This is one of the better movies I have seen in some time. 9 out 10 for me.. Highly recommend watching this one..

Watched The Mist (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010X745K)
Not bad. About half an hour in, I thought, if this were happening to me my adrenaline would be pumping on all twelve cylinders.
A lot of people really hated the ending. The director said in the commentary that he was influenced by the short story Shirley Jackson's The Lottery (http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html) which is also a story of scapegoating, man's inherent evil, and the destructive nature of observing ancient outdated rituals, with a much hated ending.

For a change of pace, I decided to watch an episode of Primeval (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primeval_(TV_series)). I'd forgotten what it was about. Whereas "The Mist" is about tenticle like worms and flying creatures and really big insects coming through a space-time portal with their fog and chasing humans, tonight's episode of Primeval was about tenticle like worms and flying creatures and really big insects coming through a space-time portal with their cloudy sulfur atmosphere and chasing humans; which of course is a totally different thing.

decisions, decisions, to watch 'the mist' or 'primevil'? im glad they're so different:p

what to do?

Just finished watching "Rescue Dawn" on Blu-Ray. What a great movie. Wonderful cinematography. Terrific acting. Nice story. It can feel pretty depressing and dark at times, but it should. This is one of the better movies I have seen in some time. 9 out 10 for me.. Highly recommend watching this one..

Thanks for the heads up. I have this on blu ray but haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

Jay

Just finished watching I am legend (Blu-ray) very nice PQ, but horribly stinky movie...argh
Hmm I disagree, but I like Will Smith. I think he is pretty good in this genre. Loved him in I Robot, and of course Independence Day...
Also, we just finished another showing of Tears of the Sun. In fact, I MAY have already commented earlier on it.

Great BW showcases, all his typical lines and action galore.
The jungle scenes and the firefights are incredible acoustically...in fact, I use the one chapter when they have the final firefight as a home theater show-off DVD example

Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

I just watched Sweeney Todd, the one starring Johnny Depp. It was simply amazing, both him and helena bonham carter sing really well considering neither have done anything like this. Its a very twisted movie and fairly bloody. But its got the great twisted movie making that Tim Burton is known for. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who likes something different.

I've recently been watching the HBO series "The Wire" for the first time. I'm about 3/4 of the way though season 1. Really good stuff.

Did everyone know this thread was started before the HD(DVD) war?
Wow!!!
Movies just keep getting better, picture wise. It does make it a little more tollerible to watch a movie that not up to par.

scott

Watched The Contract in HD starring Morgan Freeman and John Cusack. Not a bad Suspense/Thriller movie, which I enjoyed. On a rating from 1 to 5 stars, I give it 3.5 stars.

Don
----------------------
The Alien Seeker News

I'm not sure how 'FUR' got in my Netflix queue but that is one dumb movie. Can't believe I ordered it. I even went back and looked at the trailer to see what attracted me to it. I have no idea!!!

Popped in "Alvin and the Chipmunks" for the kids.

geeze, I know I'm not the demographic for this, but I found it to be silly, instantly forgettable and boring. With the pop-culture meter going through the roof. I don't know why this was a hit, I know I could not sit through it again. Seeing them computer animated, and well, small, just didn't look right. Sometimes cartoons do not translate well to a real-life/CGI medium.

But I digress, its for the kids right?. . . yeah. . .for the kids.

What were you thinking? That sounds like child-abuse! :p

Saturday night - wife and I watched "Garden State". Not bad. One really outstanding visual gag.

Randy

Watched Poseidon (HD DVD). I picked this movie up on HD DVD months ago for next to nothing but had not had time to watch it... Ughh.. Should have waited. The PQ/AQ was very good, but aside from that, the movie was forgettable and quite corny. The action was great, but the whole movie was very predictable. I would stay away from this one unless you really like disaster movies... 4/10

Watched Carlito's Way last night on HD-DVD from Net-Flix. This was my last HD rental before they stopped carrying them. Pretty good flick, but this re-affirms my joy in Blu-Ray winning out. This disk froze up 3 times during the movie and it didn't even look scratched. This was a regular occurrence in HD and I have not had one issue with Blu.

Leon - The professional (Uncut International Version) DVD-SD
Remastered Audio and Anamorphic video

One of my favorite movies and had a chance to pick this version up for $4.00 in a closeout bin!

An additional 24 minutes is added to this version scattered minutes here and there. Added stuff is mostly the young love "crush" Natalie Portman (at 12 years old) has on Jean Reno. Nothing explicit going on but I guess it was too hot to handle for American tastes.

Gary Oldman as the drugged-out bad cop is a bit over the top but believable.
Jean Reno has to be one of the finest actors around.
Natalie Portman is probably 14-15 but playing a 12 year old. Pretty well too.

Violence and language and drug abuse all over this film but a very good movie as well.

-t

i agree, jean reno is tops!

tonite, we watched the dvd 'torment' (4x3 a/r), about a couple on vacation and are attacked by a clown. mainly i just wanted to test the 4x3 capabilities of my a30 at 1080i; it worked well.
movie was barely entertaining, a low budget 'slice and dice'.

Leon - The professional (Uncut International Version) DVD-SD
Remastered Audio and Anamorphic video

One of my favorite movies and had a chance to pick this version up for $4.00 in a closeout bin!

An additional 24 minutes is added to this version scattered minutes here and there. Added stuff is mostly the young love "crush" Natalie Portman (at 12 years old) has on Jean Reno. Nothing explicit going on but I guess it was too hot to handle for American tastes.

Gary Oldman as the drugged-out bad cop is a bit over the top but believable.
Jean Reno has to be one of the finest actors around.
Natalie Portman is probably 14-15 but playing a 12 year old. Pretty well too.

Violence and language and drug abuse all over this film but a very good movie as well.

-t

I loved the Professional and was thrilled to get an extended version. But I didn't care for the uncut version; I found it creepy as heck. There surely wasn't anything graphic but it certainly changed the dynamic of the relationship between the two from one of a teacher and pupil to a much more unsettling tone... Stay with the The Professional (IMO).

FWIW, Natalie was 13 when this movie was made.

I loved the Professional and was thrilled to get an extended version. But I didn't care for the uncut version; I found it creepy as heck. There surely wasn't anything graphic but it certainly changed the dynamic of the relationship between the two from one of a teacher and pupil to a much more unsettling tone... Stay with the The Professional (IMO).

FWIW, Natalie was 13 when this movie was made.

I saw it as a school girl crush on a teacher...
From Mathilda's point of view it was "True Love"! From Leon's pov, it was sheer terror on his face about what Mathilda was telling him. It's the only time in the movie that he's truly scared! :D

I thought the original alluded to this anyway so I wasn't surprised to see it in the uncut version. Now, if things had gotten really physical, I would have thrown it out!

-t

Watched the "The Transporter" on Blu-Ray last night. I got 1+2 on a BOGO deal awhile back, and finally found the time to watch #1. Definitely over the top action, but I was really entertained. Fun movie. Great action. 6.5/10.

tonight it was Man on Fire for me. i had seen this when it first came out, but i have been revisting a lot of flicks since my HT has been completed. it was the BluRay version. the picture and sound blew me away. plus, i forgot that this is a really good movie. later.

tonite, watched dvd of 'alien vs hunter' (?) a complete P.O.S. creature feature.
and i knew that going in.:p but it was almost fun laughing at how predictable everything was.

a 1:20 waste of pj lamp time.

Watched "Wristcutters" the other night. It was a refreshingly original film with some cool music and an interesting plot. No blood to speak of despite the title (as it is a road-trip/love story and not a slasher movie). Well worth checking out if you like independent movies.

My wife and I watched Dan in Real Life last night. We both really enjoyed this one. Many humorous as well as heartwarming moments. Very good family movie and I don't recall any foul language either even though Dane Cook was in it. He actually did very well and shows himself as a pretty good actor. Highly recommend this one.

+1 on Dan in Real Life. we watched it last weekend and enjoyed it. this weekend it was Rumor Has It and SuperBad. let me keep it simple here:

Rumor Has It = Cute, but not much too it.
SuperBad = Really Bad. stopped it 40 minutes into the flick.

later.

Sunshine - SD-DVD
Directed by Danny Boyle who did the "28 days Later" and "28 Weeks Later", "Trainspotting" and others...

Very good Sci_Fi flick. Not familiar with the actors except for a couple of them... I like Danny Boyle's flicks. They have an edge to them.

-t

Last night, "There Will Be Blood". Very good. The wife wants to watch it again, soon, which is very out of character for her.

Randy

Me and the wife watched "I Am Legend" on Blu-Ray last night. I had been wanting to watch it for sometime, but my wife also wanted to see it and we finally had time.

First of all, for some reasons my expectations were low for this movie and I ended up really liking the movie. It got a little slow in certain parts, but I think that it added to the story. I thought Will Smith did an excellent job. My wide did not like it as much as me. She thought it had "too much" suspense :) I will definitely watch this one again and am looking forward to picking up "Omega Man" on BD so I can watch these two movies back-to-back. I would rate this movie an 8.5 out of 10. PQ and AQ on this BD title were very good.

I watched Sweeney Todd last night (my wife wasn't interested). I really enjoyed this movie. I often get bummed when movies aren't available in Blu-Ray, but he SD version of this movie looked great! Very weird movie, but I really enjoyed it. The music was very good and Depp did an admirable job singing as well. This is a very bloody movie so be warned, but the performances made this well worth it.

We watched Elizabeth this weekend in HDDVD. Wow! The costumes were amazing. Beautiful colors and we enjoyed the storyline.

Watched SD-DVD of "Amadeus - Director's Cut"

Wow! PQ and SQ outstanding!

-t

Watched all star wars movies in HD. It was fun.

kind of a "black comedy" with Bill Murray as the central character.
He portrays a "Jacques Cousteau" like character who does Ocean docu-draumas for a living.

Weird, funny, full of funny quips and digs at the "genre" AND JC himself.
Not much on special effects, no big explosions, no major sound/visual stimuli, just Bill Murray being Bill Murray
I'd give it 2.5/5. Save your money...

Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

Actually popped in "Aliens Vs Predator Requiem"

uhm.

Well, the only thing to compare it to was the previous movie, so in that context, it was much better then the first. however, besides that, it was a subpar B movie. There was a LOT of criticism about the lighting of the scenes and overall movie and let me tell you. Unless your projector has a HUGE contrast ratio, your going to miss about 25% of the movie. The lighting is just ridiculously dim, and horrible to make out details, you will be squinting your eyes just to see what is going on. I heard even in the theaters, it was the same way.

Besides that, the sound was actually pretty good.

Its a shame. Two classic monsters that were once stellar, now find themselves in the cheesiest, 2-bit movies that continue to tumble down hill. James Cameron must be shaking his head, or crying.

i got my n'flix copy of avp2 today but im in no big rush to see it.:confused:
maybe later tonite.

a little will smith run for me.

i robot and i am legend both on blu ray. i robot is the best PQ and sound i have experienced. i am legend was solid too. movie wise both were 3 stars for me. worth a viewing, but not high on my repeat scale. later.

Watched SD-DVD version of "Next" with Nicholas Cage, Julianna Moore and Jessica Biel.

Wasn't expecting too much but it turned out Very good! A different kind of Sci-Fi flick.

-t

Watched "The Host". Maybe we were expecting too much from all the buzz about the movie, but it seemed slow and not all that entertaining, with odd plot bits and bad CG.

Watched "The Host". Maybe we were expecting too much from all the buzz about the movie, but it seemed slow and not all that entertaining, with odd plot bits and bad CG.

Hmmmm...I really thought the CGI was good. The movie did get a little slow and needed better editing but all in all it was a good click with some good humor.

T

Man, I've blanked on this thread for too long...

Lately, we've watched:

I am Legend, No Country for Old Men, Alvin and the Chipmunks and last night Walk Hard (and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.)

We had a Disney weekend and watched The Lion King, Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was good to revisit the great Disney movies.

Other adult movies: We Are Marshall, 5 stars
Spiderman 3 - great action
re-watched Bruce Almighty for about the 10th time. My kids love it.
Next - much better than expected. Certainly worth watching.
Breach - Pretty decent movie about the US Spy that sold secrets to the soviets for 20 years.

Also rewatched one of our favorites - Ever After with Drew Barrymore. Certainly a chick flick, but my husband has sat through it at least twice without complaining too loudly.

We screened Enchanted, Sweeny Todd, and the last game of the Avalanche -vs- Wild NHL playoff game.

Enchanted, better than expected, my wife gave it an 8 out of 10, I gave it a 7 out of 10.

Sweeny Todd, my wife gave it an 8.5, I gave it a 7.5....

Since my team won the hockey game? I think everybody gave that one a 10 out of 10 :)

rewatched ratatoille and also seeny todd. both are pretty good. sweeny todd is not for kids.

Watched a movie over the weekend with my kids. Let's see if you can guess based on my short description:

A princess steals something important from an evil tyrant and manages to just barely get it away before she is captured. It falls into the hands of a young farm-boy, who soon joins forces with a grizzled veteran of an earlier war (who was once a member of a special magical order), who takes the young boy under his wing and teaches him the mysterious ways of a certain kind of magic. They soon join forces with a smart-alecky and brash rogue - but can they trust him?

They rescue the Princess from the enemy, and travel to the rebels' secret hidden base - but are tracked! And now the enemy knows where they are. The enemy sends its forces against the rebels, and a battle ensues in a last-ditch effort to save the rebellion from being crushed by the tyrant. Only the skill and daring of the young farm boy, with the knowledge of the teachings from the grizzled old warrior save the rebels from the tyrant.



If you guessed "Eragon" - You're right!

Steve Scherrer:

I never thought of "Eragon" as a "Star Wars" clone. ;)

But then I missed that the healer John Coffey in "The Green Mile" was a Jesus Christ allegory, sharing the initials and allowing himself to be executed and flies/satan and know the sins of others and visiting the retched depraved etc.

Saturday I talked the wife into watching "The Matador". She reluctantly agreed, and enjoyed it. A dark, well made comedy.

And some tremendous LFE! There's a thunderstorm in the beginning that rocks!

Randy

Watched a movie over the weekend with my kids. Let's see if you can guess based on my short description:

A princess steals something important from an evil tyrant and manages to just barely get it away before she is captured. It falls into the hands of a young farm-boy, who soon joins forces with a grizzled veteran of an earlier war (who was once a member of a special magical order), who takes the young boy under his wing and teaches him the mysterious ways of a certain kind of magic. They soon join forces with a smart-alecky and brash rogue - but can they trust him?

They rescue the Princess from the enemy, and travel to the rebels' secret hidden base - but are tracked! And now the enemy knows where they are. The enemy sends its forces against the rebels, and a battle ensues in a last-ditch effort to save the rebellion from being crushed by the tyrant. Only the skill and daring of the young farm boy, with the knowledge of the teachings from the grizzled old warrior save the rebels from the tyrant.



If you guessed "Eragon" - You're right!

"Farm Boy... fetch me that pitcher?"

Watched "Across the Universe" in SD-DVD.

Being a big fan of the Fab Four and a product of the 60's it was an interesting Musical. Never been a big fan of Musicals. Not even "Hair" and "Jesus Christ Superstar". I thought the new arrangements of some of the tunes was done very well. Lots of sight references to the Beatles and Apple. Of course the references to the 60's are what the movie is all about! Had fun pointing things out to the younger members of the audience that watched it though I overheard one friend of my daughter telling her "Is your Dad a History Teacher or did he live through the 60's?" Not sure if it was a compliment or not... :o
"Ah youth!"

Worth a viewing. Probably not with someone young though....
-t

"Farm Boy... fetch me that pitcher?"

One of the best movies of all time!!!

"Farm Boy... fetch me that pitcher?"

"As you wish!"




"Wait, wait. Is this one of those kissing books?"

Watched "Across the Universe" in SD-DVD.

Being a big fan of the Fab Four and a product of the 60's it was an interesting Musical. Never been a big fan of Musicals. Not even "Hair" and "Jesus Christ Superstar". I thought the new arrangements of some of the tunes was done very well. Lots of sight references to the Beatles and Apple. Of course the references to the 60's are what the movie is all about! Had fun pointing things out to the younger members of the audience that watched it though I overheard one friend of my daughter telling her "Is your Dad a History Teacher or did he live through the 60's?" Not sure if it was a compliment or not... :o
"Ah youth!"

Worth a viewing. Probably not with someone young though....
-t

The wife & I watched "Across the Universe" this past weekend. The music was great and brought back memories of growing up in the 60's. The story line wasn't that strong but was still a decent movie. The wife really liked it... but she likes musical more than I do.

tonite we watched the excellent 1962 film 'five weeks in a balloon' with red buttons, fabian, barbara eden, and the great peter lorre. fastest 1:41 ive seen in a while.

this dvd is a homecooked -r made on my toshiba dr2 dvdr, an anamorphic widescreen copy from the inhd channel presentation from sept. '05.
it started off with 2.35x1 'scope' oar for credits then 'morphed' (zoomed i 'assume') into 16x9 for hdtvs (as inhd and other hd channels were want to do); it was still quite watchable on my 108" screen.

Rented : Before the devil knows you are dead

If you are a Marisa Tomei fan you need to own this dvd.
If you want more details read the MrSkin.com review.

Movie held my interest, be sure to watch the "making of" special feature for more insight into the direction given the actors.

Saw Before the Devil Knows Your Dead last night also. Agree with Big's comments, although its kind of a downer of a movie.

Also watched Layer Cake which I enjoyed quite a bit. Wish I had watched Layer Cake second.

Cloverfield tonight hopefully, if my pregnant wife isn't too tired (she wants to see this too).

Can you tell I am selling my house/theater in the next two weeks or what?

In the last few weeks I have seen:

Underworld I & II
Hellboy
Firewall (paint by numbers)
Shoot em up
Live Free & Die Hard (loved this)
I am Legend
The Fifth Element
Juno (nice little movie)
Sunshine (too slow)
Shaun of the Dead (fun one)
No Country for Old Men (disappointing)
American Gangster
Walk The Line (really enjoyed this from an audio perspective, despite not being Johnny's vocals)
Bullitt (didn't live up to the hype for me)
Troy (better than expected)
300
Transformers
Aeon Flux
U-571

Gonna miss the theater.

last pm we watched 'big trouble', with peter falk, bev de'angelo, alan arkin. premise was ok, but something was sort of off but im not sure what.
it was sort of 'disjointed', imo. hard to follow.

ah, maybe too much editing by and for starzhd.

this past monday when went with a classic. rented The Breakfest Clud (HDDVD) from Netflix. decent enough transfer and sound. not as great as i remember, but a fun movie. later.

tonites 'feature' was 1952's 'carson city' with randolph scott, raymond massey.
it was about the building of the 'virginia and truckee' r.r. from carson city, nv to virginia city, nv during the days of the comstock lode. good little western.

the real v & t opened for business in 1869, shut down in 1938. about 1 mile of it was reopened in '77 as a tourist train. the remaining ~15 miles are currently being restored/rebuilt as we type, again as a tourist train.

dvd is a homecooked dvd-r gleaned from TCM.

To gear up for the new Indiana film coming out soon, we've been watching the old movies, so tonight:

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Still holds up well, even though its Kate Capshaws worst performance. She does nothing but yell and overact throughout the entire film.

Surprisingly the sound wasn't all that great, just average. and picture, well, its as expected, not any better then the sound. I guess an eventual Blu-Ray release will address both issues.

Looking forward to Raiders tomorrow night (yes, we are watching them in reverse order, don't ask). Nevertheless, these DVD's coming from Lucasfilm, I really expected more. I think the Indie films need a special edition, just a touch up with visual effects. Many of the matte paintings are an eye sore.

Ok, das it.

Saturday night the wife's pick. We watched "The Painted Veil".

Randy

Friday night with my theater quite full.. Well 7 people total anyways. :)

Cloverfield - LFE impressive, strong audience participation, and a brief sampling during the socializing aftrewards revealed everybody gave it between an 8 and 8.5 out of 10. I really liked to directors vision in how to convery this story.


Saturday night - double feature after a not so great for me Avs -vs- Red Wings Matinee.
Eragon(sp?) and Water Horse - My wife and I gave Eragon (sp?) solid 9's... I have Water Horse a 6.5 and she gave it a 7.5 - 8.......

Watched Wild Hogs last night. I thought it was OK. Started off pretty funny but got stupid towards the end. Wife fell asleep so I guess that sums up her review. Tonight is Across the Universe on BR which I am looking forward to or part 1 of There Will Be Blood. I say Part 1 because this baby is 3 hours long so we'll we watching it over two evenings.

I watched Aliens vs Predator - Requiem by myself last night (wife wouldn’t and kids to young). This is the second movie I have watched on the PS3 now at DTS MA DH 5.1 and holy hell. Sitting in a silent basement by myself in pitch black watching that thing on the 133" screen was hard core. I've always been a fan of the Alians and I've never been so scared. Hearing the typical Aliens sounds coming from the rear and surrounds like that is just freaky. Swear to God I was looking around every 5 seconds. All in all a great experience for Aliens/Predator fans.

Watched Charlie Wilson's War (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013XZ2QK)
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, so if you liked West Wing's first two seasons you'll probably like this. I know I did. "Really sharp writer, really quick witted, as crackerjack a screen play loaded with his brand of surpurb dialog and moves like a house on fire. Deep study of contrasts and wit and intelect."
The resemblence between Philip Seymour Hoffman to Gust Avrakotos is an amazing stroke of luck -- "who looks like Gust, oh, yea, an academy award winning actor, I don't think that's a tough sell."

tonite, we watched hd dvd 'the brave one' with jodi foster; pretty good!

I watched Aliens vs Predator - Requiem by myself last night (wife wouldn’t and kids to young). This is the second movie I have watched on the PS3 now at DTS MA DH 5.1 and holy hell. Sitting in a silent basement by myself in pitch black watching that thing on the 133" screen was hard core. I've always been a fan of the Alians and I've never been so scared. Hearing the typical Aliens sounds coming from the rear and surrounds like that is just freaky. Swear to God I was looking around every 5 seconds. All in all a great experience for Aliens/Predator fans.

imo, that's what it's all about!

Last night watched "The number 23" in SD-DVD.
I liked it. Good suspense. Ending was a bit shaky for me but I could overlook it. I thought Jim Carry did a very good job. I'm not a fan of his work.

Friday night watched "Angel-A" in SD-DVD. Luc Besson film in French with subtitles. Great film! Shot in B&W but stunningly beautiful since it takes place in Paris which acts as a another character in the film. F-bombs used frequently in the film and so R-rated but if you can live with that, check it out.

-t

Friday night: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Nearly perfect. It's movies like this that made me start dreaming about having a home theater. I remember the first time I rented a VCR (yes, back in those days you rented the VCR, not just the movies!) and the first movie we rented was this.

Saturday afternoon we made a rare trip out to the movies and saw Iron Man. Outstanding.

Randy

Watched Unaccompanied Minors (2006) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QXDEG8)
It is cute. It is DEFINITELY safe for your child (7+ years old) to watch.
The film takes place at an anonymous midwestern airport that has been snowed in. A handful of minors traveling unaccompanied by parents or guardians are briefly left under the supervision of an overworked and easily overwhelmed airport employee. Working together as an unlikely family of their own they outwit and outrun Passenger Relations Manager Oliver Porter and his crew. Plummeting through baggage chutes rummaging around unclaimed luggage and canoeing down a snow-covered hill they turn Christmas at the airport into holiday pandemonium and along the way prove that the holidays aren't about where you are but who you're with.

The adult actors are commediens (Lewis Black, Rob Riggle, The Kids In The Hall, etc) you've seen countless other times usually doing material that makes adults cringe, but here they're totally sanitized.

Friday night: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Nearly perfect. It's movies like this that made me start dreaming about having a home theater. I remember the first time I rented a VCR (yes, back in those days you rented the VCR, not just the movies!) and the first movie we rented was this.

Saturday afternoon we made a rare trip out to the movies and saw Iron Man. Outstanding.

Randy
yeah, late '80s iirc, i also used to rent the vcr to see the movie. what a deal!

I just watched At World's End on HD VOD. Not too bad at all.

I saw Iron Man at the theater this weekend. Although the movie was in a DLP theater it reminded me why I like spending money on my home theater. I'm pretty sure even my meager sound at home beat the theater I paid $10 to watch a movie in.

Watched 2 movies this weekend.
First was Cloverfield. Couldn't wait the extra month to get it on BR, but the SD looked great. This is definitely one movie to watch from the back row of your HT. The hand held style of this on a large screen (118") can get to you. I really liked this movie. Very cool take on an old genre. It had good action, interesting characters, and just enough humor mixed in.

Second was Golden Compass on BR. I read all three books and thought the series itself really died out half way through the second book and than got just plain weird (sort of like the POTC movies eh..) The series became less and less about a fun story of other worlds and witches, talking bears, aironaughts, etc. and more an atheist agenda against God and the church. At least that's my take. Hey.. he has every right to write that, but I feel it was at the expense of what really could have been a great trilogy. That being said the first book "The Golden Compass" was great and the movie I thought did a good job holding true to the book and was well cast. The ending however would leave anyone who read the book going "HUH??? WTF??? Those were my words. No need for the obligatory spoiler alert. If you read it you know what I am referring to. The BR commentaries did explain the directors rational thought so I felt a little better, but I doubt there will be a second movie for "The Subtle Knife".

Charlie Wilson's War - My wife gave it a 7.5 and I gave it an 8 out of 10. Interesting look into goverment though for sure. The sorts of things that are going on we rarely get to know about even more than a quarter century later.


Cats - A fliming of the actual theatrical showing when it was hot with most of the original long running cast. It had a solid and engaging 5.1 soundtrack..... My wife gave it an 8.5, I reluctantly had to give it an 8. You have to judge mucals against other musicals in my opinion, and this one had great songs for sure.

Iron Man is SICK! If you havent already, go see it..the Blu Ray is going to be awesome! The wife stayed home and watched There Will Be Blood.

Watched 'Gone Baby Gone' - Half way through the movie I thought it was pretty weak, story-telling-wise, but that's because I 'called' and then dismissed the correct ending :)

Golden Compass on tap.

We watched "The Condemned" this past weekend. It received 4 stars on Netflix, and sounded like a good action flick for my husband.

Wow- it is incredibly violent! The premise is interesting though:

A television mogul "rescues" or "buys" people who are on death row in third world countries. He puts them on an island that is wired with cameras and tells them that the last one alive in 30 hours gets to go free. Then he charges 49.99 to watch it LIVE over the internet.

If you like lots of action and violence you'll probably like this movie. It's actually disturbing as I could see people paying to watch something like this.

Home today sick so this morning I watched "Lust, Caution" on SD-DVD.
Directed by Ang Lee . Subtitled.

Very good story. Though some violent sex scenes so be warned.

-t

While home due to sickness, this afternoon I watched "Lawrence of Arabia" in SD-DVD. That ate up most of the afternoon!

One of my all time favs...hadn't watched in a couple of years. Probably when I was last under-the-weather.

Have to say that the best part of being sick is having a HT to get better in!

-t

i had recorded the series, and started watching a few days ago.
About what I expected from a PBS produced show....
Lots of whining, too much drama for me, really. just shut up and let us watch the jets takeoff!
Other than that, loved the vistas, the stuff "mechanical", and just seeing "how do they do that"? stuff.
Don't know if I am going to buy the DVD series, but fun to watch...

Am I the only one who knew that one airmans "GF" was gonna drop him like a bad habit? Wow! Was he a little slow at reading the clues or WHAT?!?!?!
Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

Catch & Release as previously mentioned was pretty darn bad.
Old Kevin did pretty decent and was the bright spot of the movie.
The flyfishing scenes were a joke...
3/10

last nite, we watched the 1963 wwII movie. filmed in panavision; with cliff robertson, robert culp, and one of my favorites, norman fell (stanley roper of 'three's company'). great humour and action; very enjoyable.

film was presented by hdnet movies in early '05 in its o.a.r. of 2.35x1. i recorded it on dvr, then made -r copy. unfortunately, i didnt know how to properly operate my newly aquired equipment at the time so i ended up with a letterboxed 2.35x1 oar, 4x3 disc instead of an anamorphic w/s version. bummer!
playing on tosh a30 and using pj zoom it still looked very good!

i did spread out the 2:20 length over 2 discs to help with pq.

this will make a great bd!!!

it was 1 month later that i realized my dvr and dvdr could do proper anamorphic recordings. but too late, i had deleted movie from hdd and hdnet movies had moved on. i even called to try to reschedule, but no dice.

"The Golden Compass"

Uhm. There are just some movies, that do not translate to the screen. And I honestly think, this is one of them. If you haven't read the books, your in for a difficult time. The movie simply left me with no opinion, besides this one. It was just. . ."meh".

Nothing good, nothing terribly bad, just. . ."oooook". Rent it. Just rent it. Actually, read the books first, then watch it.

Actually, we really enjoyed The Golden Compass. Armored battling polar bears. What's not to like? :D

Randy

Last night I caught Final Fantasy on HDNet movies,

Sometimes you even forget your watching a cgi movie, looked great on 106 inch screen

Last night: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Still fun (and much better than Temple of Doom). Can't wait until then release of "Crystal Skull"!

Randy

tonite, 'hellbound-hellraiser 2'; last time i saw it was '90 or '91 on vhs.
widescreen on 108" screen-much better! and gorier!

Last night we watched Juno. Very quirky movie but we enjoyed it.

I just finished the last season of The Wire last night. What a truly outstanding series. It's a real shame it ended at season 4. If you like investigative crime dramas, this should NOT be missed. Season one will get you going. Season two slows a bit but still builds the city's character. I think seasons 3 and 4 are some of the very best TV I've ever watched. I'll miss it.

Saturday night the wife and I watched "Juno". My 15 year old daughter is not leaving the house for the next 3 years!

R

We watched "No country for old men"...wife hated it as did the dog (he hates gunfire) ...I loved it.

We had Kid's night Friday night. Showing Golden Compass to six 6 to 9 year olds.

My wife and I both gave it an 8.5 out of 10....

Decent audience participation where at least near the end there was an eruption of jubelations when a particular triumphant moment occured. :)

The late show was Juno... Quirky is the best word for it. :)


The wife gave it a 6.5 out of 10, I gave it a 6.... Maybe a dozen good laughs in this one. NOT FAMILY friendly....

Watched 'I am Legend' a couple of nights ago. I was very excited about the 'idea' of the movie, and the plot... and usually Will Smith isn't too disapointing, but the movie in general wasn't nearly as exciting as I wanted it to be. I never felt like I got to know the characters so the ending of the movie (I am not going to spoil it) wasn't nearly as powerful as it could have been.

We watched "No country for old men"...wife hated it as did the dog (he hates gunfire) ...I loved it.LOVED that movie. The use of silence was incredible.

We just got around to watching Blood Diamond on the weekend. I found it very disturbing - from a father's point-of-view anyway. I think its every father's worst nightmare to have horrible things happening to your family that you're powerless to stop. It wouldn't be so bad if it was all fictional. But the truth is that things like that are still happening somewhere in the world (usually Africa) on a daily basis. Its going on right now in the Congo, for example. It certainly makes you realize how lucky you are.

Watched Twister BluRay (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W4D94I/)

You've all seen this film. I loved it and watch it frequently, so I had to buy the BluRay too.

I thought the sound was great. I'm using the 5.1 optical out from my Pioneer BDP-HD1 bluray player.

For the first half of the film I thought, although the image was sharp, people's faces looked cartoonish, as if I could see the paste of the makeup on their faces. I was really disappointed.
Then I double checked, and I had my Pioneer FHD1 Plasma display set to the ISF calibration for my Toshiba HD-XA1 HDDVD. I flipped the Pioneer FHD1 to the ISF for the BluRay and WOW what a difference. Much better. Suddenly realistic looking. I've never seen a disk so sensitive to what previously I thought was a subtle difference between two ISF settings.

There are lots of complaints at amazon.com about boring sound and soft video on this BluRay vs the old DVD. IMO there are parts that have soft video, and parts that have very sharp video, and parts that have sharp video that should have been soft to mask some of the so so effects that appear so so due to the sharpness, and parts that have soft video that should have been sharper there.

Watched National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets [Blu-ray] (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013BM6JI)

Good bit of fun. :)

My only complaint is that it the movie didn't just start playing. It was almost half an hour before the movie started, between all the warnings and advertisements and load times and other junk. Boo Disney! Also, the menu seemed obvious, but it took me a few tries to get PLAY to actually work. Scrolling through the menu choices was easy, but it wouldn't actually PLAY for a few tries.

Page 47

Watched Evan Almighty (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UO4F9I)

Good film.
I didn't like any other Steve Carell film, but this one I enjoyed.
I was prepared for it to be terrible, with rumors of the final 'flood' being good CGI.
But I really really enjoyed the lions and tigers and bears and wolves and such.

God orders him to build an ark and prepare for an impending inundation, Evan sheepishly takes on the task (it's hard to turn down the job when your hair and beard grow to Old Testament lengths and God wants you to walk around in sackcloth).

Someone told me it was Ark-by-numbers. But it turns out to be "Ark Building For Dummies" the yellow book.

The laughs weren't because it was funny or stupid; they were more laughs of joy at "oh, isn't that, yeah!"
There are no good jokes (it's a commedy?), and it's preachy, but it's safe to show to a bible studier.

(I admit bias. See signature.)

Last night was "Family Night" = Enchanted on BR

I just finished the last season of The Wire last night. What a truly outstanding series. It's a real shame it ended at season 4. If you like investigative crime dramas, this should NOT be missed. Season one will get you going. Season two slows a bit but still builds the city's character. I think seasons 3 and 4 are some of the very best TV I've ever watched. I'll miss it.



They did 5 seasons.

They did 5 seasons.

Holy crap! I had no idea. Amazon lists season 5 as being released August 12th. I can't wait. Thanks Dinger.

I was sick all last week with a head cold. After day one I got tired of trying to find something on cable to watch so I rewatched, rented, or bought the following and watched them throughout the week.

Rounders
Troy
Underworld Revolution
Bourne Ultimatum in HD
Live Free Die Hard in HD

I don't have my HT setup in place yet but still enjoyed every one. Can't wait to watch them again once I get my stuff set up.

Friday and Saturday night the wife and I watched the HBO 2-part miniseries "Elizabeth I". Very good - terrific performance by Helen Mirin, Jeremy Irons and a strong supporting cast.

Randy

Two nights ago I watched "The Orphanage." It's a horror movie from Spain. Creepy, to say the least. Constantly looking over my shoulder. Gonna have to see about picking up a copy for my DVD collection.


Last night I went out to the theater for the midnight showing of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Though the characters definately showed their age, and the script was lacking a bit in his usual great one-liners and zingers, I couldn't help but watch the whole movie with a big, sh*t-eating grin on my face. It's great seeing him back on the screen.

Last night watched "No Country For Old Men". Wow! Coen Brothers do it again!!
Great cast.

Tonight...headed to the movies for the first time in years to watch the new Indiana Jones movie. Last movie I went to was the first Pirates of the Caribbean.

-t

Holy crap! I had no idea. Amazon lists season 5 as being released August 12th. I can't wait. Thanks Dinger.


No problem. I think "The Wire" was the best unknown show. I remember trying to get into it when it 1st started on HBO and didn't like it. It takes a few episodes to get into the show. After that you are hooked. For anyone looking for something to watch over the summer I suggest giving this show a shot. It's not in HD and it does start slow but it's good.

I know this is a little off topic but I went to go see Indiana Jones this weekend. I am not going to tell anyone to not see it but I do want to warn you. This Indy makes no effort to follow in its predecessors footsteps. Rather, it attempts to meld a combination of a winking nod to Indy movies and a 50's B movie. I think it is important to atleast go in understanding what type of movie you are going in to see. It was rather shocking to me.

We watched the Golden Compass last night. I have not read the book. I thought the movie was simply awesome. Amazing CGI and well put together all around. Im really pissed now that the fundies attacked this movie and told their flocks not to watch it. Maybe the books attacked "the establishment" more than the movie, but the I just can’t see how this movie threatened their religious beliefs in any ways. We won’t get to see number 2 and I would love to see it.

Saturday night I talked the wife into watching "Hellboy". She wasn't impressed. I still like it.

Last night, we all went out to see "Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." We all enjoyed it. Just as we were leaving the parking lot, I got a call from my oldest daughter who is spending the summer in NYC. She was calling to say she had was walking out of the theater having seen it, too!

Randy

I watched Cloverfield a few nights ago. I liked it. I thought it was an original way to tell the story. Good action/effects throughout and a few laughs as well. I thought the camera motion was going to be a nuissance but it didn't really bother me.

"Hitman" a few nights before that. A turd.

I am looking forward to see Indiana jones 4 in cinemas

National Treasure 2 on the BR, fun little movie.

Today we ventured out into the 'World' and slummed it in order to see Indy 4 (which is so new I'm not going to say anything about.). On the way out, my wife proclaimed: "I hate people, let's wait for blue ray from now on..."

National Treasure 2 on the BR, fun little movie.

Today we ventured out into the 'World' and slummed it in order to see Indy 4 (which is so new I'm not going to say anything about.). On the way out, my wife proclaimed: "I hate people, let's wait for blue ray from now on..."

My wife and I are the same way. Every time we go to a movie we are near loud talkers...EVERY TIME! It's gotten to the point that we can usually guess who it will be before the movie begins. We saw Indy 4 and the two old ladies next to my wife would have normal volume conversations throughout the film, despite her asking them to please be quiet!

I also watched National Treasure 1 and 2 BD, Master and Commander BD, The Mist (not good) and The Lookout BD.

I'm glad you liked it Randy. The longer its been the more upset I am about what they put together. I can't ever remember being so disappointed in a movie.

Last night my daughter popped out at 8:30 and said, "let's watch a movie!". So, girls pick. We watched "A Room With A View" - still a beautifully told movie with gentle humor.

Randy

National Treasure 2 on the BR, fun little movie.

Today we ventured out into the 'World' and slummed it in order to see Indy 4 (which is so new I'm not going to say anything about.). On the way out, my wife proclaimed: "I hate people, let's wait for blue ray from now on..."

Yup...went to see the new Indy flick last Thursday night and it was the first time at a movie theater in 4 years for me. Couldn't believe how many people are text messaging while the movie is going on! Really annoying seeing these small pockets of light every now and then in the seats around and in front of me.

Really liked the movie but I'll probably pass on going to any more movies outside of my own home theater.

-t

Watched National Treasure 2 the other night...I thought it was decent. a bit far fetched, but that is expected. Otherwise the movie itself wasnt horrible, and I was able to stay with it and enjoy it to the end.

Finally saw it. I had rented it twice but never got around to it!
Great sound/effects, pretty good story, and you just gotta love Russel Crowe as the bad guy.
We especially liked the train sounds as it entered the station. We were pretty sure it was right there in our theater!
Since we were in a Western mode, we also caught "Tom Horn" on the HDTV channel. One of McQueens last movie (second to the last). Not a lot of action, but still pretty good acting and vistas. Mono sound was disappointing, but they didn't have 5.1 surround sound in 1980...
Best,
Tom
Chinaclipper

Watched National Treasure 2 the last night and thought it not to be as good as the first one, but was it was entertaining.

At the wife's request, we watched 'PS I Love you' the other night. I have one word for it... borrrring. The wife even said it dragged on and wasn't impressed.

Finished watching "There Will Be Blood" last night with my wife. We divided this movie into two evenings since it is so long. This may be what saved me from falling asleep during it. My wife was not impressed, I am not sure what to think really. It was very very slow, but DD Lewis was just riveting to watch and his Oscar was well deserved. No spoilers here, but the end just left me saying "OK??" The score was also creepy as all get out which I actually liked. All in all I'm glad I watched it I guess because it did leave an impact, which you can't say very often about films these days.

I saw ONCE (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907657/) last night. Good date flick or one to watch with the significant other. Simple, yet touching.

I saw ONCE (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907657/) last night. Good date flick or one to watch with the significant other. Simple, yet touching.

I LOVE this movie. If you haven't seen it treat yourself and pick it up.

I also just watched Recount on HBO HD. It was phenomenal. MUST SEE for anyone with even a modicum of political interests.

Last night we popped in "Enchanted".

It was ok, and I thought a little long in some parts. Definantely for the ladies. I thought there might be more comedy, but if you've seen the previews, you've already seen all the funny parts. Typical.

But it was pretty good and family friendly. Though, I have two boys, and I don't think this was their cup of tea. I guess I will have to restore their manhood by popping in TMNT later today. You just got to hit the reset button every once in a while. :)

Last night we watched the first half of "The Andromeda Strain", recorded from A&E HD. Not bad for made for TV.

Randy

Just watched golden compass last nite, and was quite disappointed. Fell asleep about halfway through.

Watched Jumper (BluRay) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001794FOK)

I'd read the first two Jumper books by Stephen Gould.
I wasn't really happy with the paladin/griffen plot in the movie.
The movie goes to several famous places in the world, and there's plenty of action.

Watched VITUS. A swiss made tale of a child protégé who struggles with being too smart and talented for his age. A very well told story with struggles and a happy ending. It's a mixed language foreign film with subtitles. A Sony classic film at blockbuster NO CG, Violence or sex.

A good PG film for introducing a subtitled film to your children and having a discussion of it's life's lessons and the concept of an overbearing stage mother.

Watched the Orphanage last nite, and was pretty impressed. Nothing like a kid with a bag over their head to give you the willies.
Also very impressed with Once. Outstanding feel good movie.

We've been rewatching some big popcorn flicks in the HT lately. It just feels appropriate for the summer. We watched the first two Indiana Jones flicks over the weekend and Twister (Blu-Ray) last night. Twister was awesome on the big screen! My sub got a workout during those tornado scenes! :eek: Some movies have much more of an impact on the big screen and this was definitely one of them!

Last night I watched "The King of Kong : A Fistfull of Quarters". It's a very well-made documentary about an ordinary guy trying to beat the world record score in Donkey Kong. It was a great story about this guy trying to get recognized while the uber-geek world was dealing with the possibility of the current champion being beaten, who's like a cocky rock star in their world (and in his own mind). For me, there were a good number of laugh out loud moments.

Highly recommended.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/king_of_kong/

The wife and I watched "Children of Men" last night. It's a very dark, dystopian film. I've read the book, but it was some years back. This is not the type of film you could say you "enjoyed". It was well made, intense, but definitely not an action adventure (so stay away if that's what you're looking for.)

Randy

Also, the wife and I have been watching Season 1 of "The Closer". We're enjoying it!

Randy

watched "Meet the Spartans".

Do yourself a favor. SAVE your lamp hours. what a freaken train wreck, and abysmal movie. Just watch it on t.v. Its simply not worth the lamp hours. Pitiful movie, and poor execution with humor.

Just crap.

Watched "High Noon" with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly.
One of the best westerns ever made.

-t

Being a fan of music legend Bob Dylan back in the mid to late sixties, I wanted to see "I'm Not There". The movie chroniclizes Dylan's rise from an unknown folksinger to international icon and reveals how he reinvented himself many times over the years. I guess my one word opinion would be "disappointed". The music was good even though they didn't use Dylan's most well know songs. Throughout the movie, during one stage in Dylan's life I kept looking at the character and trying to decide if it was being played by a male or female. It was actually very distracting to me. I did decide it was a female actress. After the movie, I found that I was correct... the part was played by Cate Blanchett.
The movie did bring out some facts that interested me and I spent the next 2 hours, after the movie, online reading Dylan's bio. The movie was pretty much true to his bio.

Watched 'Charlie Wilson's War' & 'Rescue Dawn', both were fine

Also, the wife and I have been watching Season 1 of "The Closer". We're enjoying it!

Randy

I am glad to see you are watching "The Closer". I *love* crime dramas but most all of them suck these days. CSI.... all of them have brain dead scripts and horrible acting.....but "The Closer" is in a class by itself.

T

Saw Iron Man tonight, throughly enjoyed it. Robert Downey Jr. does a great job, the visual effects are superb and a really entertaining movie all round.

Next up, The Incredible Hulk!

Watched "Mist" on SD-DVD last night...:eek:

Cliche followed by cliche in this made-for-tv-but-we-went-to-the-big-screen fiasco. When the movies are this bad, we root for the monsters!

Save your money and 2 hours.

-t

Agreed on The Mist. Couldn't sit thru it and turned it off. It was a great short story by King tho.

Recent viewings:

Unbreakable - Good M. Night flick, altho not his best... the kiddies had not seen. Bruce Willis played a good dramatic role.

Master & Commander: Great Blu Ray transfer and surround track. Me and the boy thouroughly enjoyed the story. The Wife and daugher thought it was OK.

Talledega Nights: Couldn't get thru it. I think I've reached my limit for Will Farrel stupidity.


Up Next: Strange Brew! Gonnoa show the kids the classic...

The Incredible Hulk!

How is the different from the movie that was out a few years ago called 'Hulk' (it wasn't really that good...but then I'm not a comic book movie fan).

Watched "Mist" on SD-DVD last night...:eek:

Cliche followed by cliche in this made-for-tv-but-we-went-to-the-big-screen fiasco. When the movies are this bad, we root for the monsters!

Save your money and 2 hours.

-t

i think there's a thread here somewhere that says how good 'the mist' is.:p
i have it but havent seen it yet. wasnt expecting much, now even less.

the big question for me will be projector lamp time-is it worth firing it up for this movie.

i may be rooting for the monsters.

the big question for me will be projector lamp time-is it worth firing it up for this movie.



I've seen the mist and if you like the horror genre, it is worth the 10-15 cents of projector bulb you are going to use :) (assuming 3000 hours on a $400 bulb). It is a movie I'd buy to keep, probably not.