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

That show totally sucked. Some day it is going to be a cult classic due to it being so bad. :)

I watched the Orphanage last week and liked that one.

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.

I think my projector thinks less of me for subjecting it to this movie and another "monster" flick we watched last weekend, "Cloverfield". Both pretty bad but last night's was the worst. :)

-t

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.

I think my projector thinks less of me for subjecting it to this movie and another "monster" flick we watched last weekend, "Cloverfield". Both pretty bad but last night's was the worst. :)

-t

when i say ive got it, i mean i have my netflix rental copy.
i guess i'll have to try it. im not a 'moviephile', it doesnt take a lot to impress me, it would have to be pretty bad for me to regret playing it.

790 hours in 4 years with a $340 bulb. i was being facetious about bulb. kinda, sort of!:D

because of the video (shakey) cam deal on cloverfield, im already not looking forward to viewing it.

because of the video (shakey) cam deal on cloverfield, im already not looking forward to viewing it.

I personally wasn't bothered by it. I thought it was well done and true to what a home movie would look like from an average person with no camera experience. Since the whole premise is that your watching an amature video taped "event", I thought it added a sense of realism and unique intensity to the whole thing.

Try not to go into it with an "Ok, let's just see how annoying this is going to be..." attitude. You just might rob yourself of a pretty good time.

I finally got to catch up on some movie watching....
Two double features Fri. and Sat. night in the theater.

Bucket List - A little slow at times, but worthwhile indeed. Excellent dialog (script) and excellent acting from the 2 co-stars. Wife-8 out 10 Me-7.5 out of 10

Jumper - the 1st 3/4 was to boring. The last 1/4 wasn't enough to make up for it. Wife 5 out of 10, me- 5.5 out of 10

Crossroads - NO NOT The Brit girl.. on Sat, I picked up the 2004 re-release of Crossroads with Ralph Machio. (sp?) 1.85:1 anamorphic release. As a fan of this movie in the 80's, but, only seen on small 4:3 screens with bad copies. Oh man was it nice to see it in the theater on the big screen in all it's 16:9 glory.
We both gave this one an 8.5 out of 10. The only real con was the rather week audio track, it deserved much better.

Into the Wild - This one? I kept getting it reccomended to me over and over again by friends and co-workers. I think this is because most of them knew I hitch hiked across the country several times as a teenager. Well, no dissapointment here, the story is slow but compelling. Wife - 7.5 out of 10, me - 7 out of 10.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The previous week I screened the last Rambo, and Semi-Pro out n the living room.

The wife fell a sleep during rambo, but I gave it a 5.5 out of 10, maybe a 6 if your a big Rambo fan.

Semi-Pro - Well what can you say.. Stupid movie about a serious subject. Bad script, bad acting..... So you would think a low rating right? No way, it made us laugh out loud quite a few times, and that is a comedy's job in life right? The wife and I both gave a strong 7 and it probably deserved better with the amount of laughs.

Bucket List - A little slow at times, but worthwhile indeed. Excellent dialog (script) and excellent acting from the 2 co-stars. Wife-8 out 120 ...

Wow, that's pretty bad! :)

Typos.. UUHHGGG Worst part is a actually attempted to proof read the text before posting. :)

3 Movie weekend that was just OK

Friday – family movie night, pulled one out of the way back machine and watched – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – first thought – WAY too many songs ...secondarily – not a bad story, we all stayed awake. 3/5

Saturday – The Brave One - pretty straight forward story – not to suspenseful – decent acting by J. Foster. 3/5

Sunday – No Country For Old Men- Suspenseful, Creepy and Tense – very good to great 4/5

I personally wasn't bothered by it. I thought it was well done and true to what a home movie would look like from an average person with no camera experience. Since the whole premise is that your watching an amature video taped "event", I thought it added a sense of realism and unique intensity to the whole thing.

Try not to go into it with an "Ok, let's just see how annoying this is going to be..." attitude. You just might rob yourself of a pretty good time.

yer right, thanks! will go in with a positive 'tude'!;)

Was sick this weekend, so I got to catch up on what I'd missed this past year. Saw "The Brave One" with Jodie Foster, Terrance Howard. Great flick. Suspenseful. Original. Also watched "Michael Clayton. Needs no explanation. Just great storytelling -- plain and simple.

well, i didnt waste (just kidding!) pj lamp time on 'the mist' but i did waste 1:26 on some p.o.s. called 'alive or dead'.
never did figure out what it was about:confused:. supposed to be a horror flic but it wasnt.
at least it was a netflix rental so no great financial loss.

except lamp time:p.

I watch too many movies to list lol, when home (away at college but as far as I'm concerned it's home) we watch a movie almost every night... I'm with the parents right now so not nearly so many.

Had to get my brother in on some good R-rated flicks he wasn't "mature" enough for until now (or rather until our dad and I convinced mom they were good stories he should see even at his age) such as We Were Soldiers.

Tomorrow is my brother's last day of school and I took the day off to crank out a ton of Wolf's Rain which is an awesome anime. There are 26 episodes we gotta cram in, in about a week as I'm heading off to eastern Europe in a week. But we will do it no problem.

Mostly right now the projector itself is getting good video game time. Played through several games second or third times. Recently rented Viking: Battle for Asgard, and purchased The History Channel: Civil War (a great game for $20) and Ninja Gaiden II.

Haven't had a chance to catch up from last weekend.

Friday - wife and daughter picked. We watched the musical version of "Hairspray". OK - but John Travolta was awful.

Saturday night the daughter and boyfriend watched "Independence Day" - one of my favorites, but we weren't allowed to watch with them.

Sunday night the daughter and I watched "Terminator III - Rise of the Machines". She is now officially caught up on Terminator movies and TV!

Randy

Watched HellBoy on Blu last night. Good movie, an insane amount of work for the sub and good use of the surrounds. Movie felt more rushed than I remember, but it was like 1am.

Took most of the family out to see Kung Fu Panda tonight (very first movie outside the house for two of my 3 year olds). What an absolutely great looking movie. Excellent sound as well. All in all, a pretty darn good movie. No simple pop-culture references and a few good laughs and some really memorable sequences. In my book, one the best Dreamworks animated titles yet.

Watched Vantage Point BluRay (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0018CWW3C)

Really good action flick.
The anchorman short wrap up at the end was amusing too.

Pulled an all dayer yesterday and went to Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Indian Jones. All of them were pretty good flicks even though I was a bit disappointed with Indy.

tonite, star trek III.
hadnt seen in many years, last time on vhs, i imagine, so widescreen dvd via pj was pretty decent.
good to see the old crew again!
cant wait for these and the rest of the 'space operas' to come out on hdm.

Watched the academy award for best foreign language film of 2006, The Lives of Others

I can't say enough about this well done movie about the life of a East German writer and his actress girlfriend before the fall of the wall. Great performances. Interesting story. I would put in on your list of 10 movies to watch this year. This is not mindless entertainment if you are looking for that genre.

Be sure to watch the special feature with the writer/director for background on the story .

Available at Blockbuster.

Watched Rambo (2008) [Blu-ray] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015XHP2W)
This is mindless entertainment if you are looking for that genre.
The genre being just brutal violence all the way through.
It's better than Rambo 3, not as good as Rambo 1.
It's set in the Burma 60 year civil war.
You may watch the special feature with the writer/director for background on the story.
I'm not sure if the 50 caliber effects are accurate, but it takes gruesome and gorry to a new level of realism with five inch holes in people and heads and limbs being removed, and people walking on land mines and being blown to bits in detail (parts of limbs flying, internal organs flying, bodily fluids flying). Atrocities include repeated scenes of the massacre of innocent civilians in Burma, rape and the brutalization of women. In the classic hollywood action formula the bad guy does something bad in the first 15 minutes to establish him as the bad guy so that the good guy can kill him at the end. In this one the atrocities are throught the film. There is no plot or character development beyond that. The mercinaries dialog is pointless.

Last night we watched "The Rocketeer". Still fun - a shame they didn't make it a series!

Randy

Watched the academy award for best foreign language film of 2006, The Lives of Others

I can't say enough about this well done movie about the life of a East German writer and his actress girlfriend before the fall of the wall. Great performances. Interesting story. I would put in on your list of 10 movies to watch this year. This is not mindless entertainment if you are looking for that genre.

Be sure to watch the special feature with the writer/director for background on the story .

Available at Blockbuster.

Thanks for the reminder...I've been meaning to rent this after hearing so much about it.

-t

Watched "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer".

Just OK.

Randy

Perfect Stranger - got horrible rating on IMDB, but to be honest I didnt think it was horrible. Now dont get me wrong, it was not the greatest movie in the world, but I thought it was fairly decent, kept me entertained....

Watched "The Kite Runner" in SD-DVD.

Very good movie of an excellent book!

If you read the book, watch this film.

-t

Just finished the 3-part series on NASA: When We Left The Earth.

Great images and very interestng.

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

I picked up "The Kingdom" at Wallys for 17 bucks a few months back (HD DVD). I finally watched it last night. Wow, what a good flick. I was planning on selling it on fleabay to recoup some of my money, but it's a keeper!

Watched Jumper last night on BR. It was better than I anticipated actually. A pretty fun movie with some cool visual effects. Some glaring plot holes for sure, but all in all a fun flick.

Jon, we haven't crossed paths in ages, but I remember following your build closely. It's nice to see you on a thread about watching movies!!! :D

We watched Jumper this past Sunday evening. It had lots of potential, and did a lot of things right. But in the end, there was nothing to the plot except the gimmik of jumping. With the addition of an interesting plot, this could have been a real winner.

We also watched "Facing Giants". It was one of the few Christian themed movies that have what it takes to keep general audiences pleased as well. Great film. We were crying most of the way through. Particularly the pregnancy storyline. My wife and I have been in there shoes.

Caught "Be-Kind, Rewind", a quirky, fun flick.

Hey Tony, how goes it!? I do enjoy watching movies a little more than hanging drywall and Green Glue that's for sure:D Our church showed a clip of Facing Giants as a sermon illustration last year, and for a ultra small budget film made basically by a bunch of amateurs it looked very well done. I may punch it up on Netflix and check it out.

Jon, we haven't crossed paths in ages, but I remember following your build closely. It's nice to see you on a thread about watching movies!!! :D

We watched Jumper this past Sunday evening. It had lots of potential, and did a lot of things right. But in the end, there was nothing to the plot except the gimmik of jumping. With the addition of an interesting plot, this could have been a real winner.

We also watched "Facing Giants". It was one of the few Christian themed movies that have what it takes to keep general audiences pleased as well. Great film. We were crying most of the way through. Particularly the pregnancy storyline. My wife and I have been in there shoes.

Watched "The Man from Earth" last night. A little amateurish (acting, production values) and the PQ was terrible, but man this is fantastic, thought-provoking film.

Watched "The Man from Earth" last night. A little amateurish (acting, production values) and the PQ was terrible, but man this is fantastic, thought-provoking film.

Agreed on all counts. The person that brought it to me said that after seeing it the first time they watched it again the very next day because they couldn't stop thinking about it. I ended up doing the very same thing.

Dan

Watched "Slaughter-house Five" last night on SD-DVD...
PQ wasn't the greatest...

Never saw this before and I don't know if I liked it or not!!!
Lots of time-shifting between 2nd world war and 1950's and the future.

I'm sure there was a message in the movie but all I recall is Valerie Perrine's body. ;)

-t

Agreed on all counts. The person that brought it to me said that after seeing it the first time they watched it again the very next day because they couldn't stop thinking about it. I ended up doing the very same thing.

Dan

I wish I had done that same but had already sent it back to Netflix...

Well that's good enough for me :) "The Man from Earth" added to queue!

Ha, you'll probably get my copy, Tony! :)

Do you mean this one The Man from Earth (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UYX4Q8) about the 14,000 year old guy?

Yep, that's the one...

Watched "Hush Hush...Sweet Charlotte" on SD-DVD WS.
Bette Davis, Olivia de Haviland, Joseph Cotton, Victor Bouno...

PQ was very good.

Unexpected plot twists in the end...Enjoyed the movie.

Made me interested in renting another Bette Davis flick. "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

-t

Watched 'The Flying Scotsman' on SD DVD the other night.

Pretty good movie, good story. If you like cycling, you will probably enjoy it even more.

For those of you with Time Warner, there is a free movie available on-demand which is well worth your time. It's a ~90 minute suspense thriller whose plot I'm not even going to touch for fear of spoiling anything. It's presented in SD full screen, but I just zoomed to fill the 16:9 screen. Losing the top and bottom had no negative impact. The movie is riviting enough that you'll forget the picture is less than perfect. It's called "Shattered" and stars our buddy from 300 Gerard Butler, as well as the former James Bond Brosnan and the ever attractive Maria Bello (World Trade Center). Check it out, you'll be glad you did.

3.25 / 4 stars

Best of all, did I mention it's free?! :)

Watched Fools Gold last night with my wife. What is it about women wanting to watch movies with Matthew McConaughey with his shirt off:rolleyes: Anyhow it was a pretty good watch. Predictable as all hell, not very funny, but not boring either. Not much else to say about it I guess.

I'll give McCanaugey credit for being eye candy for the ladies, but I can't bring myself to watch him any more. He and Kate Hudson are being so typecast into these meaningless romaces that I'm ruined to them both. Even though both have had some great rolls at times.

Watched "Grizzley Man" for the first time. I was disappointed. It's the first time in forever that I convinced my wife to start a movie as late as 10pm, and I wasted it on this. I, as most, might expect it to be about the bears. It was more about the guy doing the filming. I expected a respectful naturalist and instead saw nothing but a self serving nutcase.

Watched Lost Room (SciFi Channel Mini-series Widescreen) (2006, 300 minutes) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MMMTD2)

I saw the second half of the first of six episodes on the Space Channel. Decided I wouldn't wait for it to appear week after week, so I ordered one. It arrived this morning, so I watched it all. Not bad. I'm content to have spent the ten dollars. Surprisingly great acting, good dialog, and a cast of interesting characters, and you have a mystery room worth checking into [no pun intended].

Detective Joe Miller discovers indestructible objects with extraordinary powers. One of these objects, a key, opens any door and going through it takes you to one of many identical motel rooms. His daughter wanders into the motel room and closes the door -- and the rest of the movie is his search to recover his daughter, and dealing with the various cabals who have been corrupted absolutely through contact with An Object.

Last night I watched 10,000 BC in BR in the theater. I must say I have been Soooo impressed with how quickly Netflix has been getting me new releases on Blu-Ray. I can't remember the last time a movie has been skipped in my queue because it was not available. Even the ones that say long wait or short wait I have been getting. I hope you guys are experiencing the same results. I think this started with their decision to drop HD-DVD and focus on BR.

Now for the movie. It wasn't too shabby. It is about what you would expect by looking at the previews. Sort of a combination of Apocalypto and Ice Age. There were some very cool CGI effects and my sub got quite a workout in several scenes. Who cares if Camilla Belle's eyeliner ran when she was crying, she's hot!!

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f71/jandawil/belle.jpg

In Bruges (DVD) - I had heard that this little movie was quite good. Other than that, I knew only that it was a crime movie with a bunch of English actors in it. I was expecting a Guy Richie type movie which I typically enjoy very much but this was a bit different. The movie seemed to start off a little slow but by the end I appreciated how the movie progressed, built the back story, and developed the characters. There was a point when my MTV generation, attention challenged, brain started to get a little worried, however, the last third pays off bigtime and with interest that had been compounding since the beginning of the film. In Bruges is very well done and Brendon Gleason's performance is exceptional. 3.5 out of 5 stars

Sunday evening we watched Definitely, Maybe (DVD). A romantic comedy with Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin. It's pretty good. Certainly different than most of the formulaic rom coms that have been out lately. 3 out of 5 stars.

Tuesday night... The Hammer (DVD). Adam Carolla, of Man Show fame, penned the story and plays the lead role in this gem about an aging boxer trying to make a comeback. Don't judge a DVD by its cover. This is way better than you might think by reading the premise and the stats. It's quite good in fact. 3 out of 5 stars.

Watched The Man from Earth (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UYX4Q8). Not bad. I didn't feel a need to immediately watch it again, but neither did I get that 'when will this be over' feeling.

Watched The Bank Job (BluRay) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019EXZYE). A right good film.

Watched How to Rob a Bank (2007) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001B3LILK). Bank movies of the past 40 years all follow pretty much the same formula: introduce the characters, some time breaking in, some time in, the getaway. Sometimes they do that twice in the same film. Sometimes they do it out of order as flashbacks. I had no clue what this film was, figured it was a B-movie. Obviously I had some pre conceived notions going in, and they weren't fulfilled, and that made it interesting.

Watched Wall E a few days ago.
Actually not too impressed.
6/10.
Animation was really good, but it wasn't as good a plot as some of the other Pixar's.

Finally watched "3:10 to Yuma". Excellent! I found it my favorite of last year, except maybe for "No Country" and "Juno".

First was "Drillbit Taylor". On a scale of 0-5, maybe a "2", but I like Owen Wilson. His charactor "Drillbit" is exactly like all the rest I have seen him do, this film was a good mirror for him.

The next was "Bucket List". I'd give it a "4" at least. Great acting, good little message. I despise the political rantings of both major characters, but they sure can act. In a nutshell, no special effects no loud bangs/booms, just darn good acting.

Third was "Tristan and Isolde". The ladies gave it a "4", kind of a chick flick to me, but, hey, I was outnumbered.

I have no idea who did the acting, but all and all interesting and fairly predictable story about the early unification of the tribes of Britain against the Irish in the 1100's (?).

Best,
Chinaclipper

Watched Hellboy2 yesterday, and was actually impressed. Good humorous flick. Guillermo does it again. 8/10.

'jurassic park III', sd dvd.
much better movie than i was expecting.
first flic to be watched on my new 'refurbed' onkyo 805 hd dvd player with reon vp and it looked really great in addition to being an enjoyable movie.:)

"The Mummy" - Ultimate Edition SD-DVD
Boy this looked and sounded (DTS track) stunning !
I see they stopped making this version and have just released a newer version (just with newer bonus materials).

-t

Last night - "Batman Begins". Have my tickets to see "The Dark Knight" today!

Randy

Watched "Bank Job" last night. Wasn't expecting much, but it turned out to be a very good movie.

Last night was "Definetely Maybe". Better than expected.

Night before, "Pete's Dragon" with our three year olds. Just as good as I remembered. I thought they were a bit young for it, but they stayed glued to the screen!

And I can't remember the title of the Mandy Moore movie we watched during the week, but it's the first one we've stopped halfway in several years. She plays an illustrator that teams up with a writer for a childrens book about a beaver. Don't get it!

this past fri pm (7-18), 'the bucket list'; pretty good!

Watched "Lara Croft - Tomb Raider" in SD-DVD...

Not sure why I wanted to watch this so badly...and then afterwards felt let-down!

-t

last night, 'starship troopers', the superbit dvd.

3rd time i've seen it. 1st 2 times were vhs!
this time in widescreen thru pj.
it just looked amazing!! and this was just the sd version.

Watched Chaos (2005) on DVD. This is a very predictable action/thriller with mediocre action and no thrill. It stars Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe, and Wesley Snipes. This movie is below Statham and Phillippe but seems just right for Snipes. A very average 2.5 out of 5.

Watched Charlie Barlet last night. We enjoyed it quite a bit. Pretty funny.

Watched Pitch Black on HD DVD. It had been awhile since I last saw it and it's still one of my favorites.

westgate:
Starship Troopers 1 -- good film
Starship Troopers 2 -- horrible horrible film
Starship Troupers 3 -- comes out this week.

westgate:
Starship Troopers 1 -- good film
Starship Troopers 2 -- horrible horrible film
Starship Troupers 3 -- comes out this week.

i know about #3 and somewhat agree with your assessment of #2.
imo, #1 is a classic! here's hoping #3 is really good!
:)

Watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" in SD-DVD.
My wife is a fan of the author and wanted to see this. I thought it was a Jane Austen type of period romance movie but it turned out not to be.

It does have it's time frame in the period of Henry the VIII but it's not "Jane Austen". Very good movie I thought. Wife said it didn't match the book but at 700+ pages, it would be difficult to put all that into a 2 hour movie.

Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanson put in great performances.

-t

I currently have HD-DVD and watched TOP GUN HD, GALAPAGOS HD on disc.

With Comcast On-Demand it was "Black Lectroids from Planet 10" and "This is my boom stick!" movies. Both campy, cult classics and looked great in HD, see if anyone gets the titles to those two :D



Batman Begins in HD-DVD arrives today from Netflix.

Just finished The Spiderwick Chronicles. I was pleasantly suprised. I've had it on loan for a little while and decided to give it a chance. Pretty darn good fun.

watched Bank Job and There Will Be Blood on bluray this week. Both good.

I netflix'ed Gone With the Wind and watched in over the past 2 days (4 hours long). First time I've seen it. Good movie, I recommend it!

:)

Watched Stargate - Continuum [Blu-ray] (2008) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017XOF5A) next week.
I've got all the Stargate episodes/movies on DVD.
This one was/will-be good.
It has/had lots of action.

When it started I wasn't happy with the BluRay compression (low res, pixelated, fuzzy, soft focus), but it seemed to get better.

Over the weekend we watched...

The Dark Knight (AMC Theater) - Really good superhero type flick. The hype on this movie was so high it would have been impossible to live up to it. It did pretty good.

I kept trying to see Heath Ledger under that makeup or the actor behind the perform ace, I couldn't. The best adjective I can come up to describe his performance is... seamless. There's no indication that his part is being acted. While, in my opinion, it's easier to do extremes in acting than it is to portray someone "normal" that we're all used to seeing everyday, the job this guy does is exceptional.

I'd like to see this film again before deciding for sure how it stands up against other great movies, but for right now I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.


The Bank Job (Blu-Ray) - I liked this movie very much. Good cast, good story, good suspense, well paced, excellent movie. 3.5 out of 5 stars.


Stop-Loss (DVD) - I didn't like this movie at all. The opening scene, the road block in Iraq, is so ridiculous that it tempered the rest of the movie for me. This movie is more of an example of what consistent stupid decisions will get you than any message about the military/government abusing its powers. If the makers of this movie were passionate about the topic, they should have made a documentary. A documentary would have had more impact and felt more genuine. I watched this movie to be entertained and maybe a little informed. What I got was little of the former and none of the latter. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

The wife and I finally got around to "Brokeback Mountain". I was impressed at how well told the story was.

Randy

last night, 'bruce, almighty'.

it was ok, i guess. thanks to the powers that be for morgan freeman. only reason i wanted to watch the movie in 1st place.

The wife and I finally got around to "Brokeback Mountain". I was impressed at how well told the story was.

Randy

Randy, it took me awhile to get to "Brokeback" as well. As opposed as I was to the subject matter, the storytelling, acting and scenery all one me over big time.

Last night was one of those Home Theater moments that remind me why I love the hobby. I have twin 3 year old boys, that up until now have only been interested in the more elementary kids stuff. However, they saw a trailer for "Indiana Jones" and kept repeating his name for several days, and actually humming the theme song. Da da da ddaaaaa, da da daaa.....

I decided we would give it a shot in the theater with the whole family. I just knew we were 4 or 5 years too early. NOT! We put in "The Last Crusade", and they were glued from the opening music all the way through the end of the credits.

For me, it was a defining moment in my Home Theater hobby. I've always said that the room is worth nothing if not filled with the people I love. And here were my wife and two kids watching a movie that was one of my childhood greats (that my Dad took me to). Eating popcorn, clapping, laughing. When Indy and the tank go over the cliff and you don't know if he lived, Ethan actually scooted to the edge of his seat and waited for the reveal!

It reminded me how great this hobby can be, how great fatherhood is, and how great the two go together.

Great story tony! Thanks for sharing. I have a son approaching the 2 yo mark and I'm eagerly anticipating for the day where I can have a similar experience. But right now, we're still "enjoying" the likes of Thomas, Clifford, Signing Times, and Bob the Builder on the big screen downstairs. :)

That's terrific, Tony.

My girls were a little older by the time I built my theater, but I've really enjoyed the times we've spent there. I still remember the first time we fired it up - still no seating and boxes and cables on the floor. We watched "X-Men" and had a terrific time, sitting on the floor in our jammies.

http://web.mac.com/cptnrandy/iWeb/Cinema%20Murray%20Online/Cinema%20Murray%20Construction%20Pt.%202_files/DSCF0013.jpg

My oldest is now a junior in college, but when she's home she loves to relax in our little sanctuary. And my youngest, now working on her driver's license, but loves to have her friends over for movies.

Yep, a great hobby!

Randy

last night, 'bruce, almighty'.

it was ok, i guess. thanks the powers that be for morgan freeman. only reason i wanted to watch the movie in 1st place.

while watching b. almighty mon. pm, one of my neighbors called the police around 10:30, claiming there was a domestic disturbance or fight. cops asked me about it, i said no fight here, so they looked around neighborhood a bit, came back, asked what movie i was watching, asked me to turn down a bit just in case that was the issue.

i guess the argument between j. carrey and j. anistons' characters was the 'fight' the neighbor heard. i guess.
i do keep all the windows open.

windows open watching a movie at 10:30pm....in a neighborhood? sounds like you're asking for trouble.

Watched "Devil Wears Prada" for the first time. Pleasantly surprised. First time I've liked Anne Hathaway.

tonite we watched 'the hunt for red october, bd. very suspenseful.

i hadnt seen it in several years, probably a vhs version.

Sunday night, "Empire of the Sun". Highly recommended. A young, but recognizable Christian Bale (Batman!) stars.

Randy

tonite we watched 'the hunt for red october, bd. very suspenseful.

i hadnt seen it in several years, probably a vhs version.

How was the pic on the Bluray?

Last night was "The Wizard of Oz" for the first time with my kids. They liked it, but not nearly as much as shoot em up action stuff. Boys.

We've watched "Gone Baby Gone" twice now in the last week. It was that good.

tonite we watched 'the hunt for red october, bd. very suspenseful.

i hadnt seen it in several years, probably a vhs version.

How was the pic on the Bluray?

pretty darn good!
good detail, sharpness, etc.(player set @ 1080i), i thought, coming thru a 720p pj.

My wife and I have been waiting for a new blockbuster to settle down and watch in our recently 'near' complete theater. Something like Iron Man or Dark Knight. But in the meantime, I have been dusting off some old titles. The other night we watch Starship Troopers (standard edition)...I still really like this movie. Holds up really well.

I may turn to The Matrix (standard edition) for my next flick, but we have rented a disc from BB called The Dark Crystal. I loved this flick as a kid, I wonder how my 5 (girl) and 9 (boy) year olds will like it.

Its hard to watch a movie at night with the Olympics on.

watched Cocaine Cowboys (SD). I loved it.

Friday night the wife and I watched "The Notorious Bettie Page." Very good.

The wife enjoyed it too - she had never heard of Ms. Page, but was not surprised that I was "well informed" about her. :D

Randy

"National Treasure II" tonight. It didn't have the magic of the first one.

Friday night the wife and I watched "The Notorious Bettie Page." Very good.

The wife enjoyed it too - she had never heard of Ms. Page, but was not surprised that I was "well informed" about her. :D

Randy

That's funny...I watched it Saturday. Gretchen Mol did an excellent job.
To think that in the mid-fifties a Congressional Committee would be looking into it's citizens sexual desires with nearly the same level of intensity as it was looking into it's citizens political affiliations, is quite alarming.

Good HBOfilms production.

-t

Last night we watched Music and Lyrics with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. Cute chick flick.

Wouldn't watch it again, but it was OK.

CJ

Watched Street Kings [Blu-ray] (2008) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BP4K2M)
I enjoyed it. Never felt the urge to pause it. Didn't notice that I'd forgotten to make popcorn until it was over.
Certainly a lot of action. Good guys are corrupt. Bad guys are corrupt. This ain't Jack Webb (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0916131/).

My Oppo spit out two films recently:

1. Shinobi. An import, obviously, from a fairly popular film that was making the rounds, and apparently, everyone was talking about. It was good, but you know, once you've seen one hyper-kung-fu movie, you've seen them all. The jumping, soaring, tragic love . . . . eh, I think I'm done with these.

Next. . .

2. Fire and Ice (1983 Frezzetta film). Another cult classic, which I decided to try out and see what the appeal was. All I can say is, it was just. . ok. I know many follow and love this film, and I did appreciate what it was trying to accomplish, but the whole rotoscoping over animation just looked like crap (though the same thing is done in CGI, its just pulled off better). The story was primitive, and was a fairly grainy film, visually. Unbelievably it had a DTS 6.1 track, which I was really surprised at. This was a good first attempt to bring Frezzeta's paintings to life, and there is more titillating action with the female role then any playboy could provide, but I wouldn't use up lamp hours on this one (glad I didn't). So, lucky I just nextflixed these two.

Tonight, I'm watching an American classic. . . . The Running Man!:D

Watched 21 on BR. It was a fun movie. I enjoyed the book better.

cglionna:
Have you seen The Last Casino (2004) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FFJ8SA)
I think it's the same story as 21, except done well on a lighter budget.
(I've seen The Last Casino, but not 21)

Watched The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior [Blu-ray] (2008) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AV3BXG)
It was bad.
My advice: skip it.

Watched The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior [Blu-ray] (2008) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AV3BXG)
It was bad.
My advice: skip it.

First clue:The movie is called "The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior"

'nuf said.

I second that!:D

OK it's a couple years old but we watched "The Greatest Game Ever Played".
Great movie even if you don't like golf, Mrs. enjoyed it also.
Highly reccommended.

Scott

My wife and I watched Juno on Friday night. The movie was entertaining, but was very uneasy to accept how everyone was "ok" with a 16 year old being pregnant. Of course, I would have been equally disappointed had this been a movie been nothing but preaching about abstinance.

The 2 teenage actors also played their roles way above the maturity levels of almost all teenages these days. Again adding to the unrealistic nature of this movie.

Doug, I see where you are coming from on Juno...Still it, was a good movie, and well acted.
I watched Bella over the weekend. Very good, and I recommend it 8.5/10
Excellent flick about a down and out soccer player.

Talk about "part 2" being your first clue to a bad one....we watched "The Jungle Book part 2" with the kids last night. Terrible!

Friday night though we watched "Bucket List". I thought it was much better than most of the reviews I've heard.

My daughter had her boyfriend over Monday night and they watched "Reign of Fire." (at least they said they were watching the movie!).

From my 2nd floor office (theater in the basement), I kept thinking, "is that a thunderstorm rolling in?" :)

Randy

cglionna:
Have you seen The Last Casino (2004) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FFJ8SA)
I think it's the same story as 21, except done well on a lighter budget.
(I've seen The Last Casino, but not 21)

Basement:

I have not but will add it to my list. Thanks.

Watched Literary Classics Collection (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KJU18M)

This box set contains six films:
- Madame Bovary (1949)
- Captain Horatio Hornblower (1950, Gregory Peck)
- The Three Musketeers (1948, Gene Kelly)
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1937, Ronald Colman)
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1952, Stewart Granger)
- Billy Budd (1962, Terence Stamp (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000654/))

I bought the set because I had watched
Doctor Who - The Androids of Tara (1975) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000067FPI), which is a thinly veiled but fairly good Prisoner Of Zenda, and
Prisoner Of Zenda (1979, Peter Sellers) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079753/) which is just awful,
and I knew there had to be a better version of Prisoner of Zenda out there somewhere.
Well, the 1937 Prisoner Of Zenda was really good. The sword play was incredible. Interestingly Ronald Colman looked A LOT like the fellow who played the Prince/King roll in the Doctor Who version. Of course Dr Who is about time travel, so maybe they just popped back in time and snatched Colman for a week in 1975.

The 1952 version of Prisoner Of Zenda was just good. It was a shot-by-shot remake of the 1937 version in technicolor, and not nearly as well acted.

I imagine everyone's seen the 1973 and 1974 versions of the Three Musketters, and probably the 1993 version, and some of you the 1921 and 1933 versions. And what I'll call the sequel, "Man in the Iron Mask" 1998 version.
Well, the 1948 version outdistances them all. Very good. Lots of fun.

Gregory Peck as Captain Horatio Hornblower was a good film. Lots of legendary figures. On the other hand this movie is on television a lot.
Ioan Gruffudd's 1998-2005 miniseries/movies-of-the-week remake (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AYEIW2) I enjoyed too.

I think I've seen Madame Bovary on television once before, and while it had moral applicability to history and today, and hence it's a Literary Classic, I can't say it was fun to watch. Good acting, good direction, but the plot itself is intentionally depressing.

Billy Budd I'd never heard of. Peter Ustinov is in it. And for you NCIS and ManFromUncle and InvisibleMan1975 fans, David McCallum (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0564724/) too. The first half was dreadfully dull, but the second half while utterly predictable was indeed another moral play and was quite watchable as a Literary Classic.

Kicked off labor day weekend with Street Kings (BR). I really liked it.

Tried To watch Street Kings but couldnt finish. If your a big action fan then you might like it , otherwise SKIP!!!

Watched "Hitman" on SD-DVD.
Should have spared my bulb the usage...

Later, watched the 40th Anniversary of "The Graduate".
Looks and sounds beautiful! Holds up very well for a 41 year old movie.
Very nice "bonus features" too.

-t

Watched "Shoot Em Up" in HD recorded from Showtime. This is an awesome movie with such over the top action scenes we were laughing as well, also many great one-liners from Clive Owen and Paul Giamotti.

The wife and I watched The Lookout (2007) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427470/) on DVD Sunday night. The Lookout is a solid little movie about a high school hockey star that gets brain damage in an accident. With all his potential gone, he gets caught up in a bank robbery. Jeff Daniels is his blind roommate and is excellent in this movie. 3.5 out of 5.

tonight, 'shutter'.

n'flix blu ray; story started out slow, picked up.
not bad, all in all. good pq. not sure if i'd buy it tho.

also listened/watched 1st 2 songs from reo speedwagon @ soundstage live concert dvd.

Watched Revolver (2005) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365686/) on DVD over the weekend. This is the first Guy Ritchie movie I've seen that I didn't love. It's a jumbled, overly complicated, self indulgent (on the part of the director), mess. A generous 2 out of 5.

Behind on my posting:

A week ago Sunday we watched, "Gone Baby Gone." Very well done.

This last Friday night the wife and I watched "Atonement". Also well done, but not as satisfying - the wife really liked it.

And Saturday night we watched "Conspiracy Theory." I still like this one, but takes on a different edge once you know Mel Gibson has his own set of conspiracy theories . . .

Randy

Watched Match Point yesterday, and it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Kind of sick of cheating spouses. Well done, but not my cup of tea. 6/10

Watched Fringe (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119644/)
I laughed really hard around 50 minutes in.

Watched Fringe (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119644/)
I laughed really hard around 50 minutes in.

I don't plan on watching this series - could you post why you laughed in spoiler tags?

Randy

i just watched forbidden kingdom,this is a good movie with a good picture and great audio.next will be smart people.

I don't plan on watching this series - could you post why you laughed in spoiler tags?
Unfortunately I deleted it from my PVR immediately after watching it, so I can't quote it (although I see it's available on the FOX website as an HD download), and I won't attempt to make it as funny as I found it. The FBI woman, acting on her own, decides the only person who can help is a professor/medical-researcher who's been in a mental institution for 17 years and has gone round the deep end. If he ever knew anything, he's forgotten and now suffers from delusions of superiority and helplessness. First thing she does with him is return him to his abandoned 17 year old laboratory, and buy him a dairy cow to experiment on. He, while wearing a Charlie Manson beard, mentions a bunch of 'fringe' science things he's had huge breakthroughs with in the past -- paranormal, telekinesis, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, cold fusion, and every other unlikely thing you've ever heard of -- ending with that he's been able to read the minds of people dead up to 6 hours, and so he suggests that she strip naked, let him pump her full of sodium thiopental and thiopentone and halothane and remifentanil and LySergic acid Diethylamide and ram a 8" long by 1/2" diameter metal spike into her brain with a half dozen 22 guage wires running to a similar stick to a transparent near corpse while she floats in a sensory depravation tank. Someone in the background says I'll get started making the LSD (which traditionally the FBI frowns upon citizens making), and she turns to the guy who, based just upon what he's just said probably really really needed to be in an insane asylum for the criminally insane, and she says "sure". That was the first time I started laughing. Variations on this were a running joke for 10 minutes. Understand that for the past 50 minutes all this has slowly been introduced as being normal and reasonable. As she's undressing someone walks in to this university room and asks "Is that a cow?" and the reply is "Her name is Mable" and the questioner reacts: ok. The cow's nothing to worry about, and upon looking around, relatively speaking.

Gone baby gone. Outstanding. One of the measures I use to subjectively rate a movie is whether I stay awake and alert through the entire film. That said... it was late, I was tired, yet I was still captivated throughout its entirety. Check it out if you haven't already. Casey Affleck is superb.

Watched Speed Racer [bluray] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CD6FKS)
The super saturated colours were just wow.
The super saturated colours were just wow.
I'd never seen the original 1967 cartoon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008IHAV), so I'm not concerned that it may not have been faithful to the original.
Takes place in a world that's obsessed by acrobatic combative car racing.
The race courses and the cars were nifty (ignoring physics).
It certainly won't be remembered as the best thing the Wachowski brothers ever did, the physics and dialog didn't always hit home, but I think it's worth the bucks I spent on it. There's bits in there for 10 year old boys, middle aged folk, and one little section or two for the teenage girls.
They botched the compositing on purpose as an homage to the cartoon techniques of the 1960's -- which bothered me during the film, but now that I know what they were trying to do I like it.
They let the actors control their car gimbols, which in my opinion was a mistake since the cars don't track with the movements well and it would have been better to have the syncronized car force the movements of the actors.

The sound is dolby digital 5.1, but I didn't notice.
Remember when the big 'advantage' for BluRay was that with 50GB you could put everything on one disk. There's 3 disks in this box, two of which are pointless, and they skipped lossless audio.

Watched Beowulf on Blu-Ray. Meh... Picture looked really good, movie was OK.

No good releases for a long time now....
I jokingly decided to run an Elvis marathon Friday night....

Well, one thing I now know is that Elvis marathons bring them out of the woodwork...

We had 10 in attendance, 2 males dressed in Elvis full garb, 4 women were in 50's / 60's garb... And suprisingly this was the funnest even yet in my year plus old theater.

We started with the live concert Elvis Lives... OK, I am nto a fan but this rocked hard and was fantastic. Pumped us all up, I mean they were dancing in the isles!!! I did serve lots of beer and wine, I did not expect the standing o's, the "Elvis rocks dude" comments, and the general real feel of a concert out of it.

Next up? Kiss'n Cousin's...
Silly movie, decently funny, lots of scant pretty women and girls running around. Best thing it had goign for it? No beach scenes. Lots of classic Elvis lines. Decent get you up and dance sound track / song selections.

Last but not least - Viva Las Vegas. - Been long time since I pulled this widescreen LD out of the library for screening, but this is probably by far the best Elvis movie made. It has it all.... From the amazing Las Vegas Like production numbers, to Ann Margret and Elvis water ski'n on Lake Meade right in front of the Hoover damn. :)

Combine 12 people on Alcohol, Several over the top closet Elvis fans, lots of great munchies on the consession stand, a kick ass concert, and two "choice" old movies and you certainly have a fun fulled event. :)

frorule, I did the same thing with "Gone Baby Gone". It was an 11pm start time and I was sure I'd fall asleep. It kept me wide awake the whole time. :)

John, sounds like an awesome time! Thanks for sharing. It's nights like that that are the highlight of the hobby for me. One time we did a very similar thing to you for "Oceans 12". We had the whole house decorated in a casino fashion.

This weekend we watched "Annie" with the kids and "Casino Royale" for my wife and I. She started falling asleep, so we stopped it and will finish tonight. So far, I'm really really impressed.

'kingdom of heaven'. first time i've seen it.

bd; looked pretty good, imo. enjoyed!

Last night we watched "Outbreak". Still holds up pretty well.

Randy

Double feature Friday night. Speed Racer and Love Guru.

I had such dim hopes, the reviews were not encouraging.

Both very decent.
The visuals on a 106" screen with speed racer was well worth the price of admission alone. 7.5 out of 10

Love Guru, was interesting enough. I think he is going to have to come up with a new line of comedy though for future movies. Gags fell stale as often as they minorly worked. 6 out of 10.

Watched Definitely Maybe with the Mrs. last night. My wife loved it and I enjoyed it as well. I have always been a big Ryan Reynolds fan and he did very well in a role that was non-comedic for the most part. Elsa Fisher was great as well.

Watched "Life or Something Like It" on SD-DVD. Found un-opened on shelf. Should have left it where I found it. Must have been bundled with a newer movie in a two pack. I don't remember buying it.

Angelina Jolie as a blond, very odd. You should hear her sing. !)

Solid 6 out of 10.

"The Great Debaters" - directed by Denzel Washington

Story of how a small black college debating team of the mid 1930's located in Marshall Texas, works it's way up to debating the Harvard Crimson Team. As well as dealing with the racism around them.

Got lots of thumbs up in the house last night.

-t

What we're watching on TV this season (In HD, of course):

True Blood - HBO (can't decide about it, yet)
The Mentalist - CBS (interesting start - like a drama version of Phyche)
Law & Order SVU (all of the L&O versions are habit)
Heros (getting tiresome - we'll see)
Terminator: The Sarah Conners Chronicles (losing interest)
Ugly Betty (the wife and daughter love)

Can't wait for:

Battlestar Galactica
Lost
Reaper


Randy

Randy, I agree with you on Heroes. I'm hanging in there because I have two seasons invested, and want so bad for it to get better.

I'm a self confessed LOST NUT! During the season, I listen to 5-6 hours a week of LOST podcasts, and have fun analysing it to the nth degree!:) Yes, I'm embarassed for being so geeky, but get so much enjoyment out of it.

We watched "Speed Racer" as a family Thursday night. Good enough to not be "bad", and bad enough to not be "good".

Watched "Invasion" on SD-DVD.
Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

Updated version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".

Not too bad, a couple of holes in the story you could drive a 18-wheeler thru but Nicole Kidman is gorgeous! That makes up for the rest of it.:D

-t

Last night we watched "Charlie Wilson's War" - had a hard time talking the wife into it, but she enjoyed it. A very good, funny, and ultimately depressing movie. A must watch.

Randy

Watched Ironman on Bluray on Tueday looked and sounded great. As someone who never reads comic books I don't know if it holds up to the stories of the past but I liked it.

Watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Bluray last night and 1- though the movie was horrible. 2- PQ looked more like SD.

On another note I am going to journey out into the movie going world next week. I am going to the movie theaters for the 1st time in almost 2 years.

I have to see "The Express" on openning day. I was born and raised in Syracuse and a lifetime Orangemen fan and excited that people will soon learn the name Ernie Davis.

what's the movie about

http://www.theexpressmovie.com/site.html#/videos/1/1/

Watched Run Fatboy Run on Blu-ray.

Watched You Don't Mess With the Zohan (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DPHD9C)
On a scale of 0 to 5 stars: 1.5 stars.
Don't think I'll ever watch this again.
Somewhere in there I managed to smile for a bit, but I can't say it's worth money.

Watched Run Fatboy Run on Blu-ray.

Watched paint dry. :) :)

I think we're looking for your opinion on the movie otherwise my comment is just as pertinent.

Scott

Watched Crusade: a march through time (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AUKUV8)
It's another Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court sort of story, of which there are several, in the sense that a today single fellow goes back to medieval time and uses modern day morals and what he can remember of modern day science to help a helpful fair maiden and a cause much larger than her.
I had assumed that 'crusade' would have been like Kingdom Of Heaven with a bunch of adults running around making war with swords. Actually the 'crusade' is a crusade of children making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, more of a walk than a war, with some betrayal and man's inhumanity to man.

"Young soccer player Dolf fails to score in the European junior championships, causing his team to be eliminated. Returning home, he visits his mother's lab as she tests a revolutionary time-travel machine. Dolf decides to travel back 12 hours to replay the match, but accidentally ends up in the year 1212. Saved from bandits by the beautiful Jenne, his first attempt to transport home fails. Dolf joins Jenne and thousands of children on a pilgrimage known as the children's crusade, led by a young religious visionary, Nicolas. Finding his modern perspectives both a help and a hindrance to his thirteenth century counterparts, Dolf is alternately viewed as a miracle worker and the Devils disciple. Back in the present his mother frantically studies historical documents to arrange a rendezvous to bring Dolf home. While the journey is fraught with hardships, battles, treachery, and sacrifice, it is also a place where friendships are forged and a romance is born. His last chance to return home, Dolf rushes to make the rendezvous with Jenne in hand. Will Dolf return home safely with Jenne by his side?"

Other reviews
http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/article_info.php?articles_id=5424
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381111/usercomments

Of all the silly reasons to purchase a DVD, what actually knocked me over the edge on this one was one of the silliest. I've been watching "I Dream Of Jeannie" reruns and really enjoying them (although I hated them when I was younger), and so I went out to buy "I Dream of Jeannie" DVDs and noticed that the female character in Crusade's name was Jenne which could be pronounced Jeannie, so I bought it -- making it an "all Jeannie" DVDs day.

Anyway, Crusade is slow in spots, but I've never read the book, and I enjoyed it. 3, maybe 3.5 stars, out of 5. Nothing to write home about, but I don't regret spending the cash either.

Talk about completely different types of movies, I watched Iron Man with my neighbor and enjoyed it immensely and Sex And The City with my wife later on, a little long at 145 min. but since I watched the series with her I found it at least entertaining if not a decent ending to the series.

Iron Man: 5 out of 5 stars for action sequences, great video and, above all, stunning sound quality (the Jericho weapon scene in particular).
Sex In The City: 3 out of 5

I just saw Taxi to the Dark Side.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0854678/

I see a lot of movies (at least 3 a week) and this has to be one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. I didn't realize it until after I saw it it won an Oscar last year. It has to do with the torturing occurring in Abu-Garaib, Gitmo, etc....

It really affected me.

Agree with Sex and the City, went in thinking I would hate it, and it actually wasn't that bad.

This weekend:

Friday Night: TV! Caught up on 2 weeks of Prison Break. Good mindless TV

Saturday: MOVIES! Need to decompress so it was time for something fun.

Balls of Fury - if you like fun stupid movies where everyone in the movies recognizes that it's just supposed to be that fun - you'll enjoy this. Not to mention Chris Walken going WAY over the top.

The Matador - Decedant, Excessive, and Morally Bankrupt. I loved every minute of it. To see Pierce Brosnan in the Anti-Bond role was just great.

SUNDAY: More TV! Dexter and Californication. Twisted and fun. Great narrative stories with characters that are extremely engaging, even if one's a serial murderer and the other is a writer in Hollywood.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Marathon!!!!!!! I love the show.

Watched Doctor Who: Invasion of Time (1975) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AGXEBK)

The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) returns to Gallifrey after meeting a group of aliens in space, bringing Leela and K9 with him. He is behaving very strangely and when the Chancellory Guard under their Commander, Andred, arrive at the Panopticon Chamber to interrogate him, the Doctor demands to be taken to Chancellor Borusa, who is now in charge of the Time Lords. The Doctor claims the vacant Presidency of Gallifrey having previously been a candidate and, after the demise of Chancellor Goth, is now automatically elected. Under law this request cannot be refused. And then other things happen...

I always enjoyed this one, especially the scene "If you want to hide a tree, put it in a forest."

I was happy to see that the six episode set includes the Sontaran second half. BTW, the internet fans seem to have decided that the reason the Sontaran hand grenade can take out the galaxy is because he's standing on top of the Eye Of Harmony.

It is sort of the sequel to "Deadly Assassin" (can you be called an assassin before you are deadly?), which as near as I can tell is not yet on DVD. In Deadly Assassin, Doctor Who is accused of murdering the President of the Timelords and ends up president elect which he then declined.

"This is pure, unbridled Doctor Who."
"What can I say, the more Doctor Who is released the better the world is."

Does anyone know what happened to the Great Key of Rassilon (the de-mat one that looks like an old key, not the rod of rassilon or the key of rassilon)? Last I saw it it was lying on the floor next to Doctor Who's scarf. Did he pick it up and put it in his pocket? Did he leave it on the floor with the wild hope that the Chancelor will find it? It's a mystery to me.

scottyb: [humor] Although there is no paint drying, there is some remodeling of the president's office, and Rodan (Time Lady, no relation to the fictional 1956 monster) mentions that some rooms could use a coat of paint.

Watched Speed Racer. I was a bit skeptical at first, being a fan of the old series as a kid. However, I do have to say, the movie was good.

Rating- 3 out of 5 E-tanks(Megaman fans will understand)

The cinematics were stunning! The color contrast, and the futuristic stylings really brought this movie to life! That, and the T-180 is gorgeous drifting around the wild-looking racetracks.

John Goodman, Matthew Fox, and Christina Ricci were the only actors I recognized. Speed Racer was played by Emile Hirsch, an unknown for me.

The acting and plotline kind of threw the movie for me. I understand the movie is geared more towards kids/family, but there could have been a better effort made. the biggest problem I had was Emile. Speed Racer is a high-strung motorhead, like myself. Emile tried to play him off as this deeply emotional hero-type, out for revenge. There are 2 problems with this.

1) Speed Racer is not that emotional. He's a whitty and chipper teen with a fast car and a penchant for trouble.

2) Emile Hirsch has no emotion. Everything looked forced and fake. It felt as though he was going through the motions, but forgot the meaning behind it all.

Plot twists were also very easy to figure out LONG before they were ever revealed. Right up to, and including the ending(I will not spoil, but you will figure it out about 10 minutes or so into the movie).

It was an OK movie, and I'm sure I will watch it again, but probably not often.

Friday Night we watched "Catch Me if You Can" with Tom Hanks and DeCapprio... I thought it was a good movie...I had never heard the story before.



Steve

Catching up on this thread....


I LOVE this movie! Being in the geek I am, I somehow find obscure movies and doco's like this fascinating.

If you enjoyed it, I would check out Takedown. It's a fictional movie based on the events of the Kevin Mitnick ordeal. Fair warning, if you are a Mitnick fan(I am), there is a lot of twisted and untrue information in the movie. That aside, it is one wild ride!

Catch Me If You Can was released on December 25, 2002, earning slightly above $30 million in 3,225 theaters during its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $164.6 million in North America and $187.5 million in foreign countries, coming at a worldwide total of $352.1 million. The film was a financial success, recouping six times of the $52 million budget.

Obscure??

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_Me_If_You_Can

'the happening', on blu-ray.
ok flic but i was expecting a monster or something to show itself towards the end.:(

Watched War Inc (2008 BluRay) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001608QWC)
If you liked Grosse Pointe Blank, you might like this.

John Cusack (from Grosse Pointe Blank) plays a troubled assassin with a NorthStar (ahem OnStar) psychologist, who's thinking of giving up assassinating.
Joan Cusack (from Grosse Pointe Blank) plays his assistant, the prim, cheery, and murderous psychopath support group.
Dan Aykroyd (from Grosse Pointe Blank) plays a man who doesn't mind proffiting from multiple murder.
Marisa Tomei, Hillary Duff, and Ben Kingsley were not in Grosse Point Blank.

John Cusack is once again playing a hit-man, and once again, his sister is playing his head-set wearing, foul-mouthed assistant. Dan Aykroyd is in this one as well (although this time they’re on the same team). And once again, he’s having morality issues and delaying the hit that he was sent to perform (this time on a foreign oil minister). Obviously there are a number of differences, but for the most part, Cusack’s character and the tone of the movie have several parallels, although this time he's much darker.

The special effects are brutally effective and the underlying message very disturbing. The dark humor is right on. You'll laugh between atrocities, because you have to laugh. Don't feel guilty. You'll feel guilty, but it's just a movie.
Worth the bucks I spent on it -- absolutely yes.
Is there anyone in my friends and family I think I can show it to -- it might be too edgy for almost everyone I know.

Do you want a cynical mockumentary of Haliburton-style war profiteering?
Do you want pointed jabs at operations funded by Congress's "black budget?"
Do you want satirical assaults on simplistic sloganeering from every possible direction?
How about a babe like a pre-meltdown Britney but with hotter hotpants and a bucket of slapstick.

Love the ads on the tanks.
"Democracy Light" cigarettes
There should be a Mobile station on your right.

War, Inc. is rated R and opened in limited release on May 23, and at that time they advertised that the DVD would be out July 1st. Someone must have throught one week was just not enough time for a theatrical release.

Watched the Golden Compass (2007, BlueRay) the other night. It's billed as:
"In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua journeys to the far North to save her best friend and other kidnapped children from terrible experiments by a mysterious organization."

The concept of the movie was kind of cool but it was rather obvious what was coming next in the movie. Especially towards the end when it was left WIDE open for a sequel. No conclusion what so ever in this film. I did not read the books that this is based on.

7.1 soundtrack. Sounds are especially cool in the battle sequences with the big polar bear. My butt kickers were a rocking!


I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. Good visual effects and soundtrack. Still a decent rental.

Last night the wife and I watched "Flags of Our Father". Excellent film. We'll watch "Letters from Iwo Jima" as soon as we can, perhaps tonight.

Randy

Letters from Iwo Jima is Amazing. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

I watched Not One Less or Yi ge dou bu neng shao (http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/notoneless/) last night.

Great movie. A little slow through the middle section but like other movies by
Yimou Zhang it has a breathtaking ending that will stay with you.

Last night the wife and I watched "Flags of Our Father". Excellent film. We'll watch "Letters from Iwo Jima" as soon as we can, perhaps tonight.

Randy

That's how we watched them. "Flags..." then "Letters..." on 2 successive evenings. Both excellent pictures. Keep in mind "Letters..." is all in Japanese with English subtitles. Clint Eastwood has become a remarkable Director.

-t

We did watch "Letters From Iwo Jima" Saturday night. It is a remarkable film and watching the two, together, added to the impact.

I strongly recommend both films.

Randy

We actually had to give some props to "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" last Friday night showing. Several good laughs, which is about all you can ask from a stupid comedy I suppose.

6.5 out of 10

'the happening', on blu-ray.
ok flic but i was expecting a monster or something to show itself towards the end.:(

That movie was absolutely horrible! Just saw it this past weekend. I want my money and life back. Looked like a made for TV movie. I couldn't believe how bad of a job Mark Wahlberg did as well.

Saw 'Ironman' and thought it was really good. Still trying to find out why he needed that power cell in his chest. Wife really thought it was good as well which is a shocker for me.

My wife liked Iron Man better than I did. I was surprised as well.

Watched "The Mist" on Blu-ray.... but since it was a Netflix Acquisition, they sent me disc-1, and the B&W version was on disc-2, so I was a little upset about that, but it was a "Different" movie nonetheless.......

I'm glad I watched it, but also glad I didn't purchase it....

Saw 'Ironman' and thought it was really good. Still trying to find out why he needed that power cell in his chest. Wife really thought it was good as well which is a shocker for me.

When he got wounded in the beginning, the guy in the cave with him used an electromagnet to keep the shrapnel from entering his heart. I'm pretty sure that power cell served the same purpose. It keeps him alive pretty much.

Iron Man shrapnel heart
Oh, and there's shrapnel in his heart, or near his heart. Or something. The fellow who explains it isn't very clear. Something about the itsy-bitsy bits of metal worming their way into in important organs i.e. Tony Stark's heart. So, instead of removing said pieces of metal, some guy, we'll call him Bob-o, constructs an elaborate electro-magnet hooked up to a car battery to keep the killer metal shards from going further into his chest. Now, I may be wrong, but it seems to be that if you just, I dunno, used a stronger magnet, you could just suck all that nasty killer junk right out. And yeah, that would have some problems too, but I doubt it would be more invasive than, oh, I don't know... a giant metal-lined cylindrical cavity carved into the man's chest.

The fragments were too close to his heart to operate on. In the ultimate marvel universe, it is a pacemaker that he made while his heart was failing during his capture. Again, from the comic book, invincible Iron Man #4, Pepper Potts, sustained near fatal injury after Stane blew up one of Stark’s office towers in Taipei. To save Pepper from the embedded shrapnel, Tony implanted Iron Man-like technology into his secrectery .

...

Despite these things, I really enjoied the movie. It was visually interesting, the CG integrating (to my untrained eye at least) almost seamlessly with the real-life acting. The timing, comedic and otherwise was so good as to seem almost lyrical and it wasn't cut short, which is often a problem with good movies... they end to soon. I enjoyed every minute of it, really, (save for the bits I missed due to my tiny bladder). And I recommend staying through the credits. Really.

I mean it.



A doctor comments on the technique, and "Can a man suffering from a heart condition bear extreme G's " (http://www.comicmix.com/news/2008/09/27/doctor-consultation-for-iron-man/)

That movie was absolutely horrible! Just saw it this past weekend. I want my money and life back. Looked like a made for TV movie. I couldn't believe how bad of a job Mark Wahlberg did as well.

Saw 'Ironman' and thought it was really good. Still trying to find out why he needed that power cell in his chest. Wife really thought it was good as well which is a shocker for me.

i'm glad mine was only a n'flix rental, ~$1.25 or so.
i still lost what? 90 mins of my life?
oh well, some parts were good.

last pm we watched 'mongol', bd; about the life of genghis khan.
pretty decent. and with english subtitles.

i've never watched a movie with subtitles before and i thought they might bother me but they didnt.

last pm we watched 'mongol', bd; about the life of genghis khan.
pretty decent. and with english subtitles.

i've never watched a movie with subtitles before and i thought they might bother me but they didnt.

You owe it to yourself to watch Pan's Labrynth and The Orphanage on blu-ray..... They meet pretty much every requirement, good movies, visually stunning, and great audio track.

i've never watched a movie with subtitles before and i thought they might bother me but they didnt.

Das Boat must be watched in German (with subtitles). After doing that once you may watch it dubbed in English. :)

Other subtitled films that come immediately to mind:
Shaolin Soccer (and perhaps Kung Fu Hustle)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Taxi (the french version)
Dances With Wolves had subtitle's for the Sioux parts.
I didn't enjoy Pan's Labrinth, but many did.

All foreign language films should be watched in their original tongue with subtitles. Dubbing is for '70s Shaw brothers martial arts movies.

If you guys like foreign films, check out the infernal affairs asian series, espeically the first one, there are 3, the later 2 are prequels to the first one. Scorssce ripped off this movie and made "The Departed" which pales in comparison to the infernal affairs series.

i watched mongols great movie and indiana jones (last one) just so so.

Watched No Time For Nuts (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0902999/usercomments)

Well, it's just over 6 minutes long, but I enjoyed it.
Scrat, an Ice Age pixar character, stumbles upon an acorn and a time travel device.
He chases the acorn through time.

It's a short on The Movie Network here in Canada, and possibly a short on Ice Age 2 The Meltdown DVD.

Watched "The Fly" the new (80's) one with Jeff Goldblum

Good transfer on Blu-ray.... marked improvement over my SD-DVD of it.

Plan to watch the 50's version again soon..... LOVE that movie.

I've started watching Westerns with my 9 year old daughter.

So far, we've watched:

The Searchers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049730/

True Grit http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065126/

Next movie will be Rio Bravo http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053221/

Saturday night the wife and I watched, "Live Free or Die Hard." OK, but pushed way past the plausibility line.

Randy

Watched Be Kind, Rewind last night. It was kind of a work night for me, so I watched it on my second monitor on the PC. It has Mos Def and Jack Black as a pair of guys who try to rescue a projects video store from demolition. I've been a pretty big fan of Mos Def in movies, and even in music, so I thought it would be good. Well, it met and exceeded my expectations. Good PG family flick, and a fairly solid storyline. A little bit of mischief, and a little bit of comedy all wrapped up in one.

Btw, anyone who hasn't checked out Mos Def's work, just pick up Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. Greatest movie ever!

Watched "10,000 B.C." on SD-DVD.

Wow, what a waste of time....

-t

Saturday night the wife and I watched, "Live Free or Die Hard." OK, but pushed way past the plausibility line.

Randy


Couldn't agree more...... maybe I'm asking too much in a movie to want a plot and half-way decent acting to go along with special effects :D

Saturday, we watched the new Indy movie (Crystal Skull). The movie was OK, and was a must see to round out the series, but really...aliens?

The best part was the interview with Steven Speilburg. He was in what looked like a home theater. I have been playing with the idea of making the interior of my theater look like this:

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff52/carboranadum/Other%20Photos/SpeilburgInTheater.jpg

Anyone seen a home theater with wall treatments like this?

All in all, a good outcome to a so-so movie.

CJ

last pm watched the bond bd, 'thunderball'. last time i saw it was probably on vhs, years ago. plus in the theater, many more years ago.

good movie but i really enjoyed the underwater photography!

Kids are at Grandma's for a few days, so the wife and I are taking the opportunity to watch some flicks together.

Last night, the selection was PS: I Love You, starring Hillary Swank and Gerard Butler. I have to say, I really enjoyed this movie! The basic stoyline is that Holly(played by Hillary Swank), loses her husband, and love of her life, Gerry(PLayed by Gerard Butler), to a brain tumor. Knowing that she would lose her mind upon his death, he prepairs a series of letters that task her with different things to do to get herself back in order.

The movie starts with hilarious opening argument, and rolls on with a very serious, yet sometimes comedic undertone for the entier rest of the movie.

I will also admit, there are quite a few moments where it's hard to fight back a tear. This movie brings up a lot of emotion!

The film also looks magnificent. We watched the SD DVD on an upconvert,, and there are scenes in it that are visually unbelieveable! Some of the movie is shot in Ireland, and the vivid colours in the fields of flowers is just mezmorizing.

This would be a good couple's flick for sure, or even a family movie.

Watched Iron Man last night........ Courtesy of Netflix Blu-ray delivery :)


It was alright, but I don't think it was worth repeated viewing by myself, because it was just your standard popcorn flick that hit most of the film cliche's (like the assistant love interest angle, double-crossed, bad guy turned good etc etc etc)

All that being said, I may pick it up for friends and family to view.


My wife's reaction said it the best........ "well, at least it had a good ending"

:D

A couple of my friends brought over their PS3 last weekend to show off BD. We watched "The Fall". I don't even remember this film being in the theater, but it was one of the better movies I have seen in some time. Extremely nice colors and the storyline kept me interested all the way through the film. The child actor was fantastic!

Last night was a double feature night! The Nannie Diaries and The Tuxedo.

The Nannie Diaries was ok. I would recommend it as a rent-only movie. It has some interesting moments, but it's basically some Jersey girl who moves in with an upper middle class NYC family, who have no idea ow to be a family. Seriously, even my wife thought it was sort of bland.

The Tuxedo, starring Jackie Chan, was the complete opposite of bland. It picks up with comedy right off the bat, and breaks into some killer driving! Of course, it is a Jackie Chan flick, so if you've seen his other movies, you'll know how the tone is usually set. I actually bought the SD-DVD in the clearance bin at Wal Mart for $4(along with some other good movies). If you find it, it makes a good addition to the collection.

In honor of his passing, I'm working on all the Paul Newman movies I've not seen (and re-watching some of my fav's).

Watched the first half of Hud last night... pretty good this far, and Newman does a nice job of playing a jerk.

Didn't know it was a Larry McMurtry story...

I've been enjoying the series "24" for a few weeks. I never watched it but it was pretty highly recommended to me recently so I decided to check it out. The 1st season was quite good and the 2nd is pretty gripping so far.

Every time I sit down to watch it, I'm compelled to watch at least 3 episodes.

I can't imagine having to wait a week or so between episodes with this show since the seasons' episodes are so linear.

i just watched casino royal,this is the first bond movie i really enjoyed.very good movie.tomorrow will be <how the west was won>

you just now watched casino royal?!?!?!? man you've been depriving your self!

I've been enjoying the series "24" for a few weeks. I never watched it but it was pretty highly recommended to me recently so I decided to check it out. The 1st season was quite good and the 2nd is pretty gripping so far.

Every time I sit down to watch it, I'm compelled to watch at least 3 episodes.


We got halfway into season 3, then life jumped in. Need to get back to it. We are 2-3 episode per session watchers. Lost would make us stay up way later.

earlier we watched indy 4, 'the kingdom of the crystal skull' on blu-ray.

lots'o laughs, enjoyed it!

Watched Bobby off my DVR last night. Thanks to the good folks here for this one. I would not have recordered it if not for hearing about it around these forums. Really enjoyed the movie. Acting is great. Ending touches home. Good movie with a TON of stars in it. recommend this for those of us who like a good story telling movie without a bunch of special effects in it. Not that I don't like those FX movies :)

earlier we watched indy 4, 'the kingdom of the crystal skull' on blu-ray.

lots'o laughs, enjoyed it!

Lot's of laughs indeed... too bad it wasn't supposed to be a slapstick comedy. :mad:

This weekend was a bit busy in the movie-viewing respect. I was sick from Friday on, still today actually. But, I took Friday off.

Anyhow, first up was Iron Man. You know this movie, you love this movie, admit it, Tony Stark is GOD! I still have no BR player, so it was upconvert from SD DVD, but still looked fantastic.

Then, it was Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Aliens, really? Is that the best they could manage? Still, good movie anyhow. Not my favorite Indy film, but decent.

The Love Guru, I just can't figure out. It had it's moments of decent comedy, but I'm glad we rented it so it can go back.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan was the follow up. This one surprised me! We rented the unrated version, and i will definately be purchasing this movie. After all the iffy reviews, I laughed my butt off! Just gimme some Fizzy Bouboola!

I also found an interesting B-movie that brought back some personal memories for me(and most not good). The movie was wonderful for a low-budget flick, but it opened up a very painful part of my life. The movie was called Street Racer, and follows a young boy who is released from prison after a street racing accident cripples a child. He's forced by his P.O. to go back into the same world he left, and has to fight to get out. I never went to prison(did jail time though), but I had a very similar thing happen to me. I was deep into the street racing world long before these little ricers(ever run an 8 second Mustang on the street? WILD!). Anyhow, check out the flick, it's good.

I also got to watch [B][I]Hancock]. This was a sleeper! I was expecting a much different direction than what actually occured. And, as always, Will Smith does a bang-up job! I really dig his acting.

For some reason I think I'm forgetting something. All too possible considering the daze and confusion of a weekend on cold meds.

On Saturday night the wife and I watched The Incredible Hulk. We both liked it but we were not blown away. Pretty good flick. I kept having to turn down the Buttkicker amp because every now and then it would overdrive the transducer. Any movie that bounces my Buttkicker off of it's stops gets good marks in my book. I give it a 3 out of 5.

Last night I watched the first two episodes of Dexter season two (rented). I bought the first season on DVD after renting the first disk of season one, and will probably buy the second season after last night (can you tell I liked it? :))

Today after playing around with the speakers, and trying to adjust the projector positioning, I watched "No Country For Old Men" on Blu-ray.


I didn't plan on watching the whole thing, but I love that movie..... I obviously didn't get as much done on the "build" as I would have liked!!!!

Caught 30 Rock last night. Still the funniest show on TV - hands down. Still planing catch up with the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Been working too hard.

If you guys like foreign films, check out the infernal affairs asian series, espeically the first one, there are 3, the later 2 are prequels to the first one. Scorssce ripped off this movie and made "The Departed" which pales in comparison to the infernal affairs series.

Watched Infernal Affairs (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LXS6H0) (first one, used english subtitles).
Really good. I've seen a lot of bad films lately, and this was a pleasant way to spend a couple hours while handing out haloween candy (pause, run, you're welcome, play, pause, run, good costume, you're welcome, play, pause, run, you're welcome, play, pause, run, ...).
Usually I can predict plots. At least a half dozen times in this film I asked myself "What's next?" having little clue what was coming.

Watched Infernal Affairs (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LXS6H0) (first one, used english subtitles).
Really good. I've seen a lot of bad films lately, and this was a pleasant way to spend a couple hours while handing out haloween candy (pause, run, you're welcome, play, pause, run, good costume, you're welcome, play, pause, run, you're welcome, play, pause, run, ...).
Usually I can predict plots. At least a half dozen times in this film I asked myself "What's next?" having little clue what was coming.

The first one is the best one....however once you have watched it, you gotta watch the next 2. You will truly understand how brilliant it is after watching the triology.

Rented "August Rush" on Bluray last night. Wow, the TrueHD sound was amazing. It's worth watching just for that. It's the best sounding movie I've ever heard.

The movie itself was quite good, too. My wife loved it, and she is hard to please. It's rather chick-flickish, but I enjoyed it.

Watched Pirates of the Caribean: At World's End yesterday. Upconvert SD-DVD. I'll admit, I'm a huge fan of the POC movies, so I went in with high hopes. This movie delivered! Captain Jack Sparrow comes back from the locker to once again sail the high seas, in the quest to stop the English Armada from wiping out all the pirates, and of course, for more rum! Rum... is good. I also finally got my rear speakers working correctly after the move, so the sound was amazing!

One thing to note though. The beginning of this move is very disturbing. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but the though that things like this actually happened around that time is a depressing one. You will know what I'm talking about when you see the movie.

Anyhow, we got it from Netflix. I'm going to buy it to complete the set.

Watched Gone in 60 seconds for the first time. Much better than I thought it was going to be.
I really don't like Cage in most of his films.

Saturday night the wife and I watched "Thank you for Smoking." This is one very funny movie and I highly recommend it.

Randy

Rented "Halloween" for Halloween night. This is a THX Mastered copy on SD-DVD. While no where near as bloody (didn't see any except for a quick shot in the beginning) and disturbing as most scare flicks these days, this still delivered. Had some younger folks watching it with us ( in their 20's ). I explained that this film is what created the industry in scare flicks as well as send-ups of scare flicks, as we know it today.

The THX process really did a fantastic job on how this looks and sounds.

-t

last pm. watched "bond, james bond"- live and let die', blu-ray.

looked and sounded good to me. i sat thru the whole thing with a sh!t-eating grin:D on my face.
it's been years since i last saw it, probably on vhs.

Watch the original version of 3:10 to Yuma. Very entertaining. The black and white added to the character of the movie. Hinted at several back stories but did not spend time delving onto them. All the viewer needed to know is that each character had a history. I would recommend.

Watched "Eraserhead" all by my lonesome because it's not my wife's cup-of-tea.


I love the movie, but the DVD transfer is pretty poor.

Watched "Eraserhead" all by my lonesome because it's not my wife's cup-of-tea.


I love the movie, but the DVD transfer is pretty poor.

I watched that years ago...what a bizarre movie! Disturbing and strange!!
It was fun though...:D

-t

Watched Don't Mess With the Zohan last night. Not so good. Funny in parts, but really lame in others. 2/5 I'd say.

Last weekend we watched...

The Happening on DVD. The movie is ok but I liked all the other M. Night movies better. 3 out of 5.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan (DVD). This is not a good movie. I found many of the big laughs fell short but several of the more subtle jokes were very funny. 2.5 out of 5.

Watched "Get Smart" last night.....I like Steve C so found the movie to be pretty entertaining. Got "Street Kings" (BR) for tonight. I'm also a huge fan of Keanu Reeves so hopefully this one delivers.

Last night I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was pretty disappointed. I didn't think it had nearly the charm of any of the others.

On a better note, I also just finished the final season of The Wire. It was an excellent end to, in my opinion, the best television drama series EVER. I can't understand why this series was not absolutely showered with awards.

Now I'll start the 3rd season of 24.

Watched Iron Man on bluray last weekend as our first movie in the new theater.

Friday was Ocean's 13 on bluray.

Last night was a RockBand2 marathon into the wee hours with 6 of our friends. :)

Last night was ladies pick. My wife and daughter selected "Kate & Leopold." Eh.

Randy

Kate & Leopold is easily the best time traveling romantic fantasy involving chivalrous elevator inventors (who dable as butter spokesman and toaster repairman) released in 2001.

Watched Get Smart 2008 (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GPOSYC).
It's the second best Get Smart movie I've ever seen.
Patrick Warburton stars in Get Smart 2008, revising the popular Hymie role played by Richard Gautier in the 1960's. In the movie, "Get Smart Again! 1989", Hymie left CONTROL and had a job as a crash test dummy.
Get Smart 2008 is a fun film for anyone who watched the original series and that "Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control" on one of the movie channels.
But the pacing is much slower than the original series.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think 99 has slept with all of Control's active agents.
Cameos (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0465728/) abound. Yarmi Airlines, the name on the side of a jet taken by Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) and Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) is a sly reference to Dick Yarmy, a sometime guest star on the original show and the brother of original Maxwell Smart Don Adams.
Zis is AVS, ve don't spoiler here.
You realize you'll be facing every kind of homage imaginable, and loving it.
I don't remember them saying 'and loving it' in this movie though. Would you believe that Mel Brooks refused to part with the copyright on 'and loving it' ? Would you believe they forgot that line. How about it's in the deleted scenes. How about I missed it by that much!
I hope I wasn't out of line with that copyright (http://www.wouldyoubelieve.com/phrases.html) crack.

Kate & Leopold is easily the best time traveling romantic fantasy involving chivalrous elevator inventors (who dable as butter spokesman and toaster repairman) released in 2001.

And not the good kind of romance and elevator movies, either.

Although I don't think it bothered the girls, I felt like I was a college professor grading papers. Was the writer really so lazy they couldn't be bothered to even remotely tie the creation of the elevator to it's real creator? And don't get me started on how weakly that time travel impacts were. Remove the creator of the elevator and it makes elevators go away, but not elevator shafts!

Randy

finally got around to watching 'the mist' last pm. blu-ray.

the end kind of bummed/freaked me out:(. how horrible!
but at least it was a decent 'creature feature'.:) imo.

Sat: Road to Perdition. Good flick with the late great Paul Newman perfoming in a strong role. Tom Hanks as "protagonist bad guy",... an unusual role for him ewll done, IMO. Sam Mendes directed this very well... some great cinematography.

Sun: The Terminator. I introduced a young friend of mine to one of the prennial good sci-fi action flicks of all time. A timeless classic, and Arnie at his best.

A little catching up...

Yesterday we watched Who's Your Caddy. It's a story about a rapper with a personal vendeta against a very prestgious country club. I have to say, this movie made me laugh my butt off! The wife doesn't normally get much into this type of comedy, but even she enjoyed it. I like it enough that I will be buying it. The copy I had was a Netflix rental. As far as PQ and SQ, well, it was a comedy. The PQ was good, and captured the beauty of the course. I've actually been on this course before. The SQ would have been fine even in 2.1.

Last night we watched Knocked Up. It's a story about a girl and a guy who wind up having a baby after a one night stand. I thought it was going to be terrible, but the wife wanted to see it. I found myself enjoying it quite a bit! Howevr, I will warn you, there is some graphic detail that they do not warn you about!

I also watched Kung Fu Hustle, again, by myself. I could watch this movie 10 times a day and not get tired of it!

Friday night I watched The Hunting Party (2007) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455782/) on DVD. The movie is based on a true story about war correspondents that hunt down a Serbian war criminal. Richard Gere's performance seemed phoned in and my jury is still out on whether or not I like Terrence Howard as an actor, but the story is somewhat compelling and I found the movie fairly entertaining. 3 out of 5.

If you guys like foreign films, check out the infernal affairs asian series, espeically the first one, there are 3, the later 2 are prequels to the first one. Scorssce ripped off this movie and made "The Departed" which pales in comparison to the infernal affairs series.

I must say I read this thread religiously and watch lot of movies (541 in the last 4 years) but I don't post often. Seeing this post about a good foreign movie suggestion by Spectramr2 I was skeptible. I am always looking for that good treasure of a foreign movie. :D This one blew me away. The cat/mouse game that is played out and the way it happens is outstanding. I couldn't say enough great things about this movie. JUST SEE IT....

T

Saw "The Descent" on Show Time. If it were not for the posts here I would have passed it by, the start is a little slow. All in all a good movie and worth watching. For me a 4 out of 5. There were a couple of things at the end that did not make sense.

I have gone caving a couple of times to what the character Juno would call tourist caves. This experience though added to the drama of the movie. I could relate to squeezing through tight places and wondering what would happen if you got stuck. The whole prospect of a tunnel shifting once you are through is un-nerving. Add that personal experience to a touch of Riddley crawling through the service ducts of the Nostradamus, playing cat and mouse with an Alien, and you have a movie that sticks with you.

Last night we watched "The Gangs of New York", a bloody, but very good movie.

Randy

Watched "West Side Story" last night on SD-DVD.
Very good quality in the video. Audio should have had a stereo mix along with the 5.1 mix IMO. I think the stereo mix would have been better.

Dialogue is a bit dated obviously (1961). What with "daddy-o" and "cool cats" etc. but the music, choreography and direction is what helped make this film the winner of 10 Academy Awards back in the day.

-t

I watched West Side Story with my 10 year old daughter. We really like that movie.

Heist Movies Day (http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/dvd_picks/13_dvd_pick.html)

- Watched The Great Train Robbery (1979) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0792839064)
- Watched The Getaway (1972) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MV90J4)
- Watched The Lavender Hill Mob(1951) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006FMAU)
- Watched The Italian Job(1969) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000AUHPB)
- Watched Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle)(1970) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000BUZKP)

A group of 5 of my buddies and I watched "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" tonight. Special effects and costumes were very good, storyline we all found mediocre. This one won't get a repeat showing anytime soon.

Watched Casino Royale on Saturday morning to prepare for seeing Quantum of Solace at the local commercial theater Saturday night.

Mission accomplished. :)

Over the weekend we watched the following DVDs...

Get Smart (2008) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425061/) - I enjoyed it. There are a few homages to the original series, some that I got and some that when right over my head. It's been such a long time since I've seen the original series anything but the most basic stuff was lost on me. 3 out of 5.

Run Fatboy Run (2008) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425413/) - After Sean of the Dead (2004) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/) and Hot Fuzz (2007) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425112/) I've been quickly becoming a Simon Pegg fan. Run Fatboy Run isn't quite as funny as either of those movies but it's pretty good in it's own right. 3 out of 5.

Son of Rambow (2007) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0845046/) - A couple of kids, that are polar opposites, get together to make a movie to submit to a film contest. One of the kids is a constant trouble maker and the other's family is part of an ultra conservative religious sect. Funny and heartwarming. 3 out of 5.

Seraphim Falls (2006) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479537/) - I've saved the best for last. There is a Chinese proverb that states, "The one who pursues revenge should dig two graves," meaning one should dig a grave for themselves as well. Seraphim Falls is a story about revenge set in the American West sometime after the Civil War. I'm a big fan of Westerns and the fact that I'm usually very happy with Pierce Brosnan's and Liam Neeson's work make it easy for me to like this movie but there is more depth here than meets the eye. Cameo appearances buy Wes Studi (who plays an Indian in just about every modern western and deservedly so) as a mysterious man who demands payment for passage and Angelica Huston who might just be playing the devil are some of the more obvious clues that there are more layers to this onion. I'm not going to post too much detail as it might spoil it for others but there is stuff in this movie that could be discussed for hours. I had no clue about this movie until I watched it. That's probably how everyone should see it. Allegory aside, as a straight up western, this is a good movie. It's very well done, well acted, and very well conceived. 3.5 out of 5.

There is a Chinese proverb that states, "The one who pursues revenge should dig two graves," meaning one should dig a grave for themselves as well.
There are a few variations of that, but most include the word 'first'
- "When you seek to avenge, first dig two graves."
- "If you seek revenge, first dig two graves."
- "When seeking revenge, dig two graves - the first one for yourself."

Variations on that are occasionally spoken to prosecutors just before trial by senior male relatives of victims, such as "Don't let him off on a technicality. Do your job right or I'll dig my own grave." (intending violence to the accused if justice isn't done by the system, not intending violence to the prosector)
It's also been used when talking about war (e.g. afganistan deployment may come back to haunt the west).

Some use the phrase to indicate that if you try vigilantism, you will be arrested. Thus one shouldn't be a vigilante.
Others use the phrase to indicate the level of commitment required before taking the law into your own hands -- go into it with the attitude that you're already dead, merely walking around for a bit yet, and quite willing to pull him off the edge of a cliff, or give him a hug while holding a hand grenade to your chest. Thus one shouldn't be revengeful, particularly if you have dependants.


I saw Seraphim Falls on television, and elected not to buy the DVD.
But you're right, that fellow had a level of commitment, and no dependants.

Just watched Kung Fu Panda on Blu-ray. WOW! Visual and sound is amazing with a good story to boot.

I'll second Kung-Fu -Panda, LFE in this movie is freakin nuts and the visuals are stunning. I watched it on my PS3 in BLU and though my RXV-659 does not decode the TRUE-HD soundtrack, the 640kbs of DD rocked like nothing I've heard yet. I did not know my sub had a tongue, but it was lying on the floor when the show was over ;')

TinkerBell (upscaled off my HTPC) ....Can't rate but my toddlers loved it....
Street Kings ....7/10 ...not as good as Training Day but still an entertaining movie
Untraceable ....7/10 ....Had this on my HDD and since I was bored, decided to watch this and surprisingly ended up watching the whole movie....decent movie for IT folks ;-).
Hancock (BR) ...Good BR transfer but I found the movie so and so....7/10

Inglorious Bastards DVD 8/10 great movie... the discussion of Tarentino's adaptation caused me to pull this one from the shelf for a viewing

Cool Hand Luke Blu-ray 9/10 loved the movie before, and the transfer is great.... the "man in the glasses" looks especially mean spirited now !!

Iron Man Blu-Ray 7/10 not bad for a super-hero flick, but I still found it cheesy.

There are a few variations of that, but most include the word 'first'
- "When you seek to avenge, first dig two graves."
- "If you seek revenge, first dig two graves."
- "When seeking revenge, dig two graves - the first one for yourself."

Variations on that are occasionally spoken to prosecutors just before trial by senior male relatives of victims, such as "Don't let him off on a technicality. Do your job right or I'll dig my own grave." (intending violence to the accused if justice isn't done by the system, not intending violence to the prosector)
It's also been used when talking about war (e.g. afganistan deployment may come back to haunt the west).

Some use the phrase to indicate that if you try vigilantism, you will be arrested. Thus one shouldn't be a vigilante.
Others use the phrase to indicate the level of commitment required before taking the law into your own hands -- go into it with the attitude that you're already dead, merely walking around for a bit yet, and quite willing to pull him off the edge of a cliff, or give him a hug while holding a hand grenade to your chest. Thus one shouldn't be revengeful, particularly if you have dependants.


I saw Seraphim Falls on television, and elected not to buy the DVD.
But you're right, that fellow had a level of commitment, and no dependants.

I believe the proverb to be a warning. To hate someone so much that you're willing to hunt them down and kill them is self destructive. Not that your level of commitment has to be so high that your willing to give your life or freedom to this end, but that even if you are successful in the endeavor you'll destroy yourself in the process.

The movie has more depth than just the price of revenge. From beginning to end it seems to be a descent into hell. From the locales, to the people along the way, to the way the dialog changes, it seems like as the movie progresses we follow the main characters down into the depths of the inferno.

I believe the proverb to be a warning. To hate someone so much that you're willing to hunt them down and kill them is self destructive. Not that your level of commitment has to be so high that your willing to give your life or freedom to this end, but that even if you are successful in the endeavor you'll destroy yourself in the process.

The movie has more depth than just the price of revenge. From beginning to end it seems to be a descent into hell. From the locales, to the people along the way, to the way the dialog changes, it seems like as the movie progresses we follow the main characters down into the depths of the inferno.

OK. With this much discussion I have to rent it to see myself.
Your work is done guys...:D

-t

Being a Pixar fan I had to pick up WALL·E on bd. Of course I saw it in the theater but this movie once more reminded me that I enjoy the home experience much more now than the theater...bad seating, bad sound...I'd rather stay home.

And it looked amazing on my new XBR6. :)

finally got around to watching 'the mist' last pm. blu-ray.

the end kind of bummed/freaked me out:(. how horrible!
but at least it was a decent 'creature feature'.:) imo.

Don't know what version you have, but disk 2 of the two-disk edition has a black and white version of the movie that proved quite a bit eerier than the color one. If you have it, it's worth checking out.

i just watched this afternoon tropic thunder,great movie,very funny.if you want 2 hours of fun go head watch it.

Last night the wife and I watched "Casino Royal" and tonight went to see the new one "Quantum of Solace." I rather liked it - although I could do with a bit less "Borne-style" camera work.

Reminder: if Mr. Bond is on the elevator, take the next one. :D

Randy

Well, I just got done watching Crystal Skull. Man, that was...uh...different.

Last night I saw Pan's Labyrinth. Not at all what I was expecting. It was, shall we sad, sobering.

Tomorrow night, Sex and the City. I'm making Cosmos.

Tropic Thunder on Bluray was showing last night. :)

Friday night, we watched Get Smart. It was funny, but not something I'd watch again.

Last night we watched Iron Man. Loved it. It was very much in the comic book style of cinematography. Very well done.

CJ

Over the weekend we watched...

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411477/) Very strange but a pretty good flick. Slightly better than the first movie. The audio on the Blu-Ray is great. 3 out of 5.

Wall-E (2008) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/) - This is a great movie. One of 2008s best to be sure. 4 out of 5.

We watched National Treasure 2. That movie kicks the bass shakers in the couch real good. It was like a vibratory creschendo at the end there.

tonight went to see the new one "Quantum of Solace." I rather liked it - although I could do with a bit less "Borne-style" camera work. Reminder: if Mr. Bond is on the elevator, take the next one. :D
You made three points, I concur with all three.
The gal I was with when we walked out said "Every time you knew what was coming you suffled in your seat. I figured out that when they said fuel cells you knew it was hydrogen and so you knew beforehand that were gonna blow up, but just how did you know the elevator scene before it happened? You even had a big smile on your face, like you knew it was coming for sure. And then it happened. How!"

The theatre had the volume up a little loud, and my first instinct was that I should turn it down lest it wake the neighbour's kids. I need to get out more.

Watched Collateral last night on DVD. Had its moments, overall entertaining, but nothing to write home about.... 3/5

Watched 24 Redemption (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001DMVZOE)
Jack Bauer is back for 88 minutes.
3 stars, maybe a little less relative to movies, but 3/5 relative to 24 season 1.
The "Season 7 Sneak Peek – First 16 minutes" was interesting.