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Yeah, I know. Part of the reason I've put it off is I've built this movie up over the years, and didn't want to be let down. I've read so many great reviews that it had become a sort of holy grail of cinema. Like Star Wars minus the light sabers

But my issue isn't the internal timeline of the movie. I was trying to figure out what year did all this take place. I mean, they've got cell phones, but they drive a '74 Nova and have a real-to-real for music. The opening scene of the movie put me in the 90's somewhere, then the next scene I think is much earlier in the 70's based on the car, hair styles, music, etc., etc.

next you're going to tell me you haven't seen Reservoir Dogs...

Pulp gets better each time you watch it.

Say it ain't so Mr. Pink! I wish I had the cool name.

Regards,

RTROSE

Yes, sir. That is correct. I've been looking for it on sale when I think about it, but haven't found it yet. Maybe I just need to head on over to Amazon and bite the bullet before I get banned from AVS for not meeting the prerequisites

It's currently $5 for the blu-ray at Target.

Thanks! I'll be making a trip to Target.

^^^^^Very funny. Gotta love a review like that!

Regards,

RTROSE

Mr. Bob, I have suspect that my feelings about Les Mis would be very similar to that review. I have a standing rule. If a movie makes me want to cry, it's a bad movie

Reservoir Dogs - 3/5

Well, looks like I get to keep my AVS account for now. Watched this last night after picking it up off the $5 rack at Target thanks to Sonyad's tip. I liked the movie, but a few scenes were just a little too intense for me (e.g., the ear). It was a great story, though. As a side note, I'm pretty sure Tarantino needs to be medicated. He's a little off. A brilliant director, no question; but still a little off

That Les Mis review is hilarious. I saw the musical a few months ago and have no idea WTF happened

Come on guys! I love musicals and have never seen Les Miserables....was really looking forward to it!

Tony,

I too am a huge musical fan. I've been involved in quite a few productions.

Les Mis is one of my favorite shows. While the movie was good, it didn't compare to seeing it live on stage. The movie practically goes by the script word for word, and I feel like some of it didn't transfer from the stage to the screen as well as it could have. Some of the vocal performances were mediocre as well. I thought Anne Hathaway was great, Hugh Jackman was ok most of the time, and Russel Crowe wasn't horrible, but he also didn't really impress me at all. His voice just wasn't powerful enough for Javert in my opinion.

I'd still recommend adding it to your rental list though.

If I had to give it a rating I'd say 4/5 if you absolutely love the musical and 2.5/5 if it isn't really your thing.
Edited by aaustin - 1/17/13 at 4:31pm

Stephen King's

Played The Langoliers (1995)
2/5 (amazon 4.4/5, imdb 5.9/10)
180 minutes. Made for TV. Quite slow, but I made it through it.
On a red eye flight to Boston from LA 10 people wake up to a shock. All the passengers and crew have vanished. When they try to contact the ground they make no connections. They land the plane only to discover that things haven't changed. But its like the world is dead. No one is there, the air is still, sound doesn't echo, the food is tasteless. And a distant sound is heard coming closer. A race of monstrous beings bent on their destruction is heading for them, eating everything in sight.

Played The Stand (1994)
2/5 (amazon 4.2/5, imdb 7.2/10)
366 min. Made for TV. Quite slow, but I made it through it.
When a government-run lab accidentally lets loose a deadly virus, most of the population of the world is wiped-out. Survivors begin having dreams about two figures: a mystical old woman, or a foreboding, scary man. As the story tracks various people, we begin to realize that the two figures exemplify basic forces of good and evil, and the stage is set for a final confrontation between the representatives of each.

Played Golden Years (1991)
2/5 (amazon 3.3/5, imdb 5.0/10)
265 min. TV miniseries. Slow again. There was no book, so it never had a real ending written. You can see what was pasted on, to end it. It was cancelled before it could be properly finished.
In a secret research center of the USA, the lunatic, but also genius, Dr. Richard X. Toddhunter ignores the warning signal in the control panel and proceeds with his experiment with a particle accelerator. The laboratory blows-up and his assistant dies and the seventy-year-old janitor Harlan Williams is exposed to a green radiation that rejuvenates. However the scientist omits the truth about the accident in the preliminary hearing. The national security agent Terry Spann and her lover, General Louis Crewes, find the truth about what had happened in the laboratory and unsuccessfully try to shut down the experiment. But the CIA assassin Jude Andrews kills whoever tries to conduct a further investigation that may compromise the experiment. Now Terry and Louis decide to protect Harlan and his wife Gina from Andrews that wants to bring the janitor to become the guinea pig of Dr. Toddhunter

The Book of Eli - 4/5

I liked this movie a lot. It's your standard post apocalyptic journey, but the with a few twists that kept it interesting.


Bob, the few Stephen King adaptations that I've seen, I didn't feel transferred well to film. I'm not sure if it's the material, or the choice in directors, casting, etc.

Watched Taken 2 the other night 3/5. I didn't expect it to be as good as the first, but it was. However, in this one you know the outcome, but it is a fun ride getting there. The things that bothered me were the "never ending bullets hand gun", along with the bad guys that can't hit anything with automatic weapons.. Worth the $5.99 HD rental for sure.

Thanks for that, BasementBob. My father was an avid reader and a big fan of Stephen King and mentioned The Langoliers to me a few times and how he enjoyed the book. Neither one of us had ever seen the film that I can remember. I went looking for it a while back, but could only ever find it bundled with 2 other movies at a pretty steep price.

On another note, I saw Django Unchained this past week and liked it quite a bit. I would easily give it 4/5 if not higher. Well thought out and funny in parts too. Definitely one of the better movies I have seen from Tarantino.

I really like The Book of Eli as well. It is actually one of those movies that get better the second time around. Some very good LFE and surround use as well. While gritty in appearance it also is a visually interesting film as well.

Looper - Netflix DVD - This was one of those rare movies that I liked it, hated it, liked it, hated it all in the span of the movie. The premise of the movie is an interesting one, while the execution is flawed to some degree it is pretty well handled, if you don't think about it too much (the time travel conundrums) and just let the movie happen. The first part of the movie I really enjoyed, and the whole Looper and closing the Loop deal, but after about half way through I just lost interest in the movie. I stuck it out and made it the end which IMHO was predictable and unimaginative. 2.5/5

Regards,

RTROSE

The Last Airbender - Didn't finish it

I hate to give a rating to a movie that I didn't finish, but what I saw of this was bad. It was on Nickelodeon last night, and I caught it about 10 minutes into the movie. Within 5 minutes I had this feeling that I'd stumbled onto one of those spoof movies. It felt like I was watching a film students senior project. The best part was when the movie cut to commercial and they played the blurb with the guy that does the voice over for trailers saying, "You're watching the blockbuster movie, The Last Airbender." Blockbuster, you say? I laughed every time.

I started flipping back and forth between this and an episode of Top Gear that I've already seen..... several times. I finally gave up and went to bed with 30-45 minutes left in the movie. I don't care for Shyamalan movies, anyway. This sure didn't help his chances of me seeing his next one either.

I saw this at the theatre with my youngest and we both hated it. However I did want to see it again since I fell asleep during some parts. I forgot it was coming last night on so I came in 25 minutes late. I tried for about fifteen minutes and it was just horrible, even worse than my theatre experience. I happen to like several of Night's movies but this was indeed a senior project combined with the stunted acting of a typically bad iCarly eposide.

I watched In Time on Netflix.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/

Decent movie, but don't go into it expecting anything and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Watched Hangover 2 and Hope Springs.

Hangover 2 - 2.5/5 - It had it's moments. Overall pretty predictable, though. We all laughed at parts. I wouldn't have felt totally ripped off at the theater.

Hope Springs - 2.5/5 - Don't watch this unless you want to have "a conversation" with your significant other. I guess what I disliked most about this was that original advertising had it looking like a typical ROM-COM, and, well, it's NOT. It is a serious movie with only the passing humour you can find any drama, if you look hard enough. Steve Carell in a not funny role, Tommy Lee Jones as a crumudgeon of a husband and Meryl Streep, doing what Meryl Streep can do with the material. I don't know that I would have felt totally ripped off at theater, but I SURE would have been disappointed.

I enjoyed Hope Springs, but agree completely with your "discussion" comment. In my case, I'm a stallion and had no such conversation.

We watched this last weekend and agree with your review. You could pretty much summarize the movie before watching, but it was a fairly enjoyable 1.5 hours. I've wasted time on worse things.

Rocky - Blue Ray - Well I saw this on Blu and had to pick it up. I has literately been decades since I had watched this movie. I think the last time might have actually been a VHS rental. The transfer is not stellar, but I don't think they put a lot of effort into remastering the film for Blu. This is obviously a "classic" movie and is an icon of it's time. Having said that it is a really poorly done film all the way round. The acting, the dialog, the visuals, the fight choreography, pretty much everything is sub par. Yet it is a true underdog, dream the big dream, the little guy gets a shot, only in America type of story. Sure it is a terrible movie, but I love it. One of those things that you just can't explain, I guess. 4/5.

The Avengers - Blue Ray - Rewatched this one again (3rd or 4th time now) and I just keep liking it more and more.

Regards,

RTROSE

^^^^ Regarding Rocky, I remember watching this movie when I was nearly 10 and walking away from it feeling like I could do anything. For me, it gave me the drive to run and work out. I was doing one arm push ups as good as anyone! I love the scene where Rocky is running throughout philly, with all the kids following, and then eventually up those steps of the museum, the music, the camera sweeping around to see the campus grounds of his route to those steps. ....."Gonna fly nowwwwwwwwwwwwww"......

I know how you feel about movies like this standing the test of time...to me, this movie was raw...and I like how it still comes across as raw in today's times.

Watched Taken 2 (2012)
3.1/5 (amazon 3.6/5, imdb 6.3/10, rotten tomaotes 55%, Ralph Potts 2.5)
"Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the ex-CIA operative who stopped at nothing to rescue his daughter from sadistic kidnappers. When the father of one of the kidnappers swears revenge, it is Bryan and his wife who find themselves "taken" hostage in Istanbul. To survive, Bryan must enlist the help of an unlikely ally and use his brutally efficient skills to take out his heavily-armed foes one by one. "
I thought it was a reasonable sequel.
There's some debate over the daughter's driving,
and there's some debate over his invincibility and ease of dispatch,
and some debate over the over-the-top implausibilities and trivial plot,
but I didn't mind. Famke Janssen was bang on though.

Played Stolen (2012)
2.5/5 (amazon 3.4/5, imdb 5.3/10, rotten tomatoes 36%)
Nicolas Cage and a few other actors you'll recognize, get together.
"STOLEN follows Will Montgomery (Nicolas Cage), a master thief who has been sent to prison for eight years after being double-crossed in a heist gone awry. Upon his release, he's ready to leave his criminal past behind and rebuild his relationship with estranged daughter, Alison Loeb (Sami Gayle). Montgomery's former criminal cohorts and FBI agent Tim Harlend (Danny Huston), are all convinced that the $10 Million dollars was hidden away by Montgomery before he was sentenced. In order to get his hands on it, former partner in crime, Vincent (Josh Lucas), kidnaps Alison and demands the missing loot as ransom; giving Montgomery one day to deliver. "
The opening, pre prison, scene I throught was well done -- nothing new, all very predictable, but better than I was expecting.
Then it tapered off -- but its still better than many Nicolas Cage films of the past few years.

Watched An American Story (1992)
2.2/5 (amazon 4.3/5, imdb 6.3/10, Made for TV)
A worthwhile story, and part of history, but not the most amazing film.
This film tells the true story of the 1946 Battle of Athens Tennessee.
At the end of 1945, some 3,000 battle-hardened veterans returned to McMinn County which is located between Chattanooga and Knoxville in Eastern Tennessee. The mayor is corrupt, the elections rigged for years, and the mayor had corrupted the sheriff who ran around collecting protection money from businesses, and a bunch of race discrimination by violence including against returning veterans.
At a pre-election political rally, a GI speaker said, "The principles that we fought for in this past war do not exist in McMinn County. We fought for democracy because we believe in democracy but not the form we live under in this county" At the end of July 1946, 159 McMinn County GIs petitioned the FBI to send election monitors. There was no response. The Department of Justice had not responded to McMinn County residents' complaints of election fraud in 1940, 1942 and 1944.
The primary election was held on August 1. To intimidate voters, Sheriff Mansfield brought in some 200 armed "deputies." GI poll-watchers were beaten almost at once. At 3pm, with the current mayor's supporters having cast their votes, the sheriff closed the polling stations, took the election boxes from the election officials, and a sheriff's deputy shot either a voter or an election official in the back. The election boxes were taken to the local jail and the mayor joined them, and they began to try to break open the padlocks on the sturdy wooden election boxes to remove 'unfavourable' ballots.
The GIs had scoured the county to find guns. They got M-1 Garand rifles, .45 semi-automatic pistols and British Enfield rifles, and closed in on the jail and a shootout began before the election boxes were opened. The mayor called the governor to send the national guard, and hunkered down in the sturdy 2 foot thick walled jail building to wait. There was a half hour firefight outside, and when that proved fruitless the GIs dynamited the jail door, at which point the sheriff's deputies surrendered and the election boxes were recovered and had not yet been opened and were returned to the surviving election officials.
In five precincts free of vote fraud, the GI candidate for sheriff, Knox Henry, won 1,168 votes to Cantrell's 789. Other GI candidates won by similar margins. The GI's did not hate Cantrell. They only wanted honest government. Once the GI candidates' victory had been certified, they cleaned up county government, the jail was fixed, newly elected officials accepted a $5,000 pay limit and Mansfield supporters who resigned were replaced. Representative John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee decried McMinn County's sorry situation under Cantrell and Mansfield and the Justice Department's repeated failures to help the McMinn County residents. Jennings was delighted that "...at long last, decency and honesty, liberty and law have returned to the fine county of McMinn.. "

A short exerpt from the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ut6yPrObw
Edited by BasementBob - 1/26/13 at 4:57am

Watched Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Epic Series (1978)
2.9/5 (amazon 4.4/5, imdb 7.0/10)
"They're waggling!"

Watched Justified: The Complete Third Season (2012)
2.8/5 (amazon 4.7/5, imdb 8.7/10)
The first episode of season 1 is the best.
But season 3 seems as good as season 2, so not bad.
The plot has some good depth, and some fluff.

Watched Dredd (2012)
2.3/5 (amazon 4.1/5, imdb 7.1/10, rotten tomatoes 77%, Ralph Potts 4/5)
A remake of the 1995 Judge Dredd movie, and an adaptation of the comic book.
I don't know why people think this is good. Dredd is insufficiently Dredd-ish, and the psychic trainee should have been more of a sub plot than a main plot.
I saw this in theatres in 3D, my first 3D, and the 3Dness was interesting.
And then I saw this on 2D BluRay, which seemed clearer.
Overall, I liked the 1995 version better, with Rob Schneider as the plucky comic relief.

Watched Jack Reacher (2012)
3.5/5 (imdb 7.2/10, rotten tomatoes 73%)
In theatres.
I had thought from the commercials that this was a spy movie,
but it's a detective story.
A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims.
Pretty good Tom Cruise movie.
Edited by BasementBob - 1/26/13 at 9:46pm

Watched "Handscraper: Understanding, Preparing and Using the Ultimate Finishing Tool" produced by Lie-Nielsen. Just a hunch but I'm betting that 139" is the largest that this video has ever been watched on.

If you're into woodworking with hand tools then it's worth watching. This is 30 minutes worth of woodworking instruction that was well worth it!

^^^^^HAHAHAHA I think this is the first review of a wood working video I have ever seen on this thread. While you have given it a glowing review I think I'll pass on this one. I might be "board" to tears and not be on the same "plane" as the video. Thanks for the review though.

Regards,

RTROSE

Watched Drywall: Hanging and Taping
1/5 (amazon 4.5/5, imdb N/A, rotten tomatoes N/R, Ralph Potts N/A, Decent Films N/A)
Mostly I didn't learn anything new. The bit about curved walls was interesting.
The acting seemed realistic, but the plot was a little dry and predictable.