Now Showing - What We Watched - Page 252

I was thinking the Airplane movies beg a re-watching soon along with Beetlejuice and 50 First Dates, the baseball bat scene gets me everytime.

Watched Who's Minding The Mint? (1967)
2.4/5 (amazon 4.5/5, imdb 7.0/10)
A clerk who works in the mint in Washington, DC accidentally destroys $50,000 in cash, and attempts to sneak into the building in the middle of the night and print enough cash on the mint's presses to cover his mistake. In the process he reluctantly recruits a number of partners one at a time, with the promise of printing some money for each them. A good family film about greed, and a heist. Done in 1967 it was still bound by the Motion Picture Production Code, so the ending obeys "All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience, or the audience must at least be aware that such behavior is wrong, usually through 'compensating moral value'. Throughout, the audience must feel sure that evil is wrong and good is right." and the middle doesn't provide useful instruction to thieves. In some ways the ending is similar, morally, to the ending of Ocean's 11 (1960).
Victor Buono is great as the ship captain and ship builder.
Milton Berle and Dorothy Provine were both also in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)".
I've seen Who's Minding The Mint on television a few times, although not in the past couple decades, and I'd always wanted a copy -- and I checked for it on DVD every couple of years.
In a lot of recent cartoon movies there are bits for adults that go right over kids heads, and I wasn't expecting there to be three such moments in this film -- all done off screen but still suggested.

Unfortunately I have been very busy here lately and have not had a lot of time to actually do much watching of anything in the theater. I have had to catch several movies on the PC. Not the best way, but when you have a couple of hours of downtime away from the house and there are no other options then the ole PC looks pretty good.

I was able to watch Skyfall and Flight

Both have been reviewed here and since I only watched on the PC I really can't give much of a rating for audio or video. Skyfall did not disappoint and I can't wait to rewatch it in the theater. Flight was the real surprise for me. With the reviews being somewhat mixed here, I was pleasantly surprised. While the movie was not what I was expecting I did really like it. I don't know if I would put it in the buy camp, but definitely worth a watch.

Regards,

RTROSE

Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away 3D 4.9 / 5 From the first time I saw Cirque du Soleil (Novelle Experience)I loved their performances, have since seen Mystere, Allegria & Zumanity (all but Allegria live)... excellent PQ, AQ with LFE and 3D effects. A keeper for sure.

The first 30 minutes of Flight are definitely theater worthy...

Watched Flight last night. Agreed with above poster... the first 30 mins or so were really intense and pushed my HT.

Watched 007

Watched Babylon 5

Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away- We really enjoyed it! I've only seen one live, "Allegria", back in 1997. It was a magical, new form of entertainment that captivated us since that show. This was an enjoyable bluray, although it is not the same experience as seeing the show live.

Wreck it Ralph- Much better than expected! Clean, family entertainment. Not on par with the best of Pixar, but better than some of the other recent Disney releases.

Snow White and the Huntsman - Netflix DVD - I had no idea going in what this was really about. I had seen the trailers and thought Meh. My youngest picked it out for the queue and wanted it for a movie night with his friends. Mrs RTROSE and I had the house to ourselves last night (a rarity in and of itself) so we took the liberty of watching it together in the theater. I must say that the DVD transfer is very very good, almost BR quality at points. The film itself was mostly very visually pleasing, the story line was pretty good and presents a darker approach to the "Snow White" story line. I actually liked the storyline and approach of a darker view of the classic fairy tale for something different. Not many surprises, but overall a decent movie. One thing is for certain Kristen Stewart is IMO a sub par actress. I thought it was just the Twilight drivel she was in, but seeing her in this I don't think it's the material, I think it's her. Worth a rent, but not a buy. 3/5

Regards,

RTROSE

Rise of the Guardians - 4/5

This movie was a lot of fun. It kind of reminds me of Avengers, except animated and starring all your favorite holiday characters. It fell just short of a 5 for me because of a few awkward moments in the movie that felt forced. Ill be watching this one again!

Thanks J_P_A for that. I looked at ROTG and thought it looked hokey, but I'll be putting it in my queue.

Hotel Transylvania - Netflix DVD - It was cute, but I did not find it to have that "special quality" like Cars or The Incredibles. Unfortunately those two films set the bar pretty high for not only animated films, but films in general. There were a couple of funny moments but overall I would consider it just about average. 3/5.

Regards,

RTROSE

Hmmm.... Interesting review, RT. I liked Hotel Transylvania quite a lot. I will admit that about 5 minutes in I realized the type of humor I was in for, and had to make an effort to get into it. After that, I thought it was a fun ride. Loved The Incredibles, but Cars I'm sort of meh on.

Anyway, all that rambling is just to say we may have different tastes in our animated features Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Hunger Games. 3/5 Wasn't blown away and nothing special in the PQ / SQ departments, but actually rather enjoyed it. I didn't read the book so I can't get into the "the book was better" discussion, so the movie stands on it's own for me. It was better than I expected, especially once you buy in to the premise.

I got quite a few blu-rays for Christmas that I just now have gotten around to because they fell out of my "comfort zone." So last night, the daughter and I tackled "Elizabeth" (1998) and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (2007). The first was to my liking but the follow-up was more melodrama best left to a soap opera than actual history. When all is said and done, Cate Blanchet made an excellent Elizabeth and Geoffery Rush turned in a fine performance as Sir Francis Walsingham. Shekhar Kapur directed both. Rather ironic that both Joesph Finnes (Sir Robert Dudley) and Geoffery Rush also starred in "Shakespeare in Love", another film that takes place during Elizabeth's reign (Judi Dench playing the queen in that one.) My daughter got a kick out of the different hairdos, hats, and dresses that Cate wore. File both under "guilty pleasure."

Now that the theater is done I’m watching some movies I’ve missed or haven’t seen in a while:

The Dark Knight Rises
I’ve enjoyed all of these and the last in the installment was no exception. As to story you have to suspend your belief a bit but to me that goes without saying if you are watching any kind of comic book adaptation. Audio and video quality were very good, my only complaint would be the random aspect ratio changing.

Skyfall
I normally like but do not love Bond movies but this one was a bit of a disappointment for me, a tad long and slow moving. Audio was wonderful with some lovely LFE segments, demo quality IMO; video seemed quite good as well.

Highlander
I think I need to avoid any movie prior to 1995, any movie I’ve tried that I have fond memories of when I was younger has turned out to be a disappointment. Video quality was abysmal with significant grain/artifacting, audio was adequate and the story and acting other than Sean Connery just didn’t do it for me. I remember this being a great movie, I couldn’t even watch half of it, I popped in Lord of the rings instead.

Rise of the Guardians
Cute movie, my kids enjoyed it. The animation was very good the surround effects were well used, something I’m sure we’ll end up owning.

BB,

That is not your typical "review", what gives? I'm guessing your are talking about Skyfall when you say 007 and what no rating? Someone is slacking a little.

Regards,

RTROSE

Whoa..... I completely missed that!

I meant I watched all of them.

Too many to really give a rating on.



Watched 007 (mostly from Bond 50: The Complete 22 Film Collection [Blu-ray])
- 1962 Dr. No (Sean Connery)
- 1963 From Russia With Love (Sean Connery)
- 1964 Goldfinger (Sean Connery)
- 1965 Thunderball (Sean Connery)
- 1967 You Only Live Twice (Sean Connery)
- 1967 Casino Royalle (David Niven & Peter Sellers, on DVD)
- 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service (George Lazenby)
- 1971 Diamonds Are Forever (Sean Connery)
- 1973 Live and Let Die (Roger Moore)
- 1974 The Man with the Golden Gun (Roger Moore)
- 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me (Roger Moore)
- 1979 Moonraker (Roger Moore)
- 1981 For Your Eyes Only (Roger Moore)
- 1983 Octopussy (Roger Moore)
- 1983 Never Say Never Again (Sean Connery, on DVD)
- 1985 A View to a Kill (Roger Moore)
- 1987 The Living Daylights (Timothy Dalton)
- 1989 Licence to Kill (Timothy Dalton)
- 1995 GoldenEye (Pierce Brosnan)
- 1997 Tomorrow Never Dies (Pierce Brosnan)
- 1999 The World is Not Enough (Pierce Brosnan)
- 2002 Die Another Day (Pierce Brosnan)
- 2006 Casino Royale (Daniel Craig)
- 2008 Quantum of Solace (Daniel Craig)
- 2012 Skyfall (Daniel Craig)

[didn't see the '1954 Casino Royale (Barry Nelson)']



Watched Babylon 5
- movie The Gathering
- Season 1 (all episodes)
- Season 2 (all episodes)
- Season 3 (all episodes)
- Season 4 (all episodes)
- Season 5 (all but the lsat episode, which I'm not fond of)
- movie Thirdspace
- movie In The Beginning
- movie River of Souls
- movie Legend of the Rangers
- movie A Call to Arms
- Season 1 Crusade
- movie Lost Tales: Voices in the Dark

Lots of really good quotes in the Babylon 5 episodes.
The movies and crusade of course are not up to par.




Bond has been wandering around in tuxedos and gambling in the world's prestigious casinos since the books were penned. But in the first four movies (1962-1965), until the clarity of bluray, I hadn't noticed how cheaply the rooms were constructed. Perhaps Pinewood Studios didn't have the budget to build decent sets in the early years, or perhaps casinos in the 1950s and 1960s were just old houses with decent drapes and carpeting, but the walls and doors and trimwork were full of imperfections that not even today's Motel-6 would put up with. Rooms that I remember at the time looked posh, these days look quite cheap. On the other hand the same can be said of The Saint black and white episodes from the same years. The old M's office with the double doors, one of which was padded leather, was the top of the line in soundproofing ideas back then.

Nonetheless, watching them all back to back was quite pleasant. I thought I might get bored with the same sort of action over and over, and I wasn't. I even liked Moonraker (space shuttles). Some things were a little more peculiar, such as having Maud Adams playing The Man With The Golden Gun's girlfriend Andrea, and then a few hours later she pops up again as Octapussy.

I liked 2006 & 2008 much more than 2012. A young Q. That the bad guy apparently needed to be taken to M, when he'd already blown up MI6 and made modifications to the tunnels for his eventual escape, seemed weak. The 2006 Casino Royal parquor chase, ending up on the cranes, was better than I remembered. Whereas 2012 in the opening scene he gets shot, falls a death distance off the train, and a little while later he returns to work when needed -- admittedly it wouldn't have been a movie if they killed off Bond at the beginning. At least they didn't total the canon, the way J. J. Abrams did with Star Trek (2009).

Quantum of Solace's final scene's canadian agent Corinne Vaneau is played by actress Stana Katic, who is currently famous for five seasons of Castle (with Nathan Fillion).
Edited by BasementBob - 3/19/13 at 7:36pm

^^^^^Impressive! I am going to have to get the collection. But I have to get Star Wars on Blue before I can get Bond on Blue.

I was never much of a Babylon 5 fan though.

Regards,

RTROSE

Watched Seven Psychopaths (2012)
2/5 (amazon 3.3/5 even distribution, imdb 7.3, rotten tomatoes 74%)
A forgettable film. Every bit needed just a little bit more.
It's not a movie about seven psycopaths, it's a movie about a screenwriter whose ambition is to make a movie, and life begins to imitate art as psychopaths start to unfold in and around his life.
The sub plot, shown on the television commercials, of the dog-kidnappers-for-a-living isn't really strong enough to pick up the slack.
Neither did the rabbits nor the Shih Tzu save it.
Colin Farrell wasn't strong enough to be the lead, and Sam Rockwell sort of steals the movie except there's not much to steal.
Christopher Walken was ok. Woody Harrelson was dull.
The supposidly extremely violent gangster's gun never seems to work, at one point he even asks his opposing dualist for another five seconds.
At least all the bad guys get arrested or die off (Motion Picture Production Code 1930-1968 style).
The tag line "They won't take any Shih Tzu" is wrong, because that's actually the second thing they do is take a Shih Tzu, and Colin Farrel does take ****.

We watched all the Bond movies this past summer. Our cable company was providing them for free during the month of July or something. I had never seen the Pre-Brosnan bonds

I agree with BasementBob about the budget on the early ones. I think in the first movie his cool prop was a LARGE radio to communicate back to London

Watched Argo
3.9/5 (amazon 4.2/5 (heavily 5), imdb 8/10, rotten tomatoes 96%, Decent Films: A)
Good plot. Good characters. Good filmmaking. It’s transparent and contrived, but it works really well.
I saw this in the theatres months ago, and was working while the BluRay played this week. After it was over it started playing the special features, mostly The Making Of, and it took me a moment to realize why I hadn't seen them before. After all I had seen the movie before -- but of course in the theatre they don't play the BluRay special features after the movie is over.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)

Oh I see there's a lawsuit by Iran.

A science-fantasy adventure, with a galactic witch, laser guns, spaceships, lots of stuff.

I watched Pulp Fiction Blu-ray last night and most of the scenes looked amazingly clear. Some maybe a little TOO clear for my memory of seeing it in this old repertory theater back in the day, which I will never forget:


Edited by AVfile - 3/21/13 at 10:58am

Watched Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
2.5/5 (amazon 3.6/5 (even distribution), imdb 6.0/10, rotten tomatoes 35%, Decent Films B-)

Unlike Argo, which by the title should be a fairly bad science fiction film a couple pegs better than Plan 9 From Outer Space,
this film more closely resembles the wonder of Snakes On A Plane (2006)
in that it's a film one can judge by its title.

Somewhat pleasant little vampire film, utilizing lots of revisionist history. A lot less of the politics side than I was anticipating, but Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln (2012)" will probably give me enough of that in a month.

The CGI of the transition of buildings through time was pretty. Not incredible CGI relatively speaking, but nice to see just the same -- I wonder if it's historically accurate, or if for example the individual trees and cranes were fake.
The real Abraham Lincoln is famous for splitting rails with his axe, and so an axe becomes his weapon against vampires. No traditionalist is our Abe!
The real Abraham Lincoln confiscated silver (sort of, it was to prevent looting by invading), and so this silver becomes useful on the battlefield which is now fraught with fought vampires.
The real Abraham Lincoln is known as Honest Abe (the fable being from his youth, the truth being from his 40s when he said "“Resolve to be honest at all events; and if, in your own judgment, you can not be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer"), and so in the movie he lies all over the place. Well, that's not so good.
And there's an interesting explanation of why silver is effective against vampires.
Many movies have had somebody thrown by a horse; this movie has a bad guy pick up a horse and throw it at the hero.
Scholars of the historical record may well develop the vapors, but for susceptible viewers, the film's wink-free approach and exceedingly game performers make it fairly easy to sit back and bask in its poker-faced outrageousness.
The ending line is barely audible by Mrs Lincoln “Hurry Abe! We'll be late for the theatre!”

A couple good quotes:
Edited by BasementBob - 3/22/13 at 12:14am

Watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey last night

I didn’t see this in the theater so it was all new to me (Other than reading the book 20-30 years ago). I found it to be excellent, great visuals and panoramas, a feast for the eyes on a scope screen. As with most 7.1 soundtracks I don’t really seem to notice the effects in the back but I’m sure they are there and would notice if they were missing. Not a great deal of LFE but then it’s about the story which I felt Jackson handled very well. I wondered how they were going to stretch one book into three movies and after watching the first I’m eager to see the next two installments.

The CGI was excellent as I would expect it to be and it did not disappoint. Great film!

Watched Red Dawn (2012)
2.6/5 (amazon 3.3/5 (even distribution), imdb 5.2/10, rotten tomatoes 13%)
Started off promissing. Even half way through. The characters weren't as deep, the philosophy not as deep, the plot thinner, the acting so so to thin.
Lots of action. No maps.
Anyone could have written a better ending. A huge american flag in the re-education center -- come on.
Whenever there’s a possibility that we’ll get some character development, an action scene breaks out. Whenever it looks like there’s going to be some emotional scene, action ensues.
The film is 95 minutes long, some have said it would have been better if it were fleshed out into a mini-series.
A few changes from the original, with one surprise.
Not too bad for an action flick, relative to the past two years action-only-flicks. Has several tactical holes. Its lesser than the original 1984 version.

When the 1984 book "The Hunt For Red October" came out, every tactical planner on the planet read it, because with the exception of the stealth propulsion, the rest was somewhat plausable.
When Michael Crichton wrote books, he started by interviewing the experts in the field and asking them what their worst fears were within the plausable.
No one will acuse Red Dawn 2012 of anything like that.
Edited by BasementBob - 3/22/13 at 8:45pm

Zero Dark Thirty - Redbox DVD - Ok, take the following with a grain of salt as I am probably going to go against the grain here. I had high expectations for this considering all of the hype, the content, and Kathryn Bigelow's prior work with "The Hurt Locker" (which I love) but for me there is just something missing in this presentation. I watched this on my computer (no other choice) so I really can't comment on the AV quality of the film which gets high marks in reviews. The buildup to the climax is way too long, with very little of the cloak and dagger you would expect of trying to hunt down the worlds most wanted man, and the climax is really more of an anti-climax. It was a good movie just not a great movie as all of the hype would have suggested. I actually liked Act of Valor much better. I almost did a blind buy with ZDT but I'm glad I didn't. Might pick it up when it is in the sale bin, but glad I rented it first. 3/5

Regards,

RTROSE

Watched They call me Trinity (1970)
Watched Trinity Is STILL My Name!(1971)
2/5 (amazon 4.3/5, imdb 7.2/10 and 7.1/10 respectively)
A drifter comes to town where his brother is sheriff. His brother is actually a robber who broke the real sheriff's leg and left him for dead, and became sheriff in order to hide out. They team up against the local land baron who is trying to get rid of the Mormon settlers in a valley he wishes to own.
Spagetti western, filmed in Italy in Italian and dubbed, where they're pretending to be in Spain or Mexico.
Terrence Hill plays an extremely relaxed and tranquil, happy go lucky, rediculously fast on the draw, gunman who can easily take on a half dozen other gunmen, even if they're behind him.
His brother is also better than most with a gun, although not in Trinity's league, but his claim to fame is his muscles and ability to take on a dozen in a fist fight.
The brother pretends to be good, but is constantly criminal.
Whereas Trinity pretends to be criminal, but is constantly good.
Overall, the movies are really nothing special.
Terrence Hill played the same role a couple years later in My Name Is Nobody (1973) with Henry Fonda.


Watched This Gun for Hire (1942)
3.9/5 (amazon 4.3/5, imdb 7.6/10)
Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston
When hired killer Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his female companion dead, he's is paid off in marked bills by a treasonous blackmailing theiving industrialist who is also his customer, and seeks revenge.
Alarmingly good. Great acting. Great writing. Really good plot.

At one point he shoots his pistol through a door that's only a few feet away. He pulls the trigger, and with a bang there's a hole in the door and powder burns on the white paint of the door. I can't recall ever seeing powder burns on a door in any film in the past 30 years. And then it struck me: this film was made in 1942. The producer probably drove down to the hardware store and bought a pistol and ammunition, brought it back to the California film lot, handed it to the actor and told him to shoot it through the door. Presumably they took the precaution not to have the actress on the other side of the door, but I doubt they did anything else. In any event, real is very realistic.

This Gun for Hire starts and stops with Alan Ladd, who catapulted to stardom with his portrayal of the cold-blooded killer Raven. The emblematic scene occurs early on, when the hired Ladd enters an apartment building to fulfill his end of the contract. He meets a young girl wearing leg braces as he walks up the stairs. What occurs next, and continues on until he leaves the building, is simply a brilliant bit of minimalist screen acting. Raven's face is an expressionless, cold-blooded, inscrutable mask. Ladd plays the sequence almost solely with his eyes. They dart menacingly from the crippled girl to the apartment door, assessing the risks, flashing for a split second before smoldering to a colder temperature. It's a justifiably famous scene, one of the best tough guy sequences ever, a star maker.

Every character is either ignorant or mistaken about the others' role in this web of treachery. Ellen is privy to the most information, but she can't tell anyone. Veronica Lake has a lot of charisma, even if Ellen's role is convoluted. Ellen is a different thing to every person in the film, to the extent that the audience has to think at times to keep it all straight. It's interesting that she plays the role of a femme fatale to the assassin Raven, but her actions are selfless and righteous. Ellen isn't an ambitious seductress; she's a steadfast, practical woman who loves her boyfriend (cop Robert Preston), her country, and wants a family. Raven is the film's protagonist, but he's a bad guy, so when Ellen manipulates him, it's a good thing. It's not a good thing for Raven, who suffers for having acted selflessly for once. Alan Ladd gives a wonderful performance that makes Raven ruthless, cruel, and frightening, but not at all superficial. Laird Cregar is also memorable as the thoroughly criminal Gates, who nevertheless abhors violence and loves peppermints.

The plot bends and twists just enough to throw Ladd and Lake together for most of the last half of the movie. She a hostage with a secret or two, he obsessed with getting back at Cregar (the treasonous customer).

The most famous role I remember Robert Preston in is 42 years later in The Last Starfighter (1984), when he was 66 but made up to be a chipper 70. It was nice to see him a younger 24, and even then a good actor.

Intouchables- From the first time I saw the trailer, I was anxious to see this one. It's based on a true story of a down on life, yet rich, French paraplegic that hires a young, black, street kid to be his caretaker. It was a heartwarming story showing that attitude is all about perspective or vice versa. The caretaker was infectious about life and was a movie character I will not soon forget. A must see.
Edited by tony123 - 3/24/13 at 4:28am

Magic Mike.

The LOGANESS invited 3 friends but none of them showed up so I watched with her. Against my will. Turns out there was enough nudiity to go around, so it wasn't ALL bad.