Last movie watched

[Antrax]

[Logain]

Just saw Mindhunters yesterday in the theater. Nothing great but pretty entertaining. Reminded me much more of a generic slasher movie where you try to figure out the killer as people die one by one than any difference in plot made by the victims being FBI. The fact they were FBI made it worse since they fell for every trap given them, each had too many personal weaknesses, and they constantly were paranoid who in their group to trust. Val Kilmer and Christian Slater had the least air time for the bigger name stars. LL Cool J had the best performance IMO.

[The Master]

In preparation of the upcoming Star Wars movie, I am making my way through the 5 earlier ones. I watched IV-VI a fortnight ago and watched I - The Phantom Menace yesterday. My word, there are some huge problems with this movie. Jar Jar has got to be the most annoying character in existence and when Anakin and Natalie Portman have their scenes together, it is like a meeting at Bad Acting Anonymous. I laughed, I cringed, I turned away. To think if they had just gotten some better acting for these earlier movies, they might have been good movies is very sad.
*1/2
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[Internet Stranger]

Road to Perdition

Its a good thing Tom Hanks character had a famous reputation for being a badass, because he certainly didnt look scary, no matter how hard he kept trying to put on this stern constipated face.

There was a scene where this dude basically wets his pants as soon as Tom Hanks shows up. Whats the issue? Its just Forrest Gump, you coward!

Kids in movies generally annoy me too. Do they always have to be such useless buttwads? At least its better than the alternative, ninja assassin precocious pre-teens. Those deserve instant death.

Still worth watching though.
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[The Ragin' South Asian]

Taxi Driver
don't really know what to make of it. well made though

[The Master]

Attack of the Clones was yesterday and it was slighllty better than TPM. Still, the acting from most everyone is atrocious, but the story is quite good and the whole last 45 minutes were great.
**
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[Internet Stranger]

Cube

After the first 30 minutes I was already thinking to myself, it cant just be more of this same stuff over and over for another 60 minutes. Then the people started going all wacky and insane and it picked up quite a bit. I was still a bunch of amateur hour, but if your expectations arent astronomical, youll be just fine.

Looks like the movie did what it set out to do, and nothing more.
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[The Ragin' South Asian]

Saw Episode Three. Parts were really good, parts were really bad. More good than bad.

[Jedo the Jedi]

*agrees with RSA*

I think the first 30 minutes to an hour were the worst. I thought the plot was going to suck major wookie with Yoda on top (see the movie), but it finally came through to the believable side.

Hayden Christianson is the worst actor ever.
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[Courk]

Saw Episode III today. I thought it was pretty good. Much much much better than Episodes I and II.

I used to think that the best way to watch the six movies would be IV, V, VI, I, II, and III, but I'm not so sure today. If you watch them in production order, you get the surprise at the end of V. However, if you watch them in chronological order, you can truly believe that Anakin will be good, and then be shocked when it doesn't happen. I need to rewatch IV, V, and VI now.

[mith]

Watched it as well... enjoyed it, but I'm too tired for any lengthy remarks right now.

[The Ragin' South Asian]

[Internet Stranger]

And that person will find it incredulous that so many people love the franchise. Wow, that person will think that they live with a bunch of unevolved neanderthal monkeys.
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[Quailman]

Run, Lola, Run
I had never heard of this movie, yet it scored #129 on IMDB's top 250. One of my wife's employees said it was her favorite movie, so we borrowed it. It's an interesting enough story, but anything else I say would spoiler it. The star is the same girl (Franka Potente) who played in The Bourne Identity, only she has bright red hair. She runs through the entire movie. I don't know how long it took to film it, but she never seemed too winded.

It's German with English subtitles.

[jesus_saves]

Quail,

I like Run Lola, Run. Its fun and different DId you actually like it?

anyway I recently watched Jaws and i didn t much care for it. The plot wasn t very engaging and I was passively disinterested in most of the characters. I m sure for its time it was very good and all that, but I found it predictable. AH well, thats a check on the list.
**
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³⁸ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
³⁹ Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord

~Romans 8:38-39

[The Master]

I went to the midnight show of RotS this morning and really did not realize what I was getting into. Everyone was crazy. There was a pretty cool lightsaber duel between some guy who dressed up as vader and some other guy (they were fighting with some pretty expensive lightsaber replicas, so it was pretty fun) until the theater came in a broke up the jedi/sith confrontation. As for the movie, I thought it was much better than episodes I and II but not as good as the original, even the ewok infested Return of the Jedi. Not sure if it just nostalgia or something else, but it just didn't have the same feel for me as the originals. The lightsaber fights were the best of the series though and kept me mesmirized and entertained. The acting was also much better, especially from Anakin who had one of the worst performances ever in the last one. Natalie Portman still can not act well and did not disprove this theory of mine, especially with her blubbering concluding speech. Yuck. Overall, very fun and certainly a good addition to the star wars universe.
**1/2
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[Internet Stranger]

[Courk]

I think that must be a generational difference. I can't stand Jaws.

[Guest]

[Digit Ne]

I saw "Ryan" today, a short film that apparently won an Academy Award in March for best animation. It deserved it. It was about an interview with a revolutionary animator from the sixties. Very well made.

[Courk]

OK, maybe watch Ep I with the person who has never seen Star Wars, and just skip the non-relevant stuff. You can narrate a bit if necessary. "Oh, and here's the pod race. And they're off!" *Fast Forward* "Geeze, those pods are fast. Thank God that's over."

"Why did you mute that weird duck-billed looking alien?"
"It's better this way."

[Vader]

Ep III and I was NOT Disapointed in the least!! it was AWSOME!!
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[Internet Stranger]

Big Lebowski

The whole draw of this movie is the Lebowski character himself and all the quirky people involved. I know this because I think back on the movie and dont recall any scenes standing out over another. Worth watching.
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[groza528]

Stupeur et Tremblement
Very good... Not sure how many of you will get a chance to see it as it is a foreign film, but if you can then do. It's playing at Kendall Square for those in the Boston area.
The plot revolves around a Belgian woman, returning to Japan, where she was born, to get a job. She begins working with a large company, at the bottom of course, and because of the culture shock --she hasn't been to Japan since she was 5-- makes many a faux pas. Not a good plan in Japan. As one critic put it, think "Office Space" meets "Lost in Translation." Just wish I knew Japanese like I did French, so I wouldn't have to read *any* of the subtitles
Good acting, good plot, very funny. ****

[Samadhi]

[worm]

[groza528]

Sam: I didn't like Lost in Translation either. I just meant that they used the cultural differences as a plot device (I would say that it's a coincidence that both used Japanese, if not for the fact that Japanese culture is so specifically defined.)

[i_h8_evil_stuff]

The Butterfly Effect.

Before that, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
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[Courk]

worm, I read it wrong in your quote. I stopped and though, "I didn't say that. Oh, I hope I didn't typo" *reread*

h8, is Butterfly Effect any good?

[jesus_saves*]

Finding Neverland - i liked it. It was cute, funny, and appealed to my intense love for children Over all very good.
****

groza: i thought you liked lost in translation. you said something to that effect after we watched, because i remember also liking it. when did that change?

[groza528]

hmm? I don't remember what I said at the time, but LiT was too slow-moving. It didn't hold my attention well enough that I remember more than the most basic plot, save a couple of bits here and there (like the clothespins on the robe, or jacket, or whatever he was wearing.) I may have been half-asleep as a result, accounting for my ramblings as to how good it was (though like I said, I honestly don't remember what I said about it at the time. Another proof of fatigue?)

[MatthewV]

Butterfly Effect was decent for the story but the violence was commonly overly graphic. (It was decently dubbed though- another movie I saw in Russia).

[referee]

[Dmi]

I never watched Star Wars. So when I start, which movie should I start with?
I read Phantom Menace a couple years ago, but the only reason I didn't stop reading it is because I usually finish books I start reading.

[Pablo]

[The Master]

[Scurra]

I saw an entertaining interview with George Lucas on UK tv the other night when he observed that "The Phantom Menace" was always going to cause problems since it destroys the Darth Vader character entirely, which is something of a killer punch to those who grew up with the original. But then again, it's incredibly tough to have to start a movie sequence with what is, essentially, the happy ending! In terms of story mapping, the movies are:
The Phantom Menace = Return of the Jedi
Attack of the Clones = A New Hope
Revenge of the Sith = The Empire Strikes Back
which is a lousy way to have to deal with things, and all credit to Lucas for making something so coherent (albeit only coherent to people willing to waste hours dissecting minutiae. Like me )

In the end, the story of the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker is actually fairly interesting, and Lucas' plot is (apart from the glitch that is the ending of A New Hope) surprisingly consistent: I do almost believe him when he says that he had the backstory worked through when he started. It's certainly evident that the whole thing was originally two clear long half-stories that might have been better received if they had been made as two four-hour features instead of six two-hour ones!

For someone who has never seen any of them, I would recommend starting with The Phantom Menace if you are nine. Then it's the *bestest!* *film!* *evar!!!* Otherwise, it's fair to skip it entirely since the important bits of the plot are recapped elsewhere.
Then you skip AotC and RotS in favour of ANH and tESB and the first half-hour or so of Return (up to the end of the Tatooine sequence), since a lot of what makes them fun is ruined by the revelations of the later (earlier?!) movies. Then go back to AotC and RotS so that the back-story of Vader/Anakin now makes sense. And finally get the pay-off to the story in the last part of Jedi.
You still have to watch the whole thing twice to even begin to make any sense out of it though!

Frankly, I wouldn't entirely blame Lucas if he wanted to completely recut the whole series to make it a much more non-linear narrative; it would be invidious to compare the series to something like The Godfather sequence*, but in the end they are telling the same sort of family story - Coppola merely had the advantage of not having to explain his setting as well, so he could play with other tricks, ones that I suspect Lucas would dearly have loved to use too. Mind you, if Lucas was even *half* the director Coppola is, we probably wouldn't be talking about the Star Wars films in the same way! I suspect it's impossible though, as the whole Death Star mess is just too much to retro-fit...

(*mostly because The Godfather and it's first sequel are genuinely great movies in a way that none of the Star Wars movies are - but perhaps could have been. Then again, I have never felt the urge to dissect The Godfather in anything like the same way.)

[i_h8_evil_stuff]

Courk: The Butterfly Effect is okay.
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[Courk]

DMI: If you're going to start, as Master suggested, with Episodes IV, V, and VI, don't even bother asking your friends about Phantom Menace, just listen to Weird Al's "The Saga Begins." I find it to be a fairly decent summary.

[Jedo the Jedi]

Oog! "The Saga Begins"! *goes to listen to Weird Al*
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