What have you watched recently?

[bigbarada]

Trouble with the Curve - I didn't think I'd like it because I'm not usually a fan of sports movies, but it was actually really good and didn't really focus on the game of baseball as much as I feared it would. The whole "old-school guy vs. high-tech computer-savvy jerk" plot line was more than a little predictable, but overall the movie is something that I would conceivably watch again at some point.

Magic Mike - yes, I'm secure enough in my manhood to be able to watch a movie about male strippers. Although I was a bit terrified when the movie opened with Matthew Mcconaughey and I was slightly sickened by the notion that he might show up naked at some point in the movie. Fortunately, he never stripped down further than a thong, even though that was more than I ever wanted to see of him. As for Channing Tatum, it's really hard to tell if he is a really good actor doing a great job of playing a stripper who can barely form complete sentences, or if he is a horrible actor who looks good on camera, so they just edit together his incoherent, stuttering dialogue as best they can. I think I just need to stop expecting to see well-written dialogue or compelling characters in movies about strippers.

[El Chuxter]

Taken 2

"I still don't know who you are or what you want, but if you don't return my daughter this time, I will find you again, and I will kill you again."

[bigbarada]

Cloud Atlas -

I'm very torn on different aspects about the movie, but overall I enjoyed it. I don't have too much to comment on because I'm still trying to really decipher my feelings on the timelines and how they fit together, but my only major complaint with the movie is that the editing gets confusing, and the valley people's language got on my nerves. I understand the motivation to have the broken english language, but it was so difficult to get used to and generally sounded too silly. It really ruined the mood that the movie was often trying to present, especially whenever they had to say "true true" - it just makes me think of "roger, roger" and it makes me unhappy. And, as much as I like Tom Hanks, I think the movie got a little too heavy with his prominent usage in the various eras. Fortunately he was only modestly used in the futuristic Korea, which was the era I most enjoyed the depiction of. Possibly because it reminded me of The Fifth Element in some scenes.

Is this movie out on DVD yet? It's on my short list of "movies that I really want to see, but not enough that I'm willing to go to a theater to see them." Life of Pi and Les Miserables are on that list too.

[LTBasker]

"I still don't know who you are or what you want, but if you don't return my daughter this time, I will find you again, and I will kill you again."

"And if you take my ex-wife... Well, I'll be mildly inconvenienced and forced to kinda wander around your compound killing your associates before I reluctantly return to see if she's not completely dead yet from bleeding out. I repeat, I will be WANDERING AROUND and she will be ALONE. My EX-WIFE will be ALONE after I make sure my daughter is alright. So... ya know, she'll be ALONE because I WON'T be around. Just putting that out there. But yeah, leave my daughter alone plz, kthxbye."

...

"Hi, me again. Still fuzzy on who you are but definitely sure my EX-WIFE will be ALONE because I'll be with my daughter - whoyoudefinitelycannottouch - elsewhere not paying attention. At all. Ex-wife. Alone. Bye."

Is this movie out on DVD yet? It's on my short list of "movies that I really want to see, but not enough that I'm willing to go to a theater to see them." Life of Pi and Les Miserables are on that list too.

Not yet, and I'm not sure any dates have been announced. It just finally hit a somewhat-local theater that still has pretty cheap matinees. The visuals are certainly worth hitting up a matinee for, but aside from the few minutes in the future Korea segments you won't be missing much if you have a decent TV.

[Tycho]

BigB, I have a girlfriend that wants to watch Trouble With the Curve with me.

Is this a "date movie?" Or could it be in the very casual sense of the term?

I'm (as you're aware) a person that thinks baseball is the meaning of life. I don't want to get carried away with that in front of anyone I'd be embarassed by my fandom (I saw Money Ball by myself because I started crying, thinking about my Padres and how evil the New York Yankees really are).

[bigbarada]

BigB, I have a girlfriend that wants to watch Trouble With the Curve with me.

Is this a "date movie?" Or could it be in the very casual sense of the term?

I'm (as you're aware) a person that thinks baseball is the meaning of life. I don't want to get carried away with that in front of anyone I'd be embarassed by my fandom (I saw Money Ball by myself because I started crying, thinking about my Padres and how evil the New York Yankees really are).

The movie focuses more on the relationship between Clint Eastwood's character and Amy Adams' character. Justin Timberlake is in there as the love interest, but that's almost a secondary plot line. It's a movie about a woman with absentee father-issues first, a baseball movie second and a love story third. That's probably the best way I can describe it. Another way to put it would be that it's a baseball movie in the same way that 'Jerry Macguire' is a football movie.

[Tycho]

Thanks. That helps a lot. Actually seems like I always meet girls with "daddy issues." My friend will like it.

The baseball thing will thrill me of course.

[bigbarada]

Thanks. That helps a lot. Actually seems like I always meet girls with "daddy issues." My friend will like it.

The baseball thing will thrill me of course.

So, she'll be the one crying and you'll be there to comfort her.

[OC47150]

The Hobbit. Finally got to see it. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Since I re-read the book in the last few years, I found myself thinking, okay, this wasn't in the book. I do know Jackson pulled from a lot of sources. Part 2 will be interesting to watch.

X-15. About an Air Force experimental plane. Not bad. Used a lot of Air Force footage.

Master of the World. Vincent Price as a mad genius (is there any other) who used a balloon aircraft to strike at warring nations. Based on Jules Verne novel.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

On AMC last night, they had several Laurel and Hardy shorts (which are quite slapticky funny), but also followed up by the same (mostly) film... in Spanish. And not dubbed, but spoken by all the actors, including L&H! But since I came in watched the Spanish version first, I was mucho confundido. Did get to see Politiquerías (the Spanish version of Chickens Come Home, of which I was completely confused, not knowing that language detail), Blotto and then La Vida Nocturna. Apparently, there was no dubbing-over technology in the '30s, or at least not any affordable ones; it was easier for a while to simply RE-SHOOT THE ENTIRE FILM, SCENE-BY-SCENE with new fluent actors/actresses and had the Spanish lines offstage on chalk boards. Let's just say, Stan and Ollie didn't have the most authentic accents. Still, I was LOL-ing through much of the 15 minutes or so each.