152 thoughts on “Third Monday Movie Day”

  1. Mostly TV, yet again.

    I wouldn't say I've completely given up on Dexter, since I'm so close to the end, but I had to take a break from obvious plot twists and stilted dialogue for a while.

    "24" is one of the dumbest shows I've ever seen to completion, and I watched the first hour of the new 13-part series. It's total fanservice, with a blond girl in trouble, Jack breaking the law to do the right thing, a new American president that just happens to have strong ties to Jack and a traitor to the country in a position so high, I literally cannot believe it would happen. I'm not sure why I kept going back (they spaced out the better seasons perfectly, so I could never find my way out), but I'll probably see it through, since it's so short and all.

    The first season of American Horror Story was terrifying early on, but once the show had revealed most of its secrets, it kind of settled into a dark drama and the show forgot about horror for the second half of the season. It didn't stop being a well-acted, decently-written series, but it didn't have the draw of the first half. Well, it was fun enough and the last episode was a satisfying end.

    I picked up Aqua Teen Hunger Force for the first time since first run. It's still decent absurdity.

    I checked out most of FOX's trailers for their upcoming fall shows, and maybe it was just the edits, but some of it looks really promising for commercial television. I'm sure it'll be somewhat toothless when it counts, but I'm very intrigued by "Gotham" and "Gracefalls," and expect to give them a shot.

    1. How many episodes to the new 24?
      I agree with you on a lot of that. I was able to suspend belief easily for quite a while but then at the end I had to fight my brain to enjoy it. I'm tempted to find a way to watch the new season regardless.

  2. I went to a movie in a theater for the first time in about three years, as I took our junior high youth group to "Heaven Is For Real" at their request.

    Overall, I enjoyed it. For me, they focused more on the family's financial troubles than I'd have liked, especially at the beginning. I also wish the pastor's closing speech had been a little more challenging and a little less feel-good. But overall, i enjoyed it.

    I should note that I have not read the book, so I have no idea how close the movie stayed to it.

    1. I didn't like that movie. It seemed to jump too quickly. The kid is healthy, he's dying, he's fine. I was also confused about the attitudes from his church.

      1. I think the two things are the same. Spending so much time on the family's financial troubles, which really were not the main point of the movie, took away time that could've been used developing the other aspects you mentioned. I wasn't particularly confused about the attitudes of the church people, but they certainly could've been developed more fully.

        1. I agree. They did spend way too much time on the financial side.

          I just thought it was weird that the church people almost seemed to be questioning him and bitter before he even started telling them about what the son had told him. Who would have that attitude with a parent that had just been through that? It just seemed weird.

          One other problem I had, although it is small, is that I wish they wouldn't had tried to show the kid's visions. I think that is something that works better as told by the boy than to try to show what he had seen.

          1. My read on the church people was they thought their pastor, who they thought was just this normal nice guy, was all of a sudden getting weird on them. It's one thing to believe in visions/near-death-experiences/whatever in theory, it's another to deal with a pastor who seems to be treating it as a present reality that happened to his kid. A lot of people just don't know how to handle that, and it makes them nervous.

            1. Especially us Catholics. What's the pastor doing acknowledging his with a kid?

            2. But they were confrontational in the first scene he has with them after his son got out of the hospital. They didn't show any other conversations about his son with the congregation before that.

              It just wasn't developed well. And I wanted to like it.

  3. Only movie I saw this past month was Hot Fuzz. The first hour had me rolling with laughter constantly, but I felt let down by what I felt was a pretty dull action-packed ending.

    Otherwise, just slogging through Dexter. Just started season eight. Like Spooky says, more frustrating than anything, but it seems like most episodes have at least one pretty strong moment that keeps me coming back. Captain Matthews had some great zingers in season seven which kept me afloat.

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    1. I find it interesting that you felt let down by the end of Hot Fuzz. It's seemingly the most beloved part of the movie. I absolutely howled during his beatdown of the unlikely bad guys.

      ...which reminds me, again, that I still haven't seen World's End.

      1. I wouldn't say I was "let down" by the second half, but it certainly wasn't the direction I expected the show to take. The first half was gold, though

        1. I expected it, since they had previously done Shaun of the Dead which started as a horror spoof and went deep into horror territory. In an interview with the creators that I read, Pegg said that in order to properly make a spoof of a thing, you really have to become the thing.

      2. I thoroughly enjoyed the entirety of Hot Fuzz and I will also note that you definitely should make it a point to see World's End.

  4. Finished auditing my friend's Sixties film class. The last three films were M*A*S*H, Patton, and 2001. This was the third or fourth time I've watched 2001 sober, a mistake I plan to never make again by never watching the film again. I like Kubrick fine, but boy is that flick tedious. I also happened to rewatch The American, which is a fairly decent little film.

    On the small screen, I watched all of Top of the Lake, which was hit-and-miss. I thought it was gorgeous to look at, but thought the characters and their relationships occasionally veered toward soap opera territory. Peter Mullan was the highlight of the show for me. Now I'm making my way through The Killing, which is pretty good (Joel Kinnaman is fantastic, Mireille Enos has grown on me, and Brent Sexton might be a new favorite, too). The show is kinda hilarious for the way it depicts precipitation in Seattle, but that's a quibble. All part of the atmosphere, I guess.

    1. Top of the Lake is near the top of my list, but you make me wonder.

      The greatest thing to me about 2001 is that it's considered classic in most circles, but it seems I've never met anyone who genuinely loves it.

      1. I think there are probably a lot of classic movies that people don't actually love. I enjoy 2001 more for being groundbreaking in its handling of space (the silence and the vastness and yes, the tediousness) than for anything else.

        1. I love the middle part of the movie. Great suspense despite the tediousness. But yeah, it's a little hard to swallow as a whole. I fell asleep the first time I tried to watch it.

          1. The middle part is the part I prefer, too; I think the pacing captures the likely realities of early inter-planetary spaceflight well. The segments that bookend it are the tedious parts.

      2. 2001 having spawned a pretty enjoyable episode of Mad Men a couple of weeks ago.

    2. I have seen all of The Killing (fortunately or unfortunately). I haven't watched Top of the Lake yet, but critics I trust consistently rated it much higher than the former.

      1. I'm just about done with the second season. Based on the preview blurb I accidentally read on under the episode title on Netflix, I'm a little concerned about the direction things are headed, particularly with Det. Linden.

        1. I definitely think the third season is the best (or has the most, not "good", but "well-done" and, I don't know, "affecting" or "resonating" or something parts), although it also has some of the same problems the show always had.

    3. J & I have Top of the Lake sitting on our DVD shelf waiting to be watched. I just need to work myself up to watch it due to the subject matter.

    4. After growing up with M*A*S*H, then reading the book it was based on, I really disliked the movie. Maybe seeing it out of a generational context was the problem, but I found almost nothing humorous about it (the book was great though).

        1. There are moments of dark/cynical humor in the film, but the show's writing was much better. The impotence sub-plot in the film is cringe-inducing today.

      1. who let that guy write about movies for a living? Probably liked The Hours and Dogville, too.

  5. Saw the 2nd Hobbit movie. Sigh. Hey Peter Jackson, The Hobbit is a taut, damn fine story on its own. Your additions and changes don't propel the action; don't add complexity; don't explain motiviation; probably don't make more people want to go out and seek the film. In fact they probably piss off the story' most ardent fans. Why?

    Now before Spooky chimes in that a movie maker is under no obligation to be 100 percent faithful to a book, I get that. And even a short books needs to be condensed for the sake of a what can be shown on film. Put Peter Jackson is adding, not condensing. The Hobbit can be quite nicely told without all the geegaws that Peter Jackson is so enamared with.

    Also Elves and Dwarfs would NEVER fall in love. J.R.R. Tolkien is rolling in his grave over that one.

      1. Yep, the chase during the barrel ride down the river went past action and straight to absurd.

        1. Funny. I didn't mind the barrel chase (o.k. maybe a little). The barrel chase itself is in the book and this is where I get the filmmaker can augment the story because it's a movie.

          1. It was a minor quibble for me, but it was just a bit too much. I did laugh out loud at a few things that happened during the chase, but I'm not sure all of them were supposed to be humorous.

      2. Putting action sequences over the top can sell a movie, but I have no further comment as I haven't seen nor read The Hobbit.

        As for changing content: yes, a filmmaker's obligation is to the filmgoer and not the author, but good sense has to be utilized. If you need to write a segment getting us from A to C because the author didn't do so, then do so. However, omitting or changing scenes of the greatest potential is ludicrous. In the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy's death was left out (Gwen was left out entirely), and instead MJ was in her spot and Spider-Man ended up saving her, robbing the film of one of comicdom's most iconic and powerful moments.

        1. Apparently they screwed this moment up in Amazing Spider-Man 2 as well, one of the number of reasons I have passed on going to see it in the theater.

        2. Putting action sequences over the top can sell a movie

          Absolutely, but this has become less like benchmark fantasy novel and more like cheap comic book. The fact that it's The Hobbit sells the movie.

          Also, if the original story was lacking in female characters, (carefully) include some female characters, but don't hijack the storyline with them, and certainly don't fool with canon.

          1. I don't think we disagree. To sell a movie using action, you really just need a few wild images for the trailers, not long, drawn out sequences.

            1. long, drawn out sequences.

              Yes! This was most of my issue with the barrel/river chase scene- it went on too long, with too many attempts to get an "OOOOooooo" from the audience. There's enough of a disconnect from realism with the fantasy genre already- overly-choreographed, special effects-ridden action sequences don't help me enjoy the story any more.

  6. Missed a couple of big things:

    I also saw "The Returned," an eight-episode French drama about the dead coming back to life, at the ages of their deaths, en masse to a small village where they lived. The series is about why and how they're coming back, and it's gorgeous and well-acted, but it has to be one of the most excruciatingly slow shows I've ever watched. It spends most of its time on mood and cinematography (granted, to glorious result) but these eight episodes could easily be condensed to two or three. The show ends with a cliffhanger that should be at the end of a two-hour premiere, not an eight-hour season. When it finishes, you'll think, "If this is what the show is really about, why are we just now getting there?"

    All that said, I'd recommend to anyone who loves creepy undertones and lots of melancholy. Seriously, there's no laughter and almost no smiles in this show.

    Also, H.R. Giger, who created the alien in Alien, died this month. A marathon at the Casa is planned.

  7. I finally saw Gravity. Certainly an enjoyable movie, but the implausibilities gnawed at me

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    Mrs. Runner told me that she wouldn't watch it; it would make her sick. I replied with the obvious jab at Sandra Bullock and got an elbow in the ribs.

    I was bummed that Intelligence and especially Almost Human were cancelled. Haven't looked into the new shows that closely, but Constantine might make the cut.

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  8. * The Purge - Interesting, if completely unbelievable premise (all crimes up to and including murder are allowed during one day every year) that the movie just never really expands upon. It's okay as home invasion shlock, and there are one or two decent tension-filled scenes, but overall, there's no hook. It is short as hell, though (probably due to the alreadd mention lack of depth).

    * Brick Mansions is an American remake of Banlieu 13 (it even features the parkour dude from the original playing the exact same role that he did in that movie). It's pretty bad throughout, but it really falls apart at the end, when...

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    Beyond that, it's been pretty quiet. I binged season 2 of Game of Thrones, but haven't had time to get more than a couple of episodes into Season 3 yet.

    1. Have you seen You're Next? It's easily the best home invasion flick I've seen in a long time. And I absolutely love the soundtrack.

      1. I haven't. I'll put it on the list.

        As a music-realted aside, I should mention that I've actually been working through that list of worthwhile Lil B songs you sent to me a couple of years ago. I'll clearly never be a real fan, but I'll admit that there's some decent stuff there (especially the production). "I'm God" is a damned fine song.

  9. Two weekends ago when I was up to visit J we watched all 13 episodes of Orphan Black that were out to that point. I'm really enjoying it. It borders on melodrama at times, but Tatiana Maslany's performances are great, and I appreciate that the show has a large number of interesting, complex, female characters. It's made me so tense I was on the edge of my seat through a few episodes, and I've howled laughing watching it. It's a really fun show.

    I blasted through all of season 3 of Louie recently, and I really loved it. The three episode arc near the end of the series was really fun, and David Lynch's guest spot was perfect. I've been watching season 4 as it airs, and "And So Did the Fat Girl" was an instant top 5 episode of the show for me. It's probably my favorite show on television.

    Now that school is done, I have a bunch of stuff to watch and catch up on. No idea what I will start with, though.

    1. "And So Did the Fat Girl" was an instant top 5 episode of the show for me.

      Agreed. We've been trying to watch Lucky Louie, and boy is it terrible. It has some funny jokes (some stolen from his stand-up), but the directing is poor and it's really cheaply made. Louis has learned so much since 2006.

    2. I also started watching Orphan Black recently, and I already consider it one of the best shows I've ever seen. It presses pretty much every single button for me. Even New Gal got on board, and she normally hates anything even moderately sci-fi.

      1. Even New Gal got on board, and she normally hates anything even moderately sci-fi.

        Ooh, that gives me hope for Linds. She dislikes sci-fi pretty uniformly, but if it's presented right, she can work through it.

  10. Saw a bunch of movies on the flights to Spain and back...

    Inside Llewyn Davis hit all the nice Coen Brothers notes with very dark humor, excellent music, and prickish John Goodman. Not their greatest film by any means, but perfectly acceptable. Plus, Marcus Mumford duets on the main song so it makes me smile knowing Philo can't stand it.

    Captain Phillips was your standard Tom Hanks is an everyman film. Parts of it were really tense and shot really, really well (the boarding, etc.), but the last thirty minutes didn't do much for me.

    Dallas Buyers Club was very good. I hope Matthew McConaughey can be that good ten years from now, or fifteen years from now. Still, having seen all Best Supporting Actor films, I don't think I would have given it to Jared Leto. I probably would have gone with Michael Fassbender or Jonah Hill instead of him.

    Her didn't hold up well on the tiny-screen with engine noise in the background. Like pretty much every Spike Jonze movie I've seen, I was left feeling just a little too empty.

    On the TV front, I love, love, love Fargo. Billy Bob is just completely nailing it. Last night's Mad Men was also quite excellent. Definitely the best of the recent bunch.

    1. Dallas Buyers Club is up next in our queue. I've heard nothing but good reviews so I'm looking forward to it.

      Still haven't seen Wolf of Wall Street, Nebraska, Philomena, Her, Gravity, August: Osage County or Blue Jasmine.

  11. finally saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier yesterday. The Mrs indulged me. She, who is not much of a super hero movie fan, or action flick fan (tending toward chick flicks in preferences), remarked that she was "thoroughly entertained".

    I agree. It was a lot of fun, even if the mesh with the timeline in Agents of Shield was pretty rough. Robert Redford delivers a delicious performance. Chris Evans is growing on me. Samuel L. Jackson plays Samuel L. Jackson to the hilt. Scarlett Johansson has chops. I love that character. Kicks butt, is starting to show some vulnerability.

    but the flick also provided some nice political counterpoint.

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    1. aaack! Why didn't anyone tell me! The Mrs was anxious to leave, so we did not stay to the end of the credits for the Bucky scene. Boooooooo!

          1. I always stay through the credits, regardless of post-credit scenes, but Marvel isn't the first to do so, only the most consistent.

            The earliest credit scenes I can remember are the strangely sad Being There outtakes (Sellers had recently died), and of course Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Airplane! -- I'm sure there are others. I think the Cannonball Run films included outtakes during the credits too.

        1. Yea, I know that. But I could not convince her to stay to the bitter end, because I wasn't forewarned. I blame Mauer.

  12. Found Downton Abbey season 4 cheap at Target. Bought it for EAR as a joke Mother's Day Gift because she said she would never watch it because of how Season 3 ended.
    Now we've only got the Season Finale/Christmas Special left to go. I enjoy it, but it seems like this season is just speeding by. Like all of this plot and everything would have been enough for at most 2 episodes in the earlier seasons.

    Also, bought Wreck It Ralph to add to the family collection of really good movies that Disney made or distributed, which is like 50% of what we watch. 30% is BBC Literary Adaptations/Historical Drama (and the like).

    Some day soon, we'll get a Blu-Ray player that works with our hand-me-down HDTV. I'll have to bend your ear, Spooky, when it comes time to do that.
    Apparently the handers upgraded because it wouldn't accept some type of input. We thought it was an HDMI cable, but it has that, I think.
    When that happens, we'll get like Netflix or something like that and watch more... Disney Movies and BBC Dramas.

  13. About Time: I really liked this one. On the surface, it's a movie about a guy who can travel back in time (within his own life) to basically re-live moments. It doesn't go into a 'technical' discussions about the ability but instead focuses on what this young man chooses to do with it. It's a love story, both in the romantic and familial sense, and a story about what's important in life.

    12 Years A Slave: As much as one can enjoy a film about the brutality & reality of slavery, I enjoyed this one. There were some amazing actors doing really good work and the story itself was alternately hopeful and bleak. In both tone and theme, I think it's something that should be watched in concert with Lincoln.

    Prisoners: The story of two men (Hugh Jackman & Terrance Howard) whose daughters go missing, the police officer (Jake Gyllenhaal) tasked with finding them and the man believed to have taken them (Paul Dano). I wanted to like this one more, but

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    Saving Mr. Banks: The story of Walt Disney's efforts to bring Mary Poppins to the screen. This was a pretty neat story and Emma Thompson was outstanding in the role of Poppins' author P.L. Travers.

    Frozen, Despicable Me 2, The Little Mermaid, The Tale of Despereaux: I know I've commented on these in the past, but considering I've seen each probably six times apiece since last Movie Day, I have to report that for both a 3-year-old and her father, they hold up pretty well.

    1. I saw Despereaux in the theatre and liked it pretty well, though I was the only person in my family that did. I bought the book and loathed it.
      Now I want to watch the movie again to see if it's actually that much better than the book or I was just being generous.

      I also like Despicable Me better than the sequel. I'm still overall charmed by the "universe" the series sets up, but I won't be looking for that on disc.

      1. Agree on Despicable Me - my family rec'd the second one as a Christmas gift.

        Re: Despereaux, I'd never heard about this being a book and hadn't thought to watch it until my wife rented it for Kernel. I wouldn't say I liked it as much as Ratatouille, but still a pretty entertaining little movie.

        1. I'm trying to get the Trinket to like all the Pixar movies that I love. So far, Wall-E Was unsuccessful, but maybe Ratatouille Will work.

      2. I'll also echo the Despicable Me/Sequel observation. I though the second one worked well enough. The one thing I wanted was a scene where he sees her being fun with the girls, in much the same way she sees him. The first one is maybe my favorite of recent kids offerings.

    2. I mentioned awhile back that I saw About Time in theaters. It was right after Sheenie's miscarriage and it just destroyed me and left me a mess.

      1. With the combination of our current pregnancy, my wife losing her mother to cancer last fall and attending services for free's wife on Friday, it had me in a bit of a mess as well. I think that even without the attendant circumstances, I'd have enjoyed it just as much.

    3. It's funny, not having small kids I am completely in the dark about Frozen. I know it's a huge hit, has a female protaganist, and that it is an animated move (Not sure is it Pixar?) Other than that nothing. I suppose it's like 1996 and the Lion King. The kids watched it so much the tape broke and we had to go and buy a new copy.

      1. The Boy (so very many times) watching Lion King on our bed, then scootching backwards out of the room to watch from the hallway for the scene when Mufasaa is killed, then back on the bed, is a memory that I will carry with me to my grave.

        1. Phil is being hyperbolic.
          Frozen is good. Not great. Close to great, but where it falls short is frustrating.
          But if you didn't like Tangled or Wreck-It Ralph, it's probably not for you.
          Or if you have 3-17 year old girls and get frustrated when children are always singing the same song over and over.

          1. Or if you have 3-17 year old girls and get frustrated when children are always singing the same song over and over.

            So much this. Kernel will be 3 in August. Since about January, I hear the following at least eight times per day:
            "Fore da first time in forever...for da first time in for-ever!"

            1. The trinket went through that very briefly (like, maybe a week long). The only time it was annoying was the one time she was sitting in the kitchen yelling "Let it GOOOOOO! Let it GOOOOOO!" as loud and tone-less as possible for a good 15 minutes.

              1. I hear "Everything is Awesome" and "Happy" on a constant loop.

                This weekend I attempted to make my kids a playlist including these songs, in part giving up.

                1. I've thus far avoided purchasing the Frozen soundtrack, but if my daughter knew what a soundtrack was, it would have been purchased 3+ months ago.

                  1. OMG. My girls are seven, six and two, and Let It Go has been sung in a constant loop since Easter. At this point, I'm just hiding in the corner of the basement. The cold never bothered me anyway.

                    1. you youngsters do not understand pain.

                      Barney and Teletubbies is pain.

                      I must not fear.
                      Fear is the mind-killer.
                      Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
                      I will face my fear.
                      I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
                      And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
                      Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
                      Only I will remain.

      2. I've been meaning to see "Frozen", but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

  14. The only movie I watched that I really liked was Pandorum. Scifi/horror movies tend to run a little heavy towards horror (Event Horizon, or even worse, Supernova) for my taste, so I liked that this one stayed more to the science-fiction side, though it worried me in a couple spots.

  15. On a plane for seven plus hours on Saturday and wanted to stay awake. Watched three movies: Wolf of Wall Street, Nebraska, and Her.

    Wolf: Very long. Very Scorcese. It was edited (no nudity) but not for language. It is quite the story. I think the film is well done, Leo is fun to watch, but you kind of feel like hey, this guy should have gone to prison for a lot longer than he did, even if he did rat everyone out.

    Nebraska: Bruce Dern was good, I guess. I was uninspired by this flick. Old bastard gets scam in mail. Son drives him to Lincoln. Stop at shithead relatives house. People try to get his non-existent money.

    Her: I liked this one. It was a little far-fetched, of course, but it said a lot about alienation and loneliness. I told my wife that it was about a guy who falls in love with his computer and she thought that was sick. It is a really good movie I think, though.

    1. I had a very different reaction to Nebraska. I thought it was brilliant, funny, sad and poignant, sometimes all at the same time.

      1. The problem with this movie for me is that Dern's character is profoundly unlikable. So is his wife. And all of his Nebraska relatives. And pretty much everyone in that town, except for the woman who worked at the paper that Dern rejected because she wouldn't sleep with him in high school. He was a drunk who cheated on his wife and treated his kids like shit. His wife was a miserable woman who nabbed him because she would sleep with him.

        I don't care that he got to drive "his" truck through town one single bit.

        1. These are all reasons I "liked" this movie. But different tastes and such. I like unlikeable main characters from time to time. And it probably resonated a bit better for me.

          1. I'm with yickit. Plus, so very much of this film (the scenery, the bleakness, the banality, the silences) echoed my own Nebraska and family experiences. It had a tremendously emotional impact on my dad, too.

            1. I think my Dad would not connect with this movie, except that he might identify with Will Forte more than the old man. His Dad was more like Dern and he was a huge burden on my Dad and his brother. My Dad is not like that at all. I see him as someone who broke free of the negativity of his own father and was to his great credit, not the self-centered bastard that Dern's character and my grandfather was. For me, to glorify that old man is contrary to all of my impulses because I never felt any affection for my grandfather precisely because he was just like Dern. I saw the emotional toll he took on my Dad and I'm grateful that I, in all likelihood, will not be similarly burdened.

              So this movie, for me, was somewhat of a glorification of a person that my own father thankfully didn't become. So I guess on further reflection, that's why it totally did not resonate with me.

              I grew up in a town similar to Hawthorne, Nebraska, only smaller. Having moved away and now having come back frequently, I have absolutely no emotional bond to that town that extends beyond my immediate relatives. So yes, this is another one where YMMV.

                1. Well, maybe glorification isn't the correct word. How about subjugation? The kid spent money he didn't have on a pickup so his Dad could have a five minute drive down the street with the stupid compressor in the box. I wouldn't have ever done that for that old fool.

      2. I'm here on Nebraska.

        Her was good. I think it can serve as nice social commentary.

        For Wolf of Wallstreet; My Dad has been slogging through the book for months, and the last third has stopped him (he finally finished it yesterday). He's convinced the author just mailed it in and it doesn't live up to the first two thirds. I've seen the movie and I generally enjoy Scorcese/Leo so I enjoyed it; but I'm not sure I'd see it again. So I'll be reading his copy of the book now to compare.

      3. I had a very different reaction to Nebraska. I thought it was brilliant, funny, sad and poignant, sometimes all at the same time.

        Yeah, this.

    2. I am with SBG on Nebraska. Maybe the version played on planes is different.

  16. Been meaning to get to this all day (I was the one who poked Spooky to put it up!), but it has eluded me.

    Finally saw 42. Loved it. Well acted, well paced. Probably not the most brilliant movie ever, but I enjoyed it. I recently read a couple articles on Field Of Dreams (was one of the links from here?), and how it's been getting bashed pretty routinely lately. It made me sad, since that's one of the best movies, period, much less best baseball films. So I've been thinking about that a bunch lately.

    American Hustle - Meh. At best. Disjointed and too long and it never figured out who it wanted you wanted to sympathize with, but that wasn't because the characters were particularly complex. How this movie got so much love is beyond me.

    Saving Mr. Banks - Why this movie didn't get more love is beyond me. This was excellent. Maybe it's because I've got kids and this is one of their favorites (if you've got kids, make 'em watch Mary Poppins. It stands up.), but it was a really compelling story where I wasn't sure I would find one. Very well acted. I bought Hanks, without even realizing I was doing it. I think we've become so accustomed to Tom Hanks that we've maybe forgotten how good an actor he really is. Emma Thompson, probably don't even need to say any more about her brilliance. Supporting cast was fantastic. Exact opposite of American Hustle, as here, even though they didn't go into it much, you absolutely believed in the depth of each character. A tight film. Highly recommend.

    Frozen - Ugh. Awful. Boring. Inconsistent. It's like Deus Ex Machina, but with character motivations. Oh here, we're just going to suddenly decide that this guy is a bad guy for no reason! Oh here, we're going to have her "protect" her sister by attacking her! Oh here, we're going to have her finally give up on her sister, only to change our minds again in the last minute? Blech. Plus, I didn't think the music was particularly special. A few power hooks does not a good song make.

    1. A few power hooks does not a good song make.

      I hope you aren't planning to work anywhere near the current music industry.

      1. More. I was a bit frustrated when complex Mom character descended into sheer villainy.

          1. It was, I just didn't want to see it happen, in the no real villain theme thing.

            1. She stole a baby for its magic powers and keeps her locked in a tower for 18 (?) years. Any redemption would have been false.

              1. My Christian sensibilities say redemption is always possible (in cartoons).

                1. Well it would have required something pretty significant. Your words were: "complex Mom character descended into sheer villainy".
                  I'm saying she was there from the start.

    2. Oh here, we're just going to suddenly decide that this guy is a bad guy for no reason!

      Are you high?! That was telegraphed from the beginning. If anything, I was annoyed at how obvious it was.

      1. Nothing he had done previously was consistent with that about face. It was telegraphed in so far as the movie made no sense without it, but the guy acted as you'd expect a non-villain to act in such circumstances.

        1. The WGOM, where a bunch a guys and Pepper discuss xFIP, Kevin Love trade scenarios, Sharon Van Etten's latest release and the motivations of characters from Frozen.

        2. That was a problem I had with it as well. Spooky obviously disagrees.

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          , and that's where I hoped that things had reached a higher level: no actual bad guy.

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        3. I'm not saying that Frozen is Citizen Kane or anything (Heh!), but I'm not so down on it.

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            1. Yup, me too. I enjoyed the movie for other reasons as well, but this captures why I'm happy to let my kiddo watch it without worrying about the 'Disney Princess' message.

              1. I'm happy to let my kiddo watch it without worrying about the 'Disney Princess' message.

                YMMV, but my kids suffered no measurable damage from watching Disney princess movies. Of course, the Boy's favorites (when we went to HappiestPlaceOnEarth) were the Evil Queens, and the Girl engaged in Barbie Mutilation at a young age. So, again, YMMV.

                1. The trinket has become really into Cinderella, so hopefully she also suffers no lasting consequences. (I don't think she will).

                  1. eventually, she will cleanse herself with fire or summat.

                    My kid went through her princess phase (dance lessons, yadda) and came out the other side. Boys fear her.

                    1. bS: I totally get what you're saying ... I guess I sort of equate the 'Disney Princess' message with the participation trophy message. I don't know that I believe there's a significant issue here; not every child (or even most) is negatively affected by their exposure to the conventions of either. But, and I'm generalizing, there are older children and teens (and even some young adults) who seem to think that the world is a really nice place where everyone's a winner and romantic happy endings are the norm who are crushed to learn that isn't the case.
                      That being said, I'm certainly not worried about a 3-year-old pretending to be a princess. In fact, I encourage her every chance I get!

                    2. Can is talking more about the Disney Channel message that everyone is brilliant and will succeed and they should be creative and performing and winning.
                      It's like Oh the Places You'll Go without the lurch or the waiting place or where the windows are dark'd.

                      KID[s], YOU'LL [all] MOVE MOUNTAINS!

                    3. I got a participation trophy once in a house basketball league (I was 9 years old) when our team finished in last place. I remember my thoughts at the time were: This is nice, and it doesn't mean that much. Kids have a pretty decent bullshit detector unless they're always sheltered.

                    4. just to clarify, I am pretty much on board with the criticisms of Disney-princess-as-helpless-girl-waiting-to-be-rescued.

                      One of my favorite books to read with the kids when they were little was The Paper Bag Princess.

                      The Paper Bag Princess was first told at the Bay Area Childcare Center in Coos Bay Oregon where I had a job in 1973 and 1974. I had been telling lots and lots of dragon stories. They were all fairly regular dragon stories where the prince saves the princess from the dragon.

                      One day my wife, who also worked at the daycare centre, came to me and said “How come you always have the prince save the princess? Why can’t the princess save the prince?”

                      I thought about that and changed around the ending of one of my dragon stories. That made the adults a lot happier, and the kids did not mind.

                      also, in support of Beau's comment, I can confirm from long experience coaching kids in various YMCA sports, most of the kids (and most of the parents) very well know what the score is. Some care a lot, some care a little, and some don't care at all. Once you get past about age 7 or so, their little bs detectors activate and the Participation Trophy becomes a lot less meaningful or even insulting.

                    5. also apropos of this thread, score multiple points for the Shrek franchise, which actively thumbed its nose at the HappiestPlaceOnEarth and its various tropes and conceits while bringing The Funny.

                    6. My daughter was in a gymnastics meet a couple of years ago (when she was 5). She was clearly not one of the best girls performing, but she got a trophy. She was very proud of that trophy. But, she also said that she got the trophy because she participated. She knew the score. She was just happy to participate, though.

                    7. bS, you're wrong about Shrek being funny.
                      One of the worst movie experience (Pos scale: Reality minus Expectations) I've ever had.

                2. This, from everything I've seen first-hand (8 sisters). I'm not worried about my daughter waiting around for a man. Still like the sibling love variety though.

    1. Pfft, that glitch has been around for awhile. It's the only explanation for why I watched Vallhalla Rising.

  17. Kimmel gets some mileage asking people on the street: considering Godzilla is based on the true story of the giant lizard attack on Tokyo that killed more than 100,000 people in 1954, do you think it is wrong that Hollywood glamorizes this event for entertainment?

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