Recently viewed movie thread - Rental Edition (7 Viewers)

[saintfool]

i watched a few episodes of AMC's "the walking dead". oof. terribly acted, written and directed. a rare miss from AMC series team.

BBC "sherlock" was surprisingly entertaining. it's fun but not great. shows like "house" and the like have made "ego-centric-genius-with-no-manners" pretty commonplace. this holmes has to fight hard against being just another one of many. martin freeman has earned a lot of goodwill from me, so i'm not going slag him here.

 

[Mr. Mojo]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

 

[TylerRoseFan]

Under Our Skin It's a documentary about Lyme disease. It's amazing how misunderstood and misdiagnosed this disease is. Truly an eye opener. Well worth the watch.

4.5/5

I'm Still Here Pure, total, unadulterated, unmitigated, unholy, unwatchable crap. Only made it through 20 minutes.

-4.5/5

Jack Goes Boating Slow movie about a lonely and awkward guy who meets a lonely and awkward girl. Philip Seymour Hoffman directed and stars. He's one of my favorite actors. Watchable.

3.5/5

Trinity and Beyond Documentary on the history of the US nuclear weapons program. Pretty cool show. I was an NBC guy in the Army so this show pretty much gave me a chub. Many here may find it boring....but take my history into account when deciding for yourself if you want to watch it.

4.5/5

 

[Thread Killer]

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Did the prince have a Spanish accent? It was spotty, and it sounded like there were bits of Russian mixed in as well.

I haven't read the books but this part of the trilogy felt a lot like LOTR: Two Towers with a few elements of Return of the King.

It was ok I guess. I just don't buy that kids can outfight adult soldiers.

Ransom

Nice thriller. I liked it a lot. Is it just me or did Liev Schreiber look like Gavin Rossdale in this movie?

 

[jamny]

i watched a few episodes of AMC's "the walking dead". oof. terribly acted, written and directed. a rare miss from AMC series team.

I had really high hopes for it and will continue to watch because those that read the comics say a lot has been set up for Season 2 but I'm still disappointed in it so far. Like you said, bad in nearly every aspect. The zombies are cool though.

 

[jamny]

Let Me In isn't a bad remake of the original Let the Right One In. It's just that the movie is very slow paced to begin with and the new one doesn't capture the creepiness of the original during those times. And the little girl in this one isn't as good. And I'd rather have good old fashioned gore instead of poor CGI 2.5/5

 

[saintfool]

i watched a few episodes of AMC's "the walking dead". oof. terribly acted, written and directed. a rare miss from AMC series team.

I had really high hopes for it and will continue to watch because those that read the comics say a lot has been set up for Season 2 but I'm still disappointed in it so far. Like you said, bad in nearly every aspect. The zombies are cool though.

my wife and i watched the first three episodes. i thought i just needed to get used to the largely unknown cast of actors. it just didn't get any better with any of them. the writing surely didn't help them either. darabont is a pretty straightforward storyteller as near as i can tell. his flourishes of style - slow motion mostly - seemed amateurish. it was a TV movie of the week serialized.

 

[jdoggydogg]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

If you're applying these standards to every movie you watch, you will be sorely disappointed.

 

[jdoggydogg]

BBC "sherlock" was surprisingly entertaining. it's fun but not great. shows like "house" and the like have made "ego-centric-genius-with-no-manners" pretty commonplace. this holmes has to fight hard against being just another one of many. martin freeman has earned a lot of goodwill from me, so i'm not going slag him here.

Big fan of this series. Not perfect, but the lead actors are excellent. And the modern adaptation was handled very well.

 

[jdoggydogg]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

Are you guys parents of teenagers? They can be extremely bright.

 

[Chaka]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

Are you guys parents of teenagers? They can be extremely bright.

The demands of the time also forced children into the adult world at a much younger age.Still, her dealings with many of the adults were at times implausible.

 

[jdoggydogg]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

Are you guys parents of teenagers? They can be extremely bright.

The demands of the time also forced children into the adult world at a much younger age.Still, her dealings with many of the adults were at times implausible.

Sure. But if you start dissecting movies in this way, you're going to find that almost all of them contain events that aren't always plausible. I find that when I like a movie, the flaws are rapidly forgotten. But when I don't like a movie, the flaws are all I can see.

 

[Chaka]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

Are you guys parents of teenagers? They can be extremely bright.

The demands of the time also forced children into the adult world at a much younger age.Still, her dealings with many of the adults were at times implausible.

Sure. But if you start dissecting movies in this way, you're going to find that almost all of them contain events that aren't always plausible. I find that when I like a movie, the flaws are rapidly forgotten. But when I don't like a movie, the flaws are all I can see.

I enjoyed it too but don't think it deserved all the hype.The sets, costumes and cinematography were all outstanding but ultimately it was little more than Bridges being Bridges and a girl who, while no doubt displaying incredible acting chops, demonstrated characteristics that instead of being called implausible could also be described as absurd.

Not sure why it got so much love from the academy other than it had the names Bridges and Coen associated with it.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Let Me In isn't a bad remake of the original Let the Right One In. It's just that the movie is very slow paced to begin with and the new one doesn't capture the creepiness of the original during those times. And the little girl in this one isn't as good. And I'd rather have good old fashioned gore instead of poor CGI 2.5/5

I really need to watch this one again, or pop in the original. I am starting to think that I rate it higher because it wasn't as ####ty as damn near every other foreign horror remake, besides The Ring - not so much that the movie itself was good. I agree that CGI was silly, and the girl wasn't as good, but I still thought it did a fairly good job at capturing the tone of the original. I'll revisit these soon...

 

[Chaka]

Let Me In isn't a bad remake of the original Let the Right One In. It's just that the movie is very slow paced to begin with and the new one doesn't capture the creepiness of the original during those times. And the little girl in this one isn't as good. And I'd rather have good old fashioned gore instead of poor CGI 2.5/5

I really need to watch this one again, or pop in the original. I am starting to think that I rate it higher because it wasn't as ####ty as damn near every other foreign horror remake, besides The Ring - not so much that the movie itself was good. I agree that CGI was silly, and the girl wasn't as good, but I still thought it did a fairly good job at capturing the tone of the original. I'll revisit these soon...

I do agree with that, but I still thought overall it was more of a disappointment than anything.

 

[jdoggydogg]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

Are you guys parents of teenagers? They can be extremely bright.

The demands of the time also forced children into the adult world at a much younger age.Still, her dealings with many of the adults were at times implausible.

Sure. But if you start dissecting movies in this way, you're going to find that almost all of them contain events that aren't always plausible. I find that when I like a movie, the flaws are rapidly forgotten. But when I don't like a movie, the flaws are all I can see.

I enjoyed it too but don't think it deserved all the hype.The sets, costumes and cinematography were all outstanding but ultimately it was little more than Bridges being Bridges and a girl who, while no doubt displaying incredible acting chops, demonstrated characteristics that instead of being called implausible could also be described as absurd.

Not sure why it got so much love from the academy other than it had the names Bridges and Coen associated with it.

Ok. I loved it

 

[Time Kibitzer]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

Are you guys parents of teenagers? They can be extremely bright.

The demands of the time also forced children into the adult world at a much younger age.Still, her dealings with many of the adults were at times implausible.

Sure. But if you start dissecting movies in this way, you're going to find that almost all of them contain events that aren't always plausible. I find that when I like a movie, the flaws are rapidly forgotten. But when I don't like a movie, the flaws are all I can see.

I think one of the distinctions between dissecting the "average" film and dissecting a Coens movie is you're expecting more from a Coen movie, as I think it's fair to say (maybe not) that their intended audience has a higher intellect than the intended audience of an "average" film; and this leads the audience to expect less explicit implausibilities in their movies than in an "average" film. True Grit definitely had quite of few of these type of implausibilities, though they didn't bother me that much for whatever reason (they bothered me more in Fargo, but that may be because the accents in that movie were beyond annoying). Personally, I didn't have too much of a problem with the girl's intelligence; they made it clear early on that this is an extraordinary person, not a big deal to have one extraordinary character in a film. Though I thought they pushed it too far when she was explaining the Latin judicial talk to Bridges.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

One old, one new, and one not completed this weekend:

Rashomon - I didn't enjoy it much. If Kurosawa wanted to make a silent film he should have made a silent film. I didn't think the acting techniques worked very well.

Rango - There's about 15 minutes of really good movie buried in about 2 hours of existentialistic nonsense. Moles riding bats armed with gatling guns? Sheesh.

The Other Guys - The quintessential example of why I hate comedies. Write a freaking script for god's sake. It's so painfully obvious when they're ad-libbing - they're the parts that are painfully unfunny as opposed to being just simply unfunny. Turned it off about half an hour in and watched a couple reruns of Family Ties on Netflix streaming and had a much better time.

 

[saintfool]

One old, one new, and one not completed this weekend:

Rashomon - I didn't enjoy it much. If Kurosawa wanted to make a silent film he should have made a silent film. I didn't think the acting techniques worked very well.

Rango - There's about 15 minutes of really good movie buried in about 2 hours of existentialistic nonsense. Moles riding bats armed with gatling guns? Sheesh.

The Other Guys - The quintessential example of why I hate comedies. Write a freaking script for god's sake. It's so painfully obvious when they're ad-libbing - they're the parts that are painfully unfunny as opposed to being just simply unfunny. Turned it off about half an hour in and watched a couple reruns of Family Ties on Netflix streaming and had a much better time.

not my favorite of his earlier work. i also don't care much for "seven samurai". i do really like "throne of blood" and some of his other b/w films like "high and low" and "the bad sleep well". mifune is such a great actor.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

If you're applying these standards to every movie you watch, you will be sorely disappointed.

I don't. I hold each movie to different standards. From a movie like this, I expect realism. A 14 year old girl in this era would be no where near that intelligent or composed. Throw in a few zombies or aliens, and I don't care if the girl is a rocket scientist. But in a 'real life' drama like this, I want realism.

 

[Mr. Mojo]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

Are you guys parents of teenagers? They can be extremely bright.

The demands of the time also forced children into the adult world at a much younger age.Still, her dealings with many of the adults were at times implausible.

Sure. But if you start dissecting movies in this way, you're going to find that almost all of them contain events that aren't always plausible. I find that when I like a movie, the flaws are rapidly forgotten. But when I don't like a movie, the flaws are all I can see.

I can ignore implausibilities up to a point, like when she out negotiated the first guy. But when the character started explaining the finer points of law, it became as unrealistic as a Transformers movie. Still a good film, though.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

If you're applying these standards to every movie you watch, you will be sorely disappointed.

I don't. I hold each movie to different standards. From a movie like this, I expect realism. A 14 year old girl in this era would be no where near that intelligent or composed. Throw in a few zombies or aliens, and I don't care if the girl is a rocket scientist. But in a 'real life' drama like this, I want realism.

That's the M.O. of the Cohens though. They use snappy dialogue as a way to paint a portrait of the character. People don't talk like they do in Miller's Crossing either, but the style of speech gives a better idea of the type of person the character is more than 10 minutes of screentime could explain to you.It's the same way with the girl in True Grit. She was raised to be self-sufficient by her father. She's probably parroting what he said in a similar situation before. So while she wouldn't be THAT smart, it's certainly plausible that she'd be smarter than a lot of the men she encountered.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

If you're applying these standards to every movie you watch, you will be sorely disappointed.

I don't. I hold each movie to different standards. From a movie like this, I expect realism. A 14 year old girl in this era would be no where near that intelligent or composed. Throw in a few zombies or aliens, and I don't care if the girl is a rocket scientist. But in a 'real life' drama like this, I want realism.

That's the M.O. of the Cohens though. They use snappy dialogue as a way to paint a portrait of the character. People don't talk like they do in Miller's Crossing either, but the style of speech gives a better idea of the type of person the character is more than 10 minutes of screentime could explain to you.It's the same way with the girl in True Grit. She was raised to be self-sufficient by her father. She's probably parroting what he said in a similar situation before. So while she wouldn't be THAT smart, it's certainly plausible that she'd be smarter than a lot of the men she encountered.

I know it is blasphemous to say here, but I'm not a big fan of the Cohens. What does raising a girl to be self-sufficient have to do with a 14 year old girl knowing the law inside and out? I'd be fine with her being smart but it is just too over the top.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

I know it is blasphemous to say here, but I'm not a big fan of the Cohens. What does raising a girl to be self-sufficient have to do with a 14 year old girl knowing the law inside and out? I'd be fine with her being smart but it is just too over the top.

They are hit or miss.Re: Mattie Ross. I get what you mean. I wasn't a huge fan of True Grit.

 

[Chaka]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

If you're applying these standards to every movie you watch, you will be sorely disappointed.

I don't. I hold each movie to different standards. From a movie like this, I expect realism. A 14 year old girl in this era would be no where near that intelligent or composed. Throw in a few zombies or aliens, and I don't care if the girl is a rocket scientist. But in a 'real life' drama like this, I want realism.

I am going to disagree with you on this one a bit. While they no doubt carried it too far at times (as is the Coen's style), there was more pressure on children to grow up during that era. Additionally education, for those who had access to it, was typically grounded in classics, with Latin often being a strong component of their studies. I did find it difficult at times to suspend that disbelief which distracted me from enjoying the movie, which is the foundation for my belief that it got too much recognition from the awards committees. I don't think great movies do that.

That being said I want to be clear that I did enjoy True Grit a lot. Very few people can write dialogue on the level of the Coens. They also create colorful and interesting characters (can someone explain the significance of the dude in the bear skin that they met in the woods and we never heard from again? Was he just a one off?). And while I said it was just Bridges being Bridges, there is nothing wrong with that, I love Bridges he's awesome. Throw in the beautiful scenery, sets and costumes and you have the makings of a very entertaining film.

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

One old, one new, and one not completed this weekend:

Rashomon - I didn't enjoy it much. If Kurosawa wanted to make a silent film he should have made a silent film. I didn't think the acting techniques worked very well.

not my favorite of his earlier work. i also don't care much for "seven samurai". i do really like "throne of blood" and some of his other b/w films like "high and low" and "the bad sleep well". mifune is such a great actor.

crazy talk. Rashomon and Seven Samurai are two of the best films ever made.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

it's awesome, but probably better on the big screen, IMO.

 

[saintfool]

One old, one new, and one not completed this weekend:

Rashomon - I didn't enjoy it much. If Kurosawa wanted to make a silent film he should have made a silent film. I didn't think the acting techniques worked very well.

not my favorite of his earlier work. i also don't care much for "seven samurai". i do really like "throne of blood" and some of his other b/w films like "high and low" and "the bad sleep well". mifune is such a great actor.

crazy talk. Rashomon and Seven Samurai are two of the best films ever made.

it's not like i don't get the films or their significance. they just don't pull me in like his others.

 

[Chaka]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

I apologize. I didn't think I was giving any spoilers.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Dexter:

Mad Men seems to be out most of the time, so I grabbed this on the way out of the store last night. Like the basic premise of the show, but there are a couple things in the 1st episode that were bugging me (mostly the voiceover, but I knew that going in). The one thing I really had a problem with:

Spoiler

His dad not only knew about his tendencies, but decided the best thing to do was train him to avoid the law and kill serial killers? sheesh.

I'll watch a few more episodes and report back. I think the problem that I have with TV shows is that I seem to want them to be one or the other. Either be serious - Six Feet Under, etc, or embrace that the show is a unrealistic - Buffy. Dexter seems to be toeing the line for me of being having both serious themes and ideas and mixing ideas I think are a little unrealistic. That's one reason I couldn't watch House with my wife.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

I apologize. I didn't think I was giving any spoilers.

Not that at all, now through the whole movie I'll be thinking about realistic/not realistic. In all honesty, I've never really liked a western, so didn't have my hopes up too much anyway.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

One old, one new, and one not completed this weekend:

Rashomon - I didn't enjoy it much. If Kurosawa wanted to make a silent film he should have made a silent film. I didn't think the acting techniques worked very well.

not my favorite of his earlier work. i also don't care much for "seven samurai". i do really like "throne of blood" and some of his other b/w films like "high and low" and "the bad sleep well". mifune is such a great actor.

crazy talk. Rashomon and Seven Samurai are two of the best films ever made.

I can see where Rashomon is "important" in that some of the techniques were obviously groundbreaking for the time. But 60 odd years removed...not entirely enjoyable.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

None of this discussion should keep you from seeing it and nothing major has been revealed.

 

[Time Kibitzer]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

If you're applying these standards to every movie you watch, you will be sorely disappointed.

I don't. I hold each movie to different standards. From a movie like this, I expect realism. A 14 year old girl in this era would be no where near that intelligent or composed. Throw in a few zombies or aliens, and I don't care if the girl is a rocket scientist. But in a 'real life' drama like this, I want realism.

That's the M.O. of the Cohens though. They use snappy dialogue as a way to paint a portrait of the character. People don't talk like they do in Miller's Crossing either, but the style of speech gives a better idea of the type of person the character is more than 10 minutes of screentime could explain to you.It's the same way with the girl in True Grit. She was raised to be self-sufficient by her father. She's probably parroting what he said in a similar situation before. So while she wouldn't be THAT smart, it's certainly plausible that she'd be smarter than a lot of the men she encountered.

I know it is blasphemous to say here, but I'm not a big fan of the Cohens. What does raising a girl to be self-sufficient have to do with a 14 year old girl knowing the law inside and out? I'd be fine with her being smart but it is just too over the top.

What's your opinion on the Coen brothers though?

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

I apologize. I didn't think I was giving any spoilers.

Not that at all, now through the whole movie I'll be thinking about realistic/not realistic. In all honesty, I've never really liked a western, so didn't have my hopes up too much anyway.

Sorry. It is still worth a watch and better than a lot of crap out there. Just one of my movie pet peeves. Did you enjoy Juno? Pretty much the same girl.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

I apologize. I didn't think I was giving any spoilers.

Not that at all, now through the whole movie I'll be thinking about realistic/not realistic. In all honesty, I've never really liked a western, so didn't have my hopes up too much anyway.

Sorry. It is still worth a watch and better than a lot of crap out there. Just one of my movie pet peeves. Did you enjoy Juno? Pretty much the same girl.

Oh ####. Complete with too witty for her own good dialogue?

 

[jamny]

Dexter:

Mad Men seems to be out most of the time, so I grabbed this on the way out of the store last night. Like the basic premise of the show, but there are a couple things in the 1st episode that were bugging me (mostly the voiceover, but I knew that going in). The one thing I really had a problem with:

Spoiler

His dad not only knew about his tendencies, but decided the best thing to do was train him to avoid the law and kill serial killers? sheesh.

I'll watch a few more episodes and report back. I think the problem that I have with TV shows is that I seem to want them to be one or the other. Either be serious - Six Feet Under, etc, or embrace that the show is a unrealistic - Buffy. Dexter seems to be toeing the line for me of being having both serious themes and ideas and mixing ideas I think are a little unrealistic. That's one reason I couldn't watch House with my wife.

I'm still kinda trudging along with Dexter. Episode 7 was the first one that I really liked and thought might propel it forward but the next episode was back to the same old, same old. Outside of Dexter himself, the rest of the cast are a bit too cheesy/stereotypical. Especially nearly everyone on the police department. I love the interaction with his father during the flashbacks the most. Since there's not much else on right now, I'll continue to watch but I've been pretty disappointed so far.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

What's your opinion on the Coen brothers though?

Ambivalent. Big fan of some of their movies. Hate some others. Liked: Fargo, Lebowski, No Country.Meh: True Grit, Raising Arizona (I have a strong dislike for Cage and I only watched this about a year ago)Bad: Blood Simple, Burn After Reading, Ladykillers, O Brother

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

I apologize. I didn't think I was giving any spoilers.

Not that at all, now through the whole movie I'll be thinking about realistic/not realistic. In all honesty, I've never really liked a western, so didn't have my hopes up too much anyway.

Sorry. It is still worth a watch and better than a lot of crap out there. Just one of my movie pet peeves. Did you enjoy Juno? Pretty much the same girl.

Oh ####. Complete with too witty for her own good dialogue?

Yup.

 

[Chaka]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

I apologize. I didn't think I was giving any spoilers.

Not that at all, now through the whole movie I'll be thinking about realistic/not realistic. In all honesty, I've never really liked a western, so didn't have my hopes up too much anyway.

Lonesome Dove?

 

[saintfool]

Well, I WAS looking forward to seeing True Grit....

I apologize. I didn't think I was giving any spoilers.

Not that at all, now through the whole movie I'll be thinking about realistic/not realistic. In all honesty, I've never really liked a western, so didn't have my hopes up too much anyway.

Lonesome Dove?

"the good, the bad and the ugly"? sweet jesus, it's in my top 10 movies - regardless of genre - of all time.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Ambivalent. Big fan of some of their movies. Hate some others. Liked: Fargo, Lebowski, No Country.Meh: True Grit, Raising Arizona (I have a strong dislike for Cage and I only watched this about a year ago)Bad: Blood Simple, Burn After Reading, Ladykillers, O Brother

Interesting. I agree with most of this but would switch Blood Simple and Lebowski.

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

Ambivalent. Big fan of some of their movies. Hate some others. Liked: Fargo, Lebowski, No Country.Meh: True Grit, Raising Arizona (I have a strong dislike for Cage and I only watched this about a year ago)Bad: Blood Simple, Burn After Reading, Ladykillers, O Brother

Interesting. I agree with most of this but would switch Blood Simple and Lebowski.

oof

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Ambivalent. Big fan of some of their movies. Hate some others. Liked: Fargo, Lebowski, No Country.Meh: True Grit, Raising Arizona (I have a strong dislike for Cage and I only watched this about a year ago)Bad: Blood Simple, Burn After Reading, Ladykillers, O Brother

Interesting. I agree with most of this but would switch Blood Simple and Lebowski.

oof

I know. I'm just not a member of the Cult of Lebowski. It's one of those movies that's more fun to talk about and quote than it is to actually watch.Just this weekend I posted " I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos." on one of my Facebook friends' wall.

 

[jdoggydogg]

True Grit: I had no idea 14 year old girls were so intelligent in the wild west. I also didn't know that they could fall down 30+ foot holes and be perfectly fine. If you get smashed on the head with a giant rock? No biggie. Shake it off and you'll be fine in a minute. A lot of stupid in this movie that I wasn't expecting. 2.5/5

I'm glad to see that someone else agreed with me that it was ridiculous when she started explaining the complicated legalese. I groaned during that scene.Otherwise, it was very good. Though not much better than the original.

Are you guys parents of teenagers? They can be extremely bright.

The demands of the time also forced children into the adult world at a much younger age.Still, her dealings with many of the adults were at times implausible.

Sure. But if you start dissecting movies in this way, you're going to find that almost all of them contain events that aren't always plausible. I find that when I like a movie, the flaws are rapidly forgotten. But when I don't like a movie, the flaws are all I can see.

I think one of the distinctions between dissecting the "average" film and dissecting a Coens movie is you're expecting more from a Coen movie, as I think it's fair to say (maybe not) that their intended audience has a higher intellect than the intended audience of an "average" film; and this leads the audience to expect less explicit implausibilities in their movies than in an "average" film. True Grit definitely had quite of few of these type of implausibilities, though they didn't bother me that much for whatever reason (they bothered me more in Fargo, but that may be because the accents in that movie were beyond annoying). Personally, I didn't have too much of a problem with the girl's intelligence; they made it clear early on that this is an extraordinary person, not a big deal to have one extraordinary character in a film. Though I thought they pushed it too far when she was explaining the Latin judicial talk to Bridges.

I know what you're saying. But pointing implausibilities in a Coen movie is like a Christopher Hitchens fan saying his new book is too verbose. If you look at the Coens' body of work, I'd argue that True Grit is practically a documentary in comparison.

 

[Chaka]

Meh: Raising Arizona (I have a strong dislike for Cage and I only watched this about a year ago)

Raising Arizona might be the only reason why I haven't hunted Cage down like a dog and kicked him in the nuts.Great movie. It keeps getting better every time I see it.

 

[jdoggydogg]

The Other Guys - The quintessential example of why I hate comedies. Write a freaking script for god's sake. It's so painfully obvious when they're ad-libbing - they're the parts that are painfully unfunny as opposed to being just simply unfunny. Turned it off about half an hour in and watched a couple reruns of Family Ties on Netflix streaming and had a much better time.

I don't mind unscripted. Curb Your Enthusiasm is almost completely unscripted. Problem is, The Other Guys' script could have used some punching up. I laughed at times, but any movie with Will Ferrell should make me laugh a lot harder.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

The Other Guys - The quintessential example of why I hate comedies. Write a freaking script for god's sake. It's so painfully obvious when they're ad-libbing - they're the parts that are painfully unfunny as opposed to being just simply unfunny. Turned it off about half an hour in and watched a couple reruns of Family Ties on Netflix streaming and had a much better time.

I don't mind unscripted. Curb Your Enthusiasm is almost completely unscripted. Problem is, The Other Guys' script could have used some punching up. I laughed at times, but any movie with Will Ferrell should make me laugh a lot harder.

It should have had more Eva Mendes.

 

[Chaka]

The Other Guys - The quintessential example of why I hate comedies. Write a freaking script for god's sake. It's so painfully obvious when they're ad-libbing - they're the parts that are painfully unfunny as opposed to being just simply unfunny. Turned it off about half an hour in and watched a couple reruns of Family Ties on Netflix streaming and had a much better time.

I don't mind unscripted. Curb Your Enthusiasm is almost completely unscripted. Problem is, The Other Guys' script could have used some punching up. I laughed at times, but any movie with Will Ferrell should make me laugh a lot harder.

I think Ferrell is way overexposed and am generally tired of his shtick. At this point my expectations for most of his stuff are incredibly low, which probably explains why I actually enjoyed The Other Guys. I was expecting zero laughs and got some pretty good ones so I walked away happy.I wouldn't watch it again but I enjoyed it the first time.