SKribbles
Footballguy
I was surprised that I made it through X-Files... I was expecting it to be utterly horrible. I'm pretty sure that I heard of scientists doing that in Russia a long time ago. Off to google..
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Recently viewed movie thread - Rental Edition (2 Viewers)
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yinzer
Footballguy
No problem, glad to see you enjoyed it. I try to tell everyone I know to see this movie.Problem is, they gotta follow through with it. Its easy to tell someone "Hey, the Departed was unbelievable, you gotta see it!" and have them follow through with it. Doing the same thing with A Guide... is a whole other breed in itself and its harder to get people to remember the recommendation or go through with it..This wasn't "my Queens" and it wasn't "my relationship with my father" but that didn't prevent it from putting a lump in my throat throughout. I still knew every character, still related to Dito as myself. Very powerful movie. It made me think of writing my story. Just random sht that happens to us all and affects us all.Really great movie, thanks for the recommendation.Literally 1 of my 3 favorite movies of the last 3 years...cant knock 1 thing about itYou see LeBeaof in Indiana Jones and wonder how the hell he got the part, you watch a movie like this and realize hes got some talent.wow, never heard of it but added and moved it to the top.edit: just checked out the trailer. Set in 1986, the year I started dating my wife (here in Queens)
A turning point for me after some less than proud moments.
Add to that some major headbutting between me and my late father and this might hit too close to home.
Surprised I never heard of it before.
The fact this movie is a true story makes it even that much more moving. I dont know how the last 30 seconds were a turnoff though. Eric Roberts was the perfect actor for the older Antonio, and that scene was pure brilliance. As was mentioned how it opens with Shia saying "Everyone in this movie, I left", the end where he dedicates the movie to Antonio is just as spine tingling.
Absolutely loved this movie, everyone and their father and their dog should watch this movie
Im back!, Back in NY Groove!...
Thats 1 great thing about this thread..Usually when a movie is THIS good, enough people here will have seen it and you just cant not make sure you get around to it
Abraham
Footballguy
Hancock - really liked this movie. I thought it was entertaining with the action but had enough depth to make it better then average. Plus, I hadn't had a Charlize fix in a while so that was good.
Wanted - I was smashed when I watched it the first time on Friday so I watched the 2nd half again on Saturday. I thought it was really good but could have been drawn out a little more so we could get some details on things. Then again, maybe the details were there and I was just too drunk to catch them.
Wanted - I was smashed when I watched it the first time on Friday so I watched the 2nd half again on Saturday. I thought it was really good but could have been drawn out a little more so we could get some details on things. Then again, maybe the details were there and I was just too drunk to catch them.
Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
I concur. I'd say it's vastly underrated. The visual touches are painstakingly accurate.jamny said:
Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
trogg78 said:
good flick.
Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
Son of Rambow
Fun movie about some kids that make their own Rambo movie. Cliche at times, but I liked it. Not a great movie, but ultimately satisfying at the end.
Fun movie about some kids that make their own Rambo movie. Cliche at times, but I liked it. Not a great movie, but ultimately satisfying at the end.
Sweet J
Footballguy
It is at our house. I had thought it may be appropriate for kids (8-year old), but noticed that it was PG-13. Haven't watched it yet. What say you re: 8-year olds?
hooter311
Footballguy
One of the problems with this film is that it doesn't really have a target audience. It involves adolescents, but only thoughtful high schoolers will appreciate its message. I think 8 years olds are probably too young for it as it depicts a boy around their same age smoking cigerrettes and being rebelious. The message they may get out of it is simply that its cool to raise hell.
Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
Good answer.
Sweet J
Footballguy
Yeah, I'm still in the doghouse with the wife because I let the kids (ages 5 and 8) watch
. I'd been wanting to see it, and thought, "hey, it's Japanamation, how back could it be? And besides, I'll watch it with them, if I see any bad parts, I'll turn it off."The problem was that 5 minutes into it, I get a call from work, that turns out to be pretty important and involved. Five minutes into my call, the neighbors from down the street (ages 6 and 8) let themselves in and go upstairs to watch. Twenty minutes later, the 6 year old neighbor girl comes running downstairs in tears because she is afraid of the "scary pictures" on TV. Mrs J:
Me: What??!!
hooter311
Footballguy
In this case I would advise against Son of Rambow. It's not like there is anything particulary disturbing or terrible in it, but the subject matter is for young adults.
Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
It's tough. I let my five year old watch Star Wars Ep. IV, but I deleted the scene where they show Luke's aunt and uncle all burned up.
Bob Magaw
Footballguy
ebert's annual top films of the year list for 2008...
the fall made it, as he promised earlier...
some of the documentaries at the end sounded interesting... the herzog doc & man on wire are already in the netlix queue... I.O.U.S.A. is in the dreaded "SAVE" mode (ie - unavailable)... synecdoche, NY also sounds intriguing...
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../812059997/1023
The best films of 2008... and there were a lot of them
December 5, 2008
by Roger Ebert
In these hard times, you deserve two "best films" lists for the price of one. It is therefore with joy that I list the 20 best films of 2008, in alphabetical order. I am violating the age-old custom that film critics announce the year's 10 best films, but after years of such lists, I've had it. A best films list should be a celebration of wonderful films, not a chopping process. And 2008 was a great year for movies, even if many of them didn't receive wide distribution.
Look at my 20 titles, and you tell me which 10 you would cut. Nor can I select one to stand above the others, or decide which should be No. 7 and which No. 8. I can't evaluate films that way. Nobody can, although we all pretend to. A "best films" list, certainly. But of exactly 10, in marching order? These 20 stood out for me, and I treasure them all. If it had been 19 or 21, that would have been OK. If you must have a Top 10 List, find a coin in your pocket. Heads, the odd-numbered movies are your 10. Tails, the even-numbered.
I have composed a separate list of the year's five best documentaries. They also may be described as "one of the year's best." And this year's Special Jury Award goes to Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg," which stands between truth and fiction, using the materials of the documentary to create a film completely preposterous and deeply true. Another of "the year's best."
"Ballast" A deep silence has fallen upon a Mississippi Delta family after the death of a husband and brother. Old wounds remain unhealed. The man's son shuttles uneasily between two homes, trying to open communication by the wrong means. The debut cast is deeply convincing, and writer-director Lance Hammer observes them with intense empathy. No, it's not a film about poor folks on the Delta; they own a nice little business, but are paralyzed by loneliness. At the end, we think, yes, that is what would happen, and it would happen exactly like that.
"The Band's Visit" A police ceremonial band from Egypt, in Israel for a cultural exchange, ends up in a desert town far from anywhere and is taken on mercy by the bored, cynical residents. A long night's journey marked with comedy, human nature, and bittersweet reality. Richly entertaining, with sympathetic performances by Sasson Gabai as the bandleader and Ronit Elkabetz as the owner of a local cafe. Written and directed by Eran Kolirin. Was at Ebertfest 2008.
"Che" The epic journey of a 20th century icon, the Argentinian physician who became a comrade of Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolu- tion and then moved to South America to support revolution there. Benicio del Toro is persuasive as the fiercely ethical firebrand, in a film that includes unusual and unfamiliar chapters in Che's life. Steven Soderbergh's film is 257 minutes long, but far from boring. (Opens Jan. 16)
"Chop Shop" The great emerging American director Ramin Bahrani finds a story worthy of "City of God" in a no-man's land in the shadow of Shea Stadium, where a young boy and his sister support themselves in a sprawling, off-the-books auto repair and scrap district. Alejandro Polanco and Isamar Gonzales seem to live their roles, in a masterpiece that intimately knows its world, its people and their survival tactics. It will be featured at Ebertfest 2009.
"The Dark Knight" The best of all the Batmans, Christopher Nolan's haunted film leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. The "comic book movie" has at last reclaimed its deep archetypal currents. With a performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker that will surely win an Oscar, a Batman (Christian Bale) who is tortured by moral puzzles and a district attorney (Aaron Eckhart) forced to make impossible choices.
"Doubt" A Catholic grade school is ruled by the grim perfectionist Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), whose draconian rule is challenged by Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). A young nun (Amy Adams) is caught between them, as the film shows how assumptions can be doubted, and doubted again. Viola Davis, as the mother of the school's only black student, has one significant scene, but it is long, crucial and heartbreaking. Davis goes face to face with Streep with astonishing conviction and creates reasons for doubt that may be more important than deciding the truth. John Patrick Shanley directed and adapted his Tony Award-winning play. (Opens Friday)
"The Fall" Tarsem's film is a mad folly, an extravagant visual orgy, a free fall from reality into uncharted realms. A wounded stunt-man, circa 1914, tells a story to a 4-year-old girl, and we see how she imagines it. It has vast romantic images so stunning, I had to check twice, three times, to be sure the film actually claims to have absolutely no computer-generated imagery. None? What about the Labyrinth of Despair, with no exit? The intersecting walls of zig-zagging staircases? The man who emerges from the burning tree? Filmed over four years in 28 countries. It will be at Ebertfest 2009.
"Frost/Nixon" The story of a duel between a crafty man and a persistent one. How many remember that the "lightweight" British interviewer David Frost was the one who finally persuaded Richard Nixon to say he had committed crimes in connection with Watergate and let his country down? With his own money riding on the interviews, Frost (Michael Sheen) is desperate after Nixon finesses him in the early sessions, but he pries away at Nixon's need to confess. Frank Langella is uncanny as RMN. Ron Howard directs mercilessly. (Opens Friday)
"Frozen River" Melissa Leo should be nominated for her performance. She plays an hourly employee in a discount store, struggling to support two kids and a run-down trailer after her husband deserts her with their savings. After making an unlikely alliance with a Mohawk woman (Misty Upham) who was stealing her car, she finds herself a human trafficker, driving Chinese across the ice into the United States. A spellbinding thriller, yes, but even more a portrait of economic struggle in desperate times. Written and directed by Courtney Hunt. It will be at Ebertfest 2009.
"Happy-Go-Lucky" Here's another nominee for best actress -- Sally Hawkins, playing a cheerful schoolteacher who seems improbably upbeat until we win a glimpse into her soul. No, she's not secretly depressed. She's genuinely happy, but that hasn't made her stupid or afraid. Mike Leigh's uncanny ability to find drama in ordinary lives is used with genius, as the teacher encounters a driving instructor (Eddie Marsan) as negative as she is positive. Not a feel-good movie. Not at all. But strangely inspiring.
"Iron Man" Like "Spider-Man 2" and "The Dark Knight," another leap forward for the superhero movie. Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau reinvent Tony Stark as a conflicted, driven genius who has a certain plausibility, even when inundated by special effects. So successful are they that in the climactic rooftop battle between two towering men of steel, we know we're looking almost entirely at CGI, and yet the creatures embody character and emotion. Downey hit bottom, as everyone knows. Now he has triumphantly returned.
"Milk" Sean Penn, one of our greatest actors, locks up an Oscar nomination with his performance as Harvey Milk, the first self-identified gay elected to U.S. public office. At age 40, Milk was determined to do "something different" with his life. He's open to change. We see how the everyday experiences of this gay man politicize him, and how his instincts allow him to become a charismatic leader, while always acknowledging the sexuality that society had taught him to conceal. One of the year's most moving films.
"Rachel Getting Married" After seeing this film, people told me, "I wanted to attend that wedding" or "I wish I'd been there." It's that involving. Jonathan Demme doesn't lock down one central plot, but considers the ceremony as a wedding of close and distant family, old and new friends, many races, many ages, many lifestyles, all joined amid joyous homemade music. His camera is so observant, we feel like a guest really does feel. Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel and Anne Hathaway as her sister generate tricky sibling tension.
"The Reader" A drama taking place mostly within the mind of a postwar German who has an affair at 14 with a woman he later discovers is a war criminal. Her own secret is so shameful, she would rather face any sentence than reveal it. The film addresses the moral confusion felt in those who came after the Holocaust but whose lives were painfully twisted by it. Directed by Stephen Daldry, with David Kross as the younger protagonist, and Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes as the older ones. (Opening Dec. 25)
"Revolutionary Road" The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and his wife find hell in the suburbs. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, in two of the best performances of the year, play a young married couple who lose their dreams in the American corporate world and its assigned roles. Sam Mendes reads minds when words aren't enough, and has every detail right -- including the chain-smoking by those who find it a tiny consolation in inconsolable lives. (Opens Jan. 2)
"Shotgun Stories" You'll have to search for it, but worth it. In a "dead-### town," three brothers find themselves in a feud with their four half-brothers. It's told like a revenge tragedy, but the hero doesn't believe the future is written by the past. Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, it avoids the obvious and shows a deep understanding of the lives and minds of ordinary young people in a skirmish of the class war. The dialogue rings true, the camera is deeply observant. The film was the audience favorite at Ebertfest 2008.
"Slumdog Millionaire" Danny Boyle's improbable union of quiz-show suspense and the harrowing life of a Mumbai orphan. Growing from a garbage pit scavenger to the potential winner of a fortune, his hero uses his wits and survival instinct to struggle against crushing handicaps. A film that finds exuberance despite the tragedy it also gives full weight to. The locations breathe with authenticity.
"Synecdoche, New York" The year's most endlessly debated film. Screenwriter Charles Kaufman ("Adaptation," "Being John Malkovich"), in his directing debut, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director mired in a long-running rehearsal that may be life itself. Much controversy about the identities and even genders of some of the characters, in a film that should never be seen unless you've already seen it at least once.
"W." To general surprise, Oliver Stone's biography of George W. Bush is empathetic and understanding, perhaps because Stone himself is a blueblood Ivy League graduate who could never quite win his father's approval. Josh Brolin gives a nuanced portrayal that seems based on the known facts, showing the president as subservient to Vice President Cheney and haunted by old demons.
"WALL-E" The best science-fiction movie in years was an animated family film. WALL-E is a solar-powered trash compacting robot, left behind to clean up the waste after Man flees into orbit. Hugely entertaining, wonderfully well drawn, and, if you think about it, merciless in its critique of a global consumer culture that obsesses on intake and disregards the consequences of output.
* * *
Every year I name a winner of my Special Jury Prize, so named in honor of the "alternative first prize" given by juries at many festivals. This year (roll of the drums) the honored film is:
"My Winnipeg" Guy Maddin's latest dispatch from inside his imagination is a "history" of his home town, which becomes a mixture of the very slightly plausible, the convincing but unlikely, the fantastical, the fevered, the absurd, the preposterous, and the nostalgic. Oddly enough, when it's over, you have a deeper and, in a crazy way, more "real" portrait of Winnipeg than a conventional doc might have provided--and certainly a far more entertaining one. Will be at Ebertfest 2009.
Five documentaries in equal first place:
"Encounters at the End of the World" Werner Herzog moseys around to see who he will meet and what he will see at the South Pole. The population here seems made of travelers beyond our realm, all with amazing personal histories. In a spellbinding film, Herzog finds a great deal of humor, astonishing underwater creatures, permanent occupants such as seals and penguins and the possibility of a bleak global future.
"I.O.U.S.A." A film to make sense of the current economic crisis. The U.S. national debt has doubled in the last eight years, we can't make the payments, the world holds our mortgage, and it can't afford for us to default. So the same unsupported currency seems to circulate one step ahead of disaster. Not a partisan film. Experts of all political persuasions look at our bookkeeping and agree it is insane.
"Man on Wire" On Aug. 7, 1974, a Frenchman named Philippe Petit, having smuggled two tons of equipment to the top of the towers of the World Trade Center, strung a wire between them, and walked back and forth eight times. The doc combines period footage and re-created scenes to explain how he did it, and mystically, why. We know he made it, so how does this film generate such suspense?
"Standard Operating Procedure" About what photographs are and how we see them, focusing on the infamous prison torture photographs from Abu Ghraib. Errol Morris' scrutiny reveals what was really happening, and why, and how the photographs do not always show what they seem to. He introduces the name of Charles Graner, who always stayed in the shadows, but without whom there might have been no photos at all.
"Trouble the Water" A few days before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, a young couple from the Ninth Ward named Scott and Kimberly Rivers Roberts bought a camcorder. As the rains began to fall, they began to film, even while trapped by rising waters inside their attic. Their astonishing footage, unlike any other, is incorporated by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin into a documentary that shows why Brownie was not doing a great job, not at all. This film also will be at Ebertfest 2009.
Looking back over the list, I think most moviegoers will have heard of only about 11, because distribution has reached such a dismal state. I wrote to a reader about "Shotgun Stories," "I don't know if it will play in your town." She wrote back, "How about my state?" This is a time when home video, Netflix and the good movie channels come to the rescue. My theory that you should see a movie on a big screen is sound, but utopian.
the fall made it, as he promised earlier...
some of the documentaries at the end sounded interesting... the herzog doc & man on wire are already in the netlix queue... I.O.U.S.A. is in the dreaded "SAVE" mode (ie - unavailable)... synecdoche, NY also sounds intriguing...
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../812059997/1023
The best films of 2008... and there were a lot of them
December 5, 2008
by Roger Ebert
In these hard times, you deserve two "best films" lists for the price of one. It is therefore with joy that I list the 20 best films of 2008, in alphabetical order. I am violating the age-old custom that film critics announce the year's 10 best films, but after years of such lists, I've had it. A best films list should be a celebration of wonderful films, not a chopping process. And 2008 was a great year for movies, even if many of them didn't receive wide distribution.
Look at my 20 titles, and you tell me which 10 you would cut. Nor can I select one to stand above the others, or decide which should be No. 7 and which No. 8. I can't evaluate films that way. Nobody can, although we all pretend to. A "best films" list, certainly. But of exactly 10, in marching order? These 20 stood out for me, and I treasure them all. If it had been 19 or 21, that would have been OK. If you must have a Top 10 List, find a coin in your pocket. Heads, the odd-numbered movies are your 10. Tails, the even-numbered.
I have composed a separate list of the year's five best documentaries. They also may be described as "one of the year's best." And this year's Special Jury Award goes to Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg," which stands between truth and fiction, using the materials of the documentary to create a film completely preposterous and deeply true. Another of "the year's best."
"Ballast" A deep silence has fallen upon a Mississippi Delta family after the death of a husband and brother. Old wounds remain unhealed. The man's son shuttles uneasily between two homes, trying to open communication by the wrong means. The debut cast is deeply convincing, and writer-director Lance Hammer observes them with intense empathy. No, it's not a film about poor folks on the Delta; they own a nice little business, but are paralyzed by loneliness. At the end, we think, yes, that is what would happen, and it would happen exactly like that.
"The Band's Visit" A police ceremonial band from Egypt, in Israel for a cultural exchange, ends up in a desert town far from anywhere and is taken on mercy by the bored, cynical residents. A long night's journey marked with comedy, human nature, and bittersweet reality. Richly entertaining, with sympathetic performances by Sasson Gabai as the bandleader and Ronit Elkabetz as the owner of a local cafe. Written and directed by Eran Kolirin. Was at Ebertfest 2008.
"Che" The epic journey of a 20th century icon, the Argentinian physician who became a comrade of Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolu- tion and then moved to South America to support revolution there. Benicio del Toro is persuasive as the fiercely ethical firebrand, in a film that includes unusual and unfamiliar chapters in Che's life. Steven Soderbergh's film is 257 minutes long, but far from boring. (Opens Jan. 16)
"Chop Shop" The great emerging American director Ramin Bahrani finds a story worthy of "City of God" in a no-man's land in the shadow of Shea Stadium, where a young boy and his sister support themselves in a sprawling, off-the-books auto repair and scrap district. Alejandro Polanco and Isamar Gonzales seem to live their roles, in a masterpiece that intimately knows its world, its people and their survival tactics. It will be featured at Ebertfest 2009.
"The Dark Knight" The best of all the Batmans, Christopher Nolan's haunted film leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. The "comic book movie" has at last reclaimed its deep archetypal currents. With a performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker that will surely win an Oscar, a Batman (Christian Bale) who is tortured by moral puzzles and a district attorney (Aaron Eckhart) forced to make impossible choices.
"Doubt" A Catholic grade school is ruled by the grim perfectionist Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), whose draconian rule is challenged by Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). A young nun (Amy Adams) is caught between them, as the film shows how assumptions can be doubted, and doubted again. Viola Davis, as the mother of the school's only black student, has one significant scene, but it is long, crucial and heartbreaking. Davis goes face to face with Streep with astonishing conviction and creates reasons for doubt that may be more important than deciding the truth. John Patrick Shanley directed and adapted his Tony Award-winning play. (Opens Friday)
"The Fall" Tarsem's film is a mad folly, an extravagant visual orgy, a free fall from reality into uncharted realms. A wounded stunt-man, circa 1914, tells a story to a 4-year-old girl, and we see how she imagines it. It has vast romantic images so stunning, I had to check twice, three times, to be sure the film actually claims to have absolutely no computer-generated imagery. None? What about the Labyrinth of Despair, with no exit? The intersecting walls of zig-zagging staircases? The man who emerges from the burning tree? Filmed over four years in 28 countries. It will be at Ebertfest 2009.
"Frost/Nixon" The story of a duel between a crafty man and a persistent one. How many remember that the "lightweight" British interviewer David Frost was the one who finally persuaded Richard Nixon to say he had committed crimes in connection with Watergate and let his country down? With his own money riding on the interviews, Frost (Michael Sheen) is desperate after Nixon finesses him in the early sessions, but he pries away at Nixon's need to confess. Frank Langella is uncanny as RMN. Ron Howard directs mercilessly. (Opens Friday)
"Frozen River" Melissa Leo should be nominated for her performance. She plays an hourly employee in a discount store, struggling to support two kids and a run-down trailer after her husband deserts her with their savings. After making an unlikely alliance with a Mohawk woman (Misty Upham) who was stealing her car, she finds herself a human trafficker, driving Chinese across the ice into the United States. A spellbinding thriller, yes, but even more a portrait of economic struggle in desperate times. Written and directed by Courtney Hunt. It will be at Ebertfest 2009.
"Happy-Go-Lucky" Here's another nominee for best actress -- Sally Hawkins, playing a cheerful schoolteacher who seems improbably upbeat until we win a glimpse into her soul. No, she's not secretly depressed. She's genuinely happy, but that hasn't made her stupid or afraid. Mike Leigh's uncanny ability to find drama in ordinary lives is used with genius, as the teacher encounters a driving instructor (Eddie Marsan) as negative as she is positive. Not a feel-good movie. Not at all. But strangely inspiring.
"Iron Man" Like "Spider-Man 2" and "The Dark Knight," another leap forward for the superhero movie. Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau reinvent Tony Stark as a conflicted, driven genius who has a certain plausibility, even when inundated by special effects. So successful are they that in the climactic rooftop battle between two towering men of steel, we know we're looking almost entirely at CGI, and yet the creatures embody character and emotion. Downey hit bottom, as everyone knows. Now he has triumphantly returned.
"Milk" Sean Penn, one of our greatest actors, locks up an Oscar nomination with his performance as Harvey Milk, the first self-identified gay elected to U.S. public office. At age 40, Milk was determined to do "something different" with his life. He's open to change. We see how the everyday experiences of this gay man politicize him, and how his instincts allow him to become a charismatic leader, while always acknowledging the sexuality that society had taught him to conceal. One of the year's most moving films.
"Rachel Getting Married" After seeing this film, people told me, "I wanted to attend that wedding" or "I wish I'd been there." It's that involving. Jonathan Demme doesn't lock down one central plot, but considers the ceremony as a wedding of close and distant family, old and new friends, many races, many ages, many lifestyles, all joined amid joyous homemade music. His camera is so observant, we feel like a guest really does feel. Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel and Anne Hathaway as her sister generate tricky sibling tension.
"The Reader" A drama taking place mostly within the mind of a postwar German who has an affair at 14 with a woman he later discovers is a war criminal. Her own secret is so shameful, she would rather face any sentence than reveal it. The film addresses the moral confusion felt in those who came after the Holocaust but whose lives were painfully twisted by it. Directed by Stephen Daldry, with David Kross as the younger protagonist, and Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes as the older ones. (Opening Dec. 25)
"Revolutionary Road" The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and his wife find hell in the suburbs. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, in two of the best performances of the year, play a young married couple who lose their dreams in the American corporate world and its assigned roles. Sam Mendes reads minds when words aren't enough, and has every detail right -- including the chain-smoking by those who find it a tiny consolation in inconsolable lives. (Opens Jan. 2)
"Shotgun Stories" You'll have to search for it, but worth it. In a "dead-### town," three brothers find themselves in a feud with their four half-brothers. It's told like a revenge tragedy, but the hero doesn't believe the future is written by the past. Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, it avoids the obvious and shows a deep understanding of the lives and minds of ordinary young people in a skirmish of the class war. The dialogue rings true, the camera is deeply observant. The film was the audience favorite at Ebertfest 2008.
"Slumdog Millionaire" Danny Boyle's improbable union of quiz-show suspense and the harrowing life of a Mumbai orphan. Growing from a garbage pit scavenger to the potential winner of a fortune, his hero uses his wits and survival instinct to struggle against crushing handicaps. A film that finds exuberance despite the tragedy it also gives full weight to. The locations breathe with authenticity.
"Synecdoche, New York" The year's most endlessly debated film. Screenwriter Charles Kaufman ("Adaptation," "Being John Malkovich"), in his directing debut, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director mired in a long-running rehearsal that may be life itself. Much controversy about the identities and even genders of some of the characters, in a film that should never be seen unless you've already seen it at least once.
"W." To general surprise, Oliver Stone's biography of George W. Bush is empathetic and understanding, perhaps because Stone himself is a blueblood Ivy League graduate who could never quite win his father's approval. Josh Brolin gives a nuanced portrayal that seems based on the known facts, showing the president as subservient to Vice President Cheney and haunted by old demons.
"WALL-E" The best science-fiction movie in years was an animated family film. WALL-E is a solar-powered trash compacting robot, left behind to clean up the waste after Man flees into orbit. Hugely entertaining, wonderfully well drawn, and, if you think about it, merciless in its critique of a global consumer culture that obsesses on intake and disregards the consequences of output.
* * *
Every year I name a winner of my Special Jury Prize, so named in honor of the "alternative first prize" given by juries at many festivals. This year (roll of the drums) the honored film is:
"My Winnipeg" Guy Maddin's latest dispatch from inside his imagination is a "history" of his home town, which becomes a mixture of the very slightly plausible, the convincing but unlikely, the fantastical, the fevered, the absurd, the preposterous, and the nostalgic. Oddly enough, when it's over, you have a deeper and, in a crazy way, more "real" portrait of Winnipeg than a conventional doc might have provided--and certainly a far more entertaining one. Will be at Ebertfest 2009.
Five documentaries in equal first place:
"Encounters at the End of the World" Werner Herzog moseys around to see who he will meet and what he will see at the South Pole. The population here seems made of travelers beyond our realm, all with amazing personal histories. In a spellbinding film, Herzog finds a great deal of humor, astonishing underwater creatures, permanent occupants such as seals and penguins and the possibility of a bleak global future.
"I.O.U.S.A." A film to make sense of the current economic crisis. The U.S. national debt has doubled in the last eight years, we can't make the payments, the world holds our mortgage, and it can't afford for us to default. So the same unsupported currency seems to circulate one step ahead of disaster. Not a partisan film. Experts of all political persuasions look at our bookkeeping and agree it is insane.
"Man on Wire" On Aug. 7, 1974, a Frenchman named Philippe Petit, having smuggled two tons of equipment to the top of the towers of the World Trade Center, strung a wire between them, and walked back and forth eight times. The doc combines period footage and re-created scenes to explain how he did it, and mystically, why. We know he made it, so how does this film generate such suspense?
"Standard Operating Procedure" About what photographs are and how we see them, focusing on the infamous prison torture photographs from Abu Ghraib. Errol Morris' scrutiny reveals what was really happening, and why, and how the photographs do not always show what they seem to. He introduces the name of Charles Graner, who always stayed in the shadows, but without whom there might have been no photos at all.
"Trouble the Water" A few days before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, a young couple from the Ninth Ward named Scott and Kimberly Rivers Roberts bought a camcorder. As the rains began to fall, they began to film, even while trapped by rising waters inside their attic. Their astonishing footage, unlike any other, is incorporated by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin into a documentary that shows why Brownie was not doing a great job, not at all. This film also will be at Ebertfest 2009.
Looking back over the list, I think most moviegoers will have heard of only about 11, because distribution has reached such a dismal state. I wrote to a reader about "Shotgun Stories," "I don't know if it will play in your town." She wrote back, "How about my state?" This is a time when home video, Netflix and the good movie channels come to the rescue. My theory that you should see a movie on a big screen is sound, but utopian.
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Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
This was a very good movie.
SmoovySmoov
The Way of the Samurai
I'll take "Movies I Wouldn't Touch With a Ten Foot Pole" for $300, Alex.
Bob Magaw
Footballguy
that does sound good, i'll add to queue, j-, ahem, needs a sandwich...
Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
Who's J?that does sound good, i'll add to queue, j-, ahem, needs a sandwich...
The movie is a bit slow and simple. But it has a good heart and I liked it.
Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
Baldwin was good, but this movie should have been so much better. It started out well, but the last 40 minutes or so were lame. For that genre, I liked Croupier and Owning Mahoney a lot more.
Is this is the same In Bruges I saw? I love the movie, but comedy or musical?
Gr00vus
Footballguy
I agree with both suggestions - loved both of those films.
yeah, I thought that was strange too.I just noticed that In Bruges was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical.Is this is the same In Bruges I saw? I love the movie, but comedy or musical?
Wingnut
Footballguy
Ill be looking for this one. Looks and sounds pretty good.Checked out Wanted last night. Started off a bit strange, and I wasnt even really sure what type of movie it would be....nce it got going it was fun though. Over the top but fun.This wasn't "my Queens" and it wasn't "my relationship with my father" but that didn't prevent it from putting a lump in my throat throughout. I still knew every character, still related to Dito as myself. Very powerful movie. It made me think of writing my story. Just random sht that happens to us all and affects us all.Really great movie, thanks for the recommendation.Literally 1 of my 3 favorite movies of the last 3 years...cant knock 1 thing about itYou see LeBeaof in Indiana Jones and wonder how the hell he got the part, you watch a movie like this and realize hes got some talent.wow, never heard of it but added and moved it to the top.edit: just checked out the trailer. Set in 1986, the year I started dating my wife (here in Queens)
A turning point for me after some less than proud moments.
Add to that some major headbutting between me and my late father and this might hit too close to home.
Surprised I never heard of it before.
The fact this movie is a true story makes it even that much more moving. I dont know how the last 30 seconds were a turnoff though. Eric Roberts was the perfect actor for the older Antonio, and that scene was pure brilliance. As was mentioned how it opens with Shia saying "Everyone in this movie, I left", the end where he dedicates the movie to Antonio is just as spine tingling.
Absolutely loved this movie, everyone and their father and their dog should watch this movie
Im back!, Back in NY Groove!...
saintfool
Dead sexy
watched "copland" last night at my hotel in a fit of insomnia. so-so film littered with great actors - de niro, kietel, liotta, sciorra - in great minor roles that could have been excellent if they hadn't put stallone as the protagonist. he's trying really hard to not be stallone but he's just not able to pull it off. chris rappaport isn't helping the film either.
TexanFan02
Footballguy
I liked that film. I though Liotta was great in it. I agree about Rappaport, but he didn't ruin the movie or anything. And it was a pretty subdued performance for Stallone, so that was different, at least.
cstu
Footballguy
I let my 9 year old nephew watch this movie as well as Stand By Me and don't think either movie promotes smoking. In both movies it's the bad kids that do the smoking.
whoknew
Footballguy
Wow. I think exactly the opposite. Stallone was terrific in that movie. He was outstanding.
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Needs a sandwich
Footballguy
I liked Stallone in this movie.
yinzer
Footballguy
Are we talking about The Cooler, or that movie where Natalie Portman shows her whispering eye in the strip club?Ironically, I just moved Croupier up near the top of my Netflix list a few days back. Cant believe I still havent seen that one.
yinzer
Footballguy
I find this movie in general to be underrated. I remember it getting critically slammed and not doing much at theaters, and a lot of people I know have never even seen it, which is surprising considering the cast.It wasnt great, but I found it better than most people give it credit for
jdoggydogg
Footballguy
Croupier isn't perfect, but it's a cool movie.
jdoggydogg
Footballguy
Good flick. For the serious version, check out the outstanding movie Fail Safe.
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
Rear Window
Somehow, I have missed this classic.
I enjoyed it. I especially liked Grace Kelly. Not only was she luminous, but her character was very strong, and was not just some bimbo.
I got chills during the scene where Raymond Burr catches her in his apartment.
Somehow, I have missed this classic.
I enjoyed it. I especially liked Grace Kelly. Not only was she luminous, but her character was very strong, and was not just some bimbo.
I got chills during the scene where Raymond Burr catches her in his apartment.
Bob Magaw
Footballguy
you would think a movie that takes place entirely from the apartment POV of a man with a broken leg might be claustrophobic (it is, but for the right reasons & intended by hitchcock) & even slow (it isn't, it is riveting once the plot is set in motion)...this is generally mentioned as one of his best (along with notorious, vertigo, etc... spellbound & north by northwest were also classics)...Encyclopedia Brown said:
hitchcock was a master of creating suspenseful SITUATIONS...
Bob Magaw
Footballguy
i hadn't seen this in a while, so initially i thought you were being too hard on it... after rewatching, if anything, you weren't hard enough on it...
i could say it was the worst bond ever by far, but it isn't even in the official bond canon...connery seemed to both ham it up & mail it in, edward fox (day of the jackal) was an absurd M... the most jarring note of discord, though, in the B-movie alternate universe bond, was the music, which was AWFUL... i realized that john barry (as well as production designer ken adam) played hugely important & somewhat underrated roles in the evolution of the look & sound of the series, but this movie made me painfully aware of the fact....it was kind of like a sonic equivalent to when woody allen overdubbed all the dialogue in an asian spy film & made it about a hunt for an egg salad recipe (whats up, tigerlilly?)... this was like somebody had got hold of a bond movie & slapped on a cheesy disco score...* when tom jones hit the high note at the end of the thunderball title song in the intro, he reportedly almost passed out in the studio... weird al yankovich did a send up in the beginning of spy hard, when his head explodes (which i what i felt like after watching never say never... hopefully connery doesn't come back AGAIN... never say never say never)...
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jdoggydogg
Footballguy
Great movie. Two other classic thrillers:Shadow of a DoubtEncyclopedia Brown said:
- Another great Hitchcock flick.
Bad Seed
- Creepy child sociopathic killer.
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
Smart People
Meh.
Dennis Quaid as a college professor schlub didn't work exactly; Ellen Page played the exact same character as she did in "Juno". Church and Parker were surprisingly good.
Meh.
Dennis Quaid as a college professor schlub didn't work exactly; Ellen Page played the exact same character as she did in "Juno". Church and Parker were surprisingly good.
jdoggydogg
Footballguy
Do you like Spider Man and X-Men? I think Iron Man was a lot better than those movies.
LHUCKS
Footballguy
I loved this flick.
whoknew
Footballguy
Why?
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
krista4
Footballguy
One good film, and a whole lot of meh.
Transsiberian: I know a couple of people reported on this one already. I liked it a lot; kept me highly interested the whole way. Great acting, beautiful cinematography. I love the sense of isolation, and I was amused by the fact that when the husband was taking the "reformed bad girl" on their first trip, he chose the most desolate, unfun place possible. My appreciation of the movie might be influenced by the fact that I have a serious woman-crush on Emily Mortimer. 4/5
Bigger, Stronger, Faster: Interesting enough documentary about steroids and their effect on one family. Not much to say--it was just OK. 2.5/5
Surfwise: Documentary about a couple and their nine children who grew up in a camper, going up and down the coast surfing. Eleven people in one camper. The father also had/has some "interesting" views on sexuality and discipline. Certainly more interesting than the documentary above, but I was pretty much disgusted with the couple and their refusal to allow their children to have a normal, healthy childhood. The effects on the kids are evident, as none of them can maintain a reasonable job (none had educations) or a healthy relationship. Interesting but somewhat infuriating. 3/5
Head-On: Had high hopes for this, from the same director as The Edge of Heaven, which I recently reviewed. Unfortunately, the lead characters (an alcoholic, abusive man and his "cutter" wife) were so disgusting as to become unwatchable. Watching people destroying themselves and then have angry sex wasn't so fun. I'm sure there was a point here, but I couldn't find it. 1.5/5
Transsiberian: I know a couple of people reported on this one already. I liked it a lot; kept me highly interested the whole way. Great acting, beautiful cinematography. I love the sense of isolation, and I was amused by the fact that when the husband was taking the "reformed bad girl" on their first trip, he chose the most desolate, unfun place possible. My appreciation of the movie might be influenced by the fact that I have a serious woman-crush on Emily Mortimer. 4/5
Bigger, Stronger, Faster: Interesting enough documentary about steroids and their effect on one family. Not much to say--it was just OK. 2.5/5
Surfwise: Documentary about a couple and their nine children who grew up in a camper, going up and down the coast surfing. Eleven people in one camper. The father also had/has some "interesting" views on sexuality and discipline. Certainly more interesting than the documentary above, but I was pretty much disgusted with the couple and their refusal to allow their children to have a normal, healthy childhood. The effects on the kids are evident, as none of them can maintain a reasonable job (none had educations) or a healthy relationship. Interesting but somewhat infuriating. 3/5
Head-On: Had high hopes for this, from the same director as The Edge of Heaven, which I recently reviewed. Unfortunately, the lead characters (an alcoholic, abusive man and his "cutter" wife) were so disgusting as to become unwatchable. Watching people destroying themselves and then have angry sex wasn't so fun. I'm sure there was a point here, but I couldn't find it. 1.5/5
I think the demographic group of most people on a fantasy football message group will find this much better than "ok." If your a guy and grew up in the last few decades you will really enjoy seeing the role steroids has played in history. The impact they have had on wrestling, sports, and acting is amazing. There is tons of great footage of Sly Stallone, Arnold, Hulk Hogan, and other 80's & 90's hero's. Also, has some interesting scientific issues regarding steroids. I also thought the part about Floyd Lansdis sleeping in the chamber to increase his red blood cells was cool.krista4 said:
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krista4
Footballguy
I do agree that some of the scientific information was new (to me) and interesting. But most of the movie was just a rehashing of events that we all know very well. Again, kind of interesting, but not a great doc. I love documentaries and this one just didn't measure up for me. I did lean toward a "3" initially instead of a 2.5, but it just falls flat in the middle for me--not great, but not bad.ETA: You're right, though, that some people here might like it. Of course, that doesn't affect my review or opinion that there wasn't a lot new here for me.
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The Dark Knight - 8.5/10 - I thought it was very good, but my only complaint is that I feel they should have left 2 Face out of this one. It was a little long, and I think it took away from the great role Heath Ledger played as the joker by having another villan introduced at the end of the movie. They should have made a whole other movie just with 2 Face, as opposed to prolonging this one. This is how they ruined the last Batman series. The first one had the joker as the main villan. The second one had Penguin & Cat Woman. The final one had Poison Ivy, Riddler, Arnold... They should just focus on one villain, and go deeper into their story lines. jmho Leave 2 Face out, and shorten the movie, and I give it a 10/10.
Wanted - 9/10 - Action packed, fresh, and entertaining movie. Pretty original story line for this type of movie, and it had a few good twist. The action scenes were incredible, and I don't think I could ever get tired of that camera angle that follows the bullet. It was indeed very over the top that the assassins were so good that there bullets collided in mid air several times But it is so friggin cool watching the CGI make 2 bullets smash together. The scene with Angelina driving the viper was awesome. Especially, when she rolled the car over the cops, and landed on the side of the bus.
fwiw, I went into Dark Knight with very high expectations, and Wanted with low expectations. I also still think Batman Begins is the best one in the series so far.
Wanted - 9/10 - Action packed, fresh, and entertaining movie. Pretty original story line for this type of movie, and it had a few good twist. The action scenes were incredible, and I don't think I could ever get tired of that camera angle that follows the bullet. It was indeed very over the top that the assassins were so good that there bullets collided in mid air several times
But it is so friggin cool watching the CGI make 2 bullets smash together. The scene with Angelina driving the viper was awesome. Especially, when she rolled the car over the cops, and landed on the side of the bus.fwiw, I went into Dark Knight with very high expectations, and Wanted with low expectations. I also still think Batman Begins is the best one in the series so far.
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Spiderman and X-men were both way better.Spiderman series has been fairly solid, imo. X-Men series hasn't been quite as good, but still way better than Iron Man.jdoggydogg said:
Iron Man just plain sucked. It was honestly boring, the fact he built his first machine in a cave was ridiculous, and I guess the fact a new machine was able to be built in what, a matter of hours from the time the plans were taken - a bigger and better machine. ugh, I don't want to much into this. If you like Iron Man better, that's fine, I'm certainly not the be all, end all of movie critquing. In my opinion Iron Man was as big of a bore that I've seen in a while. Iron Man reminded me a lot of the first Hulk movie - the Ang Lee version. I happened to like that one, but plenty of people disliked it and I can see their point.
