I just saw Hellboy II.

It was not for me I guess.

I'd give it 3.5/10 at the most.

My hubby went to see D Knight. Said he would see it again and again. That means it ranks up there with Star Wars (22 viewings), The Last Starfighter,(15 viewings) The Lost Boys (6 viewings in one summer), Galaxy Quest 10 viewings) and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (12 viewings)

I won't like smite you or anything for not agreeing with my movie tastes

Not new movies, but I watched the 13th Warrior (again) and Simone this weekend.
13 is as always amazing, not only is a neat story line, but Bandara's is so hot, especially with eye liner...
Simone was interesting, hadn't seen that before. I felt that there was more they could have done with it, and it was a little predictable, but for some entertainment while I did ironing it wasn't bad.

M.

Tropic Thunder.














Is so amazing...I can't breathe.

Everyone on this board must go see Tropic Thunder right now.

Go!

Why are you still sitting here?

It's been ages since I posted to this thread. Time to break the streak with reviews of a couple of family movies on DVD.

The Bee Movie
When the commericals for this one first came out, I was somewhat interested. The scene with Jerry Seinfeld's bee on the windshield with Chris Rock's mosquito was funny.

It was the high point of the movie. That, or maybe the lawyer quip that Rock makes at the end of the film.

I was worried when the opening moments of the film were spent telling us how scientists knew that bees should be unable to fly, but that bees didn't care what people thought. I found this to be odd, since the movie was about a honeybee, and everyone knows that it's bumblebees who go against the understood laws of physics. That irritates me, but I figured I was being nitpicky, that I should hush and enjoy the movie.

Ugh. The first part of the movie is okay, I guess, with Seinfeld's bee wanting more out of his life than an assigned job he'll keep until his death. He sneaks his way into the pollen jocks, who get to fly out of the hive. And then, everything goes stupid.

He meets and falls into some sort of love with a human woman who can understand him. He then sues the human race for exploiting bees and stealing their honey.

Hah! Turns out that all humans can understand not only him, but all bees... just, for some reason never explained, bees have never talked to humans before.

Um, whatever. The story meanders without any real structure. The characters are just... flat, dumb, and lifeless. And my beef about the "bees can't fly" thing is crushed by a much worse infraction at the end of the movie: Senfeld's bee wins his case, and bees stop producing honey (and thus, pollentaing flowers), period. Which results in the death of pretty much every plant, everywhere.

So how do they fix it? Why, with a huge shipment of roses destined for the Macy's Day parade, of course! Because, you know, rose pollen clearly has the power to rejuveniate any sort of dead plant like magic! Last time I checked, the pollen has to come from, you know, the same KIND of plant, and is only involved in fertilization/reproduction. Not, you know, restoring life to existing plants.

I understand suspension of disbelief. I understand fabricating fantasy for the sake of a movie. After all, the movie IS about a talking bee. But one must wonder what else this magic rose pollen could be used for. Cure for cancer? Resurrect dead grandma? It boggles the mind.

This movie is a catastrophic waste of time. If you see a copy in your local video store, drop it on the ground and "accidentally" grind it into pieces beneath your heel.

Once upon a time, a good friend of mine had me sit down and watch Spirited Away. I had never been exposed to this sort of film, and it blew my mind... and also, opened it.

Later, I had my children watch that same film, and they loved it. So, we added another Studio Ghibli (Japanese studo owned by Disney... does nothing but anime-style films) title to our Netflix queue - The Cat Returns.

When they read the blurb of what the movie was about, my kids (daughter, age twelve, and son, age ten) were prepared to heap ridicule on the movie... man, have they become a tough audience! The basic premise is that a girl rescues a cat from being hit by a truck. Unbeknownst to her, the cat is the Prince of cats, who thanks her for her kind deed. The Kingdom of cats is in turn grateful to her, and they shower her with gifts and an offer of marriage to the prince (an offer that she is not prepared to accept).

She is transported to the kingdom, where the demented King of cats does everything in his power to force the marriage, while the girl tries to escape. The movie contains a couple of nice fable-type character lessons regarding karma and good deeds coming back around to those who do them.

Please, make it a point to see this movie. My kids both loved it, and are demanding to find a copy to own. The characters are very well done, and have developed personalities (not to mention, excellent voice work). The Japanese influence can be felt throughout the movie; there are several truly bizarre moments that will make you laugh out loud with their pure absurdity. The plot is well done, and strikes a nice balance of feeling neither rushed nor slow.

The Cat Returns is an excellent film, and one that I highly recommend.

next on your list are Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke? They should be. Same quality, same weirdness, same intelligent entertainment (inteltainment, could that be the new word to use?).

Porco Rosso is my favourite ghibli film by far. I also thought Narssica of The Valley (sp?) was excellent as well.

Castle in the Sky and Kiki Delivery Service ... not bad but not nearly as good.

Nausica of the Valley of the Winds, I think it was called.. .let me imdb that... no... let's go back to page 7 of this thread instead. Third post

Splitting hairs here: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Must go and buy Cat Returns! Spirited Away is Liisa's favorite though she can't quite catch all the subtitles yet at 6 and I end up reading her. The kid should learn some Japanese!

Is there some remake of Nausicaä since it's running at the movies here now?

Recently saw three movies that I thought were rather interesting.

Anamorphic a Wilem Dafoe film, gotta love that man. It's another one of those movies that has jumped on the Silence of the Lambs bandwagon with the highly intelligent serial killer/investiagator relationship. But it is pretty good, the killings are graphic and will screw with your head in ways that were at least shocking to me.

Sleuth a film by Kenneth Braughnah (I probably just killed the spelling of his name *sigh*) staring Jude Law and Michael Cain. It was adapted from a play and is really interesting. Another one of those films that screws with your head. At times it is a little slow, and the camera angles are very odd but add an element of interest to the film. It also isn't very long, or at least didn't seem very long because when it ended I was very surprised. The basic plot is that Jude Law is sleeping with Michael Cain's wife and has gone to see Cain's character in order to ask him to grant his wife a divorce. The rest of the film is a fascinating physical/mental battle between the two men.

Restraint never heard of the director or any of the actors in this film, I think it might be Austrailian actually. But it was also a good movie to mess with your head. The basic plot is that two criminals (boyfriend and girlfriend) are fleeing from the law and end up holing up with a man who is agoraphobic, and what transpires during their stay with him. It kept me guessing the whole time, and you really aren't sure who you should be rooting for. There are alot of loose ends that are never tied up, and that was a bit dissapointing, but the overall mind twistiness of the film does make it worthwhile.

And at the risk of sounding uncultured/stupid, I have to comment that I did see Spirited Away and found the artwork to be some of the most amazing animation I have seen in years... I loved the little black spidery things (I want one for Christmas)... but found that I could not determine a plot and that distressed me a great deal. I like movies with plot. That being said I have seen it once, and that will probably be it.

Well that is my movie addition for the moment,

M.

If you liked this version of Sleuth, watch the old version too. It's also with Michael Cain, but then he was the young kid. The two movies are the same, but completely different. The old one does not have the gay third act that the new one has, and the new one ended very gay. And I mean gay as in homosexual, not some form of saying it sucked.

The plot to Spirited Away, explained:

Chihiro and her parents take a wrong turn while driving to their new home in the country. They discover a tunnel that takes them into what appears to be an abandoned town (or theme park?). While exploring, they discover an open-air restaurant filled with all sorts of wonderful food.

The parents dig in, figuring that they will pay when the owners return, but Chihiro senses that all is not as it seems. She leaves her parents to explore, and meets Haku, a boy who warns her that she must leave before nightfall.

Chihiro run back to find her parents, but discovers that they have been turned into pigs (for their greed? for eating food not meant for mortals?). Haku helps Chihiro to get a job in the great bathhouse, which serves the mnay different gods and spirits of Japan. This allows her to "legitimately" stay in the realm, and also alows her an opportunity to save her parents.

I love my daughter.

So I have arranged to get tickets to the advanced screening of Twilight, this Thursday. I am taking her and my goddaughter to see the movie. I have a funny feeling I will be the only 40+ guy in the theatre among teenage girls.

Scary stuff.