Last Movie You Watched

[DavidW]

Bourne Supremacy, pretty cool and was that Karl Urban has the Russian assassin?  Coolness!

[Philoctetes]

Bourne Supremacy, pretty cool and was that Karl Urban has the Russian assassin?  Coolness!

Beyond cool. Easily the best trilogy of the 2000s.

[DavidW]

Beyond cool. Easily the best trilogy of the 2000s.

Yeah I wanted to read the trilogy now, those movies are so cool... only to discover that they're not on kindle.

[Philoctetes]

Yeah I wanted to read the trilogy now, those movies are so cool... only to discover that they're not on kindle.

That's strange. You figure that such blockbuster type pulp woul be on there.

[Benji]

Bourne Supremacy, pretty cool and was that Karl Urban has the Russian assassin?  Coolness!

I think I have a man-crush on Karl Urban 

[DavidW]

I think I have a man-crush on Karl Urban 

Yeah Karl Urban is a badass.   Did you see I think it was called... Pathfinder?

[Benji]

Yeah Karl Urban is a badass.   Did you see I think it was called... Pathfinder?

Adding it to my rental list as we speak... 

[Philoctetes]

Adding it to my rental list as we speak... 

Since you all seem to enjoy beefcakes: The Chronicles of Riddick (Diesel and Urban).

[DavidW]

Since you all seem to enjoy beefcakes: The Chronicles of Riddick (Diesel and Urban).

Oh yeah that's right I forgot Urban was in that!   I have that on dvd.

[Brian]

127 Hours is an intense, intense film. Knowing that it is an intelligently made film of first-rate artistry, think carefully about whether you want to watch a scene in which a man uses a pair of pliers to stab his own arm off. If you think you can stomach this, have a second think, and if you're still confident, then I can strongly recommend the film to you. The writers realized early on that this was not just the story of a man stuck under a rock, but a man whose whole life was playing in slow motion before his eyes as he waited the three days it would take for him to die, and so were able to bring in all of his happiest memories and regrets with great skill. Terrific storytelling.

The Q&A was pretty cool, with Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy (writer), and James Franco. Most interesting to me was the presence of AR Rahman, the Bollywood legend who'd been tasked with writing a soundtrack that evokes the Utah desert. It was pretty clear to me from his broken, simple English and answers that he had never seen Utah, except the footage Boyle & Co. had shot, and that he wasn't really trying to "evoke" the landscape there. The fact that his music so brilliantly DID understand the life and emptiness of Utah, can only be chalked down to genius.

P.S. Andy Serkis was in the audience wearing a tweed jacket. I can't believe Gollum wears a tweed jacket. Now I'm going to imagine all my professors saying "precioussssssssssss"!

[DavidW]

Oh man Brian I wish I could have been there!

[val]

"BAIXIO DAS BESTAS"

A recent brasilian movie, full of violence. In this case, the violence is not even contextualized and there is no character development. I ask myself if this violence, in special the sexual violence, is nothing more than a pretext to sell the movie.

But I may be wrong. The film was acclaimed everywhere.

[karlhenning]

Last night's viewing:

The (very interesting) 45-minute interview with Ian Anderson on the DVD disc of the 40^th anniversary reissue of Stand Up.

The "Mysterium" thing and interview viz. music with Maria Lettberg.

A bit of Rivers and Tides with Andy Goldsworthy.

Maybe the first quarter of Princess Caraboo.

(Separately: I had to return the Emotion and Commotion CD/DVD . . . the one they sent me won't play, "area limitations.")

[George]

(Separately: I had to return the Emotion and Commotion CD/DVD . . . the one they sent me won't play, "area limitations.")

Isn't that a pain? I wish DVDs were universal, like CDs. 

[karlhenning]

And weird, George . . . last thing I expected from ordering a DVD from a distributor here in the States was that it would be unplayable.

[George]

And weird, George . . . last thing I expected from ordering a DVD from a distributor here in the States was that it would be unplayable.

Indeed.

I was going to order the "Life During Wartime" (the Todd Solondz film) DVD last night, but only found region 2 copies online. Luckily there are other ways to get movies these days. 

[Conor71]

Man, this was some depressing stuff! - very well done, Loach is a master of these gritty Dramas.

[MN Dave]

A clue: "I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

[karlhenning]

A clue: "I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

Ferris Bueller's Day Off?

[DavidRoss]

Just been to see Winter's Bone. Intense is the only way to describe it in a single word. Really powerful cinema.

Netflixed it.  Yep.  And heartbreaking.  And probably a story that captures some truths, with several strong performances, any one of which blows away anything Lennie DiCaprio's ever done.  Sundance Grand Jury Prize: http://www.wintersbonemovie.com/

Included among the vast number of trailers on the DVD was one for Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro that looked appealing, mostly for style.