Good (or bad) Movies

[MightyGiants]

Watched- 

Night at the Museum-  Mildly amusing movie.  Kids will certainly enjoy it (my 8 year old nephew and niece 5 enjoyed it).

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[Jim143]

Night at the Museum was ok.  Not spectacular but good for kids.  I have always like how Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson play off each other.

Shrek 3 was very funny.  There were a couple of scenes where I asked my wife what kind of acid flashback did the animators have to pull something like that off.  I dont want to say anymore to give it away because the surprise of it is what makes the moment.

Norbit wasnt too bad.  Not great but Eddie Murphy playing all those characters again was an impressive task.

Have not seen Flags of Our Fathers yet - but Letters from Iwo Jima and The Last King of Scotland were both very well done.

My wife has seen the Illusionist and Prestige but I havent yet.  She says I need to make time to see them.  Maybe this weekend, who knows. . . .

[MightyGiants]

The Illusionist is a great movie, it's worth making time for.

[LennG]

Jim

 I concur with Rich. Right after I saw the Illusionist, I posted a thread on the boards about it. I thought it was once of the best movies I ahve seen in many years. I have seen it again, ans still I found it fascinating. an adult movie (with NO SEX), but kids will not understand the movie. Take your wife and watch it together, you won't be dissappointed.

[LennG]

Threads like this are right up alley and I can keep this one going for quite a while. We watch a lot of movie's and every Friday nite is movie night at out house. Has been for as long as I can remember. We try and get a new release and watch as a family. Some movies, (chick flix) just don't attract the kids anymore, and the 'slasher' types my wife won't watch, but, for the most part, we manage to see just about all of them.
Some of the latest:

Flags of our Fathers--
   Good, but I was a bit dissappointed. Will discuss this with anyone later, not to give any of the movie away

Freedom Writers--
     I liked this one a lot more than I thought I would. Thought it was just another white teacher in a minority school story. It was, but very well done and a true story.

Rocky Balboa--
    Rocky should have stayed retired. this film was terrible. Even the boxing parts were, well, just old.

The Queen--
     Not too bad. Again, I thought I wouldn't like it, but I did. Fascinating performance by Helen Mirren (won the Oscar).

Pursuit of Happiness--
     Very disappointing. I have such high expectations for this movie, heard so much about it, but was just bored. Smith had a great performance, but I never really believed what he was trying to sell.

Casino Royale-
       Last of the Bond films and very very good. It got away from the slick gimmicks and unbelievable story lines, and got back to real people. I liked this new Bond and was thoroughly engrossed in the story. Best Bond in years.

Stranger than Fiction-
     First let me say, I do not like Will Ferrell, hate all his movies, but this one surprised me. I liked it. It wasn't stupid or made for an intelligence of 25 IQ. Ferrell should do more of this and get away form the teenybopper trash he has done so far.

The Prestige
 An other good movie. Not as good as some have said, but an enjoyable movie.

Gridiron Gang
 The only reason to watch this movie is it has a football theme. Beyond that, the Roch should return to wrestling, and the players in this movie should forget football and go to college.

Alpha Dogs
 Eh, I don't even remember it, couldn't have been very good then

Notes on a Scandal
   Another movie I thought I would not like, but I did. It isn't for everyone and definitely an adult movie. Judy Dench was magnificent in a role you would not even think of her for. Some friends found this movie troubling, but I enjoyed it.

Children of Men
  Many people thought his movie to be 'ground breaking'. I thought it boring. I just could not get into the entire concept. Except for a great part by Michael Caine, I found this movie to be just bad.

Borat
  Another movie, either you loved it or hated it. I fall into the latter category. I found some of the humor to be laugh out loud funny, but many times, I just couldn't understand how people thought other parts funny. Just offensive to Jews among many others.

The Departed
  Jack Nicholson steals this movie. I don't see how Leon DiCapria got all the recognition. Anything Jack is in is good, and he was at his nastiest and best in this one. I liked it.

Blood Diamond
    Good, but not as good as I thought it would be. I heard great things about it and was truly looking forward to seeing it. I liked it but was mildly dissappointed. I thought it would be great and it was far from that.

Hollywoodland- Maybe you have to remember the old Superman TV show from the 50's to really appreciate this movie. I do and I liked this movie a lot. Many didn't, but it is still a decent movie.

Happy Feet-
   Good, but a bit disappointing. hears so many great things, and the promotion for this ,movie was unreal. Not the best animation movie. Kids will like it much more than adults.

Ice Age II
  Not as good as Ice Age I, but better than Happy Feet.

The Good Shepard
    It was suppose to be a good movie, I just couldn't get into it. maybe I was tired, maybe it just wasn't for me but I ju8st didn't like it. Found it just too slow and very hard to get into the story.

I'm sure there are more, but I just can't remember right now. 

[OGHWGA]

There's not too much left after Lenn's list but I'll chip in a few.  Movie night is Saturday at our house.

Syriana, loved it but it was wrenching, painful, and thought provoking.

The Constant Gardener, same as above.

Just saw "The Wild" with our little guy and at 11 he was 5 years too old for it.

I'm in the "Loved Borat," camp.

Made my kids watch "The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3" the other night and they enjoyed it in spite of it's age.  (They're against anything pre-1999.)

On that note I made my wife watch "Charley Varrick," another great Matthau film, and she liked it so I followed it up with "Hopscotch,"  ANOTHER  great Matthau film.  The kids won't like it.

Galaxy Quest still cracks me up. 

Let my older guy watch the edited for TV "Goodfellas," probably one of my favorites.  There's hundreds of classic lines in that one, plus lots of future "Sopranos" cameos.

I'm going to show "The Big Lebowski" at my funeral, followed by "Fargo," and "O Brother, Where Art Thou."

[LennG]

 Hated the "Big Lebowski", but "O Brother" is one of my favorite all time movies. In fact I listen to the sound track about once a week. I love that Blue Grass type of Music.

[OGHWGA]

Every Saturday and Sunday the local college radio plays "old timey" country music.  I think you can listen live at WRSU.com.  I just broke down and ordered "The Three Bells" by The Browns so I should have my fill for awhile.  Great stuff.

[LennG]

 And a little bell was ringing.......... --great song

We saw night at the Museum last nite. I wasn't impressed. In fact I fella sleep thru most of it, and didn't miss a beat. My wife and son enjoyed it though, so what do I know.

[Jim143]

Going to take my daughter to see Pirates this morning.  Will let you know what I think. . .

[chiller99]

Watched Crank last night ,imho good action flick,violent and drugs not for kids,Jason Stetham also in the Transporter series stars.Rocky Balboa,ugh so thats what a steroid 60 yr old body looks like,what happened to aging gracefully?No plot ,no action,no stars!..Watched an oldie for psych class,Dr Strangelove...my personal **** stars whatta movie...Had a Shrek party with the family kids,all 3 are good watching and funny,,,

[T200]

HEED THIS WARNING...  DO NOT WATCH BUG!!!  DO NOT WATCH BUG!!!

IT IS A THOROUGH WASTE OF TIME!!!  IF YOU WATCH IT, YOU WILL REGRET IT!!!

I just watched it and I can never get those 2 hours of my wasted life back.   >

[LennG]

 
Anoither Friday nite and another movie. this was was a few months old. It was "The Break Up", with one time fiance Vince Gill. it was cute, light and that's about it. I think anniston could really be a good actress given the right scripts, but she seems very at home with these sort of light comedies, a la Friends.

[LennG]

 We stayed in last night and rented 'Dreamgirls'

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't thrilled with this movie. If it was a straight drama, with just the songs, I think I would have liked it, but it was trying to be a sort of old time musical where they sang the words to the story instead of speaking them. And I know that Jennifer Hudson won the academy award for best supporting actress. As an actress and when she acted it was good, I'm sorry, but she shrieks and makes every single song she does into a national anthem. I just didn't like her style of music.
 Eddie Murphy was great though, and I liked his part a lot.

I know this movie got big play, but sorry, it just wasn't me.

[MightyGiants]

Apocalypto- I watched this movie yesterday.  Not sure what to make of it.  It was all subtitled.  It was very unusual and visually compelling.  I think it was worth seeing, but it's wierd.  I feel like I really can't describe this movie properly.