What Movie Are You Watching Or Watched Today?

[Insert Witty Username Her]

Pan's Labyrinth (sp?) last night - oh how i love it!

[philipchevron]

To Kill A Mockingbird.

I thought I knew this great film, but had completely forgotten that Boo Radley is played by Robert Duvall and that moreover, Tom Robinson is played by fabulous Brock Peters.

We grow further and further away from this book/movie as the years unfold, and yet, it seemed strangely contemporary watching it last night.

[dublinrambler]

Juno

and hopefully soon "there will be blood"

[Jon]

got an advanced copy of Sweeney Todd, it looks pretty interesting.
Not sure about Depp's singing - he still sounds vaguely 'piratey'

[Sandyfromvancouver]

Pan's Labyrinth (sp?) last night - oh how i love it!

Yeah, it's a wonderful movie.

Lots of parallels to the 80's in South and Central America, but it stands very well on its own.

[The Duke of Ingmar]

Darko colony, starring Corbin Bernsen and Bruce Boxleitner.

In the vein of "It came from outer space", but much worse.

[Clash Cadillac]

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I am not big on musicals but really enjoyed watching Tim Burton's latest masterpiece. Depp played Mr. T to perfection.

[Clash Cadillac]

f r i c t i o n: 25th Anniversary

Great job O'B

Nice nod to The Specials with Nite Klub.

[O'Blivion]

f r i c t i o n: 25th Anniversary

Great job O'B

Nice nod to The Specials with Nite Klub.

Glad you enjoyed it - it was a fantastic night for us. It was amazing to even be remembered all those years later, let alone be welcomed back so robustly. Glad we did it before we got too old.

We used to do Nite Klub and Up To You just about every night back in the day, even though we weren't a cover band. We turned a lot of rural Pennsylvanians on to ska.


I watched SICKO this weekend. Wow. Didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Opted for laughter.

Maybe this would be a good place to find out what people from more civilized countries think about socialized medicine. How about it, Medusans - what's the health care like where you are? Michael Moore makes it look pretty good.

[philipchevron]

f r i c t i o n: 25th Anniversary

Great job O'B

Nice nod to The Specials with Nite Klub.

Glad you enjoyed it - it was a fantastic night for us. It was amazing to even be remembered all those years later, let alone be welcomed back so robustly. Glad we did it before we got too old.

We used to do Nite Klub and Up To You just about every night back in the day, even though we weren't a cover band. We turned a lot of rural Pennsylvanians on to ska.


I watched SICKO this weekend. Wow. Didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Opted for laughter.

Maybe this would be a good place to find out what people from more civilized countries think about socialized medicine. How about it, Medusans - what's the health care like where you are? Michael Moore makes it look pretty good.

"Socialized" medicine, or Universal Health Care, as I prefer to call it, is not quite the Utopia Mike Moore attempts to portray in his need to contrast the NHS with the American system, but its flaws are almost exclusively the fault of meddling politicians like Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher attempting to shoehorn their respective ideologies into a system which, substantively, was not broken.

The National Health Service (NHS) was, simply, Britain's gift to itself for winning the Second World War. It required proportionate taxation to make its founding principle - free health care for ALL at the point of delivery - work effectively, but I think it's fair to say it was never a level of taxation the British people resented until their money suddenly appeared to get squandered on middle-managers, pen-pushers and "blue sky thinkers" rather than actual doctors and nurses.

In many ways, the NHS is a victim of its own success. As people have gained longer life expectancy, so the strain on the system has increased exponentially. This is something we need to accept and address, but this seems unlikely to happen fully until politicians begin to remove their market-driven ideologies from the process.

In the meantime, however stretched it becomes, the NHS saves thousands of lives every year, including, on two occasions, mine.

[TheIrishRover]

I think the biggest problem with universal health-care in Canada is the long waiting period. I'm not sure if this is unique to Canada or is common in mosst universal health-care states, but in Canada there stuff takes a lot longer to get done than in America. Personally, I think part of the problem is that doctors who are more interested in personal profit tend to migrate to America and work as doctors, thereby meaning less people to handle things, and more wait. I know of lots of doctors who are Canadian and moved to America to work because it pays more.

However, I doubt that's always the case. I grew up poor, and therefore I was on the state-wide Tenncare, which is insurance, but not complete ownership of the health-care stuff like with NHS and most universal health-care systems. I've got to say that it was some of the best health-care I ever had. It had its flaws, but it was ten times better than any private health-care. Also, even though you did have to be relatively poor to get it, it wasn't too huge of a strain on the state government. With the regressive taxes here (which I'm against on the national level, but for on the state level), it practically paid for itself. So, if run correctly, I think that universal health-care is better than other forms of private health-care.

[Sandyfromvancouver]

I'm in Canada but have many US relatives and lived in the States for a couple of years.

I am a huge fan of universal health care. I've benefitted enormously from the Canadian Health care system. I know I crabbed in one thread or other about waiting a long time for eye surgery, but it was due to a glitch where some doctors do their patients faster than others. Mine just happened to have a long wait list.

In fact, I'd like to see universal health care expanded to include pharmaceuticals, physiotherapy and dental care. People with private insurance through their work have far better access to these.

If there are faults in our system they are often due to lack of consultation between bureaucrats, patients and health professionals. And/or a lack of compassion or common sense.

A number of my US relatives, even some with kids, don't have any insurance. They sometimes have serious ailments that get treated in a less than optimal way. That can happen here, too. But you can change doctors and still not pay.

There's a lot of pressure in Canada to increase privatization. Lots of companies are chomping at the bit, wanting to increase their profits. I just hope we can limit their activities.

[Beisty]

Young Guns II - Blaze of Glory

On the telly at the moment, and as I'm too lazy to change channels on the remote, I'm watching it.

[firehazard]

In The Valley Of Elah. Good film, highly recommended.

Mind you, we were supposed to be seeing Sweeney Todd. But at the last moment my companion decided she was a bit too squeamish, so we went to the other one instead. Glad we saw it now. But I probably have to make another attempt at Sweeney Todd sometime.

[Heather]

Straight to Hell. Again.

Best thing to watch when you're off sick with nothing better to do.