What Movie Are You Watching Or Watched Today?

[darrencp22]

Very interested in catching "The Conspirator". As a Civil War history buff and a fan of Lincoln it sounds fascinating. Opens today.

[DzM]

Over the last several weeks (or is it months?) I've worked my way through The Shield. It was OK, I guess. Better than your average cop drama. But dammit - it wasn't The Wire. Stupid The Wire. It's ruined cop dramas for me.

[firehazard]

...But dammit - it wasn't The Wire. Stupid The Wire. It's ruined cop dramas for me.

Owing to a technical fault with the ol' DVD player, leading to loss of sound (which may or may not be due to personal stupidity in failing to plug it in properly, this is currently a matter of dispute), I ended up watching an episode of The Wire in silence but with subtitles last night. Interesting experience. I think I followed the dialogue more exactly than I have ever managed to do.

[philipchevron]

Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1951)

Though now principally remembered for Judy Holliday's touching and funny performance (for which she was rewarded with an Oscar), the film has rather languished since in the insulting "women's picture" category of which Cukor was the uncrowned king. In fact, it's a fairly smart version of Garson Kanin's play [revived on Broadway this season] which crosses Pygmalion with Mr Smith Goes To Washington. Holliday is an apparently ditzy showgirl turned gangster's moll - Broderick Crawford is suitably bullying and noisy as the Hood - who, under the tuition of reporter William Holden - finds her appetite whetted for both him and for the finer points of the US constitution. The political undercurrent of the movie, with its attack on lobbyism, vested interests and legalized corruption, seems extraordinarily contemporary. You cannot escape the sense that the noble ideals espoused by films like Mr Smith and Born Yesterday reinforced American founding "values" while simultaneously acting as a smokescreen behind which the country was looted anyway by the hoods, polis and corporate crooks, interchangeable then as now.

[Doktor Avalanche]

Over the last several weeks (or is it months?) I've worked my way through The Shield. It was OK, I guess. Better than your average cop drama. But dammit - it wasn't The Wire. Stupid The Wire. It's ruined cop dramas for me.

Go back and watch Homicide:Life On The Street

[RoddyRuddy]

Pontypool 2009
Zombie film with a difference.
http://www.blinkbox.com/Free/Movie/37080/Pontypool


http://www.blinkbox.com/Free/Movie/37077/Holy-Water
Holy Water 2010
The village of Kilcoulins Leap was once a thriving spa town, and was home to a famous Holy Well, but now offers little by way of employment for its people, and its decline seems inexorable. When local Postie, Podger Byrnes, comes up with a plan to hijack a consignment of Viagra.Director: Tom Reeve
Writer: Michael O'Mahony Stars Susan Lynch ,Adam Astill, Angeline Ball and Cian Barry . Love feel good films like this one and really enjoyed it .

[philipchevron]

The Passion of Ayn Rand (Chris Menaul, 1998)

With the release of the Atlas Shrugged movie this week, the Ayn Rand industry looks set to hit one of its periodic spikes. Clowns like Glenn Beck can be expected to remind us that Ayn Rand was the John the Baptist to................to whom?.............Alan Greenspan? Glenn Beck? Charlie Wolf? The Koch Brothers? Maybe Sharron Angle and Sarah Palin, who knows? It's a salutary lesson for all public intellectuals in America with aspirations towards immortality: expect, at best, to find yourself reduced to a Tea Party banner claiming "I am John Galt".

This is a puzzling biopic, given the full Hallmark movie of the week treatment, including an intrusive and almost ceaseless "jazz" score, intended to bring some class and chic to proceedings but raising only unexpected hankerings for the laboured Director's Cut of New York, New York. Helen Mirren smokes beautifully through an elegant cigarette holder and pouts prettily when Objectivism is found wanting in the sphere of Rand's um, private life, but she struggles to make sense of a woman who, let's face it, was just a major fruitcake who used big words. The film is based on a memoir by Barbara Branden who, along with hubby Nathaniel, was an early Rand disciple. Both withdrew from her separately when a series of sexual affairs within their circle began to put intolerable pressure on the purity of the Rand Doctrine: both wrote score-settling books which nevertheless failed to put substantial dents in their mentor's elevation to Right Wing Sainthood. Peter Fonda, as Rand's hubby, understandably takes the easy way out and for much of the movie is seen in a state of denial alternating with memory loss, usually with a perfectly understandable glass of something spiritual in his hand.

[RICHB]

Once Upon A Time in America (1981) It was on Film 4 last night. Kids due home at 15:30 I may just make it

[DzM]

Last night: Hanna

Not great. Not bad. Sort of a Borne Identity + Run Lola Run. The film was mostly an action/chase story, and every now again dipped into coming-of-age territory. Kind of an odd mix, that. I liked it better than every Michael Bay chase movie I've seen.

The soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers was much more in line with what I had expected Daft Punk was going to do for Tron: legacy.

[RICHB]

Once Upon A Time in America (1981) It was on Film 4 last night. Kids due home at 15:30 I may just make it

Out of interest what version did the band watch on tour (or is too long ago to remember ?? ) Was it the full version or the version that the studio enforced wich only ran two hours ten and was in chronological order. My god no wonder it flopped.

[philipchevron]

Once Upon A Time in America (1981) It was on Film 4 last night. Kids due home at 15:30 I may just make it

Out of interest what version did the band watch on tour (or is too long ago to remember ?? ) Was it the full version or the version that the studio enforced wich only ran two hours ten and was in chronological order. My god no wonder it flopped.

We watched the full length version only. Years later I finally picked up the studio's "chronological" cut on VHS but I've never had the stomach to watch it.

[RICHB]

Once Upon A Time in America (1981) It was on Film 4 last night. Kids due home at 15:30 I may just make it

Out of interest what version did the band watch on tour (or is too long ago to remember ?? ) Was it the full version or the version that the studio enforced wich only ran two hours ten and was in chronological order. My god no wonder it flopped.

We watched the full length version only. Years later I finally picked up the studio's "chronological" cut on VHS but I've never had the stomach to watch it.

Wow I hear its very rare. Not sure I would watch it either. That said I had the Godfather trilogy in chronological order but its hardly the same thing as it just throws the de niro bit at the start. Infact for some reason the bit were he goes back avenge the death of his family to sicily is still shown as a flashback.

[RICHB]

Mcabe and Mrs Miller (1971)

[Shaz]

Over the weekend, a friend introduced me to Firefly and True Blood. Watched three eps of the former and six of the latter. I was hooked enough to go straight over to Amazon for my own copies . . .

[firehazard]

Over the weekend, Muppet Treasure Island. A sort of a family Easter holiday tradition. We also have to do A Muppet Christmas Carol at the appropriate season. Both are well worth the watching.