**Rerun's Movie Reviews**

[Chris]

Skyfall was watched first. It was long, had an actual storyline, good villian, surprising ending, yet kinda boring actionwise. Gonna watch Ted tomorrow.

[geoffcamp]

WARNING!!  Ted is definitely not for everyone but I was laughing my butt off. It's certainly not intellectual but mindless fun comedy YES for me. Can't wait to see what you think!! G.

[Chris]

Ted is stupid funny and I needed it. Surprised, well not really how many people from Family Guy and American Dad were involved. Patrick Stewart narrating was really funnyu at theend especially about the Superman Returns movie. Then the Sam Jones parts too.


I need to load it onto my Apple account so I can watch it durning hospital stays.

[MaryD]

A question about 'Lincoln'.  Who was the confederate guy on the white horse outside the courthouse halfway through the film?

[MooseMom]

A question about 'Lincoln'.  Who was the confederate guy on the white horse outside the courthouse halfway through the film?

That was General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army, specifically the army of Northern Virginia.  The courthouse was at Appomattox, the site of the surrender of the Confederates, marking the end of the American Civil War.

One thing that is interesting about him is that he actually wanted to see the Union stay intact and was offered the command of the Union Army by President Lincoln.  He declined because he was Virginian, heart and soul.  Back then, when the United States was still very young, people more strongly identified themselves by their home state (and many still do these days!).  If you were to tour any national Civil War military battlefield like Vicksburg or Gettysburg, you'd see monuments that were erected (and financed) by people from each individual state that had regiments that fought in those particular battle.  At the cemetary at Gettysburg, there are no Confederate dead that were allowed to be buried there.

[Chris]

I see Lincoln is now pre order status on Amazon. Is the movie more like a documentary? Only other movie that is worth pre ordering is DiJango, not a fan of Les Mis..., or cartoons. Hopefully better movies will be in pre order status next week.
 
Well there is Jack Archer or whatever action movie, but it has Tom Cruise which just ruins the whole movie for me.

[MaryD]

Thanks MooseMom.  I thought it might have been Lee, but I didn't catch his name.  I enjoyed the film.  The casting was excellent.  The language was old fashioned and thick.  I was wondering all through it what Lincoln would have thought of the Republicans today (or the Democrats, for that matter)

[MooseMom]

I see Lincoln is now pre order status on Amazon. Is the movie more like a documentary? Only other movie that is worth pre ordering is DiJango, not a fan of Les Mis..., or cartoons. Hopefully better movies will be in pre order status next week.
 

No, it is nothing like a documentary.  It's a very well done film.  It should be seen just for Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, if for no other reason.

[MooseMom]

Thanks MooseMom.  I thought it might have been Lee, but I didn't catch his name.  I enjoyed the film.  The casting was excellent.  The language was old fashioned and thick.  I was wondering all through it what Lincoln would have thought of the Republicans today (or the Democrats, for that matter)

Here's today's American History lesson for folks Down Under...

It was a southern Democrat, President Lyndon Johnson (who was Vice President when Kennedy was assassinated) who signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and in doing so, remarked that the Democrats would "lose the South" (which was, at the time, firmly Democratic).  He was right.  The Old Confederacy is now the bulwark of the Republican Party.  So if Lincoln could see today's America, he'd be mightily confused!  LOL!

[geoffcamp]

CHASING MAVERICKS!!!!     amazing movie!!!!  Chris this is a must see for you!! 

[Chris]

CHASING MAVERICKS!!!!     amazing movie!!!!  Chris this is a must see for you!!

I have not heard of that movie. I will look into it .

[cariad]

Geoff, I loved Skyfall and I don't really like the Bond franchise at all. He was actually human in this one,while continuing to be cold and calculating.

OK, it's half-term so we went to our local cinema on Saver Tuesday and saw Wreck It Ralph. Still cost us £20 just for the seats, although we arrived after the previews had started, and I just could not read our seat numbers on the tickets, so we gave up and sat at the back where you are supposed to pay a premium for what they consider the best seats. I sincerely hope no one paid the extra fee, because there was no enforcement and it was well nigh impossible to find one's assigned seats.

I had been misled by reviews into thinking it would be good, so maybe my expectations were too high. The theatre temperature was a bit too tropical for my taste, so maybe it was that, maybe it was the sheer exhaustion of the day (whole other story), maybe it was paying an additional £10 or so for drinks for the boys, but quite likely it just wasn't a very good film. I found little to hold my interest and the incessant product placement made it feel like an endless advert. I doubt my boys understood the references to older video games (not even sure they know how PacMan goes) and if this movie was created to appeal to my generation, um, try again!

I did remember to grab snacks to smuggle inside, so the boys had Malteasers and Toffee Crisp while watching a film set largely in a world made of candy.

[Poppylicious]

maybe it was paying an additional £10 or so for drinks for the boys ...

Could you not fit a couple of smuggled bottles in your bag with the snacks?! We NEVER buy drinks, although we do now buy sweets because we get 25% off confectionary but this still doesn't make the drinks worthwhile.

I think we're going to see Cloud Atlas at the weekend. I've heard it has some pretty rubbish reviews from the US so I'm hoping that if I see it with lowered expectations it will be quite good.

 

[cariad]

maybe it was paying an additional £10 or so for drinks for the boys ...

Could you not fit a couple of smuggled bottles in your bag with the snacks?!

In my handbag? Not the one I carry - it's a cute little trapezoid bag with a black and white houndstooth pattern (a charity shop find). I do have my gianormous leather Hype handbag so I suppose I could bring in diet Cokes for Gwyn and me. The boys always want those Squishees, and they make this cup that is split in half so they can share both flavors. It's something like £5, but I don't care. The machine was broken last visit, though, so we paid for them to get sodas instead, and I hate spending all that dosh on ordinary soft drinks, but never mind. They only get one childhood. We usually have tins of soda for them that we could bring next time. Do they ever kick anyone out for bringing their own concessions? Drinks are so much more obvious than candy I think, but I have smuggled soda cans in before, just to refill drinks that we purchased at the cinema-cum-restaurant that we frequented in the US. We saw an empty beer bottle when we were leaving Wreck-it Ralph and now Gwyn wants to bring those. They do sell alcohol there, but you are not supposed to bring it into the theatre, which negates the point in our opinion.

[Riki]

Our theatre doesn't stop you from bringing your own snacks.  I think it's due to people with food allergies, and since they can't let some take snacks and not let others, they say nothing if you bring your own.  I usually bring a bottle of gingerale with me, and some candy.  I usually can't resist movie popcorn, though. *G*  I have a sweater that I wear most of the year that my mom made for me.  It has huge pockets.  I call it my information sweater, because when I was working, I could keep anything I needed at any given point in the day in those pockets.  A 600ml bottle of water or pop will fit nicely in one, and still have space for a phone, or candy. *G*

[Poppylicious]

Do they ever kick anyone out for bringing their own concessions?

The students I work with are always complaining of being searched and having stuff confiscated but I've never been stopped and I carry a huge bag with me most of the time. They are allegedly allowed to ask to search you and if you say no they can deny you entry, but I don't actually know of anyone it's happened to. We have been known to take our own popcorn, own bottled drinks and own Pick & Mix (it was cheaper in Tesco until we started getting the 25% off) if we think we'll want something during the film.

We saw Cloud Atlas and it was amazing and full of quotes which are now my favourite quotes ever (for now).  I loved it and am a tad annoyed that the rest of the world seemingly got to see it at the back-end of last year.  I must read the book now.

Plus I really want Hugo Weaving's babies.

[CebuShan]

I finally got to see "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".

It sat here for a week simply because I was way too busy to watch much of anything.

I absolutely loved it! Maggie Smith and Judi Dench were fabulous!

[MaryD]

Just saw "Amour".   Beautifully done, and she certainly deserved the Oscar.

[geoffcamp]

I enjoyed The Intouchables". It's a foreign film in French (with English subtitles if you need them). Great film. Based on a true story.

[MooseMom]

I enjoyed The Intouchables". It's a foreign film in French (with English subtitles if you need them). Great film. Based on a true story.

Ooooh, that's on my Netflix queue.  It releases 5 March, so I've moved it to the top.  Thanks for the heads up!

[MooseMom]

Just saw "Amour".   Beautifully done, and she certainly deserved the Oscar.

I have been dying to see this film for such a long time! 

[Riki]

I finally got to see "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".

It sat here for a week simply because I was way too busy to watch much of anything.

I absolutely loved it! Maggie Smith and Judi Dench were fabulous!

I have that on my computer, but I haven't actually watched it because it's not the best quality.. Would be awesome of it was on Netflix..

ps.. what do you know.. I checked, and it is available to stream... yay for me! *LOL*

[Poppylicious]

We saw Stoker today.  I don't think it was worthy of an 18 certificate (not sure what ratings it was given elsewhere) as there's more violence in things like Die Hard (albeit a different sort of violence, I suppose) but it was enjoyable and a little bit thought-provoking.  Plus Mia Wasikowska is easy on the eye (she reminds me of Claire Danes and she is my only female crush).

 

[CebuShan]

Did an audit of the movie "Snitch". So glad I was getting paid to see it!
The beginning was good and the end was good but in between was long and drawn out. (I actually dozed off!) Don't waste your money on it in the theatre, wait for the DVD.

[Poppylicious]

We saw Mama yesterday.  It was pretty terrifying in places; this irks me because I always used to be able to laugh terrifying horror off (I was only ever affected by things that 'could' really happen, not supernatural stuff) but I must be becoming easier to scare in my old age.  *sigh*  The ending was a tad rubbish, but on the whole it was good.