**Rerun's Movie Reviews**

[Poppylicious]

Did the dwarves get fried? Pops?

Yes galvo, they did. It was horrid. Screaming dwarves everywhere ... I assume you also slept through the bit where Hugo Weaving used his magic elvish fairy dust to smite something? It was very exciting.

My 12 year-old nephew attempted to do 'The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug' as a charade on Boxing Day. He was rubbish at it!

Just took the Kids to see Frozen.

Do you recommend it for adults too, lainie?!

[lainiepop]

yes poppy i do! it got nice music too and my brother in law who is a big star wars fan and finds the fact my daughter is into pink babies and princesses a bit nauseating just went to see it tonight (hes 28 no kids) and said he thought it was fab. hubby enjoyed it after slating the little mermaid when we watched it yest on dvd. how can he not love little mermaid?!? xx

[CebuShan]

I did a movie check for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug the last 2 weekends. It was sooo different than the books! The jury is still out on whether I liked it or not.

[Poppylicious]

American Hustle was our first film (at the cinema) of 2014, last weekend. It was good. I enjoyed Christian Bale despite his podgy belly and comb over.  And yes, galvo ... Jennifer Lawrence was a sexy minx!

 

[Chris]

Last couple movies I have seen when they have come out on DVD/ Blu-Ray haven't been that great.
2 Guns _ Boring
Red 2 was good
The Wolverine - Not sure, but wasn't bad
Meet The Miller's - Funny
Elysium - Was good
Fast & Furious 6 - It was  surprisingly good
Despicable Me 2 - Great
Minion Mini Movies (on Blu-Ray)- Funny

[Poppylicious]

We saw The Wolf of Wall Street last night. Despite being incredibly long (buy sweets/popcorn and a drink!), it was actually pretty good. Definitely deserved its 18 certificate - LOTS of full frontal female nudity, sex and drug-taking. Not a film you'd want to take your mum along to see! If you can stomach of all that (very integral to the film) then it's well worth a visit.

[galvo]

Will see The Wolf next week. Saw Saving Mr Banksand absolutely loved it. Emma Thompson acting her socks off and Tom Hanks endearing as Walt Disney. Thoroughly enjoyable. Had a look at Jack Ryan - Shadow Recruit, another saving the world (the American financial system) epic. OK for a wet afternoon. Good cinematography and a ripper car chase through the streets of Moscow. Got a borry of Silver Linings Playbook, So Jennifer Lawrence and I shall be spending the evening to-gether. Heh!

[MooseMom]

Since it's awards season, I've been on a tear to see as many of these nominated films as possible.

Like lainie said, Frozen is brilliant; it won a Golden Globe for Best Animated Film over Despicable Me 2 and The Croods (both of which I really enjoyed).  I didn't see Frozen until this past weekend; I couldn't imagine that anything could be better than Despicable Me, but it was truly wonderful (Despicable Me is just a very different sort of film).  Even my husband called it "sublime" and "superior".  It marked a bit of a departure from traditional Disney fare.  I won't say more because I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but suffice it to say that the "act of true love" may catch you by surprise.

I hated Inside Llewyn Davis.  I didn't care about anyone in that film.  The only thing I enjoyed was "Please Mr. President" sung by Justin Timberlake and others (JT and Taylor Swift were co-writers); it was clever.

I agree with everything that galvo said about Saving Mr. Banks.  My husband and I had recently attended a special Disney exhibition at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry where they had all sorts of memorabilia and artwork.  They had Walt Disney's original office complete with drawings of his daughters (and you will see these in the movie), and they also had a letter from P. L. Travers to Disney where she wrote about how much she enjoyed the Mary Poppins film.  So the movie was especially interesting.

I can't say I enjoyed August: Osage County, but it was well done.  I was thoroughly taken aback when I saw none other than Benedict Cumberbatch in this film!  What unexpected casting!  His performance has been wildly underrated as I thought he was brilliantly tragic.

Galvo, since you liked American Hustle, I suspect you'll like Miss Lawrence and Mr. Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook. 

I've been thrilled to pieces to see Jared Leto and Matthew McConoughey (I can't be arsed to find the correct spelling of his name at the moment) picking up so many awards for their performances in Dallas Buyers Club.

We saw Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit yesterday, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  What a cast!  I think this is the first film I've seen where Keira Knightly played an American.  Pretty good accent.  I was really glad that they wrote her as a brave and clever woman and not just eye candy.  I had read that Kenneth Branagh directed it and was surprised by this piece of info until I remembered he had directed Thor.  Not his usual cup of tea. 

I saw a preview of Godzilla, and it looks really scary!  I bet I'll like that film more than the artsy fartsy Inside Llewyn Davis.   

[galvo]

Just returned from The Wolf of Wall Street. Excellent movie, but too darned long at 180 minutes! Can you plagerize  yourself? Because it's the same movie as Good Fellas. ( For the kids down the back of the bus - Martin Scorsese made both films.). Both films have the 'hero' doing a narrative voice-over as well as acting the role. Same story, rags to riches to disaster. Ray Liotta and Leonardo Di Caprio play the same type fella .WoWSb] has more sex; GFhas more violence. Both movies are great. We had an unscheduled interval as a lady got violently ill and they stopped the film, upped the lights, cleaned away the mess and carried her out. Let me cut 30 minutes from it and it would really be a great movie.

My evening with Jennifer Lawrence  and Silver Linings Playbook was top class! That is one hellova good movie and she is SO BLOODY HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Poppylicious]

Let me cut 30 minutes from it and it would really be a great movie.

I know!  I did think they could have finished it at the point where someone is filming the advert and the camera gets put onto its side.  Leonardo could have just done a narrative about what happened next ...

(Hope the lady was okay - when Blokey was at his worst I used to be petrified that he was going to become violently ill in the cinema but thankfully he never did.)

[Poppylicious]

We saw Out of the Furnace today and I LOVED it. I really felt for all the characters and the situations they found themselves in. It made me smile, cry and feel frustrated with how life turns out for some people.  It surprised me as I was in two minds about going to see it. Glad I did now.

 

[Poppylicious]

Am I the only person who watches films now?! 

We went to the cinema and saw Dallas Buyers Club today.  I really liked it although it seemed to go on for ever. Jared Leto doesn't ever seem to age, bless him. Next week we're hoping to see The Lego Movie but we'll have to forego our usual daytime visit for an evening one; too many children to spoil the film!

 

[lainiepop]

There's nothing i want to see at moment!

My son wants to see this new lego movie in half term, im not feeling it! He also said the pirate fairy movie looks good and his sister might like that too, im not sure tbh!!!!

[MooseMom]

We saw The Monuments Men yesterday, and while the story was fascinating, there was just something missing, some emotional component.  It felt uneven, and the voiceovers by George Clooney felt flat an uninspiring.

I had not thought about seeing The Lego Movie, but I read some terrific reviews of it.  I was quite surprised to see that it got FAAAARRRR better reviews than The Monuments Men. 

[cariad]

There's nothing i want to see at moment!

My son wants to see this new lego movie in half term, im not feeling it! He also said the pirate fairy movie looks good and his sister might like that too, im not sure tbh!!!!

My son is being forced to see the Lego film over half term, so I'm curious to see what he reports back. Our friends who have a Lego-obsessed child invited him to his birthday party and that's what the birthday boy chose. I should think it's a bit below the average 11/12 year old, but I don't know. I've managed to avoid seeing any of these Lego films or programs and I just don't get them. Don't they just remake popular titles with the characters all in digitally-rendered Lego? Is this not just a giant advertisement for little plastic blocks? 

[cariad]

We really need a television thread as well. (Why yes, I am too lazy to start one, thank you for noticing!) While in hospital I could only get BBC iPlayer to work on my iPad, Netflix and LoveFilm would freeze and skip too much. So, I have seen all sorts of comedy specials and panel shows. Most of them I was already familiar with, but I did make a couple of discoveries that I continue to look out for.

When I got home, I continued watching television as opposed to films because I just couldn't stay awake long enough to watch an entire film. (I can now, but of course cannot find anything I even remotely want to watch.) It's not much better in the cinema. I want to see Dallas Buyers Club but I'm not even sure if that's on its way or if it's already been and gone.

[lainiepop]

Cariad i saw the trailer for the lego movie and didnt think much of it, the fairy pirate one looked better (the girl in me lol), never seen any other lego movies, but i do have harry potter, indiana jones and star wars lego wii games (the latter bought to play with my son as he's star wars and and i like them but a film doesnt do it for me !

[Poppylicious]

... but I did make a couple of discoveries that I continue to look out for.

I want to see Dallas Buyers Club but I'm not even sure if that's on its way or if it's already been and gone.

Oooh, what were your discoveries?!

Dallas Buyers Club was released over here last Friday so you've got a good week or two to see it yet.

 

[cariad]

Good God, what happened here? I was minding my own business, Gwyn and I decided to unwind with a LoveFilm cd, and that decision became license for Seth Rogen and friends to traumatize me for life.

Needless to say with being hospitalized for a few weeks I was not paying attention to our LoveFilm queue. When the CD This is the End arrived I had no memory of adding it to the list, nor any clue what it was about. I thought it was a Simon Pegg/Nick Frost film (confusing it with World's End). Well, I'll tell you what it's about: Mostly minor (comic) celebrities band together to try to survive the end of the world. And they accomplish this in the most disgusting manner imaginable. Please, someone, erase my memory of Channing Tatum's cameo! Yes, of course there were bits that were very funny - the vast majority were comic actors and it would be pathetic if they couldn't pull off a few laughs. They seemed to rip off Simon Pegg's style of over-the-top gore (which I find difficult enough to endure) but then they push the bathroom humour to the limits as well, and that is something I have never enjoyed and never will. When it was over I told Gwyn I wanted that disc out of my house, so hopefully he posted it this morning.

[cariad]

Oooh, what were your discoveries?!

(Keep in mind that I don't have a television license and before I was ill did not watch much more than reruns of IQ or Mock the Week. Anything I discovered will be old news to you.)

I quite enjoyed Would I Lie to You and although I don't usually enjoy stand up comedy for long, I watched most of the available episodes of the Live at the Apollo series. I almost never watch dramas, but I do love documentary style programming and found Tough Young Teachers fascinating (still a final episode of that to watch). I got really into Question Time as well, but that's one from the dawn of television. On radio I truly enjoy The Unbelievable Truth - radio was brilliant for those days I had splitting headaches.

I can tell you I did *not* like Have I Got Old News for You or Mrs. Brown's Boys. I didn't give Uncle a chance, just didn't seem appealing but maybe I will. I feel like I tried watching about two dozen shows with Alan Davies and found none of them worth it beyond QI. (I thought Jonathan Creek would be a comedy, and still feel it would be much more watchable as one.) Anyhow, these shows kept me going through a horrible ten days or so, and even if they didn't work for me, I was grateful to have them as a distraction.

[MooseMom]

I used to really like Have I got News for You, but when I was in London back in November, I saw it (it was amazing to see how many shows were still on after the 10 years I'd been away) and didn't think much of it.  I can take Jo Brand in only small doses.

I always liked Question Time.

I also really liked Top Gear!  So I was appalled when I discovered it on BBCAmerica and saw how juvenile it had become!  It used to be a really informative show, but now it is just adolescent boy drivel.

Never really liked Alan Davies.

Has anyone here in the US been able to see the Danish series Borgen?  I had heard so many wonderful things about it and could never quite work out how American reviewers had been able to see it, unless they got hold of overseas copies and have a multi-region DVD player.  I happened to catch the first 2 episodes of the final season while I was in England, and I really liked it.  Well, finally it is available here in the US on Region 1 DVD, so we bought the first season and have seen most of the eps, and oh my, is it terrific!  I wish we could get more original foreign programming here in the US, shows that we don't have to Americanize.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  For instance, The Bridge is a series I really enjoyed, but it would be cool to see the original Scandinavian version, too.

Anyone watching the second season of House of Cards?  Anyone seen the original British version?

[cariad]

The boys saw the Lego film last night. Thankfully our friends bought tickets in advance, and when one invitee had to send his regrets at the last minute, they invited my younger boy as well. He adores their younger boy, and he was feeling left out, so hurrah!

I have the following reviews from my kids:

"Well thought out and funny. I thought with this movie the 3D made it a lot better because it made it actually look like Lego. Without the 3D it would have looked animated because it would have been totally flat." - Aidan, aged 11

"Awesome! 18 out of 10!" Dylan, aged 7

I can take Jo Brand in only small doses.

Oh, Gwyn and I adore her! Such a refreshing voice in a pool of arrogant white men with a ferocious sense of entitlement. She was on the QI that Gwyn and I watched last night.

Never really liked Alan Davies.

Wow, we would struggle to watch television together. Love him, too, but I guess only as himself. He's adorable with his modesty and sibilant S. Saw him on a Graham Norton with Julianne Moore (lovely actress, always enjoy her work) and Matthew McCona-something (No thanks!) It was a wonderful bit of anthropology to see MM (the actor, not you!) try to be modest but fail utterly, JM seemed to have a genuine bit of modesty to her, and AD just emanated this delightful, self-deprecating humour. He is an excellent counter balance to Stephen Fry, whom I also like, but SF can be truly insufferable. They discussed evolution on QI last night. I never realised how inaccurate these panel shows could be. They had a physicist on one night who kept saying 'Um, that's not entirely true....' Well, I was less subtle when it came to evolution, shouting it at the screen. Gwyn was surprised when I got the answers right, and even started correcting them. I had to say to my gobsmacked husband 'Yeah, I actually *do* know this stuff!' (It was a relief to discover that I've retained some of this information, since it's been a few years and my memory has taken some serious abuse.)

[MooseMom]

LOL, cariad, we WOULD struggle to watch TV together.  I loved Jo Brand 10 years ago, but now a little bit goes a long way.  I've seen her many times recently on Graham Norton, and there is a smugness about her that I find disquieting.  It's like she KNOWS she's that "breath of fresh air" and wants to make sure YOU know it, too.  I think she is very clever and quick, and she has that self-deprecation thing going that I admire and appreciate.  I don't dislike her at all, rather, again, for me a little bit is enough.

I always loved Stephen Fry, but one evening years ago, he was part of a panel of comedians discussing how British humour translates to different cultures.  Stephen Fry proclaimed that Americans don't understand irony and that they see everything in black and white (oh, and that America has no history), and I was stunned that someone with such intelligence would stoop to making such a sweeping statement.  It struck me that he was pandering, perhaps, to the audience, but I don't know that.  He recently did a very amusing and enlightening series about his travels in America, and it was then I learned that he's half American.  So while he is, like Jo Brand, very funny, quick and clever, he also suffers from a shedload of smugness, and he is another performer that I can take only in small doses.  But I have enjoyed his work.

MM has become an actor of prodigious talent which is evident in Dallas Buyers Club and his recent work on the TV mini-series True Detective.  I used to think, like most people did, that he was just another pretty face, and that was probably true a decade ago, but now he is a highly regarded actor, and good for him.  I'll have to go and have a look at his appearance on Graham Norton.  I may well end up agreeing with you.  Actually, maybe you and I wouldn't struggle watching tv together after all!  I don't really disagree with anything you've posted here!  LOL!

We loved the Lego Movie.  It had received such good reviews, and I fancied a movie where no blood was shed or things blown up, and we were not disappointed.  It struck me that the cleverer a kid is, the more s/he will enjoy it.  It's by no means just a kids' movie.  The ending was a brilliant and sweet surprise.  I'm glad your boys enjoyed it.

[lainiepop]

My dad ended up taking Andrew (6) to th lego movie, Andrew loved it, my dad said it was awful lol, i looked at the trailer and thought same thing ! the fairy pirates looked much better lol. we will prob go see that with his sister too in  month when it goes on the saturday morning £1.50 screening instead of the usual £6 or £7!! Luckily we have an orange phone and they went on orange wednesday so it was only £6.30 for dad and drew

Im not fancying much at the moment tbh, altho has anyone seen that new one with zak efron in? dont think hubby would want to watch it as he gets naked, not that thats why id see it or anything

[cariad]

Not exactly a film, but Gwyn and I believe we have seen the next comedic innovator of our day. His name is Bo Burnham and his special what. is available on Netflix. He reminds me of Tim Minchin, with the astonishing precociousness of a Bill Hicks. I don't like stand-up comedy all that much, I find it wearing, but I do like seeing the occasional experimental bit that charges into new territory.

LOL, cariad, we WOULD struggle to watch TV together.  I loved Jo Brand 10 years ago, but now a little bit goes a long way.  I've seen her many times recently on Graham Norton, and there is a smugness about her that I find disquieting.  It's like she KNOWS she's that "breath of fresh air" and wants to make sure YOU know it, too.  I think she is very clever and quick, and she has that self-deprecation thing going that I admire and appreciate.  I don't dislike her at all, rather, again, for me a little bit is enough.

I make a distinction between arrogant and smug that perhaps the dictionary doesn't make, but I think it's part of my linguistic competence as a native speaker - one just knows there's a difference sometimes. I think of arrogant as overly confident in one's abilities and achievements, but I think of smug as having a mocking, childish quality, like you cannot resist rubbing it in. I don't see arrogance in Jo Brand, certainly not smugness. She's a woman in a hugely male-dominated field, and she has the nerve to be heavy and not classically attractive in this field that is obsessed with sex and age and gender and any other trait or activity that they can stereotype. Self-confidence, yes, she'd be nowhere without it. Just a few weeks ago the head of the BBC mandated that these panel shows had to be more inclusive of women, that he was fed up with the abundance of testosterone. So if she's looking for work, I'd say Jo Brand will have all she can possibly handle, and I say hurrah!

I always loved Stephen Fry, but one evening years ago, he was part of a panel of comedians discussing how British humour translates to different cultures.  Stephen Fry proclaimed that Americans don't understand irony and that they see everything in black and white (oh, and that America has no history), and I was stunned that someone with such intelligence would stoop to making such a sweeping statement.  It struck me that he was pandering, perhaps, to the audience, but I don't know that.

I have to admit I don't understand why this bothers you so much. You've mentioned in the past that you decided to leave England in part because of how they spoke of Americans. My feeling about the discussion is that it's only Stephen Fry for a start, but also that this is how they interact with people that they care about. If they're not taking the piss, they don't really consider you part of the inner circle. I remember Gwyn showing me a stash of his parting gifts the first time he left the UK for America: A little American flag, a huge Welsh one, a six-pack of Budweisser and Flossie, an inflatable sheep that appeared to be wearing lipstick. He's had arguments with people over whether the Welsh or New Zealanders get to claim the title of the world's sheep-shaggers. It's all just a joke in the end, but of course there is a seriousness about it in that it means something to him. I cannot think of a time Stephen Fry ever even mentioned Wales. Which is the bigger insult? At least he has and had a curiosity about the US.

I couldn't find anything to say Stephen Fry was half-American, though. In a transcript of an interview I skimmed, (http://bigthink.com/videos/stephen-frys-quintessential-english-upbringing) his father was definitely English, his mother was also born in Britain but was from an eastern European Jewish background. Perhaps you misheard, as the man does seem obsessed with America, he mentions it constantly. This seems to hint at fears of inferiority. Or maybe he's reacting to the loud minority in the US who are constantly shrieking that they don't want to be anything like Europe because they are soooo much better. I don't know. I find I feel sorry for Stephen Fry. He's bipolar and has been through suicidal depressions and there are times watching QI where there does seem to be this sadness about him that keeps creeping in - a look that all the editing in the world cannot cut. I would say that his image is one of arrogance (again not smugness in my view) but that he struggles mightily against feelings of hopelessness and self-loathing. He does annoy people, though. You're not the first person who's told me that they find him entirely too pleased with himself.