**Rerun's Movie Reviews**

[MooseMom]

"Linguistic competence" can certainly be shaped by perception, and I perceive Jo Brand as seeing herself as valiant and special precisely BECAUSE she is a rebel in a man's world, which I sometimes view as being smug.  But that's OK.  Sometimes I find it brave, but sometimes I find it, well, smug.  She can be unkind, and I don't believe that raging against a stereotype should give her special permission to be so.  But as I think about this a bit more, there is something about the quality of her voice, perhaps its timbre, that aurally conveys smugness.  Yes, I think that's what it is.  It's not so much what she says but, rather, HOW she says it.  She is monotonal, and that is not a criticism.  It's merely my own personal observation.  In some people, monotonality conveys dullness, but that is certainly not the case with Jo Brand.  To my ear, she SOUNDS smug.  On some days, I find this amusing.  On other days, I don't.  But she never fails to entertain me on some level!

As for Stephen Fry, yes, I got the wrong end of the stick.  I was recently watching his Stephen Fry in America , and he talked about how his father had almost taken a job in the US, which meant that he was almost born in America.  Maybe this is the genesis of his obsession with America.

I don't need you to understand why this bothers me so much.  All I can say is get back to me after you've lived there for 20 years.  You already have an established family.  I did not.  I was pretty much on my own.  And the things I heard were most assuredly NOT "taking the piss" nor as silly as jokes about who shags the most sheep.  Has anyone yet approached you out of the blue to ask you to justify American foreign policy in some country or another?   Have you yet heard that conversation on the bus about, say, how of course Americans are going to side with Amanda Knox?  Or how about the talk with your GP when he says that Americans think they can throw money at a health issue and think it will go away when all you've done is ask if you could have a second opinion about a dire diagnosis?   As you know, I'm a big sports fan and listened to sports talk radio while living in the UK, so it was always such fun when, every damn year, some radio host would rage about how it was illustrative of Americans' arrogance when they called their baseball championship "The World Series"!!!  (And of course he never thought to research WHY it's called that.)  Oh, and my God...the Ryder Cup!  Yes, the wives of the American players were always the personifications of Barbie.  As you see, I can go on and on and on and on.  Stephen Fry's comments in and of themselves were just one small piece of a much bigger picture of arrogance/smugness/inferiority/superiority (whichever term you'd like to use) that I got to experience during my years as a resident of the UK.  Suffice it to say, it really got on my wick.  (Off topic rant, I know.)

I DO feel sorry for Stephen Fry and for his struggles.  It must be hard to be him.

[MooseMom]

Oh, I forgot...

Perhaps we SHOULD include a "TV review" thread because I'd love to know if anyone here is watching True Detective.

[lainiepop]

I am watching true detective moose mom!! Only watched the first episode so far, planning on the 2nd and 3rd ones tonight. Had to have subtitles up tho as cannot understand their accents

[galvo]

I've seen two films recently. The first was 'Wolf Creek 2'. The original 'Wolf Creek' was released a few years ago. It's an Aussie film, and I don't know if it was released in either the USA or GB. The story revolves around an Aussie loner who roams the outback kidnapping, torturing, sexually abusing and murdering tourists. Mark 2 is even more confronting and explicit, and will not do wonders for the Australian  tourist industry.

Last Saturday, I saw 'Lone Survivor'. It is a brutal, engrossing, apparently accurate war story set in present day Afghanistan. It is also confronting and does not try to glamorise this horrible conflict. I salute the US Navy Seals. You Americans be proud of them.

[cariad]

"Linguistic competence" can certainly be shaped by perception, and I perceive Jo Brand as seeing herself as valiant and special precisely BECAUSE she is a rebel in a man's world, which I sometimes view as being smug.  But that's OK.  Sometimes I find it brave, but sometimes I find it, well, smug.  She can be unkind, and I don't believe that raging against a stereotype should give her special permission to be so.  But as I think about this a bit more, there is something about the quality of her voice, perhaps its timbre, that aurally conveys smugness.  Yes, I think that's what it is.  It's not so much what she says but, rather, HOW she says it.  She is monotonal, and that is not a criticism.  It's merely my own personal observation.  In some people, monotonality conveys dullness, but that is certainly not the case with Jo Brand.  To my ear, she SOUNDS smug.  On some days, I find this amusing.  On other days, I don't.  But she never fails to entertain me on some level!

As for Stephen Fry, yes, I got the wrong end of the stick.  I was recently watching his Stephen Fry in America , and he talked about how his father had almost taken a job in the US, which meant that he was almost born in America.  Maybe this is the genesis of his obsession with America.

I don't need you to understand why this bothers me so much.  All I can say is get back to me after you've lived there for 20 years.  You already have an established family.  I did not.  I was pretty much on my own.  And the things I heard were most assuredly NOT "taking the piss" nor as silly as jokes about who shags the most sheep.  Has anyone yet approached you out of the blue to ask you to justify American foreign policy in some country or another?   Have you yet heard that conversation on the bus about, say, how of course Americans are going to side with Amanda Knox?  Or how about the talk with your GP when he says that Americans think they can throw money at a health issue and think it will go away when all you've done is ask if you could have a second opinion about a dire diagnosis?   As you know, I'm a big sports fan and listened to sports talk radio while living in the UK, so it was always such fun when, every damn year, some radio host would rage about how it was illustrative of Americans' arrogance when they called their baseball championship "The World Series"!!!  (And of course he never thought to research WHY it's called that.)  Oh, and my God...the Ryder Cup!  Yes, the wives of the American players were always the personifications of Barbie.  As you see, I can go on and on and on and on.  Stephen Fry's comments in and of themselves were just one small piece of a much bigger picture of arrogance/smugness/inferiority/superiority (whichever term you'd like to use) that I got to experience during my years as a resident of the UK.  Suffice it to say, it really got on my wick.  (Off topic rant, I know.)

I DO feel sorry for Stephen Fry and for his struggles.  It must be hard to be him.

I forgot I even commented on this, but since it is so off-topic as you say, I replied here instead: http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=26980.100

[MooseMom]

No need, cariad.  Please don't be offended, but I will decline to read your reply.  It's all in the past, and while it bubbles up from time to time, I work hard to keep unpleasant memories in perspective (though not always successfully).  It doesn't matter anymore, and I don't care to pick at scabs.  I'm sure that your reply was kind and thoughtful, so I appreciate the time you took to post whatever it was you posted.  Forgive me for not reading it, but I do thank you, anyway.

Back to the topic at hand, I just saw the worst movie I have ever viewed!!!  Arn:  The Knight Templar.  We saw it on Netflix, and it was so bad that I felt compelled to write a review.  Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Edited to add:  This stupid movie is now stuck in my head, so I'm going to ramble on a bit in the hopes that I can make it go away!  I enjoy "epic" films, particularly when they offer some insight into a particular culture or a particular time frame in history.  I love foreign films and certainly do not mind subtitles.  And I REALLY like seeing actors that are familiar to me, actors who I have seen in other films.  Arn had it all; it's a Swedish film based on the story of the man who seems to be credited with the founding of what eventually becomes Sweden.  It's directed by a man who has directed other works I have liked, namely various episodes of the original Wallander series and the Annika Bengzton series.   It's over two hours long so qualifies for the term "epic".  But the male and females leads were just awful.  After the first 15 minutes, I already knew what was going to happen next. 

I don't quite know why, but I watched the "special features" part of the disc, and there were extensive interviews with some of the actors.  They seemed so thrilled with the movie and with the experience of making it, and it made me feel really sorry for hating it so much.  Even bad epic movies can take a lot of effort to make, so I felt kind of guilty for giving it my own personal Razzie. 

[MooseMom]

I am watching true detective moose mom!! Only watched the first episode so far, planning on the 2nd and 3rd ones tonight. Had to have subtitles up tho as cannot understand their accents

Let me know what you think once you've finished it.  I'm from Texas so should have had no problems understanding the two main characters, but my goodness, they do mumble!

[cariad]

No need, cariad. 

As I stated in the reply, I felt there was definitely a need for me to respond, so I did. I found your post to be bizarrely aggressive.

Please don't be offended, but I will decline to read your reply.  It's all in the past, and while it bubbles up from time to time, I work hard to keep unpleasant memories in perspective (though not always successfully).  It doesn't matter anymore, and I don't care to pick at scabs. 

That's fine. I don't want to cause anyone discomfort. I'm not a mind reader, so if something is unpleasant to discuss, I would prefer that you just tell me, which you've done.

[MooseMom]

I recently saw Enough Said.  I am not a big fan of romantic comedies, but this was the last film made by James Gandolfini, and I like Julia Louis-Dreyfuss in Veep, so I thought it might be a nice change of pace.  I was surprised by how much I liked it.  I had never seen Gandolfini in anything but The Sopranos, and I only saw the first season of that, so I was curious to see what he would do with a different kind of role.  He did a nice job. 

[MooseMom]

I've seen two films recently. The first was 'Wolf Creek 2'. The original 'Wolf Creek' was released a few years ago. It's an Aussie film, and I don't know if it was released in either the USA or GB. The story revolves around an Aussie loner who roams the outback kidnapping, torturing, sexually abusing and murdering tourists. Mark 2 is even more confronting and explicit, and will not do wonders for the Australian  tourist industry.

LOL!  This is probably the ONE genre I do not like!     But you may be thrilled to know that both are available here in the US on Netflix, for all of you slasher movie lovers out there!

Last Saturday, I saw 'Lone Survivor'. It is a brutal, engrossing, apparently accurate war story set in present day Afghanistan. It is also confronting and does not try to glamorise this horrible conflict. I salute the US Navy Seals. You Americans be proud of them.

I've seen previews of this film.  The cast looks really good.  I may check this one out.  Thanks for this, galvo.

[galvo]

Watched Winters Bone on TV last night. What a grim, edgy film set in the rural back country of Missouri. Absolutely engrossing to see a sub-strata of America that exists in the present day. And Jennifer Lawrence!!!!!! Again, what a performance! And at age 18!! God, this girl has talent!

[cariad]

Watched a short film this morning called Oppressed Majority (well, the title is in French but I'm too tired to get those accent marks in the proper places). It was disturbing and thought-provoking. It's basically a standard sexual assault story, except in this world men are treated like sex objects and women do the harassing. I would recommend it, especially if you are open to different viewpoints. Personally, I am very squeamish about films that portray sexual assault, so if I can sit through it, most anyone should be able to, and it's only 10 minutes long. Available freely on the net, too.

[Poppylicious]

I've seen two films recently. The first was 'Wolf Creek 2'. The original 'Wolf Creek' was released a few years ago.

We saw Wolf Creek at the cinema years ago.  Seen it on the telly since then too.  I love it, but I love anything like that.  I always thought that film was loosely based on a true story, but maybe that was something else.  Not sure if we've seen Wolf Creek 2 (it's not new, is it?!)

We've been to the cinema lots in the last few weeks.  In March we saw The Grand Budapest Hotel (it was okay), 300: Rise of an Empire in IMAX, which I found really difficult to get accustomed to because it was SO BIG (the film was splendid and gory and full of rather lovely men), and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which was enjoyable in an 'I like it but won't be seeing it again' kind of way). So far this month we've seen Noah and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which have both been pretty good. I'm hoping to see Locke this weekend but I'm pretty sure it isn't showing in my local cinema, so we may have to wait for the Blu-ray release. Grrr ...

I've also finally seen Deliverance. Blokey has always said that it's a film I MUST SEE, but it's never on the telly and isn't on either LoveFilm or Netflix either, so when we stumbled upon a DVD for a pound in a charity shop on the Isle of Wight, we just had to buy it. I sort of liked it, but the ending was a lot tamer than I thought it would be. I expect if they remade it now, it would be far more creepy.

 

[Gerald Lively]

The last decent movie I've seen was Nebraska and thought it should have been won Best Picture.

[lainiepop]

Has anyone seen Divergent?

I havent been to cinema for ages and quite fancy the look of that. Oh i lie, i saw tinkerbell and the fairy pirate on the weekend, hmm it was ok, my son was disappointed there were more fairies than pirates lol and my daughter went dressed in fairy dress complete with wings and wand

[Gerald Lively]

We watched an older film, The Last Supper, not religious.  Very entertaining.

[Rerun]

The last decent movie I've seen was Nebraska and thought it should have been won Best Picture.

Its in my queue so I'm glad you thought it was worthy.

[cariad]

I've redone my Lovefilm queue now that they've merged back with Amazon and I finally found where they keep the silly thing!

I have Gravity, Dallas Buyers Club (when it's released for DVD) Life of Pi, and the film version of the play Aidan will be starring in shortly all in the lineup. It's the advantage of never seeing films for adults in the cinema, there's lots of choice when it comes to rentals.

So, we saw Frozen. Aidan wanted to see it, and we have a few gift cards left for the cinema so it was free. Good job I sat next to him as I would have gone insane not being able to make sarcastic remarks to someone. It was so very Disney. There were plenty of enjoyable bits but I was counting the seconds until the inevitable ending, and animated characters belting out histrionic ballads is a situation that is impossible for me to take as anything but a joke. At one point Aidan whispered to me 'that is not going to work!' and I replied 'Yes, they've dropped enough hints!' The parents should have been investigated by social services - their parenting strategies were deeply questionable even for a fairy tale. The 3D added next to nothing - there was a moment with a saw at the start that raised my expectations, and subsequently these were never met. Anyhow, it was often cute and definitely passed the time.

[Poppylicious]

Today we saw Godzilla (in 3D obviously). It was quite good, but maybe not as good as I was expecting. I did like Godzilla though ... he was quite cute,for a ginormous pre-pre-historic radioactive dinosaur type thing.

 

[cariad]

We are midway through Life of Pi on NOW TV. I am enjoying it immensely. As soon as the book turns up in one of the bazillion boxes we have to unpack, I want to read it.

[Chris]

American Hustle - Boring, put me to sleep. It took me over a month to watch this movie, I should have lleft the wrapper on.


I, Frankenstein - Good, not great. Frankenstein looked like a regular person with a few scars. Frankenstein in Van Helsing was far better looking of a creature.


Monuments Men - Comes Tuesday and I hope it is better than the last two.

[cariad]

Finally finished watching Life of Pi. It was a bit too long and we felt rather exhausted at the end, but a really visually stunning and quite humourous film.

We also rented Gravity, a film I decided I wanted to see after watching the trailer. I didn't care for George Clooney's character (nor do I particularly like his acting style), but the storyline was intriguing and I find myself a bit haunted by some of the scenes, which is a compliment to the filmmakers. I liked the vastness of the scenery contrasted with the simplicity of what was essentially a one-woman show. I don't think I'd ever watch it again as it was a bit depressing, but I'm glad I saw it.

[galvo]

I saw 1000 Ways to Die in the West. It's bloody disgusting. End of review. Pick up your hats on the way out.

[Simon Dog]

American Hustle - Boring, put me to sleep. It took me over a month to watch this movie, I should have lleft the wrapper on.

Disappointing, as this move is on my must-see list since some of it was filmed 50 yards from my house.

[galvo]

Can't agree with you, Chris! American Hustle is a beauty!