The Movie Thread

[RGMike]

Saw Pixar's Up last nite; gawd is it ever wonderful. If the opening sequence doesn't make you cry you must be dead. (I rarely cry at movies but I was bawling.)  I've heard arguments for and against seeing it in 3-D (Roger Ebert thinks the colors are brighter in 2-D) but I thought 3-D enhanced the experience. And if you can see it at the Castro while it's there... they play a 20-minute Disney music medley on the Mighty Wurlitzer before the show.

We saw it on Sunday as a family and I agree with all of the above.  This is not an animated movie with a few inside jokes for the adults (a la Shrek), this is a fully grown up animated film that happens to be very kid friendly.

A must see, and I was also glad to catch the 3D.  Mike did you see the short feature that preceeded it called Partly Coudy?

yeah... I was not crazy about the short; not one of their better ones, IMHO. (I loved, for example, the magician-and-his-rabbit one they showed before WALL-E last year)

[RGMike]

as if a Footloose remake isn't crazy enuf, Simon Cowell is producing a newSaturday Night Fever starring... Zac Efron (who turned down the Footloose reboot).  They're getting Timbaland to re-mix, or re-imagine, or re-gurgitate the Bee Gees classics. Sheesh.  It's a movie about a culture that doesn't exist any more and (if you believe the stories about how the magazine article it was based on was completely fabricated) probably never did.

[ggould]

Saw Pixar's Up last nite; gawd is it ever wonderful. If the opening sequence doesn't make you cry you must be dead. (I rarely cry at movies but I was bawling.)  I've heard arguments for and against seeing it in 3-D (Roger Ebert thinks the colors are brighter in 2-D) but I thought 3-D enhanced the experience. And if you can see it at the Castro while it's there... they play a 20-minute Disney music medley on the Mighty Wurlitzer before the show.

We saw it on Sunday as a family and I agree with all of the above.  This is not an animated movie with a few inside jokes for the adults (a la Shrek), this is a fully grown up animated film that happens to be very kid friendly.

A must see, and I was also glad to catch the 3D.  Mike did you see the short feature that preceeded it called Partly Coudy?

we just got back from seeing it.  As far as the opening scene, in addition to all the universality of the opening scenes, I got pretty floored when I first saw the mailbox.  My parents names are Carl and Elli.  My dad passed away in 95, but still...

as far as the brightness of colors thing is concerned, it's of course true that the eyeglasses use filtering, so the unfiltered look is technically brighter, but the brain does a lot of adjusting to compensate.  It's similar to how we see light at sunset.  You may have noticed that photos you took at Sunset are really golden and shifted to the red.  But we don't remember it looking like that because our brains adjusted for it.

Sorry for the lecture, but bottom line is I think they do the 3D thing pretty well, and I was quite impressed!

[RGMike]

Saw The Hangover last nite and Gaz was right: very very funny. "Toodle-oo, muthafuckahs!"

[RGMike]

Saw The Hangover last nite and Gaz was right: very very funny. "Toodle-oo, muthafuckahs!"

Worth noting: Hangover was #1 again this week, and is on track to become the top-grossing R-rated comedy of all time. And Up is gunning to be Pixar's Top. Moneymaker. Evah. (Finding Nemo currently wears that crown.)

[RGMike]

Just watched Taken with Liam Neeson, the surprise hit (over $100M) from a few months back which is already on Pay-per-view.  I'd avoided it in theaters because it looked like junk. And... it's junk. But it's junk with Liam Neeson in it.  It could easily have been a Steven Seagal movie that would've gone straight-to-video.  It's a Steven Seagal movie for people who never go to Steven Seagal movies. A lean, mean 90 minutes: 30 minutes of set-up, then an hour of Neeson beating the crap out of dozens of bad guys. Glad I paid 5 bucks on PPV rather than $10.50 at Metreon.

[Tinka Cat]

Saw Pixar's Up last nite; gawd is it ever wonderful. If the opening sequence doesn't make you cry you must be dead. (I rarely cry at movies but I was bawling.)  I've heard arguments for and against seeing it in 3-D (Roger Ebert thinks the colors are brighter in 2-D) but I thought 3-D enhanced the experience. And if you can see it at the Castro while it's there... they play a 20-minute Disney music medley on the Mighty Wurlitzer before the show.

We saw it on Sunday as a family and I agree with all of the above.  This is not an animated movie with a few inside jokes for the adults (a la Shrek), this is a fully grown up animated film that happens to be very kid friendly.

A must see, and I was also glad to catch the 3D.  Mike did you see the short feature that preceeded it called Partly Coudy?

we just got back from seeing it.  As far as the opening scene, in addition to all the universality of the opening scenes, I got pretty floored when I first saw the mailbox.  My parents names are Carl and Elli.  My dad passed away in 95, but still...

as far as the brightness of colors thing is concerned, it's of course true that the eyeglasses use filtering, so the unfiltered look is technically brighter, but the brain does a lot of adjusting to compensate.  It's similar to how we see light at sunset.  You may have noticed that photos you took at Sunset are really golden and shifted to the red.  But we don't remember it looking like that because our brains adjusted for it.

Sorry for the lecture, but bottom line is I think they do the 3D thing pretty well, and I was quite impressed!

finally saw it this weekend in 3D at the Castro.  the smile never left my face (except when I cried). I loved it.  (thought the short beforehand was a little depressing, though...) 

An usher we know at the Castro said Pixar really wanted the movie to show there (Disney knew the Castro had done the sing-along Little Mermaid a while back -- which they appreciated , and I imagine Pixar folks think fondly of the Castro theater, recent mgt and programmer changes notwithstanding) so the corporation helped the theater get the digital installed

We had gone back and forth about whether to see the 2D or 3D.  An usher at the Alameda theater (beautiful place, btw) said he preferred the 2D version.  BTW, he was dressed up like Carl for his job, he has a shock of (natural) white hair, and he wore big square black fake glasses. 

[Lightnin' Rod]

I watched Doubt yesterday on PPV.  Very depressing, with great performances all around.

Oh, and Wall-E finally made it to Starz, so I watched it too (part of the package, didn't have to pay).  It was awesome, especially the first half hour or so, before the fat people.  People are always the limiters of happiness.

[RGMike]

finally saw it this weekend in 3D at the Castro.  the smile never left my face (except when I cried). I loved it.  (thought the short beforehand was a little depressing, though...) 

An usher we know at th Castro said Pixar really wanted the movie to show there (Disney knew the Castro had done the sing-along Little Mermaid a while back -- which they appprec itated , and I imagine Pixar folks think fondly of the Castro theater, recent mgt and programmer changes notwithstanding) so the corporation helped the theater get the digital installed

Movie people love the Castro (theater). As to the recent changes there... it really turned out to have been something of a tempest in a teapot. They fired their old programmer and there was this big uproar; she claimed the owners let her go because they thought she booked too many "weird, gay, obscure" films. So of course if you cry "homophobia" in the Castro (neighborhood) folks get riled up.   But the fact is that since the new programmer took over, the Castro (theater) is as gay as I can ever remember it being in the 18 years I've lived here -- they do all these campy triple-bill theme nights on Fridays that they never used to do before (roller disco movies, '80s slasher flicks) which coincidentally make a lot more money in one evening than any obscure indie would in a weekend.  BTW, Tinka, if you have inside info on what went down there (you seem to know a lot of ushers!) please correct anything I may be wrong about in the preceding.

[Tinka Cat]

finally saw it this weekend in 3D at the Castro.  the smile never left my face (except when I cried). I loved it.  (thought the short beforehand was a little depressing, though...) 

An usher we know at th Castro said Pixar really wanted the movie to show there (Disney knew the Castro had done the sing-along Little Mermaid a while back -- which they appprec itated , and I imagine Pixar folks think fondly of the Castro theater, recent mgt and programmer changes notwithstanding) so the corporation helped the theater get the digital installed

Movie people love the Castro (theater). As to the recent changes there... it really turned out to have been something of a tempest in a teapot. They fired their old programmer and there was this big uproar; she claimed the owners let her go because they thought she booked too many "weird, gay, obscure" films. So of course if you cry "homophobia" in the Castro (neighborhood) folks get riled up.   But the fact is that since the new programmer took over, the Castro (theater) is as gay as I can ever remember it being in the 18 years I've lived here -- they do all these campy triple-bill theme nights on Fridays that they never used to do before (roller disco movies, '80s slasher flicks) which coincidentally make a lot more money in one evening than any obscure indie would in a weekend.  BTW, Tinka, if you have inside info on what went down there (you seem to know a lot of ushers!) please correct anything I may be wrong about in the preceding.

The week long engagements they have now, esp the new releases, are a really different angle for them.  The programmer they let go used to program a diff movie every night, it seemed.  It was like a real art-house.  They would string together movies along a theme, but it seemed like it was always a different movie playing.  And I question the claim that she programmed too many "gay" films back then. She was eclectic and took chances here and there, but it wasn't as if she was channeling Peaches Christ and the Kuchar Brothers with regularity.  The new owners ticked off a lot of people when they took over, but they are learning as they go.  Perhaps hosting more "gay"events is part of reaching out to the community, but mostly I'd say it's b/c they make money for the owners. 

and I should correct my earlier post: the guy we were talking to is one of the managers, not an usher.  He's been there for years, and the gf used to work there w him, so they know each other well.

[RGMike]

Last nite I saw Away We Go, the Sam Mendes-directed indie written by Dave Eggers and his wife. Seriously disliked it. The most annoyingly "quirky" thirtysomething-angst movie I've seen in ages. Gawd, I hated almost every single character.  Can't go into more deets without spoilers; if anyone else sees it we can discuss.  But I'd advise against it.

[Tinka Cat]

Last nite I saw Away We Go, the Sam Mendes-directed indie written by Dave Eggers and his wife. Seriously disliked it. The most annoyingly "quirky" thirtysomething-angst movie I've seen in ages. Gawd, I hated almost every single character.  Can't go into more deets without spoilers; if anyone else sees it we can discuss.  But I'd advise against it.

 no danger of me getting close to that one.   two words: Maya Rudolph.  ...just not my s'tick.

[RGMike]

Last nite I saw Away We Go, the Sam Mendes-directed indie written by Dave Eggers and his wife. Seriously disliked it. The most annoyingly "quirky" thirtysomething-angst movie I've seen in ages. Gawd, I hated almost every single character.  Can't go into more deets without spoilers; if anyone else sees it we can discuss.  But I'd advise against it.

 no danger of me getting close to that one.   two words: Maya Rudolph.  ...just not my s'tick.

Ha!  I'm not at all familiar with her SNL stuff, but there have been guys on the movie board I frequent who have just been drooling over the prospect of seeing her semi-naked. To each his own, I s'pose.

another annoying thing: a bunch of terminally wimpy Alexi Murdoch songs on the sndtk.

[Tinka Cat]

Last nite I saw Away We Go, the Sam Mendes-directed indie written by Dave Eggers and his wife. Seriously disliked it. The most annoyingly "quirky" thirtysomething-angst movie I've seen in ages. Gawd, I hated almost every single character.  Can't go into more deets without spoilers; if anyone else sees it we can discuss.  But I'd advise against it.

 no danger of me getting close to that one.   two words: Maya Rudolph.  ...just not my s'tick.

Ha!  I'm not at all familiar with her SNL stuff, but there have been guys on the movie board I frequent who have just been drooling over the prospect of seeing her semi-naked. To each his own, I s'pose.

another annoying thing: a bunch of terminally wimpy Alexi Murdoch songs on the sndtk.

naked?  yes.   walking and talking .. not so much.

[Lightnin' Rod]

Anyone going to a midnight premier of the Jack Black/ Michael Cera comedy Year One tonight?  Ha.  JK.

It looks godawful in the tv ads, but then I found out it's written and directed by Egon himself, Harold Ramis.  So there's some hope that it won't be completely horrible.