The Movie Thread

[RGMike]

Not quite sure how I feel about this: they're doing a remake of Arthur, the Dudley Moore/John Gielgud/Liza Minnelli classic.  Russell Brand is playing Arthur, and they're talking about giving Gielgud's butler a sex change and having Meryl Streep play the part!  Screenplay by one of Sacha Baron Cohen's collaborators and it's being directed by the guy behind the very funny sitcom Modern Family. Hrm.

Arthur Update: No Streep, but Helen Mirren will be playing the John Gielgud role instead (I actually like that casting better) as a "nanny" rather than a butler. Jennifer Garner in the Liza Minnelli part, and Nick Nolte as her father.

[RGMike]

And speaking of remakes: Taylor Lautner wants to play the Matthew Modine role in a remake of Vision Quest.

[RGMike]

Saw Toy Story 3 last nite and it's as wonderful as you've heard.  This has been a  crappy summer for movies so far; last summer there were 5 or 6 movies I was looking forward to at the outset and this year there were only two: TS3 and Inception. So I'm happy to report TS3 lived up to the hype. You'll laugh! You'll cry!

OTOH, unlike Avatar or How to Train Your Dragon, you really don't need the 3-D (or the extra $5 surcharge) for Toy Story.

[Alicat]

Saw Toy Story 3 last nite and it's as wonderful as you've heard.  This has been a  crappy summer for movies so far; last summer there were 5 or 6 movies I was looking forward to at the outset and this year there were only two: TS3 and Inception. So I'm happy to report TS3 lived up to the hype. You'll laugh! You'll cry!

OTOH, unlike Avatar or How to Train Your Dragon, you really don't need the 3-D (or the extra $5 surcharge) for Toy Story.

I will def see it. Did you see Karate Kid? Crappy or should check it out? My daughter wants A-Team and Grown Ups and I don't know if they are age appropriate.

[RGMike]

Saw Toy Story 3 last nite and it's as wonderful as you've heard.  This has been a  crappy summer for movies so far; last summer there were 5 or 6 movies I was looking forward to at the outset and this year there were only two: TS3 and Inception. So I'm happy to report TS3 lived up to the hype. You'll laugh! You'll cry!

OTOH, unlike Avatar or How to Train Your Dragon, you really don't need the 3-D (or the extra $5 surcharge) for Toy Story.

I will def see it. Did you see Karate Kid? Crappy or should check it out? My daughter wants A-Team and Grown Ups and I don't know if they are age appropriate.

No desire to see KK -- Will Smith & family have enuf money, I'm not giving 'em more.  How old is your daughter? Grown Ups looks horrible and tho' it's PG-13 it looks cruder than that.

[Alicat]

Saw Toy Story 3 last nite and it's as wonderful as you've heard.  This has been a  crappy summer for movies so far; last summer there were 5 or 6 movies I was looking forward to at the outset and this year there were only two: TS3 and Inception. So I'm happy to report TS3 lived up to the hype. You'll laugh! You'll cry!

OTOH, unlike Avatar or How to Train Your Dragon, you really don't need the 3-D (or the extra $5 surcharge) for Toy Story.

I will def see it. Did you see Karate Kid? Crappy or should check it out? My daughter wants A-Team and Grown Ups and I don't know if they are age appropriate.

No desire to see KK -- Will Smith & family have enuf money, I'm not giving 'em more.  How old is your daughter? Grown Ups looks horrible and tho' it's PG-13 it looks cruder than that.

11.  Surely it's crude. Looks funny tho.

[RGMike]

Saw Toy Story 3 last nite and it's as wonderful as you've heard.  This has been a  crappy summer for movies so far; last summer there were 5 or 6 movies I was looking forward to at the outset and this year there were only two: TS3 and Inception. So I'm happy to report TS3 lived up to the hype. You'll laugh! You'll cry!

OTOH, unlike Avatar or How to Train Your Dragon, you really don't need the 3-D (or the extra $5 surcharge) for Toy Story.

I will def see it. Did you see Karate Kid? Crappy or should check it out? My daughter wants A-Team and Grown Ups and I don't know if they are age appropriate.

No desire to see KK -- Will Smith & family have enuf money, I'm not giving 'em more.  How old is your daughter? Grown Ups looks horrible and tho' it's PG-13 it looks cruder than that.

11.  Surely it's crude. Looks funny tho.

Even the NYPost's Kyle Smith -- a right-winger who you'd think would stick up for fellow Repub Sandler -- said this:

"How desperate is Grown Ups? At one point it pauses and all but begs for applause as the guys proudly hoist an American flag. I momentarily wished for a Canadian birth certificate. The movie couldn't be more pathetic if it hired clowns to dash through the audience tossing handfuls of candy and gum."

[RGMike]

ya can't make this stuff up: Debbie, er, Deborah Gibson and Tiffany unite in a SyFy Channel movie about giant snakes:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/i-think-its-the-80s-now-tiffany-and-debbie-gibson-reunite-for-tv-movie/

[Alicat]

Saw Toy Story 3 last nite and it's as wonderful as you've heard.  This has been a  crappy summer for movies so far; last summer there were 5 or 6 movies I was looking forward to at the outset and this year there were only two: TS3 and Inception. So I'm happy to report TS3 lived up to the hype. You'll laugh! You'll cry!

OTOH, unlike Avatar or How to Train Your Dragon, you really don't need the 3-D (or the extra $5 surcharge) for Toy Story.

I will def see it. Did you see Karate Kid? Crappy or should check it out? My daughter wants A-Team and Grown Ups and I don't know if they are age appropriate.

No desire to see KK -- Will Smith & family have enuf money, I'm not giving 'em more.  How old is your daughter? Grown Ups looks horrible and tho' it's PG-13 it looks cruder than that.

11.  Surely it's crude. Looks funny tho.

Even the NYPost's Kyle Smith -- a right-winger who you'd think would stick up for fellow Repub Sandler -- said this:

"How desperate is Grown Ups? At one point it pauses and all but begs for applause as the guys proudly hoist an American flag. I momentarily wished for a Canadian birth certificate. The movie couldn't be more pathetic if it hired clowns to dash through the audience tossing handfuls of candy and gum."

My other youngun just got home from seeing Grownups. He is happy about it but his standards have not been set high yet.

[Alicat]

Saw TS3 yesterday. Sweet. Had me misty at the end but def. not bawling.

[urth]

Saw TS3 yesterday. Sweet. Had me misty at the end but def. not bawling.

Saw it on Saturday when we had an unexpected free afternoon. Quite good--those Pixar guys have still got their touch, despite being employees of the Mouse. Only negative comment was that there was one scene toward the end that I thought would be pretty damn scary for a kid under 7 or so. But lots of good stuff before and after that.

[RGMike]

"The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here. It puts a nail in the coffin of low-rent 3D, but it will need a lot more coffins than that.

Let's start with the 3D, which was added as an afterthought to a 2D movie. Not only is it unexploited, unnecessary and hardly noticeable. M. Night Shyamalan's retrofit produces the drabbest, darkest, dingiest movie of any sort I've seen in years. You know something is wrong when the screen is filled with flames that have the vibrancy of faded Polaroids. It's a known fact that 3D causes a measurable decrease in perceived brightness, but Airbender looks like it was filmed with a dirty sheet over the lens"

Oh, there's nothing like a Roger Ebert pan of a movie he REALLY hates.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100630/REVIEWS/100639999

[Wayback]

Judd Apatow developing new Pee Wee Herman film:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100701/ap_en_mo/us_people_apatow_reubens

[RGMike]

a movie I've been wanting to see forever -- Marty Feldman's In God We Trust -- is making a rare cable appearance on (of all places) HBO's Family channel, this afternoon at 4:45.  It was Feldman's 1980 directorial debut, a satire of religion (also featuring Andy Kaufman, Louise Lasser and Richard Pryor as God!) that was barely released by Universal, whose execs hated it so much they terminated Feldman's contract.  I'm psyched.

[Gazoo]

a movie I've been wanting to see forever -- Marty Feldman's In God We Trust -- is making a rare cable appearance on (of all places) HBO's Family channel, this afternoon at 4:45.  It was Feldman's 1980 directorial debut, a satire of religion (also featuring Andy Kaufman, Louise Lasser and Richard Pryor as God!) that was barely released by Universal, whose execs hated it so much they terminated Feldman's contract.  I'm psyched.

I am 90% sure I saw that on HBO in 1980-81: we were the first family in the neighborhood to have the channel, and I vividly remember watching such fare as Scanners and The Rose (and Sgt. Pepper!).  Alas, all I remember are the promos, not the film itself.  Feldman was hard to fathom at 8.