The Movie Thread

[RGMike]

My usual multiple-movie holiday weekend: the new Harry Potter (good, but a few talky, slow patches); 127 Hours (not for the squeamish); Fair Game (the Valerie Plame affair, and quite excellent); Scott Pilgrim vs the World (maybe I'm just too old, but I felt, after about 20 minutes, like "hey, OK, I *get* it --now stop hitting me over the head with it!"); and tonite... I caught up with another cult classic I'd never seen: Phantom of the Paradise. Which is... strange but kinda interesting -- made in '74 and with things that may have been stolen from Rocky Horror (did DePalma see the stage version of RH in '73?), pretty cool Paul Williams songs (I can totally imagine Karen Carpenter nailing the ballads), and some clever satire of the music biz.  Apparently FOX has remakes of both POTP and RH in development.


Meanwhile, the Monkees talk about Head, now that it's available on Blu-Ray:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/11/monkees_head_tork_dolenz.html

[RGMike]

oh, and last nite I saw Tangled -- much much better than I expected. The trailer made it look bland and generic, but it's both funny and sweet and the 3-D is quite good.  And it's a musical, which Disney doesn't seem to want people to know, because they're trying to get boys to see it.  But it's worth the extra surcharge.

[Tinka Cat]

I watched 'Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage' last night and thought it was, of course, great b/c I'm a fan. Some good stills of the geeky Geddy and Alex in middle school, great archival footage throughout.  It contains video (or it might have been super 8 sound footage ?) of a twelfth-grade Alex Lifeson sitting at the family dinner table defending his decision to quit his last year of high school and do music.

But they're pretty average, boring, geeky dudes overall who just happen to rock awesomely with rocking awesomeness!

[RGMike]

Last nite I caught up with I'm Still Here, the Joaquin Phoenix/Casey Affleck mockumentary, or mock-mockumentary, or whateverthefuck. Can't say I enjoyed it -- as mockumentaries go, it's not really funny so much as, well, strange -- but it seems clear that the critics' reactions were colored by whether they thought it was "real" (Hi, Roger Ebert!) or a "hoax" or couldn't decide one way or the other. Now that Affleck has admitted that it's a fiction I gotta say Phoenix's commitment to making it appear "real" is impressive.  If you have Comcast it's now reached the $4.99 price level, so if yer so inclined...

[sundaygal]

This Yogi Bear movie seems like a bad acid trip.

[RGMike]

This Yogi Bear movie seems like a bad acid trip.

It will surely make a ton of money (see: the 2 Chipmunk movies) but it does once again raise the question of how exactly Yogi and Boo-Boo are, um, related. They're not father & son; not brothers or cousins.  Is Boo-Boo his boo?

[RGMike]

For all you unreconstructed hippies: the Wavy Gravy docu gets a nice review in the NYT:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/movies/08saint.html?ref=movies

[RGMike]

Last nite I saw I Love You Phillip Morris, the Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor prison comedy. And I gotta say -- wow. Best thing Carrey has done in ages (I'm admittedly not his biggest fan) and the gayest mainstream flick I've seen since Bruno. "Enough romance -- let's fuck!" Pretty amazing stuff, and considering it sat on the shelf awhile and nearly went straight-to-DVD at one point, it qualifies as one of the surprises of the year.  Written/directed by the guys who wrote Bad Santa, if that's a selling point for you (it was for me).

Oh, and the film makes great use of Nina Simone's cover of "To Love Somebody"

[RGMike]

Tonite at 11, TCM is showing 1974's orig Black Christmas, sometimes called "the first slasher movie", made 4 years before Halloween. Directed by Bob Clark, years before he did Porky's and starring Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder in their prime as hotties alone in a sorority house during Xmas break. Happy holidays!

[RGMike]

Just came from seeing The Fighter --easily one of the most entertaining films of the year and superbly acted -- Christian Bale is winning the Oscar, no doubt about it.  Tonite I'm making it a pugilistic double bill (a one-two-punch, if you will) by seeing Boxing Gym, the new Frederick Wiseman docu at the Roxie. And it's not even Boxing Day!

[Wayback]

This Thurs Dec 30 at 8PM its "The Wizard of Oz" at the fabulous art-deco Paramount Theater Oakland, conveniently located at the 19th St BART Station at Broadway & 20th St.  If you haven't been to Paramount classic movie nights, for just $5 you get a classic cartoon, period newsreel & previews, Deco-Win live wheel of fortune game and the main feature on giant screen in a beautifully restored theater:
http://www.paramounttheatre.com/schedule.html

[Alicat]

This Yogi Bear movie seems like a bad acid trip.

It will surely make a ton of money (see: the 2 Chipmunk movies) but it does once again raise the question of how exactly Yogi and Boo-Boo are, um, related. They're not father & son; not brothers or cousins.  Is Boo-Boo his boo?

Never gave that any thought. Do they have to be related or just part of the same den/pack? Boo Boo just a little buddy kind of like Fred and Barney?

[RGMike]

coulda put this in several threads, but... Double TANC:  last nite on a How I Met Your Mother rerun, they made terrific use of Roxy Music's "Mother of Pearl"; this morning I saw Somewhere and Mr Ferry's cover of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" plays over the closing credits; then I walked into Mel's for a chocolate shake and the Platters' version of "Smoke..." was playing on their jukebox. 

[RGMike]

Finally saw TRON: Legacy and it was just as I expected: fabulous eye-candy, not much of a script. Loved Michael Sheen.  Saw it at the Castro; their digital projection was crystal-clear and 12 bucks for 3-D is pretty cheap compared to Metreon.  Did anyone else notice that the actor who played Sam looks a lot like Buster Posey?

Meanwhile: alert the princess! The Streep to play Margaret Thatcher!

http://movies.gearlive.com/movies/article/q107-meryl-streep-to-play-margaret-thatcher-in-new-biopic/

[Tinka Cat]

Finally saw TRON: Legacy and it was just as I expected: fabulous eye-candy, not much of a script. Loved Michael Sheen.  Saw it at the Castro; their digital projection was crystal-clear and 12 bucks for 3-D is pretty cheap compared to Metreon.  Did anyone else notice that the actor who played Sam looks a lot like Buster Posey?

Meanwhile: alert the princess! The Streep to play Margaret Thatcher!

http://movies.gearlive.com/movies/article/q107-meryl-streep-to-play-margaret-thatcher-in-new-biopic/

WTF is with movie prices?  I saw Tron in the Metreon Imax 3D theater and tickets were $18.  Good thing we had a coupon that took $3.50 off each ticket.  Geebus!  as for the movie, I agree, good eye candy: I wish there was more light cycle scenes and gaming in general.  Imax is cool, huge screen, but it wasn't necessary.  Many scenes weren't in 3D, too.   

I didn't recognize Michael Sheen at first -- I was thinking that maybe it was Simon Pegg. 

Streep as Margaret Thatcher?   I think Micheal Sheen would do a better job.  Tell me they don't look alike...!



and you're right about Sam/Buster Posey.  Some bloggy wagger throws Napoleon Dynamite into the mix, too: