The Movie Thread

[RGMike]

Did you hear Renee totally ragging on Benjamin Button this a.m.?  And many callers also thought it was bad to awful.

that's too bad -- I liked it a LOT, and didn't expect to after reading a lot of "it's a technical marvel but kinda cold" comments. It's Forrest Gump with brains and without the reactionary '60s-bashing.  Maybe my favorite of the five, with Milk a close second.  I think Slumdog is rather overrated, BTW. And Frost/Nixon is entertaining but hardly one of the Top Five achievements of the year. And The Reader... ick.

[RGMike]

a funny look at the Academy's thought processes...

[Alicat]

The Pink Panther 2.

A few humorous moments but...I had trouble staying awake and in fact, dozed off a few times.

[mshray]

Here's a very interesting list from IMDb of the Top 25 Box Office films of all time, with the dollars adjusted for inflation to give an apples-to-apples comparison. 

I knew what #1 was already, but pretty 8 of the remaining top 10 I could never have guessed

[RGMike]

Here's a very interesting list from IMDb of the Top 25 Box Office films of all time, with the dollars adjusted for inflation to give an apples-to-apples comparison. 

I knew what #1 was already, but pretty 8 of the remaining top 10 I could never have guessed

You gotta realize the Disney cartoons have all been re-released multiple times (in the days before home video they were all re-issued every seven years to lure the next generation of small children -- genius strategy, really.)

[mshray]

Here's a very interesting list from IMDb of the Top 25 Box Office films of all time, with the dollars adjusted for inflation to give an apples-to-apples comparison. 

I knew what #1 was already, but pretty 8 of the remaining top 10 I could never have guessed

You gotta realize the Disney cartoons have all been re-released multiple times (in the days before home video they were all re-issued every seven years to lure the next generation of small children -- genius strategy, really.)

Oh I was well aware of "The Disney Vault", that's how I saw most of them growing up.  I just had now idea how profitable a genius strategy it was.

Neither Empire Strikes Back nor Return of the Jedi would have made the list if they hadn't been re-released as well circa 97-98 and racked up another $100 million or so.

[urth]

Here's a very interesting list from IMDb of the Top 25 Box Office films of all time, with the dollars adjusted for inflation to give an apples-to-apples comparison. 

I knew what #1 was already, but pretty 8 of the remaining top 10 I could never have guessed

You gotta realize the Disney cartoons have all been re-released multiple times (in the days before home video they were all re-issued every seven years to lure the next generation of small children -- genius strategy, really.)

Oh I was well aware of "The Disney Vault", that's how I saw most of them growing up.  I just had now idea how profitable a genius strategy it was.

Neither Empire Strikes Back nor Return of the Jedi would have made the list if they hadn't been re-released as well circa 97-98 and racked up another $100 million or so.

Noticed that they punted the adjusted gross for Mary Poppins--they list it as having made $583M, which is $19M less than the film below it on the list (Peter Pan) and equal to the one below that, The Empire Strikes Back. Probably just a typo, as it def. should be on that list someplace.

[mshray]

I saw He's Just Not That Into You, and rather liked it.  Good but not great movie, has a couple of the standard love story cliches, but it isn't dumbed down, and there's plenty of good acting.  Scarlett Jo is, of course, awesome, in fact in this movie she comes as close as anyone I can think of to capturing Marilyn Monroe's screen presence circa How to Marry a Millionaire.  And I continue to be impressed with Justin Long.
 

[RGMike]

I saw He's Just Not That Into You, and rather liked it.  Good but not great movie, has a couple of the standard love story cliches, but it isn't dumbed down, and there's plenty of good acting.  Scarlett Jo is, of course, awesome, in fact in this movie she comes as close as anyone I can think of to capturing Marilyn Monroe's screen presence circa How to Marry a Millionaire.  And I continue to be impressed with Justin Long.
 

did you see Zack & Miri make a Porno? Long was hilarious in that (not to mention he already has a porn name).

[mshray]

I saw He's Just Not That Into You, and rather liked it.  Good but not great movie, has a couple of the standard love story cliches, but it isn't dumbed down, and there's plenty of good acting.  Scarlett Jo is, of course, awesome, in fact in this movie she comes as close as anyone I can think of to capturing Marilyn Monroe's screen presence circa How to Marry a Millionaire.  And I continue to be impressed with Justin Long.
 

did you see Zack & Miri make a Porno? Long was hilarious in that (not to mention he already has a porn name).

Brandon St. Randy:  Let me be your sherpa.  Your sherpa an the mountain of Gay.

(I even used that as my sig-quote right after I saw it).

[RGMike]

did you see Zack & Miri make a Porno? Long was hilarious in that (not to mention he already has a porn name).

Brandon St. Randy:  Let me be your sherpa.  Your sherpa an the mountain of Gay.

(I even used that as my sig-quote right after I saw it).

yikes -- I'm becoming as forgetful as Gaz!

In any case, you need to seek out the very NSFW "red-band" trailer for Observe and Report, the new Seth Rogen movie.  Looks hilarious.

[mshray]

did you see Zack & Miri make a Porno? Long was hilarious in that (not to mention he already has a porn name).

Brandon St. Randy:  Let me be your sherpa.  Your sherpa an the mountain of Gay.

(I even used that as my sig-quote right after I saw it).

yikes -- I'm becoming as forgetful as Gaz!

Did you notice in Zack & Miri, that not only was Justin Long's character named Brandon, but Brandon Routh's character was surnamed Long?

Brandon St. Randy (to Bobby Long):  Shut your mouth, or I'll f**k it.

[RGMike]

Anyone else watching the Oscars? We're (I think) about halfway thru as I write. Hugh Jackman? OK, a bold choice, but his opening number was a pale imitation of what Billy Crystal used to do, and that salute to musicals was a classic (maybe even legendary) Oscar clusterfuck -- no surprise that it was put together by Baz Luhrman.

And no surprises in the awards so far.  But Ben Stiller was funny spoofing Joaquin Phoenix, as was the filmed bit with Rogen and Franco.  Having Heath Ledger's parents and sister accept his award was quite nice.

[RGMike]

I will say that the idea of "clustering" the awards with one presenter (instead of a stream of people reading inane banter from the teleprompter) has been a good thing -- Will Smith gave out Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Film Editing in less than 10 minutes! This puppy may actually clock in under 3 hours for a change.

[RGMike]

And here's the "Best Song" medley -- sorry, but 2 songs from Slumdog seems redundant. But hey, they got John Legend to stand in for Peter Gabriel on the WALL-E number.

And the 2nd Slumdog number ("Jai Ho") wins it.