Everybody Loved Them; I Cringed

Gee, Lost in Translation put me to sleep as well. I thought the husband wasn't that bad and that Tokyo was a sort of Los Angeles with Asian characters rather than English signage.

Has anyone mentioned Fast and the Furious. I cannot stand that movie but everyone seems to like it. What am l missing here? It stunk.

I agree with Roberta's statement...
"Some movies, no matter how well received, just don't interest me."

I will take a miss on Lord of the Rings. I couldn't
get into the trilogy in book form, though I tried,
it had no interest for me.

I did see a documentary on the making of Lord
of the Rings, and that I found riveting....but
all the same, I will skip the movie for fear of the
"cringe factor"!

I have to agree with Moulin Rouge - I left the theatre thinking that's $12 worth, huh? I went to see Mystic River and enjoyed Sean Penn's performance, but left thinking it was an OK movie.....but GREAT? Not in my opinion. It was an interesting movie that left me thinking, but not about the characters or plot...more about "what was the hype all about?" Heard some good feedback about Love Actually --went to see it, and could not get past the "British Prime Minister hooks up with the small town secretary? ..... Yeah, right" plot in one of the vignettes. Pretty Woman, encore

The last few movies that Jack Nicholson has appeared in, About Schmidt and the one with Diane Keaton last year, left me feeling about the same, jasmine. I love Jack but About Schmidt just wasn't all that interesting, even as a quiet character study. The one he did with Helen Hunt some years ago didn't move me much. It was ok but Academy-worthy???

oooh... I just remembered Hidalgo - it had pretty good ratings (most sites gave it 8 out of 10) but I left the theatre not only feeling parched after 133 minutes (ugh!) in the hot Arabian desert, but with my head spinning over the corny stereotypes and slanted bias in this "based on a true story" movie. The ending was as cheesy as anything I've ever seen on the Disney Channel.

eoe - I'm with you - I was also disappointed with About Schmidt, but did enjoy Something's Gotta Give. You can't beat Jack in his early years - some brilliant acting in Chinatown and of course, Five Easy Pieces but lately he seems to be playing stereotypes of himself.

Welcome, jasmine_mirage, to A2K and the film forum.

I was curious about "Love Actually" as it looks like you're saying the secretary is a hooker. There are just so many variations on romantic relationship themes so it really depends on if it's cleverly amusing or funny.

The last role Jack did that made an impact in this house was "Wolf."

Hi, lightwizard! - thanks so much for the welcome. No, she wasn't a hooker, light. She was the Prime Minister's tea girl who lived in the poorer part of town. When I said Pretty Woman, I was referring to the "powerful, successful man marries/fall madly in love with the poor shopgirl" kind of theme. It's true re: the variations on romantic themes, though. Another vignette in the film features a well written scene and outstanding performance by Emma Thompson.

In a film where they rely on a group of stories that have to interconnection, there's always the weakest link (which may be actually better than most full length films). The rich man/poor girl theme goes back to the silent films and, in fact, to the English literature and finally Greek comedies. I think what we expect out of films today that really try to be more original is that the dialogue rings true and has at least some provocative variation. When the stores interconnet as in Altman's "Short Cuts," we get innovation and it inspires filmmakers to explore the format as in "Magnolia." "Dead of Night" is still my favorite collection of short stories on film. The original ventriloquist dummy coming to life was in that film which, of course, was recycled in a Twilight Zone episode and in "Magic."

speaking of interconnected scripts, Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors does a brilliant job! Altman is the king of multi-leveled scripts and carries it off brilliantly in "Short Cuts". Love Actually lacked character development and depth (for the most part) and maybe that's why it came off as trite fluff. When that happens, movies resemble FOX programming more than greek comedy.

p.s. I've got to rent "Dead Of Night", light! thx

It's an British black-and-whiter but well worth it if you can find it. I know NetFlix had it but haven't checked it out recently (still the best deal on rentals). Guess I'd better get my videotape of the TCM cable showing many years aback onto DVD before I give up all my tapes!

well i suppose you do realise that of course sound design is a fundamental part to the whole film experince since the outting of silent cinema?

anyway I hated titanic so much i could have broken the projector, i think that pearl harbour is a load of rubbish the same with black hawk down. I can not say i was very fond of troye either, and spiderman dissapointed me dearly.

Wont watch the english patient looks very boring, did enjoy the Deer hunter, thought that appocalypse now was okay. Moulin rouge refreshing, Chicago entertaining. Liked the big chill and err thats it for now.

I, too, thought Titanic deserved to sink. I hate disaste films.

In another voice: Bon Voyage, a comedy/drama about the fall of France, which I had to see as a student of WWII France who wondered what was funny about the fall?, is excellent! see it!

Watched "Mystic River" last night. Didn't get the big woo about Sean Penn. He gave you alot of screwed up face but, where was this Oscar-worthy performance? Or Tim Robbins for that matter. Neither was as fabulous as cracked up to be, IMO.

I dislike Harry Potter, while the whole world seems to love it! Also, Lord of the Rings.
I didn't like Hollywood Homicide or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I was definitely "lost in translation" there!

I think Gone with the Wind is overrated- yes, it's essential viewing for Fleming's direction and b/c it is so well known, but I think it's mostly sound and fury (and melodrama), signifying nothing. Wouldn't even make my top 100.
As good as I know Schindler's List is, it didn't do it for me last time I watched it. Neither did Shawshank (saw the ending one too many times on television, I guess) or Taxi Driver. My Darling Clementine seems weak by today's standards- I'll take Tombstone any day. I think Psycho is overrated- Vertigo has much more meaning about human desire. As for Blair Witch- come on, that was good stuff! It definitely was eerie for me.

I don't know how beloved they were but the 1951 Horatio Bornblower saga with Gregory Peck was seriously miscast as was the stupid remake of the Music Man with the innocent looking Matthew Broderick in the title role and Cameron Diaz who managed to make Marion the Librarian look stupid and sluttish.

Didn't catch The Music Man, unfortunately. I can see Matthew Broderick in that role tho', being a Broadway song and danceman, but Cameron Diaz?? How ridiculous.