"Carrie"

haha That's just mean! What did the pins do? NO, it's the good guys and innocent civilians which are evil and deserve to be punished. Why? because nobody could ever be as innocent as they are pretending to be. They must be hiding something.

See "Dogville" if you want to see mean. Trying to identify with one of those characters turns out to be very dangerous. The director is still "breaking our waves."

Eccles and Mr. Wizard. I watched the Punishers on video night before last, and it's the only movie out of five that I rented, that I liked.

I was sooooooooooo disappointed in Spartan. Did not understand one bit of it. When I went to the web to see if anyone there had an explanation for the strange plot and dialogue, I was surprised to see a message board in which one guy pointed out that if a viewer didn't like Spartan, it was because they were American. My word! Do Americans view movies differently from other folks?

I found "Spartan" not in the genre of horror or revenge but had no difficulty figuring out the plot and it isn't very flattering to American covert agencies or the government (politics). I can't see that as a barrier to understanding the film's premise or the mystery. In fact, it was one of the easiest of the Mamet films to figure out. "The Spanish Prisoner" is the most arcane. "Glengarry Glen Ross" also containes a mystery which has a twist ending and is easy to figure out. The poster who said Americans won't like (as opposed to understand) is just simply ridiculous. Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush or Dick Cheney would likely not like the film but only because it could make them feel guilty on several levels.

I think that, to a point, your cultural upbringing does have a strong influence on the films you like. But it's usually more comedy programmes and movies than horror. American humour is very strange.

For example, I have heard it said ( by Americans) that Americans don't like or get "Blackadder". Is that true? Can you imagine anybody not liking "Blackadder"? (shiver). It's not natural.

"The Punisher?" That film has to be the worst movie John Travolta has ever been in unless you mean the 1990 film of the same title with Dolph Lungren (also a terrible movie). Golly, how do you pick out your rentals if the Travolta travesty was the best movie?

I take that back, "Battlefield Earth" trumps "The Punisher." The latter barely did 34M and cost three times that much to make so even with DVD sales, it's a big loser for the studio and Travolta. Could have been the terrible reviews.

"the worst movie John Travolta has ever been in"

(shudder) Any movie which can be described that way deserves to be chopped into tiny pieces, burnt ( well, melted anyhow) and formed into a urinal cake holders.

Dolph Lundgren ( double shudder) I don't see how women find men who have bigger breasts than they have attractive.

"the worst movie John Travolta has ever been in"

(shudder) Any movie which can be described that way deserves to be chopped into tiny pieces, burnt ( well, melted anyhow) and formed into a urinal cake holders.

Dolph Lundgren ( double shudder) I don't see how women find men who have bigger breasts than they have attractive.

Love "Blackadder" and, BTW, "Dr. Who" which is loaded with delicious humor.

Hey, Mr. Wizard. The Punisher was a revenge film, no? When I say the best one, it's because the others were baaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddd.

I'm American, ain't I?

Eccles, you must be a Brit!

"The Punisher" was, "Spartan" was not. There were vague elements of revenge but basically it was a political thriller where the hero wins and looses. The daughter cops out in the end and leaves him...well, I don't want to be a spoiler.

Aussie, so we take the best from both, and try to palm it off as our own.

We've gone through stages where we've used quotes from "Blackadder" to a social growth retarding extent.

The Aussie film I was most impressed by recently is not new -- "The Sum of Us" with Russell Crowe playing gay, yet.

I haven't seen that since I was about twelve. I seem to remember the critics liked it, but I found it a bit boring.


I know how unpatriotic this is, but I loathe most Australian movies. There is the rare charmer , like "Murial's wedding" , but the vast majority of them are utter tripe like "The Castle" , "The day we called it a night" and " Garage Days". You probably only get the decent ones over there, though.

I'm gonna really tick you two off. I don't want to see The Lady Killers, either. I liked Lavender Hill Mob, even when I was too young to appreciate it. So There!

Hey, I liked Marvel comics, too.

and speaking of Russell Crowe. Master and Commander (I think). Good grief. ".....the lesser of two weevils?...."

We forgive you. If we are confessing, I once like "Buffy the vampire slayer" . For three episodes, only. But the damage iwas done and my good name was trampled through the mud and dirtied so badly that I can never make judgements about other people's taste again.

He was nice in "A Beautiful Mind" but there is something extremely creepy about him in all other roles. I think that "Master and COmmander" was created solely so little boys have a film they can pretend to be tough to. f

You know, Eccles and Mr. Wizard. Filmdom is definitely an art form, and it just depends what one sees at the TIME they see it.

I think Hurricane Ivan made me want to watch something easy to follow and disgustingly entertaining.

The place where I rent my videos/DVD's is a tiny theater of interest. One manager is Irish; the other Asiatic. I got two entirely different views on what to rent. Let's just say that what we view is sorta a decor of the mind.

"The Ladykillers" is a remake of the Alex Guiness version of "The Ladykillers," a much superior film.

"Spartan" is not easy to follow -- it demands constant attention to the dialogue and action. If one strays from the film while watching it due to interruptions, etc., they'll get totally lost. Same goes for every Mamet film -- "House of Games" depends on each invididual scene to drive the story forward. Miss a scene and you're basically out to sea. Maybe you were distracted by Hurricane Ivan which could mean your next rental should be "Ivan the Terrible."

I wouldn't trust anybody at any of my local video stores for advice on what to rent. One is Jewish so he did not recommend "The Passion of the Christ" but rather "The Passion of the Jew." I can relate.

I found "Master and Commander" an engrossing adventure film with some very terse social commentary but I related to and was more impressed by the performance of Paul Bettany.
Show this film to any little boys (of any age) and you'll put them to sleep after the first reel.

My 12 yo cousin is addicted to "Master and Commander"

But still, strange kid. WHen he was 8, he used to watch " Titanic" about 3 times a week.

er, Mr. Wizard, The Lady Killers is a remake of Lady Killers? Don't get it. Are you saying that The Lavender Hill Mob was originally the Lady Killers?