The Last Movie You Saw On DVD or VHS or TV.

I watched the original 1962 version of "The Manchurian Candidate" with Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey. It is bone chilling. I have seen it a number of times in the past. If you watch it (and I heartily recommend that you do) see what you make of it.

The remake with Denzel Washington made little sense at all.

I liked both versions.

I watched What We Do in the Shadows. I really enjoyed it, didn't expect it to be amazing.

Meant to tell you. I agree. David Mamet's screenplay is the key to a great movie script. Lean and mean.

I watched 'Hotel Rwanda' today. It's powerful and disturbing. It makes me ache every time time I see it. Nearly 1 million people were slaughtered, horrific.

The new season of Fargo is spectacular television.
Best show out there.

I rented The Brass Teapot on Netflix a couple of days ago and like it . It is an indie movie with actors I was not familiar with, and it added to the whimsy fantasy. The acting was good, although the theme was of the wife being tougher than the husband, something repeated in several other movies I have rented recently( Normal Life, Good Intentions, Life of Crime, and Home Sweet Hell). Having a teapot that would dispense money every time pain is inflicted may seem comical, but the movie has some serious moments with deaths occurring.

I recently saw on tv, "Dancing at Lughnasa," an Irish movie adapted from a play of the same name. It's about 5 sisters and their uncle, a priest returning from
Africa. The priest is played by Michael Gambon, a slightly senile and delightful old man, who went to Africa to convert the natives and was, himself, converted to the rituals of the Africans. The only other recognizable actor was Meryl Streep who played a stern, straitlaced sister.

Basically, nothing happens in the movie; it's a study of the characters, mostly women, and it's worthwhile seeing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120643/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

It was fabulous.

Kirsten Dunst's character is so evil.

I saw the play and liked it.

You know how you sometimes read a novel or short story or see a play or a movie and say, "I can write a better . . . than that."

Well, that's how I feel tonight.

I just watched the film, "August: Osage County," with the screenplay by Tracy Letts, based on his play of the same name.

He netted a Tony, a Drama Desk Award and a Pulitzer Prize for the play in 2008. I can write better than that.

The film had a terrific cast: Sam Shepherd, Ewan McGregor, Chris Coons, Abigail Breslin, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch.
Streep and Roberts were nominated for Academy Awards. Streep did not deserve to win and may not have deserved the nomination. She chewed scenery far too much. Roberts was deserving and I am not her fan. Hers was the only character with strength and integrity. Her hair was particularly long and framed her face like the Mona Lisa's veil. It added to her portrayal. It was also the worst thing I have seen Cumberbatch do, but, then, he had nothing to work with.

I thought the characters were Southern Gothic stereotypes and the mention of Carson McCullers -- was that supposed to be ironic -- did nothing to enhance the play. There were several lines that were dead on arrival, for which the director and possibly the actors bear some of the blame. An illustration of this was McGregor's character's line to Robert's character, "What's wrong with you?" The character already said that same thing to at least every other member of the cast.

A character called Karen was a weak big of fluff. Letts admits to being influenced by Tennessee Williams and she was a Tennessee Williams character, glossed with a slight but unsuccessful bit of updating. The actress who played her was even dressed in a short camisole which brought to mind Elizabeth Taylor's famous slip worn in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Cumberbatch's character was in love with Ivy, played by Julianne Nicholson. The problem is that love was returned and yet the young man stuttered and slept through his "uncle's" funeral only to arrive a day late on a bus. If you are beginning to think this sounds like William Inge, well, that's what I thought.

Oh, and the two lovers are revealed to be brother and sister although neither of them knows that. Don't worry. Ivy had a complete hysterectomy following cancer which no one knew about, so there was no danger of the pair having children.

Finally watched 'Selma'. Had put it off for a long time, thinking it would just be a sensational vehicle for the actors and not treat the subject matter with the honor it deserves. I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be a compelling retelling of the events surrounding the black civil rights movement in

That last sentence should have ended "civil rights movement in the late 1960s."

I felt the exact same. Roberts was surprisingly good- Streep ruined the movie. Cumberbatch shouldn't have gone near this one.

We did feel exactly the same. I thought Streep was cornball.

I stopped taking Streep seriously when she did She Devil, it was a lousy adaptation of a BBC six parter, so loads was missed out anyway. Streep was bloody awful.

The Comic Strip did a brilliant parody of how Hollywood would handle the miners' strike. Jennifer Saunders is brilliant as Meryl Streep.

I loved Jennifer Saunders in Absolutely Fabulous. But I'm also a huge Streep fan.

French and Saunders parodied a lot of movies. They don't do hatchet jobs.

I see you are doing a bang up job giving a few members brain cramps on another thread. I had to put them on ignore a long time ago, they just make me sad.