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

I went to the movies for the first time in maybe, four or five years. Went with four other old broads, and watched "Sex and the City". I had only seen the show on TV maybe twice.

Anyhow, although it is definitely NOT Academy Award material, it was a fun, fun movie, a delightful bit of fluff.

[size=7]A tip to the boys...........Stay home. You'll probably hate it[/size]!

I guess if you never watched the show on hbo, the movie would be seen as fun.
But the weekly show was funner!

Have been seeing so many films in the past few days (my holiday around the Finnish Midsummer) that I cannot recall them all, but at least these:


La Luna (1979), MUCH better than what its reputation led me to believe. Has been on my list since it came out. Sh*t that means I must be old!
True Romance (1993), quite OK, early taste of Tarantino.
Little Nicky (2000), less said about it the better.
The Pledge (2001), nice remake of "Es geshah am hellichten Tag" (1958) with a different ending
Supersize me (2004), OK, scary documentary
Disaster (2005), funny, bawdy puppet spoof of Armageddon.
Three Extremes (2004), good Asian horror, but one must be in the mood.
Nanny McPhee (2005), forgettable film for kids
Rent (2005), musical spoofed in "Team America, World Police", OK.
Short Bus (2006), empty, explicit.
Find me guilty (2006), questionable court drama.
Alatriste (2006), passable Spanish historical drama, would have benefited from focusing on a slightly shorter timeframe.
16 Blocks (2006) OK action flick.
The Departed (2006), good undercover drama, but not as good as others.
Volver (2006), nice Almodovar!
Säg att du älskar mig (2006), good teenage rape drama.

I mean the film is good, not the rape thing, of course, goes without saying, but I said it anyway...




Liked it, liked it!



OMG youth sentiment! My classmates were crazy about Joanna Lumley (Purdy) in those days (during and after "The Avengers II").

Saturday night, I had the big tv to myself and watched my dvd of the original "Father of the Bride" with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor.

Joanna Lumley played in "The Avengers"? I thought that was Diana Rigg...

I loved Joanna as Patsy in "Absolutely Fabulous".

Joanna Lumley played Purdey in the second Avengers series (The New Avengers). Patrick MacNee remained as Steed and Gareth Hunt (died last year) was Gambit.

Since the last list I saw, as far as I can remember:

- Hawaii, Oslo (2004) Truly excellent Norwegian drama with many crisscrossing storylines that meet in a miraculous finale.
- Tout pour plaire (2005), a.k.a. 35 something, decent French middle-aged women drama
- Underground (1995), prize-winning Serb film, too surreal for my taste.
- Astérix et les Vikings (2006), just plain fun cartoon
- Class of 1984 (1982), not nearly as scary as it was in 1984
- Valiant (2005), only so so animation
- Flushed Away (2006), much funnier than above
- The Covenant (2006), ok supernatural teen flick
- Children of Men (2006), overly superficial distopic, could not engage me.
- Sex hopp och kärlek (2005), Sex, Hope and Love a dime-a-dozen Swedish successful-guy-returns-to-small-hometown drama.
- The Constant Gardener (2005), good thriller with Ralph Fiennes
- Thank You for Smoking (2005), funny and scary
- The Era of Vampires (2002), neither funny nor scary
- Holes (2003), quite palatable teen adventure
- The New World (2005), historical soap opera, pretty and pretty boring
- The Anarchist Cookbook (2002), ideologicaly shifty
- Secondhand Lions (2003), good natured fun
- She Hate Me (2004), I don't want to say I hated it, but it got stuck in stereotypes and preaching
- Grabben i graven bredvid (2002, The Guy in the Next Grave), lighthearted Swedish romance, spoilt afterwards by the reality soap Farmers Seeks Wife.
- Joki (2001, River), quite palatable Finnish "Short Cuts" clone depicting life, love and death, typical Finnish destinies in a typical Finnish small town.
- John Tucker Must Die (2006), non-engaging teen comedy

AND
- Sideways (2004), I loved this film for its wine, the flawed characters, their love and its sadness.
- Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
- The Plague (2006), very weak story
- The Station Agent (2003), a lovely, non-pretentious movie
- Masked and Anonymous (2003), a pretentious, non-lovely movie (I like Dylan's music, but not this film)
- Va, vis et deviens (2005), excellent, very moving film about the plight of a refugee compounded by religion.
- Down in the Valley (2005), OK thriller
- Arachnid (2001, here called 8 Legs), typical B-film horror, amusing
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), OK
- De Grønne Slagtere (2003), Delicatessen in Denmark
- Beowulf (2007), saw it in 2D and it was not much to write home about, made purely for the visual effect.
- Arn - Tempelriddaren (2007), based on the quite palatable historical novels by Jan Guillou, but unable to convince.
- Reeker (2005), palatable horror (until the end when they find it necessary to explain the whole thing).
- Skeleton Man (2004), really, really bad B-movie
- Half Light (2006), entertaining little thriller
- Central do Brasil (1998), very good film without SFX
- Blood and Chocolate (2007), so so thriller
- The Darjeeling Limited (2007), interesting film, shows some real Indian scenes; I find Owen Wilson annoying in general, but he played an annoying person in this film, so he was in character.
- Noah's Ark (1999), nice fairy tale
- The Forsaken (2001), passable vampire flick
- The War Lover (1962), they don't make em like that anymore
- Allt om min buske (2007), insipid Swedish comedy
- Regeneration (1997), quite well-made film about true story of poet Sassoon in WWI.
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), oddball comedy about Cousteau clone
- Santa's Slay (2005), neither scary, nor funny
- Rise (2007), nice vampire horror with Lucy Liu (She's HOT!)
- The Last Legion (2007), film doesn't know what to do with itself
- Gamle mænd i nye biler (2002, Old men in new cars), mildly entertaining Danish gangster comedy
- Gwai wik (2006, Re-Cycle), interesting horror fantasy with philosophical undertones
- C(r)ook (2004), German gangster comedy with some Greenaway undertones
- Click (2006), sentimental family comedy
- King of the Ants (2003), OK little thriller
- Trust the Man (2005), the men are feeble, pitiful, selfish bastards

For those who like musicals,take a look at Dr. Horrible's musical blog.It's good indy film making .

Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley...it was okay.

AND
- I'm with Lucy (2002), tolerable romantic comedy

Dan in Real Life
(ok, this is where I admit I've been watching too many movies, and making matters worse, I've become maudlin and unreliable re: movie critic opinions...)

It was stupid, but it had a few moments (dialogue) that I thought ameliorated how stupid I felt watching it.

Cloverfield

(same)

I Am Legend

I hated it.

The Bucket List

(see Dan)

I can't remember the last time I saw a really great movie.

Quite sad:

Baby McDonald (from the baby Einstein series) three times, I think and Baby VanGogh once

Want to see a real "feelgood" movie? Want to see a film that is the kind of movie that they don't make anymore? Then catch "Singin' in the Rain" with Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds. Cyd Charisse has a small but significant part in the film. I always wanted to look like her, but alas, it was not to be.

It was made in 1952, and is absolutely adorable. I saw it last night, on DVD, and I smiled and chuckled all through it.

AND
- Les Fantômes de Louba (2001), quite good French film about the daughter of Holocaust survivors who is haunted by the past of her parents, good, believable acting, good story, no English title that I could find.
- Xizao (1999, Shower), interesting Chinese family drama

One of the greatest -- possibly THE greatest -- Hollywood musical ever made. That flick, and An American in Paris defined the genius of Gene Kelley.

AND
- The Sword in the Stone (1963), one of the least known Disney classics, nice humour, but lacking plot.
- 102 Dalmatians (2000), Disney sequel, good animal effects, but lacking charm
- Chinese Box (1997), quite nice romantic drama against the backdrop of Hong Kong before the handover to China.
- Klassfesten (2002, The Reunion), very melancholy Swedish film about midlife reflections on lost opportunities.
- Dunderklumpen! (1974) a walk down memory lane with this weird and sweet Swedish children's film that combined live action in the beautiful Swedish midsummer nature with odd animated characters and the jazzy music of Toots Thielemans. Quirky in a positive way.
- Rat Race (2001), tries too hard to be funny and as a result it is forced and over the top. I did not even smile once.
- Pola X (1999), an attempt at making serious cinema, the self-destruction of a narcissist young author reflected in his surroundings, not a nice trip to watch.
- Sweet Sixteen (2002), gritty social realism in a small Scottish town, good intentions negated by stupidity.
- Dinotopia (2002), the stuff of old adventure books for boys
- Stealth (2005), lots of SFX in rather weak techno spectacle
- Hus i helvete (2002, All Hell let loose), culture-clash drama along the lines of East Is East (1999)

Fool's Gold (I was a fool to rent this)

American Gangster -- Wow. Denzel is always great, I think. He picks great vehicles, as well (most of the time). I really recommend this one. Gritty, well-executed all around.

If I didn't mention Shadowboxer here...O
M
G!

Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding, Jr (fast becoming one of my favorite actors...) He does a HOT striptease for Mirren... I'd say this is a funky, postmodern film--great set design, interesting storyline (contrived, but what isn't?)