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

I'm assuming you never seen his breakout film role Six Degrees of Separation (1993). Will Smith can act. He however mostly chooses to star in popcorn flicks where one's acting chops are buried by explosions and special effects.

Don't assume tsarstepan. Of course I've seen Six Degrees of Separation. I've seen just about all of his work, including Enemy of the State and Pursuit of Happyness, where he really showed his range—far, far beyond Independence Day or Wild Wild West. But Seven Pounds, in my opinion, took him to another level.

Watched, Rachel Getting Married, last night.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie--Fine acting, good direction, effective hand-held cinematography, interesting story, realistic feel. For a film with a lot of actors, and musicians, populating the screen, it managed to keep it's focus on the central family dynamics of the two sisters, Kym and Rachel, and their divorced parents, Paul and Abby. And the familial conflicts were compelling and managed to make somewhat timeworn territory seem fresh.

I did feel the wedding rehearsal dinner and wedding reception scenes were much too long and drawn out, and caused the film to drag too much, and the dishwasher loading scene could also have been shortened without losing it's purpose. These seemed like self-indulgent excesses on the part of both the director and screenwriter.

I would have liked more character revelation and details, at least about the central players, and some character revelation about the important peripheral ones--Sidney, the bridegroom, and Carol, the step-mother, are little more than mute props during most of the film. And, while the multi-racial, multi-ethnic nature of the gathering is visually abundant, no note of this is actually made in the screenplay. Where did all this idealized harmony and cultural blending come from? How did it come about with no apparent friction? How many family weddings actually look (or musically sound) like this one?

The movie has a relaxed, rambling, realistic feel that generally worked well and allowed me to feel like a fly-on-the-wall at this family's weekend gathering. Although their old wounds and resentments resurface, as in life, nothing profound really changes or gets resolved in the end. But the actors did make me care about these people, and curious to know even more about them, even when the characters they played were decidedly unlikeable. That's no mean feat. Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, and Debra Winger were all outstanding.

I should add that the companion I watched this movie with hated it and couldn't wait for it to end. So, for some, this might not be an easy film to get into.

Funny. I tried to watch this when it first came on cable. Couldn't get through it. Don't remember what the turnoff was exactly but probably I didn't like the characters enough to care what happened to them.

Just finished watching the greatest of Wes Anderson's creations, Fantastic Mr. Fox.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

JUst today, I watched "Black Robe" on the HD channel. It was a movie of the Jesuits trek into the Huron Country of Canada during the 17th century. Beautifully filmed in the Saguenay Country. What I really liked was how the filming crew came back to some of the same sites from summer, to fall, and into deepest winter. The story was good too. Lots of Indian dialect and customs that were untranslateable between the cultures.
These Canadian Film Board things are just beautifully done. I love these native American epics.


ALSO, My wife got a REDBOX DVD of "The LAst Station" about Tolstoys Final Days. I fell asleep watching the damn thing. No helicopters or blowemups. The story couldnt keep me interested. I just checked it out for its "tomatometric score" and it got a 71. The score was due, in most part (according to the rotten tomato review) to the "tour de force" pwrformance of Helen Mirren. She played this hysterical wife who wanted to secure a monetary legacy for her family and Tolstoy was determined to give his wealth away. I suppose she did OK but her pwerformance wasnt able to keep me awake. I did catch "scenes" in the Special features section. There was also a commentary from the director (That too was sleep inducing bullshit). OK I thought It sucked pretty much.

Just finished watching What Just Happened with Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Stanley Tucci, Robin Wright. It was a pretty sardonic take on the movie industry.

The Man from Earth - very well done, all character and dialog.

Surrogates - interesting premise, but suffered from plot holes and it couldn't make up its mind whether to be action/adventure or social commentary

28 Weeks Later - lame remake of 28 Days Later

I watched Sam Rockwell (the only actor) in MOON - SF Thriller
(directed by David Bowie's son).
Really interesting, slightly disturbing, thought provoking.
If you like films like Dark Star, this is one to watch.
It's very well done, almost an art film feel to it -

I watched The Perez Family with Marisa Tomei, Alfred Molina and Anjelica Huston last night. My first issue was, why are all of these Italians and Jews playing Cubans??? Besides that, the movie was okay but I was completely disappointed by the ending. I know that whores need love too but...

Where God Left His Shoes: Gritty life for poor family in America. The out-of-work ex-boxer former Persian Gulf War Vet father, played by John Leguizamo, has all the deep flaws and shining moments, though the shining moments are few.
I love the kids in this movie, wonderfully natural in the roles.

(500) Days of Summer Saw this at a friend's house a few months ago, hated it -no, wait, I hated the female character in this movie-- the movie is clever, fun, interesting and not too deep, so is the male lead character.
Anyway, my friend LOVES this movie, so I got it again on NetFlix and watched it yesterday instead of doing what I was supposed to be doing. Heh.
Okay. Now I like the movie more, hate the female less and have begun to realize that if the Hollywood writers are right about love than I know nothing about love.

Joe(never too old to learn)Nation

Brooklyn's Finest, with Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes and Ethan Hawke. Total disappointment.

I just watched 'Hanging Up' with Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow and the incomparable Walter Matthau. I'd have never, ever rented this movie, (because Lisa Kudrow in Friends has always annoyed me) but my daughter was watching it and it was SO funny and ultimately really touching to the point of being almost heartbreaking for me at this specific time.

The three women play three sisters who have this crazy-ass drunk for a father - Walter Matthau's character. He is absolutely superb in this role. He comes into his three year old grandson's birthday party flamingly drunk- swatting lamps out of the way, thinking they're people and picking up dead phones and screaming into them. But then he's dying and his girls gather around him.

I told my daughter when I first saw him in the first scene of the movie - 'He's so thin!' and then they had hospital scenes and his arms were purple from bruises below the elbows - I said, 'That's just what Papa's arms looked like when he was sick the last time,' and after it was over I googled the movie and saw that it was made (or released) in 2000 which is the year Walter Matthau died of colon cancer. Jack Lemon died of the same thing the next year.

Anyway - a funny, funny, true to life and wonderfully heartwarming but sad movie. I'm glad I saw it - I might actually try to find it to rent to even watch it again.

The White Ribbon

At a rural school in northern Germany in 1913, a form of ritual punishment has major consequences for students and faculty. But the practice may have bigger repercussions on the German school system -- and maybe even on the growth of fascism. Celebrated Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke helms this Golden Globe-winning, sumptuously photographed black-and-white drama that stars Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Tukur and Theo Trebs.

4/5 stars

Ah, I read a review of The White Ribbon, Irishk & asked on another thread if anyone had seen it.
4/5 sounds a pretty good endorsement to me!

I saw The White Ribbon - I really liked it. I thought the cinematography was exceptional - some of those scenes would have made incredible stills - I'd have hung them on my wall.

Another endorsement!
Thanks, Aidan.
I will definitely go see it!

I almost changed my rating to 5/5 on just the cinematography alone. The movie was wonderful, but some of the beautifully photographed winter scenes stayed with me for days and left me thinking all movies should be filmed in black and white.

Yes! That's exactly what I thought; I watched it in summer and it actually made me yearn for winter (I love snow and the barren tree trunks and branches blanketed in snow).

I saw a 2003 Japanese film, "When the Last Sword is Drawn". It tells, by way of flashbacks, the story of two samurai during the decline of the Shogun period in Japan. It is less about swordfighting and more about the struggles of life. Some scenes are deeply moving. The cinematography is beautiful. The film won many awards.