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

Watched The Lion in Winter, which I saw as a college student. Some friends of mine took our mothers to see it and then out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant afterwards. We thought that the moms would be as close as we were.

Well, it backfired. The mothers totally hated each other, the movie andthe restaurant (which was famous but was a sort of umbrella-in-the-drink place). The one mother who attended college but never graduated held herself above the other mothers, one of whom was from Mexico where she had been a tailor and another was from Syria and who had held her own, managing a small grocery and surviving during the Depression against the incursion of the A&P. My mother, the first in her family to graduate from high school and who could be as much of a snob as anyone, hated the Syrian woman and had nothing to say about the other two.

Rather than making the mothers into friends, the outing destroyed the friendship we had shared.

Anyway, another friend during a more recent time, a brilliant if off-beat historian, watched The Lion in Winter at least once a month. He would call me afterwards to say that Peter O'Toole was Henry and chuckle over his own theories about Henry II and Eleanor.

My undergrad Shakespeare instructor recommended the film. She said that the original idea behind the play . . . which was not carried over into the film . . . was to use anachronism to demonstrate that we are all, in our families, like Eleanor and Henry and their brood which included Richard the Lion-HEarted and John Lackland. She said that original stage directions had Eleanor using those little premade bows, the ones with the sticky backings, to decorate her presents.

I watched the film when I first knew the historian who has since died. That second viewing was perhaps 20 years ago! Seeing it last night, I had trouble understanding why the wooden actress Jane Merrow was chosen to play Alais, the mistress of Henry. She was irritating beyond belief and the manner in which her part was written -- there is a good deal of declaiming and exposition in all the parts -- was annoying in and of itself.

That said, O'Toole and Hepburn were magnificent in their roles, well suited to a battling pair who possessed powers we can not imagine today. Anthony Hopkins made his film debut in this picture and seems a young Richard Burton. Hopkins is also Welsh and was encouraged to pursue acting by Burton.

I saw it months ago myself. Future James Bond, Timothy Dalton, was Philip, King of France, Richard's lover.

Yes, he was. I had a neighbor once who loved Timothy Dalton so much that she named her son Timothy. She was the one that told me he was in the film. It was the first film role for both Dalton and Hopkins.

Iron Man 2 on DVD. So funny! Robert Downey, Jr. is a treasure...I hope there's an Iron Man 3 in the works.

Netflix streaming just added a ton of National Geographic specials. Last night we watched Inside the Vatican.


Tonight: The Photographers

I finally saw Love Happens and Up in the Air. The first was okay although I have never been a Jennifer Aniston fan. But the main characters' ability to walk, even in flip flops, the next day after blistering his feet on a bed of hot coals was ridiculously unbelievable. Martin Sheen was in it. (see above post )

The latter was better but you had George Clooney. He's really become such a consummate actor, you're guaranteed a good performance from him and a decent movie—at least— if he's in it. The young actress who played Natalie was funny and special and Jason Bateman has definitely moved into a new area of performance these last few years. He's good. And the beard was interesting.

I went to see Batman 3 times at the cinema on it's release. It has an excellent soundtrack.

I watched Some Like It Hot tonight. For the first time ever I realized that the actor who played Sweet Sue was the same actor who played Sylvia the party girl in The Apartment.

I recently saw The China Syndrome, The Desert Fox and Desert Rats. I didn't see The China Syndrome as the Three Mile Island disaster was happening. The China Syndrome was a good movie.

The main problem was that the failsafe system has active failsafe system i.e. it requires energy to put the system into safe mode. The pumps must work. What is needed is passive failsafe i.e. if the system fails the nuclear reactor core should be flooded with water by gravity and the controlling rods of lead fall into the core by gravity.

Just finished the wonderful and highly unacknowledged The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Heath Ledger's swan song performance was even better then his iconic performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

I saw the Charge of the Light Brigade with Errol Flynn. Never realized that cavalry division was from India.

We watched The Experiment last night (can you tell it was Mr.Irish's turn to pick?). IMDB gave it 6.4 out of 10 stars and I think that was generous. I normally love performances by Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker, but this one missed the mark. Can't recommend it (unless you're really, really, really bored).

IriskK! You might as well have watched the original German version (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250258/combined) of this straight to DVD version (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0997152/releaseinfo).

At least in the German language the whole concept of the Stanford Experiment sounds more creepier that way.

Adrian Brody! What a shame! He's such an excellent actor and he deserved his Oscar from The Pianist. His career has gone straight to hell after winning that award.
His two only noteworthy performances/roles since then:
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Rickity the Field Mouse (voice)

2007 The Darjeeling Limited

Oh, wow, I didn't even know about the German one. It does look way better. I should start consulting you before I buy these DVDs lol. (What's yer fee?)

I know what you mean about Brody, but I did like him in Brothers Bloom (really liked that movie, did you?)

I saw the trailer of Brothers Bloom and flinched. Haven't seen it yet. I guess once it hits Netflix streaming I'll give it a go.

Has anyone read the very thick fantasy novel*, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke?

My kids read it and gave me their copy which promoted the idea that a major motion picture would soon be made of the novel. My daughter was particularly interested in who might play Jonathan and I immediately thought of Adrian Brody because he looks like Clarke's description of her hero.

*It is also considered an historical novel and a work of alternate history. Neil Gaiman promotes Clarke's writing.

My son was looking for movie recommendations among his friends and one suggested "The Pillars of the Earth," a mini-series based on a Ken Follett novel.

Set in the time of The Anarchy, when the Empress Maud and her cousin Stephen battled for the throne of Henry I, the first five hours of the series are absorbing. There are the usual problems with a modern glimpse back in time. All the women are proto-feminists. The story demonstrates the 'roots' of commercial tourism (it is true that pilgrimages were often sight-seeing tours that made a great deal of money for beautiful and relic-filled churches, as well as for the cities of Vezelay, Campostella and Canterbury) and of futures-trading. There is a great deal of deus ex machina.

Both my son and I felt compelled to watch it. We also read about Maud, Stephen and the Anarchy (I had no idea the period was called that). The plot also traces the development of Gothic architecture.

While my son regretted that "the only real actor (Donald Sutherland)" was killed off early, for the most part, the acting is acceptable and includes a great many familiar character actors, including Rufus Sewell and Ian McShane. Matthew Macfayden, who played Mr. Darcy in the 2o05 film of Pride and Prejudice, plays the Prior who orders the building of the church.

The movie does bog down a bit at the end and could have been shortened as it ties up the loose ends.

What we liked about it is how two basically good and ethical men, the leads Tom Builder and Prior Philip struggle to hang on to their ideals in a political situation that forces them to compromise; how each man sees himself as good, but how they are criticized by the manipulators for being as self-promoting as the manipulators.

BTW, I read a synopsis of the novel. It seems that some of Follett's "sweep" was reduced for the film . . . gosh! it was already 8 hours long!

Reviewer on IMBD gave it 8.6 out of 10 stars.

It's on Netflix streaming, but I haven't watched it. Enjoyed the book, though.

Last night I fell asleep while watching Inglorious Basterds, after failing to get involved with it for the hour and a half I was awake. I'm just not a Tarantino fan, and I don't think I've ever watched Pulp Fiction all the way through despite several attempts. Something about his style is just not my cup of tea.

Within the past week I also watched two films based on true stories with sports themes--The Blind Side and Invictus.

I don't know what I expected from The Blind Side, but I think I certainly expected more from Sandra Bullock to justify her Oscar win. She had her sassy Southern lady down pat, but I didn't see much range or complexity in her performance. I found the film a little too pat, somewhat slow moving and too long, and not anything I would really enthuse about or want to watch again.

Invictus is a nice, uplifting, well acted movie, with fine direction by Clint Eastwood. Morgan Freeman was excellent as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon really captured his character well, despite Damon's lack of physical size compared to the real life rugby captain he played. The sports action scenes were well done and well edited. All, in all, a perfectly decent movie, without a "Wow!" factor, but a worthwhile and interesting look at how a sports team helped to bring a country together.

I downloaded Stranger Than Fiction a few weeks ago and finally watched it last night. So quirky. Filmed in my hometown. Loved Will Ferrell not as a complete moron for a change (although I love his moron too) and Maggie Gyllenhaal was splendid as always.