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

I finally saw Apocalyse Now. Martin Sheen really looked young. I saw the dvd where John McCain survived the crash of his fighter plane.

My Life as a House with Kevin Kline and Hayden Christianson was (I know - not the highest quality film, but) a good movie. My standards are a bit snooty. I expect a film to be put together in some understated way that just makes your mind race a bit with new ways of looking at things, revelations, incredible talent in either acting, writing, cinematography...something that makes you sit there when it's all over a bit changed. I guess a good movie may do the same things...on a lesser scale. Likely, everyone has their own ideas about this. All that to say, while no one will be dazzled, and there were some cheap plot contrivances - it was a lovely story about parenting and what we leave behind.

Spanglish and Punch Drunk Love I put together because of my feeling that Adam Sandler can be bafflingly brilliant, and I think both of these movies exemplify that. I don't think Punch Drunk Love got the respect it deserved. Philip Seymour Hoffman (one of my favorite actors) cracked me up in this little role. There was also a huge lesson for me in a scene from Spanglish. Sandler's wife is a bit of a control freak...she walks all over other's personal space and dignity, arguably by accident. I don't want to totally wreck it for anyone, but when Deb buys her daughter some clothes, and when she treats her housekeeper's daughter to a day at the salon... I was riveted. Lessons learned...or reinforced.

What did you think about it?

I didn't see those flicks. I usually like Kevin Kline but not so much Sandler. He reminds the vulgar that is in me so I need not visit it.

What did you think about Apocolypse Now?

It is possible. From what I read Nixon even had squads go after deserters to kill them. Of course, I couldn't understand Marlon Brando as he was mumbling all the time. Laurence Fishburne was just a kid in the movie. Harrison Ford must have done this after Star Wars as his demeanor was rough not the smiley persona of a TV actor pre-Star Wars.

I just watched Sandra Bollock and Ryan Reynolds in the deservedly much maligned The Proposal (2009),
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10010458-proposal/.

The last half of the film uses the worst of the rom-com formulas that a blind deaf person in another building from where you are watching the film could have instinctively predicted how the movie was going to fix everything in the end.

To me, most romantic comedies are neither.

I just saw the original "Seven Samurais" by Akiro Kurosawa and "The Legend of the Eight Samurais". The former is the classic and really good while the second is just semi-fantasy fun.

This is not the LAST one that I saw,
but it bodes well for next Sunday:

"Sunday, Dec. 26, 7 p.m. ET/PT



This Sunday, our format is changing a bit - instead of a regular "60 Minutes" episode, we're airing a special, "60 Minutes Presents: Into The Wild."

For our lead story in this special hour devoted to the natural world, Scott Pelley travels to East Africa and the Serengeti plains to show you what the last great migration on Earth looks like. Hundreds of thousands of animals travel not just miles but across countries - a spectacle that's now in jeopardy. Pelley follows the herd in this epic story captured by "60 Minutes" cameras

Then, a fascinating story out of Africa about how elephants communicate. Researchers listening to elephant sounds and observing their behavior are learning what they seem to be saying to each other and compiling an elephant dictionary. Bob Simon goes to Central Africa to listen to the language of the forest elephants first hand.

Could there still be soft tissue inside the bones of an 80-million-year-old T. Rex? You will meet America's most prominent paleontologist and his team who think so in our next piece. Jack Horner was the inspiration for the lead character in the classic film "Jurassic Park." The Montana-based fossil sleuth who, together with his team, has found more T. Rex specimens than anyone else, is on a mission, he tells Lesley Stahl. "I want to know everything, everything we can know about [dinosaurs] and make one if we can." Yes, he wants to make a dinosaur and thinks he can do it within five years!"

Vertebrate paleontology can be FUN!!!





David

I saw 'East Of Eden' starring Julie Harris, James dean and Raymond Massey and 'Home from the Hill' with Robert Mitchum, Eleanor Parker, George Peppard, George Hamilton. Both are great movies.

I just can't get passed the first twenty minutes of this movie. And I love romantic comedies. Good ones. Which are becoming more rare as time goes by.

Waiting for internet connection to fix itself, I watched a critically acclaimed French film titled A Prophet (2009)

A 19 year old Arab from the island of Corsica begins his 6 year prison sentence (for an unexplained crime against a police officer). He is drafted by a group of Corsican thugs who for the most part control the prison from the inside. He becomes the groups mule/errand boy until he begins to make opportunities for his own.

Well acted film. Rated an 8/10.

How in the Hell did Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work NOT GET on the Oscar documentary short list this year?!

Finished watching it on Netflix streaming! Only prudes and old farts wouldn't enjoy this biographical doc. Watch it before she croaks! Don't watch it after she drops off the mortal plane and then watch it like all of those bastards who will jump on the dead celebrity band wagon!

Has anyone watched Slumdog Millionaire? I just returned from India, and our Tour Director recommended the film. It is worth the price for a DVD?

I got a great Festivus (for the rest of us) present from my kid, who knows what his mama likes. It is the complete set of Twilight Zone DVDs. It has all the shows, plus some interviews, and other stuff, which I have not seen yet.

For the last couple of nights, I have been watching a few of the episodes. I was delighted when I realized how powerful and intelligent they were, even in those
halcyon days if the late '50's, early '60's.

Ok I'll have to watch that, I was going to watch it yesterday but I watched Unstoppable instead,
good movie, but I do love Joan, her Fashion Police programme is hilarious & her How did you
get so rich show too. She is one funny lady.

Your behind the times CI. Slumdog Millionaire is an excellent roller coaster ride though the many layers of Indian society. It deserved its Best Picture award.

watched "HAncock" this afternoon. I liked the premise and the way Will SMith pulled it off.

Thanks, tsarstepan, I'll go look for it tomorrow.