Have you seen any good movies lately? (Part THREE - 2010) Showing 1,001-1,050 of 1,349

[Jackie]

I know exactly what you mean, that slide bar is one of the reasons I don't like to watch on the computer. Well, it's still better than the old way, no fast forward at all, LOL

[Earl]

Joy H. wrote: "I finished streaming the film, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", which we were discussing above.

It kept my attention, a high priority at this point. :) It had a good ending. However, the abuse w..."

I don't think screen violence desensitizes a fully-formed adult. I think it may desensitize SOME kids who are already damaged enough to not be able to tell the difference between make-believe and reality. I remember the Army had us bayoneting straw dummies and we were EXPECTED to be able to kill people without remorse. (no combat for me, I was a paper pusher in peace time). What I'm trying to say is that delicateness is not a natural state and to be idealized.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Earl wrote: "... I don't think screen violence desensitizes a fully-formed adult. I think it may desensitize SOME kids who are already damaged enough to not be able to tell the difference between make-believe and reality. ... "

Earl, that's an interesting issue.

[Jim]

Peace & plenty is pretty rare, even these days. I'm reading a book right now, Without Honour by Robb W. J. Ellis about Zimbabwae & how it came to be. Robb was a policeman there during the 80's. It's horrifying. You think what we see on the screen is bad, it doesn't hold a candle to real life.

Reader's Digest called his condensed history of the region one of the best ever done, so he knows what he's talking about. He's lived it. Imagine sitting in your classroom praying that you wouldn't get a democracy, that it would be the worst thing that could possibly happen - and then it does.

I just finished reading another book which was fictional, but had some history about the aftermath of the Civil War in Missouri, Kansas & Texas. I've read a bit about it before. When you think of what our Army & politicians did to our own people, much less the Indians, it's a nightmare.

We just don't know how good we have it.

[Jackie]

Humans are barbaric, from ancient times to present. We haven't learned anything from all the horrors of the past. I wonder if we ever will.

Getting ready to watch The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond. The credit for 'screenplay' states Tennessee Williams. I haven't heard of this one. I'll let you know how it is when I'm done.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896031/

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "... We just don't know how good we have it."

Jim, you are so right! Our bad economy these days gives us a tiny taste of what it must have been like during the depression. So many people out of work and a long time expected before full recovery. Depressing.

Has anyone read Arianna Huffington's book, Third World America? It was just published this month.
“An alarming account of the plight of the American middle class.”
--Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University and Nobel Laureater
FROM: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jackie, I see that "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" (2008) is streamable from Netflix.
I might try it.
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The-Loss...

[Jackie]

Teardrop Diamond was good, slow in some places. It had the feel of a play in some scenes, especially with some interesting lighting. Definitely had the feel of Tennesse Williams' work, which I liked. It's rare to stay true to the author these days.
The girl who plays Fisher is Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard's daughter. She looks fabulous with the dark hair in this film; I'm used to seeing her in her natural red hair. I didn't even know it was her until the credits. And her acting was fantastic too.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks, Jackie. I haven't watched Teardrop yet. I'm reluctant because I know that Tennessee Williams' work is usually dark.

[Nina]

Speaking of movies that were made from books, I read i the paper this morning that the delighful book, "Dewey," that was about a library cat is to be a movie starring Meryl Streep as the librarian. Should be good, don't you think? nina

[Jackie]

Nina, yes, definitely sounds good and with an outstanding actress like Streep, it can't go wrong. I don't think she's ever done a bad movie and I don't think she'd be involved if it wasn't a top notch production. I have high hopes for this film and can hardly wait for it's arrival.

Joy, I 've only seen Streetcar Named Desire which I absolutely loved and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and I liked that as well. I don't feel TW's plays are dark, per se, but I can see some of the darker aspects in them. However, Teardrop was tame compared to the above mentioned. Which is probably why no one's heard of it, LOL

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks, Nina. Sounds like something to look forward to. Here are some links about "Dewey":

The book: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

http://www.parentdish.com/2009/11/06/...
"Dewey The Library Cat Gets a Movie Deal, Meryl Streep Signs on to Play Librarian"

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movien...
"Meryl Streep will star in Dewey, a fact-based film about a stray cat's impact on the town of Spencer, Iowa."
"Streep intends to play the author, who works at the library and observed the impact that a kitten had on the townsfolk once it became the library mascot after wandering in through the after-hours book return slot on a cold night."

"Dewey" (2011): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1326209/

[Joy H., Group Founder]

OK, Jackie, I'll take a peek at Teardrop via Netflix streaming. :) Thanks.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PS-About Bryce Dallas Howard's name:

"Conceived in Dallas, Texas – the source of her middle name – Howard was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of ... Hollywood actor-director Ron Howard."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryce_Da...

"His daughters' middle names indicate where they were conceived, Bryce in Dallas..."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Howard

I wonder how the kids like that idea.

[Jackie]

His son, Reed Cross, was named after a London street because "Volvo isn't a very good middle name", according to Howard. (wiki link)
That's hilarious! Thanks for the link, Joy!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

You're welcome, Jackie.

I just finished streaming "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond". Once I got into it, I liked it. Good story. It kept me watching. Not as dark as I had expected. I'm glad you recommended the film, Jackie.

As I've mentioned before, with earphones the beautiful musical background was enhanced.

Below is a comment from a Netflix reviewer (I agree):
=====================================================
"The production values are first rate - the sets of Plantations, the period costumes, and the excellent music score are all well done."
FROM: http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The-Loss...
=====================================================
I liked Chris Evans in the male role. Bryce Howard is very pretty. She did a good job.

At first I didn't recognize Ann-Margret in the minor role. It's hard to believe she's 69 now.

[Jackie]

Ann-Margret looks a lot better in real life. I recently saw her on a talk show and I was impressed at how beautiful she still is.

Did you notice Ellen Burstyn (sp?) as Julie's aunt in the bed?

The sets and costumes were well done. I love that 1920s look. The dresses! I wish people still got dressed up like that. The music and fine casting made it a really good film.

Have you seen other pictures of Bryce? I think she looks better with the dark hair, it makes her beautiful eyes stand out.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

This is my first time seeing Bryce Dallas Howard. Yes, I agree that the dark hair does a lot for her. Most of the images at Google show her with red hair:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&am...

Here she is with dark hair:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm217772851...
Much prettier.

Here's Ron Howard with his wife, Bryce's mother:
http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Ga...
I'm trying to figure out which one she resembles.

Yes, Ellen Burstyn played a good part. She was well-praised in the reviews I read today. Ebert called it a "performance of great passion".
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/p...

BTW, Burstyn is 77 years old now.

[Jackie]

Joy, I just watched 'Temple Grandin'. She's such an interesting person with a unique mind and story worth telling. I'm so glad I watched it. Thanks for telling me about it.

[Jim]

I watched The Outlaw Josey Wales yesterday after reading the book last week. The book was pretty good & the movie, which Clint Eastwood starred in & directed was an excellent adaptation. There were a few places where it strayed from the book, but most were necessary. Making Lone Waddy a slightly comic figure, played by Chief Dan George, wasn't really, but it did even out an otherwise very serious movie.

It was one of the few movies where the gun handling was actually better done than in the book, at least in a couple of places. One of the things that harmed the book was the fanning of pistols. Eastwood was careful to actually thumb back the hammer on each shot, very cool since so many movies would have just pretended he had double action revolvers. I think they may have been in existence by then, but they certainly weren't common & wouldn't have been what Wales carried.

Anyway, it was fun to read the book & then see such a well done movie from it.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jackie wrote: "Joy, I just watched 'Temple Grandin'. She's such an interesting person with a unique mind and story worth telling. I'm so glad I watched it. Thanks for telling me about it."

You're welcome, Jackie. I hadn't heard of Temple Grandin until I watched the 2010 Emmy Award show. The film won quite a few awards:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278469/a...
Temple Grandin herself was in the audience wearing a western style outfit (so different from all the gowns there). She stood up and waved to everyone very enthusiastically.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "I watched The Outlaw Josey Wales yesterday after reading the book last week. The book was pretty good & the movie, which Clint Eastwood starred in & directed was an excellent adapta..."

Jim, I hadn't heard of a book being part of a "Classic Film Collection".
Your Goodreads links says:
"The Outlaw Josey Wales" (Classic Film Collection) by Forrest Carter

How does that work? Sounds like books which have been made into films. I couldn't find anything online which would explain about that collection. But it's a good idea.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PS-At IMDb, it indicates that the book for "The Outlaw Josey Wales" was entitled Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075029/f...
Is that the name of the book you read?

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PPS-Now I understand! LOL
The book _Gone to Texas_ was made into the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales".

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PPPS - What confused me was that Goodreads had a page describing a movie ("The Outlaw Josey Wales"):
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80...

I thought Goodreads included only books.

[Nina]

I hate to admit it but I have never read, "Gone With the Wind," but for those of you who have, how does the movie compare with the book? nina

[Jim]

Joy, my wife has teh book now, so I can't look at it, but GR does only have books, as far as I know. This is a new reprint of the book. The title has changed several times during publication, not just once, as I recall.

Nina, as I recall, the movie was fairly true to the book, but a LOT simpler. The book is pretty thick & I thought they did it justice on the screen, but couldn't really capture it all. There was just too much.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks, Jim. If you "look inside" the book at the following Amazon web page, you will see the various titles explained on the dedication ("For Ten Bears") page:
http://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Josey-Wa...

I think the words, "Classic Film Collection", on the book cover are a bit misleading.

PS-Now I see that it says on the cover of the book: "The basis for the classic movie...".

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina, I never read "Gone With the Wind" either. :)

[Jim]

Both of you should. You'll love it.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Maybe I will, Jim. :) Maybe it will take me out of my reading slump.

[Earl]

Joy H. wrote: "Jim wrote: "I watched The Outlaw Josey Wales yesterday after reading the book last week. The book was pretty good & the movie, which Clint Eastwood starred in & directed was an exce..."
You can pretty much depend on the presence of Clint Eastwood making it an entertaining movie. Especially ever since he started producing them himself. I never knew there was a book "Outlaw Josey Wales", thanks. I mistrust western novels but I'll take a chance. Yes, uninformed gun representation in movies turns me off also. But in cowboy moves not so much. For one thing the weapons are so dated that I have no experience with them AND I've just gotten used to the exaggerations/inaccuracies.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Isn't it great the way these discussions give us ideas for further reading or movie-viewing.

[Jim]

Earl, Donald Hamilton's writing will spoil any book with gun inaccuracies in it. He really knew his guns & wrote some great westerns, as well as factual hunting articles. Some are free at:
http://homepage.mac.com/mmtz/dh/

In Hamilton's Matt Helm novels, Helm did some western writing & mentions quite a few facts about the true 'wild west'. I've researched a few things & never found Hamilton to be wrong. Reading about it is worse than peanuts & completely blows your mind about how badly Hollywood has misrepresented the period, though.

Back in high school, several of my friends were very big in Civil War reenactment. As country boys, we all owned or had access to quite a few different guns. That gave me the opportunity to shoot a lot of the old guns & see the old equipment that was typical of the period. We'd shoot for hours & compare with more modern guns; pistols, rifles & shotguns. It was quite an education.

We've really gotten much better at the art. The guns are so much lighter now, it's incredible. Those old guns are HEAVY. My wife even has a fiberglass barrel shotgun with just a thin steel liner that her father bought her for goose hunting.

[Jim]

I watched "Terminator: Salvation" last night. (For some reason they gave us HBO for a while, so we recorded it.) It was terrible! No internal logic, just an action fest. Fun action, although even that suffered from the lack of logic. Don't bother watching it.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

I just found an interesting website about movies:
http://mubi.com/films?sort=popularity
It provides interesting thumbnail comments about the movies. For example, about "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", it says:
"Michel Gondry directs this surreal story of man who decides to erase from his mind his memories of love, only to find that he wants to keep them after all."

In case you're curious, IMDb describes the plot of film as follows: "A couple undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/

Here's a book about the movie:
Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Christopher Gra.

BTW, I watched it via Netflix streaming and gave it only one star. Too "surreal" for me!
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Eternal-...

Anyway, mubi.com looked interesting.

[Nina]

Thanks for the advice Jim, I should have read GWTW years ago. Better late than never. nina

[Jim]

Just remember it's worth what you paid for it, Nina.
;-)

[Earl]

Tuesday's Post Star mentioned the Spartacus: Blood and Sand released to DVD. When it said it aired on Starz premium channel - which I don't get. I got interested. I don't know if it's just beefcake or something more serious. I remember HBO's Rome and hunger for more like it. I hope Spartacus is it. Netflix lists it as 'short wait' so I can get it whenever. Anybody seen it and what do you think?

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Earl, I haven't seen it or heard anything about it.
"Spartacus: Blood and Sand" (2010)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442449/
http://www.netflix.com/Search?oq=&...
"Lucy Lawless co-stars as Lucretia, Batiatus's wife, in this bloody, twist-filled Starz television series in which corruption, treachery and action reign while one man's journey unfolds."
"This movie is: Exciting, Violent."

[Jackie]

Earl, I haven't but my friend Lisa raves about it. I'd be interested in what you think. I don't want a beefcake show, I want something interesting and entertaining.

[Earl]

Netflixed Amelia
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Amelia...
I'm a sucker for anything Hillary Swank ever since The Million Dollar Baby. I give it 3 stars out of 5. I wish they'd included a section of young Amelia learning to fly, and FLYING itself. Rather than speculation about her lovelife.

Netflixed Brooklyn's Finest
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Brooklyn...

An action movie with a fairly decent plot. REAL bloody. Not too many GOOD cops in this pic. I'll give 3½ stars out of 5.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

I gave "Amelia" 4 stars.
Netflix says: "Hilary Swank stars as famed aviator Amelia Earhart in this dramatic biopic..."

[Jackie]

I just watched The Secret of Moonacre, based on the novel The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge which I've never read but wish I did after seeing this excellent children/young-adult fantasy movie. Stunning visuals, excellent story with some surprises, I found myself smiling often. Perfect for children of all ages, a good clean movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396707/

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks, Jackie. I've put it on my Netflix queue.
"The Secret of Moonacre" (2008)
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The-Secr...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396707/

[Nina]

I too would give Amelia four stars. And it seemed to follow the truth as much as possible except for the opening scene dipicting where she grew up as a young child. She did not grow up on a praire. She lived in the metropolitan area of the greater Kansas City area and then she and her sister were taken to live with their grandparents to Atchison, KS, a small town built on the bluffs of the MO river which looked nothing like a praire. nina

[Nina]

Thanks, Jackie. I will try it. And I think you would love, Owl and Sparrow. I did. nina

[Nina]

Another good movie if you haven't seen it, "The Final Season." It is a true to life one. nina

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks, Nina. Here's the Netflix link:
"The Final Season" (2007)
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The-Fina...

[Katherine]

Happy Fall Everyone!

One of my favorite experiences this time of year is watching the geese fly south to a warmer climate for the winter.
I always watch Fly Away Home during this season of falling leaves, misty mornings and harvest moons. The movie is great for all ages......a real family film.