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All My Children Discussion Group
Have you seen anything good recently that you'd like to recommend? Or something really awful you can warn us away from? Movies recommended by others that look promising?
Are your tastes eclectic and span all the genres, or do you like certain types of movie in particular? Any other foreign movie fans out there? Documentary lovers? We love both and indie flicks.
Awards season is a good time to look for movies to put in our queue. I go through all the nominations and prize winners at the big festivals and award shows. Then we decide together which ones look promising. Most are usually not out yet, but I just pop them into our Saved list on Netflix.
If you subscribe to Netflix, do you use the Watch Instantly function to watch on your computer or TV? We have our TV set up to connect with my husband's laptop and watch all the time. That's how I saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
How do you choose what movies you want to see? Do you go strictly on personal instinct and ads, or do you check IMDb ratings and Rotten Tomatoes, or other sites? We generally do all of the above, and none of them is great, but it's a good way for us to see what the movie's about, what attracted others to it or away from it, who's in it, etc. IMDb, in particular, is great for reference info. If we're stumped about where we saw a particular actor before or want to see where it was filmed, it's so easy to check stuff like that.
We go through periods where every movie we see is great. Then we'll be in a terrible slump for a while with loser after loser. We loved The Last Station, White Ribbon, and Everlasting Moments, and we didn't expect to make it through any of them. It was a pleasant surprise. The Book of Eli, however, didn't last more than 15 minutes. Back in the envelope and out of here.
Care to share your thoughts and opinions on flicks in general, as well as the ways we watch them?
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE is moronic but had me cracking up laughing !
Chris Rock's documentary called GOOD HAIR was a fun watch about the hassles african american women go thru with their hair
I liked Denzel Washington's science fiction flick THE BOOK OF ELI ... but Johnnie Depp's ALICE IN WONDERLAND put me to sleep
Just saw the remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS and it was just ok - not great and campy like the original. This new version takes itself too seriously.
Then I have HACHI to watch but i've been putting it off because i know it will make me cry. Story is about a puppy Richard Gere finds and raises to be his good and faithful dog.
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I like mainstream movies. Hollywood blockbusters ... preferred genre is drama or comedy, but I will also watch sci-fi or action because they are valleyguy's preferred genres. For an out-and-out chick flick I will go with a friend, and anything too over the top for me, he will attend with a buddy. I'm not a big fan of horror movies, and anything verging on Satanic is definitely out for me. I'll be giving the new Exorcist movie a bye, but I will go see Piranha, mostly because I've become a 3D junkie!
I went to Eat Pray Love with a friend last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. The week before valleyguy and I saw The Expendables which was great just for the cast alone. Red, as W.E. mentioned, is another one I'm looking forward to, because it too has a great cast. Prior to that was Salt and Inception which were both fabulous. Both DiCaprio and Jolie never disappoint. I'm looking forward to The Switch as I always enjoy Aniston films.
I choose movies by trailer, cast, story line, genre and word of mouth.
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These are some that I’ve seen in recent months.
The Prophet, a French movie. A man goes to prison at about age 19 and in order to stay alive he becomes part of the prison mafia. It’s very long and violent.
The Last Station, about the last few years of Tolstoy’s life, and his movement and pacifism and getting rid of every single material thing in his life, and what it did to his wife. I liked it.
I’ll tell you one I couldn’t stand at all. It was Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey JR. It was nothing like the old Sherlock Homes movies with Basil Rathbone, which were detective movies, and the one’s I had seen. This one was an action movie with gun battles and fighting like an old fashion Western movie. I had never read any of the books. Maybe this movie was closer to the books. Anyhow after about 45 minutes I turned to my friend and asked her if she liked it. She said ‘’no, do you want to go?’’ And we both jumped up and ran out. I guess a lot of people liked it but it seems like a man’s movie, not my type.
Broken Embraces, Spanish, with Penelope Cruz. It jumps back and forth with a lot of flashbacks and gets confusing because sometimes I thought what I was watching was in the present but it was really in the past. It was good but I remember when we came out of it we had to go over it and piece it together.
Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio. A real brainteaser/ psychological thriller. It takes place in an asylum on an Island off Boston harbor. I highly recommend it.
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I'm not the biggest movie watcher going, although my interest has increased over the past few years. I have 4 on my DVR right now - one that I recorded 2 years ago, but haven't found the time to watch yet - The Bridge Over the River Kwai - mainly because it is so long.
I really enjoy going to the theater on senior day when I get in for $4. Last one we saw was Salt with Angelina Jolie - great movie! I will see it again.
I'm looking forward to one W.E. mentioned, RED, as well as Conviction with Hillary Swank, and Secretariat.
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I'm not up to date when it comes to movies. Usually I watch movies after they come out on DVD. I like to read books so I am a reader more than a movie aficionado.
The only movies that I have seen in the theater this year have been Eat, Pray, Love and Letters to Juliet. I recommend them highly.
One movie that I watched recently on DVD is Sunshine Cleaning. Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin are great in this movie. At first, I was disappointed that the movie is not as funny as Little Miss Sunshine. It's more serious but it's very good. There is a sweet scene in the movie where the little boy asked, what's a bast-rd? The mother looks stricken and doesn't know what to say. The aunt says that it's no big deal. It means that your mother and father weren't married. In a few years, it will be a free pass to cool. You can impress the chicks. So then the little boy is happy because he thinks that it's cool.
I like the quirky movies like this one. I'm not a fan of Hollywood movies. Some of them are too formula, if you know what I mean.
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I have over 30 movies in my queue and over 30 in my instant queue. Lately, I've been using the instant watch feature mostly for shows I didn't catch the first time around, but I've watched lots of movies that way too. Right now, I'm watching Season 3 of Nip/Tuck. I save movies in my regular queue as they are released. Of course, they aren't available to watch at that point, but it's just a matter of time until they become available. Many times, I choose movies based on the cast. There are certain actors I will always watch, no matter the project, no matter how poor the ratings.
I guess you could say my tastes are ecclectic. I like foreign films, and I love ''small,'' indie films, but I like a big blockbuster when the casting is right and the subject is intriguing. In other words, on the rare occasion. :o)
I have to agree about ''The Book of Eli.'' I watched it all, but it was bad. What can I say? I will always watch Denzel. Even worse was ''Legion.'' I really shouldn't have expected much from ''Legion,'' but I'm in love with Paul Bettany, so I had to see it.
''Alice in Wonderland'' was leaps and bounds better than I thought it would be. First movie I've rated ''loved'' since ''Crazy Heart.'' "Chloe'' was quite good as well (another score for ex-AMCer Amanda Seyfreid), but if girl-on-girl sex makes you uncomfortable, you might want to skip it. If you haven't seen ''An Education,'' I'd recommend that one, too. Next in my queue is ''A Single Man.''
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Right now we have Dishnetwork with all the movie channels but once the movie channels expire my dad won't be signing up for them. We're going to have Netflix and I can't wait.
I watched 'Inglorious Basterds' the other night. I only watched half of it because I was too tired to stay up. It was kind of slow moving. My mom and I watch a lot of movies. I tend to go for the drama movies. We recently watched some dumb movie about time travel, it was a British movie, I can't remember the name of it. For some reason these movies channels keep playing Harry Potter.
Lately I have been watching Lifetime movie network. I recently got into this movie called 'Michael Crowe' about a 14 year old faulsly accused of his sister's murder. Then I watched a movie called 'Gracie's Choice'. That one was painful to watch and so was the one I watched last night' Terror in the Family'. They been playing a lot of good movies on that channel lately. I get into those kinds of movies.
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I'm all over the place with my queue. I read everything coming out in Entertainment Weekly and make my choices from that. Many of mine won't be available for some time since some haven't even opened yet (lol).EW also lists everything as soon as it hits video and rates/reviews them.
Some that are available, on my list, are The Solitary Man (got great reviews, starring Michael Douglas). Ondine starring Colin Farrell and Letters To Juliet (gotta see Vanessa and Franco together)!! I've also finally got through seeing everything I wanted (and didn't see) from this year's Oscar noms.
Doing it this way I find most of my choices have upwards of three (mostly four and more) stars and are on the Oscar watch. I have over 20 on the waiting-to-be-released-on-DVD list. Doing it this way it also allows me the list of many Indies that I normally might not see because they'd never come to a theater near me. PLUS they're on the list and I won't forget about them - they'll come when available and I don't have to think about it.
It even allows some bit-of-fluff viewing like When In Rome (not great but has Josh Duhamel) and The Switch (with Aniston and Jason Batemen - like 'em both).
I have a stellar list and there's one I am really stoked about. It's called RED and stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and the sublime Helen Mirren as the title stands for Retired and Extremely Dangerous and Brian Cox plays Mirren's love interest - fabulous!.
LOVE NETFLIX!!!
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