What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

SuperflyTNT wrote: Watched this Franco movie “The Vault” on Netflix last night. Wasn’t too bad for a horror flick and had a bery Shyamalan-ey twist at the end which paid off for the slower spots.

Just watched this. It's not bad. It's not good either.

Just showed my girlfriend The Room for the first time. She is still mystified.

It had been a while since I had seen Saving Private Ryan. I liked Shakespeare in Love, but no way that it should have beaten Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture. I saw that Dunkirk was at the local Redbox, but I had had enough war movie for the weekend.

Then in the 'failed as a parent' department, my daughter wanted to watch Jennifer's Body. That was a failure at pretty much every level. It wasn't funny, wasn't scary, wasn't sexy. At one point I thought it was so bad that I had to look it up on IMDB to see if Michael Bay had directed it. But my daughter told us she loves it, and has watched it five or six times. Go fig.

Yeah, I prefer Saving Private Ryan to Shakespeare in Love as well. That year I would have liked to see Truman Show take it all. Rushmore was amazing as well. 98 was such a bad year for movies. There wasn't much from that year apart from those mentionned and American History X and Waking Ned Devine. Everything else was pretty forgettable.

Ugh. I guess I'm still the only person in the world who hates Saving Private Ryan. I get it-- the Normandy beach landing scene is truly a masterpiece-- but the rest of the movie is heavy-handed schlock.

i think most of us are on that page. The first 30 minutes are by far the best part. I switch it off now once that's done. The church scene is good for falling asleep though.

The Oscars that year were clearly recognizing cinematic achievement like they did when they picked Return of the King over Mystic River. Stuff like that will happen sometimes, it's ok.

If Saving Private Ryan wasn't as big a success and as well-received as it was (at the time), we probably wouldn't have got Band of Brothers which is far superior. So yay for gateway drugs.

You'd need a bigger film critic than I am to argue if there's such a thing as a subtle Spielberg movie. I do know that pretty much all of the combat scenes in SPR are flat-out grisly and supposedly realistic. I wouldn't know - my stint in the Army didn't involve anything more violent than drunken fisticuffs. However, I'm thinking that if Spielberg was trying for subtle, his message might have gotten lost in all the carnage.

Watched two Marvel movies over the holiday.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was pretty good. I hesitate to say it was 'great', but Rooker's Yondu character was fantastic here. He became my favorite of all the MCU movie characters to this point. Maybe because his story had actual weight and conclusion? The main issue I had with this movie is the same issue I had with the first. In both flicks, I enjoyed the first 3/4s, but the big CGI fest finale battles leave me dead cold. It's a shame the Marvel movies resolve themselves like this over and over.

Thor Ragnarok was also pretty good. I enjoyed watching it tremendously, but afterward...I don't seem to recall too much. I mean, I get the overall vibe and story, but I couldn't recall any of the stand-out comedy bits if asked. I also celebrated a birthday...so old age? Still though, it was a fun time even if Marvel mischaracterized Thor as seen in all his other outings. Comedy Thor was cool, but maybe this should have been a reboot film?

Robert, your comment is well timed. I watched MUNICH for the first time last night. Not very subtle, very violent (as it should be I suppose). It was okay I guess. That’s some cast.


I don’t know if anyone saw the nominations for the Academy Awards but boy did they ever get it right. Not only did Get Out get nominated for best picture, but Peele got nominated for best director. So did Greta Gerwig. Neither will win but this will avoid a bunch of stupid controversy hopefully.

The nominations for best picture really got it right too. There are a couple of safe plays in there like Phantom Thread and The Post but it correctly identified the rest.

Im still shocked and happy Get Out got recognition. This is a category the Academy loves to ignore. But it didn’t.

I have no idea if Three Billboards or Shape of Water will win.

Del Toro will get director. Oldman will get actor. McDormand will get actress. Not sure for everything else.

Gregarius wrote: Ugh. I guess I'm still the only person in the world who hates Saving Private Ryan. I get it-- the Normandy beach landing scene is truly a masterpiece-- but the rest of the movie is heavy-handed schlock.

No, I too hate Saving Private Ryan, for the same reason. I was going through a rough spot in my life at the time it was in theaters, so I didn't see it until many years later. I was looking forward to it, because I had recently finished watching Band of Brothers. But after the beach landing, Saving Private Ryan is terrible. Every scene is contrived rubbish, and the scene where Vin Diesel's character got killed was downright idiotic. Of course, SPR suffered by comparison with Band of Brothers, which was flat out the best tv show that I have ever seen, even better than The Wire. Band of Brothers was based on the actual history of Easy Company's difficult journey through the heart of World War II, and they interviewed many of the surviving veterans while making the show, in a serious effort to get it all right. Saving Private Ryan was just some fictional piece of crap that only got the battlefield violence right.

RobertB wrote: It had been a while since I had seen Saving Private Ryan. I liked Shakespeare in Love, but no way that it should have beaten Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture. I saw that Dunkirk was at the local Redbox, but I had had enough war movie for the weekend.

Then in the 'failed as a parent' department, my daughter wanted to watch Jennifer's Body. That was a failure at pretty much every level. It wasn't funny, wasn't scary, wasn't sexy. At one point I thought it was so bad that I had to look it up on IMDB to see if Michael Bay had directed it. But my daughter told us she loves it, and has watched it five or six times. Go fig.

I haven't seen Shakespeare in Love, because I dislike Paltrow, but maybe I should give it a chance. Jennifer's Body is still really low on my list of things to see, because it was written by a former local hipster who calls her Diablo Cody. She also wrote Juno and some other stuff that nobody remembers.

I liked Shakespeare in Love, but I'm a huge fan of the bard, so that helps. It was very light, but most of the performances were very good (even Paltrow.) Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth especially make the film worth seeing.

I only liked it cuz you see her b00bies in it

Listen, you knuckle dragging mouth breathers. Saving Private Ryan has a large amount of awesome. It was mind blowing when it was released because it was the first war movie that conveyed the disorientation, confusion, and madness of combat effectively. It was the debut of the "shaky" cam since so aggrgiously over and misused ever since but hacks and ham fists but in this movie it is used to great effect.

While it did have the cliched squad of dudes who represented the different parts of America coming together they were developed far better than in any war movie in the 30 years prior.

The final battle scene is as good as the D Day landings. The way they are filled with genuine horror at the sound of the approaching tank, the coward who fails to bring the ammo, and that truly fearsome German paratrooper "Es ist keine FUBAR" as he sticks the knife in after a desperate hand to hand struggle...

Band of Brothers is better? On what planet? Band of Brothers has great moments but is very uneven.

Shakespeare in Love is a great movie as well. If you are confused why it won over Private Ryan, it's because you don't accept or acknowledge the biases of Hollywood. No War movie let alone one that is patriotic is ever going to win best picture. Not in this day and age.

Shellhead wrote:

Jennifer's Body is still really low on my list of things to see, because it was written by a former local hipster who calls her Diablo Cody. She also wrote Juno and some other stuff that nobody remembers.

I guarantee that your list of things to watch has something else to watch, regardless of how short it is.