Movies, anything good?

[the_pm]

The last few months of the year are generally the best for new releases in the US, particularly since the studios want to get their best material out as close to the end of the year as possible for the academy awards. But it seems like there isn't really anything all that good coming.

Right now, about the only thing on the must-see list that Amy and I haven't seen yet is The Incredibles. What's worthwhile? What movies have you been watching recently?

[Pauly]

Been watching a lot of old films recently :P Battle of Britain and the likes. My girlfriend wants me to go see a load of chick flicks :x but i'll survive. Have you tried checking out the cinema listings (on or offline)? You have releases before us so I can't really give you a heads up on anything :P

[Jamie]

There doesn't seem to be any good films out over in the UK either. The old man took the Scouts to see Sharks Tale yesterday... you never know Paul... you may like it. :lol:

I watched 'Saw' a few weeks a go, very hard to understand, one of those films where you have to watch it a second time to understand it, but then it isn't as good because you know the twist. Never the less, a great film.

[Christina]

The Incredibles were great!! I could see it again....but lately...I've been watching a ton of movies....hmm.... House of Flying Daggers is a must see....a beautiful movie (chinese movie with subtitles though) and probably hard to find in your neck of the woods? Stars Zhang Ziyi from crouching tiger/rush hour 2. The rentals I've seen within the last few days...are White Chicks, Shaolin Soccer, My Baby's Daddy, Stepford Wives, Phonebooth, Chronicles of Riddick, Timeline, Dawn of the Dead....all of which were either funny as hell, entertaining, or just plain good. :)

[Jamie]

I watched Phonebooth a week or two ago. Very good movie indeed!

[the_pm]

Phone Booth is a great movie. The entire movie was shot in 16 days - pretty awesome stuff :)

Chronicles of Riddick is on my rental list. National Treasure is supposed to be very good, and I'm sure Amy and I will be seeing Lemony Snicket, though we're not sure what to make of the movie as of yet :) But The Incredibles comes first. Besides Incredibles and Treasure, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot worth seeing in the theaters. I guess Polar Express is supposed to be great too.

I watched 'Saw' a few weeks a go, very hard to understand, one of those films where you have to watch it a second time to understand it, but then it isn't as good because you know the twist. Never the less, a great film.
Here's what I had to say about Saw on WHT:

Decent story line. Slightly surprising ending.

But the entire movie was ruined by hopelessly bad acting on the part of everyone, but most notably Cary Elwes, who should have ended his career with Princess Bride. That chubby B-grade hack couldn't act his way into a community theater. Every word that came out of his mouth was trite, and the entire movie felt so rehearsed, it was impossible to take any of it seriously.

Plus, there were parts that were meant to be frightening where the entire audience broke out laughing because instead of scaring anyone, the movie was just being ridiculously stupid - like with the harlequin and the woman in the face mask. I've never heard an audience roar at someone's misfortune like that before.

The movie was crap. Rent it for $3 when it comes out on DVD, so at least when you're grumbling about money lost, it won't be $8/ticket in the theater.

[Jamie]

lol. It certainly wasn't the best I have seen, and like you say, they hiped it up as the thriller of the century, it was more a scary movie type, normally scare but is funny, Scary Movie was meant to be like that though unlike Saw. I suppose now you say it, the acting was pretty shocking! Glad I didnt pay to see it, ;)

[Corey Bryant]

We usually go to the movies after it has been out forawhile & there will not be many people in the theater. (typical computer guy here - I do better my myself :) )

I usually just wait for them to come out on cable or sometimes that video on demand. I TiVoed School of Rock the other day & watched that. Phone booth was great. You have to love it just because the majority was shot in one location almost. We have a few others on TiVo still waiting & Passion of Christ, Shrek 2, and Fahrenheit 911 sitting in the DVD waiting to be seen.

[the_pm]

One word:

Netflix :D

[Christina]

One word:

Netflix :D

Blockbuster Online is good too (I've used Netflix back in the day when it first came out).

I get my movies usually the very next day or within 2 days after I drop it in the mailbox ;)

[sonicgroup]

The family, while together for Thanksgiving, went to see National Treasure. It's a decent movie - kind of a cross between Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider. It's a fun movie, but definitely not anything to take seriously.

[ethicaldesign]

I watched the 'La Haine' DVD the other day.

http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/nf_La_haine_rev.html

It's a fairly old movie (made about 10 years ago around the time of the paris riots). Out of all of the films I've watched over the last couple of months that was amongst the best and highly recommended (the directors audio commentary was actually pretty good aswell and that's saying something because they often bore the pants off me). Sound track is really good aswell (particularly one track which I just can't find anywhere!).

Anyone in the UK interested in film I've found http://www.lovefilm.com to be pretty good and they seem to have a better selection than blockbuster (that seemed to me to be mainly mainstream stuff). If anyone's interested in signing up for that to give it a try pm me and I can send you a code and some instructions for extending their free trial from 2 weeks to a month.

[Christina]

Blockbuster, Netflix and Lovefilm all have 25,000 titles...hmm...

[ethicaldesign]

I think they use that figure because it's some standard figure of the number of dvd releases in the UK or something. Before we were moved over to lovefilm I was using a different service http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/ which was really good (they folded the rental service and transferred it's customers over to lovefilm) that seemed to have a lot of titles that blockbuster didn't. Lovefilm I think is offering the same titles.

It was a while ago when I tried blockbuster though so perhaps they're better now. I'm pretty sure theres at least some differences in the titles offered across all services so it's surprising that they're all claiming the exact same number of films!

[ethicaldesign]

BTW: I notice there's a free DVD offer at lovefilm aswell at this link:

http://www.moviemail-plus.co.uk/

[Christina]

Yes, I used Netflix when the first started...they were ok...but I find that when I want to watch any independent films, I just go buy the dvd's or find a local mom & pop rental store ;)