In the Theaters

Mr_Shiftright

uh-oh...I'm tellin' :P

I would have gotten married myself were it not for a very rare but deadly allergic reaction to wedding cake.

Karen_S

My secret to staying youthful: Work so much you never see the light of day. All that fresh air and sunshine can kill ya. :sick:

Haven't gotten to "Up" yet...darn it.

ateixeira

Funny thing is I got a pretty bad sunburn yesterday, just driving around in a convertible all day. Wore a hat but that was not enough - my arms and the back of my neck were toasted.

I think if I'm going to drive for longer than an hour I should wear sunscreen or even put the top up for those really long drives!

Karen_S

My husband and I saw "Up!" in 3-D last night. After the initial amazement of the 3-D quality, we quickly settled into the story. Those Pixar folks are true masters in animation art. The first part had me running the gamut of joy and heart-wrenching sorrow. And not a word of dialogue was necessary! I don't want to spoil it for anyone by talking plot points. I'll just say there was one part that bothered me and I think their was a better way to resolve it. Still, I'd watch it again in a heart beat.

Oh yeah, they ask that you recycle your 3-D glasses at the end of the film by placing them in the bin outside the theater door. We kept ours. :shades: Although they are polarized and won't work for conventional 3-D, but having to pay $12 per person to see the darn thing, I'm keeping the merchandise!

jipster

Paranormal Activity sucked.

kyfdx

The Informant!

The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Both had some laugh-out-loud moments... The Informant! was a decent movie, overall... TMWSG was just okay..

Karen_S

It is no longer in the theaters, but I rented it last weekend. I didn't know much about it before viewing and have to say it sucked me in...and creeped me out.

Mr_Shiftright

Lamer than lame. As bad as the dreck on the History Channel. How much lower can standards of entertainment get? Will we soon be watching movies with people hitting each other with rubber chickens and sitting on fart cushions?

oh, wait.........

ateixeira

You liked it that much?

I thought it was OK, clever even, but the guy was just so grumpy...

ateixeira

I thought Goats had its clever moments, and I did LOL a few times.

My wife, though, HATED it. She actually fell asleep during part of it. Wanted to walk out but I didn't.

Mr_Shiftright

So you interpreted her falling asleep as a thumbs down? :P

I just saw the Mike Tyson documentary, which is actually not a new film but it didn't get much play. Eerily fascinating movie of a very strange dude.

michaellno

The Men Who Stare at Goats ... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? While it had its funny moments, I didn't quite get the whole point of the movie. I left feeling confused.

The wife and daughter think that any movie that has George Clooney with facial hair is worth watching, however.

Knowing ... this is the Nic Cage movie? Wow, what a letdown at the end. Fortunately, I didn't have to pay to watch it.

I'm kinda getting tired of the whole "end of the world" theme. Independence Day .... Armageddon ... The Day after Tomorrow ... and, coming soon to a theater near you ... 2012. More CGI-staged death and destruction on a scale so grand as to be numbing. All of LA slides into the ocean, and a limo driver, his ex-wife, her new husband and the kids have to get to ... wait for it ... China!!!! To board an ark?

Please.

I'll wait for my daughter to buy the DVD and render an opinion at that time.

Mr_Shiftright

George Clooney is one of those "critic-proof" items these days.

You are not alone. It got pretty sucky reviews at www.rottentomatoes.com

ateixeira

I guess I "got it".

It sort of spoofed military intelligence. If you laugh when someone says that's a paradox, then you stand a chance of liking that moview.

Otherwise, not a chance.

jipster

My wife and I seldom are able to catch a movie together, and a friend had to recommend this stinker of a movie. I guess for a high school play it wouldn't have been too bad.

michaellno

It sort of spoofed military intelligence.

Isn't that an oxymoron?

Oh, wait. Perhaps that was the point of the whole thing.

ateixeira

LOL

ateixeira

You were warned - DO NOT take your children to see this movie. It was way, way, WAAAAAY too scary for little kids.

My 7 year old son jumped in my lap, my 10 year old daughter was in her mom's lap. Even mom freaked out, heck one scene had loud breaking glass that spooked even me.

This movie should be rated PG-13 at least. Worst movie I've seen in a very long time. About 1/3rd of it was bearable, the rest of the time all 4 of us wanted to walk out (we should have).

Mr_Shiftright

THE WEEK Magazine reviewed it as "a total calamity".

Kirstie_H

Wow, thanks for the heads-up Juice & Shifty! We were all set to take the kids to see it over Thanksgiving. Even though they're all 11+, I still don't want to waste money on a movie that's not good. We were planning to do it in IMAX and 3D, which would add another $4 to each ticket price, too.

ateixeira

I was even more angry when I watched the preview (after seeing the movie).

They only showed the lighter, non-scary parts. You'd have no idea it was such a dark and scary movie.

Seriously, I have not seen a Horror film that was as scary as this was in a long time, possibly ever. This makes Scream look like My Little Pony.

Caveat - if your kids like scary, dark movies, they may actually enjoy it. The animation is well done.

Even then, though, I like Tim Burton films and I didn't like this. Burton is at least clever.

Mr_Shiftright

Here's the review:

In a Christmas Carol, director Zemeckis tries to "warm up Charles Dickens' holiday chesnut using state of the art technology" said Keith Phipps in the Onion. Yet the result, in which Jim Carrey not only plays Scrooge but several other characters, still feels stale. While some of the digital effects dazzle--above all a Victorian London realized in minute detail--he "never makes the case" for dusting off this holiday classic once again. Every generation gets its own rendition of the CC, said Ty Burr in the Boston Globe. A "thing of bits and bytes", the fils is also a "darkly detailed marvel of creative visualization," remaining true to Dickens' spirit even while providing an animated thrill ride. Too often though, it runs off the rails said the Wall Street Journal. This "sad excuse for family entertainment" ruins this classic with stilted, soulless animated characters. The whole thing is a "total calamity".

ateixeira

That about sums it up.

The wild ride is the only time my son laughed, the whole movie.

Mr_Shiftright

Yes, I'm tough as a movie critic and I'm giving AVATAR a C+.

Visual effects are really great but that's about it. It's noisy, the story makes no sense and I'm sure it'll make a gazillion dollars as eye candy.

Yet another sensitive military guy falls in love with the natives. As another person remarked: "Dances With Wolves in Outer Space".

ateixeira

Maybe I'll wait, then.

Too scary for a 7 year old? What about a 10 year old?

Mr_Shiftright

No I wouldn't take mine to see Avatar. There is cursing, violence, near nakedness, etc. There is an attempt at high moral purpose I suppose, but I find the morality pretty confused. But then, hey, it's Hollywood, so keep it simple stupid.

I'd say age 13 and up.

It's also unbearably long at 160 minutes, even for an adult.

jipster

"Where the Wild Things Are" was the most boring, unimaginative, poorly written, humorless... well... it just sucked. I paid $5 from cable On Demand...not worth a nickel. A wasted hour and a half of my life I'll never get back. My son wanted to stop watching after 20 minutes. Probably should have listened to him, but kept watching hoping for a miracle, and that the movie would improve. It didn't. :sick:

ateixeira

Agreed - awful.

I took my kids when it made it to a college theatre, discounted, but it wasn't even worth the couple of bucks that cost.

It's dark and not suitable for children. Not at all. Spoiler alert: kid runs away from home, lots of violence, bad tempers, bad behavior, bad friendships.

The only highlight? The popcorn.

ateixeira

Is this a new trend?

Really bad movies that seem like they are appropriate for kids, but they're not?

I can think of 3 recently:

A Christmas Carol: way, way too scary for kids. Dark and depressing, with few redeeming qualities. Even worse - the preview shows the few warm moments yet the movie itself is 90% depressing.

Where the Wild Things Are: solid F. Not even a D+. Again, the previews make it look harmless, so you'd have no idea this is not appropriate to show to children.

Alice in Wonderland: I'm not falling for it. Previews are freaky and scare the kids before we even stepped in the theatre. I'll pass, no thanks.

Hey Hollywood, get it straight:

Kid movies (G and PG): warm and fuzzy, happy endings, life lessons learned.

Adult movies (PG13 or R): go crazy, just be honest in your previews.

I swear we haven't seen a movie in months. They're shooting themselves in the foot because we used to love movies. Now the kids just don't want to go any more.

jipster

The only highlight? The popcorn

Yeah, I got some Twizzlers and Crunch and Munch. So, not a total waste of time.

ateixeira

I didn't expect much, but was entertained by this action flick.

Travolta actually does well, and gets to play a nutty character that reminded me of a funny Schwarzenegger, in a way.

It was a little predictable but that didn't stop me from enjoying it.

Funny how when you don't expect much, you can enjoy a film purely for the entertainment value.

ateixeira

Corny as you might imagine, but a few twists kept it interesting.

Tatum can't act but it didn't seem to matter. He's just eye candy for the ladies.

My wife loved it, so great date movie.

ateixeira

Another one of those moview where you'll like it as long as you don't expect much from it.

Funny thing is, I watched it 3 weeks ago, and I can't remember a thing about it.

Another good date movie. Rent it next V-day with your sweetie.

jipster

I agree. The violence and sexual innuendo in kids movies is ridiculous. I was a bit shocked at the SpongeBob Squarepants Movie from a few years ago. SpongeBob and Patrick get/act drunk. The producers think they are fooling the audience by having them drink milkshakes instead of booze. Rear naked starfish nudity. Brutal violence and suggestion of violence. Patrick saying he'll drop his drawers for Princess Mindy. This was suppose to be a Nickelodeon movie? :sick:

ateixeira

Now here's the best movie I've seen recently.

This is the one to see if you haven't already. It's a sleeper, but Bridges Oscar nod did not surprise me one bit, in fact I was cheering for him, and so was my wife.

You see a washed up country singer, warts and all. It felt very authentic.

ateixeira

Another good one, especially if you like raw, british films.

Not quite as good as Crazy Heart but perhaps the 2nd best film we saw over the winter.

Seems like this thread was hybernating, eh?

kyfdx

Everyone knows that SpongeBob is geared towards adults, rather than kids..

Crunch 'n Munch? Dude, can I come over to your house to watch? Love that stuff!

Mr_Shiftright

Alice in Wonderland got a fairly stinko review in The Week magazine---once again, special effects win out over pace, plot and acting.

ateixeira

I'm not falling for movies like that any more.

I'll wait for GOOD reviews and references.

Mr_Shiftright

Alice got a 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes website. That's pretty bad.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009599-alice_in_wonderland/

I like Rotten Tomatoes---I think the ratings are pretty intelligent for the most part.

Kirstie_H

I like that site too - I find that it's the closest representation of my own overall feelings about a movie, in general. Sometimes if a comedy movie gets a so-so review, I can read the ratings there and find out if the negatives were because it was "too stupid." I often disregard those. Sometimes, "too stupid" is just what I'm in the mood for.

Shutter Island - MAJOR disappointment. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but I thought the ending was a cop-out for a writer who couldn't figure out any other way to wrap it all up.

ateixeira

I hate movies like that.

The Abyss had a great first half, let down the the 2nd half, IMHO.

Kirstie_H

Yeah - you know how sometimes you watch a movie with a really good plot, lots of twists and turns, and you can't figure out what the solution to the mystery is... and then it's all explained away in one fell swoop with the introduction of space aliens? That seems to be this decade's cop-out ending, akin to the "it was all just a dream" ending of yore.

No space aliens in Shutter Island, but I did feel nearly that ripped off.

Oh - and this is NO spoiler, because NO ONE should rent this movie: The Box. It is the space aliens. It is also one of the worst movies I've sat all the way through. Fortunately, it was only a $1 redbox rental.

jipster

Spectacular! Finally a movie that not only lives up to all the hype, but exceeds it. This one you have to watch on the theaters big screen... don't be a cheapskate and wait for the Redbox rental. For a computer animated movie it is visually quite stunning. Did not even see in 3D.

This is a well written, clever and entertaining movie for all but pre-schoolers...maybe first and second graders. The only part I thought the movie could have done without is the scene at the very end. Hiccup, the main character, loses a leg after the climatic battle scene against the "Queen Dragon". I thought it was a bit of a downer, but it didn't seem to bother my 9 year old son when I asked him. Overall. I'd give it 4 "Jip"stars out of 5. :shades:

ateixeira

The Abyss.

You just described that movie, exactly.

Loved it, right up until the crazy ending. So disappointing.

ateixeira

I've been wanting to see that, now I'll make sure to take my kids (ages 7 and 10).

ateixeira

OK, I know, what did I expect, right?

Well, I was in high school in the 80s, so at least I figured I would laugh at my old self and understand all the humor.

Problem is, this was poorly written, the jokes all relied on gross-outs rather than wit. I heard Cusack produced it himself, and I usually don't like movies like that.

I found it tolerable (C-) but my wife wanted to walk out.

ateixeira

Disappointment of the year, for us.

I have seen such a long string of bad kid/family movies, and was hoping this would take us out of that slump.

Nope.

My daughter has read all the books and it a huge fan, but even she thought the movie didn't (nearly) live up to expectations.

For me the problem was there was not a single likable character in the movie. It was a lesson on how to behave badly most of the time, and when lessons are learned they are too subtle for kids to really get the meaning of true friendship.

I liked the smart girl character in the movie, the one who writes for the school paper, but sadly her role was very minor. She could have added a lot had she been in more scenes.

Any how, still searching for a good kids movie (must try Dragons).

ateixeira

This one had its moments but it tried too hard to be like The Hangover and just wasn't nearly as well written.

At least they let Steve Carrell and Tina Fey be funny, plenty of scenes for that.

Just leave your brain at the door, and you may like it.

Karen_S

It was entertaining, I guess. I liked Mickey Rourke and Robert Downey Jr., but the story seemed to have been pushed aside for the special effects. The crashes and explosions get boring after 10 minutes. If your a fan of the comic series, stay through the credits for a sneak peek of what's coming. :shades: