Movies: Help, I'm rolling snake eyes every time

[Babra]

Twiight for Guys

You're welcome.

Where's the Director's Cut, dammit!!!   

[Babra]

The Clash of Wings documentary series I've been watching on the war channel... Terrible, though mostly accurate, narration, but it's about 90% previously unseen footage.  Worth a look see for grogs. 

[Sasquatch]

Don't Look Down

I've been pondering what kind of recommendation to give this film. It was made in Argentina a few years ago and is in Spanish with subtitles. It starts out just a bit arty and pretentious, which turned me off and almost made me stop watching, but I'm glad that I didn't.

Briefly, the plot centers on a young (19-20) man whose father, to whom he was very close, has just died. He is certain that his father's ghost has been visiting him while he sleeps and been writing things in his journal. But the truth is that he has become a sleepwalker. One night while on one of his somnambulisms, he falls—literally—into the bed of a woman a few years older, but still young. The young woman and her grandmother (who is some kind of spiritual healer) take an interest in the boy's predicament and to make a long story short, the young woman becomes the boy's sexual tutor.

The success of the movie is that this gets played out in a way that isn't as contrived as it may sound. And largely this is due to the movie's main attraction, Antonella Costa, who plays the young woman as naturally as it could ever be. About a third of the running time of the film is of them in bed fucking, but this is not a typical porn film. No tight close-ups of dicks sliding into pussies, etc. This is a movie about two people sharing a sexual relationship, but it is about the people, not the sex. Furthermore, they have a higher goal than merely getting their rocks off, though they surely do that too. She has mastered the varieties of tantric sex and this is what she is teaching him.

That Costa is able to make all this seem perfectly natural is her great triumph and a pleasure to watch. Otherwise, the film occasionally slides back into arty pretentiousness, although to be fair, even that is not so heavy handed as I've seen elsewhere. And there is a scene where she is dancing to some music and her movements are so graceful and beautiful as to be worth the price of the movie all by themselves. Costa, to put it simply, is what makes this movie work. I found myself devoutly wishing that I had met someone like her when I was taking my own first fumbling steps into sexuality.

Without her, I would have given this movie at best four out of ten stars; with her it gets at least seven. Whether or not you'd agree of course depends on what you are looking for in a film. I assume many folks would give it a raspberry, but those who can appreciate the gold among the dross, it is well worth the time spent watching it.

Michael

[Babra]

Don't Look Down  blahblah-blah-blahblah....tantric sex... blah-something-blahblah...

I'm in!!!

[Sasquatch]

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I have just finished watching this. Wow!!!!!!! This turned out to be much better than I expected or even hoped for. Naturally, the film omits or glosses over a lot of material in the book, but in this case the final product hangs together very well indeed. This is very intense dramatic material and comes off very well on the screen.

Dubbed into English. Two hours and 32 minutes.

Michael

[smope]

If you are not aware of it by the way, Black Dynamite is a fun spoof of Blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Even shot using the same film stock.

LOL, great reccomend. streamable on netflix.
I gave it 5 stars.

So who here is planning to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo?

me. streamable on netflix.

[Wisbech_lad]

Toy Story 3.  I cried like a baby at the end.  FFS, how is it that a cartoon trilogy has some of the wisest and emotional story telling there is?  The bittersweet message about accepting change in your life, while staying true to yourself.  Makes me tear up just recalling it all again.

Has there been a better trilogy of films than Toy Story 1,2 and 3?  Godfather 3 was poor, and it has far more emotional heft & characterisation than the first 3 Star Wars.

Henry IV, parts 1 & 2 followed by Henry V maybe?

[Sasquatch]

Marc Anthony's final speech over Brutus' body at the end of Julius Caesar never fails to give me goosebumps.

Michael

[Dirtweasle]

As a prelude to our trip to Virginia we watched "The New World".   Nicely filmed, really quite beatifully shot, but the sound and the narration were pretty bad.   I'm not sure what the purpose of mumbled narration is but I don't like it.

That said, it's a sort of dreamy bordering on surrealistic film.   Not quite a doccu-drama, and not quite romantic homage to Smith and Poccahontus, but something else.   Dazed and hazey I guess.   Not in a bad way really, but kind of off, and though nothing objectionable for kids, the film is so sloooowwwww and so stylized in this loop dreamy sort of way that my ~10 y.o.  couldn't handle it.

The "making of" sequences are really I think better than the movie itself.    They really took pains to get the details as good as possible with the sets, costume and the actors.    I may watch it again now that I've seen all the trouble they went to to get the details correct, or as correct as possible.

3 of 5 stars

[Elvis]

As a prelude to our trip to Virginia .....

Did you visit Eggs? What part of Va did you go to?

(I am half Virginian and have a deep rooted fancy for the state....In my mind the most beautiful state in the Union.)

[Egbert]

As a prelude to our trip to Virginia .....

Did you visit Eggs? What part of Va did you go to?

(I am half Virginian and have a deep rooted fancy for the state....In my mind the most beautiful state in the Union.)

We actually missed each other in Williamsburg by 2 weekends. He stayed East (4-5 hours away), I wasn't able to travel to meet, even though it would have been real cool.

[Dirtweasle]

Yup.   Williamsburg & Historic triangle and to the coast.   Smithfield, and the area south of the James and then the Hampton Roads area and VA Beach.  Cape Charles across the bridge / tunnel was actually a real favorite of mine and Mrs. DW.

[mike_the_wino]

Everyman's War.  Allegedly about a group of US soldiers holding the line during the Battle of the Bulge.  Can't speak to the plot as it was drivel.  Pure drivel.  All of what one would expect from a 6th grade operetta....with worse set design, costumes and even worse acting.  Turned it off even after skipping forward looking forward to a part where the movie/ plot/ acting didn't suck sweaty, monkey balls.

[Hakko]

Veronica Mars. Missed this when it was on TV, but got it via a Netflix "You might also enjoy." And I did. It's Nancy Drew meets 90210 with Kristen Bell as the eponymous lead. It could have been awful, but it's cleverly written, well acted, and Kristen Bell is just totally cute. Plus, in season 2, Charisma Carpenter spends a lot of time walking around in a bikini.

[Babra]

Black Sheep  It's not about zombies.  It's about zombie sheep in New Zealand.  Now, I won't say it's the best movie EVER, but it definitely should have won an academy award for best zombie sheep movie.