Need New Movie + Video Suggestions

[Roy Hersh]

I watched: IDES OF MARCH last night. A very interesting take, albeit very dark and cynical on the primary process. Great casting and fine dialogue.

[Eric Menchen]

We have Ides of March to watch soon, and Man on a Ledge coming today. No reviews yet for those. We just watched My Week with Marilyn which wasn't anything special, but not bad either. Last night we watched Paul. If you are in to SciFi, it is certainly worth watching, otherwise perhaps not, as you might not appreciate the music the band is playing in the bar scene, for example.

[Roy Hersh]

Currently in theaters: Beasts of the Southern Wild, was one of the best movies I have seen all year. Loved it, yet I can't begin to even categorize it. Really exceptional acting by non-actors in the two key roles.

[Peter W. Meek]

Don't miss THE ARTIST. Incredible and deserving of the hype.

Finally saw this. Very enjoyable and not exactly what I expected.

Well, we finally got this and watched it. It was an excellent concept. It was an excellent execution of that concept.

But it wasn't compelling. When we were done, I said WOW! - - - - But then I asked myself: "Do I want to see it again tomorrow?"

... and the answer was "No". There just wasn't a single character (with the possible exception of the chauffeur) that I cared the least little thing about. (John Goodman had a decent part, as well.)

I doubt we will ever show this for Monday Night At The Movies unless someone asks for it specially.

It's not quite direct-to-garage-sale, but I can't think when I will be ready to watch it again. I have room for 1500 movies on my system, and this is very close to not being one of them. (Its Oscar performance saves it for the time being.)

[Eric Menchen]

Saw a great action/suspense movie over the weekend call Headhunters (2011). Norwegian film with a lot of twists and turns. Don't want to give too much away. Worth checking out.

+1. If you like the original Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as well as violent crime dramas with some situational humor thrown in, you should certainly see this.

[Roy Hersh]

Two thumbs way up for LINCOLN. You don't have to like him or even realize the history of the Civil War, yet this film will captivate you from start to finish. A+

[Christian Gollnick]

Happy New Year! I started 2013 with a very quiet day, just watching a few movies... One of them was "The Angel's Share", a Scottish movie. It's a story of a group of young people that were sentenced to community work - and on a trip to a whiskey distillery one of them discovers his interest in whiskey. He just has the perfect nose and impresses everybody around him with this talent.
It's a rough movie - lot's of swearing, some violence - but that's necessary to show us the background where this group of young people comes from.
The main character manages it to break out of his social circle and to establish himself in the whiskey business.
I'm not a whiskey drinker - but after watching this movie I have the urge to drive through Scotland and to visit small distilleries. Sometimes the Highlands even look like the Douro Valley in this movie... I was thinking about Roy, who attended last year a whiskey tasting in Scotland and mentioned that some parts over there are even more remote than the Douro...
This movie is somehow disturbing - showing the life of the under-privileged people in housing projects in Scotland - but also heart-warming. The movie shows clearly some social problems, especially in the beginning - but later it turns into an "Ocean Eleven" story, when the group decides to steal some very rare and old whiskey from a fantastic looking little barrel...
Nicely done movie, maybe a little bit to much "feel-good-movie" at the end - and American ears might need English subtitles to understand the thick Scottish accent in this movie...

Normally I don't like the Angel's Share, because I think about all the thousands of bottles of fantastic Port that disappear every year out of the casks... but this "Angel's Share" here I like a lot....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1924394/

Here is the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcQIvmR21VU

[Roy Hersh]

Friends With Benefits - lightearted fun and with Mila Kunis showing off her impeccable assets, if you are in the mood for a film to entertain vs. something to really sink your teeth into, this fits the bill.

[Roy Hersh]

I forgot how insane and dark humored the movie U-Turn is. A young JLO before "surgery" is an interesting look back in time. But this movie is all about Sean Penn's twisted character and traits. Definitely one of his greatest roles. This movie would not work for everybody, that is for sure. I can see Moses loving it though.

[Derek T.]

I watched Schindler's List (again!) last night. It never fails to move me to tears.

I remember being an early teenager in the Punk era when it was "fashionable" in the UK to draw a swastika on your school books. I knew nothing of the subject then so it was, in the true sense of the word, ignorant to do so. My parents spotted the gap in my education and engineered things to ensure the family watched a film that sent the same message as Schindler's List. For obvious reasons I have never forgotten the lesson.

An unbelievably horrendous time, and a brilliant film that demonstrates that fact. Watch it and never forget.

[Michael T]

Derek, "Boy in the Striped Pajamas" also brings that lesson home.

[Roy Hersh]

As does, Trial at Nuremburg and The Fixer, albeit the latter is not tied to Nazi's but antisemitsm nonetheless. Still plenty of it around, here in the USA and widely in EU too.

[Roy Hersh]

Forgot about the great one that aligns with the aforementioned film(s): Gentlemen's Agreement.

[Eric Menchen]

Finally saw Lincoln. Good movie, worth watching, but not something you need to see on the big screen.

Also saw Django: Unchained. I enjoyed this, but didn't think Quintin deserved the writing Oscar. It was on the same level as Inglourius Basterds, which in my book is to say it is entertaining, but not nearly as unique in its storytelling as Pulp Fiction.

Watched Argo. It too was interesting, but I don't think it was the Best Picture I saw from 2012 releases.

[Roy Hersh]

Argo getting the Oscar for Best Picture, was just wrong, imo.

[Peter W. Meek]

Watched Life Of Pi (2012). I'm not sure what we were expecting, but this wasn't it. I can sort of see where the Oscars came from, but maybe it was just a bit disturbing. We will be showing it again next Monday for our weekly MNATM showing. Maybe a second viewing (with all the disturbing parts blunted by a second exposure) will reveal more.

I have to say, that after the first showing, I just felt tense. And it lasted for quite a while. This is not what I expect to feel after watching an Oscar movie. Maybe it was just me.

[John F. Newman]

I've watched five of the nine films nominated for Best Picture, and some of the other films nominated in other categories over the past 2 months. Here are my reviews

BEST PICTURE FILMS:

Argo, as one friend said, was a TNT movie. I guess it's hard to make an interesting movie based on a historical event which you know the ending. I'll go out on a limb, the book must have been better than the movie. My bottle of port has a warning on it: don't drink before operating heavy machinery or if you are about to watch the movie Argo.

Zero Dark 30 was boring and almost unwatchable, in my opinion. I can't see how this was nominated for a Best Picture, other than the subject matter (.

The other 3 were Django, Life of Pi, and Silver Linings Playbook.

I didn't expect it, but Django was the best out of this group. It had an interesting story that kept your interest, enough action - albeit over-the-top - I mean, not just the overly bloody shot-outs but seeing bodies violently fall in the wrong direction after being shot - oddly it didn't detract for me but added a layer of comedy. This won best leading male, and the actor did do a great job.

Life of Pi was a good movie, not great and was only good when you find out the twist at the end and can reflect back. It won Best Directing

Silver Linings Playbook was a solid good movie following a typical love story but with very flawed protagonists.

OTHER OSCAR NOMINATED MOVIES I RECENTLY WATCHED (under other categories)
Flight. Denzel Washington was nominated for best actor. I liked this movie. But I am not sure of the drug message here. I don't think I am giving anything away (it's in the first few minutes of the film if you didn't already know the plot), the pilot is drunk and on cocaine when he is confronted with an emergency situation. The first half hour is riveting. The rest of the movie deals with the investigation into the flight, and the pilot's personal problems with family, alcohol and drugs. It's definitely worth a rental.

The Master. This is supposedly a thinly-veiled movie about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. I have no clue what this movie was about, and would never watch it again.

Moonrise Kingdom this was up for best original screen play. An offbeat film about two young kids (13-14 years old?) who are awkward and don't fit it, and find each other. Bill Murray is in it... and this film is more like his recent films like the Royal Tannenbaums, Life Aquatic, Dharjaling Limited (none of which I found too enjoyable). But this film is better than those, but it has that same "zany" feel.

Snow White and the Huntsman. I think this movie is geared for the older kids who may like the recent vampire and werewolf movies. Interesting, but I'd wait for it to come to TV.

And of course, I watched a couple of the animated movies as I have young children: Brave and Wreck-It-Ralph. Good, but not great animated films. Wreck-It-Ralph would be interested for those people who grew up with video games and then get to see cameos of their long-forgotten childhood games.

[Eric Menchen]

Nice commentary John. I liked Zero Dark Thirty better than you, perhaps because my military experience? (Even if it wasn't very accurate in a number of ways.) I must say Brave had a couple of funny moments, but was IMHO the weakest Pixar offering to date. I hadn't offered up a previous review of Flight since I am biased as a pilot, but I agree with your assessment.

[John F. Newman]

FAMILY FILM:
This weekend I saw the new animated flick, the Croogs. The kids enjoyed it... but I need to make excuses for my kids tastes, this movie barely hits "good" on the movie radar.

Story line: In a changing world, a neanderthal family runs into a human. The Neanderthal Croogs survive by following the advice of their father to constantly hide in their cave and never go out at night. The daughter ventures out a meets a young male human who has the power of new and original ideas. The father is bested for the most part of this movie, except when it comes to sacrificing his own well-being for the good of his family.

Despite this message (and the message of the father constantly wishing for the death of his mother-in-law), the movie was overshadowed by confusing every period of earthly history and morphing it into one movie - like Journey to the Center of the Earth meets Avatar. The earth appears to be forming: perpetual earthquakes, forming volcanoes, lava above and lava below. It's a wonder how any life had an opportunity to establish itself. The animals are well mixtures of the different species we know today... turtles with feathery wings, toothy birds that hunt like piranha, dogs with alligator heads, whales slithering on land. Or the animals are over-sized and colorful versions of extinct animals, like the house sized rainbow saber-tooth tiger, or the mammoths that are so huge they don't even bother to show more than their legs. Then to normalize things, they throw in a couple of monkeys and sloths. Some plants are super huge, and some of those apparently have the power of sight in addition to being carnivorous.

Of course, the kids didn't mind this mashing together of eras and species. But at the end of the day, the movie was not that funny and only mildly entertaining.

At least the previews of future animated films showed promise.

[John M.]

Just watched Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino's break-through movie before Pulp Fiction. A tense, awesome movie if you can stomach the hardest scene (not giving that away). Overall an A.

We also watched Sound City about the recording studio--incredible history about the place although the last 30 minutes dragged for me once they got past the history and concentrated on what's happening now (so many homages that the present ones pale in comparison to the past ones IMHO). Overall a B-