For The Love Of Port

Aliens was an awesome sequel. I won't say better than the first outright, but certainly a worthy follow-on. And then it went downhill.

Eric Menchen wrote:Aliens was an awesome sequel. I won't say better than the first outright, but certainly a worthy follow-on. And then it went downhill.

I have heard that. I have all the Alien series, but I can't seem to get through the first one. I really dislike cheesy horror effects like building up tension and then killing it with something like a can falling off a table.

I am resolute about watching them in order, so I have never seen 2, 3, 4,.... I have tried to get through #1 about 5 times and give up in disgust every time.

Maybe it is just that I dislike horror movies, and that Alien is simply a horror movie that happens to take place on a spaceship.

It may not help with #1 Peter, but #2 is quite a bit less horror and more just shooting up aliens.

On the other hand, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was not a worthy sequel. Marijke thought the books went downhill after the first, and I have to say the second movie wasn't as good as the first. There is a little more interesting story at work, but it isn't greatly done and the ending is very abrupt.

A documentary about the Chinese influence on the world wine market, Red Obsession is definitely worth a watch by the crowd around here.

Not for everybody's taste as some of the nuanced inflections of a bygone era in NYC would be lost on many ... including critics. But John Turturro's fine film, FADING GIGOLO with Woody Allen and a very fine supporting cast, that surround John Turturro the star of his own flick, really had me entertained from start to finish.

Eric Menchen wrote:A documentary about the Chinese influence on the world wine market, Red Obsession is definitely worth a watch by the crowd around here.

Saw that a few months ago and was well worth it for this crowd to watch.

Saw The Proposition last night with friends. Similar in many ways to Unforgiven, but it wasn't as satisfying.

It certainly wasn't a deep movie, but I was surprised by the social commentary in Anchorman 2. If you liked the first, you'll probably like this one. I think I've liked less than half of Will Farrell's movies, but this was one of the enjoyable ones IMHO.

So far the best current release movie I've seen this year: CHEF ... everyone here would love this one!

From the man who brought you WEEDS, a series about to start its 3rd season: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK.
Anyone else watching this one?

Watched Cloud Atlas last night. Very slow to get started and rather confusing even knowing the concept going in, but eventually settled in and became a decent movie. It's also nearly 3 hours long, which is unfortunately necessary or some of the multiple story lines might not make sense. Even at 3 hours some of them never seemed to resolve for me.

Multiple actors play multiple roles, some of which are so well disguised that even after watching the credits (which show stills of all the roles for each actor) I still can't see the resemblance in all cases.

I enjoyed Cloud Atlas, did not read the book. Admittedly, lots of it was confusing, but the visuals were incredible. From what friends have told me, (prodding me to watch this w/out reading the book ... although they did) the adaptation from book to movie did not come across well. But they said that the book was so intense and elaborate, that it would have been virtually impossible to pull it all together into a 2-3 hour screenplay. Anyway, fun to watch when it first hit the theaters. I may see it again someday on Netflix or whatever, just to see if I catch more of the nuances than the 1st time around.

EVERYBODY go see the movie BOYHOOD. I can't wait to see any flick that can top this one in 2014, no less released in the dry spell that is normally summer at the movies.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun, raucous, adventure-style superhero movie. If you're from the right era, the soundtrack will really bring it home for you. Otherwise it's probably just another superhero movie.

Don't buy all the hype, though. I didn't think it was "like getting back part of your soul" as I read in an online review. It was fun, but it wasn't THAT fun. I actually expect the sequel (already announced) will be better, mostly because they won't have to spend so much time introducing us to the main characters. Hulk and Iron Man need no introduction, so those movies can hit the ground running. GotG is pretty obscure so they had to explain everything from the beginning.

Not so new, but hoot to watch, "The Last Dinosaur"



Richard Boone was so creepy and Joan Van Ark was looking hot!

Watched Divergent this past weekend. Not as good as the first Hunger Games, but better than the second, IMHO.

Last night I saw for the first time (yeah, I'm a tad behind on my movie watching), Lone Survivor. Wow, talk about being glued to the TV for two hours. Intense is an understatement.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091191/

Divergent was a fun flick and glad I got to see it on the way home from Denmark. Great action/sci-fi/thriller.

I saw Intertellar and found it way too long at about 3 hours and convoluted if not off course at times. B-
Yeah, I know the critics loved it, but there are just too many glitches and the degree to which one must suspend their belief system, overrides some of the sheer viewing pleasure.

Interstellar was worth seeing on the big screen rather than waiting for it to come to cable or streaming. Great visuals, dialogue is intriguing but the overall story is good, not great. Still, for the visuals ... well worth the price of admission + popcorn.