Movie/film thread: resurrected

The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke.  HE's all 'roided up for the part, and you won't even recognise him, but the acting is amazing, and the story is great.  He was nominated for a Golden Globe, and should be a serious contender for an Oscar.  This is worth seeing, folks. 

Oh, I agree, Guy Ritchie makes films about shallow coolth, but they're fun with the word play and the pretty clothes and a very British macho.  RocknRolla too is very nearly philosophical in its insistence that shallowness as depth is deep.  The Guyster is like an antidote to the very maudlin Britishness one can find in any period drama or The Bill

There's a bit of a tradition of grubby, flashy trash in British film and writing, isn't there?  James Bond is a character out of that tradition, innit?

With RocknRolla, Guy has polished the turd to a high and gleaming gloss and added tassels and guns and Russians.  John le Carre might bemoan the lack of a worldview, but might not turn up his nose at the grubby glitter.

The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke.  HE's all 'roided up for the part, and you won't even recognise him, but the acting is amazing, and the story is great.  He was nominated for a Golden Globe, and should be a serious contender for an Oscar.  This is worth seeing, folks. 

I agree.Saw this last week.I came away feeling very sad for this guy.

I did something tonight I haven't done in about 8 years: I went out and saw a movie in a movie theatre. Reminded me that there's just nothing like the big screen...

I saw Frost/Nixon and strongly recommend it. Frank Langella's Nixon is absolutely spellbinding...one of the greatest performances I've ever seen on film.

Does TV fit into this thread? If so, has anyone seen the BBC series 'Wild China'?
Amazing footage...not sure if you can access this from outside of UK (some youtube channels are country specific) but here's a playlist of clips from it:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0_sZivnINM&feature=PlayList&p=3E84C315F0719C46&index=0&playnext=1

If you can't quite place the narrators voice, it's King Theoden from Lord of the Rings (Bernard Hill)!

Definately worth getting hold of this DVD if you haven't seen the series!

Saw Clint Eastwood star in "Gran Torino".He stars as "an iron willed and inflexible Korean War veteran,living in a changing world,who is forced by his immigrant neighbours to confront his own long held prejudices" As an older person who grew up in a small country town, I could relate to his feelings;it may be harder for younger folk to do that.
I'd be interested to hear what others thought of it.

Does TV fit into this thread? If so, has anyone seen the BBC series 'Wild China'?
Amazing footage...not sure if you can access this from outside of UK (some youtube channels are country specific) but here's a playlist of clips from it:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0_sZivnINM&feature=PlayList&p=3E84C315F0719C46&index=0&playnext=1

If you can't quite place the narrators voice, it's King Theoden from Lord of the Rings (Bernard Hill)!

Definately worth getting hold of this DVD if you haven't seen the series!

For some reason, I found that uk youtube links didn't work in China.

However, you can find them in China just by googling for the reference number from the youtube link.

Anything that may remotely reflect on the Chinese gov't doesn't load in youtube. One of my best mates is a T'tan film maker and I can't look at anything of his on youtube - or for my favourite T'tan orphanage.

 

Just finished watching "The No 1 ladies' Detective Agency', a BBC production based on the books.  It was lovely!!  Interesting Botswanan scenery, African music and well acted.

The Man From Earth

Very, very talky--one group of people in one room with big ideas--great stuff!
And because of Tony Todd, just a tiny, tiny, tiny bit reminiscent of Night of The Living Dead

 

Gran Torino

I can't tell.  It's either charming or it's corrosively ugly.  It's both?
The language is hilarious.

What did you all think?

 

The Man From Earth was a surprise. I'd never heard of it and watched it a few months ago and thought it was great. I think the ending could have been different, leaving the viewer to decide.

I loved Gran Torino I'm a Clint fan though.

I can't tell.  It's either charming or it's corrosively ugly.  It's both?

Both I think and it's what made it great.

The best movies I've seen recently are

Slumdog Millionaire
Milk
Frost/Nixon

Especially Frost/Nixon.

Just watched Gran Torino. It was awful, almost unwatchable. This was mainly due to the acting. Clint was better when he didn't speak, and the kids they've got in it are worse.

Anyone seen Seven Pounds? Or The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas? Great films, definitely worth checking out!

Well, see, I recongise the kids.  They both played characters that I've come across in real life, particularly the girl.  What looked like shit acting was what a friend of mine actually does in real life.

Clint was a puzzle.  His character was either inconsistent or someone I've never met before.  Sometimes he was past-oriented and made of clay, and other times he was future-oriented and thoughtful.

The real question for me is: all that stilted acting, was it true to a particular kind of life, or was it stilted acting?

Because if it was stilted acting, then the storyline is unreal too--made of reality and writer's bandaids.

Closure, closure, closure--weird feeling of no closure--in which case, maybe the uncomfortably unclosed loose end sense of it all really is teh realz.  That's why I called it maybe ugly.  Base.  Coarse.  Too real.

3 episodes into Madmen, and falling in love.