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[A-Train]

Anybody see "Prometheus"? Curious if you were disappointed or taken in by the new turn it's taken.

[Calach Pfeffer]

Seen it, but it was a crappy cam version and I'm holding out for a dvd quality viewing before I make a final judgment because my impression is what Prometheus adds most to the Alien franchise is visuals. Even in a crappy cam version it's obviously all about the physical images. That said, the story form of Prometheus relies heavily on references to the earlier movies. It is in fact overburdened with references of all sorts: visual, thematic, character types, even actual pieces of dialogue and action sequences. The ending also pretty much guarantees a sequel too. But if it turns out to be pretty when I find the dvd version, as it seems like it will, I think all that will be okay.

[Granny Mae]

"The Sapphires" is the movie to see, particularly for the Aussies. It received a ten minute standing ovation at the Cannes film festival. Set in the late '60s, this is based on a true story  about four young  girl singers, from a remote Aboriginal mission, who went to Vietnam to entertain the American troops.  This will be a very popular movie. I grew up with Aboriginal friends and I nursed aboriginal people in the Northern Territory in the mid '60s. This is only my opinion based on my experiences, but I was disappointed in the frequent references to racial discrimination; a lot of this went over the heads of many of my fellow viewers, as most of them would never have interacted with an aboriginal person. As a matter of interest only, these ladies were part Aboriginal as can be seen at the end in the original photos of the group. I enjoyed the movie even though I could see where certain aspects were being (in my opinion) manipulated.

[Escaped Lunatic]

Watched Season 1 of The Walking Dead.  Time to visit the video pirates and get Season 2.

Real Steel - Rock'm Sock'm Robots meets BattleBots.  Mostly unrealistic (Unrealistic - bot arenas with no lexan walls to protect the audience from flying debris   Realistic - a superior bot WILL get slaughtered if the driver only spends 2 minutes testing out how to operate it) and very predictable, but fun to watch.

The Thing, 2011.  Excellent prequel!  They went to a lot of effort to make this one work well.  Now I need to find a copy of the 1982 film.  The last time I checked the video pirates didn't have it.

[Calach Pfeffer]

Dragon Baby

Also, three tv shows that got better recently: Walking Dead, Dexter, and Revolution.


ETA: People Being Awesome

[Granny Mae]

Every Monday I go to see a Classic Movie. Today it is "High Society" from 1956. There are about 60 of we "old farts" who go to see these movies. Last week We saw "Dracula" from 1931, starring Bela Lugosi. The week before, it was "The Maltese Falcon" from 1941. It's really nice to watch these on a big screen with your own generation. "All Quiet On The Western Front" from 1930 will be the earliest one, which will be shown next month.
On a different note, I saw "The Intouchables". This was based on a true story of the friendship between a handicapped millionaire and his street smart, ex-con caretaker. I really enjoyed this, but a friend did not like that it was in French with English Sub- titles. 

[kitano]

One of the things that has annoyed me this year is that there have been a lot of 'cinema' films that I've wanted to see this year but because everything comes out in China months later I've lost the enthusiasm I get from the internet and forget about it when it's out so I end up watching it at home

[Calach Pfeffer]

Recently...

Cloud Atlas - very like the book, except it seems to me they changed a lot of dialogue. The dialogue that's in the movie serves almost exactly the same function as the words in the book but I kept thinking they were using different words. Also, in the book the stories are chapters unto themselves (and aren't overshadowed by too recognisable, too much aged actors). Thumbs up for Doona Bae

Killing Them Softly - apparently it's not like the book, exactly, but I haven't read it so I don't know. The movie though is as modern noir as they come. It's either a coal black satire or an urban cowboys (and no injuns) story. Thumbs up.

The Hobbit - it reminded me intensely of the book - although the story details are changed somewhat, they captured exactly the sense of the minute interminability that story's journey had in the reading. Also, accustomed as I am to episodic tv, the fact that the movie ends quite obviously one third of the way through the adventure is okay. Thumbs up for epic scenery. (And for The Riddles in The Dark sequence between Bilbo and Gollum.)


And, bonus - Zero Dark Thirty - rather like a lot of recent cia-in-arabland detective semi-thrillers until they find the compound whereupon it gets kinda chilling. Thumbs up for historical relevance.

[piglet]

Wow thanks for the brilliant rundowns CP that is most helpful
Enjoyed Cloud Atlas now wish to read the book.
The others are intriguing. Was about to see Life of Pi although not keen on the 3D thing but it's already gone off here in Xiamen. Will catch it on our visit home,hopefully.

[Calach Pfeffer]

Although the list of movies that tell their stories better than the books is probably pretty short, it is worth reading Cloud Atlas. The Adam Ewing chapters are perhaps even more annoying than they are in the movie, but the movie glosses over much of the beauty in Robert Frobisher's letters (and Frobisher is an excellently realised character in the book, he has a vivid and astounding liveliness). Timothy Cavendish's antics are more detailed in the book too. Sonmi is about right (thanks to Doona Bae). And the message of the book....

Well, I'll leave something to the actual reading.

[A-Train]

"Argo" was pretty good. About the six Americans who hid out in the Canadian Ambassador's residence during the Iranian hostage crisis and how the fake film crew tried to get them out.

[Granny Mae]

I enjoyed "Argo" as well.   I keep a diary of the movies I see at the theatre and in 2012, I saw 161 movies. I keep the tickets and make brief comments about each movie. When I fall off the perch and my son finds all of this, he is going to wonder what he could have done to relieve his mother's boredom.   The heatwave which has hit Australia is about to move to Brisbane today, so I reckon this would be a good day to spend 3hrs in the movie theatre watching "The Hobbit".

[Calach Pfeffer]

Just saw Life of Pi.

Definitely must watch in a cinema or at minimum in dvd quality. A huge part of the story is visual and you lose a lot if you can't see it hi def (which I didn't-- )

Also saw Django Unchained.

Unsure what to make of this. Spaghetti Western, Blaxploitation, hyperreal history--or something altogether more meta? The film has three distinct acts so perhaps it's all three four.

[Stil]

Argo was very good indeed.

Quite liked The Hobbit. It was much better than Fellowship of the Ring. Which I thought was poorly paced and had some really bad acting.

[piglet]

Yes Argo was very well done.Will catch Life of Pi when I get home but I am scared I won't like it as much as the book.