| 28 JUL 2010 at 4:40pm |
anthonyJourneyman
Posts : 1270
Joined: 11 JUN 2003
Status : Offline | I must offer a dissenting view on Grown Ups. I did not think it was funny or interesting. If Selma Hayek wasn't so hot, I would have left the theater.
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| 28 JUL 2010 at 5:56pm |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Can anyone please tell me what they thought of the TV miniseries "Mists of Avalon?"
THE MISTS OF AVALON, a TNT original miniseries adapted from the acclaimed 1982 epic novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley, transports viewers to King Arthur's Camelot and focuses on the strong and powerful women who ruled over the kingdom. Viviane (Anjelica Huston), her sisters Morgause (Joan Allen) and Igraine (Caroline Goodall), and her niece Morgaine (Julianna Margulies), fight to protect their country, their religion, and their people, as King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table battle the Saxons.
I missed the series and am on the edge of buying the DVD, but I have no idea if it was good or not?
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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| 28 JUL 2010 at 7:16pm |
TechnoSpikePrivate Detective
Posts : 581
Joined: 26 APR 2005
Location: PT
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By colpet (28 JUL 2010 11:04am)
My apologies, Techno. :-[
Caroline, Top Chef is one of the few shows I watch. They are shooting a Canadian version too.
No worries Colpet! I was only "pulling your leg"! The spoiler amount was very light and it only served to spike my already high curiosity for the new season! 8-)
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| 28 JUL 2010 at 7:44pm |
StilerJourneyman
Posts : 1464
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, TN
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By placeholder (28 JUL 2010 5:56pm)
Can anyone please tell me what they thought of the TV miniseries "Mists of Avalon?"
THE MISTS OF AVALON, a TNT original miniseries adapted from the acclaimed 1982 epic novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley, transports viewers to King Arthur's Camelot and focuses on the strong and powerful women who ruled over the kingdom. Viviane (Anjelica Huston), her sisters Morgause (Joan Allen) and Igraine (Caroline Goodall), and her niece Morgaine (Julianna Margulies), fight to protect their country, their religion, and their people, as King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table battle the Saxons.
I missed the series and am on the edge of buying the DVD, but I have no idea if it was good or not?
I watched it but don't remember much about it expect it bored me a bit and I ended up missing parts of it.
If you haven't I'd highly suggest you watch Merlin. The made-for-tv series staring the excellent Sam Neill.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130414/
I loved it when it came out and watched it recently and still found it wonderful. It follows Merlin more then Arthur or anything and tells more of a personal journey for him then the King Arthur tales usually.
Also it might be of interest to you if you haven't to catch the Merlin tv series (British show). It doesn't follow the mythos really and does its own thing, it's like a prequel tale on Merlin/Arthur when they are young.
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| 28 JUL 2010 at 8:09pm |
AShadowWalkerPrivate Detective
Posts : 776
Joined: 6 AUG 2009
Status : Online | This is quite a change for me since usually I am only posting in Off-Topic. I am not playing any games now so just as well the adventure game postings are for the time being off limits as well for me.
Not Movies!!!! I'll just start with 2 I like this time.
I’ll keep the descriptions simple and bare, so that it won’t spoil it for those who want to discover a film for themselves.
Okay…let’s see. Want to see Christian Bale pre-Batman, and wearing a really cool coat, and likewise Taye Diggs without a beard, you can try the title “Equilibrium”.
It’s the usual movie with fascist state environment, dogma, cool state slogans, and party flags...you know…take the pill and be happy getting rid of your emotions which only will cause you heartache for unrequited love, parental loss at your parents who are also on “the Pill”, no playing with yourself…
repressed and depressed religious authoritarians cheer!!. [smiley=clap.gif]
No depression, no lust, no wanton and debauched feelings for the next door neighbor with whom you share the travel train with…..and pine for….oh!, sorry about that, I am on the “Pill” too!...I’m depressed now!.... [smiley=doh.gif] okay, you know the drill folks.
The film is a pure escapist turn into a possible future where the usual hero is slowly turned by the resistance into the one capable to bring down the regime by being the one most trusted to get access to the head of the State of Libria, and eliminating him.
That is why fascist governments usually fail, at least in the movies. Almost always all power resides in one figure head. Get rid of it, and it is often chaos time, when everyone else scrambles for supremacy. That is when the insurgents can strike the best blows for freedom.
It’s nice to see how slowly Christian Bale gets to regain his humanity back from his role as an obedient servant of the state. Like I said it is one that you just have to let your mind relax and enjoy the ride. Not that the movie is a total dog.
No. It is quite a head scratcher at times. It also sports nifty gun Kata’s, sword fights, gun play that would make the matrix guys yellow with envy. Readings by Yeats, Shakespeare, and Ohhhhh yess!!
It has Emily Watson in it too. [smiley=love.gif] Only for a little while, but that makes the film worth watching for me.
Another film that you could add to your roster of good films is “Ip Man”, not the “Ip Man 2”, but the first. The second is….how to put it? Flushable!
It is a breath of fresh air to finally see a traditional Chinese martial arts movie that does not have the Shaw Brothers paws on it! And likewise it isn’t “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”; no…they don’t fly through the air.
The movie unlike the Jet Li, Jackie Chan movies and Hidden Dragon, this one has REAL KUNG FU! And it is good…very good! And neither is it boring. And did I mention that the fighters do not fly!
The movie is an attempt to shed some light on the man who personally trained Bruce Lee and where he came from, but although it is not a great biographical movie, it still shines as a movie with real Chinese martial art.
Watch it. You will enjoy it. Did I mention that it takes place also during the Japanese occupation of China in the late 1940’s?
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| 31 JUL 2010 at 1:21pm |
New WolfboySpace Cadet
Posts : 133
Joined: 27 JUL 2010
Status : Online | I'm also rather hooked on online-streamed episodes of MST3K 8-)
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| 31 JUL 2010 at 2:54pm |
HelenGuild Master
Posts : 3436
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Well I AM still a "Survivor" addict along with "Amazing Race".
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| 1 AUG 2010 at 9:39am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | There's an American program on our TV called Monster Moves and it's just mind-boggling. People hire teams of specialist movers who have giant trucks and cranes and they shift entire buildings, mostly intact but sometimes cut into pieces.
Some of the moves do seem rather trivial - especially the law library that got shifted 90 yards next door.
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| 1 AUG 2010 at 11:00am |
colpetSchattenjger
Posts : 1630
Joined: 12 APR 2003
Status : Offline | Just saw another couple of good films
The Education is a coming of age story about a 16 year girl who gets swept away from her acedemic path to Oxford by a dashing older man. It's a British film set in the 50s and it's a wonderful study of how misleading parental advice can be when marriage trumps education most times.
Coco Avant Chanel (French with English subtitles) follows the famous designer from her orphanage roots to when she just starts to become famous. I'm not sure how truly autobiographical it was, but it did put into perspective the impact of her comfortable, elegant clothes on the frou-frou and corsetted restraints of the time.
Occasionally visiting Uru Live (KI 0063722 .&&
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| 6 AUG 2010 at 2:15pm |
TechnoSpikePrivate Detective
Posts : 581
Joined: 26 APR 2005
Location: PT
Status : Offline | I'm still hooked on Supernatural! Great cast, good soundtrack, tons of funny references, it's really a great TV series to watch. Just saw last night another great episode: "Changing Channels", from the 5th season.
Short story, Dean and Sam are "pulled" to the TV world and that's a motto for a lot of TV series parodies:
Dr. Sexy MD (a spoof on Gray's Anatomy), the "generic procedural cop show", with parodies of Horatio Crane from CSI Miami, even Knight Rider gets thrown in the mix! Ah, not to mention one of the weirdest game shows ever... "NUTCRACKER"!!!! [smiley=rofl.gif]
Really, all in all, it's a great show, and these "special" episodes just add on to the fun of watching it!
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| 6 AUG 2010 at 2:18pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | This evening I laughed my way through Knight and Day. I'm not a Tom Cruise fan - quite the opposite - but the script was funny and the pace fast and frantic and the cinema almost empty.
A totally silly movie that had me green with envy wishing I could own a tiny tropical desert island like him. Next life, maybe.
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| 8 AUG 2010 at 4:07am |
StilerJourneyman
Posts : 1464
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, TN
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By TechnoSpike (6 AUG 2010 2:15pm)
I'm still hooked on Supernatural! Great cast, good soundtrack, tons of funny references, it's really a great TV series to watch. Just saw last night another great episode: "Changing Channels", from the 5th season.
Short story, Dean and Sam are "pulled" to the TV world and that's a motto for a lot of TV series parodies:
Dr. Sexy MD (a spoof on Gray's Anatomy), the "generic procedural cop show", with parodies of Horatio Crane from CSI Miami, even Knight Rider gets thrown in the mix! Ah, not to mention one of the weirdest game shows ever... "NUTCRACKER"!!!! [smiley=rofl.gif]
Really, all in all, it's a great show, and these "special" episodes just add on to the fun of watching it!
Wait til you get to the 'fan' episode, it's hilarious.
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| 17 AUG 2010 at 11:28am |
FnordSchattenjger
Posts : 2752
Joined: 15 SEP 2008
Location: SE, Stockholm
Status : Offline | Inspired by the game Mafia, I finally decided to watch the first The Godfather movie, and I must say, I was impressed by it. I usually don't watch movies, because I get bored by passive mediums, but here was a 3h movie that I managed to watch all the way through, without even looking at my watch one single time. That is a sign of a great movie.
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| 17 AUG 2010 at 8:46pm |
StilerJourneyman
Posts : 1464
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, TN
Status : Offline | Now you just need to watch Goodfellas, Casino, and Once upon a Time in America.
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| 17 AUG 2010 at 9:06pm |
Terry PenrodGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 6693
Joined: 16 OCT 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | .
Well yes, those are also great flicks about organized crime in America.
But he really should watch The Godfather II before moving on.
Cheers, Terry
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| 18 AUG 2010 at 8:40am |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Traveller makes a note to look out for "The Godfather" when she next visits her video rental place. I also spotted "Fight Club" there, which I saw so long ago that I'd basically forgotten most of the plot.
I'll get them next weekend. What a violent weekend it's going to be... Long ago as a kid I read some of The Godfather which I found in my father's library, before they found me reading it and took the book away from me. Admittely some of the scenes still stick in my head, such as Spoiler Alertthe horse's head served up on the pillow.
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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| 18 AUG 2010 at 1:19pm |
New WolfboySpace Cadet
Posts : 133
Joined: 27 JUL 2010
Status : Online | Although The Godfather Part 3 gets some flack, it's still worth checking out to wrap up the series.
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| 19 AUG 2010 at 3:05pm |
FnordSchattenjger
Posts : 2752
Joined: 15 SEP 2008
Location: SE, Stockholm
Status : Offline | I'll probably try to watch The godfather 2 this weekend or possibly sometime next week.
Most of the complains about the 3rd movie is usually in comparison to the first two, I've not actually heard anyone say that it is a bad movie. I'll check out the other movies when I have time, but passive mediums is usually not my cup of tea.
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| 21 AUG 2010 at 2:55pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | Today is election day in Australia so naturally - to get away from the interminable blanket coverage across all channels [smiley=yawn.gif] of the vote tally, we went to the cinema and saw Inception.
I thought the plot was nicely layered and the movie was well constructed although the absence of opening credits made it seem like just another trailer and our projectionist forgot to dim the lights so after a while a patron toddled off to tell him. LOL
I must say I wasn't emotionally wrapped in this movie and could watch it without feeling tense or scared which amazed me because I usually become immersed when watching films. It had scenes that reminded me of James Bond and I could see where my son would enjoy the call of duty feel to some of the scenarios.
I'd rate the movie an A but not A+. It was well crafted and entertaining but it lacked the emotional oomph to really pull me in and the ending was predictable and rather unsatisfactory.
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| 21 AUG 2010 at 3:43pm |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2349
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | I shall have to rent that one, I think. Few movies these days catch my fancy, but I think Inception might actually hold my interest...
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 22 AUG 2010 at 1:56pm |
New WolfboySpace Cadet
Posts : 133
Joined: 27 JUL 2010
Status : Online | I'm going to go ahead and throw in Moon.
It's a hard sci-fi very much like 2001 or Solaris. It's set, strangely enough, on the moon, and is based around the sole occupant of a mining station there, who has only the computer and memories of his family at home for company. It's an interesting look into isolation for a good bit, and then there's a massive twist in the story which totally spins it off into all kinds of questions about identity and what it is to be human. I'm giving no spoilers, because it's just that good.
Amazingly enough, it's directed by the son of David Bowie, and it's his first feature film. So it has all the making of a very promising career ahead for him.
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| 22 AUG 2010 at 10:03pm |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Zanafarr (22 AUG 2010 1:55pm)
I'm going to go ahead and throw in Moon.
[...]. It's set, strangely enough, on the moon, [...]
[smiley=laughing.gif]
I think I like you, Wolfboy. 8-) I hope that is ok...
...anyway, I was going to say that I did indeed watch Fight Club this weekend. I saw it previously long, long ago, before I knew there was a book by Chuck Palahniuk, so I had to watch it again, now that I do know.
Well, the movie was like.. like a movie of a book by Chuck Palahniuk -violent and contraversial, yet also humorous, even though most of it is rather black humour. One of those: "Makes you think" movies.
Even though I didn't quite agree with what was being said, I actually enjoyed much of the movie.. -except for the bit about where they get the fat from... - that was really yucky... [smiley=eww.gif] [smiley=zombie.gif]
I'd only read a plot synopsis of the book, enough to know that the movie follows the book pretty faithfully in spirit (though not 100% in detail, with quite a bit of a difference in the ending), and faithfully reflects the transgressional fiction genre that Palahniuk is known for.
I certainly hope that not too many people tried/will try to copy-cat in RL what went on in the film, and though I don't quite agree with the anti-consumerist views expressed therein, I know of a few people on this site, who might just agree with some of these kinds of sentiments expressed in the film.
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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| 23 AUG 2010 at 3:15am |
StilerJourneyman
Posts : 1464
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, TN
Status : Offline | I might not agree with it, in the way the film did, but I do think that sometimes people do get too swept up in buying "stuff," even things they don't really need and they let things go by that in the long run they'd want/remember more.
I had a friend who was married shortly after HS, he had a job and his wife/him were renting a place to live togther (since it was their first out of home experience). He ended up spluring with credit cards and spending it on things he didn't need, worked him and his wife into debt and eventually splintered them into a quick divorce and nothing but bills.
I remember studying on how even today, the certain tribes of people who are still away from society and live apart from the rest of the world in remote lands actually end up having over 80% of their time free to do as they wish, spend it with their family/friends, have fun, etc. Because hunting for food isn't actually that hard or long (if you live in a non-desert/stripped land, IE a rainforest/jungle area).
Sometimes I think even I'd be happier at times living back in the cave men era, just the open wilderness and friends/family.
Then I remember the internet.... :'(
Ah, enough ranting for me : p.
Moon was quite a good film, I really hope David Bowie's son does another film of that quality.
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| 23 AUG 2010 at 7:09am |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Stiler (23 AUG 2010 3:15am)
Sometimes I think even I'd be happier at times living back in the cave men era, just the open wilderness and friends/family.
Then I remember the internet.... :'(
.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean, Stiler... - what I love about our modern era, is that we have so much of humanity's cultural and artistic richness available to us - all that music, and literature, and films and games... -if I was still a cave[s]man[/s] er woman, I might have the time, but I would not have access to all of that... :-/
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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