What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

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miles monroe
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by miles monroe »

vacation. i don't think it will be in regular rotation on tv 30 years from now like the original, but it was a good way to kill an hour and a half in the air conditioning.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by LadyGeek »

Interstellar. The opinions in this thread run from "best" to "worst" movie ever. No doubt, it's the worst movie ever - at least for those above "B" grade production quality. Then again, maybe not.

They couldn't get any scientific concepts right. From launch, to landing and taking off, to black hole, it was just totally wrong. No, it was not so bad a movie that it was fun to watch, it was just bad.

The last part of the movie was the worst allusion to 2001 A Space Odyssey I've ever seen. I'll bet Stanley Kubrick rolled over in his grave when this movie came out.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by srt7 »

Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation
I would rate the MI series as 1,4,5,3,2 from best to worst. While the 5th one isn't as entertaining as the 4th it is definitely worth a watch if you liked 1 or 4.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by jebmke »

The English Spy by Daniel Silva
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by gkaplan »

jebmke wrote:The English Spy by Daniel Silva

That's recently published book, right, not a movie?
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by gkaplan »

Several nights ago, I watched the following to movies on Netflix:

The Wrecking Crew: In this 2008 documentary, the son of guitarist Tommy Tedesco pays tribute to his late father and a core group of studio musicians who played on some of the biggest hits of the 1960s and '70s.

Tig: This 2015 documentary chronicles the trials of comedienne Tig Notaro dealing with being diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by Lon »

I watched "Enemy At The Gates" on Netflix free download last night and enjoyed it. Apparently it was a true story about a Russian sniper in Stalingrad during WW 2.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by abuss368 »

The Prince on Netflix. Not bad.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by madbrain »

Munir wrote:
joe8d wrote:
denismurf wrote:Thanks to Lady Geek for reminding us that American Sniper is a movie, meant to entertain, not a partisan screed disguised as entertainment.
Not to entertain, but to inform and was not one sided.
Glorification of killing leads to murder on our streets.
The same Hollywood movies play in essentially every other country in the world, and yet the rate of murder varies widely between countries.
Movies are not a significant factor in murder rates. I don't think you will find either correlation or causation.

That said, I personally disliked the glorification of killing in American Sniper, also.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by madbrain »

Levett wrote:Mr. Holmes for the first time and The Drop for the second time.

Ian McKellen's performance in Holmes has been justly celebrated, but there's far more to the film than just his performance.
I saw Mr Holmes with my husband last night . We went to an 11pm show and had the entire theater to ourselves. And it was tuesday night, the chain's discount day,$6.50/ticket only.

Ian McKellen's performance may have been good, but we both found this movie to be very slow and the story not to be very interesting.
I'm sure the pace was intentional, but still, IMO it made it really difficult to enjoy the movie.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by madbrain »

srt7 wrote:Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation
I would rate the MI series as 1,4,5,3,2 from best to worst. While the 5th one isn't as entertaining as the 4th it is definitely worth a watch if you liked 1 or 4.
We saw MI5 over the weekend - I thought it was pretty good. I can hardly believe Tom Cruise did all these stunts himself, with the airplane, and the scary driving.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by madbrain »

We saw "Magic Mike XXL" on sunday. It was just terrible. Save your money. I never saw the original so I don't know how that compares, but I won't be watching it to find out.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by madbrain »

LadyGeek wrote:No, it was not so bad a movie that it was fun to watch, it was just bad.
If you want to watch a movie that's so bad it's fun to watch, I recommend Project Almanac. We rented this a couple weeks ago.
All the science in it completely laughable. I suppose that's somewhat to be expected with any time travel movie, but this is the worst I have seen yet in that genre. What the teenagers end up doing with the time machine is even more ridiculous, though.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by Levett »

Hi madbrain,

I mean this without offense. Yes, it is slow because it is "literary" (literally) . Holmes gets to write Holmes. It's no longer Conan Doyle writing Watson who in turn writes Holmes. This is why the focus of the movie is on the manuscript being written. We are witness to a composition.

My wife and I saw it a second time with friends. We found it to be an even richer experience.

With respect, Lev
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by stratton »

pezblanco wrote:Finally saw the latest Mad Max movie: Fury Road. Let's face it, when don't watch these movies to see something about character development, feelings, life philosophy or what have ... this is a Mad Max Movie for god's sake. :D

That said, this is the worst movie of the franchise.
...
Oh well. If you're a Max fan, you have to see it but this movie is a long long long way away from being "The Road Warrior"
Just saw this at the $4 theater.

You are so correct. By far the worst movie. This one is like taking the opening action scene and turning it into a movie. There is a good premise, but it doesn't deliver.

Paul
...and then Buffy staked Edward. The end.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by gkaplan »

Last night, on Netflix, I watched Casting By. Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Glenn Close, Al Pacino and others look at how casting directors have shaped the direction of Hollywood over the last fifty years. The 2012 documentary, directed by Tom Donahue, emphasizes the special role played by pioneer casting director Marion Dougherty.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by Fallible »

gkaplan wrote:Last night, on Netflix, I watched Casting By. Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Glenn Close, Al Pacino and others look at how casting directors have shaped the direction of Hollywood over the last fifty years. The 2012 documentary, directed by Tom Donahue, emphasizes the special role played by pioneer casting director Marion Dougherty.
Thanks, I'm glad to see this and will plan to watch it. I've always been interested in casting, especially when watching an actor cast against type, and wondered what it takes to know the right actor for a role. Seems very intuitive, in addition to a thorough understanding of the role.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by seeshells »

Money for Nothing, Inside the Federal Reserve by Liev Schrieber, again, :wink: It was more insightful this time around.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by abuss368 »

Watching "Aviator" on Netflix. Excellent.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by Dutch »

gkaplan wrote:Last night, on Netflix, I watched ...
What did you think? Was it good or bad? I found some good movies thanks to this thread. It really helps when folks state their opinion as well.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by gkaplan »

Dutch wrote:
gkaplan wrote:Last night, on Netflix, I watched ...
What did you think? Was it good or bad? I found some good movies thanks to this thread. It really helps when folks state their opinion as well.
I either really liked it, or I loved it. I can't remember which.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by LadyGeek »

Night at the museum: Secret of the Tomb. This is the 3rd movie of this series. Lightly entertaining, somewhat cute. There's no deep plot here, so you can just relax and watch it.

Without giving anything away, I thought the scene related to M.C. Escher was creative.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by abuss368 »

Local $4 theater - we watched Arnold's latest "Terminator Genesis". Not bad. I would much rather watch a 70 year old Terminator than many of films out there.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by pezblanco »

A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence. Swedish director Roy Andersson quirky sequence of
vignettes depicting ..... the futility of existence? An appreciation of some very dry humor and a love
for surrealism required. :D
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by jginseattle »

The Gift. A clever, twisty little thriller.

This review contains spoilers...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/movie ... .html?_r=0
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by MP173 »

Not a movie, but we have started watching "Ray Donovan" on SHO. Pretty good series.

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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by Lon »

I watched "The Physician" on Netflix last night and enjoyed it.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by a »

Lyric video for Avicii - Waiting for love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ncIVUXZla8

This video stuns me as Robert Markowitz's New York Times
article of yesterday did with its skill of minimalism and
understatedness (as a commenter said) in conveying the
deepest, most meaningful emotions.

(spoilers:)

Like the boy, the dog
must learn to earn happiness (if happiness is connectedness to
other people, perhaps through family) in society by contributing
through work. The first phase of learning to work for the dog is
the trudgery of individual contribution (the rainy streets with
the people and cars). Progressing beyond that he enters the realm
that fewer make it to, characterized by people starting to
pull away from you as they don't understand things of a higher
level. (so it's isolated and cold) Finally the dog breaks through
to the final arena.

Crucially, for final victory the dog has to overcome the obstacle,
the "test", where it seems impossible. Only by proving he can
(mentally) accomplish the impossible is he allowed to progress
through.

There's more - the end reuniting a
microcosm of marriage, and the first several seconds of the
video with the massive jump cutting but still
preserving the communication of growth from child to
adult - I watched it over and over.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by digarei »

pezblanco wrote:A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence.   Swedish director Roy Andersson quirky sequence of 
vignettes depicting ..... the futility of existence?  An appreciation of some very dry humor and a love
for surrealism required.   :D
I see few first-run movies these days (too many good ones in my collection) but the director's name, Roy Andersson, caught my eye. The first film of this trilogy, Songs From The Second Floor (Sånger från andra våningen) (2000 Sweden), is one of the most memorable films—with several of the most memorable scenes, I've ever seen.  Very, very funny. Very, very dry.

When a little girl's parents are put in the position of explaining to her why she should be happy to have been chosen to end her young life in a ceremonial suicide, it stirs emotions that intersect tragedy and horror with farce. I couldn't help laugh, to be amazed and bewildered at the arch seriousness of these people's endeavors and beliefs. So many great scenes.

I have placed 'Pigeon' on my short list. Thanks!


Note: 'Songs' is not a main stream movie
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miles monroe
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by miles monroe »

lets see...what can i say that is positive about "hot pursuit" with reese witherspoon and sophia vergara?

it was not as bad as "paul blart 2 - mall cop". thats about it.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by saladdin »

new2bogle wrote:I recently rewatched Interstellar. It solidified my belief that it's the 2nd best movie ever.
Perfect example of different tastes. Horrible movie to me.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by saladdin »

Fallible wrote:
gkaplan wrote:Last night, on Netflix, I watched Casting By. Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Glenn Close, Al Pacino and others look at how casting directors have shaped the direction of Hollywood over the last fifty years. The 2012 documentary, directed by Tom Donahue, emphasizes the special role played by pioneer casting director Marion Dougherty.
Thanks, I'm glad to see this and will plan to watch it. I've always been interested in casting, especially when watching an actor cast against type, and wondered what it takes to know the right actor for a role. Seems very intuitive, in addition to a thorough understanding of the role.

Funny you say that because the person this is mainly about, who cast some of the most critically acclaimed winners of all time, said it was all a gut decision. It kinda holds true for what I've learned in my life that most decisions, regardless of area, that are thought to be calculated choices by outsiders are more guess and luck than calculation.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by Fallible »

saladdin wrote:
Fallible wrote:
gkaplan wrote:Last night, on Netflix, I watched Casting By. Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Glenn Close, Al Pacino and others look at how casting directors have shaped the direction of Hollywood over the last fifty years. The 2012 documentary, directed by Tom Donahue, emphasizes the special role played by pioneer casting director Marion Dougherty.
Thanks, I'm glad to see this and will plan to watch it. I've always been interested in casting, especially when watching an actor cast against type, and wondered what it takes to know the right actor for a role. Seems very intuitive, in addition to a thorough understanding of the role.
Funny you say that because the person this is mainly about, who cast some of the most critically acclaimed winners of all time, said it was all a gut decision. It kinda holds true for what I've learned in my life that most decisions, regardless of area, that are thought to be calculated choices by outsiders are more guess and luck than calculation.
I'm still waiting for the doc from the library, but have been reading around it and yes, Dougherty, who should know, often referred to gut instinct and luck. No doubt there, but she first had to thoroughly understand the role, the character, and that's a matter mainly of intellect and perception, talents she also had (along with theatre experience good business sense, people skills, and innovative thinking). A one of a kind? The creative part seems to be knowing what a certain actor can bring to the role to give it a new dimension.

Btw, the guess and luck versus calculated choices you mention sound like the "expert intuition" written about by psychologist Daniel Kahneman in his book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow."
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by 64415 »

Watched "Nanking" last night on Netflix. A truly horrifying account of military barbarism against a civilian population. I would not believe the demonic acts described if I wasnt able to listen to the live interviews with the now elderly victims of the beastly assault and most importantly view the archival footage taken by the Westerners who didn't evacuate and tried to intervene to stop the carnage. 20,000 rapes and 250,000 murdered civilians in a matter of months ! Let that sink in. Even more shocking were the interviews with the elderly Japanese "soldiers". I would like to know the setting of their interviews as they all seemed so relaxed and at ease as they smiled and chuckled while describing in candid detail unspeakable acts of barbarism. Surely they must have been tricked into letting their guard down , perhaps with the subterfuge of a friendly interviewer, as they spoke so freely and without shame or remorse.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by countofmc »

The Drop starring Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace.

A well executed example of a familiar genre/ story. Good thing about this movie is you will know whether you will love or hate it probably within 10 minutes of it starting.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by kailash »

"Whiplash," perhaps the most disappointing alleged jazz movie since "The Gene Krupa Story." The misrepresentations and inaccuracies made this film a real cringe fest, painful to watch from beginning to merciful end.

At the other end of the spectrum, on DVD I re-watched "32 Short Films about Glenn Gould." Featuring a beautiful soundtrack, this film attempted to sympathetically capture a sense of the great pianist's unique personality, without judgement. Perhaps of note, the film included a vignette about Gould's famously successful placement of a daringly contrarian bet on oil prices in the 1970s. I would recommend this film to music lovers and non-music lovers alike, as well as to fans of Gould and those who didn't care for his musical interpretations.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by zagyzebra »

"Wolves of Wall Street," strictly for the decadently exuberant fun ride. Great film.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by sschullo »

“The End of the Tour” A noir genre.

True story. It is an excellent expose' of harsh realities and unintended consequences of fame.

The story presents the conversation between David Foster Wallace and his tag-along Rolling Stone interviewer.

Two conflicts:
1. The reporter’s motivation was to find out what it takes to be a famous writer and cannot understand why his interviewee rejects it.
2. A peak at the painful intransigence of a famous writer who wrote a 1000 page book essentially about loneliness, drug abuse, depression http://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Jest-Dav ... 0316066524 and finds out that he liked his prior life, an unknown and lonely nobody, as honest and real.

The topics that explore these conflicts are obviously intense: Jealously, paranoia, suicide, depression, relationships, city life vs. country life, idealism vs reality, and extraordinary stress and responsibility of fame.

Bio of Wallace: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/books ... .html?_r=0
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by abuss368 »

Nicholas Cage "Lord of War" on Netflix. Very good and I recommend it.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by LadyGeek »

"V" for Vendetta. A "political thriller." Not bad.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by snowshoes »

'Lets make Money' by Dr Mark Mobius. Its ok. It traces funds from VC, banks, or the like throughout its journey through the worldwide economy.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by pezblanco »

Just watched Trainwreck. It is an Amy Schumer comedy vehicle (Bill Hader plays the male lead). Lots of off color jokes (sex/drinking/drugs) that I thought really didn't hit the mark delivered with the subtlety of a rhino charge. Great reviews on Rottentomatoes but I don't know why. For Hader to be a good comic, he has to have better material than this ...
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by magazinewriter »

Danny Collins

A rock star receives a letter from John Lennon 30 years after it was sent. Based loosely on a true story. Funny and heartwarming.

Al Pacino - Excellent! Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner

I loved it.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by amateurnovice »

All of these are on Netflix currently:

Frances Ha (2012) - Greta Gerwig. Gerwig plays the title character (actually Frances Halladay, but you'll see what's comical about her name in the movie). She's a dancer that has little talent who strings together friendships to support herself as she goes through life whimsically. I tried watching it back in 2013 and couldn't make it through fifteen minutes as I knew what to expect from the Baumbach/Gerwig writing team. I'm not really into mumblecore, but this movie was actually really good. It doesn't fit the mumblecore genre typically attributed to Baumbach. Great soundtrack as well. 4/5 stars

The One I Love (2014) - Elisabeth Moss & Mark Duplass. Love story about two people who go on a couple's retreat to reinvigorate their relationship but have some supernatural experiences while there. Sorta funny, sad, insightful. 3/5 stars - good to watch on a Friday with a bucket of popcorn before bed. Neither exciting nor tragic.

Out of the Furnace (2013) - Christian Bale, Sam Shepard, Casey Affleck, Willem Dafoe, Woody Harrelson. Gritty, tragic thriller about two brothers struggling to make it in their depraved world of crime and violence. I think Bale and Harrelson might've been mistakes for their roles, but it's a decent if not underrated movie. 3.5/5 stars
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by gkaplan »

I watched The Manners of Downton Abbey last night. I borrowed the DVD from the library the other day. It’s approximately one hour in length and shows the painstaking steps the producers and actors take to ensure historical accuracy of Downton Abbey.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by abuss368 »

Rules of Engagement on Netflix.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by VictoriaF »

I flew Westward across the Atlantic yesterday and decided to use this time to catch up with some films I was curious about. (In normal life, I don't have TV, Netflix or anything like that. I go to international film festivals and subtitled films but avoid anything made in Hollywood.) The choices I made on the Lufthansa flight were:
1. The Wolf of Wall Street, very much worth it.
2. Leviathan, Russian. I watched it in the original language with English subtitles. The subtitles were lacking in representing the nuances of the dialog, and the dialog was important. The film was good but not great. Perhaps, I was underwhelmed, because some aspects of the Russian culture were not a novelty for me.
3. The Ghost Writer. I wanted to like this film, but it was overly politicized for my taste.

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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by LadyGeek »

Ran. A 1985 award-winning film which was inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear. In Japanese, with English subtitles.

It was a very realistic film, with impressive scenery and dramatics.
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by Sibelius »

Ran is is a great movie and I would love to see it again. Kagemusha is another late Kurosawa movie, even better than Ran and I love how he visually compares the crude thief with the elegant lord early in the movie. Both Ran and Kagemusha are pretty bleak, however.

In the past couple of weeks we have seen:

Mad Max: Fury Road -- pretty much one long breathless road chase. Not nearly as good as the Mel Gibson trilogy.
Mission Impossible 5: wonderful fun movie with plenty of action and a good plot.
The Gift: superbly written and performed, with good plot development and twists
Mr. Holmes: my wife and I watched this yesterday and loved it. Good script, great performances by everyone. A welcome change from all of the action movies!
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Re: What Movie Have You Recently Watched?

Post by amateurnovice »

ESPN's 30 for 30 has some great documentaries. I've recently watched three of them

Broke - It's about sports stars that make it big then go broke for a multitude of reasons: bilked by shady individuals, paying for friends and family to live beyond their means, or drugs. Perhaps the biggest reason is they immediately go out and buy big new things and never plan for life after sports. It also shows some stars that managed to keep it together, save, and invest wisely, something Bogleheads may be accustomed to. 4/5

Rand University - Randy Moss's hometown of Rand, West Virginia. Depicts Moss's rise out of poverty, collegiate mishaps, and his time in the NFL. Describes his hometown and how he's very lucky to be where he is. 4/5

Pony Excess - SMU was a powerhouse football program in the early 1980's, but it was built on a foundation of lies and money. Depicts SMU's ascension out of mediocrity through boosters and bribes into NCAA football prestige and the inevitable downfall after the discovery of being a repeat offender of NCAA violations. 5/5
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