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maggie b.
Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 2252
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 Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 11:35 am Post subject: |
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Public Enemies
2009
C
Wow! This story about the take down of Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson could have used some real editing. The performances were excellent, everything about it perfect. Except it was long and drawn out.
maggie b.
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Susan/DC
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 1598
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| Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 9:21 pm Post subject: |
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Margin Call
2011
Can't say I loved this movie because it's hard to love a movie about the financial collapse, but I liked it. I've never worked on a trading floor but I have worked in financial services for many years, and the dialogue and characterization rang true to me. Stanley Tucci plays a risk analyst who realizes something is very wrong with the firm's mortgage investments. Zachary Quinto plays a young analyst who has a PhD in physics but went to Wall Street because the pay is better (am I the only one who finds his eyebrows distracting?). Paul Bettany plays a somewhat more senior analyst. Jeremy Irons plays the very smooth and very scary head of the firm, and Kevin Spacey is not what you think he is. These men are very good at what they do, very focused, and in some ways completely amoral. Interesting film. |
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xina
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 6628
Location: minneapolis
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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We went to Warhorse last weekend. A good movie, beautifully done by Steven Spielberg, but good lord, the things the horse had to go through to get to the reach the happy ending. (yeah, that is spoiler, but after seeing so much sadness, you will want to know) I had a problem watching the portrayal of the mistreatment of the horses and at times I just wanted to leave the theatre to take a breather. My husband kept asking me..."are you alright." No!, no..I am not alright!! I know this is based on a children's book and was on Broadway, but goodness...be warned if you go to see this movie. The battle scenes didn't bother me. The suffering of the horses and one bad thing after another made this movie emotionally draining. Still, I respect the beauty in the movie so I'd grade it a B-, but it's probably an A+ for many. I'm a big baby when it comes to animal movies. Always have been.
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Niftybergin
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 1066
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| xina wrote: | | We went to Warhorse last weekend. A good movie, beautifully done by Steven Spielberg, but good lord, the things the horse had to go through to get to the reach the happy ending. (yeah, that is spoiler, but after seeing so much sadness, you will want to know) I had a problem watching the portrayal of the mistreatment of the horses and at times I just wanted to leave the theatre to take a breather. My husband kept asking me..."are you alright." No!, no..I am not alright!! I know this is based on a children's book and was on Broadway, but goodness...be warned if you go to see this movie. The battle scenes didn't bother me. The suffering of the horses and one bad thing after another made this movie emotionally draining. Still, I respect the beauty in the movie so I'd grade it a B-, but it's probably an A+ for many. I'm a big baby when it comes to animal movies. Always have been. |
This was not an enjoyable movie for me. I won't call it a "bad" movie, because I don't think it is. But it was also not very watchable. I watched a lot of it with my hands over my eyes, and there was one scene in particular where I was crying so hard and feeling angry and just wanting the scene to hurry up and be finished. I can't watch the suffering of animals. I know in movies that the violence in pretend violence, and usually I'm fine with it. But that's when it's violence between people of equal ranks. These horses didn't enlist. They didn't ask to go to war. They were just stuck in this horrible, man-made situation, and it hurt to see them treated as expendable. My mother got up and left the theatre with 30 minutes still in the film and never came back. She hated the movie...called it "malicious." I didn't hate it, but I also didn't like it.
Years ago my father quipped that the movie COLD MOUNTAIN should really have been named, WAITING FOR THE NEXT BAD THING TO HAPPEN. WAR HORSE was the equine version of that. |
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Susan/DC
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 1598
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 7:19 pm Post subject: |
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I saw the play "Warhorse", and because the horses are portrayed by lifesize puppets it's easier to deal with what happens. The play is so beautifully staged that the horses feel quite real, even though you can see the people inside the scaffolding. The author wrote the book precisely because he was appalled at what happened to the horses in WWI.
As for movies, I saw 5 movies in the past three weeks: "Hugo", "My Week with Marilyn", "A Dangerous Method", "Tinker Tailor", and "The Artist". My favorite of the bunch was "Tinker Tailor", which had me on the edge of my seat. The only one I didn't like was "A Dangerous Method" (although I loved the dresses). "The Artist", which is silent and in black and white, is fun and different. If we were categorizing them as we do romance novels, they are all historicals (although some more historical than others). Two deal with the history of motion pictures, but I don't know that there's any larger meaning in that fact. Lots of good acting. |
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Niftybergin
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 1066
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm going to see TINKER, TAILOR this weekend. I need a Colin Firth fix. |
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PWNN
Joined: 11 Apr 2010
Posts: 818
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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War is malicious - after all it is hell. And not just for beautiful horses. But yeah, I'll be skipping that one.
Susan, have you seen the BBC mini series with Alec Guinness? If so how does the film compare? I'm wondering how they compress that much information and machinations into a 2 hour film.
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LeeB.
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 1221
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Niftybergin wrote: | | xina wrote: | | We went to Warhorse last weekend. |
This was not an enjoyable movie for me. |
I thought War Horse was well done but it was sad to see what happened to the horses. But at least it was good to see that there were people on either side of the war who cared about the horses.
There were a lot of likeable character deaths. That was incredibly sad too.
| Niftybergin wrote: | | Years ago my father quipped that the movie COLD MOUNTAIN should really have been named, WAITING FOR THE NEXT BAD THING TO HAPPEN. |
If I had known that Cold Mountain had ended the way it did, I wouldn't have gone to see it. And that's why I checked out BEFOREHAND how War Horse ended.
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Lea AAR
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 403
Location: Oklahoma
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| Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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It's about time to start a new movies thread. I'll need to lock this one around 220 posts. So, anyone up to starting a new thread?
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Lea AAR
Audiobooks Bookshelf at Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4403718 |
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Lea AAR
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
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Location: Oklahoma
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