What Movie Did You Just Watch? ...Rises

[Barbossa]

The African Queen - The original Jungle Cruise movie! Haven't seen it in ages. Still great.

[PixarFan2006]

POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)

Definitely not as good as Super Size Me, but still an interesting look at product placement, the ways companies advertise their products and the ways we advertise to millions of people.

[dvdjunkie]

The Cowboys (1972) Blu-Ray

Among the best, according to most critics, along with myself, of the John Wayne westerns not associated with John Ford. Directed by Mark Rydell, the film tells the story of Cattleman (Wayne) who is deserted by most of his drovers because gold was discovered in California. Seeking counsel from his close friend (Slim Pickens), it is suggested that maybe he should try to recruit the boys from school, which is getting out for the summer and would give them something to do. At first he balks at the idea, but after talking with the kids and putting them through a test of 'busting broncs', Wayne decides to give it a try.

One of the baddest characters in a western appears in the presence of Bruce Dern, and he becomes one of the best villains on the silver screen and his career got a big boost from this movie. Won't tell you why, you have to see the movie to figure that out.

Filled with a lot of great action, and an all-star cast, mostly youngsters under the age of 18, this movie is just one of the best made about this era of the American West.

The Blu-ray transfer is amazing, and Paramount has given this the full 'road-show' treatment, complete with an Overture, Intermission and Exit Music. On a scale of 5 stars, this movie gets a top dollar at 5 stars. Truly a wonderful motion picture that has withstood the sands of time.

[Persephone]

Howl's Moving Castle - 2004

Just watched this with a friend the other night. Didn't expect to care for it that much, but to my surprise it was very good. I liked a lot of the characters and the animation was gorgeous. The only downside was the last thirty minutes being a total mess, but other than that, quite nice.

8/10

PS Am I the only one who doesn't find Howl all that hot? I just found him too... pretty, I guess.

[ajmrowland]

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

wow. my first time viewing after years of recommendations and this one's *not* overhyped. it's hilarious! and we still get character moments that make us like them. life goes by fast, so lets just live it.

[Persephone]

Spite Marriage with Buster Keaton. Though I've heard it wasn't all that great, i enjoyed it a lot. It's no Sherlock Jr. or The General, but still enjoyable and has many memorable bits, like the famous scene with Buster trying (and mostly failing) to get his drunk wife into bed.

7/10

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Lilo & Stitch - It's still my favorite Disney Animated Classic of the last decade. Seriously, it's awesome.

[BelleGirl]

Bruce Almighty Probably the third time. It was fun, but I think I don't have to watch it for a fourth time.

[dvdjunkie]

Soul Surfer (2011) Blu-ray

Director Sean McNamara brings to the screen the true story of courage and faith in the life of Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a vicious shark attack while surfing with her friends.

Bethany Hamilton is a World Class Professional Surfer today, but her message is strong and full of hope for many who think there is nothing else to do when they are faced with roadblocks in their careers.

Bethany is portrayed by AnnaSophia Robb, and while she is almost a foot shorter than the real life Bethany, she doesn't fall short in her portrayal of this teenager with a boat-full of dreams that was almost sunk by losing her left arm to a shark.

Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt portray her parents, and Carrie Underwood brings a lot of heart in her first movie role as Bethany's Youth Counselor and friend.

This movie is a must see for everyone. It isn't preachy, but does show what deep faith can do for someone who has family support and support of her church family to get through the obstacles of life.

This film gets a strong 4 out of 5 stars.

[ajmrowland]

Sweeney Todd

i love musicals and this one is so delightfully twisted.

all the Terminator movies

salvation makes a lot more sense now(it was the first one i saw) the first is a little dated, but good. 2's my favorite and 3 has a massive plothole regarding 2 and doesnt spend enough time on the "Rise of the Machines".

[SillySymphony]

(Movies rating scale 1-5 ✰s)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) ✰✰✰1/2 :
Liked the spirit of the film; Not cheesy, but genuine tribute to the comic and era. At times I 'wondered' whose movie it was; There was alot of Howard Stark. And just the little Avengers advertising bits annoyed me. If you want to attach a trailer at the end of the movie ok, but don't go threading ads through the entire film. And I don't care for "The First Avenger" subtitle. Let the Captain speak for himself!

Soul Surfer (2011) ✰✰✰1/2 :
2nd viewing. Dropped my original rating down a half star because Carrie Underwood's acting was distracting. I understand it's her first 'big' roll, but it wasn't to par with AnnaSophia Robb's character. I more felt the heart in the words she said, but not the way she said/acted them. There should be a strong actor in that roll and I didn't feel that Underwood was the best choice.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) ✰✰ :
Got my pointless comedy in for the month. I enjoyed the special features more than the movie.

Les Miserables (1998) ✰✰✰1/2 :
Well played all around. I enjoyed the first half more; The second act dragged.

Stauffenburg [Operation Valkyrie] (2004) ✰✰✰ :
I think was my first ever full-length (live action) dubbed movie. Needless to say the English dub was pretty bad. I would've watched in German with the subtitles on, but I was outvoted by my family. It was well acted, though the movie timeline went by either to quickly, was confusing, or just didn't play well on screen.

Becoming Jane (2007) ✰✰✰ :
Saw this tonight on NBC. The stupid football game went over their designated time limit, so the news was late, which cut into the film time and in effect the movie was a half hour over when I started watching. I still rated it because I don't think it'll change. In short: Great cast, wrong film. I liked it as a Austen themed story, but felt they blew her life and character out of proportion.
--
Whew. That was alot. Goodnight now.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Funny Girl - One of my favorite 60s musicals. Barbra is wonderful and no one could have pulled it off better than her. This needs to be on Blu-ray soon.

The Red Shoes - This film was great, too. It was my first time watching it and I really liked it; I might even get the Criterion Blu-ray eventually.

Black Swan - My favorite film from last year (even though I first saw it in January). Seriously, I've watched this maybe a half-dozen times and it still never gets old. There are new things to spot each time and Natalie Portman one hundred percent earned her Oscar. One of my favorite films ever.

And I just started watching 1931's Dracula and it starts off with some of Tchaikovsky's score from Swan Lake (which means all of these films have some portion of Swan Lake in them; I didn't even plan that!).

[ajmrowland]

the other guys-frankly, it sucked. granted i watched the extended cut, but ftmp, jokes fell flat, characters were unlikeable, and i actually got upset with a few of the fictional jackasses. it was hard to warm up to whalberg and ferrell, but towards the end the movie started to get better, but that's usually too late. there were funny moments, but they were few.

Hanna-a good movie and a nice modern take on fairytales, a bit cold though .

[Dr Frankenollie]

I just watched Miller's Crossing; I watched part of it some time before but was a little bored by it, but this viewing was mesmering and left me hungry for more Coen Brothers material. I don't want to go into details, but it's unquestionably a masterpiece, the performances are superb, the moral issues well-written, the story surprising and original (although that's the norm for the Coens), the spectacular set-pieces are burned onto my mind's eye, and the quick-witted black comedy developed through the dialogue left me in stitches. Definitely in the top three Coen Brothers movies of all time, right behind The Big Lebowski and (of course) Fargo. All three are both some of the greatest movies of all time and some of my favourites (and in the case of Miller's Crossing, added to both my favourite list and greatest list rather recently).

[Lazario]

<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... poster.JPG" width="200" height="300" border="0">



Not exactly the great return to tension and terror for Wes Craven after the disaster of Cursed. But a perfectly watchable Hollywood thriller. The first half hour drags quite a bit but, it's smooth sailing after that. A little too smooth, actually. Like most of Craven's post-Scream 2 filmography, it's afraid to take any real chances. I didn't care about anyone, I was surprised by anything that happened, and if you can believe this- the little blonde girl (the one in the yellow jacket) was actually a better fleshed out character in the bloopers than in the finished film.

[Barbossa]

On Blu-Ray, Star Wars:
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

They all look great! - despite the weak scripts and directing. Currently watching Episode IV.

[Lazario]

decided to get that head-start on Halloween season after all:


Uncle Sam (1997 / directed by: William Lustig)



While this is easily more sophisticated and rewarding than Lustig's 1980 pig-in-shit wallowing sleazefest, Maniac, it's little more than a point-and-laugh circus of stereotypes. Oh, sure, it's funny on occasion. But never when it should be. Ya know? Example: some random surfer-lookin' punk of the Pauly Shore / Beavis & Butthead stock is an early, unwitting survivor of a graveyard massacre prized to live only so he can be the town's elected singer of their 4th of July celebration's "The Star Spangled Banner." Of whom I predicted the worst (in that way in which I didn't really want to be right- in this case, who wins?): he's going to give some kind of David Arquette meets Sam Kinison rowdy, tonedeaf grunge rendition of the tune. Not only did he do that, but he sorta mooned the audience when they didn't like it (sorta as in- he was wearing boxers the whole time). I guess this could have worked, but the audience were smiling while booing and hollering their unconvincing "get off the stage"s.

There's little to no rhyme or reason to the killings, but you basically imagine his victims are all people he'd be against if he weren't Freddy Krueger-ized. He kills only one victim to the beat of a one-liner, so we're meant to both be refreshed that he's the only victim done-in this way while fearing that all victims will get the Leprechaun treatment. Meanwhile, the movie's reason-for-existing is to push political buttons. The movie's protagonist is a hero-worshipping little boy who says things like "I'll always do whatever the President says because he knows better" and shames his draft-dodging teacher in front of his entire class (summer school...?). Somehow this puts him at odds with his mother's scum-sucking boyfriend who brags about his tax shelters and defrauding the government at the dinner table. So the boy pulls a weird Monkey's Paw meets Tina from Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood and kinda brings the dead zombie Uncle back from the grave to kill "unpatriotic" people. Well, until Isaac Hayes tells us he's just a dumbass psycho who kills for the fun of it. Which I guess makes it convenient that most of the victims are pot smokers, graffitiing jocks, lecherous pervs, crooked politicians, and boxer-flashers. Although, honestly, nobody here is a really likable character. Except for the draft-dodging teacher (and he's like the cute little monkey in a cannibal flick- what do you think will happen to him?) and the extremely underdeveloped wife of the dead soldier.

Anyway, there are a few saving graces. Even though the death scenes aren't as fun as they should be, the film has a little style. The acting sucks since most of the cast are unknowns but the camerawork is good and there's some awesome stuntwork at the end. There's some pointless nudity but considering you'd expect to see some old codger in a wheelchair via-the Vietnam Vet stereotype, there's a kid instead marred by a firework accident. This leads to a very strange scene involving the Uncle Sam character rubbing his face for a couple minutes while cryptically suggesting he's going to... service the boy in some way. Yikes. It could have been worse, is what I'm thinking. But a lot of it is boring. I'd easily recommend Dr. Giggles instead.

[ajmrowland]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
this time in imax. it was a good screen. i expected the sound to have more volume, and the print had some frequent dirt. after the last two imax movies i saw, i expected a little feeling of motion. it was there, especially in the minecart scene, but i guess when the other two movies were Superman and Spiderman............

[PeterPanfan]

Yesterday I watched the first four Final Destination movies, prepping to see the most recent in theaters soon.

I've always loved the first, but had never seen the other three.. I really enjoyed them. FD2 was legitimately a good horror film. and I thought 3 put a unique spin on the series, but 4 was just unoriginal and trite (still enjoyed it though...)

I've heard 5 is the best out of all of them, however, so I'm excited!

I also encourage everyone to see Drive, starring Ryan Gosling. It's fantastic, and has already moved up to my Top 5 of all time. Such a breath of fresh air onto the art of filmmaking.

[dvdjunkie]

ajmrowland wrote: (after watching HP7.2 IMAX

this time in imax. it was a good screen. i expected the sound to have more volume, and the print had some frequent dirt. after the last two imax movies i saw, i expected a little feeling of motion. it was there, especially in the minecart scene, but i guess when the other two movies were Superman and Spiderman...........

What kind of IMAX theater do you go to. Is it a true IMAX with a monster screen (minimum of 80' x 120')?

From what you wrote, it definitely wasn't a Digital IMAX theater and was probably just a theater that shows 70mm prints that are IMAX prints. The would affect the sound also.

A true IMAX theater is full digital projection and sound and when I saw HP7.2 at our World Class IMAX theater, some people had to leave the theater because of the motion. I thought there was a lot of involvement for the audience in the 3-D IMAX picture I saw.

Just curious if you have a true IMAX theater where you see these movies. Doesn't sound like you do.

Check out our World Class IMAX Theater in Wichita, Kansas.

www.warrentheaters.com