<p>Just got back from the movies with S. Attempted to see Australia, which was sold out. Went to Benjamin Button instead and we were both TOTALLY blown away. It is beautifully made, moving, unusual…I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>I agree with DonnaL re: Slumdog Millionaire - I found it a bit overly sentimental. Also, had read so many gushy reviews that I think my expectations were too high. Still one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time, though. Teenage D2 (14) LOVED it. </p>
<p>Want to see Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, but the subject matter is just so NOT my cup of tea. Think I would enjoy it more on DVD. </p>
<p>Just rented Burn After Reading on DVD. Will watch it tomorrow night. Other recent views include The Orphanage – in Spanish. More eerie than horror. D’s and I thought it was very good, S’s were unimpressed. Tropic Thunder-- stupid, but had to admit I cracked up in a few spots…
Will not bother to rent Mama Mia. Saw it at the movies this summer. I know some people really loved it, but I had a lot of trouble sitting through it. Found it just dreadful.</p>
<p>I didn’t really think The Wrestler would be my cup of tea either – I haven’t watched professional wrestling on TV since I was about 9 or 10! – but I was wrong. Warning: some of the wrestling scenes are extremely gruesome and bloody (staple guns, barbed wire, realistic-looking tears and holes in flesh), and I was pretty much covering my face and cowering in my seat.</p>
<p>Australia was a huge disappointment. Bad acting, terrible dialogue, way too long – just awful.</p>
<p>We saw Milk today – we delayed seeing it until my d. was home so we could see it together. (Unfortunately this meant that it was no longer playing at The Castro theater on Castro street, which was where we wanted to be when we saw it.) It is very good – I found it very odd to watch it as someone who has very vivid memories of living in SF at the time and of the events, because Sean Penn did such a great job as Harvey Milk, and the casting for the other roles was also so dead on. (of course, that means that after we got out of the theater, the kids had to listen to me reminisce)</p>
<p>I like Valkyrie. Because the ending is obvious (it’s about a plot to assassinate Hitler, so you know how that goes), how everything unravels is riveting. I find World War II in general to be fascinating, but I think even casual moviegoers can enjoy the suspense. Thought it was well done, and it brings to light a lot of the efforts even Nazis made to resist Hitler.</p>
<p>Benjamin Button. Just o.k. in my opinion. A bit too long. DS liked it a lot. DW and I not super impressed. I give it a 6 on at 1-10 scale. I do want to see Slum Dog and The Wrestler.</p>
<p>Forced to see Me and Marley yesterday because of extended family wishes. If it really is a true story, I would have put the dog down years ago. Way too long, and way too boring. It was just typical family life with a too-big-for-the-house dog. It probably was a nice column in the paper, but not enough for a movie.
I don’t get to the movies enough… I’m so jealous of those of you who saw Milk, Australia, Benjamin…can’t wait to see Revolutionary Road…filmed in my town. Horrifying book, though.</p>
<p>We ended up seeing “Seven Pounds” today. My H did not care for this movie at all. He found it to be a complete waste of time and money. We don’t get out to movies too often. On a scale of 1-10, I’d only give the movie a 3 or 4. I would wait to see this on DVD if one were going to see it this movie at all. It was slow moving and the first hour sort of dragged. Storyline became pretty predictable, IMO.</p>
<p>Just in from Frost/Nixon. Ron Howard does a great job of capturing the tension in the “battle” for lack of a better word between David Frost and Richard Nixon. The guy who played Nixon did an amazing job of portraying him.</p>
<p>I was out of the country in the Navy when this story (the interviews, not Watergate) unfolded so I missed it at the time. </p>
<p>All in all well worth the investment of time and money to see this film.</p>
<p>Saw Valkyrie tonight with D. We both liked it, although I probably was more enthusiastic than D was. I found it fascinating, especially through the prism of knowing the plot to kill Hitler wasn’t successful. I hadn’t read about any of the many attempts to assasinate him and was interested in finding out what went wrong with this one. </p>
<p>I thought Cruise was very good in this role, although as critics and others have mentioned, it was somewhat distracting that he was the only one who had an American accent throughout.</p>
<p>H hates Tom Cruise so wouldn’t go with us, but after we discussed it with him, I think he’ll see it eventually.</p>
<p>Next up, hopefully Frost/Nixon or Benjamin Button…</p>
<p>Slumdog Millionaire–Amazing.
Valkyrie–Pretty good.
Australia–Kind of a guilty pleasure, but I still loved it.
The Tale of Desperaux–haha I saw that with my dad, he loves kids’ movies. Cute, but slightly dark children’s film.</p>
<p>On my list of films to see: Slumdog Millionaire
Revolutionary Road
The Reader</p>
<p>A bit of a hijack here, but just watched “Eagle Eye” on DVD. One of the worst movies I’ve seen in a long time. Sooo glad I didn’t pay money to see it at the theater.</p>
<p>Northeastmom pretty much wrote my review of Seven Pounds. Had I read hers sooner I might have saved myself some agony. I found it tedious and ultimately predictable. Halfway through the movie my wife noticed me waving at the screen (Come on already, get on with it!) I have no problem with the acting. I just wonder how such an inane script makes it onto the silver screen.</p>
<p>I finally saw Milk tonight, and thought it was great. I remember these events all too well, even though I was living in New York the entire time. Hard to believe it’s 30 years ago, almost.</p>
<p>I very much liked the way that at the beginning of the closing credits, the faces of the actors who played each role changed to photos of the people in real life. Somehow, even though Sean Penn doesn’t really look much like Harvey Milk, I think he captured him amazingly well. I’m still kind of partial to Mickey Rourke for Best Actor, but I certainly wouldn’t complain if Sean Penn won.</p>
<p>I couldn’t help thinking that despite the similarities (in some ways superficial, in some ways not) between the Proposition 6 fight back then over firing gay teachers, and Proposition 8, an enormous amount of progress has, in fact, been made. Maybe you have to have been around back then to appreciate just how much the general culture has changed with respect to gay people. Even though it had already changed – there was a <em>huge</em> difference between, say, the late '60’s and the late '70’s.</p>
<p>Of course, there are still LGBT people being fired from teaching jobs. The fight that was won 30 years ago for gay and lesbian teachers in California hasn’t been won yet in parts of the country, at least not completely.</p>
<p>Most of all, seeing this movie made me so incredibly grateful that my son was born in 1990, not in 1950 or 1955 (when I was born), or even in 1960. And that he’s never personally experienced (and, I’d like to believe, never will) the shame and fear and self-hatred, the destructiveness of the closet, that was so familiar to just about every LGBT person who was born back then. (Leaving entirely aside the risk of getting AIDS, before anyone even knew about it.)</p>
<p>If I’d been born in 1990, I think my life so far would have been quite different from the way it actually was my first 18 years, and for more than 25 years after that.</p>
<p>Better me than him, though. It makes me very, very happy to know how lucky he is in all those respects. He knows it too, I think.</p>
<p>Slumdog Millionaire-Sentimental and cute. GREAT CINEMATOGRAPHY.
Milk-Powerful and inspiring. Brilliant cast ensemble. Sean Penn deserves the Best Actor Oscar.
Burn After Reading-Best comedy I’ve seen in a long time.
Synecdoche, New York-I’ve never had to take so much brain power to TRY to understand a movie. But, though you’re still utterly confused at the end, you know that you’re watching a great movie and still end up in tears.
Benjamin Button-Beautiful score and cinematography. Great story, minus the current day New Orleans/hurricane plot.</p>
<p>Want to see:
The Wrestler
Revolutionary Road
The Reader</p>
<p>I saw Slumdog Millionaire today. It was so powerful that I’m still processing. My D1 is in India right now on study abroad. I’m glad she saw this movie before leaving. Others have said that there is no other real contender for best picture.</p>
<p>We had to walk out of Slum Dog Millionaire. DH was going to be sick when the young boy was going to be blinded. He was overwhelmed by the poverty and the exploitation of children. He could not sit and see it as a form of entertainment.</p>
<p>We didn’t like Slum Dog Millionaire. My daughter spent the summer in New Delhi and she definitely did not like the movie. She says the depiction of poverty was very realistic - but she did not like seeing it presented in that context. Too much of a conflict between some of what was depicted and the overall tone & theme of the movie.</p>