<p>Another vote here for Argo, which we saw this afternoon. It’s a very well-directed, suspenseful, and believable movie. The only one who looked like an actor (although there were a bunch of very recognizable faces in the supporting roles) was Affleck.</p>
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<p>Our son was with us, as he had planned for a while to come home this weekend (and will now be home at least through Tuesday, as his school has cancelled classes due to the impending hurricane apocalypse.) We had a great discussion with him over dinner about the movie and the '70s.</p>
<p>We also loved Argo. We went to see Chasing Mavericks last night and were surprised at how good it is. I knew that there would be great surfing scenes–there were–but I didn’t expect a touching story as well. It’s nice to see a movie with real excitement, and the scary waves are real, not special effects.</p>
<p>Stranger than Fiction; Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman</p>
<p>Don Juan DeMarco; Johnny Depp as someone who may be a reincarnation of Don Juan and Marlon Brando as his psychologist</p>
<p>Shall We Dance - the original Japanese version</p>
<p>Tampopo (about noodles) A Taxing Woman (About a Japanese tax investigator), and anything else directed by Juzo Itami. Absolute riots.</p>
<p>Last seen: Noodle - Israeli movie about a stewardess who winds up with a 7-year old Chinese boy on her hands. Well acted, feel-good movie</p>
<p>Simon and The Oaks: Swedish movie about two boys and their families in World War II-era Sweden, with some unecessary Ingmar Bergman-like plot twists but otherwise food for thought.</p>
<p>I guess I will have to watch Pirate Radio again. I just remember Bill Nighy.
. More Hoffman in State & Main-“light” Mamet also with Rebecca Pidgeon & William H Macy, and in Almost Famous. ( w- Michael Mccready on guitar;))
I would love to see him on stage. </p>
<p>Cloud Atlas sounds intriguing but I don’t know if I could walk after sitting for three hours.
Maybe I should read the book first.</p>
<p>Just got back from Argo - loved it. Extremely well crafted film, with a terrific cast. John Goodman and Alan Arkin were predictably brilliant, and there were excellent performances from Bryan Cranston (rapidly becoming my favorite character actor) and Kyle Chandler - really, the entire cast. I especially liked the performance a guy named Scott McNairy gave as the hostage who spoke Farsi. </p>
<p>I haven’t ever been a fan of Ben Affleck as an actor, but he’s directed three feature films, and they’ve all been very good (Gone Baby Gone) or better (The Town and now Argo). He isn’t the kind of leading man who makes you see a story from his perspective, which worked well for this movie. Highly recommended.</p>
<p>And speaking of directors: we saw previews for “Hitchcock,” which looks wonderful. Anthony Hopkins as the director, Helen Mirren as his wife, Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh. It’s about the filming of Psycho and the unique relationship between the Hitchcocks. Opening in limited release in November.</p>
<p>Also saw previews for the November 15th showing of To Kill a Mockingbird, being presented by Turner Classic Movies at theaters across the country. I hope I can persuade my husband to go - it’s one of my favorites and I would love to see it on the big screen.</p>
<p>Odd having two “Atlas” films simultaneously. Atlas Shrugged part II is on too. Looks like a very different cast from part I, and like it, someone who’s not familiar with the book probably will have a hard time following the plot. Like the first movie, the plot takes in today’s setting.</p>
<p>Saw Argo; liked it; it didn’t feel like a 2 hour movie. I did get a little tired of the ole’ suspense machine kicking in with another nail biter on the way to lift off. I came away thinking it was good because Ben Affleck wasn’t it in too much, but of course he was in most of the scenes - he just didn’t look or act like Ben Affleck. Good job all around.</p>
<p>Saw Animal Kingdom via Netflix. Slo-o-o-o-o-w but H says it has a good pay off. I don’t know – I couldn’t watch anymore after the first hour, and I had to watch that in 2 sessions. Plus having a 16 year old boy makes it hard to watch a movie where so many bad things happen to a 16 year old boy. Not violence – just heartache and strife. And lots of bad choices.</p>
<p>Watching the first of the Lord of the Rings tragedy for about the tenth time this afternoon while Sandy descends outside. Every now and then it just hits the spot. And I have a thing for Viggo . . .</p>
<p>HBO has a movie called The Girl right now about Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren. Thanks for the heads up on the Psycho movie. We will make sure to catch both of them. Cannot wait for son to come home for Thanksgiving. I think he and I are going to be watching movies together round the clock.</p>
<p>I saw Argo this week and absolutely loved it. Saw Cloud Atlas today and was disappointed. Hard to follow and very hard to understand the dialogue. Between the accents and the invented language…it was a lot of work. I really wanted to like it. Amazing cast, incredible makeup, great concept but…I think it was trying to do too much. I was distracted throughout the movie trying to identify who was playing which roles. As I was doing that, I was missing parts of the story. I also felt some of the writing was trite. Death being a door, when one closes an other opens. C’mon. unoriginal to the point of embarrassment, IMO.</p>
<p>The nail in the coffin was Bae Doo-na trying to be passed off as a caucasian at the end of the movie.</p>
<p>Just caught the tail end of Almost Famous on cable this morning, and lo and behold, there is Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dwight from The Office, and Zooey Deschanel.</p>
<p>I am so looking forward to Skyfall, but we will wait until Sunday as we plan to spend Saturday watching the Bama/TAMU game on TV.</p>