What Movies Did you Love in 2006?

Parent Cafe
41

<p>Diamonds bought that war. I saw a program couple of weeks ago on the History channel about Sierra Leone, it made my skin crawl. Diamonds played a huge part in that bloody mess.</p>

42

<p>My friend who is a movie fanatic recommends Pan’s Labyrinth, Little Children, Little Miss Sunshine, and Children of Men. He predicts the following films to be nominated for Oscar Best Picture: The Departed, The Queen, Babel, Dreamgirls, and Little Miss Sunshine.</p>

43

<p>Of course diamonds didn’t cause the war, but they abosolute provided currency for it, i.e. the purchase of weapons. A few years ago the NY Times Magazine did a thorough story about how the warring factions in Liberia manipulating the trade in diamonds to finance their armies.</p>

<p>And Russell Simmons is a boob for taking $$ to shill for the diamond industry.</p>

<p>By the way, I met both Afrikanners and British South Africans and the accents in the movie were accurate, including DiCaprio’s.</p>

44

<p>Here are the Oscar candidates:

  1. Best Picture: “Babel,” “The Departed,” “Letters From Iwo Jima,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Queen.” </p>

<ol>
<li><p>Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, “Blood Diamond”; Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”; Peter O’Toole, “Venus”; Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness”; Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland.” </p></li>
<li><p>Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Volver”; Judi Dench, “Notes on a Scandal”; Helen Mirren, “The Queen”; Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”; Kate Winslet, “Little Children.”</p></li>
</ol>

45

<p>Pride & Predjudice was wondeful.</p>

<p>“The Illusionist” was good, if clipped.</p>

46

<p>Sunshine looks like the little Sundance movie that could…</p>

47

<p>Well, now that the nominees are out, I need to hurry up and see the few movies I’ve missed: Happyness (we’ll probably go tonight to avoid the television) and Pan’s Labyrinth. Also need to take my husband to King of Scotland. </p>

<p>All this to feed the delusion that we are voting members of the Motion Picture Academy!</p>

48

<p>Sunshine? Oh man… I sure hope not. I guess that one’s gonna be the sore point of this year: it seems to be the one we’ve got the most disagreement about here, anyway.</p>

<p>IMNSHO, Sunshine was ‘eh’ as a movie, occasional laughs, formulaic, forced, nothing special. Brief entertainment. NO WAY was it the best picture of the year. But of course that’s why many types of movies are made, so we’ve all got something we see and come away from saying, “That was really great.”</p>

49

<p>In the beginning of the movie, DiCaprio had a few ‘oy’s’’ in his vowel sound-- more of an Ozzie accent than a SA accent. I live amongst and work with both nationalities–and the Ozzie slips made me jump–but I will ask around to see what the SAs thought…</p>

<p>I am not sure the point about the blood on the diamonds was well illustrated in the movie. Diamonds have been a form of currency for…how many centuries? It’s a bit like having oil underneath your soil–or gold or uranium. Except for Australia–which may come under pressure from the Chinese in centuries to come–many of the ore-laden lands are blood-soaked. Is that at the root of that civil war–or is there a more believeable political aim behind whoever is organizing the unrest?</p>

50

<p>diamonds were not the reason. Diamonds made it possible for the rebels to buy weapons abroad and continue the horrific conflict. Rebel army had diamond fields under their control. Rebels kidnapped people and made them diamond-mining slaves. Then diamonds were sold to the largest conglomerates through third parties like Taylor in Liberia.</p>

51

<p>The level of Oscar buzz is a fairly accurate predictor of which movies will be nominated. My friend got 4/5 of the Best Picture nominees right without having watched any of the films. Letters From Iwo Jima came as a surprise, not because it’s not great (it most likely is) but because it didn’t generate enough buzz. The Academic Awards is really mostly about popularity and emotional appeal (for example, Scorsese is poised to take Best Director b/c voters are purported to feel bad about his losses in previous years despite coming so close almost every time). Critics associations are better at critiquing films for what they’re worth.</p>

52

<p>I loved The Illusionist. Not Oscar-worthy, but a classy, entertaining film.</p>

53

<p>Blood Diamonds was just released in Africa. Thought CC reader’s might be interested in reading what SA critics had to say…</p>

<p>

<a href=“http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3635711&fSectionId=347&fSetId=251[/url]”>http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3635711&fSectionId=347&fSetId=251&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

<a href=“http://www.samoviemag.co.za/reviews[/url]”>http://www.samoviemag.co.za/reviews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

54

<p>well LMS was def. weird, but imo thats what makes it special, original and funny, all at the same time.</p>

55

<p>3 of us went to see Pan’s Labyrinth after reading about it and seeing previews. All of us hated it. AAARRRGGGHHHHHHH … used up my choice for the next year.</p>

56

<p>After reading the description, I decided Pan’s Labyrinth would NOT be my cup of tea. Thanks, sax, for confirming that impression.</p>

57

<p>Hmmm. I was going to try and be open-minded and see “Pan,” but now I think I’ll wait and grill the next live person I meet who has seen it. I’m really not into fantasy movies.</p>

58

<p>We just got home from seeing ‘Volver’ and enjoyed it–even if it was a tad longish. Very European–some of the whimsy of Fellini along with the use of the red screens of Bergman.</p>

<p>What a difference seeing Penelope Cruz in a Spanish movie. She is superb–and sensationally beautiful. Supposedly she put on a few pounds for the movie–all of which went to her chest to the delight of my H–but she refused to gain too much and Almovadar put a posterior cushion on her. You can see the outline of it in a few frames.</p>

59

<p>I needed to add some movies to my netflix queue so thought this thread would be perfect. I tried to look up the Directors cut of Kingdom of Heaven but what’s listed is the movie Kindom of Heaven and then another disc (seperate), bonus materials, which I thought was strange as they usually come together. I checked on Amazon and see that the Directors cut is a 4 set dvd. Guess I’ll just wait until netflix gets that. Added the Illusionist.</p>

<p>I saw the Devil wears Prada and enjoyed it but didn’t think it was that great and it was pretty darn predictible. I checked out the book “Children Of Men” after a patron raved about it last week but couldn’t get into it. She had said it was one of her very favorite books and while the movie was different both were “wonderful”.</p>

<p>Two of my favorite DVD’s were Everything is Illuminated and The Worlds fastest Indian. I think they were done in 2005 though. My kids go to the movies much more then me. Both boys have seen The Pursuit of Happyness and liked it and Eragon - both disappointed after having enjoyed the book.</p>

60

<p>I had to wait a long time through Netflix to get Devil Wears Prada. My mother thought that I would really like it. It is finally being mailed out today.</p>