Christmas Films

Im curious, anyone have any Holiday Film traditions? I of course do, I watch A Christmas Story, Home Alone, A Christmas Vacation, Charlie Brown, The Grinch, Its a Wonderful Life every December.  Oddly enough I also enjoy Lethal Weapon and Die Hard as Christmas Films!! LOL!! They do take place during Christmas!!  Your thoughts and Holiday film traditions?

Film Club- December Film

MOVIEmeter Top 5000 Up 482 this week View rank on IMDbPro » The Family Man (2000) 125 min  -  Comedy | Drama | Romance  -   22 December 2000 (USA) 6.6 Your rating:     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X   Ratings: 6.6/10 from 56,358 users

  Metascore: 42/100 
Reviews: 298 user | 124 critic | 28 from Metacritic.com

A fast-lane investment broker, offered the opportunity to see how the other half lives, wakes up to find that his sports car and girlfriend have become a mini-van and wife.

Director:

Brett Ratner

Writers:

David Diamond, David Weissman

Stars:

Nicolas Cage, Téa Leoni and Don Cheadle | See full cast and crew

FILM CLUB- November's Film!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles-1987

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KEITH!!

FAVORITE HORROR FILM

Being that its October, im curious what everyone's favorite horror film is.  Hands down my favorite is Saw! The style of the film and the story to me are just awesome! Definitely like the Original the best, the sequels progressively get worse with each one!  As a kid I still remember seeing Poltergeist for the first time and it scared the crap out of me! I had a tree right outside my window and that kept me up nights. I never liked clowns after that film! As far as the slasher type horror films go, the original Halloween-1978 and the Original A Nightmare on Elm Street rank as my favorites!

Happy Halloween and Enjoy some horror flicks this month!!!
Noel

OLIVER STONE

Favorite Oliver Stone film?

Savages-2012
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps-2010
W.-2008
World Trade Center-2006
Alexander-2004
Any Given Sunday-1999
U Turn-1997
Nixon-1995
Natural Born Killers-1994
Heaven and Earth-1993
JFK-1991
The Doors-1991
Born on The Fourth of July-1989
Talk Radio-1988
Wall Street-1987
Platoon-1986
Salvador-1986
The Hand-1981


I have a hard time choosing just one since I like quite a few of his films, Platoon, JFK, and Born on the Fourth of July rank up there!

Film Club October

I love October movies because I love horror movies. I don't care about all that stuff like pumpkins, candy apples, crisp air, changing trees, but a good scary movie helps pass the month by fantastically. Since I got the luck of the draw I figured that this would be a perfect time to get some of you to see one of my favorite new horror flicks....

Tucker & Dale vs Evil

Not a big horror fan? No big deal. This movie is more comedy than horror although there are a few gross scenes, as is evident 10 minutes into the film, this is no Hostel or Saw. The movie has very high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes from Critics (85%) Top Critics (90%) and the Audience (84%). Tucker and Dale are played by Alan Tudyk, from Firefly fame, and Tyler Labine, Reaper, respectively. And both of them bring the funny. But horror movies revolving around two rednecks needs a  pretty damsel in distress right? Yep, Katrina Bowden who plays Cerie on 30 Rock has that covered.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil is available via Netflix streaming for those of you with a streaming account. There are a lot of great quotes in the movie. This one is likely my favorite: "Oh hidy ho officer, we've had a doozy of a day. There we were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property." 

Hope you all enjoy!

Some new films coming out this fall that look good!

CLOUD ATLAS    starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/    View the trailer



LINCOLN    starring Daniel Day Lewis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tommy Lee Jones

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443272/    View the trailer


LES MISERABLES     Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/     View the trailer


SKYFALL    starring Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, and Javier Bardem

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/    View Trailer



ANNA KARENINA   Starring Keira Knightley, Emily Watson, Jude Law

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1781769/    view the trailer


DJANGO UNCHAINED   Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L Jackson.  Directed by Quentin Tarantino.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853728/#lb   view the trailer

FILM CLUB

September is almost gone and Keith is up as the picker for October!!! Only 3 days left!!

QUENTIN TARANTINO

Favorite Tarantion Film?

Inglourious Basterds-2009
Death Proof-2007
Kill Bill Vol. 2-2004
Kill Bill Vol. 1-2003
Jackie Brown-1997
Pulp Fiction-1994
Reservoir Dogs-1992


I have to say that I have enjoyed all Tarantino films! Its hard to pick a favorite, but Ill go with Pulp Fiction. I do have to say that I like Inglourious Basterds more and more with each viewing!

Clint Eastwood

Last Friday Clint Eastwood's new film Trouble with the Curve opened in theaters. It also stars Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman.     What is your favorite Clint Eastwood film?   Mine would be Unforgiven

A Room with a View

I have to say that watching A Room with a View was a little dry in my opinion. I kept waiting for things to pickup a little bit and then it did not. Even though the film won an Oscar for the writing, I thought a great cast of actors/actresses had little to work with in certain scenes which caused me to be detached to the emotion and feelings towards the charaters that the film was trying to get me to feel. I just never really got the point where I cared what happened to Lucy Honeychurch (played by a young Helena Bonham Carter). I was pleased with a couple surprise performances in minor roles by Denholm Elliott (Mr. Emerson) and Simon Callow (Rev Beebe), it was the luke warm performances of Helena Bonham Carter and especially Julian Sands that brought the film down a little and since they were the main characters, it just couldnt get me 100% invested into the film. I thought the cinematography (Tony Pierce-Roberts), the set direction and art direction were excellent but overall a so-so film in my opinion.  For a same type of a film I would recommend Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, for me anyway I feel it is a better film than A Room with a View.

Film Club film for September

Simon Birch (1998) 114 min  -  Comedy | Drama  -   11 September 1998 (USA) 6.7    Ratings: 6.7/10 from 13,725 users

  Metascore: 39/100 
Reviews: 217 user | 60 critic | 23 from Metacritic.com

A young boy with stunted growth is convinced that God has a great purpose for him.

Director:

Mark Steven Johnson

Writers:

Mark Steven Johnson (screenplay), John Irving (novel) (suggestion)

Stars:

Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello and Ashley Judd | See full cast and crew

Film Club/Film for August

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK-2008

Pan's Labyrinth

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had the opportunity to watch Pan's Labyrinth this month. I picked this movie because I didn't think this would be a movie most people would decide to watch due to the subtitles and it was worth checking out. Another reason is that I have been hounding Noel to watch it for probably over a year and figured this was a good way to get him to watch it! ;-)

It has been a while since I've seen this movie and it was almost like watching it for the first time. I forgot a LOT of some of the key points. I didn't remember it being as graphic. Some of those scenes were pretty realistic and gruesome (I'm thinking about when the captain smashed in the bunny hunter's face then killed him and his father).

What I liked most about the movie were the underworld characters. The imagination of Guillermo Del Toro is pretty amazing and he did a great job putting that into reality. I thought the characters were developed really well and had you really despising the captain. I liked the ending and the overall message of the film, which I took to be, be true to yourself and you will find salvation. Ok, maybe a little bit of a stretch there, but she knew she wouldn't become the princess of the underworld unless she gave up her baby brother and she refused because she didn't want any harm to come from him (even though he basically killed her mother). I guess the only thing I didn't understand was how the faun said it had to be blood from the innocent (or something like that). I felt like Ofelia WAS innocent so I d/k why she wouldn't have been able to offer up her hand.

I'd love to know what you thought of the movie (good/bad), so leave a comment and let me know.

Becki =)

Almost Famous

The movie of the month, Almost Famous, is a story roughly based on some of Cameron Crowe's experiences as a young writer.  It shows him touring with bands while he contributes to Rolling Stone for the first time.  Crowe of course would go on to be one of the magazine's most famous contributing editors.
       
The movie has several well known actors and actresses including Billy Crudup, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon and Anna Paquin.

Easily one of my favorite movies since it gives you some accurate perspective into the lives of rock and rollers during a time when rock and roll was being proclaimed dead.  Very well written film that allows its stars to shine.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Joe

June Film

Almost Famous-2000

Directed by: Cameron Crowe

Starring: Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, Frances McDormand

Movie Quote:
"One day you'll be cool. Look under your bed, it'll set you free."

Fearless

Bruce has been pretty busy lately so I will talk a little about Fearless and then he can chime in his thoughts when he gets a chance. I want to say I did like Fearless, I didnt find it to be a film that I loved but I did like it. Most importantly its a film that made me think about it days after I watched it and I always like that!  It was interesting to me to see the two main characters (Bridges and Perez) go two different ways in how they handled the aftermath of the crash yet they found a common bond between each other. I thought Jeff Bridges did a fantastic job playing Max, a man who seemed to have lots of fears now has none.It seemed as if Max was almost liberated in the way he used to be. I think everyone needs to find a happy middle ground on the way he became, dont let your fears control you but also embrace those friends and family around you.  To me the film represented how we can take life for granted and how "the daily grind" can become our way of life and that each moment we have on this earth to experience the great things of life and all the wonderful friends and family that we have, you just never know when your time is up. Peter Weir is an excellent director and if you all get the chance you should check out some of his other works which include Dead Poets Society, Witness, The Truman Show, and Master and Commander: The Far Side fo the World

I also wanted to say that I know not everyone has seen Fearless yet and I am doing my best to get the film to everyone, so I am extending the time to watch it and post into June so everyone can have a chance to see it, so if you havent seen it yet there is still time to do so.

Bruce should be posting soon about the movie Fearless and then we can all comment on his post.  JOE is on the clock for picking the movie for June!

Movie Club Film Pick for May

Fearless-1993   Starring Jeff Bridges

Bruce is on the clock to pick the film!

MOVIE CLUB

I wanted to say WELCOME to all the new members of the new Movie Club! I think this will really be a fun and entertaining adventure and I am really excited about it! Thank you to Keith for setting up this blog and sending out the invites to everyone! I hope everyone enjoys the Movie Club!

Noel

WORLD CHAMPS

Well guys after having a few months to let the championship soak in I have come to the conclusion that it was the greatest baseball any of us will probably get the pleasure to watch. Coming down to a 4% chance of simply making the playoffs, the cardinals played with their backs to the wall down the stretch, writing a story that holly wood itself would have deemed fantasy. The dominance that Chris Carpenter displayed in late September and October caught everyone off guard. Shutting out the Phillies at home in an elimination game had to be his greatest achievement of his career. Luckily for us it didn't stop there.

The entire way, the pundits, fans, even players from other teams (nyjer morgan) doubted the resolve of this team. As we all came to see, it didn't matter what anyone said except what came from within the clubhouse. Having several doubting moments myself since I kept making the mistake of listening to the pundits, I was elated in game 6 when Freese hit the ball off the right field wall. No question the most memorable moment in my sports viewing life. The only bittersweet aspect of the whole thing was the looming possibility of #5 leaving. I'll admit, after they won I had complete confidence that he would stay. Unfortunately this is another era of sports that we live in where team integrity has gone way down the priority list. The loss of El Hombre is painful but there is great reason to have hope in what this team can do in 2012 and beyond. The addition of Beltran and getting Waino back will be a giant boost for the new manager. I look forward to 2012 and seeing what Matheny is made of. The era of Albert, Tony and Dave has come and gone and I am so grateful to have been able to witness it.