Movies you want to see?

[Tonichelle]

I have six that I want to see this month alone, plus a few coming out in February

So far the ones I want to see are

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Iron Lady
War Horse (I know it came out in December, still need to see it!)
Haywire
Joyful Noise
Man on a Ledge
Big Miracle
The Vow

and those are just the ones in the next two months!

 

[Olympia]

I don't get to see many movies, but I did see Hugo, and I recommend it. What a great use of 3-D! It's for adults as much as it is for children, because the idea of early movies is so fundamental to the plot. (That may be the part I like best, even.)

 

[Johar]

I liked War Horse.

I still want to see Melancholia. It had limited release and won't be on video until next month.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is also on my list to see.

 

[Olympia]

I want to see The Iron Lady as you do, Toni. It sounds as if Streep is amazing.

I also very much want to see The Red Tails, the upcoming movie about the Tuskegee Airmen. Red Tails sounds like an odd name for an action movie, but that was what the Airmen were called because the tails of their planes were painted red. For those who aren't familiar with the Airmen, they were a group of African American pilots and support crewmen who flew fighter escort for the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. Though a few Airmen themselves were shot down, I don't think they ever lost a plane they were escorting. It was a great moment in American history because before that, African Americans were restricted largely to menial jobs in the military. Though the Tuskegee Airmen were segregated from other fliers, they trained and risked their lives with the same intensity, though they were technically not combat pilots. (They certainly flew into combat!) After they achieved such a sterling success rate, it became ludicrous to keep African Americans out of combat positions and other key military posts. Many of the Airmen later became influential politicians, businessmen, and other leaders in society. Others remained in the military and rose through the ranks.

I can't wait to see what the film has done with such a compelling story. There was an HBO TV movie of this material some years ago, but alas, I don't get HBO and have never seen it. Has anyone else here seen the earlier movie?

 

[Dee4707]

Did anyone see the Descendents???

 

[CoyoteChris]

I bought the swedish version of "Girl with the dragon tatoo" on amazon and it was excellent! Subtitles and all.
Sherlock holmes was excellent and better than the first instalment.
The descendents is on my list but I dont have to see that at the theatre...it will be fine on DVD.

 

[Tonichelle]

Olympia - while the history is amazing, i'm not going to watch Red Tails in theaters it's written by George Lucas, and judging by the previews the story will - as in his other latest films - be more about the crappy CGI scenes than the actual story. I hated the new Star Wars trilogy and the fourth Indy for those reasons. Lucas was a good storyteller, until technology blinded him.

 

[Olympia]

Oh, Toni, I didn't even think of that. Could he really have flattened out such a wonderful story into a techie tale? Now I'm nervous. The new Star Wars trilogy did the same for me as it did for you. Apparently one got a much greater understanding of the backstory by following certain sites online. This immediately alienated me. If a movie doesn't speak for itself and one has to be an initiate to appreciate it, I walk away. I'll look really carefully at reviews of Red Tails before I go, if I go.

I have to say, I'm tempted by Joyful Noise. I love singing movies, and I find Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton to be very appealing actors.

I'm sure War Horse is both well told and beautiful, but I'll wait until it's on DVD. I've never been able to watch World War I movies. It's heartbreaking to watch Europe tear itself apart. That war completely derailed the twentieth century, especially the aftermath at the Versailles Conference, where the allies' vengeful treatment of Germany set the stage for World War II. If it's a really good film, maybe I'll watch it on DVD, where I can pause it or leave the room from time to time. Let us know what you think of it if you see it.

 

[Johar]

I'm glad I saw War Horse in a theater. Be sure to bring kleenex. Jeremy Irvine, the young actor who portrays the owner, is handsome!

 

[Tonichelle]

Well, I don't think anyone tells WW2 stories like Spielberg. He feels very close to the subject it seems and does such a fair job in the telling in films like Schindler and Private Ryan... I'm really excited to see him tell WW1, which was the "prequil" of sorts.

Revenge of the Sith was decent and more of what I figured teh trilogy would be (when I was in Jr. High and Epi 1 came out I was in love, but only because Ewan McGregor caught my eye, but I was still very much a child - just ask of teh folks that were on GS a couple years later when I showed up. LOL So I found the simpleness of the film entertaining... not so much in high school/college). But, the BOOK versions of each film are so much better than what they put on the screen (they weren't written by Lucas interestingly enough). Made me wish the movie's had gone about telling the books and not the Lucas script. So stupid! As you say a movie should speak for itself.

Indy 4 was even worse, it was like Lucas decided to just mash all of his and Spielberg's most epic movies into 2 and a half hours (I really wanted to see at the end Indy recreate the ending of ET, complete with an "Indy Phone Home" quote. SO STUPID!) If there's an Indy 5 I will cry, and not with joy. I know Spielberg gets hit hard for his 1941 film, but I think Indy 4 is so much worse... because Indy had such a high standard before that.

 

[Dee4707]

Did anyone see J. Edgar Hoover???

 

[heyang]

Did anyone see the Descendents???

I didn't but my co-worker did. He didn't know much about it, but left the theater very satisfied with the experience.

My boss also highly recommended War Horse. He said the time flew - that's how good it was.

As for me, I want to see
Tin-Tin (haven't had time)
War Horse
The Vow
Iron Lady (after watching Meryl Streep on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night - btw, her guest house is haunted.)
Extremely close, incredibly Loud (although i suspect that this will be watched via DVD )

I also can't wait for THE HUNGER GAMES in March.

 

[Tonichelle]

Did anyone see J. Edgar Hoover???

I don't ever watch a movie with DiCaprio in the theaters because he is sooooooooooooo one note for me and I don't want to pay for that, but I plan to view it on DVD.

 

[CoyoteChris]

I will go see Redtails, especially after having met some of them at the Reno air races. I will say ref Toni that as a pilot, aircraft mechanic and air race nut, the CGI is aweful and cartoonish on the trailer I watched on the computer screen, but I saw the trailer at the movie theatre and it works better. The story is the main thing.

 

[Tonichelle]

I will go see Redtails, especially after having met some of them at the Reno air races. I will say ref Toni that as a pilot, aircraft mechanic and air race nut, the CGI is aweful and cartoonish on the trailer I watched on the computer screen, but I saw the trailer at the movie theatre and it works better. The story is the main thing.

meh it still looks like overly computerised for the sake of being computerised... and Lucas has always been weak in the storytelling... especially now that they have the "magic" of computer generated images.

 

[Olympia]

I will go see Redtails, especially after having met some of them at the Reno air races. I will say ref Toni that as a pilot, aircraft mechanic and air race nut, the CGI is aweful and cartoonish on the trailer I watched on the computer screen, but I saw the trailer at the movie theatre and it works better. The story is the main thing.

Chris, I forgot that you're so interested and active in aviation. I remember you were at Reno when the plane crashed, weren't you? You've met some Tuskegee airmen? I am so jealous. There's a wonderful incident that I hope is in the movie. Eleanor Roosevelt was a great supporter of the success of the Tuskegee program. At one point, when it was in danger of being suspended, Mrs. Roosevelt went down to Tuskegee and said, "I'd like to go up in a plane. Will one of you take me?" So a young pilot took the First Lady up in a plane for a spin. Mrs. Roosevelt was no fool. She was accompanied by news photographers, and the pictures went national. There was no question of suspending the program after that.

http://newsdesk.si.edu/snapshot/eleanor-roosevelt

 

[CoyoteChris]

Thanks! Great story. One year at the Reno air races, some Redtails were guests of honor. Like many famous pilots, astronauts, etc, they come up to the crazy fan section, section 3, and sign our orange T-shirts.
Here is Lt Col James Harvey signing a guy's shirt next to me...and a pic of he and my friends.....very nice gentleman. He should be in the film.
http://s1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd385/CoyoteChris303/Reno/

 

[Olympia]

Oh, that is so cool! Thanks so much for showing us those photos. I'll look him up in my book about the Airmen.

 

[Tonichelle]

I know it's almost sacriledge to suggest that Spielberg could top Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. But he told an amazing and EPIC story in "War Horse". I cried buckets, and I don't cry at movies (though I did cry at Toy Story 3...). Go see it, but get ready to cry... we ALL did...

 

[Olympia]

You saw it? Great! I will probably cry also, when I get to see it, which will probably be on DVD. I loved Schindler's List also. It's amazing how personal and human Spielberg managed to make a story of such scope and intensity. Interesting that we were talking about how Lucas has tended lately to flatten out character and plot in favor of special effects. When I watched that fourth Star Wars movie (the one with Jar Jar Binks and Anakin as a boy), I was astonished at how Lucas could completely waste Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman (who as a teenager had already proved herself to be a good actress and a scene stealer). Then you look at Schindler, with the very same Liam Neeson, and the difference is like night and day. What an amazing viewpoint character around whom to tell the story of the Holocaust, as well.