Movies

[figureaddict]

Who else watches Movies? I know I do.
Just watched Ghost Rider: Spirtit of Vengance for the first time last night. Wow! .................................................T hat was terrible. Glad I didn't go to the Theater last February.

[figureaddict]

Also watched Underworld Awakening last week. Good movie if you like the genre. I'm not seeing how it grossed so much more than the original though.

[Jodo]

I watched Wizard of Oz for the first time today.

[Big Red]

We used to watch a ton of movies. At one point we had over 1600 DVD's. I think we sold off over half our DVD's. We don't have a DVD player in the living room, but we do have a PC hooked up to the TV so we can watch our DVD's on that. We have a TV with a built-in player in the bedroom, but we seldom use that TV at all, let alone the DVD player. We don't have cable and since the switch to digital TV we're unable to get a consistent signal for the local stations about 50% of the time (some stations always come in to a reasonable degree, others are virtually unwatchable and the rest are somewhere in between). The bulk of what we watch is Netflix, followed by PBS, EWTN and The Amazing Race (we watch very little broadcast TV and very few new shows regularly). We watch more TV shows on Netflix than anything, but we'll find the occasional movie on there or Amazon Instant Video that we want to watch.

We rented The Avengers a few weeks ago, which would have been amazing with a different director, but instead kept hitting me in the face reminding me why I hate Joss Whedon. We also watched The Terminator for the first time in years the other night. That was a blast. We watched Planes, Trains & Automobiles and Miracle on 34th Street over the last week or so, both of which are Thanksgiving traditions. Now we're starting in on Christmas movies. We watched One Christmas with Henry Winkler the other day. Not great, but not bad, either. We also watched The Miracle of the Bells with Frank Sinatra and Fred MacMurray. One of the reviewers said it was a Christmas movie. It wasn't, but it was still somewhat enjoyable. I'm wanting to watch The Artist, but my wife has been so tired lately that it's not something she'd be able to sit through.

We'll probably jump into the Christmas movies with both feet next week. I'm eager to see Die Hard again. It always puts me in the Christmas mood.

[figureaddict]

Die Hard, a classic Christmas movie. Who can get through a Thanksgiving withough watching Planes, Trains & Automobiles? It's mandatory.

[Big Red]

We'll usually add Better Off Dead to our Christmas viewing schedule. Another one we try to watch each year is I'll Be Seeing You. It has Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple. It's about as depressing a Christmas movie as you're likely to find. Joseph Cotten plays a shell-shocked WWII vet who's on leave from the mental hospital. Ginger Rogers is a young lady whose boss tried to rape her and while she was fighting him off, he fell out the window to his death. This being the 40's, she was naturally convicted of manslaughter, but is on furlough for the holidays. They meet on a train, fall in love, but don't want to tell one another what their actual situations are. It's pitiful and depressing, but in a fun, Christmas-y way.

We're trying to decide now when we'll have our annual Scrooge-a-thon. The version that's become one of our favorites is An American Christmas Carol, starring Henry Winkler as Benedict Slade, a Scrooge-like figure in Depression Era America. It was made in the late 70's and also has Dorian Harewood as the Ghost of Christmas Future. He wears a black suit (complete with big gold chain) that makes him look like a negative image of John Travolta in his white suit from Saturday Night Fever. He's from around here, and during my wife's last C-section, we had a Nurse Harewood helping out. They were talking about celebrities and one of the other nurses asked, "He's really your cousin?" I didn't hear who they were actually talking about and I didn't get a chance to talk to the nurse later. I still kick myself because she made it sound like she's in good with this cousin and sees him pretty often, and I missed out on at least a slim chance of getting him to sign my DVD, or at least being able to pass on my praises to the coolest Ghost of Christmas Future ever. Then again, I did have other things on my mind at the time.

[Jodo]

I hadn't seen A Christmas Carol until my professor made me watch several versions this Summer, in preparation for the Fall performance on stage. I can't say I really enjoyed any of them! Hahaha...Just not my favorite stor I guess!

The only film I'm looking forward to is Gangster Squad (which admittedly I thought was released several months ago). I'll also go see Oz: The Great and Powerful, just because I have decided I enjoyed The Wizard of Oz quite a bit, hahaha! A few other films I'll probably see next year are The Evil Dead, to see what all has changed, and then Star Trek Into Darkness, although the trailer wasn't really all that impressive IMO. I wish they'd actually "seek out new life forms", instead of just having another global threat. I'll have to check out Iron Man 3 too.

Going through a list of next year's releases, it looks like there will be a 300 sequel too. I didn't know about that one. I might have to put Thor 2 on the list...And I'll say Ender's Game as well. Oh, and Lone Ranger too. XD If I go see all these, that'll probably be the most shows I've seen in several years. LOL

[Big Red]

How can there be a 300 sequel? Not to spoil anything (I'd hope I'm not since it's based on an historical event), but they all died.

It takes a lot to get me into a theater nowadays. The atmosphere usually ruins the movie, and I can't watch 3D (not only can I not see the 3D effects, but it gives me a headache). Not only that, but I could buy several movies for what it costs to take the whole family, and that's without buying any drinks or snacks.

[Jodo]

I believe the 300 sequel's story is about another battle, that took place on the same day as the defeat at Thermopylae.

I've seen two 3D movies, the first was John Carter (...), and the second was Prometheus (which was amazing). Speaking of which, I loved that movie! I had hoped Sir Scott would released a director's cut, but evidently he claims that the theatrical release was indeed that version. Even though there are several issues with the film, it was hands down my favorite film of 2012, as well as my most anticipated.

[Guido]

Agree totally about Prometheus. This past summer was so busy at work that I literally missed it in the theaters without even realizing it until I saw ads for the dvd release. Now I've got 3 viewings under my belt, and I think I may start to check out some of the web theory stuff that's out there.