Spilled Popcorn and Sticky Floors: The Movie Discussion Thread

[Mukey]

Agree with Tom on Traitor, if you haven't paid $1 to see this yet, do

Watchmen is pretty but overrated, the story worked much better in the graphic novel

[Jim Bassett]

The Hurt Locker is the best movie I have seen in a long time.

[Tom McManus]

The Hurt Locker is the best movie I have seen in a long time.

I am looking forward to seeing this movie.  Kathyrn Bigelow is a very good director. She does action films very well. Point Break, Strange Days, and Blue Steel were all pretty good movies.  Near Dark from 1987 is an outstanding movie. 

I am also looking forward to Inglorious Basterds or however it is spelled.

Also we recently saw Children of Men.  Jon and David had commented on it earlier posts. I wasn't crazy about it at first, but it is an amazing film.  The film makers create a horrible not too distant future.  It is filmed using some amazing long takes to give it a sense of reality.  It is a hybrid science fiction, end of the world, love story, with an extended chase sequence.  If you are feeling a little down do not see this movie.  It is not a feel good movie.

[Jim Bassett]

Children of Men is an amazing movie with my favorite chase scene of all time. I love that Clive Owen is chasing an adversary while being chased. An incredible sequence.

[Jim Bassett]

Inglourious Basterds is better than Pulp Fiction.

I said it.

[pdga#7648]

3-D Final Destination was pretty cool. It looked like everything was right in your lap. Pretty much the same as 1 and 2, but pretty cool  overall.    is what you look like. glasses are different than the usual green and red lenses.

[Tom McManus]

Saw a couple of interesting movies this past week.  Sunshine Cleaning with Alan Arkin, Amy Adams, and Emily Blunt.  Not your typical action packed blockbuster, but it was a sweet story about some people at the fringe.

Also saw The Visitor with Richard Jenkins,  if you saw Richard Jenkins you would immediately recognize him but not know his name.  The Visitor is a story about a college professor who kind of floats through life.  Due to work circumstances he has to head back to New York and as he enters his old apartment he meets a couple of foreigners who are living in his apartment.

The story moves along following the relationship of the 3 characters and the situations that they deal with in the current political climate.  I don't want to give too much away, so I will just say that it is a very well acted and touching movie.

Richard Jenkins was nominated for best actor.  The writer and director of this film also wrote and directed The Station Agent, which is also a very good film.

Still planning on seeing Inglourious Basterds.

[damonshort]

Also saw The Visitor with Richard Jenkins,  if you saw Richard Jenkins you would immediately recognize him but not know his name.  The Visitor is a story about a college professor who kind of floats through life.  Due to work circumstances he has to head back to New York and as he enters his old apartment he meets a couple of foreigners who are living in his apartment.

The story moves along following the relationship of the 3 characters and the situations that they deal with in the current political climate.  I don't want to give too much away, so I will just say that it is a very well acted and touching movie.

Richard Jenkins was nominated for best actor.  The writer and director of this film also wrote and directed The Station Agent, which is also a very good film.

I really enjoyed this too. It's fairly slow-paced but the emotional and political issues creep up on you. The music is great as well.

[Bruce Brakel]

Unless you're really into movies or from Michigan you probably wouldn't know that southeast Michigan has become Hollywood Midwest.  A few years ago the state legislature passed a law giving lots of tax exemptions to motion picture related businesses, and major film studios started moving satellite operations to Michigan.  Now a lot of generic quaint small town scenes in movies are shot in Michigan's generic quaint small towns.  And they have regular studios here.  It's not just Robocop anymore.   

Anyway, they are making a movie about Jack Kevorkian, Geoffrey Feiger and Richard Thompson.  The Oakland County Courthouse is going to play the role of the Oakland County Courthouse.  On Thursday they are shooting some parking lot scenes right outside my office window.  I have mirrored windows so you won't see me.  They are also shooting in the ground floor lobby, but I come and go through the loading dock, so I won't be wandering into those scenes either.  Geoff and Jack never once dodged the media, so I doubt they'll need to film at the loading dock, although that's where Thompson used to park.  You could make an interesting contrast showing the Jack and Geoff media show on the sunny Courthouse Plaza and then showing Thompson walking alone through the grey cinder block basement hallways down to his loading dock parking. 

The main thing I remember from those days was being up to my armpits in issues relating to two double secret grand juries.  All grand juries in Michigan are technically secret, but these were also actually secret in the sense that we were trying to keep the media unaware of their existence.  The Jack and Jeff show was a great diversion.  It kept the courthouse print reporters too busy to go looking for stories. 

[Bruce Brakel]

So apparently this is an HBO produced movie.  They had five motorhomes and a trailer for the actors and crew in my parking lot today.  They also had a lot of other trucks and equipment, including a crane.  The roles of Dr. Jack's and Attorney Feiger's cars were played by professional actor cars.  They had their own flat bed trucks to ride on.  The crew is breaking down and packing up right now. 

They got one thing right that I was curious whether they would.  After 9-11 the County bought really big concrete flower pots and put them on the plaza to prevent a terrorist truck bomb from driving inside the building before blowing up.  For the movie they moved all the concrete flower pots out of sight and off to one of the parking lots.  If you're a terrorist with a truck bomb, tomorrow is your big chance to blow up the Oakland County Courthouse. 

I'll be taking the day off and playing disc golf with my family, so feel free. 

[Bruce Brakel]

The night security guard told me that the big trailer was for Mr. Pacino, who is playing Dr. Jack. 

[Tom McManus]

If someone asks you what you want for Christmas, and you don't know.  Ask for the first season of The Shield on DVD.  This is a great show.  It needs to be seen from the very first episode.

[jasonc]

If someone asks you what you want for Christmas, and you don't know.  Ask for the first season of The Shield on DVD.  This is a great show.  It needs to be seen from the very first episode.

I agree!  After my better half got me to see the first season on DVD, I went out and bought the rest!  FX always has some great new shows. 

[Tom McManus]

I saw Inglorious Basterds this weekend.  Another fine movie from Quentin Tarantino. 

An excellent movie, but does not make my top 3 Tarantino films:

1. Reservoir Dogs
2. Death Proof
3. Pulp Fiction

[pdga#7648]

The Hangover is laugh out loud histerical. I have watched 3 times since it came out on DVD.

[Tom McManus]

The Hangover is laugh out loud histerical. I have watched 3 times since it came out on DVD.

Agreed.

[Tom McManus]

With the 2000's wrapping up, they are a bunch of "best of" lists.  Here is my list of the top 30 movies from the 2000s.  There are some groupings, but they are not listed in any particular order.

Training Day
There Will Be Blood
No Country for Old Men
The Departed
Eastern Promises
A History of Violence
Death Proof
Appaloosa
Gran Torino
Gladiator
Master and Commander
Anchorman
Superbad
The Wedding Crashers
The Hangover
Old School
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
Elf
Super Troopers
The Prestige
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hero
Pan's Labyrinth
Children of Men
Iron Man
Bank Job
Wall-E
School of Rock
Thank you for Smoking
The Bourne Identity
In Bruges
Grizzley Man -Timothy Treadwell

[CEValkyrie]

I saw The Hangover this summer in the theatre. My brother in law brought the DVD over on Christmas. This movie is funny as hell like D Payne said. If you like that kind of movie you will laugh from start to finish.

[Dan Michler]

With regard to Tom's top 30 list:  (shouldn't there be a better name for the decade than the 2000's?)

Best movie of the Decade:  Gran Torino

Elf?  Really Tom?

I agree with many of the movies on your list, but my list would also include:

Meet the Parents
Bad Santa
Blood Diamond
Dark Knight and Batman Begins (they are both clearly better than Iron Man)
District 9
Hotel Rwanda
Crash
Shaun of the Dead
Fracture
Dodgeball
Catch Me if You Can
40 Year Old Virgin
Almost Famous
Mystic River
A Beautiful Mind

and from your list:

Training Day
Hangover
Gran Torino
Old School
Wedding Crashers
Super Troopers
The Departed
Anchorman
Superbad
Gladiator
Crouching Tiger
The Prestige
No Country for Old Men
Death Proof
Harold and Kumar


On a sidenote I watched Jeremiah Johnson for the first time Sunday night and decided this is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen.  Because he's a goddam mountain man.  Jeremiah would not include the movie 'Elf' on his list Tom.

[Chainmeister]

I saw Avatar in 3d last night.  This movie is strongly recommended.  Do not bother going unless you see it in 3d.  This movie is visually stunning.  It was a treat to see the imagined world of Pandora brought to life by thousands of nerds behind computer screens in Cameron's laboratories.  The story is essentially a cowboys v. indians story where the indians win.  It reminded me a bit of Ferngully, an animated pro environmental movie that came out years ago.