Movies you have seen recently

[Gorth]

Not exactly. The elves don't have souls like humans and hobbits and whatnot. So their spirits fly off to Valinor when they die and end up being born again into a new elf body. The living elves, and some notable figures, can go off to Valinor and live. Elves live forever, and, since Valinor is kind of like a paradise, they are quite happy. The thoughts regarding how Valinor is are kind of varied. Since Tolkien didn't give a definitive answer during his life, folks fight over the meaning in his works with some folks contending that heading to Valinor equates to being granted immortality. Other folks, however, say that it is not explicitly clear that merely reaching Valinor grants immortality and thus it's just some place Frodo and Bilbo visit but they will still die. The elves view human death strangely, since Humans have souls and therefore can go to 'heaven' so to speak. Not quite the same thing as Valinor. Frankly, I'm not quite enough of a nerd to give you the best answer. Only enough of a nerd to know a little bit, and that's relying on a faulty memory at 4am.

 

I think the ending was quite short compared to the books. I'm not nitpicking arguments based on the books, though. I basically agree with TN about the movies themselves. They were long and I think most folks were happy to have a nice, long, lingering farewell. However, because I enjoy arguing both sides sometimes, I can see some folks being irritated by the lingering just a wee bit too long specifically at the dock. It's like, get on the damned boat and go to paradise, you stupid hobbit!

Most of my memories from reading The Silmarillion are a bit fuzzy, but it goes something like, Elves are "immortal", as in they are bound to the world until it ends. When that is, only Eru knows. They die and they get spit out again into Arda. When they get weary of the world, they go to Valinor, sort of a retirement home for old souls. Humans on the other hand? Nobody besides Eru knows what happens to them when they die.

 

[geek]Elrond was a half-elf and had to chose his "doom" as did his brother Elros. Elrond chose the doom of the elves, Elros that of humans. For those who saw the movie and wondered what the heck Aragorn was doing in Rivendell and why he was so familiar with elves, he is Elronds nephew, descending from Elros.[/geek]

 

That leaves the question of Hobbitses... are they a variant of humans? Dwarves? No idea, the books don't tell.

 

I think most of my objections to the ending is not in the detail, but in the general "mood" of the story

[Blarghagh]

I guess I was wrong, but for the movie's sake I'll stick to my melancholy interpretation because the books and the movies are different.

 

And I see why The Scouring of the Shire was taken out. It's quite obvious really. It's a final action sequence after the climax. It works okay in a book, but cinematically that's not a very good idea. It's pretty much the reason why everybody thought the first Pirates of the Carribean movie was too long, because they tacked on an action sequence (Will's rescue of Jack) at the end after the big climax (the big showdown vs the undead pirates and the curse being lifted and all). It just doesn't 'feel' right in a film which you cannot go at with your own pace as you can with a book.

[Hurlshort]

I'm usually asleep long before the boat sequence, so it doesn't bother me.

 

I agree with Aristes that the long ending matches the book pretty well, in that the both drag a bit. Still brilliant stuff.

[Oerwinde]

[hyperventilate]two more seasons of futurama![/hyperventilate]

 

taks

 

And with the original cast! Despite the casting call for replacements.

[Hurlshort]

The Outlaw Josey Wales - One of the best westerns I've ever seen. I'm surprised this one doesn't get more recognition, it was just fantastic.

[Slowtrain]

The Outlaw Josey Wales - One of the best westerns I've ever seen. I'm surprised this one doesn't get more recognition, it was just fantastic.

 

 

One of Eastwood's best movies. Possibly his best. I believe he directed as well? ALso one of the best westerns I've ever seen, too. The only western I would rank as better than I can think of at the moment is RIo Bravo.

 

Westerns, I think, are inherently doomed to genre-centric obscurity, sadly.

[Monte Carlo]

^ My favourite Clint Eastwood western is High Plains Drifter, but Josie Wales is very good too.

 

My favourite 'Western' (which it technically isn't I suppose, does Virginia count?) is Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil closely followed by True Grit and The Wild Bunch.

[GreasyDogMeat]

There is only one western. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[Slowtrain]

There is only one western. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

 

 

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is fab. Eli Wallach is great and there are some great set pieces such as the whole bridge sequence.

 

High Plains Drifter is also great. Although I tend to think of it a something other than a western for some reason, even though it obviously has all the trappings of one.

[Kelverin]

There is only one western. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

LOL There's at least 25 - 30 if not more quality westerns and

 

Once Upon a Time in the West > The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

 

I would recommend all of these and there are more but I do not have the time

 

The Wild Bunch

The Great Silence

The Searchers

Unforgiven

High Noon

Outlaw Josey Wales

High Plains Drifter

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

My Name is Nobody

The Magnificent Seven

Shane

The Sons Of Katie Elder

Blazing Saddles (The funniest western of all-time, the first to say Three Amigo's gets shot! )

The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance

The Professionals

3:10 To Yuma (2007)

Dances With Wolves

R

Edited August 6, 2009 by Kelverin

[Kelverin]

John Hughes - RIP

 

"John Hughes has died of a heart attack. Hughes suffered the heart attack while taking a morning walk during a trip to NYC to visit family. He directed such '80s hit films as "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink," "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He was 59."

 

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009...hughes_rip.html

[HoonDing]

I would recommend all of these and there are more but I do not have the time

 

The Wild Bunch

The Great Silence

The Searchers

Unforgiven

High Noon

Outlaw Josey Wales

High Plains Drifter

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

My Name is Nobody

The Magnificent Seven

Shane

The Sons Of Katie Elder

Blazing Saddles (The funniest western of all-time, the first to say Three Amigo's gets shot! )

The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance

The Professionals

3:10 To Yuma (2007)

Dances With Wolves

R

[Slowtrain]

Where's Shanghai Noon?

 

 

Isn't that the movie where we are told if one urinates on silk it becomes strong enough to bend steel bars?

 

 

Mythbusters tested that. Surprisingly, it doesn't work.

[Kor Qel Droma]

John Hughes - RIP

 

"John Hughes has died of a heart attack. Hughes suffered the heart attack while taking a morning walk during a trip to NYC to visit family. He directed such '80s hit films as "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink," "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." He was 59."

 

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009...hughes_rip.html

 

Very sad news, indeed. He basically owned the teen comedy genre in the 80's.

[I want teh kotor 3]

Taken... Freakin' epic. Not much in the way of plot or acting, just theway I like it... Just an angry guy with a gun and a bunch of people to shoot up...

 

I thought they followed the Star Wars movie patterns, the first was good and got me hooked, the second was awesome and I looked forward to more... then came the third movie and I was horribly disappointed. "Sell out" was the first two words that sprang to mind.

 

Seriously? RotK is the greatest movie ever made IMO; the first one, however, had the greatest opening EVAR (Sauron killing crap).

[HoonDing]

That leaves the question of Hobbitses... are they a variant of humans? Dwarves? No idea, the books don't tell.

They're a variant of humans, but it's unknown how they came to their short stature. All Tolkien mentions in the prologue to the first book is that "they lived in the upper vales of the Anduin before moving westward".

 

Their origins being unknown is mostly because Tolkien created them out of the blue when he wrote "in a hole under the ground there lived a hobbit" on a scrap of paper and subsequently needed to fit them into his universe somehow.

[Aristes]

The wife just finished Wall-E. I watched some of it with her. Not a bad little cartoon.

[Blarghagh]

There is only one western. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

LOL There's at least 25 - 30 if not more quality westerns and

 

Once Upon a Time in the West > The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

 

I would recommend all of these and there are more but I do not have the time

 

The Wild Bunch

The Great Silence

The Searchers

Unforgiven

High Noon

Outlaw Josey Wales

High Plains Drifter

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

My Name is Nobody

The Magnificent Seven

Shane

The Sons Of Katie Elder

Blazing Saddles (The funniest western of all-time, the first to say Three Amigo's gets shot! )

The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance

The Professionals

3:10 To Yuma (2007)

Dances With Wolves

R

[Slowtrain]

Val Kilmer as Doc was far more interesting than all the rest of Tombstone combined. The bad guys were tedious. The narrative structure was really weird; the entire last half of the film felt like a tag on.

 

 

I watched Force 10 from Navarone last night (early this morning actually). Hadn't seen it in a long time. I remember it as being OK, but at this viewing was not impressed. It felt more like a bad made-for-tv movie than anything else.

[Kelverin]

Val Kilmer as Doc was far more interesting than all the rest of Tombstone combined. The bad guys were tedious. The narrative structure was really weird; the entire last half of the film felt like a tag on.

 

 

I watched Force 10 from Navarone last night (early this morning actually). Hadn't seen it in a long time. I remember it as being OK, but at this viewing was not impressed. It felt more like a bad made-for-tv movie than anything else.

Agree on both points and films! Now The Guns of Navarone (1961) thats a movie.

[Slowtrain]

The Guns of Navarone is fab.

[LadyCrimson]

Cable's been playing a lot of Eastwood's later, non-western movies. I always forget just how great In the Line of Fire is, until I see it again. Absolute Power wasn't bad either.

 

P.S. Forrest Gump holds up pretty well, too. It's a film that's so easy watch...it always feels like it should be boring, but yet somehow it isn't.

Edited August 7, 2009 by LadyCrimson

[Hurlshort]

GI Joe - I went in with moderate expectations, and I found it to be a fantastic experience. I think it may be the best summer popcorn flick of the season, much better than Transformers 2. (Maybe even with Star Trek, although they are very different movies.)

 

First off, I don't care about the comics. I went in expecting a movie based on a toy line and I'm glad I did. The story is silly and the characters only vaguely resemble the cartoons I watched as a kid. The acting is decent, it's a fun cast to watch, kind of reminded me of Starship Troopers in a lot of ways.

 

What really blew me away was the action scenes and the breathtaking bases. The CGI is just top-notch. So I definitely would say it is worth watching on the big screen if you are into popcorn flicks.

 

Destro and Zartan are probably the best characters in the movie for me, and Marlon Wayans as Ripcord was a pleasant surprise, he was funny but believable as an action star.

[Hurlshort]

Forgot I saw another movie today...

 

The Perfect Getaway - This thriller isn't all that greatly written, but I really enjoyed all four of the main actors, so it was a decent watch. Milla Jovavich is just fun to watch all the time for me, and the two male leads were great. Probably about a B in my book, nothing special but very watchable.

[GreasyDogMeat]

3:10 to Yuma is one of the worst movies I've ever sat through. It was more like a fantasy than a western. Guy gets a gutshot and shrugs it off. Another guy runs around jumping from building to building with a prosthetic leg. Unlikable characters.