Chat about Movies.

[McCulloch]

A little place to just chat about Movies. What have you watched recently? Was it good? Should it be nominated?

[cnorman18]

Best movies ever: the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Stunning. I've been a fan of the books since the late 60s and was thoroughly prepared to hate the movies, but Peter Jackson absolutely nailed them. Tolkien would have adored them.

Recent stuff; don't miss Slumdog Millionaire. Poverty and brutality in India are an order of magnitude worse than here, and parts of it are hard to watch; but you won't forget this picture. No one in it you've ever seen before.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button isn't like anything else I've ever seen. It never shouts, but is moving and beautifully made. Turns out Brad Pitt can act. Who knew? Wonderful picture.

Best job of pure acting ever caught on film: Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man was really good - you keep thinking, "What a great actor!" - but it never occurs to you that Hanks is acting. He IS Forrest. That's hard to do, especially for an actor with a familiar face.

Guilty secret #1; I love chick flicks. They're going to take away my Gun-Totin' Macho Texan card, but I loved Pride and Prejudice, As Good as It Gets, The Notebook, and all that stuff. I even liked Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. All-time favorite? Breakfast at Tiffany's. I have a strong feminine side - hence my job - and I have no problem with it. I like being a softie. Give me a three-hankie weeper over an action flick any day. I'll cry in public, I don't care.

When I taught middle school, I occasionally wept in front of my students. They loved me for it. I taught my boys that it's okay for men to feel things. It's all that repression that makes us die sooner than women.

But I like action flicks, too. Guilty secret #2: My alltime favorite movie is - wait for it - Conan the Barbarian, Arnold's first picture after Pumping Iron (I was a huge fan of the Conan comics as a kid). Using cartoonist Ron Cobb as production designer was a stroke of genius. Yes, Arnold's acting is as wooden as a cigar store Indian - that's why he did such a great robot - but the movie is just an onscreen comic book anyway. As Arnold himself said, "People say I am not an actor. Perhaps this is true. But I don't think Al Pacino could have played this part." And, hey, any movie with James Earl Jones in it cannot be wholly bad.

Speaking of whom: The first Star Wars was the best. The second was a soap opera and the rest of them sucked, though the special effects were great. I liked Indiana Jones too, but Temple of Doom was a loser and the last one was just going through the motions.

Worst botch of a good book: The Sum of All Fears. One of Tom Clancy's scariest and best, straight down the toilet. Not even Harrison Ford could have saved this one. The screenwriters chickened out at every opportunity, starting with replacing the wholly credible fanatical Islamist villains with the ever-popular - and politically correct and safe - Nazis. Thud.

WORST MOVIE EVER MADE: The Zombies of Mori Tau. Saw it on the Late Show back in the 70s. You'll never find it. Makes Plan 9 from Outer Space look like Casablanca. Unspeakably awful.

[OnceConvinced]

CNorman, it's funny how people's tastes differ so drastically. I didn't like Conan the Barbarian and much preferred Conan the Destroy. Likewise Temple of Doom is my favourite Indiana jones movie.