Big Blue Huddle

I watched "Primal Fear" last night for the first time in 20 years. A truly great movie. Edward Norton scares the crap out of me. Great acting, great plot, great movie.

Quote from: LennG on September 23, 2019, 01:21:39 PM
Saturday night we got to sit down and watch a movie we have been trying to see for a while now. I'm not sure, but I sort of remember some one mentioning this movie a while ago, but I didn't see it listed here, so here is my review of 'Yesterday'.   
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8079248/

Looking over the cast, I do NOT recognize one name on it and assume that this was a real low budget movie to make. For those that do not know the premise, the movie is about a struggling musician, who gets hit by a truck while riding his bike. During that time, seems there is a 12 second blackout all over the entire world. When he awakes, in the hospital, he is banged up but fine. On seeing his friends and sort of girlfriend, he plays the song Yesterday to them and they love it but have never heard it before. So he tells them it's from the Beatles, who they also have never heard of. Let's cut to the chase, he googles The Beatles, and nothing comes up, the world has never heard of The Beatles.(among other famous things) So our hero, the struggling songwriter, starts playing Beatle songs and soon becomes a huge hit from these songs. Since no one has ever heard them before, he has struck gold. Not to give away more of the movie, and it's conclusion, myself and my darling wife, just loved this movie. In fact one of the best movies we have seen in quite a while. Maybe it's because we relate to the Beatles so much, and of their music, and always wondered if the Beatles would be just as popular today if they started out now? who really knows, but this movie, especially if you were a Beatles fan, is a must see. It is sort of a comedy with some romance thrown in and a great story to be told. I HIGHLY recommend this movie to one and all. Gather the family together and watch it as a unit, you won't be sorry.

(PS if you don't like the Beatles, maybe you should skip it, but it is still a great movie watch).

I also really enjoyed the movie as I grew up on the Beatles. My girlfriend (literally half my age) did not and thought the movie was so-so and just "didn't get it", which I suspect might be the response of a lot of people who grew up on Spice Girls, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink 182, etc. That age group doesn't understand the love for the Beatles the way I did - similarly, I never understood my parents' love for Elvis.

Anyway...one of the main cast members in this movie is very well known, Ed Sheeran (which I wouldn't even know if not for my girlfriend pointing it out - LOL)!

I thought Jack (Himesh Patel") was superb in his singing - in fact, I was never a huge fan of the song "Yesterday", but when he sang it, I was deeply moved - dittos with "Long and Winding Road" (a song I hated by the Beatlers). He seemed to be able to match the feelings meant by the words to such a degree that it could either cause one to tear up or at the least, get a lump in their throats. As great as the Beatles were, they did not (IMHO) put that same level of "feeling" into their songs that emphasized the actual astounding lyrics. Patel really masters that part in the movie - to such a degree that you want to hear him sing more of the Beatles' songs that weren't so well known.

Anyway, great movie - especially if you were a Beatles' fan

Dittos on "Green Book". I picked it up at a Redbox because it was a new release. Expectations were very low because I've rented a lot of new releases that absolutely sucked. Boy was I surprised and so was my girlfriend. We loved it.

Bob picked up a hitchhiker last night. The hitchhiker seemed surprised that he would give a complete stranger a ride and asked, "Thanks, but why would you pick me up? How do you know I'm not a serial killer?"

Bob replied, "the odds of two serial killers being in the same car at the same time would be astronomical"

Bill: Yesterday my wife ran off with my best friend Mike

Dan: No kidding. I didn't even know you liked Mike let alone thought of him as your best friend. When did he become your best friend?

Bill: Yesterday

Quote from: jimv on July 20, 2017, 12:34:22 AM
I had never seen the movie "Deliverance."  But, I had much about it including the dueling banjos.  Well I just watched it for the first & last time Wednesday afternoon.  I found it to be an ugly movie with ugly characters and not a shred of redeeming virtue.

LMAO - hard to see Ned Beatty in a different light after that flick. Not sure any movie as "redeeming virtue". I think Deliverance has to be categorized as "dark comedy". Whatever the case, you'll never ever catch me canoeing in the deep rural south - ever! The movie "Southern Comfort" was also disturbing and leaves the lesson, "don't go into the bayou". That movie creeped me out worse than Deliverance.

Quote from: LennG on July 09, 2017, 10:57:48 AM
Da-Da-Dum

I can just see Henny Youngman or Rodney Dangerfield saying those lines. 

I was thinking Steven Wright as he is (was) the king of one liners at one time. I don't know if he's still around or not.

One liners that made me laugh:

"My girlfriend thinks I'm a stalker.
Well, she isn't exactly my girlfriend yet"

"My neighbor knocked on my door at 2:30 AM.
Can you believe that? 2:30 in the morning!
Lucky for him I was still up playing my bagpipes"

"Statistically, six out of seven dwarfs are not Happy"

"I was at an A.T.M. yesterday.
A little old lady asked if I would check her balance, so I gave her a shove.
She didn't have any"

Quote from: LennG on June 19, 2017, 08:37:23 PM
How times have changed   

Remember when my wife was pregnant, she didn't it around and knit little booties, but she sure wouldn't go around doing acrobatics. I really surprised a women that far pregnant would risk doing stunts like that, but, as I said, different world today.

LOL - neither did mine. When my wife was 9 months pregnant with our first, she went down to the local park where they have really high swing sets and would swing quite high and then leap out of the seat and fall about 10 feet. I told her not to do that because she was going to get hurt, but she refused to listen. She was tired of waiting for the baby to come out and thought maybe that would make it start. It didn't. She was extremely active (still is), very athletic, and young. She weighed 116 lbs before getting pregnant, put on less than 10 lbs during the pregnancy, had a 9 lb baby boy, and left the hospital at 116 lbs in the same tight jeans she was wearing before she became pregnant. One poor nurse who was helping with the delivery was 6 months pregnant and bigger than a barn having retained gallons of water. When my wife gave birth, he stomach went down to nothing and without a single stretch mark. The nurse kept looking at her and said, "I simply hate you...", lol. But I should note that with each subsequent pregnancy, she became less careless and by the fourth one, she was pretty much idle through most of the later stages. Lucky for me, she never gained weight from any of the kids and never got a single stretch mark. She was a rare kind of baby maker! I suspect Gal Gadot has a similar set of genes to be able to do what she did in the movie.

Quote from: LennG on June 17, 2017, 12:30:04 PM
Last night we watched the latest in an never ending list of super heroes movies, 'Wonder Woman". The movie  just opened and was doing great at the box office and I can see why. It should appeal to just about every teenager in the world who loves these type of movies. Lots of action, lot s of things blown up and a real looker as Wonder Woman. So what did I think--- I could have lived an entire life and never missed this movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/

My take, as I have said many times, I am usually not a fan of these type of super hero type movies. It really has to be something special to make me like it and this one wasn't. I don't know if there have been other Wonder Woman movies, but I certainly remember Lynda Carter as Wonder woman on TV. She was a God to many of us growing up. Myself, I don't know if there is a particular story of how Wonder Woman started, like superman or Batman, there is a specific story as to how they became their characters. In this case there is a story of how she became Wonder Woman so I'll leave it at that. Story wise, (????) we are in the final stages of WWI, Germans are about to sign the armistice, but wait, certain Germans are developing a new weapon that can save German and win the war. So Wonder Women, believing that this 'mad' German is really the God of war--Ares, who she has vowed to slay, figures if she kills him, the German will surrender and the war will be over. Got all that. Obviously, you know how it will end, so now half the kids in America will believe Wonder Woman actually won WWI. (as they did believe Captain America won WWII). And we wonder why kids know nothing about history.

Anyway, for ME, the movie was just plain silly. Lot's of Special effects, some are dazzling, but just too many explosions and no substance. After all, it was made for kids and teens and it is a summer blockbuster, so of that's what they want to see, give it to them. It surely is made for the entire family, even for young kids. No scary creatures, just a silly plot and good looking people..
If I had to rate it, 2 stars, just for some real great special effects. If there is ever a Part II, I pass.

I haven't seen it (and won't unless it's on TV someday and my grandkids want to watch it), but I read an interesting tidbit on the movie concerning Gal Gadot, the Israeli actress who played Wonder Woman. She was 5 months pregnant with her second child while doing some of the most intense battle scenes. She had quite a baby bump so the producers put a green triangular cloth on her protruding belly so they could doctor the scenes via computer trickery after the shoot was done.

Having had a wife who gave birth to my four children, I can honestly say that I think that is amazing in itself. I don't think I could watch the movie without thinking about that every time she was in a scene.

I haven't seen the movie, but I read "The Shack". The story reminded me of Bunyon's "Pilgrim's Progress", which is basically an allegorical story of the personal life of a Christian who deals with all the unfair trials of life and the mental struggles of trying to live a Godly life. "The Shack" is just as you say, a tragedy in the family causes the father to lose faith in God and in fact, blames God. I can relate to this somewhat as I too have lost a child and my sister lost three of her children and husband when hit head on by a drunk driver. My sister's husband was the pastor of a Baptist Church and Christian Academy. I watched my sister go through a terrible ideal questioning God as to why if He was a loving God, He would allow such a thing to happen to innocent children and a devoted Christian father.

I think this movie (if it follows the book) is meant for a target audience of Christians who understand the everyday trials and tribulations they face during their path through life. The Shack is a feel-good story because it actually allows a fictional individual to finally have the opportunity to get answers to questions with no logical answers. I am going to watch it at some point and more than likely, compare it to the book (in my mind anyway) as that's what I always do when a movie is based on a book that I've read. Spoiler alert: the movie is NEVER as good as the book - LOL

Quote from: LennG on May 27, 2017, 10:15:26 PM
It's funny. We all have our fav actors  nd actresses. For some reason Kate Hepburn was never a fav of mine. Some times I even go out of my way to avoid watching her movies. I know she was a great actress, but there was just something about her that I never liked. So the African Queen, though a great movie and I've seen it many times, just isn't my fav Bogie movie.

If you are a fan of Bogie, have you ever seen The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? Maybe Bogies best role EVER. Just a wonderful movie and has one of the best lines in movie history towards he end.

I never cared for Katharine Hepburn either - she seemed stuffy to me with an air of faux superiority. Now Audrey Hepburn, that's a whole other story. Loved her.

So, besides the "Big List", a couple of movies that I should put on my watch list early on are: "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" - got it. The two biggest challenges for me will be to find them (without buying a DVD on Amazon or eBay) and then finding the time to watch them. With Direct TV I can search for the movies and if they are listed at some point in the future, I can tag them to be DVR'd. A lot of stuff that I'd like to watch is broadcast at 1:00 in the morning or some other strange time when I won't be awake or around. Love the DVR.

I've seen a few of those movies in your list. It would take me a few years to get through them.

Out of curiosity, are there any streaming sites that actually make those older movies available? I have Hulu and Amazon to compliment my DirectTV.

Quote from: LennG on May 22, 2017, 01:09:03 PM
JBG

I fully agree with Jim. We love to talk movies, so jump right in.

If you read thru some of the pages, I usually try to see one fairly recent movie a week and write w review of it. I won't go into how many other movies I watch during he weeks. Like yourself, I love to flip thru the stations and see a movie that I just cannot turn off. I agree about My Cousin Vinny, I always seem to say, I'll watch a piece I enjoy and end up staying for the entire movie. So many other movies like that for me. The other day I found Gladiator, and I just love that movie. I had to stay till it ended, same for movies like Braveheart, and the oldies like Casablanca, High Noon, and my favorite all time movie, The Maltese Falcon (Bogie is my fav actor).

That's funny that I've never watched "The Maltese Falcon". If it's your favorite, I must give it a shot. I too love Bogie and because I'm a genealogist, I know that him and I are distant cousins (8th cousin, once removed). My parents also loved Bogie so as a kid growing up in the 50's-60's I can't tell you how many times I watched "The African Queen" (which took priority over all other shows when it was on TV) and I still hear Katharine Hepburn's heavy accent saying, "are ve goin to shoot the rapids?" and I have a permanent memory of leeches that I wish I could erase from my memory when there are so many good memories that no longer exist in my brain. Also, the whistling soldiers from "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (my Dad's favorite movie) is forever burned into my brain. I enjoyed those movies and they must be pretty good as I can still remember parts that I haven't seen in over 40 years. I guess any movie in which scenes and words remain in your memory bank atop your shoulders must be good or the memories wouldn't be there.

Quote from: jimv on May 21, 2017, 11:09:06 PM
JBG, I'm really glad to hear that you love a GOOD movie.  Lenny & I  are definitely movie buffs; not afficianados (I don't like that term).  If you're not one of those guys who can't watch a B&W movie, we'll have to introduce you to the REAL Hollywood of filmmaking; the 1930s!  Especially, 1939, the GREATEST year in Hollywood history (although 1967 comes up at # 2).  I can give a list of movies that I think will meet your requirements.

My biggest problem with watching movies is that if there is a Yankee game on, or a Syracuse Orange game on, or a football game, or pretty much any sport - I choose to watch the sports. My DVR gets loaded during the baseball season because I end up checking the score of the Yankee game and find I can't stop watching.

Regardless, I've watched quite a few B&W movies and don't miss the color. Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Roman Holiday, It's a Wonderful Life, etc., are all good and I've watched them multiple times.

I can't remember a movie released in the last couple of years that I would rewatch. And as much as I like dramas, I find it hard to rewatch an intense movie that I've already watched and know the outcome (Django, the Hateful Eight [or any Tarantino film for that matter, although I've watched Pulp Fiction more than once],  Taken, etc.). I will rewatch adventure films, comedies, and romance flicks. Comedies because it doesn't require a whole lot of attention and makes me laugh. Adventure the same way - I've rewatched "Red" and "Red II" several times, usually as I'm channel surfing. "Red" and it's sequel combine all three elements: adventure, comedy, and romance. Maybe that's the key for me.

I'm a big time reader and like thrillers, mysteries, etc. I was extremely disappointed in "Reacher" having read all the Lee Child's books and I understand why Hollywood chose Tom Cruise to portray Jack Reacher, but he is NOT Jack Reacher. I'm excited to see the upcoming movie "American Assassin" based on my favorite author Vince Flynn, but I doubt they can cast the movie in such a way as to capture the essence of Mitch Rapp. Dittos with the new series based on Daniel Silva's books and hero Gabriel Allon. Maybe they'll nail it, but I doubt it.