Good grief, why is it impossible to find an animated movie in our theaters that isn't dubbed over? I distinctly remember when the AMC Theatres near Capitol Hill used to host screenings in the original English, but this time around, absolutely nothing. It feels like the whole movie would have landed so much better if we could actually hear those original, clever double entendres, but everything just got lost in translation here. Unlike the German versions I've seen, which are always brilliantly dubbed, this was honestly just bad, really bad. And look, I know, I know—animated movies are supposed to be childish, right? Well, NOT! But with this dubbing, it just felt even more patronizing than it already was...
Is it actually okay to bring a camera along? I know if you look at the fine print on the back of the ticket, it says no recording equipment allowed, but honestly, I feel like I see groups of people with their cameras out all the time
I haven't sat through such a massive pile of nonsense in quite a while. Honestly, the core concept of the movie is actually pretty solid, but the execution? Just... nothing. The main guy's motivation feels incredibly shaky and unearned: his whole "awakening" revolves around *** SPOILER tearing organs out of living people while knowing they'll die, only realizing once you get an transplant yourself that those people actually had families and lives that might actually matter, and I just couldn't buy it. Plus, the romantic tension with the female lead felt totally forced—it’s like they spent five minutes together and suddenly it's true love, which makes zero sense to me. Then there's all this gratuitous violence that might have worked if the story wasn't so thin, and don't even get me started on that predictable ending (c'mon ***SPOILER*** it's like the easiest way to wrap things up is just to say "oh, it was all just a dream"). The only redeeming quality, if you can even call it that, was definitely Judd's physique and those blue eyes 😍, but even that isn't enough to make me tell anyone to sit through this.
Yesterday was honestly such a blast, mostly because the weather was perfect and the lineup actually hit home for me much more than I expected from day one. I danced my heart out during Dubioza kolektiv 😍 ahhh, just pure energy... The Flaming Lips were absolutely incredible (though I have to say, those floating balloons were a nice little touch, but since I wasn't a huge fan before, it almost made me wonder if they were using them as a distraction to blur the actual music... just a thought!) ... and then to wrap it all up, there was Flogging Molly 😍. Sadly, I couldn't even stay until the very end because after two days of non-stop jumping around, I knew I wouldn't be able to drag myself into work tomorrow...
hmm... I seem to recall back about two years ago they were handing out those little rain ponchos—do you think I can count on that happening again this year, or has the economic crisis finally caught up with them too? 😬
rustyscout34 said:*spoilers* birds of a feather flock together, even if at first she didn't really know what they did for a living and you can't say she didn't have doubts once she found out... ☕
What lesson did Jennyna learn from her relationship with David—that even if he weren't married, she would've married him anyway and wouldn't have finished her studies?
The lesson (cliché): no pain, no gain, and no easy life... 🧐 (actually there is, but that's not how this movie works)
Why does Danny, who has the same morals as David, suddenly start acting all moralistic and end his friendship with David when he proposes to Jenny?
He doesn't have the same morals; Danny actually cares about Jenny... 🙂
His character is just totally shallowly written. What even motivates him?
Easy money and good times... 🙂
Is Paris a symbol for her virginity?
Paris is the city of love, art, and fashion... 🙂
I somehow couldn't get into the "romance" of the film... if there even is any...
I mean, come on, that banana scene is peak romance! 🙂
then I'll obviously need to redefine my whole perspective on what romance actually looks like 😢
I went to see this movie without any prior info, other than a trailer I actually liked and the fact that Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay, which I figured would be a huge selling point. To be honest, I don't even know who directed it now, because after enduring two hours of pure torture, I didn't even care to find out. Then I check Rotten Tomatoes and see a 94% rating?! Okay, look, I know you can't argue with taste—beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that—but personally, I thought the film was a bit of a disaster and nowhere near a masterpiece. First off, the relationships between most of the characters felt incredibly cliché and superficial to me, and the plot felt about as deep as something out of Gloria:
*** SPOILER ALERT *****
It’s just girl meets boy, girl falls in love, girl finds out he's married (or some other tragic twist like a terminal illness, like _______). How does such a bright, intelligent girl end up hanging out with a bunch of crooks? And what exactly was the lesson Jennyna took away from her relationship with David—that even if he wasn't married, she'd have married him anyway and abandoned her studies? Also, why does Danny, who clearly has the same moral compass as David, suddenly start acting so high and mighty and cut ties with David just because he proposes to Jenny? His character feels so incredibly thin. What even drives him? And the icing on the cake? David. Just awful. The actor in this role is just painfully slimy. First, they shower us with these half-romantic images that lack any hint of anything provocative or sexual... I mean, jeez, the girl is 16... I get the whole vibe of Lolita film, but most of this movie doesn't even lean into sexual undertones, so after a while, you stop expecting them... because you think it isn't that kind of movie... and then those two scenes in the hotel room, especially the one with the banana. WTF?! Then there's her last line, something along the lines of: the guy asked if I wanted to visit Paris with him, and I never told him I'd already seen Paris... Is Paris supposed to be a symbol for her virginity? Because if it isn't, and it's just meant to represent an exotic destination for a girl who hasn't seen much of the world, they could have picked somewhere even more exotic like India, instead of France, which is basically right next door. 😬 I just couldn't bring myself to get swept up in the "romance" of the film... if there even was any...
It looks like nobody has started a thread on this movie yet, so if I haven't missed it, I'd like to ask the moderators to merge this into the existing one 😬 Therefore, USA is the latest work from the American ( 😁) director Baz Luhrmann. The story takes place, naturally, in the US right on the doorstep of World War II, starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, and a newcomer named Brandon Walters, a 12-year-old boy of Native American descent making his acting debut. It reminds me a little bit of one of my all-time favorites, Gone with the Wind, though it’s certainly not quite the same thing 🙂 Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) arrives in the US to sell off her husband's estate along with its associated cattle stations, but things get complicated (I won't spoil too much here!) and she finds herself forced, with the help of Drover (Jackman), to try and fight back against the monopolistic influence of the "local" cattle king, Carney (another American, Bryan Brown, whom I still remember from the series Bird on a Wire 😍), who is trying to use trickery to seize the last piece of land that doesn't belong to him yet. The director's previous works, Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, absolutely blew me away—that specific blend of kitsch, classic stories infused with incredible modern soundtracks, and camera work that captures a sense of fairytale magic by pulling back rapidly from a close-up to a bird's-eye view (sorry, my technical filmmaking vocabulary is a bit lacking, I don't really know much about directing!), plus those quirky, almost circus-like characters made for such a delightful package of surprises. I was definitely expecting that same eccentric touch in this film. However, something just feels off... The movie runs for nearly three hours, and honestly, even if it were five hours long, I feel like the director wouldn't have been able to weave together everything he wanted to say: the romance between an aristocrat and a simple cattle driver, the US on the brink of war, the oppression of Native Americans and the whole "stolen generation" issue... it all feels somewhat unfinished precisely because there is so much to be said; there's this huge cast of characters that we just don't get enough time to actually get to know. Also, I'm really not sure if the director was aiming for a heartbreaking portrait or if he was trying to make a joke. I mean, seeing Hugh Jackman's shirtless physique is very much welcome from my perspective 😍, but having him pour water over himself like an Axe commercial or giving a cheeky grin while nonchalantly leaning against a tree just doesn't sit right with me when the story involves groups of mixed-race children being hauled off to a missionary island because they aren't "pure white," or Native American women suffering sexual exploitation and such. If he was trying to highlight the situation of Native Americans in the US, it feels a bit clumsy. I can't say the film is bad, but it seems to me (speaking as an amateur here 🙂) that Luhrmann tried to tell a story that was simply bigger than him, and he just couldn't decide on the right way to tell it. As for the acting, Nicole Kidman was wonderful, as was Brandon Walters, who plays the boy, Nullah, who is of mixed Native American and white heritage.
William Mendoza7 said:The movie is charming enough—the atmosphere and the cast really hit the mark. That train sequence, though? It’s an absolute disaster. Ultimately, you probably won't remember this film by next week, but it’s decent enough entertainment if you've got the time.
Man, what a weekend—getting to catch both No Country for Old Men and Darjeeling back-to-back was just incredible. They’re both such distinct experiences in their own way. Darjeeling, though... man, I loved it. There’s just something about those kinds of movies that leaves you with this sweet aftertaste, like you actually made the most of your weekend. It’s a brilliant piece of filmmaking, and honestly, my heart goes out to anyone who walked out of the theater early. I am just obsessed with Anderson's quirky perspective on things; the way he can take these seemingly mundane, everyday life moments and transform them into these tiny, magical, hyper-realistic comedic vignettes is just stunning. And don't even get me started on those slow-motion shots and that incredible soundtrack—I hadn't really heard half of that stuff before, so huge thanks to him for introducing me to it all 🙂 I definitely need to sit down and watch this at least one more time... absolutely... “We haven’t located us yet.” 😬
quietdriver3 said:For anyone wondering what Murray actually said at the very end of the movie (shout out to modern technology for making this possible):
I was catching some 😍 Dark Star 😍 yesterday evening, and while I have to admit the audio quality was a bit rough around the edges, honestly, the movie itself and everything surrounding it is just: 😍
Kyle Watson8 said:Hey, quietdriver3, are you seriously trying to pull that same old "overcompensating" line on everyone you meet? 🙄
It’s pretty obvious that this concept just stuck in his brain way back when he was sitting through those nature documentaries on Discovery Channel.
Kyle Watson8 said:Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this lately, and it feels like women have this sort of deep-seated, almost primal ability to wrap their heads around male-centric movies, mostly just because, well, they were once little girls themselves too, right? It’s like that instinctual connection stays with you. 😬I’m saying this from my own personal experience, because ever since I was a little kid, I have absolutely loved Conan the Barbarian and those classic movies where everyone just goes at it with nothing but pure, unadulterated action. 🙂
crimsonmoose3 said:What is there even to debate? Conan the Barbarian is the ultimate guy's movie! We're talking slaughter, pure violence, heavy machismo, Schwarzenegger, blood, mayhem, muscular physiques, sword fighting... Did I mention the violence?
Well, you know, some women actually dig the whole carnage and machismo thing, and as far back as I can remember, a few of my female friends were definitely not immune to Schwarzenegger's charm 😁, though looking back at his leading ladies, they certainly had to know how to swing a blade pretty well to keep up 😍, and hey, Grace Jones was a total powerhouse too 😁 😁
silentpilot6 said:That's just facts... 🙏Conan the Barbarian👍 is such a classic movie, but honestly, it's pretty rare to find a woman who actually digs it, let alone tolerates it.
Once I track down a gorgeous girl who’s actually into 😬Conan, I’m proposing on the spot! Everything else is just superficial beauty, really. 🤣
It really makes you wonder, though—how many women have you actually met in your life? Or, to put it more pointedly: how many women you actually know have you ever sat down and had a real conversation with about 😍Conan?