What's The Last Movie You Saw?

[pieces o'nine]

It would have gotten a bit religiony and turned into a modern day version of Narnia where the pure innocent must die for the original sin to be forgiven, the same way Aslan was the metaphor for Jesus.

Just because someone makes the ultimate sacrifice, doesn't mean they're necessarily a christ figure. If anything, the whole "we're in a metaphysical train station" bit smacked more of religion to me, than if Potter had just died, Voldemort marched back to Hogwarts, the fight went down and Longbottom killed the snake. Although, the fact that Rowling repeatedly referred to Potter as "The Chosen One" throughout the series made the religious metaphors inevitable.

Also, "the Boy Who Lived" has something in common with Moses (who lived when all the other unfortunate baby boys of his generation were executed --just to be safe -- by an evil overlord who did not want to be challenged later in the story) and Jesus (who lived when all the other unfortunate baby boys of his generation were executed -- just to be safe -- by an evil overlord who did not want to be challenged later in the story).

[muunleit]

I watched some of the early episodes of The IT Crowd today.

Look who is behind Moss' place.

[black bart]

^

Yes I remember that...well spotted.

[pieces o'nine]

Finally saw Eat, Pray, Love.

I should probably read the book; the entire time I was distracted by thoughts such as -- ye gods, what did she do to her lips? and does she always, essentially, play the same role?

[bacon]

Finally saw Eat, Pray, Love.

I should probably read the book; the entire time I was distracted by thoughts such as -- ye gods, what did she do to her lips? and does she always, essentially, play the same role?

Pretty much, Julia Roberts is Julia Roberts in <insert film name here>.
There a few actors/actresses that are like that where they are not memorable for their character performances.
My short list would be Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins and Nicholas Cage - although I suppose an argument could be made that Nicholas Cage isn't even an actor.

*Edit - Oh yeah, and I agree about the lips too.

[Arkaeon]

I just watched the incredibly cult first "Trancers". That's with The Mighty... Tim... Thomerson... as... JACK DEATH!

As for the other thing, you have to remember there are actors and there are Movie Stars. Movie stars always and have to play themselves because they don't really get acting. They use "methods" to simulate their own emotions rather than inhabiting characters and playing them.

As actors become more famous, there is always the chance that they will get a bit jaded and just mix together a coctail of their own favorite acting performances and turn into movie stars. Over time, you can see this happen to even great actors who would otherwise retire but they keep getting offered millions of bucks to just show up and be them. It breaks the boredom between whatever else they have to do that they actually care about.

I think the most honest example of this is Jackie Chan. No one was going to see Jackie Chan's characters. We were watching to see what Jackie was going to do (to himself) next that was humanly impossible and incredibly hilarious, so he just started naming all his characters Jackie to save on confusion. By engineering scripts around his acrobatic stunts and comedy shtick instead of worrying about flim-flam characterizations no one cared about, he made his best movies like "Jackie Chan's First Strike" and "Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx" and so on.

While artistic audience members much prefer real actors, the Oscar Awards prefer to give prizes out to Movie Stars. Even a legendary great actor will often have to wait until they reach their cameo-stage "with...as..." phase to get recognized by the Academy. I know that sounds like the Oscar has no meaning, but Johnny Depp still hasn't gotten one, so there's proof for you.

[Arkaeon]

Ok, I'm going to add this:

The super-tiny print is really annoying. I have to highlight that microscopic shit and copy-paste it to an outside text file, re-highlight it, and change the type size to find out you were saying straightforward stuff that had no reason to be in tiny text.

I'm through with doing that. It isn't cute any more. Thank you very much.

[daftbeaker]

Ok, I'm going to add this:

The super-tiny print is really annoying. I have to highlight that microscopic shit and copy-paste it to an outside text file, re-highlight it, and change the type size to find out you were saying straightforward stuff that had no reason to be in tiny text.

I'm through with doing that. It isn't cute any more. Thank you very much.

We do that for potential spoilers. If you want to read it all you have to do is hit the quote button, it displays everything at proper size.

[PKMKII]

Ok, I'm going to add this:

The super-tiny print is really annoying. I have to highlight that microscopic shit and copy-paste it to an outside text file, re-highlight it, and change the type size to find out you were saying straightforward stuff that had no reason to be in tiny text.

I'm through with doing that. It isn't cute any more. Thank you very much.

The easiest way to see the tiny text is to just hit the "Quote" button for the post in question. Will show all the text in normal size.

[Rainswept]

Roomate rented Hangover2 last night. I had been warned away but since it was in the house I watched it. It was certainly not as funny as the first one, but it was not terrible.

[pieces o'nine]

I just watched the incredibly cult first "Trancers". That's with The Mighty... Tim... Thomerson... as... JACK DEATH!

An old flame was quite a Tim Thomerson fan and I was ... treated ... to his (at that time) entire body of work.
The one image that has stayed with me was the ken doll clutching the partially rolled-down window of a car careening around a corner in Dollman.


Wait -- this post should probably be in cult films.
"Brick Bardo" - - *giggles*

[Roland Deschain]

I just watched Intruder, a 1980s slasher flick made by and starring Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. It's pretty normal fare, but is done incredibly well. Starting out slowly, it eventually gets to the meat (so to speak) of the film, delivering gore and awesomeness in equal measure. In fact, i've been on an 80s binge recently, and since Friday have watched Night of the Comet, Chopping Mall, From Beyond, and Terrorvision. Before that, it was a Hannibal Lecter binge (all 5 films, including Manhunter), and before that was an Asian film binge (To: A Space Fantasy, Rain Fall (starring Gary Oldman), Battle Royale, and Akira).

Some incredibly awesome movies have been watched by everyone over the past few weeks too:-

Up the Chastity Belt - Frankie Howard, how I miss thy humour. Titter ye not!
Turner and Hooch - From my childhood, and forever cherished.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - More than deserved the two parts, and would have been crap if not done this way.
Beverly Hills Cop - I watch my DVD collection at least twice a year.
Trancers - Classic 80s sci-fi. To my shame, I only ever saw the first film. Really must see the other five.

Also:-

Dollman

Thirteen inches... with an attitude

[black bart]

I rather enjoyed 'The Brother's Grimm' which was on TV over the weekend.

[bacon]

Watched The African Queen this weekend.

[PKMKII]

While artistic audience members much prefer real actors, the Oscar Awards prefer to give prizes out to Movie Stars. Even a legendary great actor will often have to wait until they reach their cameo-stage "with...as..." phase to get recognized by the Academy. I know that sounds like the Oscar has no meaning, but Johnny Depp still hasn't gotten one, so there's proof for you.

And on the rare occasion they do give it to a real actor, there's inevitably a celebrity media backlash against it going to someone who, like, hasn't even been on the cover of People magazine.