For The Love Of Port

Ararat, a fine historically accurate story about the Turks genocide with their own Armenian population in 1915. Very well done! Solid A ... no points this time.

Meg Ryan fans will enjoy: In the Cut, a wild film from 2003, showing a side of Ryan that will likely never be seen again on film.

Roy Hersh wrote:Meg Ryan fans will enjoy: In the Cut, a wild film from 2003, showing a side of Ryan that will likely never be seen again on film.

I often check the ratio of good-to-bad reviews on Amazon and IMDb to guess whether I will like a film. This one got a spectrum, slightly weighted towards bad. A polarizing movie (mostly very good or very bad) is usually worth a try, especially when I recognize the reasons for the bad reviews. Full spectrums (even distribution of all ratings) with a preponderance of either good or bad reviews are much harder to judge, and require careful reading of a lot of reviews. As much as I like Meg Ryan, I think I will pass on this one.

A serious mistake Peter. Her performance and that of her co-star were pretty darn impressive. The plot was ok, with moments of brilliance and a few weak spots as well, but overall a solid flick that captivates the attention throughout. YMMV.

Saw "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" over the weekend. I'm a fan of both the book and the prior BBC miniseries. I enjoyed it. I think they did a good job of telling the story within the confines of a single movie. I do think it helped that I know the book as the plot is pretty dense.

I've recently been watching the Justified series. (Season 1 and season 2 are out on DVD.) This is one of my wife's favorite series. I have to wait for the DVDs, as I will NOT watch shows with commercials, and I need the subtitles, as I am getting too deaf to completely understand audio dialog.

Good stuff, and it has caused me to go back and re-read all the Elmore Leonard books (reading them chronologically - read about 8 so far). I will try to figure which have been made into movies as well, and get any that I don't already have. For certain: Mr. Majestyk, Get Shorty, and Be Cool, but there are a bunch of others.

I did watch Mr. Majestyk (1974 w/Charles Bronson) the other evening, and it is still as good as ever. Maybe a bit dated, but still good. The hardest thing when watching medium-old movies is wondering why they just don't use their cell-phones.

Eva and I just re-watched the Lord of the Rings series (Peter Jackson) - a fair investment in time at roughly 4 hours per movie. Peter Jackson is scheduled to release The Hobbit soon, so we thought we should re-familiarize ourselves with the originals.

They hold up well. If you like high fantasy, you should see these eventually. Without having seen Jackson's version of The Hobbit, I can't tell you whether to wait for The Hobbit before watching the Lord of the Rings series (chronologically), or whether you need to watch TLOTR first (in the order that the films were published).

Don't miss THE ARTIST. Incredible and deserving of the hype.

Roy Hersh wrote:Don't miss THE ARTIST. Incredible and deserving of the hype.

This one has really interested me, but I don't know if I will be able to convince the wife to watch it with me.

Has anybody seen the documentary: The 4th Kind ?

Roy Hersh wrote:Don't miss THE ARTIST. Incredible and deserving of the hype.

Finally saw this. Very enjoyable and not exactly what I expected.

Since the Oscar batch from 2011, has anyone seen a fine flick in the theater this year? I've only heard of one must see: The Hunger Games, but I have yet to see it.

Roy Hersh wrote:Since the Oscar batch from 2011, has anyone seen a fine flick in the theater this year? I've only heard of one must see: The Hunger Games, but I have yet to see it.

Sorry; for me, if it isn't on DVD it doesn't exist (yet).

Saw a great action/suspense movie over the weekend call Headhunters (2011). Norwegian film with a lot of twists and turns. Don't want to give too much away. Worth checking out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1614989/

Saw The Avengers this weekend, and it was as expected, and worthy of seeing on the big screen if you don't have a home theater setup like Peter. Also finally watched The Help (on DVD), which I highly recommend.

For those seeking something out of the ordinary, I highly recommend Stalker. Its a Russian film from 1979 where people come to the site of a huge walled off government area that is supposedly dangerous, to find a guide who will lead them to a place that will supposedly grant their wishes. For those big time film buffs who know who Tarkovsky is, I'd say its his greatest work.

The caveats: Its long (163 minutes), has extended periods of silence that, while they definitely add to the film, are not for everyone (if you liked watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, you'll enjoy the cinematics and silences for sure), its subtitled, and its rather hard to find outside of Amazon.

If you are still interested after that, I implore you to see it. It will be an experience that will absorb you and linger for weeks afterwards.

Also, side note, does anyone with Netflix want to let me know if they have it on there? I've always been curious, but I've never signed up myself.

Bradley Bogdan wrote:Stalker ... Also, side note, does anyone with Netflix want to let me know if they have it on there? I've always been curious, but I've never signed up myself.

Added to my Netflix queue.

Watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest this weekend, in the original Swedish with English subtitles. I had not read the books, Marijke had. We both thought the movies were good. Now I'm torn about whether to watch the English version with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

Eric Menchen wrote:Watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest this weekend, in the original Swedish with English subtitles. I had not read the books, Marijke had. We both thought the movies were good. Now I'm torn about whether to watch the English version with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

The EL version is also good. It explains some aspects a bit better, but, of course, has to leave more of the book events out.

Eric,

I really enjoyed 2/3 of the original trilogy. Had very low expectations for the English version. It does not follow the exact same path but is close. It was REALLY good but some minor flaws. DEFINITELY worth seeing though.