Does anyone DVD anymore?

[mmichaelson]

Yeah, well. . .

Talk to a guy day in and day out for over a year - you pick up on these things.

[camper]

Spanglish was a pretty good flick. Funny/sad/romantic and a chick flic to be sure. On the treble clef I'd give it a d note. Some very fine acting in spots and THE most beautiful Hispanic actress I have *ever* seen. Forgot to look for her name in the credits.

[Angie Parkes]

Originally posted by RichC:
Isn't this a musical forum? Why hasn't anyone recommended Drumline?

I was going to recommend it as my family and I rented it a few months ago. The performance pieces are amazing, but I didn't think the movie was very good. The band stuff is amazing, though.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Re Drumline: it's a good movie, worth watching a time or two. The band stuff is almost as good as a drum corps but some of the crucial plot points (like a kid who can't read music making it through auditions successfully without the instructors realizing he can't read the music) are unbelievable. I will admit that the presence of several drum corps kids explaining, in excruciating detail, what was wrong with the movie was probably the biggest problem I had.

[mmichaelson]

Yeah - cute movie. Fun to watch the bands, etc. I also have a good friend who is a percussionist. I had to gag her while we watched.

She caught all the places where they switched drums and sticks during the middle of performing. . .editing . . .etc.

Good and entertaining movie, though.

[NateBrei]

Originally posted by Saxy Buff:
Nate - have you read the book? It's excellent!

No, I haven't. Unfortunately, don't have time to read. My wife's Todo List is MUCH TOO LONG to read (heaven forbid that I should waste my time doing nothing like reading)!

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

OK, music movies. The Music Man. The Competition. Amadeus. Showboat. Cabaret. LOTR (the whole cycle). Star Wars (all of 'em).

There is no such thing as "no time to read". Time to revise some Honeydo lists. You may have to encourage her to acquire some hobbies of her own <quilting, knitting, mountainclimbing, motorcycle racing, painting>. It should be something that involves enough vanishing money to make her unwilling to closely inspect your hobbies.

[Angie Parkes]

Originally posted by Selma in Sandy Eggo:
OK, music movies.

Two great Canadian movies: The Red Violin and The Outside Chance of Maximillian Glick. You may want to pass on The Red Violin as a family flick, but Outside Chance is a wonderful family movie.

[camper]

Ok we have two DVD movies in hand and a bird in the tree and it is worth... whatever. They got here today:
The Terminal
and
I Robot

Which is the better? (note the proper English).
Gimme thumbs or staff notes please.

[lioness]

don't hold your breath for I Robot. i was quite dissapointed.

[mmichaelson]

Eh. I, Robot was ok. VASTLY different from the books. If you've never read the books -it's all right. The Terminal - I've never seen. You'll have to let me know how it is.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I, Robot was a Very Nice Will Smith movie. Oddly, the movie had a couple of characters with the same names as Isaac Asimov characters in a book titled, uh, What!? I, Robot?

You don't mean that the movie was based on the book? No. No way. I read the book.

Where were the details? The wife, the kid, the job, the plot, the scenery, the personalities, the dialog. Oh. Only the title counts.

Huh! Who knew?

It's like saying that the Disney The Jungle Book was taken from Kipling's Jungle Books. What!? Damn. Fooled me again.

Do the scriptwriters actually read the books?

[DavidS]

Yeh well.
And what about the film versions of The Ten Commandments compared to the hardcopy original?
"Cecil B. De Mille,
much against his will,
was eventually persuaded that Moses
did not take part in the Wars of the Roses."

[Angie Parkes]

Speaking of movie adaptations of books, did anyone else catch the news that Merchant Ivory passed away? Thursday, I think it was.

A "loosely based on" that I loved, and bought the soundtrack because I loved the music so much, is O Brother, Where Art Thou?. It was lots of fun recognizing the allusions to The Odyssey, and quite pleasant to stare at George Clooney, too.

Selma, what are your favourite SF films? I haven't seen I, Robot yet because I'd heard that it would bear no resemblance to the book, and I figured I'd just sit and stew watching it.

[treebeau]

Got my first Netflix flick over the weekend. "Sideways." A little amusing but I don't see what all the fuss was about.

Regards,
Tim B.

[Shapley]

camper,

I enjoyed The Terminal very much, but the wife didn't find it all that appealing. I haven't seen I, Robot, mainly because of the lack of recommendations from friends that have seen it. I'll catch it on TV sometime.

V/R
Shapley

[BigJon@Work]

Originally posted by Angie:
Speaking of movie adaptations of books, did anyone else catch the news that Merchant Ivory passed away? Thursday, I think it was.

:D It was Ismail Merchant who died. You mean they killed the whole company and buried them with him? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052501027.html

BigJon

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Originally posted by Angie:
Selma, what are your favourite SF films?

I'm a poor source on this stuff. I read so much, and complain so bitterly about the departures from the plot, that almost any book I read will be a movie I complain about.

A couple of the Star Trek movies were excellent. First Encounter was my favorite. The LotR movies are spectacular in their own right, and better'n'average with respect to faithfulness. The Harry Potter flicks are also both decent movies and decently faithful to the books. (OK, most of this isn't SF. Sue me, I read a lot of fantasy too.) The Hunt for Red October is the best of the Jack Ryan movies (best cast, anyway).

The Indiana Jones movies, Romancing the Stone and National Treasure are all good treasure hunt movies.

SF? Well, I'll have to admit that the best movies happen inside my head.

Oh! Oh! I forgot Muppets from Space! That one's a classic, not to be missed. We get to meet Gonzo's family!

[OperaTenor]

2001: A Space Odyssey
Galaxy Quest
Spaceballs

Guess those last two aren't really SF films.......

Hi Selma, I know you like the movie version of The Hunt for Red October, and I enjoyed the book(kept thinking I would've gone to prison if I had written it), but the movie violates my first law of submarine movies: No steel grated decking on U.S. [politically correct] nucular [/politically correct] submarines. Too noisy.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Too many facts and too much reality will spoil any movie. You ought to sit through Top Gun in the presence of flight instructors...