-

Movies in the Morning/The Philadelphia Story

Posted by barb on Jul 31, 2005 in Movies

We actually wanted to see all of the movies the Cinema Arts Theatre was playing this week for its “Movies in the Morning” series, so we went up again this morning to catch another one. (We can’t see them all, though, because they’re playing four different movies each week.) This morning we went to The Philadelphia Story, starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

It is the day before Tracy Lord (Hepburn), a woman of some wealth, is getting married for the second time. Her ex-husband, C. K. Dexter Haven (Grant), indrudes upon the day, bringing a reporter and photographer from Spy Magazine to capture the day. Ostensibly, this film is a comedy, and it certainly has its moments. However, the portrayal of relationships, and long, odd speeches in the middle of the film just don’t fit in with the label “comedy”.

[ IMDB link to The Philadelphia Story]

Tags:

 
-

Movies in the Morning/Talk of the Town

Posted by barb on Jul 30, 2005 in Movies

The Cinema Arts Theatre near our house continued its “Movies in the Morning” series this week, so we biked up this morning to watch Talk of the Town. Talk of the Town stars Cary Grant as political activist, Leopold Dilg, who has been accused of starting a fire that burned down a factory and killed the foreman. He escapes jail and moves himself into the attic of a rental owned by a girl he grew up with and rented for the summer by a prominent law professor. The film is a bit of a screwball comedy, and turned out to be a lot of fun.

Total miles biked: 9 miles

[ IMDB link for Talk of the Town]

Tags:

 
-

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Posted by barb on Jul 28, 2005 in Movies

4/5 stars

Fun, fun, fun!

Usually I don’t really like re-makes — the first version of something that I experience is usually the one that I’m going to like best. However, this time around, it’s hard to say which version I like best. I love Johnny Depp, and his performance here is an par with the best of his work. The film adds in a bit more of the background of Willy Wonka that is present neither in the book or the Gene Wilder version of the film, and I haven’t decided if I liked it or not (leaning toward not), though it does set it apart.

[IMDB link to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]

Tags:

 
-

National Treasure

Posted by barb on Jul 27, 2005 in Movies

3/5 stars

Standard thriller. Fun while it lasted, though, of course, completely unbelievable.

[IMDB link for National Treasure]

Tags:

 
-

Movies in the Morning/12 Angry Men

Posted by barb on Jul 23, 2005 in Biking, Movies

The Cinema Arts Theatre, up the road from our house, is doing a special series of films over the next several weeks — Movies in the Morning. They are playing classic movies following four themes (I can only remember Hepburn/Grant and courtroom off the top of my head). The movies all start between 10 and 10:30 AM, cost only $5, and there are $1 snacks available at the concession stand.

Andrew and I biked up this morning to catch 12 Angry Men. I had seen at least part of it a few years ago when it played on AMC or TMC, but it was a lot of fun to see it in the theater. There were a few technical problems with the film, and it shut down a couple times, but I wonder how many good copies are left in circulation.

We’ll certainly be back next weekend, though I’m not sure which movie we’ll see — there are a couple that look good to me.

Total biking miles: 6 miles

[ IMDB link to 12 Angry Men]

Tags:

 
-

Fantastic Four

Posted by barb on Jul 21, 2005 in Movies

3.5/5 stars

This movie was a lot of fun, but that’s about all it was. Pretty standard “superhero movie” fare, with the backstory of a group of superheros, a bit of tension over their new fates, and a fairly brief appearance of a super-villian. Fun while it lasted, but I won’t bring much from it away with me.

[ IMDB link to Fantastic Four]

Tags:

 
-

March of the Penguins

Posted by barb on Jul 14, 2005 in Movies

4/5 stars

I’ve always loved penguins. I’ve only seen them at a zoo once, but no matter — they’re cute nonetheless. This film is about the grueling mating ritual and subsequent egg/baby care that the emperor penguins go through every year. It was made somewhat more real because the scenes we watched are happening right now, as it is currently the Antarctic winter.

Overall this was an excellent film. My only complaint is that some of the scenes appear to be done with either time-lapse or sped-up film, and it’s not always clear when this is in use. For example, there was a scene where one of the penguin eggs fell on the ice and cracked, and we see the frost forming very quickly. It could certainly be real-time with the Antarctic temperatures, but we don’t know for sure.

[IMDB link for March of the Penguins]

Tags:

 
-

War of the Worlds

Posted by barb on Jul 10, 2005 in Movies

3/5 stars

The problem, of course, is that the War of the Worlds story is so well known, that any new movie versions have to rely heavily on the telling of the story rather than just the story itself. This time the story is wrapped around Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), a not-too-great dad stuck with his two kids the weekend that the aliens attack. He struggles to keep his kids alive and get them back to their mom while trying to regain his kids’ trust and respect. Of course, the more interesting parts are the aliens and the effects. I liked it — it wasn’t great art or anything, but certainly not “horrible” as some people are saying.

[IMDB link to War of the Worlds]

Tags:

 
-

Two Brothers

Posted by barb on Jul 3, 2005 in Movies

2/5 stars

This was the story of two young tigers who are separated from both their mother and each other early in life, and follow different paths that cross again. It’s cute, but unfortantely our copy from Netflix had problems about three-quarters of the way through the film. I didn’t want to wait for a new copy, so we ended up skipping ahead a couple times when the DVD was unplayable. Whether because of the story or our problems with the DVD, I wasn’t all that interested in the ending. It’s a cute film with lots of footage of baby tigers, but not a great story otherwise.

[IMDB link to Two Brothers]

Tags:

 
-

Batman Begins

Posted by barb on Jul 3, 2005 in Movies

4/5 stars

While I’m not a Chistian Bale fan, I was able to get past that an enjoy this newest take on Batman. There was a lot of great acting power in this film, and it really paid off. I hardly recognized Gary Oldman as Officer Jim Gordon, and of course, there was Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as a weapons specialist, and Liam Neeson as mentor and teacher. Definately recommended.

[IMDB link to Batman Begins]

Tags:

Copyright © 2024 My Silly Life All rights reserved. Theme by Laptop Geek.