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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]

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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]

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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]

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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]

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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]

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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]

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Hollywood Ending

Posted by barb on Jun 19, 2005 in Movies

2.5/5 stars

Woody Allen plays a has-been director whose last hit was ten years ago. He’s now almost unemployable, being known for unreasonable demands. He gets a chance when his ex-wife (Tea Leoni) pushes her producer boyfriend to hire Allen. Allen becomes blind before the first day of shooting, but can’t give up the job, or he’ll never get a job in Hollywood again. Ostensibly, hilarity ensues.

This film is typical of recent Woody Allen films — lackluster and with a large “thud” at the end. The characters weren’t much more than 1-dimensional. The story lacked much push toward the “climax” and ending, and frankly, I wasn’t sure when the climax happened. There was some entertaining dialog, but all-in-all this is not a film I’d go out of my way to see.

[IMDB link for Hollywood Ending]

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Mad Hot Ballroom

Posted by barb on Jun 15, 2005 in Movies

4/5 stars

For nearly a decade, ballroom dance has been taught in New York City public schools. At the end of the year, there is a citywide competition for the best of the schools. This documentary follows students from three of the schools as they learn the dances, choose competitors and finally compete for the gold.

This film was a bit reminiscent of Spellbound, the documentary on kids competing in the national spelling bee. However, I felt that this one didn’t give us as intimate a look at the kids as Spellbound did. There was much more emphasis on the dancing and dance classes than on getting to know the kids. Don’t get me wrong — we do get to know a few of the kids, and I felt very invested in the final outcome of the competition, but there was a lot more dancing footage than getting-to-know-the-kids footage.

[IMDB link for Mad Hot Ballroom]

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Hitch

Posted by barb on Jun 4, 2005 in Movies

3.5/5 stars

Fun, fluffy romantic comedy starring the very cute Wil Smith. Not much else to say.

[IMDB link to Hitch]

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The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Posted by barb on Jun 1, 2005 in Movies

4/5 stars

I love the books, and was really looking forward to the movie. Naturally, the movie has watered down a couple of the stories, but that has to happen, since there’s only so much that can be fit into two hours. What really struck me, though, was how sad the movie was. I started crying in the first 5 minutes, and didn’t stop until it was over. I thought maybe I was being a big baby, but Sweetie, who was sitting next to me, was crying through much of it, too. I didn’t remember the books being quite that sad. Overall it was quite good, though be prepared with a few Kleenex.

[IMDB link to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants]

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