Movies

anoldfashiongirl · Post by **anoldfashiongirl** » March 19th, 2009, 7:49 am

BellonaTimes wrote:A few news outlets (Montreal Gazette, OK! online) are reporting that theater and film star Natasha Richardson has been critically-injured in a skiing accident in Canada. Some of her famous roles include The Handmaid's Tale, Anna Christie, Sally Bowles in the revival of Cabaret (both on Broadway), the remake of The Parent Trap, and Nell with her husband Liam Neeson, with whom she has two sons. She's also Vanessa Redgrave's daughter by director Tony Richardson.

Just saw her last night in Parent Trap, spooky... hope she's okay or doesn't suffer.

Yeah. they said she passed away. Warm thoughts to her family.

anoldfashiongirl · Post by **anoldfashiongirl** » March 19th, 2009, 7:50 am

Robinsgirl wrote: I dont know if you have seen it yet, but IO absolutely hated this movie! I thought it was horrible and I will NEVER watch it again.

Edit: talking about Igor

Yeah. I didn't like iGor. Not one I'll probably watch again!

Chrisczech · Post by **Chrisczech** » February 16th, 2010, 7:47 am

Just watched The Hurt Locker on dvd - what an amazing film. I do hope it gets the Oscar it deserves and trounces Avatar.

Chrisczech · Post by **Chrisczech** » February 17th, 2010, 7:34 am

Has anyone seen Synecdoche, New York with Philip Seymour Hoffman?

My wife and I watched it last night, and the jury is still out from me, but my wife didn't like it at all.

It isn't an easy film and it asks a lot of questions, and I find that I am still thinking about it the next day. I will watch it again, alone, and try to see if it makes more sense to me.

Chelsea · Post by **Chelsea** » February 17th, 2010, 5:47 pm

Chrisczech wrote:Just watched The Hurt Locker on dvd - what an amazing film. I do hope it gets the Oscar it deserves and trounces Avatar.

I resent that. I really enjoyed Avatar, since I'm basically a hippie; it had a lot of good tree-hugger vibes, even if it was over-publicized. Plus, with the time and money that went into it, and it was a pretty great work of art considering, I think it deserves some awards. (Though I will check out The Hurt Locker just to see what it is)

BellonaTimes · Post by **BellonaTimes** » February 17th, 2010, 8:21 pm

Team Bigelow here. I'm hoping the Academy votes Hurt Locker (a movie about something real that matters) over Avatar (which is neither). If Kathryn Bigelow doesn't at least win for Best Director, it'll be a travesty. She has bested her ex (James Cameron) in virtually every pre-Oscar competition, including the prestigious Director's Guild Award.

Chelsea · Post by **Chelsea** » February 18th, 2010, 12:15 am

Okay, I'm not trying to undermine war here, but I think that Avatar is about something that matters, even if it seems like some sci-fi shoot-em-up flick. (Okay, even if the setting is not real

)

I live in the Cascade Mountains, in a completely remote part of the world. I see deer herds, elk herds, wolf packs, coyotes, nature at work, all around me on my 200 acres. But the Hill Timber Company is tearing down the forests around me, and I don't enjoy it. Hills where vast green forests used to grow are now brown dirt. They don't listen to regulation, they cut by streams so that they dry up in summer and don't come back; they destroy the habitats of animals that come streaming onto our property because there is nowhere else to go; they don't plant when they should, and they cut down trees that are fifty years younger than their optimal age.

The people in my family are even loggers, but we try to plant more trees than we cut down. I don't like the line of business we're in, but we try our best to make up for it. Our properties are the healthiest around.
I had really hoped that with Avatar that some city slicker jerk that buys a Prius to stick an older car in a landfill, that could be modified to be just as good for the environment, for less material and less hazardous waste left on the planet, would learn to have a little respect for nature. (I'm actually not joking about the Prius thing, it puts a lot of pollutants into the atmosphere to produce that one new car, whereas if they sold upgrade parts for preexisting cars to reduce the amount of fuel it needs, and lessen the exhaust it puts out, it would take much less resources, and actually be better for the planet.) And if anyone who reads this owns a Prius, I'm so completely sorry, but I just learned about the statistics that compare just making one Prius (as in to manufacture it) to driving another 100,000 miles on any older car, without any modifications at all. An old car can be modified to be equal to a Prius without using half the energy, resources or anything else. I really don't mean the "city slicker jerk" thing, I'm just using a stereotype of people who buy it for the image without actually considering what they are doing. If you're planning on buying a new car anyway because you're giving up on your last one, it's actually a great car. BUT not just because you want to look "green," and don't care if your old car was only a year old.

Anyway (sorry, that last bit was a waste of breath, I'm sure no one understood it), I had just hoped that city people could learn that nature is actually something to be respected. You shouldn't have to brag that you bought the most eco-friendly water bottle or that you use cotton grocery bags instead of plastic. Just do it because it's right, and not for the prestige. I wish people could be more like that, actually caring about their planet lucidly, and not just because the media tells you to. I thought, from watching the movie Avatar, that some of that respect for nature might have seeped through to someone, that someone might have noticed the moral of the story wasn't just about blue people with bows and arrows. Maybe not. Maybe no one did. Maybe it was just another sci-fi movie to everyone else, with slightly better graphics.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the long argument. It's just that it's something I care about a lot and I thought that the movie Avatar portrayed those ideals (maybe I was wrong). Anyway, really, I'm going to go watch Hurt Locker now, because it looks like a very good movie. And I do understand that war is a thing that should not be taken lightly, but it's just if we destroy the world around us, war won't even matter because the world will be gone anyway.

I'm so, so sorry if I offended anyone. I just enjoyed the movie because I had hoped that if there was any major movie out there with a message like that, I had hoped people might take a more active role in helping out the environment. Once again, I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I give full permission to the admins to delete this if you think it's controversial. After all, it's just an argument about a silly movie....

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry
-Chelsea

PS- I am going to watch Hurt Locker!!! Maybe I'll love it, maybe I'll totally disown all loyalty to Avatar I portrayed before. After all, you need to know both sides of a story before having an opinion. I just thought it should be said that the movie is about something that matters, something very important too. Ah, I should just shut up now...

Chelsea · Post by **Chelsea** » February 18th, 2010, 12:31 am

Oh, and sort of off-topic from the giant rant I just posted (but still connected), I think that Avatar is very similar to The Last Samurai (YES, I know Avatar takes place in space and on a different planet), but in it's basic theme that a dying civilization tries to survive despite an encroaching outside force that wants to take it down. (Also, if you thought that The Last Samurai was just another Tom Cruise movie, you annoy me, lol-please don't take that seriously-) They both have the moral in it that you should respect diversity and different cultures.
Aaaaand, I think Avatar is similar to The Emerald Forest, which, if you watch it and don't get the idea that there are morals in it, you're blind, deaf and completely lost. I would completely recommend The Emerald Forest to anyone; it has that same idea with a connection to nature and preservation of it. It is about the Invisible People, a tribe in South America, and is based on a true story. So if you like things that are real and important, you should like it.

Chelsea · Post by **Chelsea** » February 18th, 2010, 12:48 am

I'm sorry that I keep posting on here, but I do just want to say that it's not so much the movie itself that I was trying to defend, but the morals it portrayed.

I really did mean no offense by the first post, I just didn't want people disregarding nature alongside the movie.

Norton · Post by **Norton** » February 18th, 2010, 12:56 am

Chelsea wrote:Maybe not. Maybe no one did. Maybe it was just another sci-fi movie to everyone else, with slightly better graphics.

Nah. I've not seen it, but if it didn't go over TVTropes' collective heads, I'm sure most people will be at least somewhat clueful... even if they don't particularly care, or have the means to do anything, or... yeah.

Chrisczech · Post by **Chrisczech** » February 18th, 2010, 5:04 am

Chelsea wrote:
Chrisczech wrote:Just watched The Hurt Locker on dvd - what an amazing film. I do hope it gets the Oscar it deserves and trounces Avatar.
I resent that. I really enjoyed Avatar, since I'm basically a hippie; it had a lot of good tree-hugger vibes, even if it was over-publicized. Plus, with the time and money that went into it, and it was a pretty great work of art considering, I think it deserves some awards. (Though I will check out The Hurt Locker just to see what it is)

I am sorry to cause you any offense by my comment, Chelsea.

I wrote a lot more here about my view of Avatar but have deleted it, because I don't want to continue what could become an argument. Suffice to say that I preferred The Hurt Locker.

Claire · Post by **Claire** » February 18th, 2010, 12:04 pm

BellonaTimes wrote:Team Bigelow here. I'm hoping the Academy votes Hurt Locker (a movie about something real that matters) over Avatar (which is neither). If Kathryn Bigelow doesn't at least win for Best Director, it'll be a travesty. She has bested her ex (James Cameron) in virtually every pre-Oscar competition, including the prestigious Director's Guild Award.

I tend to stay away from this thread because I love movies and can be very opinionated about them.

However, I really want to see The Hurt Locker win big. It's so much more than just a movie set during a war. I'm not a big fan of war movies, per se, even good ones, but I felt this one was exceptional. Kudos to Kathryn Bigelow!

Has anyone noticed if it's nominated for a BAFTA? I think they're on the weekend or 2 before the Oscars.

Cori · Post by **Cori** » February 18th, 2010, 12:20 pm

Chrisczech wrote:Has anyone seen Synecdoche, New York with Philip Seymour Hoffman?

Yes ... and I really liked aspects of it, but it didn't add up overall for me. I'm not a big requirer of meaning in my movies, but I need the feeling that it'd make sense to *someone* and I'm not sure I got even that much from it.

Chelsea · Post by **Chelsea** » February 18th, 2010, 1:36 pm

Chrisczech wrote:I am sorry to cause you any offense by my comment, Chelsea.

I wrote a lot more here about my view of Avatar but have deleted it, because I don't want to continue what could become an argument. Suffice to say that I preferred The Hurt Locker.

Sorry, no offense. I don't want an argument either, I don't really like them, I just didn't want people thinking that Avatar wasn't about something that mattered. Anyway, I'm planning on seeing The Hurt Locker soon, so I may really like it anyway.

FJ · Post by FJ » February 19th, 2010, 3:26 am

Cori wrote:
Chrisczech wrote:Has anyone seen Synecdoche, New York with Philip Seymour Hoffman?
Yes ... and I really liked aspects of it, but it didn't add up overall for me. I'm not a big requirer of meaning in my movies, but I need the feeling that it'd make sense to *someone* and I'm not sure I got even that much from it.

Yeah, Kaufman intentionally went for a sort of open-ended film this time, saying he wanted to make a movie that would be different each time you see it etc.
Now although I enjoy Seymor Hoffman as an actor very much, and although I was able to make some sense of most of the movie, I did enjoy it less than other Kaufman's films (i.e. the ones where he was just the writer, and not both the writer and director like in this one).