h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Skyfall. On DVD instead of Blu-ray, because my daughter had a blonde moment and put the wrong disc in.

Anyway. What a remarkably silly film. *And* it was an hour too long.

Of course it got off to a bad start with that ghastly song by Adele. With the sound off, I thought the opening credits were quite good, but it went downhill from there.

In the interests of balance, husband and daughter love it, and think it's the best Bond ever.



Mol

James Craig does cool better than anyone. I'm wondering, Mol, whether you dislike the song because you can't stand Adele, or because it's such a bad song it would stink no matter who sang it?

Last night I saw "Inside Llewelyn Davis." It's a Coen Brothers movie with a lot of great singing performances [early 1960s American folk music]. The ending is the same as the beginning. Neither one makes any sense. What was the movie trying to say, other than that musicians have to suffer a lot in order to barely squeak by? I was looking forward to seeing John Goodman and the charismatic Garrett Hedlund. They are in a car that picks up the hitchhiking title character. Hedlund rarely spoke, and when he did speak you couldn't understand him. Goodman collapsed in the restroom of a Fred Harvey restaurant [a chain that no longer exists, and wasn't doing too well even in 1961]. Hedlund insists that Goodman is okay, gets him back in the car. A few minutes later, the three characters are sleeping in the car. A policeman drags Hedlund out of the car and carts him off to jail, leaving the comatose Goodman and the title character in the car. Hedlund has taken the key with him, so Davis decides to hitch a ride with someone else.

There's a also a subplot concerning a cat that escapes from an apartment where Davis has crashed. The cat escapes from the apartment when Davis is leaving. He spends much of the rest of the movie chasing the cat. At one point, Davis thinks he has found the cat again, and returns it to its owners, but it turns out to be the wrong cat.

In some ways it's a very funny [drily funny] movie.

Crikey - that was named the best film of the year on the BBC website, and the critics were falling over themselves to laud it at the time.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131223-the-10-best-films-of-2013

No, I quite like Adele, I just don't like the song.

Mol

>Last night I saw "Philomena." It stars Dame Judy Dench and Steve Coogan in a story [apparently based on a true story] about an elderly woman who gave up a male baby 50 years earlier, and would like to know what happened to him. The name "Philomena" is based on a Greek name that means "beloved."<

Thanks for reminding me of this film as one that needs to be watched.
My other half is particularly excited about this as *at last* people will have heard of her first name Her life has been cursed by people thinking she's called Phyllis/Philippa or taking the mick and calling her Philip (she likes to be just called Phil)
That's an interesting factoid about her name which as far as we knew was just an irish name - particularly interesting as my first name also has the meaning 'beloved' albeit deriving from a different language (hebrew) - there we've got even more in common than we thought

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

And I find myself saying, just as I did about Skyfall: What an exceptionally silly film. And it was at least an hour too long.

Good bits: the spiders. Throwing the weapons from barrel to barrel (suddenly the washing up scene from the first film had a point) - but not the actual barrel escape because that was much better in the book. The way the dragon moved. The mine workings. Bard. And, surprisingly (because I don't really rate him as an actor), Stephen Fry.

Bad bits: everything that wasn't in the book (which at a rough calculation was all but 20 minutes). I mean, for crying out loud: a love triangle? Gandalf in a cage? And doesn't stick-hand baldy orc ever take a holiday? Plus, Legolas has clearly been on the pies and was definitely looking his age, and none of the sexy dwarves took their clothes off on camera even when they were soaking wet.

But my two daughters enjoyed it immensely - it was Nod's birthday treat, and Sic has just become a LOTR/Hobbit films enthusiast.

I daresay I'll enjoy it a lot more when I watch it next time - I'll be in my own living room, with the option of pausing it while I make a cup of tea, or fast forwarding it through the unnecessary bits, and I'll know where it's going to end.

Mol

Possible the only thing that annoyed me about this film was Stephen Fry - hey ho!

Rush - the story of the 1976 Formula One Season where Niki Lauda and James Hunt vied for the title.

Loved it. If only both drivers could have won. The race scenes were dramatic and thrilling whilst it was good to get a bit about the back stories of the drivers. Heartily recommend it.

"Saving Mr. Banks."

Until I saw this film, I had no idea how much behind-the-scenes was involved in bringing "Mary Poppins" to the screen. Scenes from P. L. Travers' childhood are interspersed with scenes from 1961 on. It became increasingly clear how many people in "Mary Poppins" were based on people Ms. Travers had known in her youth.

Saving mr banks- absolute triumph of screenplay over special effects! An incredible performance from Thompson as a rather obnoxious character, and a fascinating glimpse behind the Disney cameras.

Elysium- an all too believable dystopian future, with a good showing from Matt Damon.

The Butler- astoundingly good historical bio, with a range of cameos ( Alan rickman as Reagan?) and a stark reminder of just how far we've come. I cried the whole way through.

Gravity- gripping storyline, pretty accurate science, but no real message.

Have just come back from seeing The Physician (Ben Kingsley, Stellan Skarsgård). According to ImDB it's only released in Germany and Spain, so there's not much point in commenting here. Based on the book by Noah Gordon, which I hadn't read. Going by the comments on imdb, it was better not to have read the book.

Yesterday I saw "Secret Life of Walter Mitty," starring Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig. I always related well to Walter Mitty. There was a tuneful musical version of the story on Broadway in the 1960s. Danny Kaye starred in an earlier movie version, which I've never seen. Kaye will always be Hans Christian Anderson for me anyway.

Ben Stiller was a good choice to play Mitty. He exudes determination, but in a gentle way. He will stick to his guns no matter what. The "zoning out" scenes are a lot of fun, especially the one where he imagines himself as a tiny old Benjamin Button snuggling next to an older Kristen Wiig. Then an important negative that's needed for the cover of the last "Life" magazine issue goes missing, and Mitty has to chase down the elusive photographer who took it and retrieve the negative. Mitty screws up his courage and flies to Iceland, jumps from a helicopter into icy waters, and treks from Afghanistan into the Himalayas where the photographer is said to be shooting pics of the elusive snow leopard. The gritty Mr. Mitty plugs on, doing his duty all the way.

Today I went to see "Walk with Dinosaurs." A lightweight film that was obviously made for teens and preteens, it nevertheless has some good nature shots.

We also enjoyed The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (I'd not seen the original either, and I thought that was Walter Matthau, but now I know better)

We also saw The Butler a few weeks ago, harrowing stuff. Today we saw the Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom film. Tough going at 2½hrs but well worth it. I remember some of the significant events when they were happening. Idris Elba is a revelation, the gorgeous Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela...marvellous, we couldn't work out where we knew her from then Tia Dalma/Calypso, the goddess of the seas from the Pirates of the Caribbean series

I've seen Gravity but I am too much of a and spotted errors which spoiled my enjoyment.

Next week we're going to see Saving Mr Banks.

GB

Naomie Harris was Moneypenny in Skyfall.

So many films I wish I could see. I've got a few DVD's to work through, so I should be catching up with Argo, Warhorse, The Help and Forrest Gump (OK, so I haven't seen Forrest Gump ).

I'm amazed Gravity got so many Oscar nominations. Will be interesting to see if anything comes of them.

I was going to see Gravity in 3D at an Imax cinema last night so I went to the Odeon website to buy a ticket and the top customer review leapt unasked into my field of vision with a massive spoiler.

So I didn't bother.

Last night I saw "The Nut Job," an animated feature about some squirrels who plan to rub a nut store, not realizing that the nuts were a cover for some thieves who wanted to rob a bank vault next to the store.

Not a highly rated movie, but lots of fun. If you don't like squirrels, you probably won't like it. That's not a problem for me.

Really, there aren't a lot of new 2014 movies out yet. The least likable new ones seem to be saved for January through March, hence the glut of bloody horror movies and incredibly stupid macho violent movies. At least some of the squirrels are sympathetic [if you like squirrels at all].

The Railwayman.

Grim - but well worth seeing.

PP.

Saving Mr Banks.

Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson are amazing as their characters. We both enjoyed it, it's an excellent date movie and I found myself welling up at times. You mustn't leave before the end credits, as they play some original tape worth listening to. We didn't realise so we had to stop halfway out, others stood in the aisles, the lucky few stayed in their seats. I don't think anyone left until it was completely over (and the theatre was packed). Lots of people talking about it on the way out too, a good recommendation for those wavering.

GB

I ALWAYS stay to the end of the credits in movies! For a number of reasons.

1. To see what that song was that I recognised half way through.
2. To nod some tribute to the thousands of people who make a film happen, not just the stars.
3. To avoid the depressing shuffle and fight for the loos.
4. In case there's a final scene or taster.
5. I usually have suspended my disbelief to soem extent, and I need a period of decompression chamber to adjust back to Real Life.

What were the science errors that annoyed you in Gravity, GB? I only ask because my rocket science cousin had given that aspect of it high praise.

Last night I saw "I, Frankenstein." Aaron Eckhardt played Frankenstein's monster, and Bill Nighy played the Demon Prince who was trying to vanquish the gargoyles that protect humanity.

Enjoyable trash, a great way to while away a winter's night. Every time a demon is killed, his soul turns into a ball of flame that plummets down to Hell. Every time a gargoyle is killed, its soul turns into a ray of light that ascends to heaven.