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

Jared Leto won an Oscar for his role in that film, so McConnaughey wasn't doing all the great acting.

We have just switched over after watching the first 10 minutes of 'Airplane vs Volcano' - an action drama about an airliner trapped in a ring of erupting volcanoes.

You know how some films are so bad they're good? Well, this one was *all bad*.

Mol

Last night6 I saw the latest "Night at the Museum" movie. Tonight I saw Reese Witherspoon hiking the Pacific Crest trail in "Wild."

For better or worse, Christmas means that the studios bring out their best movies. This is balanced on the other side, however: new movies in January and February tend to be the worst .

Frozen.

Not the best Disney film by any stretch. I'd go so far as to give the non-Disney animation 'Barbie in "The Nutcracker"' a higher score. I *really* can't see what the fuss is about. The songs all sounded as though they were High School Musical rejects and the plot was rubbish - as Sic said, it's like they thought of the ending first and then vaguely worked out a way of getting there.

I liked the fact that it only hinted at long-term romance for the leading characters, and the irritating snowman character was bearable by the end. But that's about it - this isn't going to be a Disney we add to our collection.

I was quite pleased to finally hear the original 'Let it go' (apparently the most-used song in UK primary school Christmas shows this year). But it's not *that* good.

Mol

Watched the Lego Movie last night. I had hoped to watch it with all the kids, but they had already seen it. No. 2 did sit with me for a bit. Most enjoyable and a lorra laughs, especially the ghost on the string.

The Lego movie was what we skipped, in order to play Cluedo before watching Frozen. I think we made the wrong choice.

Anyway, just watched Monsters, Inc, one of the brightest and best animations ever made. Concept, plot, characterisation - it's flawless.

And it makes Frozen look even more 'meh'. What was John Lasseter *thinking*?

Mol
(still sniffing and wiping her eyes)

We are re-watching all the Harry Potter films and we're now in the final stages. I don't think I've watched Half-Blood Prince very often (if at all) since I originally saw it and this time I was blown away by it - so much so that I went back to July 2009 on this thread to find out what everybody (including me) thought about it at the time.

Feelings were mixed. I notice my own prediction was that maybe they destroyed the Burrow because they were going to miss out Bill and Fleur's wedding in HP7a - but it is interesting to watch it again now, knowing what's in and what's left out of the last two films.

And it was *so* funny, in places - I'd forgotten, or maybe I needed to have teenage daughters to appreciate some of the humour. It was also, of course, very dark, and I had exactly the same 'I don't want to see this' feeling when Dumbledore and Harry got to the cave as I felt before.

Definitely worth revisiting. We're now on HP7a and I almost can't bear to watch. Nagini in Godric's Hollow just made me almost jump out of my skin ...

Mol

I saw "Into the Woods" last night. There were many who decried the substitution of Meryl Streep for Bernadette Peters. I love Bernadette Peters and would love to have seen her in the movie, but at least there is a video version of the original stage play with Peters in it. Meryl was her usual fantastic self, bringing a brilliant finale to her part in the story. The lady really does know how to shine.

The women in the cast sang like nightingales, every one of them possessing marvelous vocal tone. Most of the men were lackluster,
though not exactly terrible. Johnny Depp was the only actual disappointment. The boy who played Jack in the beanstalk can really sing! He bas a bright future, I think. The acting was quite good all around. Jack's mother as played by Tracey Ullmann, whom I have loved for years. Emily Blunt was amazing -- wouldn't you know she has a great voice in addition to all her other talents!

Love, Rosie.

This one's a date night special, very well acted and just enough laughs along with the mushy "will they, won't they" suspense to keep us both happy. There was one plot point that I wish had been written better. But I'm nitpicking. Recommended.

GB

This past week I saw "The Imitation Game" and "Annie."

The first was first-rate. It told the story of Alan Turing's role in cracking the German Enigma Code. Benedict Cumberbatch has been nominated for an Oscar for playing Turing, and he would be quite deserving if he gets it. The end of the movie was heartbreaking .
I went online to get better acquainted with Turing's accomplishments, which included groundbreaking work on computers as well as athletic prowess. He helped break more than one German code, but the movie focused just on Enigma.

"Annie" was a too-liberal remake of the Charnin/Strauss musical based on Harold Gray's comic strip "Little Orphan Annie. Several new songs were written for the film, and many of the ones carried over from the musical retained a few melodies but added new material. In my opinion, this project was dead on arrival before they even started filming. The songs were deliberately written in a 1930s style, since the original musical was set in the 1930s. It's not a problem to make Annie an African-American. The Daddy Warbucks stand-in, however, cannot plausibly be a billionaire in that time frame. [Robert Johnson is believed to have become the first African-American businessman in 2001]. So, as a movie capable of entertaining children, this "Annie" is okay. But as an adaptation of the Strauss/Charnin musical, it is execrable. The singing is lackluster, and none of the dance numbers are at all appealing....

The Interview.

This was actually quite funny, but I can understand the offence caused in certain quarters.

GB

I would have to drive to Somerville or Cambridge to see this film, as no other theaters are showing it. I'm not even sure where the two theaters are located. I tend to get lost in both cities.

Flash Gordon.

Magnificent. Costumes out of a dressing-up box and a special effects budget of about £3.50.

PP.

That was a great, campy movie , with Sam Jones, Max Von Sydow, and Topol.

And Brian Blessed, Peter Wingarde and Peter Duncan (Blue Peter presenter).

One of the best bad films of all time.

PP.

I've always been rather fond of the Robin Williams "Popeye" movie, which is regarded as a bad film also. I'm not quite as fond of the Dan Ayckroyd film "Nothing but trouble," in which [among other things] John Candy plays his daughter . That's just a bad bad film, one that the state of Pennsylvania must have hated to see. ,yuk>

Guardians of the Galaxy, still awesome.

I liked the tree and the raccoon.

Groot is definitely awesome

Houseplant/muscle

I watched "Despicable Me" last night. Wasn't at all what I expected. Lots of lovely gags for the kids. Brilliant animation!