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

I watched Sherman and Mr Peaabody last night. I enjoyed it as much as Mark Kermode said I would but I can see why it goes over some kids' heads.

I went to the Library and borrowed a DVD for "Letter to Momo, a 2014 Japanese anime movie. I will let you know what I think of it after I watch it.

Just returned from a traipse through snow to see "The Imitation Game". Did what it said on the tin. I wondered how they would do the apple on the bedside table, but they didn't. Apples crop up at a significant point earlier in the film. BC was playing Turing very much like he plays Sherlock. Keira Knightley even did some acting.

The snow had melted by the time I came out. Drove home on wet roads, 2 °C and not even much rain.

Just watched Lost In Space, the one with Matt le Blanc. It was a lot better than I was expecting, the acting was actually credible and the effects (while old) were pretty good. Let down by the writing unfortunately though.

Would have liked to seen it turned (back) into a tv series though, think it could work well with the new setup.

Last night I saw "Strange Magic," which was an animated tale about too-cute female fairies with butterfly wings, set against evil creatures in the dark forest next door to their kingdom. Plus, there was lots of singing. Not original songs, but old chestnuts like Elvis "Can't help falling in love with you." The movie's title is itself taken from an Electric Light Orchestra song of the same name.
There's a silly plot about a love potion [hardly new; Donizetti used it in his opera "L'Elisir D'amore"], given a few twists by the Sugar Plum, Fairy, who is imprisoned in the dark forest by the Bog King, a hideous large cockroach voiced by Alan Cumming. Colorful, though, with exquisite animation [George Lucas produced it] and good singing. Kristin Chenoweth voices the Sugar Plum Fairy, and she's a great singer.

DVDs:

"Letter to Momo" was an enjoyable movie set in Japan. A girl whose father has recently died is taken from Tokyo by her mother to live on an isolated island where her elderly relatives live. The girl soon finds that the house is infested by goblins that only she can see. it turns out later that the goblins have been sent from her dead father to report on her.

No wonder you have such wierd dreams, watching films like that!

Interstellar. Not sure what I was expecting from it, not knowing anything about it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that.

That was such a well written, well acted film that it even had me crying in places. Definitely a keeper!

Hmm. I wonder what I missed then. In Posts 7306 and 7315 neither paulh nor I were particularly impressed with Interstellar.

Weird dreams, moi? I've had a lifetime of weird dreams, regardless of what else I was doing at the time.

Last night I watched a DVD for "Roman Holiday." It was nice to pretend it was summer for two hours.

I think going into the film not knowing what to expect (hadn't even seen a trailer) maybe meant I took it as a film rather than an expectation. If that makes any sense?

That makes a lot of sense.

That's a good strategy, but I reckon I was pretty unprepared for Interstellar. I could suspend disbelief, but the plot holes made it hard to take seriously. As I said above, just the sight of them drinking beer on the veranda didn't make sense to me. The music was also so in-your-face and inappropriate, I felt it must have been accompanying the film in the screen next door.

Good things about it: Use of several lesser known actors who impressed with their performances - great land- and spacescapes - (not sure about the fifth-dimension stuff, though.) Characters you could take seriously and good balance of sub-plots.

I deliberately avoided trailers and such, as Nolan's movies are generally so excellent I knew I wanted to watch Interstellar. I was also disappointed.

I just got back from seeing "American Sniper." This is not usually my kind of movie, given how much intense combat footage there was. I left after an hour. I only went to see it because it was nominated for six Oscars. For the rest of my life, people will likely be talking about it as a celebrated movie, and I want to have *some* inkling of what it was all about. To be honest, though, in its theme of the soldier who is so immersed in war that he can't handle returning to civilian life, I think I've seen this movie before, i.e. "Brothers" and "The Best Years of Our Lives."

Wars are natural material for movies, because there's a huge amount of conflict built into them. Conflict sells screenplays and movie tickets, according to some scenes in "Adaptation." I get it. I go to movies to appreciate whatever they have to offer. A steady diet of war films would not be my idea of paradise, but once in a while is okay....

I just got back from seeing "Mr. Turner." It's a visual feast for the eyes. Timothy Spall plays the famous 19th-century English Painter, though it was often hard to tell what he was saying. Mostly he seemed to growl and clear his throat. Still, it's nominated for an Oscar in cinematography.

I still have a ways to go before I can have seen all the Oscar-nominated films, even if I overlook the foreign-language film category [which, ironically, I could make a dent in by returning to the West Newton Cinema to see "Leviathan" and "Two days, one night."] .

"Inherent Vice" is probably impossible to see now that it has disappeared from all theaters except ones in Brookline, Cambridge, and Danvers. With another big storm headed our way tonight and all day Monday, getting out to go *anywhere* is unlikely before Tuesday, and parking bans may well be in force almost everywhere for a few days. "Inherent Vice" will probably disappear everywhere before I get to places that are showing it.

"Still Alice" may hang on a while longer in Newton, and "Foxcatcher"
will someday come to the nearby Dedham Community Theater.

Again, *all* the movies listed n this post are nominated for one Oscar category or another. I'm not unreasonable in wanting to see them....

Selma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6t7vVTxaic

Powerful stuff. And even then almost certainly not so gritty as it might have been.

And the voice coaches must have been busy. The 4 main characters.

Martin Luther King Jr - David Oyelowo - a Brit
Coretta Scott King - Carmen Ejogo - a Brit.
President Johnson - Tom Wilkinson - a Brit.
Govorner Wallace - Tim Roth - a Brit.

Four top notch performances.

PP.

The Judge.

Powerful film with two great leads. There was one scene that had me in tears I'm not ashamed to say.

Robert Downey Jr must have some kind of portrait in his attic.

GB

"Wedding Ringer" was not a great movie, but it was an amiable way to spend two hours in a spot where no snow was likely to fall. It's about an entrepreneur who, for a fee, will rescue from embarrassment any groom who doesn't have enough friends for a wedding party. Josh gad plays such a groom, who needs a best man and six groomsmen -- called the "golden tux," because no groom has ever needed to hire that many ringers. The ending is a surprise, but it involves flying to a tropical destination, so I can't complain.

"Sponge-Bob Square-pants: sponge out of water" ramps up the zaniness. I especially liked the many beach scenes. Antonio Banderas plays a pirate who steals the recipe for Krabby Patties, the favorite food of sea life in Bikini Bottom, where Sponge Bob lives.

The Theory of Everything

I cried

Wonderful film, uncomfortably honest but inspiring.