Last movie you watched......

"Barry Lyndon."

Is it just me, or was Kubrick really into the idea that people can't really change in the early '70s? Thematically, there were a lot of echoes of "Clockwork Orange" as far as that goes.

 

And a phenomenal rack.

 

http://celestonews.com/celebrity-news/jennifer-lawrence-hot-pictures-2012/634.html

Mildly NSFW

 

Spoiler alert ....







I'm a sucker for Amy Adams, and I like Eastwood and John Goodman. So I went to see Trouble with the Curve. I really wanted it to be good, but it just wasn't. It's a fictional rip-off of some of the themes from Moneyball. The dialogue was mostly cardboard. And while I'll give them credit for getting baseball players who looked plausible in action, there were still a couple of things that troubled me. Matt Lillard called the top draft pick they were chasing a five-tool player. The kid could hit and hit for power. No way to know if he could field or throw. He definitely couldn't run. I'd take him in a footrace right now. And, they took it from the angle that an MLB team is going to draft a player on the word of one scout, going so far as to assert that a second scout is a back-stab move. Sorry, but it's SOP. It's called cross-checking, and every team does it, especially for a player they're going to draft in the first round. Nuance, to be sure, but in a movie that purports to reveal details scouts see that other people don't, I couldn't accept it.

Did enjoy looking at Amy Adams, though.

 

"The Master." As noted above, it is confusing. It did help that I read the ginormous book about scientology that came out recently. There are a lot of similarities but just enough differences to avoid a lawsuit, I imagine. I thought there were some great performances but it could have been a better movie.

 

"Worth Winning" is this horrific late-1980s Mark Harmon flick. It's on one of the excess movie channels.

Saw this piece of garbage in theaters when I was a kid. So, so bad. Mark Harmon's next role was NCIS.

 

He'll never top Summer School.

 

"J. Edgar."

I'm surprised at how down on it a lot of people were. I didn't know much about him going in, so I found it interesting. If anything, perhaps Eastwood/Black tried to cover too much ground, short-changing any one aspect of Hoover's personality and life. I'm sure the stuff with Tolson was tricky, but it was pretty well done. Had to be tough to not know for sure - and not knowing for sure is so much a part of their legacy, as I understand it (from reading up after the movie).

Oh, and I didn't love the flashback framing device. Too "Iron Lady."

 

The Avengers was really underwhelming. Loki was not a compelling archvillain, it seems odd that Black Widow would be one of Earth's mightiest superheroes, way too much time spent on that ship, and at least one big Michael Bay-like shot didn't inspire.

 

I have mentioned this more than once on this board, but I saw Summer School in the theater with my mom and older brother. I was around 14, which would have made my brother 17.

Upon walking out of the theater, he declared "that's the best movie I've ever seen!" We don't talk much anymore, so not sure if he still feels that way.

 

The Master.

Visually brilliant, as only PTA can do.

The narrative beats you over the head with plodding and heavy scenes, but that's the point - it's to show the repetitive nature of Freddie Quell's "animal" actions and Lancaster Dodd's beliefs.

It's a completely different story than There Will Be Blood.

I think it's a movie that a lot of viewers won't enjoy watching, persay, but they'll be glad they watched it.

 

When you were 14, you didn't realize what affect Courtney Thorne-Smith could have on a 17-year-old.