Last movie you watched......

The Thomas Crown Affair (Brosnan/Russo version) on demand this afternoon. Very well-done movie. And that dress at the dance ... whoa Nellie.

 

I just saw Lincoln today and really enjoyed it. The movie didn't whitewash (no pun intended) history. It showed that the war wasn't some great moral crusade to end slavery. Even the north was very divided and not particularly open minded on race relations. To me the drama on the vote was kind of unnecessary (I'm pretty sure we all know the 13th passed), although well played and added to the movie.

I though DD-L did a heck of a job with Lincoln and should get an Oscar nod. David Strathairn nailed the look for Seward. I recognized him instantly. Jackie Earle Harley was also a dead ringer for Alexander Stephens. I do think they kind of let Stephens off the hook, historically. He wasn't too nice of a person.

 

Django!

Kinda dragged in the middle (the entire "let's spend the winter bounty-hunting before going to get your wife" sequence could have easily been left on the cutting room floor), but overall very enjoyable. Tarantino fans won't be disappointed at all, and I mean that in a good way.

Foxx was excellent. Waltz was very good, though not quite as outstanding as he was in Inglorious Basterds.

But the two best performances in the film were by DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson.

 

Total Recall (the new one)

First hour or so was pretty good I must say. But, no Mars?!! Though there are some Easter eggs to find.

 

You are actually zero generations removed, as plenty of humans are enslaved right now.

 

'Django Unchained' was really good.
Too long, though.

 

College football players, for example.

 

Les Mis.

Enjoyed it for the most part, although not nearly as much as my wife. And I was surprised how it seemed a bit thin to me...it certainly didn't linger in my consciousness the way Argo and Life of Pi did.

I was pleasantly surprised by Russell Crowe's performance, though. I didn't find his singing to be bad, but that might be because he sounded like most of the lead singers of the Britpop and New Wave bands I listen to!

 

This may not qualify, but I watched a bunch of free shit off Netflix with my new i-pad....including best presidential moments and the Dubya hiding out in Biden's room skit, and also the Debbie Downer at Disneyland with Lindsay Lohan. Funny, funny stuff.

 

Spent New Year's Eve watching "The Big Lebowski" with JR. That movie just gets better and better the more I watch it.

 

Which trivializes actual human slavery, but ... vaginas!

 

I'm also surprised you didn't like Batman Begins the best of the three, simply because it is the least like a standard comic book movie. I think the first thing you posted sums it up. You aren't the audience. If you aren't into action movies and you are always going to assume the worst of anything based on a comic, these just aren't the movies for you.

On the subject of comic book movies, I just watched The Avengers for the second time tonight, this time with my wife and daughter, both of whom had not seen it. My wife had seen the two Iron Man movies, but none of the others. My daughter hadn't seen any of them, but she's seen the new Spider-Man and Avengers cartoons, so that was her knowledge going in.

The 9-year-old daughter's take? Her new favorite movie. She's a big Hulk fan from the cartoons, so she loved the "Puny god" bit almost as much as I do.

My wife's take? It kept her going, which is about as much positive I will get from her about any movie based on a comic that doesn't star Hugh Jackman.

I liked it just as much as the first viewing. Aside from the action sequences, which are great, it really is an outstanding cast. Much as I normally like Edward Norton, Mark Ruffalo was the far better Banner and Downey is great as always as Stark.