JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I admit it, we are one of THOSE families when it comes to summer movies. We keep track of what's opening each weekend, watch all the trailers online at Rotten Tomatoes, and see our favorites as soon as they come out. I actually have a commodious purse used exclusively to smuggle sodas and candy X 4 into the cinema (we call it The Bag Of Special Purpose.) Fortunately, we've discovered the Patriot Nickleodeon's $5 Tuesdays, so we're not breaking the budget.
Just in the past two weeks I've seen 1) WHITE HOUSE DOWN :fun, as long as you don't think too hard about the plot. Channing Tatum and Jamie Fox are funny and have great chemistry together. 2) DESPICABLE ME 2 :Ross, the Youngest and I all enjoyed it. Not as good as the first, but a family-friendly movie parents won't have to force themselves to see.
3)THE HEAT :the perfect flick to take in with your girlfriend(s). Hysterically funny, incredibly foul-mouthed, and SO refreshing to see a story about two women that doesn't involve romance/dysfunctional families/being a victim.
How about you, Reds? Can you recommend any of the recent releases? Are there any movies coming out that you're dying to see? Or if you're more the put-on-your-slippers-and-turn-on-Netflix type, what have you streamed lately?
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, we are the exact oposite. We TALK about going to movies, but never quite get there...so thank you for the info! (Sadly, I think the last movie-movie we saw was ARGO. We are pitiful.) Anyway! I am EAGER to see World War Z, certainly, and Twenty Feet From Stardom, and even Pacific Rim, which has gotten such great reviews! I know there are more...too bad we all can't go to the drive-in!
HALLIE EPHRON: We're even worse -- we don't even talk about going to the movies. For us it's Netflix, and we don't even stream it.
Favorite recent movie: Silver Linings Playbook. Even though the portrait of mental illness is so rosey tinted. And I'm a sucker for anything with ballroom dancing.
Best recent movie experience - last night we saw Helen Mirren in the second to the last London stage performance of The Audience, live streamed to independent theatres through NT Live (http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/). Every seat in the theatre was sold - @$20 a ticket. What a treat! I kept thinking: Wouldn't it be great if Broadway had a program like this?
DEBORAH CROMBIE: We are big-budget action movie junkies, so the latest things we've seen in the theater were Iron Man 3 and the new Star Trek. (LOVED IO3; Star Trek, not as much as the first one.) Fortunately--or unfortunately for our budget--we have an iPic Theater about ten minutes from our house, and once you've seen a movie in a reclining seat with your own plush blankie, and food and drink served to you, Cinemark seems pretty dull.
But we are movie-philes, and Friday night at our house is Thai take-out and movies on the home theater. Last weekend it was a movie called London Boulevard. Great cast--Colin Farrell, Kiera Knightly, Eddie Marsan, Ray Winstone, David Thewlis (that's Professor Lupin from the Harry Potter movies)
and the lovely Ben Chaplin--and the director, William Monahan, won the Oscar for original screenplay for The Departed. Verdict? A mess. Couldn't understand any of the dialog, and Monahan apparently couldn't make up his mind whether it was a Guy Ritchie film or a Martin Scorsese film. Combination of the two--train wreck.Weekend before, Life of Pi. Lovely. Wished we'd splurged on Blu-Ray.
World War Z is on our iPic list. Looking to see if I have a birthday coupon from last month...
PS, Hallie, I loved Silver Linings Playbook, too (more than Rick) even though it was a bit of mental-illness-miracle-cure. Still, GREAT performances from all the cast, great script, and who can resist ballroom dancing???
JULIA: We loved World War Z, even though it's very different from the book (which everyone should read!) How about you, dear readers? Any summer flicks you're looking forward to? Any suggestions for what we should see? Or avoid?
Movies? Well . . . actually getting to the movie theatre doesn’t happen too often. We’ve given up on any of the remakes of shows we used to watch so “The Lone Ranger” didn’t even make our list of films we might even consider seeing. We always see the "Star Trek" films; “Oz the Great and Powerful” [which we enjoyed] was one of the last films we watched . . . .
ReplyDeleteWe just watched A Separation, the Academy-award winning Iranian film. (At home, Netflix.) SO beautiful, so incredibly shot. But really, really depressing. Yikes. Up for a funny movie next! We love going out to the small art theater near us. We sit in the front row, put our feet up, and immerse in the big screen.
ReplyDeleteI believe the last movie in the theater for me was "Mama Mia." (Wow. That's really sad.) I used to be a movie person. Now we don't even have Netflix. We occasionally get one from amazon or iTunes but, honestly, we have enough trouble keeping up with the DVR.
ReplyDeleteIn my head, though, I would like to see "The Way Way Back." Not a big blockbuster, but I think it looks good!
The last movie I went to see was The Great Gatsby. I am a huge fan of Baz Luhrmann's work so it was a real treat for me.
ReplyDeleteI used to love to go to the movies, and often went by myself. Once I even saw three in one day, in three different theaters. I think I stopped about five years ago when I lost my job and cut my spending to next to nothing. I don't know why I haven't started again. I see the occasional movie with my cousin on our birthdays. We saw After Earth, which was painful to watch because so many illogical things happened and poor Willow really needs to mature as an actor. We also saw Olympus Has Fallen, which was also incredibly dumb, but at least we got to look at Gerard Butler. I'd like to see World War Z, and the previews for Red 2 intrigue me. Love the idea of Helen Mirren kicking butt. I suppose I should see Red first, hmmm?
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Let's all go to the Lobby--I had a big poster of it in my room for a while, years and years and years ago..why did we think it was SO hilarious?
ReplyDeleteYEs, we have a neighborhood movie theater too--it's two books away, and shows great films..you'd think we'll go more! And yes, it was White House Down I was trying to think of--irresistible!
Let's all go to the lobby - weren't they dancing frankfurters?
ReplyDeleteDebs - I wanted to see London boulevard because of the great cast AND wasn't it based on a book by Ken Bruen? But it got too many 1 star reviews on moviefone.
I just bingewatched House of Cards - which I LOVE. Want to see WWZ but hubby won't go and as the summer flies by I fear it may be a rental.
Love Gatsby. LOVED it. Enjoyed Star Trek (not as much as the first one) and tolerated Iron Man 3. The fight scenes just got too long for me.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to RED 2 with Mirren, Willis, Hopkins, Zeta-Jones, and Malkovich. The first RED is my mom's fave all-time movie so for her birthday this week I gave her a coupon to take her to RED 2 on opening day. :-)
My spouse and I have been waiting impatiently for RED 2. We're looking forward to humor with great action. Sandi, you definitely need to watch RED. I just recently watched it again to prepare for the upcoming RED 2. Mary Louise Parker and Helen Mirren nearly stole the show from the guys--not easy to do with Willis and Malkovitch.
ReplyDeleteMost of the summer blockbusters aren't particularly ones we feel we need to see in the theater.
I did have a laugh at my husband's expense--he kept coming up with excuses not to see the first Hobbit movie at the theater, so I went without him. When it came out on DVD he rented it, commented afterward how beautiful the film was and how much he wished he'd seen it on the big screen. He's definitely going with me to the second one.
"Let's All Go To The Lobby!!!!" Totally cracked me up. My parents were in the movie concession business as manufacturer's reps. My entire childhood came back to me. Thanks, Julia!
ReplyDeleteLast night's home movie, Side Effects, recommended by our daughter. Jude Law, Rooney Mara, directed by Stephen Soderberg. Very clever in the twists, very Soderberg. And I'd pretty much watch Jude Law in anything.
I always intend to go to first run movies but often they disappear again before I get around to it. Wanted to see Gatsby but I think it's gone now.
ReplyDeleteI have very sensitive hearing and many blockbusters are just too loud for me in the theater. I had a movie binge on the plane to UK, Les Mis, Hyde Park on Hudson, Life of Pi and Argo. Pretty much caught up on things.
But I like my movies funny, thoughtful, poignant: The Marigold Hotel, Quartet etc.
I love it when my 26-year-old son comes home. He, my husband and I hunker down and watch awful movies--things I would never normally watch. My favorite all time was watching Dawn of the Dead with him. We got to jeer at the famous scene in the middle where an actress playing a bimbo shows up out of nowhere. At the end I said, "What's the point of a movie like that?" He said. "There isn't any point--that's the point." Oookay.
ReplyDeleteWe're heading to see Despicable Me 2. I loved the first one, because from my perspective it says some really wise things about adoption.
ReplyDeleteRhys, I always have a bit of hearing protection--my little orange earplugs. Works great for the overly loud action scenes, and can be taken out when I'm trying to understand dialogue (moderate hearing loss from too many years around and in helicopters and planes).
ReplyDeleteAnother problem I have is not being able to see some of the movies I'd like to see. We live in a small town, they really pick and choose what they think will draw customers. And I'm too grumpy to drive an hour and a half to watch a movie. I just wait until they come out on rental, The King's Speech, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel are two I can immediately think of.
We usually get our movies on the TV or DVD's from the library - we are big library fans. We borrowed RED and loved it -Helen Mirren, the whole cast - so funny and a fun movie. Amonth or so after we saw it a neighbor came to the door with the DVD and said - you have to watch this movie!!! Can't wait for RED2!
ReplyDeleteInteresting reading, ladies! I'm not much of a movie goer - last big screen picture I saw was The Hobbit.
ReplyDeleteOh, thanks for the clip. Now I have that damn ditty running through my head!
Having said we never go to the movies, this blog inspired me to go! We're off to see Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story. It's a documentary about the man who wrote the children's my children wanted read to them over and over and over and over :( Crictor
ReplyDeleteNo bombs. No car races. No sex.
Fruitvale Station, an independent film, is very good. I think it's being released this week since I read 2 reviews in yesterday's papers. 20 Steps to Stardom is another good documentary with great music.
ReplyDeleteI just went to see Despicable Me 2 with my neighbor and her two kids (5 and 7). It was not quite as good as the first one, but I enjoyed the Minions just as much. This is the only movie I have seen in the theater for at least 3 years (the last one I saw in the theater was "Harry Potter and the the Deathly Hallows, part 1). Too much money for too little entertainment, usually.
ReplyDeleteI don't get to the movies often either - a real shame since my youngest works at one and I get free passes! But I will head out when Red2 gets here. Loved the first one!
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