caulfield12

QUOTE (qwerty @ Dec 5, 2011 -> 10:59 PM) Aamir Khan's directorial debut to boot... but such a task is nothing for someone that is nicknamed mr perfection. He very well may be the best actor in the world... and it also might not even be close. Khan has chameleon like abilities. http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/LLL_b_AF4lw/ Here's a very clear streaming copy with English subtitles.

Brooklyn Decker sucks as an actress. Compared to her, Sucker Punch is Academy Award-caliber stuff.

http://www.soku.com/search_video/q_Love%20in%20Space Here's a Chinese romantic comedy everyone might like... By the way, if you use tudou.com, youku.com, sohu.com, baidu.com or any number of Chinese websites, you can see practically any movie within a couple of months of when it comes out. Which is obviously unfortunate for US film-makers and producers. Just search with the exact English title. Margin Call came out weeks ago and I already used a couple of brief snippets of it for my ECON class. Then there are movies like "Gran Torino" that you have to pay for after watching for 5 minutes...the same idea with the itunes store, but still the money's not going back to the US. Typically, when a movie like Avatar plays here (it made up 20% of the entire year's box office the year it came out in China), only about 13% of the total proceeds go back to the US. About 45% go to the Chinese producers who funded the film and 55% goes to the theatre/cinema. There's actually a huge fight over the new Christian Bale Nanjing movie by Zhang Yimou because it cost almost $100 million (the most expensive Chinese movie of all-time) and has a longer showing time (less shows available per day), so the producers are asking to change the split from 45 to 47% and some of the theaters are boycotting. They also raised the price 5 RMB (about 70 cents) to the price for each ticket. Another movie which has done extremely well is called "Love Is Not Blind." Made for a cost of only $1.4 million, it's already grossed almost $100 million...still, nothing can equal the overall profitability of the Paranormal Activity movies. Finally, I found yet another Aamir Khan (3 IDIOTS) movie I really love, this time he's a teacher of an autistic/special needs child. Taare Zameen Par is the official title, which is translated to "Like Stars on Earth" in English.

Greg must be celebrating the Marlins' 2012 NL Championship, along with random Lawrence/KC-area fans. Reyes, Heath Bell and taking a run at Pujols? Wow!

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 3, 2011 -> 10:04 PM) One thing I know for certain about the White Sox. They know far better than anyone else how to price their product for maximum revenue. Yay! Marty, for once we agree on something. Although that doesn't mean that most of us who grew up with the Sox in the late 70's or 80's in Old Comiskey Park will agree with that direction. Quite obviously, it's not OUR club to run like it was perceived to be when Bill Veeck was the owner.

You can avoid watching SLEEPING BEAUTY (NC-17) unless you really have a thing for Emily Browning. (FWIW, I actually enjoyed the Soderbergh movies with Sasha Grey 5X better even though there was no nudity). Yet to see Shame with Fassbender, will have to check that one out. Ides of March...not quite as good as it could have been when it bogs down into some of the traditional political cliches and conflicts two-thirds of the way through, but I thought it was an overall "decent+" movie and certainly worth watching.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Dec 1, 2011 -> 02:00 PM) Actually, yes. You're right. It makes sense that I never equated Pablo and Antonio possibly being related in my head. Perhaps the article meant to say that the guy is the nephew of Pablo Ozuna? That, or they made two mistakes. http://mopupduty.com/jays-on-verge-of-sign...rto-osuna-1205/ Definitely no connection to "flying across 1B while signalling safe on any close infield grounder" Pablo Ozuna.

QUOTE (knightni @ Nov 30, 2011 -> 10:10 PM) Here's the guy that Paddy replaced. Why was I expecting a picture of Dave Wilder/Club Burn instead of this?

Does anyone want to make the case that Edgerton/Hardy are better in Warrior than Bale/Wahlberg in The Fighter? Warrior seems a little bit more like a promotional vehicle for MMA... In that sense, I would say it's clearly better than Real Steel (similar genre), but still not the overall quality of acting across Fighter with Amy Adams and Melissa Leo. Nolte was solid, though. And I always like the guy who plays the school principal in Warrior...I think the first time I remember seeing him was in the movie DAVE.

Winter's Bone? Right. I'm talking everyday poor that also isn't a focus on the nobility of being poor in that condescending way. Even with that, her character obviously had an education and knack for creativity (the bakery)...that would clearly separate her from the chronically poor/underemployed, like former GM/Ford/Chrysler assembly line workers in Michigan whose jobs have all been outsourced over the last 20 years. Pursuit of HappYness would also be close to this idea of portraying a poor but hard-working family fairly realistically...although obviously it has the Hollywood-ized happy ending.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 28, 2011 -> 07:38 PM) Blah, in pretty woman they added the bulls*** "oh but it was her first night as a prostitute" line. I think Bridesmaids resonates more because she is "falling behind" her friends and is trying to keep up. Swingers actually hit on being poor and young better than most. It's just ridiculous that I'm struggling to find any movies where the characters are poor and them being poor isn't a stereotype. ...where the heart is? Has it come to this? Even look at the League, those dudes are all comics who struggled for years, and first shot they get they create themselves all as uber succesful. Being poor sucks, but it's also where a lot of comedians inspiration comes from. Yet it's not represented in cinema often. Julia plays Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman. Vivian's time with Edward was not her first but it was her first time to kiss a client. I've watched that movie maybe 3 times, and I don't remember the line about it being her first time working as a prostitute. I agree, they do try to explain/rationalize her working as a prostitute to take the rough edges off her character as much as possible for a movie of that time period (I think it was 1990). It's not like Hesher or Greenberg in being a ruthless "dark" character, or Will Ferrell in "Everything Must Go."

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 28, 2011 -> 05:39 PM) I loved bridesmaids. Bridesmaids was one of the few movies that acknowledged that there are people in the world who aren't so comfortably rich that money has no impact in any moment in their lives. Movie about a journalist? They are a rich columnist with a 2 million dollar condo in manhattan. Movie about a chef? He's a rich chef with a beautiful house and garden. Everybody is a doctor, or wealthy, or millionaire. Any attempts to show poor people are usually "poor people are the salt of the earth with common people knowledge. Money sucks" stories. I related more to kristen wiigs character than any recent one in years. Agreed, but they still needed the plot device of framing her against Rose Byrne's uber-rich but patently unhappy inside character. I was trying to think of a movie where the character is in a similar or worse predicament in the beginning, movies like Pretty Woman, for example. Or Shawshank, which is obviously a very different genre of movie.

The fourth Twilight (Breaking Dawn, Part 1) is better than the 2nd but worse than the 3rd and clearly worse than the original movie. Very very slow, and reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies that preceded the more satisfying finales. I would never pay money to watch in a theatre...found it on the net. Harold and Kumar Rock!!! That first movie doesn't get enough credit for resuscitating NP Harris' career after the unforgettable Starship Troopers, which has become something of a cult classic in the years since.

Really liked 50/50, and Seth Rogen was actually fairly tolerable in that movie, albeit as the supporting actor. Starting to watch Javier Bardem in Biutiful.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 22, 2011 -> 03:24 PM) I saw the descendants on Saturday. I'm going to give you a short little take: Really poorly put together beginning and a strong finish that leads me to say that I rec this movie. I liked it. I liked it even though i'm damn tired of all these hollywood movies about really rich people feeling isolated and having trouble relating to your kids. STOP WRITING WHAT YOU KNOW. That's why I liked "The Kids are Alright" so much, it felt like it could actually be a true story, rather than one of those Apatow versions or Bridesmaids, etc.

QUOTE (Brian @ Nov 22, 2011 -> 06:11 AM) Should win an Oscar for best Cinematography. I didn't realize Kirsten Dunst was so "chesty," I'm still 50/50 on whether she had plastic surgery or not. Really hard to say definitively with her... The Charlotte Rampling character was so strong...even if her few scenes, but I'll never forget her in SWIMMING POOL...or maybe I'll never forget her younger co-star's presence in that one, not sure which.

Melancholia's very good, Lars Von Trier's best recent work by far. While it's not necessarily enjoyable, calling to mind recent movies like Rabbit Hole, Reservation Road, Blue Valentine or even Kirsten Dunst's earlier "All Good Things" with Ryan Gosling, it's definitely worth your time and has some incredible cinematography. I thought it was a much better film, for example, than The Tree of Life.

Bridesmaids was better than Horrible Bosses. I'm indifferent about ranking Horrible Bosses versus Bad Teacher, could go either way. As far as the TOG's goes, I had pretty low expectations so it was pleasantly surprising. Like..."My Idiot Brother," the critical response was pretty tepid and the box office low, so I thought it would suck, even though I usually enjoy Paul Rudd movies. My thoughts on that one are pretty much in alignment with Ebert. Also agreed with Ebert on The Immortals. It's not coherent or cohesive at all, it's just a big mess that merely LOOKS good. It actually makes Clash of the Titans look like Masterpiece Theatre.

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Nov 20, 2011 -> 02:28 AM) I'm guessing you're referring to my post that was about 'The Raid' from the Toronto Films Festival? http://asianmediawiki.com/The_Raid_(Indonesia_Movie) One of the actors looks very familiar....the Asian one who ended up with the super-hot Israeli chick at the end of the most recent Fast&Furious movie?? Doesn't seem it could be him, though, if it's an Indonesian movie set in Jakarta.

Has anyone seen The Descendants yet? That's the movie everyone is pointing to Clooney getting an Oscar nomination for, as well as the young actress who plays his daughter.

Tower Heist---2.75 stars Warrior---3 1/2 stars The Immortals---2 stars (1 for Freida Pinto's beauty/butt but 1/2 subtraction for stunt double) My Idiot Brother---3 stars Paranormal Activity 3---1 1/2 stars Moneyball---3.25 stars (good, but not Sorkin's best work) Twilight running at 27%, 38 positive reviews and 102 negatives. Looks to be trending right along with the last Twilight, which will make it either the 4th or 5th highest opening weekend of all-time.

I looked at the five tables and just estimated where the five main countries in terms of bonds purchased stand: France $675 billion (because of the huge bets on Italy) Germany $500 billion UK $350 billion US $170 billion Japan $87.5 billion Clearly, the French banks/banking system are the next domino to fall in this puzzle...Germany's sitting on top of enough reserves to cover losses if need be, but the French government, not so much

Ryan is coming back to the Twins. Why would Hahn be going there? Plus they brought back Krivsky and still have Radcliffe.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Nov 6, 2011 -> 09:56 PM) He'd be a classy president. And popular in Wichita, Emporia, Lawrence, Manhattan, Topeka and Johnson County, KS.

I haven't read of very many at all liking the Green Lantern movie. And I'm a big Blake Lively fan. Thor and Captain America were very different types of movies....with Captain America being a bit more similar to the recent X-Men: First Class movie. I enjoyed Thor in a quite different way, but they were both good entertainment, overall. Green Lantern, despite Reynolds' efforts, not so much. The Parallax just wasn't a very convincing villain/foil. And not a big Mark Strong fan either, except for THE GUARD.