Winona Ryder? She's the main young teen girl. Geena Davis plays the dead wife. Catherine O'Hara plays Winona's mother.

yes i found out she is in black swan.

It's funny how you relate her to Black Swan,
When I hear her name I automatically think two movies: Beetle Juice and Edward Scissorhands. Forever I will see her as those two roles first, even if the only movie I own of hers is Little Women- (not counting Star Trek since it's only a short part). She was good in Black Swan too though.

yes i forgot she was in edqard scissorhands. That was where i must of seen her before since i haven't seen black swan.

Winona Ryder?
Was she not in one of those
Aliens movies?
The one where Ripley comes back, but it's really her clone, and Winona is some female space marine?

Shadowlander,

I tried Gigli, didn't finish it. Not because I thought it was horrendous either, but because the movie just wasn't to my taste. North, also available on instant Netflix, so I'll give it a shot as well.

------------------

127 Hours (IMDb Top 250- NA)

This was probably nominated by the goodwill Danny Boyle received because of his Best Picture winning movie, which will show up on my list on, as I own it (also alongside 5 extra slots). I was still absolutely moved by this movie. It's a very well made movie and I love the editing, I haven't seen many movies edited this way so to me it feels unique. James Franco did a terrific job on carrying this movie alone. And the end... the end nearly choked me up as much as it did last time. This is only the second time I see this movie, the first time being in theaters while on limited release.

This keeps its rating of 9/10 from me

Nominated for 6 AcademyAwards:
Best Picture
Best Actor: James Franco
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Score
Best Original Song: If I Rise
Best Editing

I took the time this morning to watch another infamously bad movie: Battlefield Earth.

Battlefield Earth (2000) Ranked #84 on imdb's worst movies list: I have to feel a little sorry for Battlefield Earth. Starring John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker, and the crazy Irish guy from Braveheart that's always saying "It's my Ireland!", this film takes place in a devastated world 1,000 years from now in which a race of resource hunting, corportate minded aliens named the Psychlos invade Earth, subjugate humanity, and proceed to strip mine the planet for gold. Barry Pepper plays Jonny Tyler (Pepper), who is smarter than the rest of his stone age tribe members and who goes off on a quest to see if there's better out there beyond the palisade walls. After a short time of exploration and discovering humanity's leftovers he and two other humans are captured by Psychlos and put into a sort of concentration camp in Denver run by John Travolta's character. Psychlos are kind of an unholy fusion of Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain meets Bob Marley and they're much taller than humans and breathe some funky blue air. Long story short Travolta, a sort of parody of the average corporate goon, wants to train humans to mine gold in radioactive areas since Psychlos can't withstand the effects of radiation (plot point, kids). After being hooked up for an extended period of time to a learning machine, intended to improve his intelligence, Jonny instead becomes some sort of human genius and leads a revolt against the Psychlo oppressors.

I will be honest here and say that I like B.E. There, I said it . I think the movie isn't particularly great, but it's certainly not as bad as critics and audiences think, and I'm fairly certain that if Ron Howard had produced this film it would have fared better at the box office. What we have here though is a film based on a book by the founder of Scientology and produced by ardent Scientologists who spent years and a lot of money to do so. This was the Judas kiss of death. Another issue are the excessive overuse of Dutch Angles. These (also called Batman angles) are when the cameras are tilted and so the characters on screen appear diagonal rather than up and down.

An example of a Dutch Angle in B.E.

Most of the film is done almost exclusively in this format and it's a bit odd. One of the major complaints that also comes about the film are the weird tints that they use during particular portions of the film. Those taking place outside of the "dome" are filmed in standard color, but a goodly portion of the movie is filmed in the "dome" and these segments are tinted blue, while scenes on planet Psychlo are tinted again in purple. This seems to bother a lot of folks, although to be honest I just figured that this was the effect of the Psychlo air or something.

Not as bad a movie as I was expecting, not by a long shot. In fact if you can forgive a lot of logical inconsistencies (Travolta's character, Terl, is smart and incredibly stupid at the same time, and I'm having trouble figuring out how the Psychlos, who have all the grace of inebriated NBA stars, subjugated Earth in 9 minutes) and the weird angles and color tints, and not so great screenwriting, this is a fun movie that is well paced, even enjoyable. Very flawed, but still a great popcorn flick nonetheless.

Nominated for numerous Golden Raspberry Awards (the antithesis of the Academy Awards) Battlefield Earth swept the Razzies and won in every category for 2000:

Razzie Award for Worst Picture - won
Razzie Award for Worst Actor (Travolta) - won
Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay - won
Razzie Award for Worst Director - won
Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor (Pepper) - won
Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress (Kelly Preston) - won
Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple (Travolta & Preston) - won
Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor (Whitaker) - nominated/lost

In 2010 Battlefield Earth was nominated for and won the "Worst Picture of the Decade" award. Now that's impressive!

I tried Gigli, didn't finish it. Not because I thought it was horrendous either, but because the movie just wasn't to my taste. North, also available on instant Netflix, so I'll give it a shot as well.

Gigli is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure! As I said, there are a number of crude conversations in the film (but one in particular that is downright vulgar) and it's going to be a turnoff for many folks (myself included), although the cameos by Christopher Walken and Al Pacino almost make the movie worth the watch. Beware of North, that one is bad, and I'm a veteran of MST3K movies.

Yeah Christopher Walken's cameo was a pleasant surprise, I forgot you had said he was in it. As for Battlefield Earth, the previews alone looked horrible to me back when it released. I have sworn to never watch it, so even if it's on instant... actually, I won't even check to see if it is.

I saw Black Swan a while ago but I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone. It was such a beautiful film, as for as film-making goes. Also, being a former dancer myself (although only when I was little but I was still part of a competing ballet company), many of the struggles she faces as part of a dance company rings true. However, the inappropriateness that weaves throughout the film makes me indifferent as to how I feel it was as a whole. A part of me wants to say it was great, the other part wants to say it was bad.

That's pretty much exactly how I felt about it, mm1991. My younger sister said it was disgusting (not having seen it) and I was trying to defend it but, yeah there is a few rather inappropriate aspects of it that might turn some people off. But the score was great and the film-making was, yeah, beautiful. I'm also a former dancer so that was one of the main reasons I wanted to see it.

But yeah, I'm divided just like you as to whether or not I would advertise it as good or bad.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

I've seen clips of Black Swan, but not the whole movie. From a strictly movie-critic standpoint, it's amazing (from what I know of it ). But I'm not actually a huuge fan of Natalie Portman, and I just didn't feel like the film would draw me in enough to really make it worth my while not to mention ummm several scenes throughout that earned it the R rating.

Anyone a fan of Wes Anderson's films?? A few months ago I was tipped off that I might enjoy them and tried "The Royal Tennenbams"...and really really enjoyed it. The Darjeeling Limited was even better (and is now one of my favorite movies, period). I also recently saw Bottle Rocket which was good but not as good as the others, imho, and I just bought "The Life Aquatic" and will be seeing that soon.

I also bought "The Assassnation of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (how's that for a title? XD) I've already seen it and enjoyed it. It was much better then I was expecting. Brad Pitt was really amazing, but Casey Afleck took me by surprise and was almost better then Brad. The cinematography in this was INCREDIBLE

Shadowlander,
I just finished watching North, and I must confess that I actually enjoyed the movie. I also do agree that it is insulting, not all of it but enough to turn people away. Great star power, though too good for this movie I'm afraid.

I actually give it 3/5, or 6/10.

mm1991, Rising_Star,
Black Swan I agree is a terrific movie, from a film buff perspective. Throw in my beliefs, and I can't quite frankly recommended as much as I'd like to. Much of the content was not to my liking. For an age-appropriate audience however I gotta say watch it, but with caution.

Valiant_Lucy,
The only thing I have ever seen, and actually own, of Wes Anderson is The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I think it's a terrific movie and I love the style of animation it used.

As for Jesse James,
I know I owned the movie but I think I gave it to my cousin- I could be wrong. I think Casey Affleck did a terrific job in that movie, as did Brad Pitt. The movie, as a film, as a lot going for it. The only reason why I don't have it now is because I also found to it to be very slow in the story telling. Great, but too slow for my liking.

(why did I buy it? There was a time before I used Netflix, if I didn't see a movie in theater but still wanted to see it I'd buy it. For which reason I searched thoroughly before buying. Sometimes it was a hit and sometimes a miss. Jesse James is neither hit nor miss, it just is.)

I was just watching "Eight Below" (starring Paul Walker) again. wow, what a great movie. great cast, great locations, great cinematography. and it's epic
if you have not seen it, I highly recommend it

Liberty Hoffman,
While I wouldn't call it "epic" I do agree that it's a great movie. One of my personal favorites. I remember having seen it against my will, I was 17 at the time (nearly ten years ago already ), but I loved it and was happy to have seen it. It's in my collection too of course.

Yup, The Assassanation of Jesse James is an incredily slow movie And I know exactly what you mean about something not being a hit or miss but just "is". The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is like that for me. It wasn't bad, it wasn't amazing, it was just...fine? Or something

Also I just finished The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and throroughly enjoyed it! I was quite shocked at

and thought the climax of the film was very appropriate and beautiful. I also was surprised to notice Dumbledore and Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds were in it!

I'm not a huge fan of Eight Below, as I don't normally like animal movies. The only interesting thing I remember about that movie was what happened when we watched it. Halfway through we found out the cows had broke through the fence in our field and were running across the road, two hours and a ton of neighbors later we'd finally gotten them back in our field and could sit down to finish the movie Oh, that and there was this one scene that made us all jump in our seats

Oh! And re: 127 Hours...I haven't seen it, but my parents did, and they really liked it. I just came in to the end where he's walking and rescued, and I knew it was well done because the combination of the camera work, lighting, and soundtrack, was making me feel lightheated/sick to my stomach I don't really feel like sitting through the whole thing but I want to watch the amputation scene, just, um yeah

This evening I watched Taking Chance with my mom and little sis DP Dessa.

Before-hand I wasn't expecting much. A rather melodramatic, depressing, low-budget film. But I was very happily surprised.

This movie [about an officer escorting the remains of a young soldier to the grave] is very emotional, thoughtful, and strong. It's neat how much the filmmakers were able to fill each scene with meaning using relatively sparse dialogue and body language - there are of course no action scenes, no romance, no spectacular special effects. I enjoyed it very much, and was brought close to tears several times. Incidentally, I learned quite a bit about what happens to the bodies of our fallen soldiers. The care that their remains receive is amazing and very appropriate.

Taking Chance is now one of my favorite movies, and I really recommend it.

Adeona, that looks like a really good film and I'm going to be sure to rent that when the opportunity arises.