We watched Divergent last night. On the whole we enjoyed it, though not having read the book I can't vouch for its faithfulness to the source material (but I've heard it does reasonably well).

The setting brought to mind similar recent dystopias like The Hunger Games, but to me the setup was very reminiscent of Isaac Asimov's 1957 novella Profession, in which children are 'educated' instantly at a young age via a sort of computer interface. Based on the results of this test, they are also sorted into what profession (rather than the factions as in this new story) they will follow upon reaching adulthood.

Like Tris, the story's main character's initial test is inconclusive so he can't be processed into a profession; unlike her, he doesn't get to choose one. (From this point, the plots of the two stories diverge).

Rose-Tree: yes, Niven and Allison were in a 50s version of that film. I saw it before I did the Powell/Lombard one. I like them both, but I prefer the Niven/Allison one. I've also seen just one version of Around the World in 80 Days, the 2004 one with Jackie Chan. I liked it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327437/

Stargazer: I've read little dystopian fiction, although I'm familiar with some titles and film adaptations (I know who stars in them ). Your description of Divergent and Asimov's Profession is very similar to Lois Lowry's The Giver (1993), which I started reading last night. The film hits theaters on Friday.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435651/

I did not know that David Niven was in a version of My Man Godfrey! I love the original with William Powell and Carole Lombard from the 30s. Huh, and June Allyson's in it, too! It's a bit hard to imagine her in Lombard's role, but I'll have to give it a watch and see what I think.

I saw the David Niven/June Allyson My Man Godfrey earlier this summer. It was very entertaining. My Dad and older brother stayed in the living room and watched it, something they don't often do when we watch Turner Class Movies. I still like the William Powell/Carole Lombard version best. But the remake is definitely worth watching.

My older brother recently decided that he wanted to watch some of the Avengers movies. So on Friday I asked him to take younger sister and I to the library, and we got Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. I liked Captain America the best, both the movie and the character. Quite surprisingly Scarlet watched part of both movies, including the end of both. I thought she would have read a book instead of watching the movies with us.

SnowAngel

I watched the Powell/Lombard version of My Man Godfrey (1936) on DVD last night. I didn’t remember how selfish, spoiled, and ridiculous this family is! Carole’s character is over-the-top immature. Who would want her? This is probably the reason I prefer the Niven/Allyson version. I also prefer watching Powell with Myrna Loy (on-screen wife) in the “Thin Man” films. She oozes class.

I saw Philomena (2013), with Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, on DVD last week. It's based on a true story. My review is below. Martin Sixsmith (played by Steve) released a documentary on BBC, also last week, called Ireland's Lost Children. I just checked out Philomena (the book) from my local library.

http://artsandculturereviews.wordpress. ... philomena/

After much influence on Tumblr by fellow NarniaWebbers, I bought Captain America: The Winter Soldier on Blu-ray. Last night, I watched it with my brother and sister and loved it! Why didn't someone tell me sooner how good it is?

SnowAngel

@SnowAngel, Whereas I've heard from a ton of people that it's fantastic, which made me actually interested. *is very burned out on superhero movies *
It JUST arrived in the mail via Netflix yesterday so I will be watching it this weekend. I hope I like it as much as everybody else.

I recently watched The Winter Soldier with friends and also enjoyed it. There are so many superhero movies, fantasia, and there seems to be no end in sight. But I think they did a good job with this one. There was a certain point at which I was able to guess what was coming, but it was still enjoyable.

We watched The Winter Soldier last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it though it was a bit predictable. I can't decide if I liked that one better or Guardians of the Galaxy. I think GotG is a bit more to my taste right now (silly and goofy = ) whereas WS had a better story (and no bad language... thank you).
I think the thing I appreciated most about WS was that the thing with superhero movies right now almost all have my hated/dreaded wimpy hero symptom to theoretically make the superhero more relatable. But WS did not do that. Instead of debating between doing the good thing vs the easy thing, he was debating on which thing was really good.
So yeah, glad I watched it, it's definitely up there in terms of super hero movies for me.

It's good thing for us that we have only seen three superhero movies. Because otherwise little sister would have driven us all nuts by now, as it is she is still working on it. She has talked about Captain America (both TFA and TWS, and the next one, personality types of the characters, etc.) every single day from the last few weeks (even before we watched The Winter Soldier). And I even put the Blu-ray in my dresser out of sight.

My older brother has seen Guardians of the Galaxy, he's currently planning to buy it when it's released on DVD/Blu-ray because he says we girls need to see it. Oh, and I think maybe he kind of liked it.

SnowAngel

This past weekend my family and I got back for visiting family for a week. While hanging out with the cousins, we watched Captain America: The First Avenger, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, How To Steal A Million, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Could someone please tell why I bothered to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug? The movie didn't seem to resolve anything.

I love the both of the Captain America movies just as much on the second watch. We had to watch both of them because one of my cousins hadn't seen either of them and my little sister talked her into wanting to watch them. However I don't think cousin was really watching the first one, because she didn't know who Bucky was.

SnowAngel

Could someone please tell why I bothered to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug? The movie didn't seem to resolve anything.

Umm.... for Evangeline Lily? Or maybe because of Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug? Or the coolness of Smaug himself?

Seriously though, there's not a whole lot good going for PJ's Hobbit trilogy. Outside of the visuals (sometimes) and Howard Shore's score (all the time), this whole endeavor feels more like an exercise in excess. Which is really sad given that the LotR Trilogy was at least good as films.

Could someone please tell why I bothered to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug? The movie didn't seem to resolve anything.

Haha, amen, sistah! Plus, it made me even more frustrated than ever how such an adaptation could be so demeaning and stupid from its very beloved book-counterpart.

Definitely not for Evangeline Lily. Or for any of the characters, for that matter, except possibly a few choice moments with Bilbo and Balin. Other than that, pffft.

Which is really sad given that the LotR Trilogy was at least good as films.

Too true. It appears the great success of PJ's LotR went to his head and now he thinks he is Tolkien the Second.

I took a lot of heat from the beginning by calling Jackson out on making 3 epic length feature films from a single book a fraction the size of Fellowship of the Ring, and with a much simpler plot. I watched the first film with trepidation but still so very much wanted it to succeed. I mean imagine having a 20 hour Tolkien movie festival of sorts by watching the Hobbit films and then proceeding onto the Extended cuts of LotR. It's be almost like watching Wagner's Ring Cycle, but without the singing .

It appears the great success of PJ's LotR went to his head and now he thinks he is Tolkien the Second.

Amen sister. Succinctly put and dead on accurate. I think he has it in his head that he is the sole mouthpiece for Middle Earth or something. And to be fair his first 3 Tolkien films were really quite good and surprisingly faithful to the source accounts. But sheesh...I really do think the man has popped his cork or something. I look forward to seeing the first "Fan Edit" when they excise the miles of needless footage into a more consumable, concise, and accurate representation of the film. Running time 2 - 2.5 hours.

My little girl was having some trouble sleeping and so she came out to the living room to sit with me (I'm a night owl) and we watched the first half of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I wasn't really sure if she'd like it but she seems to have really taken to it. She was fighting sleep off to keep on watching (she likes Lucy and the Beavers ) so I put her back in bed, where hopefully she's dreaming of lanterns and snow and Father Christmas bringing her her own compound bow and red-feathered arrows for Christmas. . I read the whole series to her when she was still in womb so I have to wonder if she likes it because of that.