Just watched Citizen Kane (1941) for the first time. Sad to say that despite its many cinematic innovations, I found it deathly dull and 'cold' (void of emotion). A real pity.

Citizen Kane is one of those movies that everyone who is purportedly an expert in movies says is among the "very best of all time". The problem is I tend to disagree with most of those people about their cinematic choices and I've always worried that CK was a cinematic stinkbomb waiting to explode on my screen. or if it is as good as they actually say it is. It's one of those I've always meant to watch but from what little I know of the movie the subject matter doesn't really interest me and thus I worry (again) that I might think the movie is subpar. Since we seem to have somewhat similar taste in movies, W4J, I worry that it might well hold true.

I saw Citizen Kane a few years ago, and I'd agree with you, W4J - it was really boring and emotionless. It didn't interest me at all. Not something I'd ever want to go and see again.

Beastly is a great movie. You should see it.

I pretty well agree with the above statements on Citizen Kane. I first watched it when I was a young teenager and despised it. Boring, didn't make much sense and depressing.

Re-watched it a year ago and now see the greatness of it.... though I still find it depressing and somewhat overpraised. It's a character study and a reason to be experimental with filmmaking. I can now see and appreciate it for it's historical significance, though I would never put it in my "favorite movies" list.

From what I've seen of it, The Third Man is vastly superior.

I don't see why Citizen Kane is still on the top of the list. The mystery of "Rose Bud" was good and perhaps the only reason why that still is considered great is because it may have been one of the first films to do it to that extent. It was a one-timer for me.

On another note, I was flipping through channels this afternoon and came across Big Trouble in Little China. Still can't say I've seen the whole thing in one sitting but it sure is hilarious for an 'action' film. It's also quite interesting to see Kurt Russel when he is young. That was a long time ago.

Yes, Orson Welles' The Third Man is a far more interesting and enjoyable movie than Citizen Kane. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the former is incredibly overrated and boring.

I watched a few movies via Netflix over the past week or two, starting with:

District 9 - Basically an intergalactic boatload of aliens (that look like bepedal shrimp) get stranded over Johannesburg, South Africa. The aliens end up becoming refugees and placed in camps nearby (the titular District 9) where they engage in crime, black market weapons dealing, and cat food consumption (don't ask). An organization called the MNF, some sort of South African business conglomerate, plans on relocating the whole bunch of them to a prepared camp site till' the project lead, who is something of a shallow dweeb gets unintentionally infected with some substance that one of the aliens was using to power a shuttle to get home with. The substance starts transforming him into..something else. The movie is done in quasi-documentary format with lots of interviews with characters as the film progresses. The main character is very unlikeable at film's beginning but grows on you as the movie goes on. Not a bad film but I don't feel the need to see it again. The ending is left open for a possible sequel, but I doubt we'll see one. Decent special effects and neat-o alien weapons, but used too little too late. 3 1/2 stars out of 5 for this one.

More to come...

Ah, I saw 'Citizen Kane' when I was 12 and hated it. Like others said, I found it really boring. If I watched it now, I don't think my opinions would change much. Maybe I'd appreciate the story better, but in my opinion, all is lost if it can't capture your attention.

Anyways, I saw 'The King's Speech' the other day and it was amazing! I had been wanting to see it since last fall but had to wait until the DVD came out. It did not disappoint! All the actors were fabulous.

yeah, I think Citizen Kane rides of the mystery of "Rosebud" and that was interesting, and the reveal was good too. However, everything in between was just long and boring, I saw it a couple of years ago and just found myself bored with most of it. I do want to see it again though to see if my opinion changes, however I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it again.

It's been 3 days since the last post so here goes...

I will be watching a series of movies this year. I plan on watching one each weekend, until I run out of movies from my own collection. In this series I will be going through the movies that were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Whether the movie won or lost, it will be included.

12 Angry Men (IMDb Top 250- #7)

The first time I saw this in school I loved it, and every other time since I have as well. It's few movies that are executed as flawlessly as this one. Fonda has always been my favorite, but today that changed- Lee Cobb I think was better.

Wonderfully done. I love to see as,

It had, and remains to have, a perfect score in my book: 10/10

3 Academy Award Nominations:
...Best Picture
...Best Director
...Best Adapted Screenplay

I finally saw Tangled!!!!! I love it! it's hilarious! Max and Pascal are the best animals ever! and I cried when

Narnia1 ooh I love Angry Men!!!!! that movie is very engrossing and it draws you in in surprising ways!

Liberty Hoffman,
I saw Tangled at the Drive-In with my girlfriend. We both really loved it. The part you cried with, to me it was predictable. Disney after all, but that doesn't mean I didn't love it. Every moment of this movie was terrific. I own it now too

12 Angry Men,
that's what I love about it- the way it just draws you in. One room, who'd think that'd make a good movie? But as I said, it's flawless.

12 Angry Men:
What a "coincidence"! My bro just saw that last Tuesday with one of his friends.

The Emperor's New Groove
was the last movie we saw with the family. It was a rewatch, but we really enjoy it and quote it all the time. After that I watched Kronk's New Groove, but didn't enjoy it nearly as much. :-/

I'm excited to hear about the movies you're planning on watching, narnian1!

Some movies I've seen lately:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
I'm slowly working my way through the "Top on IMDB" section of our movie rental store, and this was the first one I felt like renting. I honestly had no idea what it was about when I went into it, and I was kind of confused at first but about half-way through I figured out the signifigance of the beginning. It's definetly the sort of movie that leaves you thinking about it, very thought-provoking. Kate Winslet was really brilliant--I hadn't seen her as that sort of character before and it was very refreshing. Elijah Wood was endearing if slightly a little weird. Kirsten Dunst played a slightly reckless character, but her character was also interesting. Basically, it was a good movie. Left me thinking, and every turn of the story brought new questions "what ifs".

It's Kind of a Funny Story:
Grabbed this on a wim in the bargain bin at the movie store. Ended up REALLY enjoying it! It had just the right mix of serious and comedy and teen agnst. I felt it handeled mental health in the right way, and while the ending was technically happy, it wasn't a total "oh everything's going to be perfect now/he's cured" or something. It was definetly not a fluffy movie, and I'd highly reccomend it!

Morning Glory:
Just a fun, light movie. I'd say it's on par with the likes of The Devil Wears Prada. Not a super hard core chick flick, since the movie is really about the main character's job then anything else, although there's romance on the side of course. I couldn't relate to the main character, but despite that she managed to make me care about her and want her to succeed, so kudos to Rachel McAdams! Harrison Ford really MADE the movie though, I don't think it would have been so fun to watch if they'd had a different actor.

Tamara Drewe:
I wasn't actually sure if I'd like this one or not...the trailer seemed fairly..."raunchy" even for that genre. So I went into it pretty hesitently. I can say I was definetly quite surprised, when I got to the end of the film! It did have some adult moments, always done in that typical British-y way, but the storyline was actually quite complex and at the end of it you're thinking back through it wondering about it. Which is the sign of a good movie to me, that you go through "what if's" after you finish it. The fairly large cast was quite good, and although the plot gets fairly odd especially in the end (black comedy), it seems to be typical of British films in that genre I wouldn't recc it to everyone, cause I know a lot of you would either find it weird, or not be comfortable with some of the content, but if it sounds like your thing--do give it a try, like I did!

I also saw the two Bridget Jones films for the first time a couple of weeks ago. They were actually...pretty funny, I'm not gonna lie. I was unwisely drinking pop while watching and literally spit it out on my keyboard and snorted it up my nose at one scene... XD

And I rewatched Wild Target and reallyreallyreally liked it even more the second time around! I just love the quirkiness and un-realistic-ness of the story. You just accept the characters as they are with not a ton of backstory (We never hear about Tony, and Rose is apparently a novice thief/troublemaker with crazy fashion sense). But if you go into it expecting randomness then you're in for a wild ride.

I made my parents watch The Virgin Suicides with me last Sunday. They were mostly just a little confused by it. I don't really think they "got" it.