Wooah! I don't remember seeing any previews for it. I'll have to find it now. Have you seen it? Was it any good?

I think you're right;the book is early 70s as far as I recall (I suppose I should google to find out for certain ).

Let me know what you think about Where the Wild Things Are when you see it (on the appropriate thread of course). It's got a lot of mixed reviews here in the States.

GB

I liked How to Eat Fried Worms. I'm around a lot of little boys with my volunteer job as a 2nd and 3rd grade classroom teacher at my church, and my drama group, so I could relate to it, lol. I thought it was cute. And I've always liked Hallie Kate Eisenburg.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

The book was good fun but I haven't seen the movie. I don't remember previews for How To Eat Fried Worms either. Unlike most primary/elementary teachers I'll be encouraging children who read the gross-out humour books. They're a lot of fun and motivate boys to read.

Gandalf's Beard, yes, I'll leave a review about Where The Wild Things Are when I see it (which will probably be next Tuesday).

Oh my, what have I done by bringing up musicals...

To be honest, I don't know, but I'm finding it pretty entertaining.

When I was a little kid and I wanted to watch a Kung-Fu or Godzilla film on TV and my sister Liz booted me out of the room so she could watch My Fair Lady for the umpteenth time it probably didn't help.

Oh dear, now I wonder what sort of horrible things I did to my non-musical-loving brother's psyche when we were young children. Thankfully, he seems to have come out all right, and has even deigned to say that he thinks The Sound of Music is a very well-made movie and parts of Singin' in the Rain and The Music Man are funny.

I actually have a kind of love/hate relationship with Musicals. I love a lot of old Musicals up through the early 1970s.... I can't stand most attempts to revive them since then though. The old ones have great songs, good choreography, and manage to convincingly blend drama and dialogue into the singing and dancing. They are like watching theatrical productions or operas but with film production values.

It's nice to read such a balanced account. In general I agree with you; I haven't been too impressed with the modern movie musicals I've seen either. And while one may sometimes regret the right-off-the-assembly-line feel of some of the oldies, especially those made at MGM, it was an industry and that had its advantages. People just knew how to make them then, because they made them so much more frequently. The new ones stumble even over some of the more rudimentary aspects of making a movie musical. For instance, compare the looping in West Side Story to the new Phantom of the Opera: the audio-visual synchronization is ten times better in the former.

It really is amazing that they don't know how to make a decent Musical any more Lysander. I chalk it up to the fact that the people making them are trying too hard to appeal to more modern sensibilities about what constitutes drama in Film.

GB

I think Newsies is an excellent musical. And no, I'm not just saying that because Christian Bale is in it. The music, the dancing, the story, and the acting are all very well done, IMAO. I don't know what you all mean by "recent," but it came out in 1992. It's on my all-time favorite movies list. I think I watched it 3 times in a week when I first saw it.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Aaaargh !!! Sorry RS, but I really disliked Newsies. It had some cute moments to be sure, but I didn't like the music, which is really the main reason I like Musicals at all.

I'm not saying that there haven't been any decent film Musicals in the last 30 years, but outside of a couple of Disney Animated Musicals I'm having a hard time thinking of any I like. I couldn't even sit through the recent Abba Film Musical, and I love Abba--but the production was so hokey it ruined it for me.

GB

I saw How To Eat Fried Worms and I liked it!
I think it is SO much better than the book!

I haven't seen The Phantom of the Opera movie but I saw the theatre production on stage back in 1999. I'm not one for musicals but this was brilliant!

I enjoy the Blues Brothers, The Producers (both versions for different reasons) and several other musicals but they are few and far between. West Side Story for example, always annoyed me because these super-tough gangs are dancing around and not doing anything all that violent. It's ridiculous. As for Sound of Music, it's well-done and it's a classic but it's so over-played.

Oh my, what have I done by bringing up musicals...

To be honest, I don't know, but I'm finding it pretty entertaining.
quote]
Me too!
I could almost swear my internet connection agrees with GB on his assessment of Newsies, as I had the greatest difficultly staying logged on long enough to make this post! I, however, am with Ryan: I love it!

Today I re-watched The Matrix Reloaded. There are some interesting and thought-provoking scenes, some well-done action scenes but ultimately it's a bit of a mess. The CGI is very good in some places and extremely obvious in others (action scenes for instance - lots of slow-motion and limited bullet-time, making it only exciting and intense if it were a video game). The mystery of the first is mostly lost with the addition of a much larger cast and much of the acting is quite bad (especially Reeves, good grief!). The sensual scenes are awkward and pretty much pointless and the chemistry between Neo and Trinity is nowhere to be found. I'm giving it a 6.5/10.

The original Matrix movie is a little flawed but ultimately a much better movie. I give it an 8.5/10.

Don't get me started W4J .

(I might be forced to repost my arguments from some weeks back ).

GB

I don't know, GB....I still have to side with W4J on this one. Matrix 1 was the best movie of the trilogy. See, I even put in a sunglasses smiley so I could set the mood.

My brother borrowed me the Bourne Trilogy. I remember reading the first two books and thinking that while the premise was very interesting (a secret agent gets amnesia after a nasty mission and is pursued by members of the intelligence community, as well as infamous international terrorist "Carlos") but thinking that Ludlum's writing was, frankly, kind of lacking. The man comes up with great ideas but he wrestles with the prose a bit. The movies pretty much circumvent the book issues by keeping only the main character's name, Jason Bourne, and the fact that he has amnesia.

In the Bourne Identity, Jason comes to grips with his amnesia, trying to grasp why he has this attention to tactical detail and a boatload of hand-to-hand combat training while being pursued by his former employers in the CIA, who believe that he has betrayed them.

The Bourne Supremacy continues with Bourne losing someone close to him and going on something of a rampage against his former masters while also gaining closure on some memories that are coming back to him from his very first covert mission. The Bourne Ultimatum finishes by bringing the store full circle as Jason, remembering more and more details of his early covert life, tries to evade the CIA again while looking for the recruitment center he first entered years ago and where he began his training.

Some thoughts on the trilogy. If you don't mind that movies almost totally diverge from the major plot points of the books too much you'll find a really good trilogy of films here. The locations are exotic and for the most part take place in Europe, although Morocco, India, and New York are visited as well. The acting is solid and the action is almost literally non-stop. The fight sequences, in particular, really blow the mind and warrant watching the films a few times just to see how Bourne squeaks out a victory. Given that this is a reasonably new series of films I'm particularly surprised at the almost total lack of profanity throughout, and that there's no sex, lust, or debauchery of any kind to be seen (although in one scene there's some inferred intimacy). This is a straight up, old school thriller combined with a Tom Clancy-esque level of high technology, which makes for a really good viewing experience.

In a thousand years I never thought I'd see anyone be able to drive a Mini Cooper quite like Bourne does. This is the type of film that The Transporter should have been but just wasn't able to pull off. Four and a half stars for the whole set.

Well The Transporter franchise really isn't in the same genre, it's more of a High Octane Popcorn Actioner with little room for rumination (and very entertaining).

The Bourne franchise on the other hand is an Intelligent Spy Thriller which just happens to feature some high octane action and verite camera-work (very entertaining and also intellectually satisfying).

GB

Ha, ha! I knew you were going to say that GB!
I enjoyed The Transporter (as a stupid pop-corn movie), the second was okay and the third was the most boring excuse for an action movie I've ever seen.

The Bourne movies are far superior. The first has the best story, the second has the best action and the third has a bit of each (the shaking-cam is a bit much at times though, honestly).