Gandalf's Beard, I didn't say there was no philosophy in Revolutions, I said there was little, but again, that's incorrect. Maybe it's better to say there's a lot but much of it is implicit. People say the sequels are largely inspired by the Buddhist, Gnostic and Hindu religions (and this is true - the Wachowski brothers have said they find the interrelation between Buddhism and mathematics to be especially fascinating - that's largely why the Matrix involves them so heavily). But there's plenty of Christian parallels or at least symbolism to be found as well. You just have to be careful to not try to parallel everything with the Bible or Christian faith. Very interesting stuff.

I rented GI Joe and UP this past weekend and I was impressed. GI Joe is your typical summer action flick. Story line itself is comparable with Transformers. Cool effects, alright acting, average story. But the one thing that impressed me the most, besides Snake and Storm Shadow, was the sub-plots with the character. For having such a large collection of characters, GI Joe does the best I have seen at showing the individuality in such a short time. I will say right now I had the same hopes going into it as I did Transformers (not high at all), and I was more impressed with GI Joe.

UP, unfortunately does not stand very high on my Pixar list. It's still a great movie, but I just didn't like it as much as Toy Story, Cars, or Incredibles. Part of it was that I was doing it while working on homework, so I might have to see it again later to make a more accurate judgement.

I wanted to watch both of those, Fencer. Good to know GI Joe was better than expected...I wasn't really expecting it to amount to much, even being a big fan of the original cartoons in the 80's.

Out of curiousity, do they all shout "Yo Joe!" at some point?

Every year on December 7th I try and make time to watch Tora Tora Tora(1970), starring E.G. Marshall, Martin Balsam, and Jason Robards. Excellent film, despite the dated special effects. In my book this film is worlds better (and volumes more accurate) than the Pearl Harbor film from a few years ago. It involves no romance, very little characterization...in fact the film pretty much drops you off at the beginning of the film, you see what events transpired to bring about the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and then picks you up in an old station wagon in the front of the movie theater after the show is done.

They don't have time to squeeze in every act of heroism on that fateful day, but they do depict Doris Miller, a black ship's cook, who takes control of a .50 caliber and downs a pair of Japanese planes (he later won the Navy Cross for his actions) as well as Lieutenants Taylor and Welsh's heroic defense of the northern Hawaiian skies against overwhelming odds in planes that were no match for their Japanese adversaries (P-40's were good, rugged planes, but couldn't outturn or outrun Zeroes), and the USS Nevada's historic "run for the sea". The film very much plays up the factors that prevented the US Fleet from getting that precious hour of advance warning that the attack was coming (which would make a great "what if?" alternate history book, methinks). Kurosawa was apparently in the running to direct the Japanese half of the film but ultimately dropped out. Many of the Japanese planes filmed in the movie are in fact T-6 Texan trainers that were heavily modified to look like their Japanese counterparts.

I love the film although it makes me a bit angry and sad in even measures.

Have you seen Flags of our Fathers or Letters from Iwa Jima? My mom rented them a few days ago and really enjoyed them. You get to hear the Iwa Jima story from both American and Japanese perspectives directed by Clint Eastwood. I didn't watch them due to homework, but I heard they were really good.

I think they do shout "Yo Joe" somewhere in the film, but I don't recall where. Like with Transformers, I never saw the cartoons. Most of my GI Joe knowledge comes from my sister who greatly prefered them over Barbie dolls. Her version of playing with Barbies was war with GI Joes and the Barbies were the badies. Good times.

Letters from Iwo Jima is fantastic. I liked it a lot more than Flags of Our Fathers.

I recently had a chance to view Some Like it Hot (1959) for the first time. The gist of the plot is that two musicians (Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis) witness the 1929 St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, and go into hiding disguised as the newest members of an all-girl band in Florida (with Marilyn Monroe as their lead singer).

The AFI has voted it the greatest American comedy film, and while I found it enjoyable enough, I think there are other films from that same era (such as Danny Kaye's The Court Jester) that are funnier.

stargazer, I LOVE Billy Wilder's films. He's probably up there with Frank Capra as my favourite director. But, I really don't care for Some Like it Hot at all. It was a huge disappointment for me. I didn't come close to laughing, even once. If anything, that film is kind of creepy.

Is anyone here a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's movies? I really like his style, though there have been a couple of his movies that I didn't care as much for...like "Lady in the Water" (found it a tad boring ...definitely not as intriguing as some of his others. ). But I really love "The Village" and "Signs"...

Unbreakable is excellent. A fantastic study of cause and effect, and an unique take on the traditional superhero myth. The Sixth Sense is very good, and Signs would have been tolerable, had the advertising campaign not been so grossly deceptive. The Village is, in my opinion, insulting to the intelligence of the audience (the concept is beyond ludicrous), and Lady in the Water was inoffensive, but completely inconsequential. I didn't bother to see The Happening, and from what I've been told, it was a most judicious choice.

He has a strong visual sense, but, aside from the gimmicky twists which have gotten old now, he's been exposed as a pretty mediocre writer (again, with the exception of Unbreakable, elements of which some have suggested were "borrowed" from Matt Wagner's 'The Mage' comic book series). For the most part, his ideas are airy and lack substance. They're like cinematic cotton candy. I think he'd be much better off establishing partnerships with better writers, and sticking to directing, solely. Much like the man he's constantly compared to, Alfred Hitchcock, who made a pretty good living doing just that.

The Village is, in my opinion, insulting to the intelligence of the audience (the concept is beyond ludicrous)

I'm interested to know what exactly you meant by that. I found The Village to be an excellent movie, and in no way insulting of my intelligence. Would you care to explain further?

I'll always be a,
NL101

I found The Village to be an excellent movie, and in no way insulting of my intelligence. Would you care to explain further?

I could, but I found this quote from Roger Ebert that summarizes my views, and that's a lot less work than typing up my own bitter thoughts:

"The Village is a colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn ... To call the ending an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It's a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It was all a dream. It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore."

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040719/REVIEWS/40719002/1023

It took me less than 5 seconds to find a professional quote that is, word-for-word, precisely how I felt after seeing The Village. In no way, am I insulting the intelligence of anyone who likes the film. "Like" is taste, and not open to debate. Shoddy, witless (excellent word, Roger) writing is something that can be more objectively criticized. I only meant that it was insulting to attempt to pass that premise off as believable.

The Village is a passably entertaining experience, until the end. Evaluating it as a complete film, it is, in my opinion, garbage. That's the nicest word I can use for it.

Anyone like Nim's Island? I love that movie!

Goodness Steerforth, I didn't realize you felt so strongly about The Village. I didn't think it was that bad, personally, but to each his (or her) own. To compound matters there's only a 50/50 chance I'll agree with Ebert on any given day. But it could be worse...what would Pauline Kael say about it?

Goodness Steerforth, I didn't realize you felt so strongly about The Village. I didn't think it was that bad, personally, but to each his (or her) own. To compound matters there's only a 50/50 chance I'll agree with Ebert on any given day. But it could be worse...what would Pauline Kael say about it?

Well, I don't mean to sound as if I'm standing on a soapbox, waving my arms in a manic, enraged fashion. I'm pretty emotionally dispassionate, for the most part. That's just my honest opinion, which is what I always endeavour to provide, with as accurate, and descriptively appropriate, a choice of words as I could employ. A lot of elements that I nitpick about in films, I suppose most people don't notice or care about. But, if films ask certain things of an audience, they have to give certain things, back, too. That's why The Village is a failure, in my opinion.

As for Ebert, I also disagree with him as much as I agree. I like going through his archives to see his opinions through the years, and I found a scathing review of one of my favourite movies, Radio Flyer (a very misunderstood film, in my opinion, almost universally loathed by reviewers—and more proof that "like" is subjective), that had me wondering if the man had even watched the film. But, in the case of The Village, I agree with him completely. Bad film. Very bad film.

Hey, I liked Radio Flyer and felt it was a really good film, if not a tad bit sad there at the end. It manages to weave in a layer of, for lack of a better word, "magic" quite well. Then again I was always a sucker for movies about kids "growing up" as it sometimes reminds me of my childhood, which is probably why I liked The Sandlot and even Stephen King's It (the movie version) so much. Kids have terrific imaginations and when someone is able to successfully integrate it into film it usually proves to enrich the movie as a whole. It's very tough to pull off I imagine.