Movies that you might enjoy

On the "Vote Being Cast" thread, Berry said the following when I mentioned that i had around 325 films on DVD:

You have that many movies at your finger tips how about posting a Movie Recommendation thread to bring some of the past ones that I am sure deserved more recognition than they got. What is that one with Maggie Gyllenhall that you like a lot?

Okay, so here are 12 films from my DVD collection that I recommend:

Secretary (the S/M love story that was the breakout role for Maggie Gyllenhaal and earned her her first Oscar nomination)

Shall We Dance? (the original Japanese film, not the Richard Gere remake. This is one of my favorite foreign films)

Planet 51 (a fun little animated film that got ignored in the theaters)

They Shoot Horses Don't They? (a brilliant but extremely difficult to watch film about a depression era marathon dance. Gig Young won an Oscar for his role and, in my opinion, Jane Fonda gives the best performance of her career.)

Akeelah and the Bee (a great, feel good movie with Laurence Fishburn and Angela Bassett)

Imagine Me & You (a love story about love at first sight with a different twist. Stars Piper Perabo and Lena Headley)

Sherrybaby (a brilliant performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal but a film that at times is hard to watch)

In the Land of Woman (Adam Brody & Meg Ryan in a little movie about people and life)

In and Out (Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Tom Selleck, Bob Newhart, Debbie Reynolds & Matt Dillon in a very funny film)

Pieces of April (Katie Holmes in a touching comedy about families)

Cashback (a really different movie that is basically a love story)

Where the Day Takes you (my favorite film that I ever worked on. A story about runaways on the streets of Hollywood with a cast that includes Dermont Mulroney, Sean Astin, Will Smith, Balthazar Getty, Adam Baldwin & Lara Flynn Boyle)

If you have seen any of these, I'd love to know your opinion of them. If you get one of them and want to discuss it, let me know & I'll rewatch it again so I remember all of the little details.

Also, are there any movies you guys would like to discuss?

He not only posted he started his own thread!

I think out of what you listed I have only seen They Shoot Horses Don't They?"

I totally agree with you assessment. Hard to watch but a very high calibur movie.

I'll go check on the others and see if any can catch Craig's attention. He loves the Richard Gere version of Shall We Dance I bet we've seen it more than 15 times...

BoardMomma wrote:He not only posted he started his own thread!

Woot woot!!!

the Richard Gere version of Shall We Dance I bet we've seen it more than 15 times...

I sat thru this version once (got it because Mom wanted to see it.) I like Richard Gere but I didn't enjoy this film. Maybe it's because by this time I had watched the original about 15 times and the remake seemed very shallow to me.

Covina Guy wrote:

the Richard Gere version of Shall We Dance I bet we've seen it more than 15 times...

I sat thru this version once (got it because Mom wanted to see it.) I like Richard Gere but I didn't enjoy this film. Maybe it's because by this time I had watched the original about 15 times and the remake seemed very shallow to me.

I'll try to get him to order the original from Netflix. There are a ton of things that attracted Craig to that film. The storyl first of all. And if I tell you any more it would embarress him and I'm still trying to get him to come in and post.

If Craig liked the story in the remake, I think he'll love the original (as long as he doesn't have problems with watching subtitled foreign films.) I think the reason I like the original much better is that in the remake, Richard Gere's character might be embarrassed or uncomfortable if his friends found out about his dancing, in the original the character has societal mores that he has to overcome to pursue his desire to dance. I'll have to re-watch the remake again tonight so I can speak better to what I see as the differences between the two versions.

Thanks for all those recommendations, CG. Of your list I have only seen 3 of them...the original Shall We dance? I didn't see the second one made with Gere but it is hard to imagine it could compete with this perfect version from Japan.

In and Out...Kevin Kline, always brilliant...but he was overshadowed in my opinion by the singular most hilarious performance I've ever seen...Joan Cusack in the road in her wedding dress. Bwahahaha!


They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Honestly, I would have to go see it again. The only thing I remember is that I thought it would be fun to watch dancing...and it was more like having teeth pulled. I think the ending kind of disappointed me. Probably was true to the book or something...but I want to walk away from a film feeling good...and this one. Well, any awards they won for acting were justified.

In and Out...Kevin Kline, always brilliant...but he was overshadowed in my opinion by the singular most hilarious performance I've ever seen...Joan Cusack in the road in her wedding dress.

I completely agree with you about Joan Cusack's performance...it was spot on perfect. I always also loved her scene in the bar with Tom Selleck just before she runs into the street. "Is everybody gay??"

I've seen four on CG's list, that I can remember. Saw They Shoot Horses....way back when it was in the theaters, not since. Secretary in the theater (don't let kids in the room if watching on DVD at home). In The Land of Women shows up on cable regularly and is one of Kristen Stewart's 'pre-famous' roles.

Joan Cusack is always a good comedic actress but her one role I always remember and her classic line (in my twisted mind) is in Gross Pointe Blank where she plays the "office manager" to her brother John, a hired assassin, and over the phone she orders "One thousand rounds of 9 mm, subsonic". I always lol, when I remember that line, as right now....

At present she's in Shameless (only one more ep in this season ) in one of her goofiest roles...


Joan Cusack, a lifelong Chicagoan, doesn't have much of a commute when 'Shameless' is shooting exterior scenes in her home town.

But one of ironies of her role on the Showtime drama is that Cusack's
character, Sheila Jackson, is an agoraphobic, so exterior scenes are not
something the actress frequently gets to do. One unseasonably warm day
last fall, when the show's cast and crew were a filming a series of
outdoor scenes in a hardscrabble West Side neighborhood, all Cusack had
to do was appear briefly inside Sheila's house and clap near a window.

"I can't see not leaving your house in five years, but I can see feeling
like, you know, [life is] overwhelming sometimes," Cusack said later in
an interview on the set.

Cusack travels to Los Angeles when 'Shameless' is shooting interiors,
and in many of those scenes, she's joined by Joel Murray, who plays
Sheila's estranged husband, and William H. Macy, who plays Sheila's new
boyfriend, Frank Gallagher, the drunken patriarch of a struggling
family. Both men came up as Chicago actors as well, but she's working
with both for the first time on 'Shameless' (although she is fairly sure
that Macy babysat for her when he was a struggling actor in the early '70s).

Sheila is one of the show's most enjoyable characters -- her seduction
scenes with Frank are goofy gems -- but she's not just comic relief. She
struggles mightily with her agoraphobia, and as viewers of the Showtime
program saw last Sunday, Sheila recently took her first steps outside
her door in five years.

I just saw The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It was awesome. From cutest little chimpanzee ever to how the humans died off. It was an interesting ride.

You saw it on DVD I assume ? It looked interesting when it was in the theaters but I never got around to it. My next one in the theaters is Red Tails. War Horse looks good too but the reviewers say that if you don't sob during it you are very hard hearted. I don't like to sob in the theater which is one reason I avoid animal movies, but if enough other viewers are sobbing too I might chance it.

Descendents is a great movie, fair warning tho, it'll make you weep. But it's a great film....the critics have put it in the same class as Terms of Endearment and Steel Magnolias on the weeping...


Oh it's snowing in here!

Just saw Girl with a Dragon Tattoo...also really really well done. But brutal in parts...and those parts were really really really hard to watch.


Saw Hugo in 3D twice. I want this for best everything in movies this year. And see it in the 3D while you can.

Next week, Mission Impossible...lol c'mon it's Simon Pegg, gotta keep him employed.

Oh..and The Artist..black and white mostly silent, dancing, amore' and a Jack Russel terrier....happy camper here!

The actress that stars in The Artist was on Leno last week. He asked her how she got the role. She said, "I slept with the director", who she is married to. :lol: Her family left Argentina to escape from Peron back in the day and settled in Paris.

All the reviews I've read really like War Horse....still debating. Can't wait for Red Tails.

Saw the trailer for Red Tails yesterday, looked like it could be very good


back to War Horse.

Not kind.

http://www.ebertpresents.com/movies/war-horse/videos/363

Kind

http://www.richardroeper.com/reviews/warhorse.aspx

Which confuses me but....I think I'm going to wait for DVD. It's just too busy of a movie season right now.

I thought Ebert was one of the kind ones. Also Rex Reed in the LA Times , etc. and others I've never heard of.

I saw the Sherlock Holmes one today. With the caveat that you don't go to these if you are a book-version purist, this was a lot of fun.

So, I finally did see Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (stupid name). Fun movie, Simon Pegg was fantastic, as predicted. Tom Cruise ran around a lot, flew around. Did wildly cartoonishly amusing things. Jeremy Renner was a really great addition.


Saw The Artist...really, really liked it. and yup, it's in black and white, and yup, it's silent...and the Jack Russell terrier is a star. It's a great lil movie.

Saw a movie starring Martin Sheen today. It is called "The Way" , It is about a man whose son is trying to make a pilgrimage walking a beautiful path from France to a church in spain. I won't go into the twists and turns but it is a lovely film and makes you think about getting out and seeing the world and connecting to other people. If you are religious you will probably like this film. And if you are not, this film has nothing to do with religion really and you will probably like this film. However, if you want a lot of shoot em up action, you will probably not like this film.

I have it on my request list at the library...there's a long line.

I'm really looking forward to it.