Cordelia ,'You're Welcome'
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
I loved Sideways, and didn't really know what to expect from it (not what I got, that's for sure).
I was stunned to not have huge hate for 13 going on 30. It was kind of charming, and it is easily the kind of movie I usually can't abide. (Surely others here hated it.)
Mind boggles at the crapulence:
Oh dear god. Let's have The Canterbury Tales with Paris Hilton and Tom Welling I say!
I was surprised at how much I disliked Mike Leigh's Naked but that was a while ago. (It falls into a category of movie which I can't abide, but which I think of as Actor Indulgences. Like, most Cassavetes or Last Tango In Paris. Whenever actors think they are being So Real, I think they are being So Actorly.)
I can't think of anything recent. I remember a number of comedies which looked generic on the outside, but had surprising quirks or intelligence or performance upon actual viewing: Housesitter (Steve Martin & Goldie Hawn) and Miami Rhapsody (Sarah Jessica Parker being a perfect female Woody Allen) come to mind.
Thirteen going on 30 was my last one, too. JohnSw. JG was great in it.
I liked 13 Going On 30, too.
I also kind of enjoyed Dirty Dancing 2, despite the fact that it's kind of stupid, Patrick Swayze was embarrassing, and the dancing was nowhere near up to par. I expected to hate it, and I just ended up not minding it, and kind of liking some of the clothes.
I was surprised at how unfunny Mr 3000 was, but I probably shouldn't have been.
I laughed my ass off at Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle, but I was expecting that.
Oh! I was surprised at how crappy most of the singing in Phantom was, and also at how bad the ADR was. Films that cost that much money should be able to afford both voice doubles and booth time.
I expected Harold and Kumar to suck mightily, but instead spent half the movie gasping for breath.
This isn't exactly a surprise, more like a bemusement.
We have the 3-disc Region 2? I think? set of Le Pacte des loups, and we have always watched the French version with subtitles. Just for giggles last evening, we watched the Brotherhood of the Wolf version, and I could swear it was recut, with some additional illustrative or illuminary footage for the American market. Does anyone know for sure?
The dubbing was, for the most part, quite well done. But the voices for Marianne and Gregoire were wrong, wrong, wronger than a wrong thing. All and completely wrong.
I saw Brotherhood of the Wolf in the theatre, and as I recall it was in French with English subs. I'll take the subbed version with the original voices over the dubbed, almost without exception.
Speaking of which, On Demand is showing Once Upon a Time in China, in Cantonese with English subs! This sort of thing usually turns up dubbed on Starz. Even on IFC.