POTPOURRI

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mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

POTPOURRI

Post by mrsl »

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This will be my catch-all topic thread for my recent/older movies. I agree 90's movies are not new, but occasionally if you have several movie channels like I do, you come across a movie you never heard of before, and let's face it. If you have never seen it, it is new for you when you do see it for the first time, I got a friend to sit down and watch Stars in My Crown and she acted like it was hot off the presses, thus - new to her.

So, last night I'm scrolling through my guide to try and find a movie to watch and lo and behold, I come across two of them, so I set one up to be DVR'd and settle to watch the other. Well, all I can say is thank goodness my guide gives a little paragraph explaining what the movie is about, because without it, I would have had no idea what I was looking at and I'm not totally sure they were.

The Tree of Life spent the first half hour with photo slides of fire, clouds, rain, rivers running and other strange things. Suddenly Sean Penn arrives on scene and runs up a staircase to a city street surrounded with sky scrapers, then up another to an office, then he starts day-dreaming. The paragraph had said it was a man trying to regain his childhood innocence . . . okay. This thing from 2011 also starred Jessica Chastain and Brad PItt (who was never especially attractive to me, and is now not aging very well). These two are Sean's parents and she is the kind of mother who runs and jumps with her three boys, laughing and having fun, while Father Brad, is extra strict and forebearing. Dialog is almost non-existent as everything is described in a voice-over by Sean. Brad will lock one of his children out of the house if they talk back, and demands to be called Father rather than Dad, all the while inventing things which he cannot sell or get patents for which has turned him into the bitter man we see. I THINK near the end, Sean visits his mother and brother in Heaven as well as an unborn child whom I assume was a miscarraige. Then the movie ends with Sean looking out a window, still never having uttered a word. If any of you has seen this movie, Please let me know your thoughts on it and perhaps you can straighten me out on it.

A Million Ways to Die in the West 2014:


This one is an affront to true Western fans like me. After reading the afore mentioned paragraph, something about a strange woman helping a sheep rancher gain some self respect in the west, and starring Cherize Theron whom I think is terrific and Liam Neeson, I decided to watch it last night after all. Sad for me. This thing takes apart and destroys all the good things about the old west - the good sheriff, the good guy coming out on top, the sheep finally being accepted and a lot of other things. If I had gone on with the list of cast members, I would have had a clue - Seth MacFarlane, What's his name Rabisi, etc. This is a teenager's movie complete with loads of bodily function jokes and nasty language. Watch at your own peril.
Anne


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sandykaypax
Posts: 490
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:15 pm
Location: Beautiful Ohio

Re: POTPOURRI

Post by sandykaypax »

Anne, I saw The Tree of Life a few years ago. I have to say that I loved it. I sort of knew a little bit about the style of the film going in, so that helped. I really did not expect to love it as much as I did. I liked the lack of dialogue once I got used to it. I think that you are right on about what happens in the film. I just let the images wash over me and I enjoyed it that way.

I was at the library today and I saw the blu-ray of Tree of Life on the shelf and thought that I will probably take that out soon and watch it again. I'm curious to see how I feel about it on a second viewing.

A similar film is Boyhood--but Boyhood is a bit more straightforward in its storytelling. I loved that film, too.

Sandy K
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