The Silver Screen Oasis

I liked "Love Actually" too, and it was especially loved by female moviegoers here in Chile and on DVD format as well.

I also like "Love Actually." I didn't see it when it first came out, but I rented it on videotape and my wife really fell in love with it. We bought it a few months later.

Today I tried to watch "Young Adult" (2011) directed by Jason Reitman.

I didn't finish watching the movie. It is about a thirty-something woman who tries to inject herself back into the life of a guy she knew in high school. I was less turned off by the plot than by the style of the film, in which (it seemed to me) there were not scenes as such but merely shots. The film leaped from shot to shot as if afraid to actually let the camera rest on an image for more than a few heartbeats. Maybe this was to emphasize the heroine's mental state, but it just drove me bats and after a dozen minutes I ejected the movie.

I saw Touchez Pas au Grisbi.

No wonder you're smiling then.

It sounds like Love Actually travelled well, it's just here, I wonder why? It's not a bad film and I could see myself getting lulled into watching it again if it was on, perhaps I expected too much.

[u][color=#4000BF]JackFavell[/color][/u] wrote:I saw Touchez Pas au Grisbi.

Moi aussi. Tres tres bien!!!

What did you think, T? or are you too busy filming and editing to weigh in?

You know how I do.

I've gotta make it a big production. Tee-hee. The movie has settled into my pores like "Quai Des Orfevres."

I picked out a film called The House Across The Street made in 1949 starring Janis Page , Wayne Morris, Bruce Bennett and Alan Hale, it didn't ignite for me, it felt like a noir and started promisingly with a shooting then it segued away from the crime and into a newpaper office and lost a lot of it's pace. I should have watched Touchez Pas Au Grisbi again instead.

You gave up Jean Gabin for mayonnaise Wayne, Bruce and Hale? Tsk! Tsk! Get thee to "Au Grisbi" again! STAT!

Finally rented a couple of recent films that are good. I expected comedy, and they are that. Sort of. Like many good movies, these are hard to categorize. SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD finds Steve Carrel and others awaiting the arrival of an asteroid that is expected to destroy the earth. What do you do? Make peace? Settle unfinished business? Get laid? This depends on who you talk to. Any movie that begins with the line, "We'll have up to the minute news of the end of the world, as well as your favorite classic hits on Q101.4," has my attention!

There's some dark humor. Some whimsy. But there's also depth and meaning. This is a story of relationships. Love lost, love not yet realized. Pain and acceptance. And there's a dog! RUBY SPARKS is harder to describe. It's one those "twist the boundaries of reality" plots like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and that Jim Carrey show about eternal sunshine. A writer creates a character, a woman he could be in love with, and Voila! She comes to life! As their arrangement develops, the young man finds it necessary to rewrite a few things, shaping and reshaping the woman's character until he gets it right. Or not.

Woody Allen would love this movie. What's real and what's not? Fiction comes to life. Who is God around here, anyway? It's good. The quirky plot grows and recharges so it doesn't get old. What might have been a one note concept, again not unlike Mr. Allen, is fairly complex. And there's a dog! I recommend both these somewhat unique movies!

I haven't seen Ruby Sparks, but it sounds good. I really like some of Steve Carrell's work. I actually love The 40 Year old Virgin. Sorry.

Have you seen Stranger than Fiction? It's not as mind bending as some of the ones you mentioned but I thought it was really good work by Will Farrell, from a time when I wasn't sick to death of him. It's not bad.

I like everything about STRANGER THAN FICTION. I couldn't blame someone for getting a little tired of this concept. But that's a good one. 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN is just fine with me. It's funny, not raunchy, sensitive. Steve Carrell tends to make good choices. CRAZY, STUPID LOVE is much better than I thought it would be. Thank God for Red Box!

It's a little raunchy, but there's a very sweet story underneath.

I liked Crazy Stupid Love! it was about the best movie I saw in the movie theater last year... I guess that's pretty sad statement. Luckily, the movie industry seems to be making movies with actual stories again this year.

Hey, what happened to Christopher Guest? I haven't seen one of his movies for awhile.

CineMaven wrote:You gave up Jean Gabin for mayonnaise Wayne, Bruce and Hale? Tsk! Tsk! Get thee to "Au Grisbi" again! STAT!

I made up for it by watching it today, worth waiting for. Why mayonnise Wayne?

Well...after seeing Jean Gabin in "Touchez Pas..." Morris seems very very whitebread and mayonnaise to me. And I LOVE Wayne Morris.

"The House Across the Street." ( Psst! I like late 40's "B" movies too. )