Monday, September 27, 2010

Netflix

From: Hebden, Daniel R

 

John,

 

I know there are some limits on streaming form Netflix.

One I don’t have a PC hooked up to my big screen.

Two, I don’t have a DVR yet  and  don’t have one hooked up to internet.

Three, they are a bit limited on selection, although it is getting bigger.

 

Yesterday I got a free box from my nephew who doesn’t have Netflix anymore  and  we hooked it up to our network  and  was

watching stuff in less than 10 min.

I spent an hour adding movies  and  TV series to watch to my queue, while my wife was watching “Dog the Bounty Hunter”.

I must admit it sure is nice to stream some movies.

 

Dan H.

 

Sunday, September 26, 2010

2012 * * *


2012 is a movie that is implausible most of the time, but entertaining regardless.  The last three quarters of the movie is almost non-stop action.  We get to see the super volcano at Yellowstone National Park erupt into a mushroom cloud, which under normal circumstances would be a major continental catastrophe, but as it turns out, it is least violent disaster that happens in this movie. The scale of worldwide destruction depicted in this movie goes way beyond anything we have ever seen before and the special effects make for good eye candy.

Anyone who knows anything about science knows that neutrinos from the sun in no possible way could make the center of the earth heat up.  This is not a movie that you want to think very deeply about.  Despite how unlikely the science seems, this movie reminds us that the universe is a very violent place.   Natural disasters have caused mass extinctions on planet earth multiple times before, so why not now?

There are other implausible moments, like when they can't start the engine of a giant ship as they go careening toward certain doom.  Nevertheless, it is easy to get caught up in the action, and the many characters are just barely interesting enough to make us care.

I enjoyed seeing Woody Harrelson as a wacked out conspiracy theorist. He is probably the most entertaining character in the movie. Danny Glover does a good job playing the president.

Friday, September 24, 2010

FW: Great movie but hard to watch.

 

 

From: Witmer, Robert C.

 

I put all the movies on my Netflix queue that get an Oscar nomination.  Sometimes I get the movies much later and forget why I thought I wanted to see them. 

 

The 2009 film “The Messenger” starring Woody Harrelson nominated for Best Supporting Actor is a movie I got the other day.  I remembered the subject matter and I watched it.  I’m glad I watched it.  It’s about the Military’s Casualty Notification teams that go to people’s homes and notify them that their soldier relative has been killed.  The reactions that people have when they are notified are very heart pounding moments.  Those scenes are hard to watch.

 

Here is a wiki page about the film:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Messenger_%282009_film%29

Here is Ebert’s review:  http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091118/REVIEWS/911189998/1023

 

Bob Witmer

 

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Mist * * 1/2


The Mist is a horror film about people trapped in a supermarket surrounded by a monster filled fog.  This is a movie that kept me in suspense for most of film, but still left me disappointed.  My first problem is that a crazy religious lady in the store develops quite a following and causes people to turn on each other.  I found her to be quite annoying as she talked nonsense constantly through the film.  When someone finally decides to shoot her, I was greatly pleased.  If this is how Stephen King thinks people are, then he thinks that they are idiots.

My second problem is that movie changed the ending from the novella to be something much more shocking.  There is really no way to feel satisfied with an ending like this.  It also defied logic:  I think that the characters would have looked for a solution to their problem other than what was depicted.

Finally: I can only watch monsters attack people so many times before it starts to wear thin.

Roger Ebert gave the movie just two stars.  I mostly agree, but for different reasons.  There are moments when the characters, the dialog and the story are very interesting, but the story is just not quite enough.  I also think that too many of the characters are stereotypes.

The Mist got a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  This tells me that some people like horror films.  I think that maybe a similar film in terms of suspense would be The Happening, which I enjoyed a great deal more, but it was not critically well received even though it should have been.  At least Ebert liked it.

Monday, September 13, 2010

FW: The Mist

I’ll add it to my Netflix Queue.

 

From: Witmer, Robert C
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 9:10 AM
To: Coffey, John
Subject: The Mist

 

 

I saw this and loved it.  It’s the first time I watched the movie twice and the commentary track for any movie in a long time.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mist_%28film%29