Open Movie Thread not involving the Passion...

Because there are actually films out there playing right now that have nothing to do with the death of Jesus Christ, and I'd thought that it'd be nice if we had some recommendations about them.

Comments

[carpeicthus]

Metacritic amalgamated score for The Movie That Must not Be Named: 43

Metacritic amalgamated score for Starsky & Hutch: 48

I think we all know what the real magnum opus of 2004 will be.

[spc67]

House of Sand and Fog-Go see it. Nothing good happens and you'll come out depressed, but the acting is superb. Kingsley and the Iranian actress both should have won their respective Oscars.

Monster-Rental at best. Theron's physical transformation just isn't enough to save it.

Station Agent-Very well done, low key, quirky cast. Movie buff movie. Good rental.

Whalerider-For God's sake grab the kids, don't grab the kids, but go! You'll be smiling for a week. The little girl/Grandfather relationship shines.

50 First Dates-Good date movie, otherwise a second choice rental.

Mystic River-Very good, worth the trip.

[Anarch]

Any word on the Triplets of Belleville? I'm hoping to take a lady friend to see it this weekend...

[James Casey]

Anarch, I cannot recommend the Triplets of Belleville enough. It was the best film I saw last year - and yes, I did see LOTR. It was obviously out in the UK a lot earlier; and had made it onto the telly here in England by Christmas, where I watched again, this time with my family, all laughing out loud at points.

It's very imaginative and very funny.

[mc_masterchef]

I passed up a chance to see Triplets (which I do intend to catch eventually) and went for Tokyo Godfathers instead, which I thought was pretty good, though people with little patience for string-of-amazing-coincidences-and-chance-run-ins style storytelling may be a bit put off by it. I liked it better than Millenium Actress by the same guy (Japanese anime director Satoshi Kon), at least, which was just wierd.

[mc_masterchef]

Has anyone seen Goodbye, Lenin!? From what I saw of the trailers, it looked hilarious, so I'm curious if the premise stands up well for the whole movie.

[Alex]

Anarch, I cannot recommend the Triplets of Belleville enough.

Me too. If there's any movie that's a true heir of 1940's-era Warner Brothers cartoons, it's this one - the opening sequence most obviously so, but even the rest of it is refreshingly bizarre in these days of Pixar/Disney, everything-must-be-photorealistic animation.

Goodbye Lenin! wasn't quite as good as I had hoped, but it was still pretty good (look for the obscure reference to 2001). There are a lot of in-jokes, so unless you go see it with a German or someone who grew up in the Eastern Bloc to explain them to you, you may miss a lot.

The best movie I saw last year was Fuse, which is a very funny Bosnian movie that actually gives a lot of insight into how people in that part of the world see Westerners.

[Josh]

Triplets of Belleville rocked. Especially the scene with the frogs.

[dutchmarbel]

I really liked Triplets of Belleville. I only saw the DVD and am sorry now that I did not see it in the cinema.

I plan to go see "lost in translation" and "girl with a pearl earring" when they turn up in my favourite (small) cinema.