That explains why John Denver and Johnny Cash never showed up I guess.
They did have Mickey Rooney and he's old enough to take the place of 8 1970s-era cameos.
That explains why John Denver and Johnny Cash never showed up I guess.
They did have Mickey Rooney and he's old enough to take the place of 8 1970s-era cameos.
Julie Andrews would have been a wonderful guest star for the Muppet movie. I get why they did it the way they did though. Not having a famous guest was part of the storyline and plot point, no guest, no show and probably wouldn't have worked well had Kermit been successful going through the rolodex.
I loved the movie and so did my family but my DS15 kept saying "why do they keep on singing?" Yeah he doesn't remember watching the DVD's we have.
Have a Disney Day!
You don't have to walk on water, it's how you walk on land.
This is sadly true, in fact as my daughter and I watched the Muppet Show DVDs we would wikipedia the various guest stars to find out if they were still with us and if so what they are doing now. Many of them are deceasedOriginally Posted by JeffG
Jenny
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"The Muppets" - I really enjoyed the movie, and I found myself tearing up at Kermit's song about pictures in his mind, even though I never really watched the show. I thought they chose a good story for the reboot. I was laughing hysterically at Walter's human form though!
I also enjoyed seeing the bits that they actually shot at Jim Henson's Studios and seeing the re-dressed El Capitan Theatre.
I guess I have a glitch in my matrix.
blah blah blah blah
I also really enjoyed The Muppets. Just a lot of fun overall, and I walked out with a big smile on my face. It wasn't 100% perfect, but I didn't care, because when a movie makes you that happy, flaws aren't important.
I also saw Hugo in 3D this weekend, and it was incredible. Two great family movies opening on one weekend--what are the chances?
The Muppets as well. The ending was a bit anti-climatic and I thought almost ruined a great story. My first thought was, "the Empire Strikes Back ending must not have tested well and they had to throw that little bit in at the end of the film." Prior to that I thought it was setting up a sequel beautifully and that I was sooo going to see it. Everything was perfect up until that point and when I get the DVD I'm just going to stop it when the credits start to roll. (Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending)
Watched pirates 4 this weekend. As much as I'm a big fan of potc, I was disappointed in this one and it left you hanging...something was missing, sorry, but i think it lost it's luster....forgive me J. D.
Have a Magical Day, Month, Year!!!
When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable ~ Walt Disney
Stephanie
~A man's character can be judged by the way he treats his dog.~
We finally got to see Miyazaki's "Sprited Away"! It was screening at LACMA (and we love the Bing theater there) in the original, subtitled verision. We'd heard Susan Egan talking about dubbing her character for the English version, but we wanted to see the original and hear the original voices before watching the dubbed version. Neither of us knew what to expect from the story or animation, but we both really enjoyed the film. It was so different from what we've come to expect from an animated feature.
Watched Gnomeo and Juliet on Netflix with DS today. So cute! I'm a huge Elton John fan so I loved all the music and the little jokes here and there. The Tiki Room song is in it too!
Nichole
Don't worry, you're not the only one. I really enjoyed the first three Pirates movie, but I thought On Stranger Tides was an absolute disaster. Gore Verbinski really brought passion and ambition to the original movies as director and Rob Marshall was sorely lacking that quality. It was just a bad movie.
I've been watching a LOT of movies but the last two I can actually remember are Like Crazy and Morning Glory.
Like Crazy has been hyped as one of the greatest love stories of our generation. I just thought it was kind of short and boring. I thought the artistic direction and improvisation was excellent. The movie was really pleasing aesthetically but there wasn't much in terms of story. The ending really peeved me off. The movie should have been 15 - 30 min longer. It has an 89 min run time.
Morning Glory with Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton, and Harrison Ford was so funny! It was a nice story and even though some of the typical comedy tropes are employed in the film, I still thought it was really really good. I used 1.5 of my 2 gigs of memory streaming it on Netflix during my drive from LA to San Diego! Whoopsie.
"It's A Wonderful Life" at the Linwood-Dunn Theater in Hollywood. It's one of our Christmas traditions to see this film somewhere on the big screen at least once in December. This film just gets better every time we see it. This screening had a new print struck from the Academy archive negative -- so beautiful! And we noticed details we had not been able to catch before. Also, there was a panel discussion about the sound and special effects used in the film. I had never really been aware of the masterful use of silence in this film and how the emotions are largely built through facial expressions and voices, not mainly through the music. There was a snow machine (like the one invented for this film) with a giant fan -- this got turned on the audience, which was funny -- like Main Street on steroids!
The 1950's original version of A Christmas Carol. What a masterpiece!!!!
Cruising the Seas... Looking for the Pearl
Last Saturday Helena and I saw "The Muppets" at DTD ... absolutely loved it! The trailers were all for upcoming 2012 animated features, some of which look like fun ... Pixar's "Brave," Disney's release of Studio Ghilbi's "The Secret World of Arriety," and Aardman's stop-motion "The Pirates: Band of Misfits."
Arnold
www.sandcastlevi.com
Yeah, both of those looked fantastic. I love that they're doing "The Borrowers".
I guess I have a glitch in my matrix.
blah blah blah blah
I'm really excited about this one, but I'm slightly annoyed that the American release has a watered down, less interesting title. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is much more clever sounding, in my opinion, than The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
And besides that, "misfits" and "scientists" are NOT synonyms!!!
Cathy
I'll admit it, I've never been hugely passionate about the Mission: Impossible series (in fact, until I re-watched the movies this week I hardly remembered them), and when I first heard that a fourth Mission: Impossible was in the works I couldn't have been less interested. That is until I read the words "Brad Bird has signed to direct." Those six words instantly rocketed this film up to the top of my most anticipated list, and his live action debut does not disappoint. Not one single bit.
The Mission: Impossible series has had a bit of a rocky past. The first film is a decent spy thriller with a clever twist, the second movie is borderline self-parody with it's over-the-top antics, and the third movie was the previous high point of the series with exciting action blended with strong characterization. With each new installment a new director has brought a new element to the series, and the element that Brad Bird brings to M:I-GP is scope. Massive, exciting, jaw-dropping scope. This is easily the biggest, boldest, and most ambitious Mission: Impossible film to date, and as far as I can recall at the moment, the biggest, boldest, most ambitious action film in general since Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Brad Bird handles his first live action film like an old pro and puts many other "veteran" action directors to shame. The pacing is impeccable, moving seamlessly from massive action spectacles to more downplayed character moments without ever losing momentum; the action is big without being silly; and the action sequences are breathtakingly shot and choreographed and constantly leave you picking your jaw up off the ground. The marketing has really played up the scene in Dubai in which Ethan Hunt scales the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) from the outside, and I began to worry that the scene wouldn't live up to all the hype. It does. Especially in the expanded IMAX aspect ratio, this scene is an absolute masterwork in tension, and while this may be the high point of the action in the film, the other sequences stand nearly as tall. From a chase scene during a sandstorm, to a fist fight dodging loading and unloading cars in a parking garage the action is fast-paced, hard-hitting, and fun.
This is Brad Bird we're talking about, though, and so he's not content with putting contemporary action directors to shame, he also makes sure that the story and characters get their proper focus and time to shine. The story of this movie never reaches the emotional heights of Bird's previous works like Ratatouille or The Iron Giant, but this type of movie really doesn't call for that. The story hearkens back to Cold War tensions and old-school spy scenarios while still feeling modern and fresh. It's the perfect pairing of classic storytelling with modern polish and style. As for the cast of characters, everyone in this movie is great. The previous movies have all focussed the attention on Ethan Hunt, and while Hunt is definitely still the "lead" in this movie, the ensemble cast is much more important than they've ever been before with each member of the team getting almost equal screen time and a strong sense of purpose propelling the story. Simon Pegg steals the show with his brilliant comedic timing, but Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner both give strong, multi-faceted performances, and their characters are invaluable to the film. The villain this time around is not quite as memorable as Philip Seymour Hoffman's character from M:i:III, but the story is much more focussed on the IMF team this time around and having a major heavy like that probably would have made the focus of the film uneven.
Brad Bird has already proven himself to be a brilliant filmmaker with three of the best films of the last decade, but for anyone foolish enough to think he couldn't handle live action just as well Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol should drive the point home. Bird handles the movie with the grace and assuredness of someone who has been making films like this for years. This is one of the year's best films and one of the best action movies I've seen in quite a while. I definitely recommend this movie, and also encourage you to see it in IMAX. While nothing I have seen in the format so far has quite matched the level of awesome that was The Dark Knight in IMAX, M:I-GP uses the format very well and the action scenes that take advantage of the full aspect ratio are incredible to behold.
Now, let's just hope the execs at Warner Bros. take note of this and give Brad Bird the budget he needs to make 1906. That's a movie that I cannot wait to see green lit.
A
DH and I watched Miracle on 34th Street a couple of nights ago. One of my favorite Christmas movies.
Nichole
Brad Bird is the only reason I even have MI:3 in my mind at all. And even then, Tom Cruise just makes my skin crawl, so I will probably skip it.
As for "Brave," I worry it's piggybacking on some of the ideas in "How to Train Your Dragon" but only stylistically. I could be wrong though, but that was my first impression.
I just bought a book from Costco called 501 Must See Movies or something like that. It's fairly comprehensive, especially in the films before 1960, but the more current movies leave me hollow, a common trait when a film has yet to prove its timelessness. It's set up by category (Drama, Comedy, Musical, etc), but they left out nearly every sports movie (other than Rocky). I was really disappointed they didn't list Miracle, Rudy, Hoosiers, or a whole bunch of other incredible films. They also tended to skip sequels if the first film was listed (Godfather, LOTR) except Alien/Aliens, but I guess it's because they had different directors, and are enough removed from each other to be considered independent.
God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.
Tom Cruise is a nut case, certainly, but this movie is too good to miss. Don't pass it up just because you dislike Cruise.
I agree, saw it tonight in IMAX. Worth the extra money and Brad threw in 2 Pixar nods. While it's possible that Tom may go another round, introducing Jeremy Renner was a good idea.
Helena and I just saw "Arthur Christmas" this afternoon in 3D. It was our first experience with 3D for a feature-length film. After a few minutes, I just forgot about the 3D and just enjoyed the movie. No ill-effects.
On the film itself, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes animated films. It's by Aardman Animation, which usually does the stop-motion animation, like "Chicken Run" and "Wallace and Gromit." This one's computer animated and is a nice story about different generations of Santa Claus dealing with a Christmas Eve mix-up. Helena and I are somewhat unsure how younger kids who still believe in the magic of "Santa Claus" would take the image of Santa Claus shown here; but older kids would probably just see it as a "fairy tale" about the guy in red.
Arnold
www.sandcastlevi.com
I've been very curious about Arthur Christmas, the trailers have left me less than impressed, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I definitely want to see it, but I'll probably wait until Blu-ray just because Hugo, Sherlock Holmes, Tintin, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and War Horse are all above it on my need-to-see list.
I liked the movie, personally, but did not like how Santa(s) were portrayed as selfish in the movie. However, my kids just thought it was someone's fantasy of Santas and really liked Arthur Christmas. They still believe in Santa and don't think he's at all like the Santa in the movie. But, parents should be prepared - - and my kids are 6 and 8, so I don't know about anyone younger than that.
This and all of my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
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