The "I'm watching/just watched *movie title* thread....

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

The Nomi Song

film about klaus nomi. someone I had almost forgotten about. purchased his albums for the cover art and found that i liked much of his music.... even though that was many years ago i find that i still enjoy his music. i was glad to have run across this film on YouTube.

The Nomi Song film home page    http://thenomisong.com/thefilm.htm

[Eddie Coyle]

The Nomi Song

film about klaus nomi. someone I had almost forgotten about. purchased his albums for the cover art and found that i liked much of his music.... even though that was many years ago i find that i still enjoy his music. i was glad to have run across this film on YouTube.

The Nomi Song film home page    http://thenomisong.com/thefilm.htm

        Terrific film. Another person that fell victim to Bowie's vampiric ways. I think even non-fans would enjoy this film, even though it's certainly not for "mainstream" tastes.

        The second AIDS-death in popular music, the first being Jobriath about 3 days prior in August,1983.

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

        Terrific film. Another person that fell victim to Bowie's vampiric ways. I think even non-fans would enjoy this film, even though it's certainly not for "mainstream" tastes.

        The second AIDS-death in popular music, the first being Jobriath about 3 days prior in August,1983.

i didn't know what to expect from the film. the last films i viewed of this type were the docu on the Plasmatics and Control with Control being more of a movie about rather than a docu. both about artists and music i enjoyed. also great films.

i found many things in the film very interesting. primary to that was putting another piece into my mental timeline of music. by "Bowie's vampiric ways" you refer to the ego that moves the "me" away from the "them" like Bowie's sudden concert announcement of the end of The Spiders from Mars (a surprise to all the members) to going solo with whatever back up he hired?

The AIDS death segment of the film was very haunting in the interviews as i remember how very scary AIDS was seen to be in the early days.

i am very surprised that anyone reading this forum has seen the film. most of the people i know would seek some kind of intervention. i fully understand why, but am very disappointed in them. then again i did read the first book of 50 shades of grey and found it to be just another trashy novel with nothing new about it. now had it been a coloring book...... 

[Eddie Coyle]

i found many things in the film very interesting. primary to that was putting another piece into my mental timeline of music. by "Bowie's vampiric ways" you refer to the ego that moves the "me" away from the "them" like Bowie's sudden concert announcement of the end of The Spiders from Mars (a surprise to all the members) to going solo with whatever back up he hired?

The AIDS death segment of the film was very haunting in the interviews as i remember how very scary AIDS was seen to be in the early days.

i am very surprised that anyone reading this forum has seen the film. most of the people i know would seek some kind of intervention. i fully understand why, but am very disappointed in them. then again i did read the first book of 50 shades of grey and found it to be just another trashy novel with nothing new about it. now had it been a coloring book...... 

         I recall watching it on Sundance about 5 years ago. A movie for insomniacs with a passing interest in avant garde music/alternative culture(sorry kids, Pearl Jam ain't alternative). I see middle aged women reading "50 Shades" on the bus. That kills it for me. Now if they were reading "Venus in Furs".. then color me impressed.

          Bowie's vampiric tendencies are why he's famous and extraordinarily wealthy. His role model was fellow despoiler Mick Jagger. He'd cozy up to someone(Marc Bolan, Iggy,Eno, Fripp, Nomi etc..) and take just enough of their identity, mixed in with his own changing persona, and boom...the "new" David Bowie appears. The "Ashes to Ashes" era of late '79(going on SNL that December with Nomi/Arias) until early '81 was Bowie taking Nomi's completely outre mannerisms, and streamlining into something that, well, straight kids could listen to and more importantly buy. Hence, another top 20 album for Bowie. While Nomi was discarded without much fanfare. Like the Spiders were in July, 1973. Ziggy's dead, oh and you guys are too. The Thin White Duke never looked back.

       

[Sardondi]

       ....Bowie's vampiric tendencies are why he's famous and extraordinarily wealthy. His role model was fellow despoiler Mick Jagger. He'd cozy up to someone(Marc Bolan, Iggy,Eno, Fripp, Nomi etc..) and take just enough of their identity, mixed in with his own changing persona, and boom...the "new" David Bowie appears. The "Ashes to Ashes" era of late '79(going on SNL that December with Nomi/Arias) until early '81 was Bowie taking Nomi's completely outre mannerisms, and streamlining into something that, well, straight kids could listen to and more importantly buy. Hence, another top 20 album for Bowie. While Nomi was discarded without much fanfare. Like the Spiders were in July, 1973. Ziggy's dead, oh and you guys are too. The Thin White Duke never looked back.   

I'm a lukewarm listener of Bowie, but I have to admit he's something of a demi-genius, if only for his his ability to foresee and adapt. He's obviously highly intelligent (I think clearly moreso than Jagger), and has actually become a quite good actor, which, let's be honest, he was not in the much ballyhooed The Man Who Fell To Earth. But by the time he brilliantly underplayed Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ he had developed quite well.

I also see the "vampiric tendencies" in him. Bowie definitely is always looking for the Next Big Thing, and trades his own celebrity for access and close association with the newest kids. Jagger seems an excellent comparison, as both he and Bowie strike me as lifelong roues and rakes who suck the vitality out of those around them, leaving countless broken lives in their wake. Bowie is the old, crafty dog who leads the defenseless young pups out across the busy highway. "Oopsies! Got run over did you? What a shame."

Still and all, a couple of his "Heroes" performances are as powerful and worthy as anything done in rock/pop. (And I can watch his Extras bit over and over.) 

[stevesh]

Just signed up for Netflix and watched Rutger Hauer in Hobo With a Shotgun. Two thumbs up.

[FightTheFuture]

Just watched Mama.

I`m not exactly a horror genre kind of guy, but Guillermo Del Toro does a fine job with this film. Not a classic, to be sure, but good creepy  entertainment for a slow night. Jessica Chastain does an adequate job of portraying a gritty rock-n-roller with a heart of gold.   

[HorrorRetro]

Just signed up for Netflix and watched Rutger Hauer in Hobo With a Shotgun. Two thumbs up.

My daughter has been bugging me to watch this.  It's in my Netflix queue. 

I watched "Dreams of a Life" last night.  As mentioned by a member above, it could have been really interesting, but the intermingling of conjecture and reality didn't work very well.  I was left wanting hard facts. 

[HorrorRetro]

I just watched "The Good Life," a Danish documentary.  It's rather like a modern-day Grey Gardens. You have a mother and daughter who were wealthy but ended up with nothing, living solely on the mother's small pension.  The daughter believes she's too good to work for a living, and the mother suffers from mid-century child-rearing guilt and allows her daughter to treat her like dirt.  While it sounds pathetic and it is, it was also somehow interesting to watch.  I get sucked into documentaries.

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_good_life

[HAL 9000]

Cheesy special effects aside, I really enjoyed the second installment of the Atlas Shrugged movie trilogy. I am loathe to admit, I've never read the book, though I have read about it.

Perhaps naturally, as a Conservative/Libertarian type, I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged II, so I watched Part I again today. I also watched a great speech by Dr. Benjamin Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon, given at the National Prayer Breakfast, with Obama at the head table as well.

It is almost chilling to see the similarities in the movie(s) and today's real-life government trends/policies. The message in the movies is astonishingly prescient.

I found the following speech particularly inspiring. Dr. Carson's carefully crafted but simple words, put the supposed intellectual prowess of Obama to shame.


Dr. Benjamin Carson Speech at National Prayer Breakfast February 7, 2013

[HorrorRetro]

Cheesy special effects aside, I really enjoyed the second installment of the Atlas Shrugged movie trilogy. I am loathe to admit, I've never read the book, though I have read about it.

Perhaps naturally, as a Conservative/Libertarian type, I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged II, so I watched Part I again today. I also watched a great speech by Dr. Benjamin Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon, given at the National Prayer Breakfast, with Obama at the head table as well.

It is almost chilling to see the similarities in the movie(s) and today's real-life government trends/policies. The message in the movies is astonishingly prescient.

I found the following speech particularly inspiring. Dr. Carson's carefully crafted but simple words, put the supposed intellectual prowess of Obama to shame.


Dr. Benjamin Carson Speech at National Prayer Breakfast February 7, 2013

We're big Rand fans in our house, with my husband's favorite being Atlas Shrugged and mine being The Fountainhead.  Like Atlas, The Fountainhead's message can be seen in all aspects of life today.  I love Gary Cooper as Howard Roark.  The speech scene is outstanding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc7oZ9yWqO4

Another Rand book I really liked was We the Living.

And Carson's speech was excellent.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

Cheesy special effects aside, I really enjoyed the second installment of the Atlas Shrugged movie trilogy. I am loathe to admit, I've never read the book, though I have read about it.

Perhaps naturally, as a Conservative/Libertarian type, I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged II, so I watched Part I again today. I also watched a great speech by Dr. Benjamin Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon, given at the National Prayer Breakfast, with Obama at the head table as well.

It is almost chilling to see the similarities in the movie(s) and today's real-life government trends/policies. The message in the movies is astonishingly prescient.

I found the following speech particularly inspiring. Dr. Carson's carefully crafted but simple words, put the supposed intellectual prowess of Obama to shame.


Dr. Benjamin Carson Speech at National Prayer Breakfast February 7, 2013

I am going to come from the opposite side here-I didn't think the first Atlas Shrugged movie was good. I do intend to watch the second one though just for completeness. I did read the book and it was bad. As far as Conservative/Libertarian readings the ones I really like are stories of the Hudson Bay Company as well as pretty much anything having to do with Alaska/Klondike/Yukon.


I did listen to the Carson speech and I was disappointed. He told a succession of stories I had already heard or come across in Reader's Digest- and compared the US to Rome-an argument that falls apart when you bring up the fact that the Eastern Roman Empire was pretty strong for 1100 years...and the part of Rome that did collapse collapsed under military debt. 


I am glad he brought up the HSA, a health care funding alternative with personal responsibility as its keystone.  I still hold hope we can move our health care in this direction in the future.

[Juan]

I'm not a Randist, though libertarian, but Hal, I think you really need to read Atlas Shrugged.  It's just one of those books an educated person needs to have read. 

[HAL 9000]

I'm not a Randist, though libertarian, but Hal, I think you really need to read Atlas Shrugged.  It's just one of those books an educated person needs to have read.

I totally agree - I need to read the book. Problem is, I have somehow managed, throughout my entire life, to have never read a novel. Never. Encyclopedias? Check. Dictionaries? Check. Science, economics, politics? Check. Huckleberry Finn? Nada.

People tell me I'm really missing out. They're probably right.

I am going to come from the opposite side here-I didn't think the first Atlas Shrugged movie was good. I do intend to watch the second one though just for completeness.

Atlas Shrugged II has been available starting a few days ago in nice HD - 720p and 1080p versions via file hosters and torrents - I got mine from a speedy torrent. Both movies so far have been very low-budget affairs, but I could look past that (I usually can't). It was the message I found so compelling, as one rarely finds this viewpoint expressed in films (though I thought V for Vendetta had similar messages).

I was captivated as a young adult by the original Free To Choose series by Milton Friedman (1980) and it's re-release in 1990 (updated). I have both sets of series. With a few exceptions, I'm a Friedmanite. Guess I'm rambling/wondering into politics, and there is a thread for that. I blame big-pharma (actually little-pharma as I use only cheap generics).

Atlas Shrugged III is due out July 4, 2014. Boo-hoo. Too  far away. 

[Eddie Coyle]

I totally agree - I need to read the book. Problem is, I have somehow managed, throughout my entire life, to have never read a novel. Never. Encyclopedias? Check. Dictionaries? Check. Science, economics, politics? Check. Huckleberry Finn? Nada.

People tell me I'm really missing out. They're probably right.

         I'm largely the same way, inherited from my old man's mantra of "to hell with fiction, reality is better". I have thousands of books, but probably less than 15% are novels. Ironically, I have more Rand bios(three) than her actual writings(one). People blame my rotten moods on the "reality" I read, so I also get that "you're really missing out" rap from others a lot. Too late to stop now, I'd rather read Niall Ferguson than Harry Potter.

[Sardondi]

      ...I'd rather read Niall Ferguson than Harry Potter.

I dunno. One is juvenile-level fiction and the other is about some English kid who's a wizard.

Sorry, it was just too good an opportunity. I actually usually like Ferguson. At least his intellectual honesty and moral courage are refreshing for a quasi-academic.

[Eddie Coyle]

Sorry, it was just too good an opportunity. I actually usually like Ferguson. At least his intellectual honesty and moral courage are refreshing for a quasi-academic.

That's the key-being quasi academic affords him the opportunity to still propound rather dicey propositions like Western Civilization not being the worst development in the history of Earth or the decline of the West could actually, dare we say it, be injurious in the long run.

[Sardondi]

        That's the key-being quasi academic affords him the opportunity to still propound rather dicey propositions like Western Civilization not being the worst development in the history of Earth or the decline of the West could actually, dare we say it, be injurious in the long run.

And of course his popular reception makes the vicious lizzies of academe positively stroke out writing envious poison pen reviews. That alone should be enough to recommend Ferguson. Hell, it should make him required reading.

[onan]

Just watched "Stand Up Guys" with Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, and Alan Arkin. I highly recommend a watch.

[West of the Rockies]

My wife and I are going to show the 1961 Ray Harryhausen The Mysterious Island to our daughter.  I hope it holds up.  My daughter -- like every kid in America today -- is used to CGI.  Don't know if stop-motion claymation will hold her attention. 

[coaster]

 Withnail and I. Again. Its brilliant. I watch it everytime I start one.

[Sardondi]

Withnail and I. Again. Its brilliant. I watch it everytime I start one.

I too think W&I was a brilliant concept and execution. Is there even a contemporary equivalent? I can think of nothing recent which comes close to the combination of W&I's outrageous wit, which is crazed and gonzo but still subtle and intelligent in a way. It's like Oscar Wilde on a headful of poppers and a few pints-and-a-pop. The sheer volume of wild wit coming at the viewer is like a firehose spewing a torrent of humor that is at the same time gross and clever. What comes close to it since then? Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas? Entertaining, but not in the same league. Dude, Where's My Car? I can barely keyboard the words.

And what makes W&I? Other than the inspired script and fearless directing I mean. For my money it's Richard E. Grant's brilliance. Replace him with anyone else and I believe the movie suffers, perhaps fails. As much as I love Richard Griffiths, he's only adornment (and how has that wonderful actor avoided eleventy-seven heart bypasses by now?). Perhaps I speak sacrilege to some, but IMO Paul McGann could be replaced by a good many people and we'd get the same result as long as it was across from Grant, and there was some chemistry.

[BigDave]

I just watched the second Ghost Rider movie. The first movie was great,the second one sucked

[BigDave]

I'm watching "The Dark Knight". It's a damn good movie

[Caruthers612]

          Last night I watched part II of Atlas Shrugged, which came out recently. Another triumph, though I'm not sure why they changed the principal cast. In any case I had thought they were dividing the book into two movies, but I learned it's actually three. I await the final installment with eager and, if I'm honest, vindictive anticipation. 

[HorrorRetro]

I'm going to another installment of Grindhouse Theater tonight to see an original 35-mm print screening of Blacula.     

[BigDave]

I'm watching Stargate while listening to the Braves-Yankees spring training game

[Usagi]

I'm going to another installment of Grindhouse Theater tonight to see an original 35-mm print screening of Blacula. 

Definitely my kinda gal!

[BigDave]

Definitely my kinda gal!

If you like Blacula watch Blackenstein

[HorrorRetro]

Definitely my kinda gal!

It's a really fun experience.  We go each month.  Not sure what they have planned for March, but last month it was Argento's Deep Red.  They have trivia, discussions, and giveaways before the movie. 

http://www.grandcinema.com/page.php?id=204