I haven’t been to a movie theater lately — summer movies seems to be for kids — but I hd movies on my mind so I began to make a list of ones I’ve seen in recent years. I was having trouble remembering, so I searched my datebook for titles that were not readily coming to mind. Strangely (or perhaps not) there was no correlation between the titles I remembered easily and the movies I liked, nor conversely between the ones I’d forgotten and those I’d disliked. Here are some of the movies that I saw in theaters during the last few years:<\/p>\n
Under the heading of battling delusions and overcoming odds are two movies I liked: The Aviator<\/em> — although I had never before been a DiCaprio fan, and A Beautiful Mind <\/em>— his delusions seemed real to me.<\/p>\n Among the movies that enjoyed a lot are: Ladies in Lavender<\/em> starring my favorote dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, Calender Girls<\/em> with Helen Mirren, Bone Collector<\/em> — Denzel as a quadraplegic forensic detective plays the whole movie from his bed), Finding Neverland<\/em>, Frieda<\/em>, Gosford Park<\/em>, and Mad Hot Ballroom<\/em> — a documentary about New York City kids competing in a ballroom dancing contest. Also The Pianist<\/em>, Traffic<\/em>, Cider House Rules<\/em>, The Adaptation<\/em>, and Stepford Wives<\/em> (better than I expected it to be).<\/p>\n A few that I enjoyed, but had forgotten about until reminded by title include Nurse Betty<\/em>, Space Cowboys<\/em>, Remembering the Titans<\/em>, and The Contender<\/em>. Being Julia<\/em> and Tuscan Sun<\/em> were also light-weight but enjoyable. <\/p>\n Here are a few I could have missed: Along Came a Spider <\/em>(I love Morgan Freeman, but…); The Beat My Heart Skipped<\/em>; Changing Lanes<\/em>; My Dog Skip<\/em>, and The Upside of Anger<\/em>. Actually that last one was okay.<\/p>\n Two I wish I had missed are Training Day<\/em> (I like Denzel, but this was a bit much) and Taking Lives<\/em>. Once in a while I will actually walk out on a movie — like Titus <\/em>(I used to like Anthony Hopkins), or someone I’m with will insist on walking out as was the case with Boys Don’t Cry <\/em>(yes, I know it was acclaimed, but I wasn’t liking it much either.)<\/p>\n Of course there are movies that one has to see because everyone is talking about them: Million Dollar Baby<\/em> (I loved it); Manchurian Candidate<\/em> (good); Sideways <\/em>(okay); Being Julia<\/em> (pleasant, but I don’t get the best actress nod); Ray <\/em>(well done and close to truth); 9\/11<\/em> (liked it, but I’m already in the choir); American Beauty<\/em> (didn’t care).<\/p>\n The real surprise was how much I liked Winged Migration<\/em> (even though the soundtrack was a bit much). Recommended to me, but not yet seen are March of the Penguins<\/em>, Parrots of Telegraph Hill<\/em>, and Story of the Weeping Camel<\/em>. (Coincidentally, there is an article in today’s The New York Times about the penguin flick — Compared With Their Filmmakers, the Penguins Have It Easy<\/a><\/strong>.) <\/p>\n From this brief tour one can see that I tend to like movies that are based on true stories and don’t care much for shoot-em-ups. I also notice that actors I really like, movie after movie, sooner or later end up doing movies I don’t care for at all, leading to my disappointment. For example, Anthony Hopkins — I loved Shadowlands<\/em>, Remains of the Day<\/em>, Howards End<\/em>, 84 Charring Cross<\/em>, even Nixon <\/em>and Silence of the Lambs<\/em>, but not much since. Same with Denzel: some good stories and performances — Crimson Tide<\/em>, Malcolm X<\/em>, Philadelphia<\/em>, Bone Collector<\/em> — and then a lot of gratuitously violent flicks. The ladies disappoint less often, if ever. Dame Dench in Mrs. Brown<\/em>, Iris<\/em>, Chocolat <\/em>and others, has never let me down (or if she has, I don’t remember it). Hmmm, I wonder what that means.<\/p>\n What’s on your list?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I haven’t been to a movie theater lately — summer movies seems to be for kids — but I hd movies on my mind so I began to make a list of ones I’ve seen in recent years. I was having trouble remembering, so I searched my datebook for titles that were not readily coming … Continue reading “Movies Movies Movies”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boos-and-bravos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}