@Orlando – Tom Cruise was handsome. To be totally honest, I feel like he’s been looking old lately. Or maybe that was just MI: Ghost Protocol, because I googled up some recent pictures of him and he looks better than I remember him looking in that movie.

First, I would like to point out that Woody shows concern for other toys as well. Now from my perspective (but then, this is what makes stories great, they allow many meanings), Toy Story is about a job. Woody takes his work very seriously and is annoyed that when Buzz comes along, not only he does treat the job like a “joke” (from Woody’s perspective, he can’t grasp just how delusional Buzz was), Buzz is “excelling” in spite of his lack of effort. Notice that when the two start really bridging the gap between them is when Buzz finally admits the truth and starts taking his job as a toy with more seriousness. One wonders that if Buzz took his job that seriously from the beginning, if it would have taken as long for him and Woody to become friends.

Toy Story is always a fun one to discuss because it seems everyone has their own take on the central theme and characters. I always felt that Woody’s biggest flaw in the beginning was ego. He did care about the other toys in the beginning, but to me it felt more like someone would care about groopies than they would a family. I’ve just come to dislike the Woody is a father analogy because it feels like a stretch to support the argument that almost all Pixar movies are about fatherhood in some way or another.

I don’t think any of those others are still as selfish as Merida. They at least show concerns for things beyond themselves.
I still don’t think she was as selfish as you make her out to be. I’m pretty sure everyone’s dealt with issues of their own interests compared to what everyone else things they should be interested in.

I disagree for now, but only because I am uncertain as to the definitions of your parameters.

I’m pretty bad at explaining this. There tends to be a huge divide in movies targeted toward women and movies targeted toward men. Moves target toward men are all about action. They’re about going out and heroically saving someone you love, fighting tooth and nail toward the top and taking action into your own hands. Movies targeted toward women tend to be more about the emotional aspects of life, usually involving family, friends and romance. This is a pretty general statement and not all movies fall into these categories, but they tend to be how you tell the difference between a generic chick flick and a guy cry movie. I don’t think it was really that big of a difference, but to me it seemed to focus more in the emotional side of the story and less on the actiony, “I’m going to take this into my own hands” bits.

The rest of the post, yeah, I can’t help but agree with.

I don’t care what anyone says, I’m looking forward to it! (but then I’m a Kaiju fan).

I have to agree here as well. :) I have a hard time calling the premise an end of the world movie. If we’re classifying any movie where the world is in trouble in that category, we might as well throw in the entire superhero genre.

I’ll be seeing it on Boxing Day. And then The Hobbit immediately afterwards, or as soon afterwards as I can get tickets.

Actually, I think I might treat myself and see The Hobbit gold class (that means extra arm and leg room, comfier chairs, and access to a special twice-as-expensive concession stand)

I saw it yesterday, and I thought it was alright. I only had real issues with two people’s singing. My biggest issues were with some of the camera work and the pacing. For the camera stuff, during many of solo songs, the camera tends to stay uncomfortably close to the actor’s face (in my opinion, at least) and never changes position. With the pacing, well, there’s almost no spoken dialogue, and the plot seems to rush from one song to the next. I know its a musical, but I feel a minute or so spent establishing some things wouldn’t have been amiss. (Example: the movie jumps straight from Fontine’s death and Valjean’s escape to Cosette singing “Castle on a Cloud”)

My experience wasn’t helped by some woman in the row behind us constantly asking questions and needing the movie explained to her. If you’re not going to pay attention, why are you at the movie?

I didn’t like the actors playing adult Cosette or Marius, and with Marius a good part of it was probably just issues with the character.

I had a big long post all written up, then my computer crashed and I had to manually restart.

In short, next time, I need to watch this without comparison to the theatre productions, to allow it to stand on its own merits; I continue to be thoroughly and deeply unimpressed with Sasha Baron Cohen (his accent was atrocious, he should have dropped it), and I loved Samantha Barks. I know Johnny Depp doesn’t do bit parts, but I think the chemistry between him and Helena would have made for a much more satisfying Mr. and Mme. Thenardier.

I also liked the fact that the put more emphasis on developing Valjean’s character, rather than using him essentially as a framing device for Marius+Cosette. There were a few songs that weren’t in the 10th or 25th performances that I really liked, but I was annoyed by the way they skipped some of the songs, replacing them with brief spoken bits.

Russell Crowe was a decent Javert, but certainly not the best or most memorable (nor, I think, was it Crowe’s best performance as an actor OR singer). The suicide scene was a little weak, I thought. In the 25th Anniversary performance, Javert was raging to the heavens about the unfairness of it all, which was both in line with his character and much more dramatic. Crowe’s Javert just seemed a little too quick to fall into despair without anger or rage or fighting back.

Anyway, it was a pretty solid performance all up. I’d definitely watch it again, even though my heart belongs to the Youtube mashup that replaces Nick Jonas with Michael Ball in the 25th.

Samurai Rebellion (1967) had one of the best plots for its genre. The daiymo dumps one concubine for a new one, and fobs the old one off on the unmarried son of a retainer, shortly after the concubine gives birth to the daiymo’s second heir. The retainer’s son and the concubine grow to love one another very much and have a daughter of their own. But then the original heir dies, so the concubine’s son is the next in line and the daiymo wants his concubine back. And it goes on from there. All of that plot is set up in the first half of the movie. This is a movie that takes its time and is richer for it. It is not primarily designed as a katana-swinging spectacle. The father of the groom is played by Toshiro Mfune.

I also liked the fact that the put more emphasis on developing Valjean’s character, rather than using him essentially as a framing device for Marius+Cosette.

I have never felt like Les Mis only uses Valjean as a framing device. I always feel like the different stories are patches of a quilt, and Jean Valjean ties them together.

I thought. In the 25th Anniversary performance, Javert was raging to the heavens about the unfairness of it all, which was both in line with his character and much more dramatic.

Honestly, I feel that ‘raging at the heavens” is OOC for Javert. If there’s any unfairness, I guess it’s him realizing that he has been unfair and unjust in his treatment of Valjean, and therefore has been unfair and unjust his entire life. And for Javert, nothing could be worse.

There were a few songs that weren’t in the 10th or 25th performances that I really liked, but I was annoyed by the way they skipped some of the songs, replacing them with brief spoken bits.

Have you heard the Complete Symphonic cast recording? It has the musical in its entirety (well, the 80’s version of it, before the update). It’s got the same Javert from the 10th anniversary and probably the best Enjolras. (the less said about Valjean, the better sadly)
Anyway it’s worth a listen because it has every bit of music, including the stuff between songs that are only sort of songs.

And some of the added bits aren’t actually from the stage show but were added for the movie (the song Suddenly and a few other in-between scenes).

I’m trying to remember what they cut entirely…..Turing, but that was never a good song in the first place.

What I REALLY want though is an adaption with the scene where Valjean escapes from the convent in a coffin. That’s one of my favourite parts. (although this one added another favourite scene: where Javert asks to be fired because he thinks he made a mistake).

I saw The Hobbit… twice. I enjoyed it even if I could see why some could consider it to be cluttered. But I really, really wanted to see things like the Erebor attack, the Battle of Azanulbizar, Dol Guldor, etc.

I should be doing things right now. I should be studying. I should be reading Les Miserables because I told myself that I’d read the book before I watched the movie.

OOOH! READ IT READ IT READ IT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK

Get the Norman Macafee translation, that one is my favourite (the Charles Wibour one is classic, though). Don’t get too discouraged because it starts slow, I promise you that it is totally worth the 1000+ pages, even if there are some historical tangents that seem dull or irrelevant. The actual story is incredibly compelling and moving. Reading that book was probably one of the best things I have ever done (and I’m not being hyperbolic).

I’d also recommend checking out a cast recording or two of the musical, although the movie goes in a unique direction with the score.

Get the Norman Macafee translation

Just be sure to read it quickly, the trial expires after 30 days.

I don’t remember what translation I read, I just remember that I loathed the damn thing.

leave now and never come back.

Just be sure to read it quickly, the trial expires after 30 days.

snort

Unabridged version. I suffered, dammit.

I’ve read the unabridged version five time.

NO SUFFERING HERE!

Except the Waterloo chapters ugh.

Also the sewers. And the salons. THE SALONS AREN’T EVEN PART OF THE STORY, DAMMIT.

My favourite tangent is the one about the convent. And the one about argot.

(unless you count the beginning about the Bishop as a tangent, in which case that is the best tangent of all because he is one of my favourite characters)

Not sure if your wording was intentional.

It was intentional. It was a total gollum moment. XD

Because no one
insults
Les Mis
In. front. of. me.

Fixed that for you.

Yes but
when it comes to Les Mis
I am Gollum because it is my precioussss.

hisses

This is great

Yeah, I saw that on my dash earlier and it was great. XD

I watched Little Shop of Horrors for the fourth time this week last night.

It’s one of my favourite musicals and I finally got the DVD for Christmas.

It’s so much fun but then the ending is so sad.

Just some thoughts on three movies:

Stupid movie ending. Stupid Fantine coming for Valjean, and Valjean dying. Sobbed until I hiccupped.

ALSO WHEN HE’S TOO WEAK TO LIFT THE TRUNK

JUST

NO STOPPP

(seeing it for a third time today! :D)

Yes. I saw it too, which means that I finally finished the book! It was amazing! I’ve never cried during a movie, and probably never will, but this was the closest I’ve ever gotten.

...Too emotional to write a real review, so I’ll just leave this here.

I also watched The Hunger Games, because clearly I didn’t have anything to do today.

But seriously. What is Gale even doing in this movie? He had that one part in the beginning, but what was he doing in the rest of it? It’s like, every time Katniss and Peeta get romantic (only two or three times — good call.), we cut back to him looking all butthurt. I…I just don’t understand it. I mean, we never got a reaction shot from him during the rest of the movie while Katniss was busy not being killed. So why now?

“Hey, Gale here, reminding you that I’m still here. Just…existing. Also that I Do Not Approve, because I’m a part of the love triangle in the next two movies.

And why Gale? I think that we got maybe one shot of Prim. Why not her?

This wasn’t really an actual review, just something that bugged me. The rest of the movie was pretty decent. I’d been worried that they were going to play up the romance, but it really wasn’t ban, which, as I’ve said, was a very good call.

I’m sure whether or not I liked the way they presented Javert’s first solo, Stars. It seemed to set up Javert as having vague suicidal tendencies even before the barricade. I can’t decide if that was a good move or not.

People spoiling the shit out of this movie that I haven’t seen

Nope sorry you’re wrong, Z.

Relevant to this discussion

@SWQ – I agree pretty strongly with that. There’s been plenty of things that have been spoiled for me that I still went on to thoroughly enjoy. It’s the entire experience, not the single moment of realization, that makes a work great. If something is only good if you don’t know the twist, then quite frankly it’s not very good. And knowing what’s coming can be good sometimes, because I get more interested in seeing how things will play out—how we get from Point A at the beginning to Point B that I know is coming—than simply in what will happen next.

That all being said, I still much prefer to discover things on my own. My favorite example (because it’s my favorite plot twist ever, of all time, and managed to completely surprise me) is a rather major plot twist at the end of season 6 of the web series Red vs. Blue, in which major revelations about a particular character’s backstory are revealed—and it turns out they’re not at all who you thought they were. It was four years ago and I still prefer to not spoil it if I talk about the series, simply because it’s a very effective plot twist. If it had been spoiled for me, I never would’ve had that enjoyment of discovering it for the first time. However… I have still found incredible enjoyment in going back and rewatching the series to see how it built to that point, how so many things hinted toward the twist, yet I never picked up on them the first time through.

.... facepalm

More people have probably read Game of Thrones and watched the show than have read Les Mis and see the movie but we don’t go around spoiling that Ned Stark dies.

No. Les Mis has been out for 100+ years. MORE PEOPLE HAVE READ IT THAN GAME OF THRONES. Come on now. By your logic, we can NEVER discuss ANYTHING with spoilers. Ever.

No, there’s a nifty thing built into the forum that lets you hide spoilers.

Also I don’t have any sales figures for the books and I’m not about to look for any but millions of people have watched each episode of Game of Thrones on HBO, which is only a fraction of the amount of people that have watched them in total, and the books are very popular. Just becacuse something is old doesn’t mean lots of people have read it. Lots of people HAVE read Les Mis, obviously, but not that many.

Maybe it’s bigger in France.

edit:

FWIW I agree with Nossus WRT spoilers unless they’re hidden texted. Don’t click the show button if you think it might be.

Yeah. I liked what you had before you edited it more though.

I personally don’t mind spoilers all that much. I’ve been spoiled for too many things (most notably, Sherlock, GoT, and HP) to get very angry now. I actually like knowing what’s going to happen in advance so I can keep track of things from the very beginning and see how they come together. But that’s just an opinion, and spoilering is non-reversible once it happens, so…in future, using the ‘hide’ function, at least for the Big Reveals, might be nice.

In other news, I watched ‘Mean Girls’ tonight. That movie used to make me feel profoundly uncomfortable in middle school (despite being involved in whatever the opposite of drama is and being blissfully unaware of all my classmates) but now I appreciate it a lot more. It’s a damn funny movie, and it’s kind of sad to see it pigeonholed as a ‘girl’ movie. My brother was watching it with me (and enjoying it, because it’s actually quite clever) and my mom/sister were making fun of him. Just because it’s a movie that happens to be about girls doesn’t mean a guy shouldn’t be able to watch it without being teased. It’s not like girls are mocked for watching movies about men, because that’s the norm. /rant over

Spoilers should be concealed in hidden text, regardless of how old or new the movie or book is.

Is that a spoiler for Beowulf, Taku?

Sansa, would you mind offering more details?

Monsieur Lazhar is the pinnacle of the save-our-students/inspiring-teacher-or-coach genre. It is about the title character and the class he teaches after the previous teacher hangs herself. It is one of the better movies about children and grief.

‘it’s my own fault for not having read every single book written before the 20th century’ -swenson

Just don’t be a dick. Not that complicated. It should be pretty obvious what bits of information will negatively affect someone’s enjoyment of a story

Yeah, a spoiler isn’t the end of the world.

It’s also worth pointing out that this is the movie thread. Obviously most of the people who see Les Miserables haven’t read the book (if that weren’t true it would be a complete box office failure)

if that weren’t true it would be a complete box office failure

Yeah, the Harry Potter movies were failures at the box office.

Sansa, would you mind offering more details?

About Django, or Raid? The former is good for the same reasons any Tarantino movies are good, plus Jamie Foxx looks badass in a cowboy hat. There’s also a bunch of tight shots of people’s hands doing things that I spent the whole movie trying to figure out. The latter is good because it’s pure id, and the plot is gloriously, perfectly minimalist and we don’t see enough of that anymore. Also a guy gets killed with a broken doorframe and it’s fucking cool.

So thanks to Puppet’s policies, I have to discuss this movie called in a spoiler-free format. It’s a very film that has absolutely nothing to do with besides the The film quality was and a randomly popped up every 5 minutes. How’s that for a spin-off? Even is more tasteful.

Yeah, sorry to be a smartass. Just feel like this has become an anal-retentive matter for all those involved.

It’s pretty much what you expect it to be. Funny, strange dialogue, righteous ultraviolence, Tarantino casting himself in an awkward minor role, etc. The only aspect that really surprised me was(probably some serious spoilers):

There’s a very large gulf between ‘walking on eggshells’ and casually posting major character deaths and it’s pretty fucking easy to fit all imaginable discourse in it

There really isn’t that much you could even spoil in The Hobbit anyway, if anything

I can think of a few.

There’s all sorts of suprises at the end.

But I guess it’s settled, so time to move on.

Just rewatched Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood. I didn’t like it so much the first time as I felt like I watching Costner in jolly old England rather Robin Hood despite never seeing a Costner film before. Like at the beginning she was a competent swordsperson that was But he was a Crusader, so w/e. But in the end,

Sansa — Self-hatred can really warp someone’s mind. Think of the character you mention in the spoilers as this:

I’ve now seen Les Mis three times and I’m seeing it again this weekend!

It’s much better than most movie adaptions and I am happy with it.

I’m taking my mom to see it. She knows nothing about it at all (save for the fact that a lot of people die), so hopefully she’ll enjoy it.

I saw Les Mis again today.

My Mom didn’t like it at all.

But she and I rarely (if ever) agree on movies so that’s no surprise.

I saw Madagascar 3 with my parents. We all thought it was hilarious. I am seriously impressed by it, to be honest—people all said it was better than the second, somehow, and I am inclined to agree with them.

I am watching Vase De Noces. It’s like a better version of Piglet’s Big Movie.

This is my new favourite movie.
Family fun for everyone!

EDIT: OH MAH GLOB THAT WAS THE GREATEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE

^I thought so too. I thought the music was amazing as well, and I don’t even normally like musicals!