What did you watch over the holidays?

[ForeverAutumn]

For the usual Christmas fare, we we watched:
Elf
A Christmas Story
It's a Wonderful Life (of which Hubby and I both agree is a silly movie).

For mindless filler when I had time to sit and relax:
About a Boy
Bend It Like Beckham
Bruce Almighty

We also went to see The Pursuit of Happyness (meh).

Did you find any viewing time this season?

[jrhymeammo]

Letters from Iwo Jima.

It almost had me tearing. I recommend it for everyone.

JRA

[emorphien]

Night at the Museum - actually this was pretty good, and everyone else I've known that saw it really liked it as well. Also it isn't Ben Stillers usual self deprecating nonsense.

at home on the new 60"
Talladega Nights
Ice Age 2

after getting some of the new martin logan gear in:
Star Trek - the first movie, it was a gift for my father and he wanted to watch one. I bemoaned how I wished the ML gear had something to hook up to and the other pair of towers were there to finish the system.

[dean_martin]

I tried to cram in as much at-home movie viewing as possible between eating, visiting and watching college football bowl games. Here's what I can remember watching.

Christmas presents:
Cat People, The Leopard Man and Ghost Ship from the Val Lewton Collection box set.
Ed Wood
Lady Snowblood

Cable tv or premium chs:
Seventh Seal
Evil Dead 2
Christmas Story

Christmas presents of others:
Talladega Nights

I used my Barnes and Noble gift cards to get more movies (7 dvds and 1 cd for $65 w/free s/h and after-holidays sale).

[bobsticks]

After the ties and the office knickknacks and the trinkets came the inevitable Best Buy gift cards. Several of them. Enough so that chipping in $50 of my own I walked out with an XBOX 360, HD-DVD module and three, no four movies.
So far I've watched Jet Li's Fearless. I haven't hooked it up to the big rig yet but on a 26 inch LCD on 720p and my old KEFs ablastin' it was pretty cool.
Needless to say, the special effects are fantastic, fight choreography out of this world and its a nice little story to boot. I'm kind of interested to see how an older film like Goodfellas fares with the HD treatment

[Dusty Chalk]

I, too, watched Fearless. I was a little disappointed to find out that it wasn't a 90 minute asskickfest, but then it wasn't intended to be, those were just my expectations (I blame the trailer). The story, once I accepted that there was one, was wonderful.

Also:

Strings (superb movie -- I love the way they incorporated their strings into the whole mythology);

The Promise (alternating between visually stunning photography and amateurish CGI effects, but the main thrust was the story, and in that, it was successfully played -- another very good movie);

Simpatico -- I love dark movies about the plight of individuals with disrupt morals and intact consciences, so this was triply good. The problem with enjoying these types of movies is that they don't always end well. And by "end well", I mean, in a way that I find satisfying -- sometimes that means a bad guy gets his comeuppance, sometimes that means an underdog gets away with a minor crime or immoral act, and sometimes it means something in between. So don't think I'm telling you anything about the ending by saying, "that's not how I would've written it" (also: I ain't Sam Shepherd). So: good story, not sure about the ending, and I have no idea what they were trying to do with the Cecilia character -- seemed a little aimless.

[Worf101]

I rented the following:

"The Wicker Man" - D Minus - Without a doubt the worst chite I've seen in years. Hope all involved wind up burning in a giant wicker thingy, with marshmallows.

"Haven" - C-plus - Kinda "Crash" meets the Carribbean in this cautionary tale of love, lust money and greed in the bank of criminals known as the Grand Cayman Islands.

"Broken Saints, The Animated Online Graphic Novel" - B Plus - I'd never heard of this online serial graphic novel before. Some guys in Canada managed to put it together into some sort of a cartoon. Static, non moving graphics but interesting story.

"The Devil Wears Prada" - A - Second best movie I've seen this year behind "The Queen". It's between Streep and Merrin for Best Actress. Amazingly Black comedy. Loved it.

"Little Miss Sunshine" - A Minus - A very, very, quirky and funny film. The climax had us rolling on the floor. Don't want to spoil it but it was priceless.

"Jackass the Movie II" - B Minus - Not as crazed or "original" in some ways as the first installment but sicker in someways as well. There's little spontenaity in these stunts it's just more scat and frat.


On T.V.

I watched "The Twilight Zone" marathon on The SciFi Channel. It just doesn't get any better.

Boise State vs. Olkahoma - Wow, you can't script it any better than that. You just can't do it. Right down to the hero proposing to the cheer leader after they'd won the game. Jeeze Louise that was fun.

Da Worfster

[icarus]

I went to the theater and watched blood diamond it totally rocked.

I also rented Clerks II and loved it!! one of the funniest movies i've seen in a while

[Resident Loser]

...of the Yule Log loop on a local tee-vee station, but just a bit...a little goes a l-o-o-o-n-g way.

An odd movie entitled "A Christmas Wish" which in it's non-colorized version, is called "The Great Rupert"...starring Jimmy Durante...a George Pal film featuring an animated (stop-motion) squirrel who is dressed in a kilt and dances to the music produced by a squeeze-box...Also has a young actress (whose name eludes me at the moment) who was the also keeper of Mighty Joe Young...Same old plot...landlord hides money, squirrel finds money, the Ol' Schnozzola gets money, house burns and everyone lives happily ever after...go figure.

A DVD (Christmas gift) from Kino Video..."A Christmas Past" A two-hour compilation of some holiday/winter silent films...one 1901 home-movie, or what certainly looks like one, the rest, early 20th century films from the likes of Edison and D.W. Griffith...The best one IMHO, a 29min. epic with footage shot in Alaska depicting Santa, his workshop and his elves...It also has probably the first film adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol...

And of course, what would New Years be without Ralph's reaction to Norton's "...Hello, ball!!!..." and the yearly, marathon Honeymooners presentation...

jimHJJ(...way down upon the Swannee River...)

[SlumpBuster]

We watched a bunch of movies over the break, too many to list, but...

Worf is right: Devil Wears Prada and The Queen are two of the best films of the year, if not the two best that I've seen.

Clerks and Jackass were overated sequals and Cars did not live up to the hype. Anthropomorphic animals I can do, but not cars. Maybe I'm the wierd one though.

For all the attention it got Talledega Nights was a sleeper hit in that there are alot of people that will never see it because its a "dumb Will Ferrell" movie. Ferrell is hot and cold in his movies (Hot: Elf vs. Cold: Anchorman) but this movie is firing on all cylinders ( no pun intended).

But the true sleeper, the movie that everyone needs to rent this weekend is:

The Descent

Don't look it up, don't read the back cover, don't ask your friends, don't watch the preview. Just go rent it and make sure its the original uncut United Kingdom verson.

[KaiWinters]

Ice Age 2...much better than the first...laughed throughout
Jet Li: Fearless...outstanding movie in my opinion
Talladega Nights...not a NASCAR fan but liked it very much..."help me Oprah Winifrey" lol
Slevin...great movie
Lady in the Water...much better than I expected...very good movie

[Smokey]

Mixed bag of nuts but mostly cashews.

I like the way you state that. Just Brilliant

[Worf101]

I like the way you state that. Just Brilliant

Thanks for the love Festus, I mean Smoke...

And a Happier New Year to all...

Nice to be able to say something that's good for everyone, regardless of race, age, sex, religion, preferences etc.. I for one am glad to see 2006 in the rear view.

Much love...

Da Worfster

[Delko]

Hills Have Eyes
Devil Wears Prada
Eragon

[Kam]

a christmas story for the billionth time, and enjoyed it for the billionth time.