The "last movie I saw" thread

[SandYFan]

Redboxed The Giver last week. SPOILERS AHOY!

Not bad. The book blew my mind when I was 12, and I love the themes, and the world is one of my favorite dystopian settings.

I liked the choice to have the first 20-30 minutes of the film in black-and-white, and felt the performances were good. Jonas did a good job portraying wide-eyed naivete, and seeing Katie Holmes as the worn down, grumpy authoritarian and caregiver was interesting. Liked Jeff Bridges a lot as the Giver.

Kinda wish they'd spent some time giving Jonas the concept of physical pain instead of focusing on poaching and the psychological horrors of war. The idea that the pain of a toothache is entirely foreign to the community is world-changing.

I think I prefer the book ending, which is a lot more ambiguous. There's a good chance Jonas and Gabriel just freeze to death in the snow, having changed nothing.

[Armenag]

Jupiter Ascending - More fun than I had expected based on the reviews. Got a little repetitive and the ending was weak, but I was entertained. I would pay money to watch a recording of the Wachowskis directing Eddie Redmayne, who delivers all his lines in a husky whisper with the exception of a handful that he screams out. Channing Tatum looks ridiculous (he plays a goateed "half albino" wolf man), but his performance was perfectly fine. People were pouring into the theater for 50 Shades of Grey across the hall.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Saw the Stephen Hawking movie. Nice film but shouldn't really be talked about in the best film of the year conversation.

Question: can someone summarize what this "theory of everything thing is". The way he described it in the film just did not make sense to me. The comparison I thought of would be like someone saying, there is a simple sentence or paragraph of text that can clearly explain and describe everything in the world, and I am going to identify that paragraph. wtf does that even mean "simple equation that can explain everything"

Which leads me to another question: I think I'm a reasonably intelligent person, but I'm self-aware (thanks DDD) enough to admit there are topics I'm not capable of understanding, and obviously quantum physics is one of those things. But can someone summarize for me the value of understanding quantum physics, or in other words what is the value of Stephen Hawking's work? Is the world a better place for anything Stephen Hawking did? If I understood Stephen Hawking's work perfectly, how would I view the world in a better or more complete way? Is it possible all that math is just a bunch of jibberish and it's a Emperor with no Clothes thing? Like at these Physics conferences, does any of these math geniuses get drunk and start saying crap like "guys I can't take it anymore, we have to tell the rest of the world this is all bullshit and we made it up just to look smart, seriously, how far are we going to take this?" Case in point, per the movie, at one point Stephen Hawking proved something. Then at a later point in time, he proved he was wrong, previously. Am I using the wrong definition of the word "prove"?

Longer response:

We saw the movie a few days ago and I really enjoyed it. I am old enough to remember a lot of the events in the film. When he published "A Brief History of Time" I bought a copy and read it. Great book. He took advanced theoretical physics and explained it in a manner accessible to the masses. The fact that he was so brilliant and still so capable while being in his physical condition and talking with a computer voice captivated the public and made him a celebrity of sorts.

As for the theory of everything, you have quantum mechanics (including electromagnetic theory) that explains very small particle behavior. Then you have the theory of relativity (including gravity) that explains the behavior of large objects. Each theory works really really when applied to objects of the right size, but completely breaks down when you swap. Hawking theorized that there might be one grand theory (i.e., set of equations) that would explain the behavior of everything, at all levels. Hence, the "Theory of Everything". There is a fairly recent theory called "string theory" that comes close to fitting the bill. However, others have made convincing arguments that a unifying theory of everything will never be found (reality is not that simple). Even Hawking has backed off. There is a very nice summary here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything

As for benefit to humanity, these fundamental physical theories (gravity, motion, electromagnetics) form the basis for virtually every type of modern engineering. The emperor is fully clothed. Hawking and company are pushing the frontier on this stuff. Some of it is more related to understanding the history and future of the universe, but what could be a more interesting and impactful branch of basic science?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Finally got around to watching Nebraska. The wife and I both loved it. Seemed like a family reunion for both of us.

[SCcoug]

Finally got around to watching Nebraska. The wife and I both loved it. Seemed like a family reunion for both of us.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Finally got around to watching Nebraska. The wife and I both loved it. Seemed like a family reunion for both of us.

I really enjoyed the movie as well. The scene when the brothers are sitting in the living room and conversing, very haltingly, about cars and other banalities was a classic, and very reminiscent of conversations I witnessed when my dad got together with his family.

[TripletDaddy]

Finally got around to watching Nebraska. The wife and I both loved it. Seemed like a family reunion for both of us.

I saw that and loved it.

[Northwestcoug]

We saw this last night and I wasn't a big fan of it, in fact it was one of those movies I just keep wanting to end. I started losing interest at the church. I think the writer thought he could combine Bond with Tarantino and it would be a winner when in reality I just kept thinking this has all been done before.

I thought pretty much the same thing. I wanted to like the wanton violence, but I just didn't like the story that much. Funny how KL mentioned the last sexual reference as 'too much'. Swearing doesn't usually bother me, but for whatever reason I had had enough by the end. I actually thought the anal reference was of funny

[UVACoug]

Saw the Stephen Hawking movie. Nice film but shouldn't really be talked about in the best film of the year conversation.

Wife asked me if Stephen Hawking was still alive, and I thought he was dead but didn't really know. So I googled it, and as a joke I typed in "Is Stephen Hawking dead or alive?" and as I typed, the following were offered as autofill options:

is stephen hawking dead
is stephen hawking rich
is stephen hawking a christian
is stephen hawking nice
is stephen hawking alive

Luckily, I found this website where I was able to quickly get the info I needed.



I thought Stephen Hawking must be like "fml", I'm the smartest man alive and this is what the rest of mankind is asking about me.

Question: can someone summarize what this "theory of everything thing is". The way he described it in the film just did not make sense to me. The comparison I thought of would be like someone saying, there is a simple sentence or paragraph of text that can clearly explain and describe everything in the world, and I am going to identify that paragraph. wtf does that even mean "simple equation that can explain everything"

Which leads me to another question: I think I'm a reasonably intelligent person, but I'm self-aware (thanks DDD) enough to admit there are topics I'm not capable of understanding, and obviously quantum physics is one of those things. But can someone summarize for me the value of understanding quantum physics, or in other words what is the value of Stephen Hawking's work? Is the world a better place for anything Stephen Hawking did? If I understood Stephen Hawking's work perfectly, how would I view the world in a better or more complete way? Is it possible all that math is just a bunch of jibberish and it's a Emperor with no Clothes thing? Like at these Physics conferences, does any of these math geniuses get drunk and start saying crap like "guys I can't take it anymore, we have to tell the rest of the world this is all bullshit and we made it up just to look smart, seriously, how far are we going to take this?" Case in point, per the movie, at one point Stephen Hawking proved something. Then at a later point in time, he proved he was wrong, previously. Am I using the wrong definition of the word "prove"?




.

I though the movie was boring as hell, but Redmayne did well enough to deserve a nomination.

[LA Ute]

We watched "The Judge" (Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall) over the weekend. I had to suspend disbelief more than usual (the courtoom stuff would never happen) but it was well-acted and not a waste of time. (Low bar, I know.)

[kccougar]

We watched "The Judge" (Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall) over the weekend. I had to suspend disbelief more than usual (the courtoom stuff would never happen) but it was well-acted and not a waste of time. (Low bar, I know.)

I saw it on a plane a couple weeks ago. I liked it enough that after the end was cut off when we started our descent, I went and watched the rest of it on Amazon the next day.

[Paperback Writer]

Finally got around to watching Nebraska....

Nobody cares.

[Commando]

Finally got around to watching Nebraska. The wife and I both loved it. Seemed like a family reunion for both of us.

MacGruber is a badass. These absurdist comics make some of the best dramatic actors sometimes.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I really enjoyed the movie as well. The scene when the brothers are sitting in the living room and conversing, very haltingly, about cars and other banalities was a classic, and very reminiscent of conversations I witnessed when my dad got together with his family.

I saw that and loved it.

I hadn't done much research on this film, other than it was highly rated, so I had no idea what to expect. I would classify this as a character film and I like character films. Dialog, acting, and cinematography are all brilliant. I especially loved the performance by June Squibb (mother/wife). She had me from the opening scene ("I never knew the son of a bitch even wanted to be a millionaire! He should have thought about that years ago and worked for it!"). I laughed to tears when she told the greedy relatives to eff themselves and again when she recalled that she made a mistake on who lived in the home with the compressor in the barn. Another favorite part was when Woody and son were discussing why he married mom.

David Grant: How did you and mom end up getting married?
Woody Grant: She wanted to.
David Grant: And you didn't?
Woody Grant: I figured, what the hell.
David Grant: Were you ever sorry you married her?
Woody Grant: All the time.

That is a small excerpt. I wish they had the entire conversation on IMDB. It was great.

Also loved the ending. Was curious to see how they would wrap up the story. What they did was perfect. Great flick.

[Jeff Lebowski]

MacGruber is a badass. These absurdist comics make some of the best dramatic actors sometimes.

And Alexander Payne is on a roll. Also did The Descendants, Sideways, and About Schmidt.