Schweedie

Wait, do you mean the one with Alex Kingston as Lady Macbeth? That production was filmed! Or, I guess maybe it wasn't filmed in New York, but at a similar venue in... Manchester, I think it was. I went to see it in the cinema, and it was absolutely gorgeously done - the way they utilised the the building was fantastic, and the ghost-at-the-banquet scene so clever. Sadly Alex Kingston was terrible (in my book), which ruined it a bit for me. You might want to check out your local cinemas, if you have one that does this kind of screenings - they've actually shown it a couple of times at mine.

Well, I'm gonna go back and quote myself here, because I finally got to see this film last night, and... I was so disappointed. Like, so disappointed I was angry afterwards - it takes a lot of skill to make Macbeth jumbled and dull, but man, did Justin Kurzel manage it. Passionless is the one word I'd use to describe it. So much whispering, so monotonous, so frustrating. The one thing I'll say for it is that it looked gorgeous, but dammit, that is not enough. It was all style over substance, and so much wasted potential. ... It would seem I'm still angry.

Ha, I didn't know about that Thackeray piece! Must see if I can track that down. I mean, sure, Rebecca might not (probably wouldn't) have had him even if he'd chosen her, what with their different faiths, but still. She clearly the one. And I agree - as cheesy as it is, I love it, too. Olivia Hussey is wonderful, and Sam Neill chews the hell out of all the scenery he can find, in the best way. (I also love that he's aware of and amused by this tradition.)

Over here, there's a New Year's Day tradition to watch Ivanhoe (from 1982) - they show it every single year, although I don't know why it became a tradition in the first place - and every single year I sigh and wonder why Ivanhoe and Rebecca didn't end up together. Other than that, I'm usually the person who wishes people *didn't* end up together.

This is random, but... I laughed and almost clapped when the soundtrack suddenly burst into the very ominous intro to "The Phantom of the Opera" during The Big Short. I don't even know why, but I just loved that - it was so unexpected, and yet I recognised it even before the first note slid into the second one.

And the Academy Award noms are done! I'm ridiculously pleased for George Miller and Mad Max: Fury Road.

I am SO happy to hear someone else say this - I cry at Salve Regina, too! I'm also a huge music crier, whether sad or happy. Certain musical cues just set me off, like the the music that plays over the final scene in Pride, or in How To Train Your Dragon when Hiccough first starts to befriend Toothless, or in The Fellowship of the Ring when 'Concerning Hobbits' plays over the first images of the Shire.

To be fair, I thought they made it pretty clear that any progress he was making was because he actually started taking his meds instead of claiming he could work it out without them. I may have mentioned this in this thread before, but since so many channels were showing them around Christmas, I'll state it once more with feeling: I despise both Love, Actually and The Holiday. Saccharine and sentimental stuff that just makes me roll my eyes until I get dizzy.

hendersonrocks, very interesting to hear a then Boston resident's take on the events! I really, really liked this movie. I thought it flowed so well; never felt slow or drawn out despite there not really being any sort of action at all. No flash, just good dialogue, excellent acting and a good story. I also hope it's not overlooked come awards season. I absolutely love Brian d'Arcy James - he's a Broadway favourite of mine, having done some great shows, and if you haven't seen him lipsync Hamilton's "The Schuyler Sisters" you've been missing out - and I also thought he did a wonderful job in this. Understated and in the background, but yeah.

I'll add my "thoroughly boring" to the choir. I expected much more from this, but - there's just nothing to it. Gorgeous visually, yes, but there was absolutely nothing else to actually hold my attention. Quite the letdown. And yes, diCaprio acts for all he's worth, but it's far from his best performance and if this is the movie that finally gets him his Oscar, then that's just a shame.

I took Rowling's quote above as her just trying shut down all the people shouting "But Hermione's white!!!" because there really *isn't* anything that says she is. Rowling may well have conceived her as such and criticisms about inclusiveness are totally valid, but there's still nothing in the books that flat out states that she's white. I hope the people throwing a fit about this heard her. (And yeah, it does take place something like 20 years in the future - from what I understand, Harry's youngest kid is a main character.)

The first piece of casting that comes to mind for this thread for me was Izzy Meikle-Small as the young version of Carey Mulligan's Kathy in Never Let Me Go. That was inspired. As for recasting/casting that didn't happen, I will forever be sad that we'll never have a version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Hugh Laurie as Arthur Dent and Minnie Driver as Trillian.

Since The Lobster has only had a limited release so far I'm going to spoiler tag these, but there were two scenes in that film that made me cover my eyes: . The whole film is full of low-key disturbing bits (although very funny at the same time) but those two, oh man.

That's a good way of describing Home Alone. I mean, the traps Kevin sets are pretty nasty, but it's the kind of stuff that would happen to characters in old cartoons like Tom & Jerry. Ha! Oh, that's perfect. I've often wished we could've known what Kevin on that list was, but now I'm gonna go with that, too. Like a few others I actually prefer the second one. Tim Curry is such a great petty nemesis. There aren't a lot of Christmas movies I like, but Christmas Vacation is one of them. Watching that has been a tradition since I was little.

I actually tend to find that funny, but for some reason this time it bugged me a little. Usually I think it just fits (I'm still giggling about "Terry loves responsible agricultural practises!") but this time I thought it felt forced and unnecessary. Amy turning around and screaming "NOOOO!" as soon as she touched the water was hilarious. Also nice to see the return of the competitive Amy who wants to show everyone she can do anything they can.

This is the Ed Wood of our time, heh. A lot of the casting is a little weird to me (like Zac Efron), except for James Franco and Seth Rogen, but yeah, I'm also oddly excited. Even though I both look forward to and dread hearing Franco do Tommy's accent. I mean - can you play Tommy Wiseau without making it a caricature portrait? Reading the book gave me a lot of respect for everyone who worked on that movie and managed to retain some semblance of professionalism.

I guess this should go in here - so, they're making an adaption of Greg Sestero's book "The Disaster Artist", which is about the making of The Room, and pictures from the set have started to crop up. I'm not sure what I think yet. Except that Dave Franco looks really, really strange like that. And I just - I can't picture someone actually playing Tommy Wiseau, even if James Franco seems weirdly appropriate for that role these days. I'm having a hard time picturing almost the whole thing, to be honest. Seth Rogen as Sandy should be really good, though. That I can see being a great fit.

And both Rami Malek and Christian Slater got Golden Globe nominations. So pleased!

It also amuses me because I would've expected a joke of that sort to be about Norway. If there's one thing Swedes are fond of it's jokes about Norwegians. That reminds me of another thing I really loved, as mentioned upthread - I giggled so hard when Amy said that she'd spent a whole bunch of birthdays at the planetarium, and then seeing Terry and Gina's reactions added the "...That was also a brag." Never change, Amy.

Yeah, when I saw the thing about the baby shower my first thought was "I knew it!" I was glad it wasn't just my imagination that she'd got, well, bustier, since last season. Really looking forward to seeing Katey Sagal as Jake's mother. That could be great.

Holt's and Kevin's dislike of Ratatouille cracked me up. Of course they would find it far-fetched. Loved the pairing of Holt and Boyle. I feel like that's a combo we don't get to see very often, and it was great - Boyle being so competitive when it comes to squash was awesome. Him slapping Holt's butt made me laugh out loud. My very favourite thing, though? Swedish lady cop's line about the languages Swedish people speak: "...But not Danish. That is a garbage language for garbage people." As a Swedish woman who speaks English, Spanish and a bit of Italian but hardly understands a word of Danish and is known to mock it, I totally loved that. (Her accent was mostly terrible, though. Sounded German more than anything.)

Really thrilled for Mad Max there. Still my favourite movie of the year, really. I've heard from a few people who've seen it that it was rather disappointing, confirming a couple of worries I had after the seeing the trailer, but I think it was more due to the directing than the actual acting (although the performances were obviously influenced by said directing). But yeah, could still happen!

Not living in an English-speaking country I very rarely get the chance to use movie quotes in everyday conversation, but I swear to dog that I will take every opportunity to use "We're werewolves, not swear-wolves" from What We Do in the Shadows. (It'd come more naturally if I didn't like to curse a lot myself, heh, but still.)

The Room, 100%. It's amazing in how awful it is, but after having read Greg Sestero's book about the shooting of it and been to one of his readings I have a hard time mocking it like I did before - Tommy Wiseau was so earnest (although terrible) and genuinely thought he was making a masterpiece, and the poor actors did what they could with a dreadful script and a terrifying/clueless director. Not that it stops me from cackling at the awfulness and throwing spoons at the screenings, though. *g* It just means that I can't quite bring myself to mock the actors. Troll 2 is pretty fun as well, in a "What the hell even is this?" kind of way. I remember thinking when I saw Glen and Glenda that yes, the movie is beyond weird, but - I don't know, I felt like there was an earnestness about that, too, that redeems it ever so slightly. (But yeah, it's bad.)

I was also unspoiled for Nick Offerman and tend to avoid looking at the guest star credits, so that was a brilliant surprise for me. I wish he'd been in the episode more than he was, but maybe he can turn up again. Really loved the cold open, how it ended with Boyle having to deliver tragic news to the family while wearing the turkey costume. Yeah. I have this thing where storylines with parents-to-be being dead set on following their birth plans just really rub me the wrong way - I've seen too many deliveries where complications happen and the birth plan has to be thrown out the window. Couldn't they have had the doula come to the hospital with them? (Okay, no, they couldn't for the purpose of this episode. But still.) Other than that, I do really like Sharon. Loved her appreciation of Jake's Gandalf/doula analogy. Another favourite moment was Holt obviously being affronted by Sharon not wanting him around. "I don't take it personally. I mean, it's about me and my behaviour specifically and nobody else, not Hitchcock or Scully, but yeah, I'm fine." He was picked out over Hitchcock or Scully. OF COURSE he wasn't fine.