American movies and RW

[Ste]

The Shawshank Redemption.

Red Heat (hahah!)

And, Jagged Edge, why oh why did Jeff Bridges keep the typewriter with the wonky 't'? Is he fecking stupid or what? Winds me up everytime I see it.

'Freddie Got Fingered' is a classic if you can stomach Tom Green wanking a horse off, swinging a new-born baby over his head and eviscerating a roadkill Deer. It's one of those movies you watch with your jaw-dropped. But you keep watching!

[catzenmouse]

While on this topic, do your wives comment on how 'Russians' are in American movies ?
Mila will always judge the characters supposed to be Russian and often this is hilarious.
Dress, attitude and language are often complete off. 

Yes, very much so with Elena. She can't believe how some of the actors cannot even come close to sounding Russian and all the bad guys are always Russian!

Haven't read beyond this post yet so forgive me if this is mentioned later but some of the movies that Elena likes are the romantic comedy ones. 13 Going on 30, Only You, A Walk to Remember. There are also a few others that she has enjoyed very much which don't quite fit into some of the other comments: The Italian Job, Transporter, The Terminal.

One other that I think needs to be added to Gator's list: Little Big Man

Ken

[jb]

Some of Etna's favs, A Walk In The Clouds,,, Fools Rush In... Sleepless In Seattle, (Meg Ryan is a favorite), anything with small children, Christmas, and Walt Disney animals.  Billy Crystal is funny against Robert De Niro in Analyse This, and any Clint Eastwood  John Wayne, or Gregory Peck western is cause to shut the house down for a movie.  We also have a fair collection of Russian movies on DVD and acquire more all the time.

Americans and Brits playing at being Russian is laughable, they never get the accents right, worst of them all was Birthday Girl and Hunt for Red October.

[Ste]

Americans and Brits playing at being Russian is laughable, they never get the accents right, worst of them all was Birthday Girl and Hunt for Red October.

Hey, Nicole Kidman in Birthday Girl is Australian!

Helen Mirren has a Russian father I think - her real name is Yelena Mironova, and she played a Russian in 2010. Not that well in my book.

Worst American playing a Brit? Kenau Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Dick Van Dyke in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I prefer the porno version, Pretty Shitty Gang Bang....

Worst Brit playing a Yank? I dunno - how's Hugh Laurie's accent in House? Sounds rubbish to me - like a Brit taking the piss....

[jb]

Speaking of Australians, as far as my wife is concerned if Mel Gibson ever walked by and crooked his finger,,, I'd be single again.

[Ste]

Speaking of Australians, as far as my wife is concerned if Mel Gibson ever walked by and crooked his finger,,, I'd be single again.

He hates us English tho - Braveheart - what's that all about? His best movie by far was one of his early Oz ones, where he excellently played a backward man, who was befriended by an American woman, played by Piper Laurie. I cried when his mum died, fukn tragic. In the film I mean, not really.

It's called 'Tim' made in 1979 - and it is really very good.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080024/

[SANDRO43]

... as far as my wife is concerned if Mel Gibson ever walked by and crooked his finger,,, I'd be single again.

Maybe you could stave off the inevitable by adding some woad to your usual makeup. Dunno about the hairdo, though .

[KenC]

Sorry Ste, Braveheart is one of the best of all time as is Shawshank, but both are "men's" movies and not too interesting to the ladies.
KenC
(I would pay to see jb in the blue makeup!)
 

[Ste]

Sorry Ste, Braveheart is one of the best of all time as is Shawshank, but both are "men's" movies and not too interesting to the ladies.
KenC
(I would pay to see jb in the blue makeup!)
 

But it's anti-English! And pro-Scottish! I lived in Scotland for 8 years and I loved it there. There's a TV show - in the UK - but more popular in Scotland, about an itinerant drunken Glaswegian, Rab C Nesbit total class, the Drunken Glaswegian accent being very inpentable doesn't help tho:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z08kiQ-5hI[/youtube]

[I/O]

Nicole Kidman in Birthday Girl is Australian!

Yep....And..she could park her shoes at my door any ol' time, closely followed by Hepburn with Meg Ryan a very short priced 3rd.

if Mel Gibson ever walked by and crooked his finger,,, I'd be single again.

S'pose ya could throw a telephone at him if all else failed. Somewhat eccentric character is he.

I suspect the "Movie taste" among Russian women is as diverse as they themselves are, but I also suspect it is fair to say and the freshmen should note IMO that almost without exception Russian women do love a movie, so if you don't, either find someone else or find something else to do at that time or do as I do, learn to sleep through anything.

Sandro: IIRC I saw the movie with Anthony Hopkins you metioned up thread and it was IMO first class, as is almost anything with him playing lead.  He IMO is "Creme De La Creme".

I/O

[KenC]

S'pose ya could throw a telephone at him if all else failed. Somewhat eccentric character is he.
I/O

What is this, some kind of Australian thang? (Throwing phones?)  First Russel Crowe and now you threaten?
KenC

[I/O]

What is this, some kind of Australian thang? (Throwing phones?)  First Russel Crowe and now you threaten?
KenC

Nahhhhh ...well..ah......yes actually, but that's another story for another time.  I was merely suggesting JB use tactics Russel Crowe would understand if Crowe did indeed "Crook" that finger. 

I/O

[Ste]

Nahhhhh ...well..ah......yes actually, but that's another story for another time.  I was merely suggesting JB use tactics Russel Crowe would understand if Crowe did indeed "Crook" that finger. 

I/O

Russell Crowe is a Kiwi isn't he? He's definately a wanker...

[KenC]

I/O,
Can't you keep your fellow countryman straight?  jb said his wife has the hots for Mel Gibson not Crowe.
KenC

[I/O]

I/O,
Can't you keep your fellow countryman straight?  jb said his wife has the hots for Mel Gibson not Crowe.
KenC

  yeah...you are right.  Oh well, same dog, different leg.  Think I'll just crawl back into bed and sleep off whatever it is I have been on.

Ste: I think you maybe right, that would explain a lot.

I/O

[SANDRO43]

Sandro: IIRC I saw the movie with Anthony Hopkins you metioned up thread and it was IMO first class, as is almost anything with him playing lead.  He IMO is "Creme De La Creme".

Glad you liked it, I read the book first:

84 Charing Cross Road is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between herself and Frank Doel of Marks & Co., antiquarian booksellers located at the titular address in London, England.

It has some "sentimental" value for me:
- It's where my favourite London bookshop (Foyles) is located.
- It reminds me of an aunt of mine who'd married an RAF Major at the end of WWII and went to live in Bradford (bit of a let-down from her Bologna ). In 1951 the whole family (couple, 4 kids + sis-in-law) drove back to Italy in a large, black Citroën Traction Avant, and we were stunned to see the car overloaded with butter, bread, and all sorts of other foodstuffs they had acquired while passing through France, thinking we might also be starving in Italy .

[Blues Fairy]

My all-time favs: Amadeus, Scent of a Woman, The Big Lebowsky, The Thomas Crown Affair, Seven Years in Tibet, Castaway, Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (saw recently, very impressed!)   Shawshank Redemption, Thelma and Louise, Erin Brockovich.   

Out of non-Hollywood, The Piano by Jane Campion and a bunch of Jane Austen screen versions, notably the brilliant 1995 (?) BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice - I ordered them specifically from UK.  

[KenC]

Blues Fairy,
Which version of Thomas Crown, new or old?  Both are good, but the Steve McQueen/ Fay Dunaway (old) version is superior IMO.  It was worth the price of admission just to see Fay Dunaway play chess (?) with Steve McQueen.
KenC

[Blues Fairy]

Which version of Thomas Crown, new or old?  Both are good, but the Steve McQueen/ Fay Dunaway (old) version is superior IMO. 

New; although I can see the old one was pretty good from the snippets of it on my DVD.  Speaking of Dunaway, how could I forget Bonnie & Clyde.

[KenC]

Blues Fairy,
I loved "Bonnie and Clyde."  Fay Dunaway was such a hottie in it, but I preferred her more sophisticated character in "Thomas Crown."

I wonder about your take on some of Hollywood's renditions of Russian story lines.  Movies like "Reds", "Doctor Zhivago" and even"Hunt for the Red October"?
KenC

[Blues Fairy]

I wonder about your take on some of Hollywood's renditions of Russian story lines.  Movies like "Reds", "Doctor Zhivago" and even"Hunt for the Red October"?

I only saw D.Zh. - Omar Sharif is excellent but the rest is rather cheesy, and the plot is not very true to the book. But that would be true of any screen version of a famous book.  Look what P.J. did to the Lord of the Rings.

[groovlstk]

My all-time favs: Amadeus, Scent of a Woman, The Big Lebowsky, The Thomas Crown Affair, Seven Years in Tibet, Castaway, Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (saw recently, very impressed!)   Shawshank Redemption, Thelma and Louise, Erin Brockovich.   

Wow, another achiever! There's a big annual weekend party called Lebowskifest that I plan to con my wife into going some year, I haven't had the temerity of exposing her to TBL yet, though. The dude abides!

[KenC]

Groovistk,
Sorry but I never "got" Lebowsky, may have to give it another try.  Saw it was on yesterday on Showtime, (I think), but too late to see it.

Blues Fairy,
Dr. Z is total cheese and overly melodramatic, therefore thought you would like it.  Aren't many Russian movies the same? (cheesy & melodramtic)
KenC

[Ste]

Here's my list of East/West movies:

Red Heat - great cos it's crap.

Moscow on the Hudson - I loved it - Nadia hated it.

Brat Dva - Hmmmm

Gorky Park - Good film, bit long, filmed in Finland I think

The Fourth Protocol - not as good as the book

Red October - Good action, stupid russian accents

K19 - Terrible

The Russia House - not bad - growing on me

A Letter to Brezhnev - good! - UK movie made in Liverpool - u know, The Beatles

Last Resort - UK movie about russian asylum seeker (as if) - well done - tender film

Birthday Girl - utter drivel

A foriegn Affair - hokum

[groovlstk]

Groovistk,
Sorry but I never "got" Lebowsky, may have to give it another try.  Saw it was on yesterday on Showtime, (I think), but too late to see it.

Ken, give it another look next time it's on. The first time I saw The Big L I thought it was mildly funny and never thought about it again until a few of my pals convinced me to watch it again. It's the sort of movie that gets funnier each time you see it