Open Bar: March 17
The Open Bar is a convivial and open floor for all readers of Anomalous Material to discuss anything and everything they want all week starting every Thursday evening. Feel free to chime in or introduce new topics of discussion.
The Open Bar Soundtrack
Announcement
- Don’t forget that we are giving away 3 pairs of Fandango movie tickets at the end of the month! The more you comment, the more likely you are to win.
- Read my new LAMB column: The Single Most Effective Way to Drive Traffic to Your Movie Blog
- If you are participating in the AM Movie Fantasy League, check out this week’s update
- Desert Island CD reminder: Saturday is the day we are all posting our 12 favorite movie music tracks!
- Have a great weekend!
US Box Office Openings and Estimates
- Limitless (Relativity): $15.6 million/$41 million
- Paul (Universal): $11 million/$30 million
- The Lincoln Lawyer (Lionsgate): $8.5 million/$22 million
Links
- Nicholas ponders whether movies are dying (Cinema Romantico)
- Fill out your bracket for the March to Box Office Madness 2011 (Blog Cabins)
- Jose argues that Christopher Nolan doesn’t create memorable shots (Movies Kick Ass)
- Kai lists his top 5 coolest movie bikes (The List)
- Audiences seem to increasingly reject stop motion capture, should we be worried for Tintin? (the m0vie blog)
- Top 10 Jeff Bridges movies (Top 10 Films)
- Justin briefly reviews all the Oscar-nominated short documentaries (The Film Confessional)
A Few Potential Topics of Discussion
- What are your plans for this weekend?
- What movies are you planning to see?
- Any thoughts on current events?
- Your favorite songs of the moment?
- What books are you reading right now?
- What’s else is on your mind?
41 Comments
There are a couple of things I’m working on around the interwebs, one of them being a Roman Polanski blogathon. Link here:
http://cinemadirectives.blogspot.com/2011/03/roman-polanski-blogathon.html
Couple of movies perhaps.
That’s a great article on LAMB, Castor, I’ve left my comment there but it went poof, hopefully it didn’t just get eaten
Thanks for putting that Help Japan poster, my thoughts and prayers are with those people there.
I’ll be watching Coco Before Chanel tomorrow night with my girlfriends and I also have the original Thomas Crown affair w/ Steve McQueen at home. Nothing interests me at the movies this weekend.
I see your comment on LAMB
Yes, this week’s release are a bit lacking but I have yet to see any of those big releases that came out the last couple weeks.
Well could you help with the Reddit submission? I’ve tried submitting posts but never seem to make a dent, but when you did on my post a while ago I got lots of clicks. I probably did something wrong.
Yea it’s an art more than a science lol. The title must make people want to click and the post itself must be the type that Reddit people love (lists with not too much reading). Also make sure your submission appears in the feed, sometime they simply disappear into the spam bin.
Maybe it’s just easier to ask you to submit it on my behalf, LOL
rtm, and a good day to you.
You should like the Dunaway/McQueen “Thomas Crown Affair”, it beat’s the heck out of the remake that came out in 1999, hands down, Dunaway & McQueen sizzle.. On another note, I’ve been experiencing problems accessing your site at FlixChatter, somehow when I go to it, it will start to load then my browser just totally locks down. Everything works good prior to going there. Have you received any feedback on that… It’s the first time ever it’s behave this way..
And CASTOR, I second that, great job getting the help Japan poster going, most outstanding on your part..
Seeing either Paul or Rango tomorrow night and Battle: Los Angeles Sunday afternoon (possibly) for sure. My wife and I might also paint our bedroom finally, if we have the time between getting the house clean so we can entertain friends Saturday night.
Big ups to the Red Cross image.
I went to Kim Ji-woon’s “I Saw the Devil” earlier this week and was completely blown away. I will be up with family most of the weekend, but if I get any spare time I will be Netflix streaming some of the other really interesting work that’s come out of South Korea the last few years (i.e. Park Chan-Wook’s “Vengeance” Trilogy).
I take it you haven’t seen Oldboy then. You are in for a treat! Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is pretty solid as well.
I liked Oldboy. I am actually really glad the potential remake with Will Smith died, if only because I think it would have toned down a lot of the darker content – which, to be honest, really made the film.
On a tangent, that Eastern cinema explosion in the last decade (although by no means the start of it, the last decade saw these films becoming far more publicised in the mainstream) was incredible. I think the scariest film I have ever seen was The Ring, in my pitch black bed room. I slept with one eye on the unplugged telly that night, I tell you.
Lucky bastard…
This weekend I’m performing my usual routine of invading a foreign country, overthrowing their dictator and then using my new power to create a giant space laser, which I will then use to hold the world to ransom. Tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Oh good! It’s about time that SOMEBODY does!
Then you must tell me what country that’d be this week, because I was going to usurp some thrones this Saturday, it’d be awfully embarassing if we didn’t sync up.
Just so long as you don’t show up in the Trojan Female Warrior dress to the post-conquer after party I think we’ll be OK.
Your ambitions for world domination will not go unpunished! I am amassing a large number of Phalanx at your borders and they will burn down your towns at any moment.
I’m leaning towards reviewing “Paul” this weekend, but “The Lincoln Lawyer’s” holding onto a surprisingly high tomato-meter score.
Still, even without Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will probably win out over Matthew McC.
Outside of that relaxing with the fam and getting some work done around the house as usual!
I’m looking forward to the Lincoln Lawyer. Part of it’s because there hasn’t been a decent law-type thriller in a while, and part of it’s the fact that it seems to have snuck in under everyone’s radar. Paul has done well here (it was released a while back), but I’ve yet to hear anything more commital than “meh”
Yeah, my expectations for “Paul” aren’t too terribly high. So hopefully that means I’ll stand a chance of enjoying it somewhat.
Pegg and Frost are good performers,but without Wright running the show, I am a bit worried. Still, I can’t must much more enthusiasm for “Lincoln Lawyer” either. Probably because I got over-Grisham’ed back in the ’90s.
It’ll probably boil down to which one is screening at a more convenient time.
Pegg and Frost are good performers on their own, though; they happen to work really well with Wright, is all. Just like peanut butter and jelly, coffee and donuts, self-righteous Christians and sex scandals, they go better together, but they’re great without him in their corner. I think that alone is enough reason for Paul to be on most radars.
I’m excited for The Lincoln Lawyer, too. It sounds like so much fluff, but worthy and good fluff, and there’s nothing wrong with simple, straightforward entertainment done well.
Andrew – Usually I have a sense of humor or at least grant some latitude about swipes against Christians as frankly the criticism is often well-deserved.
But seriously, in this context, was that really necessary?
You don’t know me so I won’t take it personally, but some of us aren’t nearly as self-righteous and hypocritical as others.
And yes, as I mentioned above, they’re great peformers. But from what I’ve been hearing, “Paul” doesn’t hold up to their past work. Still, when the choice is between them and Matthew McConaughey, they’ll win…any and everytime.
If you’re a fan of Pegg and Frost together, then you should enjoy Paul. I know I did. It’s not as good as Shaun of the Dead and Edgar Wright is missed, but it’s still fun and enjoyable nonetheless.
Well if it’s available at my local library tomorrow, I’ll be borrowing “Shutter Island” to catch up on my 2010 releases. If not, I’ll watch “Please Give” and review that while also work on a review of John Leguizamo’s one-man stage play “Freak” for the Spike Lee LAMB Director’s School.
I watched “Please Give” a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t write the review yet. I’ll be interested to see what you think.
Shutter Island is really solid. One of the most underrated movie of 2010.
It’s supposed to storm all weekend so I think I’ll be renting. My Netflixs are “Sylvia” because I just finished reading The Bell Jar. I also have a 1964 film called “The Naked Kiss” and “Morning Glory.” I might also pick up “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” because I FINALLY finished reading that book. I’m currently reading “Never Let Me Go.” Big props Castor for the Japan support. It’s been hard to have fun and think about how much they are suffering. I tried to watch TV coverage, but I was crying heaving sobs after about 20 seconds. I have to keep myself at reading about it only. The images are too upsetting.
Weekend: Basketball followed by basketball. Although I really want to see “The Lincoln Lawyer”? Is this wrong? McConaughey vs. Marisa. It’s an eternal debate. And thanks for the linkage.
Gonna See “Jane Eyre” tonight. I dislike it when movies come a week late in Canada.
Lucky you Paolo, I still have to wait another week for it! Hope you enjoy, curious to read your review.
Saw it. It had one flaw or two flaws, which is 99% better thank any other movie I’ve seen this year.
And although I have not committed any action to change this, if I die before having the chance to see The Piano, I will confess this to St. Peter as my first and most grave sin.
Yeah, well, I live in the US and Jane Eyre STILL hasn’t made it to my local theater. So I envy you and your more artistic Canadian releases!
I also saw Limitless, and yeah. Despite the cynicism that the trailer seems to engender, the actors didn’t seem to have been wasted in their roles.
I finished compiling my desert island post last night. I’m so excited to see what everyone has. 12 was rough. Actually I think I’m bumping one of mine for another song.
Yes I thought 12 was the right number of forcing people to make some difficult choices. Too many and it gets a bit too laborious to compile and read
And wow, I should really start working on mine. It would be something if the organizer himself doesn’t have it done by tomorrow morning ahha
Hey Castor, I might not be able to give you the desert island post until late Saturday. I was gonna work on it tonight but forgot I have the girls’ movie night thing.
It’s all good. We will ostracize you and laugh at your lack of organizational skills ah!
But yes, Saturday evening or Sunday is fine
Only one film on deck this weekend and that is Gremlins on the big screen. I still need to see Rango but that will most likely have to wait for another couple of weeks.
You should have seen it on the Underground before Christmas. They also played a secret movie.
Hi
I’m staying in this weekend, NCAA hoops is in full swing so that will be the focus. Did pick up a few movies, one “The Wildest Dream” which is a movie or docu-movie if there is such a term, about George Mallory the intrepid British mountaineer who along with his climbing partner perished on Mt. Everest in 1924. They were last seen 800 feet from the summit and never seen again, Mallory’s body was discovered in 1999. This movie along with the German movie “The North Face” are I think the 2 best mountaineering movies out, the human drama is just riveting.. Writer, Jeffrey Archer has an excellent book out on Mallory titled “Paths of Glory”.
Trackbacks