Saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid (sprog's choice) never has a film left me feeling so nauseated. Do American kids really get off on humiliating each other so much? At least in Malcolm in the Middle, there was a degree of humour, and intelligence, and wackiness. But this could have been written by Beckett or Pinter...
There were two Wimpy Kid movies. I saw both, so I can't distinguish one from the other in my memory. I think you're talking about Rodrick Rules, the one that features Rodrick, the sadistic older brother. No, American kids do not get off on humiliating each other any more than kids anywhere else do. That's (supposed to be) the humor of the books and movies. The main character, Greg, is the Wimpy Kid trying to survive in an over-the-top, exaggerated, cut-throat middle school world. It's very sophomoric American humor. Even more sophomoric than the usual American humor. *grin* There was a similar TV show. I can't remember what it was called. Umm... something like How to Survive the Eighth Grade. Similar idea. Middle school is supposed to be fun and safe but, especially if you're a nerd, it's a cutthroat world. ETA: I googled, but all I found was references to yet another show on the same topic: Ned's Declassified: School Survival Guide. Same idea. Nerd trying to survive in the jungle that is an American middle school.
I hadn't heard much about this film until I saw Laura Linney's TV interview (on the Daily Show, I think.) It looks really good. I'll have to check it out.
Saw "Gangster Squad" on the weekend...wanted to gouge my brain out with a dull spoon. What on earth possessed me...though must admit, had great style and some good acting. Sean Penn was creepily evil incarnate...
Bells Are Ringing, Deer Hunter, To Kill a Mockingbird, Manchurian Candidate, Kiss of the Spider Woman, French Connection, Bullitt, Philadelphia Story, It Happened One Night, Double Indemnity, Taxi Driver, Wuthering Heights, Duck Soup, Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin' in the Rain, Taps, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Arsenic and Old Lace, Notorious...to name a few. Clearly my desert island better have a video store. This was fun.
Ok, so where are the musical dorks? anybody up for Cabaret? \"Love is the self-delusion we manufacture to justify the trouble we take to have sex\" -Dan Greenburg
Do you mean the original movie with Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey? I haven't seen that in years. It's been so long that I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to whether I even liked it. The last time I saw it I was like twelve and I saw it on a sad little TV. I'm a pretty big fan of musicals, though, so what the heck. I'll check it out when I get a chance. Oh yeah and welcome to the forums, litonbarman.
I saw Cabaret when it came out in 1972 and then again the next year in München, dubbed into German. I'm not sure whether I've seen it since. The dubbing made at least one scene odd. When he first meets Sally and she can't speak German so she's stumbling through her broken German until she finally bursts into English asking him for a cigarette. But of course dubbed in German that sounded a bit odd. They kept the original voices in the songs, which were subtitled with some changes, such as "too much pills and liquor" becoming "zu viel Pillen und Ficken" ("too much pills and sex").
