Adam: You owe me two hours of my life back

[gk]

re: Atonement.

[mayor]

I told you I wasn't sure if you'd like it...and that I knew it was a little weird I liked it so much...

Did you ever see "Tell No One?" That one I can enthusiastically recommend.

[mayor]

How about the scene when the come upon the beach? That's a great scene, yes?

Did you just dislike the story? I'm really not exactly sure why I like it so much.

But everyone should go see "Tell No One."

[mayor]

I hate it when I recommend a movie to someone and they really don't like it. I remember Annika Durbin getting mad at me one time because she and Eric went searching all over town to rent "The Burbs," because I had said I loved it. They didn't quite have the same feeling for it as I did.

I still think "The Burbs" is great though.

[fatmenace]

I agree about not liking it when I recommendations are flops. I told mark to see About Schmidt and he hated it. Althoughb I think mark just has bad taste.

[gk]

I was actually pretty unimpressed with the beach scene. About 15 seconds into it I was thinking, "oh boy. Here we go. It's going to be a really long scene where there's a bunch of stuff happening." In other words, the whole thing looked really, really staged.

I should mention it got 82% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which is really good. So you're not alone in liking it.

If you want to know why I didn't like it, it's basically a combination of what I mentioned above - call it "overdirection" - and a pretty banal story: once the first act ends it's pretty standard fare. Although I would also add that the end was extremely unsatisfying.

I'll ask this: have you watched it more than once?

---------------------------

For the most part I understand when people don't dig my movie tastes. I openly admit to being a Wes/PT Anderson whore. And now Danny Boyle's on that list. So there's those three and then a bunch of documentaries - not exactly mass appeal there. When I look back at my decade Top 10, I recall conversations with people that hated every single one of those movies.

[mayor]

I've watched it 4-5 times. Liked it more each time I think. I then went and read the book (which is actually on many best books of the decade list). But I've always been a little unable to put my finger on exactly why I like it so much. So that's why I'm always careful when recommending it. I guess I like the underlying philosophical, and unspoken theological, meaning(s). But I also did think it was beautifully made. And I think the ending should be unsatisfying.

I will also say, since you mentioned him, I'm becoming a big Wes Anderson fan. Just watched Rushmore again. I think it's totally brilliant. I have "Life Aquatic" at home waiting to watch again.

And lastly, I'm surprised you liked "Slumdog." I can't take Danny Boyle seriously after that one. A very mediocre-bad movie. I did really like "Millions." "Tainspotting" is good. "28 Days Later" was good. Not sure what else he's done that I've seen.

[gk]

Well I won't say I didn't like "Slumdog" but it it's probably my least favorite movie of his. Also saw a little known Boyle film called "Sunshine" recently. It was great for the first hour and 15 minutes, then it goes totally off the rails and becomes pretty ridiculous.

[fatmenace]

I don't understand how anyone could not like Slumdog Millionaire.

[gk]

I'm glad we're talking about "Atonement" instead of the NFL playoffs.

WELCOME TO MY WORLD ADAM!

[mayor]

Yeah, I'm watching this during the playoffs this year:

www.amazon.com/NFL-Pittsburgh-Steelers-XLIII-Blu-ray/dp/B001UNSZWG/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1263768026&sr=8-8

This week the Steelers beat the Chargers.