Conference bookie::movies

    Sure, several weeks ago.
    
    If you are a Robert Altman fanatic and/or live in
    Los Angeles, this may be an O.K. movie.  My sisters
    are both; they liked it a lot.  But they don't recommend
    it to anyone.
    
    I'm merely an Altman fan, and I lived in L.A. *years* ago.
    For me this was not a good film at all.  A few good moments
    (the parking lot with the pictures is great), but I don't
    recommend this to anyone.  It's deliberately offensive and
    is not making any points worth making.  But I also thought
    "The Player" was highly over-rated.  I think anything about
    Hollywood, by Altman, with lots of stars, is getting a free
    ride from the critics.  No idea why.
    
    Keep your expectations low (forget "overwhelming reviews"),
    and you may enjoy it.
    
    			dick
    

    
    it was certainly well made and rather disturbing, but it's one of
    those movies i like less the more i think about it. one particular
    negative is the gratuitous nudity. now i'm as much a fan of nudity
    as the next guy (more so, perhaps), but it was so obvious that he
    was using any excuse for female nudity and going to extremes to
    avoid male nudity that i was very distressed. i had originally
    give this 4stars, but now i think...
    

    I just saw this last night and I thought it was extremely interesting. 
    It really held my attention throughout the entire movie, and I found
    myself really being interested in what happened to the various
    characters.  I do agree that it was very disturbing.  It seemed to me
    that this movie was a fairly accurate portrayal of life in the '90's,
    in the US.  Only a little bit worse, more like the evening news, or an
    article in People magazine.  To me one thing that this movie was about
    was all the little ways that ordinary people (both higly educated and
    blue collar) treat each other nasty in the course of a regular day.  It
    brought home to me just how mean and selfish and small minded many
    people are capable of being, and that's scary.  It's also something we
    should always be aware of, though, I think.
    
    I do agree about the gratuitous nudity.  It wouldn't have bothered me
    if there were as many nude men as women shown, but that was definitely
    not the case.  I think Robert Altman definitely has a thing for
    airbrushed, perfect looking, female pubic hair!  The imbalance between
    the number of men shown naked and the number of women shown naked would
    be my biggest complaint about the movie.  
    
    Overall, though, I highly recommend it, and found it extremely
    interesting, and even entertaining.  Very funny in several spots, too,
    and sad in others, just like real life.
    
    Spoiler behind form feed:
    
    
    I was horrified when the pool cleaner guy attacked that girl with a
    beer can at the end of the movie!  Even though it was obvious that he
    was having a difficult time with his wife's chosen profession (phone
    sex), I never expected him to go crazy like that and kill someone,
    though.  Yet we hear about stuff like that happening on the news all
    the time.
    
    Also, as far as female nudity goes, I hope that actress who played the
    artist, Matthew Modine (the doctor's) wife, got paid a lot of money for
    her nude scene because she really looked ludicrous standing there with
    just her top on arguing with her husband.  It would take a heck of a
    lot of money for me to be able to happily live with that on film!!
    
    Lorna
    

    
    
    I caught this last weekend and rather enjoyed it (I don't live in L.A.
    and thought 'The Player' was O.K.-to-good).
    
    Potential spoilers...
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Some of the subject matter was disturbing e.g. the dead girl in the
    river and how nothing was done about it straight away, Chris Penn
    flipping out like that, dispensing phone sex while raising kids, Mr
    Roberts the evil baker, Huey Lewis' john thomas :-), etc.
    
    But I came away with an impression that the overwhelming message was to
    be a nicer person (perhaps it was just the mood that I was in).  It was
    also, in parts, interesting, funny, and highly entertaining.  Not at
    all like the painful experience of watching the physically and emotionally
    brutal 'Naked'.  
    
    I'd recommend it to anyone.
       
                                              

I rented this movie last night. (Inappropriately titled, btw, coming in at
about 3 hours length....)

At first, I didn't like the way the stories jumped all around; I would get
confused between some of the characters occassionaly, and I thought it just
moved too quickly. But after I settled into the movie, I started to catch
hold, and began to really enjoy it.

This is basically a case study of people who have something significant happen 
in their lives - for some it's a major turning point, for some it's just a 
bump in the road. Suicide, murder, accidents, infidelity, and alcoholism
are just some of the reasons for these people arriving at their personal
crossroads in life. 

There were so many actors and actresses in here, I know I'll never remember
half of them, but here's a few: Mathew Modine, Lily Tomlin, Madeline Stowe,
Tom Waits, Chris Penn, Anne Archer, Lori Singer, Jennifer-Jason Leigh,
Tim Robbins, Andie McDowell, and a whole bunch more.

I happened to like this movie a lot, more than most of the previous noters
here. It seemed very true-to-life; the dialogue acting and directing was
all top-notch; and after getting used to it, I liked the style of the movie
also. At first glance to me, it seemed sorta soap-opera-ish. But after
getting involved with the movie and knowing the characters, it seemed more
real to me than just about any other movie I've seen. 

BTW, I don't think the nudity was gratuitous. I think that Altman just
tried to portray these people and situations as they might actually occur
in real life, rather than in a movie. In real life, you can sometimes end
up in an arguement/discussion with your spouse while you happen to be
half-dressed, it's just the way it works sometimes! 

8.5 out of 10.

alan

    re. -1
    just to let you know, I liked it a lot, too !
    A.

	This movie has a great soundtrack also.  

	It's put out by IMAGO and if you enjoyed the bluesy music
	while watching the movie - this soundtrack is exceptional.

	I had to special order it.  It was well worth the wait and $.

	P.S.  I really liked this movie also.

	spoiler

	I saw the movie *days* after the LA earthquake.  If I had seen
	it before the earthquake I would have found the ending contrived.

    Rented this over the weekend and I enjoyed it. My wife couldn't take it
    (watching the guys fish while...) and left the room. It was interesting
    to map out who is separated from whom by how many degrees of separation.
    
    I didn't particularly like Mathew Modine, the doctor, mostly because I
    couldn't separate him from the character of Joker in _Full Metal Jacket_
    plus he wasn't convincingly angry when the script called for it.
    
    Who was the actress who looked like a young Susan Sarandon? Like .3 I
    hope she got a lot of money for her, ahhh, appearance.
    
      John

Also seen in The Fugitive, Benny & Joon, and Roommates recently.  See the
USENET databases for more detail.  Yes, she was certainly ... uninhibited...

 >                   -< That would be Julianne Moore. >-
    
    Related to any other Moores? Dudley, Demi, Roger...?

  I rented this and saw it last night. I thought it was pretty good. I'm not
sure if this was their original motivation but I thought the title "Short Cuts"
was really appropriate because the film is made up many smaller stories woven
together to show the lives of some middle class people in modern day L.A. 

  If there's a problem it's with the weaving. Yes all the story lines to manage
to touch each other but at times it seems a bit contrived. Also the story lines
themselves seem to jump around a bit with some things following naturally and
others seeming to skip around.

  But if you are willing to accept this as a collection of interesting bits and
pieces, it works very well. In particular Jack Lemon is outstanding in a short
story about a father who hasn't seen his son in 25 years. His explanation of
his affair with his wife's sister 30 years ago is hysterical. 

  In typical Altman fashion there is a cast of many fairly well known Hollywood
actors. They don't have as many cameos by superstars as they did in the Player
but there are quite a few familiar faces and the cast does a really fine job. 

  It's a long film which is necessary in part because of the large number of
story lines tangled together. There are no parts which are really boring which
is an accomplishment in itself. At times various story lines are quite good.
On the whole it's well worth seeing, particularly on tape where you can take a
break from time to time. 

  Contrary to previous replies, I found no gratuitous nudity. What little there
was fit quite well into the story.

  *** out of 5,
  George