Thanks Amy you RUINED the movie for me! Damn you!

Actually thanks I hate those kind of things with the driving and crowds in movies and tv shows. I am a real nitpicker about those kind of details. Ever take a look at the movie cliches lists around te internet.

http://www.moviecliches.com/

John Paulson, that's a funny site! Here's another one you might already know about called Nitpickers, which covers similar ground:

http://www.nitpickers.com/

I always get nervous when a movie shows scenes about military people -- hair too long, wrong uniforms, wrong rank for the job, etc. But sometimes the producers get it right.

Speaking of absurdity, don't get me started on the latest Star Trek.

Don't forget the cliche that all foreigners are simpletons that need the Americans to rescue them/figure things out for them/etc.

I was in Rome last year and it was cool seeing the architecture. I vaguely remembered some of the Davinci Code, I read the book a few years ago, but the real history was way more interesting.

There are lots of Vespas and electric scooters in Toronto now, in the downtown area. If the weather wasn't crap in the winter it would be great to get around year round.

...but was the movie any good at all?

Don't tell me Amy Alkon doesn't believe in underground organizations conspiring against THE CHURCH?!?

Amy doesn't believe in violence, Gretchen! I believe in use of reason.

Another movie thing that always bothers me - when people are driving in a movie, with a passenger, and they're talking to the passenger and not looking at the road for a really long time.

P.S. Love Ebert's book on the silly and unbelievable things in movies, Ebert's Little Movie Glossary: A Compendium of Movie Cliches, Stereotypes, Obligatory Scenes, Hackneyed Formulas, Shopworn Conventions, and Outdated Archetypes.

Oh, can't we just go to a movie, turn our brains off for a bit and watch things get blown up real good!?! I mean, it's all a fantasy anyway...

I think I would have walked away when it came to the search... I started Benjamin Button last night, am enjoying it so far.

I read the book. Why would I want to see Ron Howard’s interpretation of what Dan Brown wrote and ruin mine?

Eddie and the Cruisers was better than the book. I can't recall any other movie that I'd say that about.

Oh, can't we just go to a movie, turn our brains off for a bit and watch things get blown up real good!?! I mean, it's all a fantasy anyway...

I am ALL for that. I loved Die Hard and Oceans Eleven and caper movies. This lacked tension in a major way. I don't think this gives too much away, but there were things that were supposed to happen on the hour and they were kind of, "Oh, look, it's quarter to...maybe we should speed across Rome through the usually blocked traffic in big, black cars..."

Oh, can't we just go to a movie, turn our brains off for a bit and watch things get blown up real good!?! I mean, it's all a fantasy anyway...

As Ms Alkon said, certainly. Part of it is expectations, I guess. I had to go with my kids to the Hannah Montana movie a few weeks ago. I was prepared to cringe through the whole thing, but there was actually more to the movie than I expected. On the other hand, some movies deliver less than I expected. For example, all three of the Star Wars prequels had scenes where Obi-wan Kenobi is in mortal peril. Since we know he won't die, the scene is wasted, as is the viewer's time and money.

Dan Brown's books are a waste of paper and time. Tour guidebooks intermingled with implausible and ridiculous "plotically-correct" stories.

Well! Mr. Brown's always spoken highly of your work....

I'm with Eric - in agreement that is. I would have walked back out when they started searching my stuff, or if I thought it would really bum out the person I was with, I would never come back.

It's bad enough paying 7 bucks apiece and 2 bucks for the candy that you can't sneak in (tough in the summer time). I see no reason not to wait for the DVD to come out in China for 45 cents US. Come to think of it, I could get it in China about 2 hours after the first showing starts in the theaters in LA. thanks to people sort of like Amy - I mean they sneak their camera in ;-) AND they have the decency to film the damn thing for the rest of us (and for the poor, starving* people in China who don't have 7 bucks plus popcorn money)

* Entertainment-starved, not food-starved.

Oh, it'd probably be over a buck for a blue-ray movie, so that kinda sucks. Whatdya gonna do? Tough times all around.

This was a free screening, and I am completely against people who violate others' copyrights, and at one moment, the weirdo lady next to me was holding some weird thing up, and I thought she might have been filming (the seizure of my phone brings out the detective in me). Had she been, I would've called out the mounties on her. I defend my own copyrights, and to not defend against the theft of others' would be hypocritical.

Another recent dog was Duplicity.

But, I do LOVE caper films like Oceans Eleven and films like Die Hard. Any recommendations? Recent or past.

Movies theaters have priced themselves out business as far as I am concerned. Two people to see a film is $35.00 now for uncomfortably loud, crowded theaters. We get a whole month of Netflix and a more enjoyable experience for far less cost.

I had a premonition you would write about the copyrights, Amy, as I know you write for a living. I understand the need for these, and more importantly, patents.

However, I will tell you that the Chinese do not give a damn about any of this, though they would if they exported anything like the amount of media that we do. I also would feel no loss if all of Hollywood went out of business. 95% of the movies made since the mid-80's suck to high heaven, but more importantly, these people's left-wing attitudes, in particular anti-business, makes me want them to taste some of the love themselves. I'd like to see their jobs get outsourced to Hong Kong and Shanghai.

If you like Bruce Willis, I'd see Last Man Standing, and The Last Boy Scout

Amy, I really enjoyed "Taken." Clever and exciting, with very realistic hand-to-hand combat scenes.

Speaking of video, I think everyone would love to see Amy Alkon Vlogs.

Taken was a fun, back-to-basics action movie, featuring a lumbering, angry middle-aged man as the protagonist. The best thing about the movie is that it lacked the gee-whiz computer graphics of the summer blockbusters.