How’s your weekend everyone? Was it an eventful one or busy with Christmas shopping? Well, the arctic air still hasn’t left us yet, it’s really getting pathetic that we got excited when temps go even 15 above zero! Today it’s almost 30˚ F and boy did it feel good! Here’s a recap of what I saw, as well as a few film-related events happening this weekend:
Well this weekend I got to see the new *re
imagined* version of The Phantom of the Opera, created by Cameron Mackintosh. It’s incredible that POTO is celebrating 25 years on Broadway this year and this new production — with a new set, choreography, lighting and scenic design — has premiered in the UK last year. This is the third time I saw POTO on stage and I was mesmerized once again. It’s really all about those gorgeous, haunting music and the younger cast definitely bring the story to life. I LOVE the stage production but it also makes me appreciate the 2004 film with Gerry Butler in the title role, which is decidedly faithful to the stage version. I appreciate both format but the nice thing about the film is that I can easily watch that over and over again on my Blu-ray 😀
As I saw three advanced screening during the week: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (check out my thoughts on the movie), Saving Mr. Banks and Inside Llewyn Davis), so this weekend I opted for home cinema. Thanks to Kim and Fernando for recommending these two animated features.
As a big fan of How to Train Your Dragon, I definitely enjoyed this short film immensely. The baby dragons are as adorable as ever, but once again, the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless the Night Fury is at the heart of it. I can’t wait for the follow-up to HTTYD coming next year!
I actually have seen Hunchback of Notre Dame a long time ago but for some reason I didn’t remember much of it. It’s darker than the average Disney animated features, but the story demands it so it works well here. Of course it’s not without the conventional Disney ballads and goofy-but-endearing characters, but the story definitely has a good message of good vs. evil and a heartwarming tale about the triumph of the outcasts.
This weekend, we saw the passing of a true Hollywood legend, Peter O’Toole. Apparently he was being treated at London’s Wellington hospital after a long illness. He was 81.
I had just seen his most iconic role in Lawrence of Arabia for the first time earlier this year. In fact, I got the Blu-ray version and both my husband and I was really blown away by it. It definitely lives up to the masterpiece status, both the film and Mr. O’Toole’s performance are hugely iconic. I have only seen Mr. O’Toole in The Lion in Winter, his cameo in One Night with the King, and his voice work in Ratatouille. I should try to see his comedic work in My Favorite Year (which my friend Kevin has reviewed here) and How To Steal A Million with Audrey Hepburn.
Farewell Mr. O’Toole, may you rest in peace.
As 2013 draws to a close, soon comes a time of huge buzz and anticipation for 2014 movies. One of the big ones is Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi INTERSTELLAR. I just had to post the trailer here in case you haven’t seen it yet:
In the future, governments and economies across the globe have collapsed, food is scarce, NASA is no more, and the 20th Century is to blame. A mysterious rip in spacetime opens and it’s up to whatever is left of NASA to explore and offer up hope for mankind.
Ok so yes I’m a bit of a Nolan groupie but his trailers always get me salivating and frustrated that we have to wait a whole year for this!! The story is intriguing and mysterious, as every Nolan film is shrouded in secrecy. But the cast also got me excited. Matthew McConaughey is hotter than hot right now and I LOVE Jessica Chastain, plus the supporting cast looks great with Nolan regular Michael Caine, John Lithgow, David Oyelowo, Anne Hathaway and Casey Affleck!
Oh, I also just came across this brilliant fan-made, crossover video from episodes of BBC’s Dr. Who and Sherlock. It’s too awesome not to share:
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Well, that’s the weekend recap folks, what did you watch this weekend?
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
Interstellar looks awesome. And that cast? Wow.
I know isn’t it? Nolan certainly knows how to cut his trailers, AND choosing his cast! Too bad we have like a whole year to wait for that!
No kidding. 😦
Thanks for the mention! I’m happy that you enjoyed Gift of Night Fury 🙂 As for Peter O’Toole, its another great loss. You should definitely check out How to Steal a Million. I loved that one a lot 🙂 Him and Audrey Hepburn were pretty fantastic!
No thank YOU! It’s such a lovely movie, I actually teared up a bit when Toothless came back 😀
Oh I will definitely rent that one, I never saw Mr. O’Toole in comedies. My Favorite Year sounds like a good one, too!
I didn’t see any movies this weekend, as I’ve been frantically studying for finals. WHICH ARE NOW OVER!! I’m really looking forward to getting back to watching movies and writing about them.
I was very sad to hear about Peter O’Toole. He’s one of my favorite actors and Lawrence of Arabia is my favorite movie. How to Steal a Million is really fun; it’s not super high level work but it’s a cute movie and O’Toole and Hepburn work great together. Joan Fontaine died over the weekend too, so I was pretty down in the dumps 😦
Interstellar looks awesome! I must say seeing McConaughey in a movie about space has me really excited because it reminds me of Contact! And it’s not like I can not be excited for anything Nolan does!
Hey, glad finals are over!! It’s been ages since I had to endure that but I totally know the feeling.
Yeah, it’s sad about O’Toole. Lawrence of Arabia is amazing but I want to see his comedic work, so yeah How to Steal a Million is on my list.
I’ve never seen anything my Joan Fontaine and I just realized she’s Olivia deHavilland’s sister, well estranged sister but wow, I had no idea!
Haven’t seen Contact yet, is that worth seeing? I’ve been hearing mixed reviews. But yeah, I’m always excited when it’s a Nolan movie!
I really love Contact, I think some people think the ending sort of gets bogged down with rhetorical arguments but I love that sort of thing. Ebert has it as a “Great Movie” if that convinces you. And McConaughey and Jodie Foster are pretty awesome in it.
I’ve been curious about it so since you vouch for it, I’ll give it a shot. I always like a good sci-fi 😀
SOOOOO excited for “Interstellar” even if the trailer was a bit ‘meh’. Nolan always delivers though and us groupies have a lot to be excited about. As you said, that cast! woo hoo! And farewell to Mr. O’Toole. It always saddens me to hear of the death of the classic actors/actresses.
Interesting that you thought the trailer was meh. I thought it was great. But yeah, Nolan usually delivers and this one looks VERY promising!
Yeah, Mr. O’Toole is still relatively young at 81 too 😦
I just didn’t take much away from the trailer. It felt a little like a discovery channel promo to me. At least until the end where we see MM driving down a dirt road close to the end. But hey, my excitement for the movie is through the roof. I can’t wait.
Ahah, discovery channel promo! You’re too funny. I’m most intrigued seeing Matthew’s teary-eyed face towards the end when he’s driving, no sign of Jessica Chastain though.
Btw, did you see The Hobbit 2, Keith?
Haven’t seen The Hobbit 2 yet. I promised my son that I’ll watch it for the first time with him. But school hasn’t been kind so hopefully we’ll be seeing it this weekend.
Oh cool! How old is your son again? There are some darker moments but not any darker than LOTR. Well I’ve posted my top 10 list why I loved it so after you see it, stop by and compare notes 😀
He turns 12 Thursday. Can’t wait to see it with him. I saw bits of your review and decided to bookmark it. After I see it I’ll definitely be stopping back by. There seems to be some mixed opinions on the movie.
Oh I know, there are people who aren’t fond of it but they probably the same people who didn’t like the idea of splitting it into 3 films. I for one am always glad to return to Middle Earth!
I’m with you. That’s been my opinion all along. I adore that world.
I’m sooo excited about Interstellar.
I saw no movies this weekend but did record my first podcast! Just need to edit down the 3 hour running time!
Great post Ruth 🙂
Yay, glad you are too!
What’s your podcast about Mikey? Are you gonna post it on your blog?
I just started off doing a review of 2013. But then I played it back and my accent is horrendous!! Might have to edit myself out of it!
I’ll post it everywhere when we’re finished editing. Hope you can listen to it 🙂
Ahah, I’m sure your accent is fine. You’re Irish right? I LOVE Irish lilt 😀
Yeah send me or tweet me the link when you’re done ok?
Haha there are a few different Irish accents! You’ll soon find out which one mines is!
I’ll definitely send you it when its finished 🙂
Hi, Ruth:
Not a great weekend with the passing of another great, Peter O’Toole.
BBC/America very wisely re-ran ‘Day of The Doctor’. One of Moffat’s best for solving a mystery while introducing new characters. Always a treat to see Kate Lethridge-Stewart while the two latest Doctors do what they do as John Hurt seemed deliberately unimpressed. Tom Baker’s cameo wrapped everything up in a lovely bow!
‘Wholock’ looks great and seems a plausible hook to hang a tree episode arc on!
While Matthew McConaughey appears to be coming into his own as this decade’s talent. Saw him in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ and was mightily impressed. As I was with ‘Dragons: Gift of The Night Fury’.
Oh I remember the adverts for Day of the Doctor! I’m sure the Who-vians are thrilled about that. Wholock is such a hoot! I haven’t seen too many episodes but it was still fun to watch.
Yeah, Matthew won me over again in Lincoln Lawyer, glad to see him ditching his silly rom-coms. Nice to see you’re a fan of the ‘Dragon’ animated features 😀
Seems like everyone has said it all….looking forward to the movies you mentioned and feel saddened by the loss of two fine actors. All I can add is “what a year” for Matthew McConaughey. I’m glad he’s taking a break from romantic comedies and doing meatier roles. I have liked him since ‘A Time to Kill’. It’s great to look forward to his roles again. 🙂
Are you a big fan of Mr. O’Toole Cindy? I still need to see more of his work, esp. his comedic roles as I think he’d be great in them.
Boy I still need to see A Time to Kill, it seems a hard watch but I’m curious to see his and Sandra Bullock’s performances.
Bullock and Matthew? hot, hot, hot! While the subject matter is revolting, it wasn’t hard to watch, really. The tragedy of the daughter’s experience is suggested but not visually overly graphic. Just really powerful. I was just going to do a post on John Grisham films 😉 About O-Toole–I do like him much! I’m in the same boat with you–plenty more to see.
I definitely will check out A Time to Kill, Cindy. Oh, a post on John Grisham sounds great 🙂
Stay tuned for a great tribute for Mr. O’Toole courtesy of my friend Dave.
Sign me up for Interstellar! Okay, I’m a Nolan groupie too, so that’s a given. I can’t wait for How To Train Your Dragon 2 either. I absolutely loved the first one.
Yay, nice to see another Nolan groupie 🙂 He hasn’t made a bad film yet. I think HTTYD is my one of my fave animated features ever. Can’t wait to see the 2nd movie, esp. with Hiccup growing up. But it’s Toothless who’s really the scene-stealer!
Great post! Again, you’re welcome. Glad you took my recommendation 🙂 Looking forward to your thoughts on the new movies you watched this weekend.
POTO sounds great.. I’d love to see that on the stage!
I can’t wait for Interstellar!
It was perfect timing as we’re looking for a shorter movie and my hubby hasn’t seen it. I’ve been too busy to write reviews lately, but watch for Anchorman 2 and Saving Mr Banks reviews from my contributors.
POTO is absolutely magical to see on stage! The songs are incredible and it STAYS with you. I might see it again before the tour leaves Minneapolis 😉
It’s really good then! hehe Hope you do get to do a second round of POTO!
It really was! This is the 25th Anniversary version with a new producer so it’s a bit different than I remembered it. The thing is, it’s not cheap. But it’s totally worth it though, hope you get to see it one day, Fernando!
I bet it isn’t. And I hope I see it someday!
Yeah, when it tours in San Diego you should do it. It’s a special engagement so I’m glad Minneapolis was one of the cities they’re playing in!
I’ll look out for it.
I really love Peter O’Toole as I was bummed by his passing. Basically, I spent the weekend watching Early Spring by Yasujiro Ozu and the last 2 days watching Sergei Eisenstein’s two-part film Ivan the Terrible as well as do some more Xmas Criterion shopping where there was another sale. I hope to have more cash this weekend for some more Xmas shopping.
Hi Steven! Yeah Mr. O’Toole was gone too soon, I didn’t even know he was ill 😦
Ahah, Ivan the Terrible! I should watch that at some point as my hubby’s name is Ivan (though he’s not Russian) and people always associate him w/ that character.
Have fun Christmas shopping, good thing I don’t have to do that, I only had to buy stuff for my immediate family. It’s not really my culture to give gifts for Christmas, well not the way Americans do it anyway 🙂
Yeah, while that trailer might not show much (it IS a teaser after all), just the idea of McConaughey working with Nolan is enough to pique my interest. Wonder if the rest of the Nolan usuals will end up coming aboard this project?
You’re right, it’s a teaser! I like that it’s very cryptic, it’s meant to give us just enough to make us wonder. Some of Nolan’s *posse* if you will, are already on board: Michael Caine is one, and Anne Hathaway has worked with him before. Maybe Cillian Murphy would make a cameo 😉
I saw The Hobbit 2 Friday, then watched a couple of Blurays I ordered from Black Friday. The unrated World War Z, the extra violent was a welcome addition since I thought the watered down theatrical version was awfully edited. I still have issues with the movie, mostly the not so spectacular ending. Let’s see if they’ll make it better for the sequel. Then I watched Live and Let Die, I haven’t seen it in a long time and boy it definitely a Bond film from the early 70s. It’s weird too seeing a “young” Roger Moore as Bond since most of the ones he starred in, he looked way too old. And he’s already 45 years old when he took the Bond role.
Sad to hear that Peter O’Toole passed away, he’ll always be T.E. Lawrence. I haven’t seen many of his work either, the last film I saw him in was the awful “Troy”. I remember he said he walked out of the movie after 20 minutes in, he hated the movie and this was during the film’s premiere in Hollywood.
I can’t wait to see Interstellar, hopefully Nolan filmed all of the space sequence with IMAX cameras. And I loved that teaser and it’s funny to me to hear people bitched that it didn’t show anything, well they’re still shooting the movie so of course there’s not much to be shown. Pretty sure we’ll see more footage in the next trailer, probably around the spring time when the big movies opens next year.
So the unrated version of WWZ is even more violent eh? Hmmm, I don’t think I can watch that, ahah. WOW, I forgot Moore was already 45 years old when he took on the Bond role, no wonder he looked waaay too old in his later films!
OMG, I forgot O’Toole was in TROY as well. Ahah, funny that he hated the movie he was in, but yeah, that was a Gladiator wanna-be, I only liked it for Eric Bana.
I bet Nolan did film some parts in IMAX Ted, he LOVES that technology. Yeah it’s silly that people wish to see a lot of footage in a teaser! Then they’d complain when it shows too much. I really can’t wait for that one!
They just extended some of the action sequences and showed some blood, but it’s not too overly violent like other zombies flick though. Yup, I remember a scene in Octopussy where he wore his pants all the way up to his waist and he looked like a grandfather, lol.
Yeah Nolan said he’s using IMAX cameras for Interstellar, I hope all the space sequences will be in IMAX. Just like the way the arena sequences were all in IMAX in The Hunger Games 2, I don’t like the constant aspect ratio changes.
I really do love that “Interstellar” trailer. I wish every trailer was like it. Reveals nothing but still says everything.
Hi Nick! Yeah, making trailers is really an art form, some certainly knows how to tease 🙂
So sad hearing about O’Toole’s passing this weekend. I love Lawrence of Arabia and really enjoy How to Steal a Million, but I need to check out more of his work as well.
Bring on Interstellar! It’s probably my most anticipated film of 2014. 😀
Hi Josh! I should watch How to Steal a Million soon, I mean I LOVE Audrey Hepburn! Yeah, I think Interstellar definitely makes my Top 5 most anticipated of 2014!
Awesome is not a word that I tend to use but in the case of Interstellar, that’s a the perfect description. Can’t wait!!
Ahah this is the first time I saw you use the word ‘awesome’ so it must be very special 🙂
I wasn’t really aware of Interstellar until now but that looks brilliant. Colour me very interested! I managed to catch up with The Act of Killing over the weekend. Just, wow!
Interstellar is one I’ll be keeping an eye on, well most of Nolan movies are often on my radar 🙂 Oooh I’m gonna be checking out your post on The Act of Killing, WOW is generally how I’d describe it!
Honestly,i can’t say i was blown away by the teaser. I mean with Nolans track record and the cast im pretty sure it will be awesome,but so far i can’t say i am uber excited by it yet.
That’s ok Julian, sometimes it’s best to have a tepid expectations anyway. I always get so caught up in my excitement about certain films 🙂
I really can’t wait for Interstellar either. The trailer to his films are always so good, and they do the trick of creating anticipation without revealing much or hardly anything at all. The cast is tremendous, and Matthew McConaughey has never been a “hotter” commodity than he is today. We are witnessing the peak of an actor who had gotten used to underperforming.
Still pretty saddened by the passing of Peter O’Toole. Not only an acting legend in film and theater, but also a larger-than-life personality who crossed paths with many other Hollywood icons. I’m so glad he received the Honorary Oscar before it was too late.
As for my weekend, I caught four films right at home: Monsters University, Europa Report, Another Year & Reservoir Dogs (a blind spot I finally got to see). The best was definitely the latter, which lived up to the hype and is probably my second favorite Tarantino film behind Pulp Fiction.
Interesting how Matthew McConaughey has become a hot commodity all over again the way Robert Downey Jr was w/ Iron Man, glad to see that happens.
Yeah, Mr. O’Toole is a rarity even in Hollywood, yeah good thing they honored him before he died.
I haven’t seen Reservoir Dogs but I read enough about it that I don’t think I could handle the extreme violence.
The global warming/crop ideas are quite worrying and could easily slide into the earnest/preachy/cheesy mode this sort of movie could become anyway.
Putting all that aside, I hope it’s a really grand adventure the likes we haven’t seen for a long time and I do think the potential is there. Finally somebody gets the idea of what a teaser must be.This creates anticipation. Good work.
Hi Jack, yeah I’m on the optimistic side w/ Interstellar as I like Nolan’s work. I sure hope it won’t be preachy environmentalism crap that I’m so sick of. We shall see 😀