Non-Christian related movies

oh, yes... I forgot musicals....
"Chicago" was wonderful... great performances throughout... John C Reilly was surprisingly great.... the movie version of "Les Miserables" was very good as well. Anne Hathaway's performance of "I dreamed a dream" will bring tears to your eyes... just among the most heartfelt, compelling performances of a song ever. Right up there with Dame Judi Dench singing "Send in the Clowns" in whatever play that was.. don't remember offhand.

This version...

I never saw either Chicago or Les Miserables, but one of my favorites along that line is the 2004 version of The Phantom of the Opera. I have both that and a 25th-anniversary stage performance on the Blu-Ray format, but I'd really love to see the movie get a 4K upgrade. The colors and sets are so bold and vibrant, I can't even imagine what they would be like at four times the resolution. The soundtrack is off the wall as well. People condemned Andrew Lloyd Webber back then, for hiring Gerard Butler since he had no vocal training...but if you ask me, he knocked it out of the park.

No, I've never seen that. I've heard the title in passing a few times, but that's about it.

OK, I just finished watching The Matrix Reloaded on 4K, having not seen it in probably ten years or better. To be honest, I don't think its as good as the original, but it was still a lot of fun. I do think the freeway sequence and Neo's fight with the Merovingian's goons made the story feel stretched a little too long. Certain moments with the first film made me feel the same way, like Neo and Trinity's rescue of Morpheus taking at least 10 full minutes, or longer. I'm usually patient with these kinds of things, but sometimes less really is more.

Anyway, back to the sequel: the only other downside to it that I saw, was a lack of color grading that matched what had been established in the original picture. The 1999 effort was basically split into three color schemes - blue for the real world, and either yellow or green for the Matrix itself. But in this one, almost everything was some shade of blue the majority of the time. There were some exceptions, like the scene with the Oracle and Smith's clones, plus Neo's chat with the Architect. But overall, I didn't remember the color differences being so drastic.

The UHD image was still gorgeous though; I loved the attention to detail and things like clothes, skin textures, and special effects. The so-called "Burly Brawl" still looks a bit like a bad PlayStation game, but I think that was due to a pair of things - tech limits of the time and the directors wanting to push that concept too far. We didn't need to see Neo fighting 200 Smiths to get the point across - half that number would've been enough. Thankfully, most of that sequence is accomplished in close and medium shots, so only the widest ones look compromised.

Overall, I give this one a solid 8/10. Next up is Revolutions (probably in a few days; I don't want to rush myself).

ahh... you should do so....

Chicago is a happy, funny, "bouncy" sort of musical, with surprisingly good performances from all the cast... Queen Latifah as "Big Momma"... it's just a wonderful movie

Les Miserables is much like what you described in "Phantom...." who knew that Anne Hathaway could sing? Or any of the others? Russel Crowe has a band, I think, but Hugh Jackman? It's just great, all the way around....

I loved Chicago. And after you posted about Anne's version of "I had a Dream," I went and listened to it. I was very impressed. .

I watched Gigi and Nate last night, and quite enjoyed this based-very-loosely-on-a-true-story telling of a young man
who found hope and a reason to live in his service companion, a Capuchin monkey, after becoming a quadriplegic.

After watching it I wondered about the monkey, whether it was CGI or not, and discovered
it was a mix of using a real monkey and a digital monkey, though I really could not tell.

Really enjoyed seeing Marcia Gay Harden, Jim Belushi, and Diane Ladd in this...

The lead was quite good also, and the monkey was, of course, adorable .