The Terminal

[BigDumbWookiee]

Just got back from The Terminal tonight! It's a fantastic movie, very well done, has a lot of comedy in it, but has a nice solid story line. Very much worth the money to see it on the bigscreen.

For those of you who dont know, The Terminal is the latest movie from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks; loosely based on the true story of airport refugee Merhan Karimi Nessari, who was expelled from Iran in the late seventies for his protests against the shah. In August 1988 he found himself a refugee in Charles De Gaulle airport after his refugee documention was stolen in a mugging in Belgium. To date, he is still a resident of the airport, despite his now legally being able to enter into any European country. In 1999 he received an international travel card along with a French residency card. He still refuses to leave the airport, because he insists that his documents list his country of origin as Britain and not Iran. Many believe that he has become so used to life in the airport that he simply can't tear himself away.

The movie has little to do with this true story, aside from a foreign refugee living in an airport for a long period of time. It's a fantastic, and plausible story, extremely well done. The motivation behind Tom Hanks character (Viktor Navorski) turns out to be a moving idea.

For those into it, the movie is quite Spielbergian, in its most classic sense.

3 thumbs up.

[Matt]

Just got back from seeing this, and in the interest of keeping things brief, I thought it was somewhere between good and great.  It didn't end the way I thought it would, and I was so glad to see Wes Anderson's "Pagoda" in a non-Wes Anderson film (sorry for not knowing the actor's name, and being too lazy to look it up).

However, I have been dying to respond to this, which was posted by some "moviejunkie" over at that other forum:

Tom Hanks is usually great, but with a totally uncredible accent, and being a rom com done by SPIELBERG of all people!?

I don't see many good things coming of this.

Correct as usual, King Friday:

Spielberg plus Hanks:  BOX OFFICE POISON!!!

[Morgbug]

I had the pleasure to see this last night as well.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, though wasn't overly optimistic going in.  Spielberg is usually good, Hanks is usually good, so it was likely to be worth the price of admission.  But I must admit, it was much better than I expected.  

As far as the accent goes, meh, it's no worse than any other hollywood actor's attempt, so no reason for a complaint here.  And really, little of the movie was much of a romantic comedy anyway, so not a fair categorization either.  

Good movie, adult oriented.  Worth the price of admission.  All of this without my ketchup flavoring on my popcorn so it had to be good.

[Jesse James]

Spielberg plus Hanks:  BOX OFFICE POISON!!!

Not necessarilly true...  Shaving Ryan's Privates was really good...  I'd rate it as the top war movie of all time personally.  Band of Brothers was a close second (not a film of course, but damn close) I would say, and they did collaborate on that too.

I see your point though, in that Hanks and Speilberg are getting too chummy and things between "friends" can go horribly wrong at times.

Though...  I wonder what the prequals would be like had Speilberg jumped in on them with Lucas?  Would someone with some clout (where Lucas is concerned) actually maybe talked him down from the proverbial ledge?  Hmmmm

Hanks could do without Speilberg, and do everything Speilberg does to the power of 10 I think.  He has as keen a film eye as Speilberg, and he understands comedy better as well.

Hell, now I'm wondering what the prequals would've been like had Lucas been friends with Hanks instead and allowed him to help!  Maybe actually funny when they were supposed to be?  *gasp*

EDIT

BTW, sorry for the random thoughts there...  I'm not even familiar with the movie in question, haha.    I was just having a weird moment thinking about the prequals and friends working together on projects.  

[Scott]

And the sarcasm of said post was totally lost on you, Jesse

I'm going to see this...someday.  Expect a Big Fish type bump weeks from now when everyone else is like, yeah this is old news.

Spielberg is working on a War of the Worlds movie isn't he?  That might be interesting

I think his last 4 movies are great (Catch Me If You Can, Minority Report (vastly underrated), A.I. and Saving Private Ryan) not as great as Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders and E.T. but they are dang good

Spielberg is by far my favorite director and I await every movie he does with great anticipation, there are only 3 I haven't really cared for...Amistad, Always and Lost World and I think this one will be great.

[Jesse James]

And the sarcasm of said post was totally lost on you, Jesse

Yeah...  Hey, I drank a lot last night and had just woke up for the day...  Give me some slack I guess.

My confusion by the sarcasm at least is now validated since it was sarcasm.  I read it seriously and scratched my head.

I still stand by my point though that "friends" can make ugly partners in artistic creativity though.  And I still don't even know what movie we're talking about.    *sigh*

Anyway, don't mind me...  I'm still working on losing the massive hangover and it's already 12:30 a.m. into the next day.  

I feel a LITTLE less confused though now.  THanks for clearing that up for me Scott...  And damn Virex for not using some smiley to appease the drunks!

EDIT

I figured out what this film is, and simply didn't recognize the name.  I thought it looked strangely funny when I first saw previews for it a while back...  It sounds like it's getting high marks here so far at least, even if it's been trounced by DodgeBall of all the freaking films...

Now, back to my embarassement.

[Durge]

Just saw this on Friday. It's a really cute film. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Tom Hanks [Viktor] was great. Catherine Zeta-Jones [Amelia] was okay. I was SPOILER




































surprised that they didn't end up together at the end. Somewhat disappointed as well since much of the film focused on their strange relationship.

Overall, this film was really funny and I recommend it to anyone who appreciates a laid back romantic comedy.


Almost forgot!: My favorite line was during the poker game when they talk about Cher's panties and Viktor says "So we share the panties?"

[JoshEEE]

God Dammit Durge. I know that extra spaces probably take more time to type out and hence take time away from your fast and furious posting rate.....(which is probably a cardinal sin) but when you're going to post a SPOILER....this is how you do it:



SPOILER SPACE


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-Allow some space before the spoiler and some space after


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End Spoiler.


Anything like that is a lot easier to identify, instead of putting the spoiler right in the middle of a paragraph.

Thanks for ruining the movie jackhole.
 

[Matt]

when you're going to post a SPOILER....this is how you do it:

Hey, another way you could post spoilers here at JD might be this way:

SPOILER (highlight to read):

Durge's ass is banned.

END SPOILER.

 

[FX-7]

Saw it last weekend, loved it, might go again real soon!

[JoshEEE]

Hey, another way you could post spoilers here at JD might be this way:

SPOILER (highlight to read):

Durge's ass is banned.

END SPOILER.

I guess that's some small comfort. You know, there's really not much that can happen in a romantic comedy like this one. They get together or they don't.  I know reading reviews from folks on the internet I run the risk of hitting a spoiler or two, but usually on this site I can steer clear of them. People on star wars boards USUALLY know how to behave themselves regarding spoilers.

So I was understandably upset when some little buttwipe decided to post the ending of a movie that just came out in the middle of a paragraph.

I suppose that's what I get for reading his posts in the first place.


Anyway....despite the spoiler, it still sounds good, and I still want to see it.

[JoshEEE]

So, I finally saw this movie last night (thank you netflix)......and about 30 minutes into it, I remembered that this was the ending that stupid Durge had spoiled for me.

So, now I had the task of trying to sit through the whole thing suspending disbelief so I could enjoy it. I also didn't want to spoil it for my fiancee, even though I was really pissed off that I knew what was going to happen and I probably would have turned it off if I was watching it alone.

Turns out the movie had other things going for it and I still enjoyed it.....but I thought I'd bump this thread with a nice middle finger for everyone's favorite member.

And by "member" I mean "Tool".