Harold and Maude

Laughs (#45); Cheers (#89); Passions (#69); Top Ten - Romantic Comedy (#9)

I'm not gonna lie - this was just weird. 19-year-old Harold falls for 90-year-old Maude. A friendship, I could see. A romance? No, thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdgXCm06kNQ&feature=fvsr

An Officer and a Gentleman

Cheers (#68); Songs - Up Where We Belong (#75); Passions (#29)

Richard Gere spends thirteen weeks at a naval officers training boot camp, being whipped into shape by Louis Gossett Jr (who is very good in this movie). Meanwhile, Debra Winger and her friend try to get navy officer husbands, using any means at their disposal. Whatever.

Ironic moments -

Winger yells at Gere, "You treat women like whores!" Hmm...maybe if you didn't act like one...

Winger and Gere make fun of the band playing at a dance, because they're singing Tie a Yellow Ribbon and Feelings. Make funable songs indeed, and yet this is the movie that gave us Up Where We Belong (which, if you didn't know, spawned the even cheesier Christian version Lord, Lift Us Up Where We Belong).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98KZNd03l4U

Sense and Sensibility

Passions (#70)

1) I think Emma Thompson was the only one with any sense or sensibility in this movie. It's so frustrating being the only one with sense or sensibility.

2) Upon the death of their husband and father, the family was moved to a "small cottage" in the country. I sure would love that small cottage. It was not exactly small, and the setting was beautiful.

3) Snape...the Sheriff of Nottingham...the Die Hard bad guy...Alan Rickman does evil so well. But he also does vulnerable really well. He has a hurting, misunderstood demeanor that makes you feel like he's hiding some deep pain (which also served him well as Snape).

4) Speaking of Snape, British movies always have the same actors in them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDTBiEOoslc

She Done Him Wrong

Laughs (#75); Stars - Cary Grant (#2), Mae West (#15); Quotes - "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" (#26)

Not so squeaky clean nightclub owner Mae West falls for squeaky clean temperence worker Cary Grant. Sounds a bit like Guys and Dolls, except that in Guys, the mismatch made sense. Here it really doesn't.

Mae West has a screen presence that truly is larger than life. She's a caricature of herself, kind of the classiest trash in the trailer park. Cary Grant, no matter who he's playing, is suave. He has a sophisticated charm that makes him gentlemanly and dashing. The two of them are both really good at what they do - so good that they just can't convince me that they belong together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L0eJp7V2Zs

Love Me Tonight

Songs - Isn't It Romantic? (#73)

Isn't it romantic? Maurice the tailor falls in love with Jeanette the princess. It's sweet, simple, and a tad scandalous! Plus also, it made use of new photography techniques like slow motion and close-ups.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PyqwP3wCUg

Ghostbusters

Laughs (#28)

If you wanted to escape to the movies; to spend an hour and a half completely removed from reality, this would be one to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkKX035484

Cover Girl

Stars - Gene Kelly (#15), Rita Hayworth (#19); Songs - Long Ago and Far Away (#92)

There isn't a whole lot to this movie - a show girl at a small time club becomes a famous cover girl, leaving her past life (and love) behind. Predictable but sweet.

And of course, it has the great Gene Kelly. Doo lang, doo lang, doo lang.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US5Ud_kwwBw

Aliens

Heroes - Ellen Ripley (#8)

Random thoughts:

1) James Cameron's movies often have a strong female lead

2) And Bill Paxton

3) And lots of swearing in front of (or by) children

4) This one also had an annoying tough girl chick

5) And Paul Reiser

6) Are there really people who get into these kinds of movies?

7) Sigourney Weaver had really bad hair

8) Who just names their kid Sigourney?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTc3PsW5ghQ

Braveheart

Thrills (#91); Cheers (#62)

Okay, so I spent most of this movie in the other room yelling to my husband "Is it okay to come back yet?!" I don't like violence, gore, or torture, and this movie had plenty of all three.

That being said, it was a good movie. Mel Gibson has an affinity for stories in which the hero is willing to face death for what he considers important (The Patriot, The Passion of the Christ). There's a lot to be said for that, for the courage to look beyond current circumstances and trust that something better will come if one is willing to stand up for what they believe. It's admirable and heroic. The world needs more people like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU8OUEvhfS4

Dr. No

Quotes - "Bond. James Bond." (#22); Heroes - James Bond (#3)

This was the first James Bond movie made, and the second one that I've seen. It didn't have all the cool gadgets, and Sean Connery got better with age.

And that's what I thought of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m88eILM18bc

The Killing Fields

Cheers (#60)

I didn't think I would like this movie, because it's about killing and that sort of thing. It was very well done though. It shed light on an often overlooked part of recent history. The acting and writing was good, and the cinematography was excellent. I was also moved by the little touches the director put in, like a toddler crying because the sound of gunfire scared him, and a child running alone, lost in the confusion of a mass evacuation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92zK2w78J-c

National Lampoon's Animal House

Laughs (#36); Stars - Kevin Bacon (Current); Quotes - "Toga!  Toga!" (#82)

I had a great time in college. Largely because I had more maturity and self-respect than the characters in this movie.

Reds

Passsions (#55); Top Ten - Epic (#9)

First of all, I'd like to note my observation that apparently you get on the Epic list simply by making a much too long movie.

Besides the fact that it was tedious, I couldn't help but be annoyed with the characters. A small faction of people in the 1910s decide that America should be Communist, and they think that since that's what they think, that is how it should be. Their arrogance is astounding, as is their naivete about what their ideals would entail.

The one thing I liked was that, despite their volatile relationship, when Jack was in Russia and the government refused to let him leave, Louise did everything she could - no matter how difficult - to get to him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEfsOYVF8Rg

Vertigo

Top 100 (#61/9); Thrills (#18); Score (#12); Stars - James Stewart (#3); Passions (#18); Top Ten - Mystery (#1)

Don't shoot me, but I didn't love this movie. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. Maybe my Jimmy Stewart expectations are too high. At any rate, I had pretty much figured it out, so that killed the suspense factor. I never did get why Barbara Bel Geddes was there - maybe that's why they inexplicably wrote her out of the end of it. There wasn't a whole lot of vertigo-ness. And I couldn't help wondering why everyone at the hearing was wearing blue.

Anyways, it was fine, but it's not one of my favorites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idpCUocQkGw

Sherlock, Jr.

Laughs (#62); Stars - Buster Keaton (#21)

A hapless romantic tries to find his true love's missing necklace. I liked The Navigator better, but I'd guess this movie was notable because of its trick camera shots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJDgxllhzKY

Planet of the Apes

Thrills (#59); Score (#18); Quotes - "Get your stinking paws off me..." (#66)

Okay, seriously, this was just plain ridiculous. I suppose you could look at it as a statement for evolution or animal rights or something, but it was really just dumb. Why would Charlton Heston agree to such a thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDt6Awnex0A

The Fugitive

Thrills (#33)

Poor Dr. Kimble. It really would suck to be falsely imprisoned for killing one's wife. He should be mourning her death, not running from Tommy Lee Jones.

Anyways, well-acted and suspenseful. And overall pretty clean, which I like.

(The quality of this clip isn't the best. Sorry.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9sT6DCiavQ

Dial M for Murder

Thrills (#48); Stars - Grace Kelly (#13); Top Ten - Mystery (#9)

Very good, very suspenseful, and Grace Kelly is very beautiful. I love her clothes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgpByGsgADw

Apollo 13

Stars - Kevin Bacon (Current); Cheers (#12); Quotes - "Houston, we have a problem" (#50)

I love the cast - Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton. How great is that?

I really like this movie. It's exciting and cheerworthy. Definitely worth the rental.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfKF-36vjvg

Bonnie and Clyde

Top 100 (#27/42); Thrills (#13); Quotes - "We rob banks" (#41); Villains - Clyde Barrow & Bonnie Parker (#32); Passions (#65); Top Ten - Gangster (#5)

After I saw this movie, I bloodied my sister's nose. And that is my primary recollection of Bonnie and Clyde.

I don't quite know how gangstering comes across as an admirable crime, but in the movies it usually is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=copiznIfV3E

Diner

Laughs (#57); Stars - Kevin Bacon (Current)

A group of friends grow up (in age - not necessarily in maturity) and try to figure out what's next. It's kind of like St. Elmo's Fire, although Diner came first.

I don't know. It was okay. Nothing really happened - they just sat around talking about how nobody wanted to do anything.

It did, however, have Tim Daly, so that's a good thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2S47otA-TQ

And it had Paul Reiser - a little bit anyways - and that's a good thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hZ3nEZVfrU
And you can connect them all to Kevin Bacon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN2tw9Bs9uA

In Cold Blood

Top Ten - Courtroom Drama (#8)

I'm sure it was due to the subject matter, but this movie was just enh. It wasn't quite a drama, not quite a documentary. Just boring. I felt no connection at all with the characters, and I couldn't figure out just what the point was. Although maybe that was it - it was senseless.

And I really don't know why it was classified as "courtroom drama". There was a very, very short courtroom scene (with Grandpa Walton), and that was all.

Go figure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-HOfMGbJpA

Scarface

Quotes - "Say 'hello' to my little friend" (#61); Top Ten - Gangster (#10)

The best way to do a remake is to completely change it up, like turning Romeo and Juliet into West Side Story. That's what they did here. They took the Scarface movie of the 1930s and instead of setting it in Chicago with '30s gangsters, they placed it in 1980s Miami with Cuban drug lords.

That part was good. But then they also added 8,000 F-words and lots of blood and gore and ick. And needless to say, I didn't like it.

Oh, and I'm wondering - do casting directors read scripts and when they see lots of F-words, give Al Pacino a call? Or are the scripts nice and pleasant and Pacino adds the F-words himself?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2wD5TaMf2k