Jul. 31st, 2010

desertvixen: (schroedingers cat)


Trying to get caught up here!

ExpandDays 1-12 )


Day 13 - A movie that is a guilty pleasure - I have LOTS of these.  I like stupid comedies, and murder mysteries, and over-blown period pieces.  For this one, I'm going with a 1976 film, Murder by Death (written by Neil Simon).  It's a fabulously hilarious spoof of some of fiction's more famous detectives and things that annoy people who read murder mysteries.  Dick and Dora Charleston (based on Nick and Nora, naturally - played by David Niven and Maggie Smith in fine style), Sam Diamond (based on Sam Spade, played by Peter Falk, with Eileen Brennan as his Gal Friday), Milo Perrier (based on Poirot, played by James Coco), Miss Jessica Marbles (based on "Aunt Jane" Marple, played by Elsa Lancaster), and Sidney Wang (based on Charlie Chan, played by Peter Sellers).  It takes some familiarity with the genre, and you have to keep in mind when it was made.  But I love it.  It's so ridiculous, it's hilarious. 

Day 14 - A movie that no one would expect you to love - One of the film types I listed is NOT Westerns.  I'm not a big fan of shoot-em-up movies, but I like this one.  It's Big Jake (made in 1971) and naturally, it stars John Wayne (with Maureen O'Hara for all of five minutes).  The movie pretty much opens with the McCandles ranch being attacked by a band of out-of-work criminals, with plenty of on-screen and suggested violence.  I think it's the motorcars in the movie, or the fact that it shows the Old West giving way to a Newer West.  I'm not sure why, I just like it.

Day 15 - A character who you can relate to the most -  Wendy, from Peter Pan.  I can completely sympathize with being the only female, being the voice of reason, having to be the responsible one - and yet, having the imagination to still tell stories and imagine things like the mermaid lagoon.  Work especially makes me feel like I'm stuck with the Lost Boys.

Day 16 - A movie that you used to love but now hate -  This is hard because I don't change my opinion on a lot of movies.  The best thing that I can come up with is Disney's The Fox and The Hound.  I really liked it as a kid, and now every time I watch it, I bawl my eyes out when the widow has to take Todd to the sanctuary.  I also really dislike the hunter/trapper, and sort of wish the bear HAD eaten him.

Expand30 Day Movie Meme )

 


desertvixen: (Initial D)

Still trying to get caught up, but I don't want to have some long post hogging people's Friends pages.

ExpandDays 1-16 )
Day 17 - A movie that disappointed you the most -  The 2005 Pride and Prejudice.  The people looked pretty, and I wanted to like the casting of Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennett and Judi Dench as Lady Catherine.... and from the minute they showed PIGS in the Bennett house, I was done with that movie.  I also have noticed that several of the authors who've written some of the BAD Pride and Prejudice spinoffs/continuations seemed to have liked this movie the best.  One put that in her afterword.  If she'd put it up front, I never would have read the thing, and wouldn't have wasted my time.

Day 18 - A movie that you wish more people would've seen -  Given my admitted love for the over-blown period piece, I go with Young Catherine.  Technically, it's a four hour miniseries, but I'd consider it fair game for this meme.  Julia Ormond plays a young Catherine the Great (obviously) - the movie ends with her being crowned empress.  Vanessa Redgrave plays the Empress Elisabeth, Christopher Plummer plays the British envoy, Sir Charles, and Marc Frankel is enjoyable as Gregory Orlov.  There's a lot of historical facts omitted, but I think it does a good job of capturing the feeling.  It was also much better, IMO, then the A&E production with Catherine Zeta-Jones, I think because it confined itself to the younger period.  It's well worth the four hours.

Day 19 - Favorite movie based on a book/comic/etc. - For this one, I was a little torn.  Part of me wanted to pick the Anne of Green Gables miniseries starring Megan Follows because the first one was pretty wonderful, but after some thought, I have to go with the 1983 BBC miniseries of Mansfield Park.  (Honestly, I think it's hard to do a good book justice within the confines of a two-hour movie.)  I picked it because I think a lot of people already love Anne - it's hard not to - and this miniseries really made Mansfield Park come alive - the good characters and the bad.  It helped me really see how Fanny and Edmund fall for each other, and even though neither of them are a typical romance character, the scene towards the end of the movie where they acknowledge their feelings for each other is very good, very subtle, and very fitting.

Day 20 - Favorite movie from your favorite actor/actress - I don't really have a favorite actor or actress (all depends on the role they're playing) but for the sake of answering the question, I'll pick Katharine Hepburn, and that means The Lion in Winter.  Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole play Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II and it's pretty awesome (and not horribly historically bad).  It brings them to life.  I was looking for a quote to share, but they all seem flat on paper.  Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close did a remake of it in 2003, and it wasn't bad, but Glenn Close isn't Katharine Hepburn.  Just go watch it.  I always recommend it when people say history isn't sexy.

Expand30 Day Movie Meme )

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