30 Day Movie Meme, Day 5

[desertvixen]

Day 01- The best movie you saw during the last year -- Keep in mind I don't get to the theater much, even when I'm not deployed.  I'm going to have to go with the Star Trek reload (although to be fair, I saw it on a bootleg in Iraq).  It had some lame moments, but it also had some moments that just made you sit up and go, "This is freaking awesome" (like the whole beginning bit where they're evacuating the ship, and Kirk's Dad goes to leave and has to turn back - that moment  really pulled me in).  Plus, old!Spock made me feel better about it not just being a stupid retcon.  Karl Urban was not-too-bad (but I still prefer Original McCoy) and the guy who played Sulu was great. 

Day 02 - The most underrated movie -- Keep in mind the lack-of-theatergoing thing, but I'm going to have to go with the BBC "Poirot" adaptation of Cards on the Table.  There seemed to be a lot of people who were annoyed at the changes made to the book story, but I thought it was pretty good.  It stayed closer to the stated intent (four sleuths v. four criminals) by keeping all four suspects in play to the end, where in the book it pretty much came down to the last suspect standing. 

A lot of people seem to object to the sexual undertone that BBC puts in - in this case the implied homosexual and risky behaviors of the Superintendant (which Poirot didn't seem to actually condemn, just suggest that he shouldn't allow blackmail potential), the clerk who makes a sort-of pass at Poirot, and the two women, which I thought there was at least some subtext for in the book.  (They also change which member of the pair drowns.)

It also has some excellent casting - Zoe Wanamaker as Ariadne Oliver (who is PERFECT) and the really yummy guy who plays Major Despard, Tristan Gemmill.

Day 03 - A movie that makes you really happy --  For this one, I nominate The Thin Man.  It's pretty hard to stay in a bad mood after a good dose of Nick and Nora Charles, if only because they're so fun.  William Powell and Myrna Loy have oodles of chemistry with each other, and the mystery isn't horrible.  I'm also a sucker for "get all the suspects together and explain everything", because yes, I am an Agatha Christie fan.  The character interactions make me laugh, and the dialogue is always snappy.

Day 04 - A movie that makes you sad -- Now it's time to revisit something from my days at DLI, because there aren't many movies that make me sad and leave me that way.  Plenty of Disney movies have those moments, but generally they have happy endings.  This one doesn't have a happy ending, but that's because it's about Russian history under Stalin.

The movie is Nikita Mikhailov's Burnt by the Sun, a story about 1936 Russia.  It has pretty much everything - moments of drama, comedy, passion, tragedy, Stalinist repression, and the general sense of dread that seems to be in a lot of Russian history.  It also takes a couple go-rounds to really get it, but when we finished it,the class was quiet enough that you could have heard a pin drop in our class.  There's a love triangle, between Mikhailov's Colonel Kotov, his younger wife Marusia, and Mitya (now an NKVD man).  There's a lot of symbolism in the movie, and a lot of confusion, and one brief moment of uplift at the very end, but not enough to lift the depression that comes from knowing these characters were fictional, but that they were based on so many that were not.

Of course, the second runner up for Day 4 is Old Yeller.  I think that one's pretty self-explanatory... 

Day 05 - Favorite love story in a movie --  I actually gave this one some serious thought while studying my DVD collection.  There's a couple of contenders, but I have to go with one of the ones that isn't actually in a romantic movie - Rick and Evie in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.  They have chemistry and tension, and "smart girl gets the guy" makes me happy (bonus points for "I... am a Librarian").  Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz play off each other well, especially since he's at the height of what I think of as his Ivan Vorpatril period.  The end also has a great romantic punch, especially for an adventure with a romance.  Not to mention their library in the second movie...

Day 06 - Favorite made for TV movie --

Day 07 - The most surprising plot twist or ending -

Day 08 - A movie that you've seen countless times -

Day 09 - A movie with the best soundtrack -

Day 10 - Favorite classic movie -

Day 11 - A movie that changed your opinion about something -

Day 12 - A movie that you hate -

Day 13 - A movie that is a guilty pleasure -

Day 14 - A movie that no one would expect you to love -

Day 15 - A character who you can relate to the most - .

Day 16 - A movie that you used to love but now hate -

Day 17 - A movie that disappointed you the most -

Day 18 - A movie that you wish more people would've seen -

Day 19 - Favorite movie based on a book/comic/etc. -

Day 20 - Favorite movie from your favorite actor/actress -

Day 21 - Favorite action movie -

Day 22 - Favorite documentary -

Day 23 - Favorite animation -

Day 24 - That one awesome movie idea that still hasn't been done yet -

Day 25 - The most hilarious movie you've ever seen -

Day 26 - A movie that you love but everyone else hates -

Day 27 - A movie that you wish you had seen in theaters -

Day 28 - Favorite movie from your favorite director -

Day 29 - A movie from your childhood -

Day 30 - Your favorite movie of all time -

Comments

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

I loooooooooove Burnt by the Sun. Saw that in college at some point as part of the whole Russian thing, and it was beautiful, and lovely, and sad. I guess the father and daughter from the movie are actual father-and-daughter, interestingly.

One of my favorite visuals from the movie is when Kotov snatches the cover off that Red Army officer and strikes the Soviet Hero pose when he's trying to get them to stop tearing up the farm with their tanks.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

The first time we saw it, we didn't really get it - when I was in Ukraine, we watched it for one of our classes and the teacher actually explained some of the symbols and made it make a little more sense.

I like the whole beginning, but by the end I'm just massively depressed.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Brendan Fraser in his Ivan Vorpatril period. That just made me ROFL. Thank you. And, yes, Evie's drunk line about being a librarian just does it for this former librarian.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

The character even has a kind of Ivan-ish air about him. (No, not an Ivan fangirl, why do you ask?)

But when I think about who I would cast as Ivan, this movie always makes me think Brendan Fraser.

I have no Ivan quote icons... hmmm.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I like Ivan about the same way the Koudelka girls do [g].

I have a hard time picturing Brendan Fraser as Ivan, because he's busy over on the set of That Other Series (the Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters), playing a young Radcliffe Emerson, only with Brian Blessed's voice.