Hello, 1968! It's nice to be back in more recent times after the last 2 selections. The Best Picture for this year was Oliver! This was one of the many musicals we watched throughout our first challenge. We thought this movie was very fun and enjoyable to watch. Kim had seen it before, so she knew what to expect, but she still found it entertaining. Most of the songs were good, especially the one where Fagin (our favorite character) plays the flute with an umbrella, which can be seen here. Anyway, on to our picks...
Kim: The Odd Couple.
Adam: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Kim had originally selected Rosemary's Baby, but changed her mind at the last second to the Mattheau/Lemmon comedy The Odd Couple. This was ok with me - I have seen Rosemary's Baby and didn't care for it. She has seen the Odd Couple and really enjoys it, plus she was more in a comedy mood than horror mood especially considering Rosemary's Baby was about a possessed baby. I haven't seen Odd Couple, so I'm looking forward to it as well.
I selected 2001: A Space Odyssey because it's one of those interesting, strange, bizarre movies that's culturally significant and fun to watch from time to time. I last watched it in high school, whereas Kim has seen parts, but never sat through the whole movie.
We may be watching the Odd Couple tonight, and 2001 in the near future, so stay tuned for our results.
In the meantime, I am introducing a brand new interactive segment to the blog. We would like to know which of our 3 movies this year (if you've seen them) you liked the most. Is it Oliver!, The Odd Couple, or 2001: A Space Odyssey? Also, feel free to post any of your other favorite movies from 1968!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
1936 done
Ok, so for 1936 we watched "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and we were disappointed. (To sum things up for you, Adam now refers to this movie as "Mr. Stupid-head goes to Loserville" starring Hairy Loser)
Directed by Frank Capra, needless to say we had high hopes going in. We have really enjoyed several of his other films (You Can't Take it With You, It Happened One Night and Its a Wonderful Life) and this one let us down a little bit. It was a nice movie, a simple story and had a good moral, but we just couldn't... get into it. We felt absolutely no attachment to Gary Cooper, who plays the main character, Mr. Deeds. Even the supporting roles we felt were weakly portrayed and while this movie had potential to be good, it just couldn't win us over.
The best picture from this year, The Great Zigfeld, deserved the win over this one. Ziggy was much more entertaining, and it probably helped that going into it we didn't have very high expectations (which worked to this movies disadvantage)
That's really all I have to say, and all I think needs to be said. We have drawn the next year and our movies have been selected, so that will be coming soon. In the meantime, stay classy.
Directed by Frank Capra, needless to say we had high hopes going in. We have really enjoyed several of his other films (You Can't Take it With You, It Happened One Night and Its a Wonderful Life) and this one let us down a little bit. It was a nice movie, a simple story and had a good moral, but we just couldn't... get into it. We felt absolutely no attachment to Gary Cooper, who plays the main character, Mr. Deeds. Even the supporting roles we felt were weakly portrayed and while this movie had potential to be good, it just couldn't win us over.
The best picture from this year, The Great Zigfeld, deserved the win over this one. Ziggy was much more entertaining, and it probably helped that going into it we didn't have very high expectations (which worked to this movies disadvantage)
That's really all I have to say, and all I think needs to be said. We have drawn the next year and our movies have been selected, so that will be coming soon. In the meantime, stay classy.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Year #4: 1936...One freakin year later!
The next year we "randomly" selected just happened to be one year after our last pick. Tough luck on this one...2 really old movies in a row, but what can ya do? Well, you don't have to do anything, reader. It is us, Kim and I, who must do. And what we must do is each pick another old movie to watch. And then watch them, of course. Or do we? More on that later. First, I will briefly review the Best Picture of 1936...The Great Zigfield.
We both liked Flo Ziggy (as we call it - the movie was about legendary stage show producer Florenz Zigfield and his follies). It definitely had its entertaining moments (see: It's Delightful to Be Married number), but otherwise it wasn't anything special, though for some reason we reference this movie more often these days than most of the other Best Pictures. I gave it a 3.5/5, whereas Kim scored it a 4.3/5. Not bad, not bad - overall 7.8 is a respectable score. Also, for those keeping score, we failed to report in our previous post our scores for the last movie Mutiny on the Bounty, which I gave a 3.5 as well, but Kim only gave it a 3.45. Total score: 6.95.
Ok, on to our 1936 picks!
Adam: Romeo & Juliet (VETOED!)
Kim: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
So, the first veto made its appearance for this year (we each get 5, Kim now has 4 left). I wanted to watch the first full length "talkie" version of Romeo & Juliet.
Kim says: Let me butt in here- Ok, so the way I see it, Romeo and Juliet is Romeo and Juliet. I've seen many versions of it, read the play several times, and especially having been made in 1936, I'm sure it won't be any kind of special interpretation. I mean, they're probably just gonna put on silly costumes and go word-for-word from the play, which isn't one of my favorites by old Billy Shakespeare anyway, and I just wasn't in the mood. Of course, you could argue that I've wasted a veto on a movie that could have been easily suffered through considering I would know what I'm getting into, but I'm not interested in suffering through anything if I can help it. Back to Adam...
ok.....thanks honey for that "brief" explanation of why you didn't want to watch it (I got in a quick nap!) haha. So, basically, we're not watching Romeo & Juliet.
Kim picked Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (which I did not veto), and you may recognize the name, as it was "remade" a few years back by Adam Sandler, simply called Little Nicky. Yeah, that's a joke. It's basically about a schmo who inherits a lot of money and, well, 2 hours later and it's over. Kim picked it because it was directed by Frank Capra (who directed 2 of our favorite Best Pictures - It Happened One Night, You Can't Take it With You) and also because she confused it with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, another Capra film, starring Jimmy Stewart. Mr. Deeds stars Gary Cooper, for those who want to know.
We'll watch the movie and post back soon! (we already have it, so it hopefully won't be too long, less than a month at least!)
We both liked Flo Ziggy (as we call it - the movie was about legendary stage show producer Florenz Zigfield and his follies). It definitely had its entertaining moments (see: It's Delightful to Be Married number), but otherwise it wasn't anything special, though for some reason we reference this movie more often these days than most of the other Best Pictures. I gave it a 3.5/5, whereas Kim scored it a 4.3/5. Not bad, not bad - overall 7.8 is a respectable score. Also, for those keeping score, we failed to report in our previous post our scores for the last movie Mutiny on the Bounty, which I gave a 3.5 as well, but Kim only gave it a 3.45. Total score: 6.95.
Ok, on to our 1936 picks!
Adam: Romeo & Juliet (VETOED!)
Kim: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
So, the first veto made its appearance for this year (we each get 5, Kim now has 4 left). I wanted to watch the first full length "talkie" version of Romeo & Juliet.
Kim says: Let me butt in here- Ok, so the way I see it, Romeo and Juliet is Romeo and Juliet. I've seen many versions of it, read the play several times, and especially having been made in 1936, I'm sure it won't be any kind of special interpretation. I mean, they're probably just gonna put on silly costumes and go word-for-word from the play, which isn't one of my favorites by old Billy Shakespeare anyway, and I just wasn't in the mood. Of course, you could argue that I've wasted a veto on a movie that could have been easily suffered through considering I would know what I'm getting into, but I'm not interested in suffering through anything if I can help it. Back to Adam...
ok.....thanks honey for that "brief" explanation of why you didn't want to watch it (I got in a quick nap!) haha. So, basically, we're not watching Romeo & Juliet.
Kim picked Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (which I did not veto), and you may recognize the name, as it was "remade" a few years back by Adam Sandler, simply called Little Nicky. Yeah, that's a joke. It's basically about a schmo who inherits a lot of money and, well, 2 hours later and it's over. Kim picked it because it was directed by Frank Capra (who directed 2 of our favorite Best Pictures - It Happened One Night, You Can't Take it With You) and also because she confused it with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, another Capra film, starring Jimmy Stewart. Mr. Deeds stars Gary Cooper, for those who want to know.
We'll watch the movie and post back soon! (we already have it, so it hopefully won't be too long, less than a month at least!)
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
1935 LES NOT SO MISERABLES
So, hey everyone. This is Adam speaking. Yeah, I know. Don't get used to it. Haha. It's been a few weeks since we've posted, but we FINALLY watched Les Miserables. WOO HOO! As what often happened during our Best Picture Challenge, we hit a little rut. Sometimes it happens. We'll watch a bunch of movies all at once, and then go a month without watching one. If you're one of these crazy people who follows this blog, get used to it. But I digress. Wow, I can say anything I want on this thing, because it's MY blog. Well, our blog - but I'm writing it this time! Wanna hear a joke? What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino? Elephino! OK, back to movie business.
The Best Picture of 1935 was Mutiny on the Bounty, as we already told you. About this guy on a ship who decides things are unjust and starts a mutiny. Things get crazy, men go overboard, a little Gilligan's Island stuff going on there, you know the deal. Clark Gable, by the way, is the best actor in history. Just pointing it out there. Anyway, for this challenge I used one of my big fat passes (we each get 10) because there was nothing I wanted to watch from this year. Trust me, not a great year for movies. Kim found Les Mis, because she had seen the musical or something like that. Plus, come on, it's Les Mis!
We decided right away that we both liked Les Mis and found it very watchable. It kept our interest and was definitely very well made. I particularly liked Charles Laughton (who was also in Mutiny) mainly due to all the funny faces he made in the movie. Kim said she would even watch it again without a problem. That means it couldn't have been too bad. For those who don't know or haven't seen the film (or read the book, or seen the musical), it's about this guy who steals some bread and ends up in the Gallows (our favorite place from Ben-Hur), which is basically torture jail. He spends 10 years there, then is free but has to show up for parole and such every once in a while. He becomes poor and wretched, but some super nice priest guy lets him in and straightens him up into a giving person, as opposed to a taking person. Flash forward years later, and this same guy, under a different name, is now also a super nice guy, but now he's rich too. And then there's this police guy (played by Laughton) who suspects he's this former convict who missed a parole date years ago. Horse chase ensues, and, well, you can find out the rest on your own time. Good stuff though.
If faced with the choice of Les Miserables or Mutiny on the Bounty - it's definitely a close call. We watched Mutiny so long ago, that it's almost unfair to decide. But I think I would go with Les Mis. The jury is still out with Kim.
We already chose our next year and movies, but we'll post that in the next day or two just to keep you hanging!!!
The Best Picture of 1935 was Mutiny on the Bounty, as we already told you. About this guy on a ship who decides things are unjust and starts a mutiny. Things get crazy, men go overboard, a little Gilligan's Island stuff going on there, you know the deal. Clark Gable, by the way, is the best actor in history. Just pointing it out there. Anyway, for this challenge I used one of my big fat passes (we each get 10) because there was nothing I wanted to watch from this year. Trust me, not a great year for movies. Kim found Les Mis, because she had seen the musical or something like that. Plus, come on, it's Les Mis!
We decided right away that we both liked Les Mis and found it very watchable. It kept our interest and was definitely very well made. I particularly liked Charles Laughton (who was also in Mutiny) mainly due to all the funny faces he made in the movie. Kim said she would even watch it again without a problem. That means it couldn't have been too bad. For those who don't know or haven't seen the film (or read the book, or seen the musical), it's about this guy who steals some bread and ends up in the Gallows (our favorite place from Ben-Hur), which is basically torture jail. He spends 10 years there, then is free but has to show up for parole and such every once in a while. He becomes poor and wretched, but some super nice priest guy lets him in and straightens him up into a giving person, as opposed to a taking person. Flash forward years later, and this same guy, under a different name, is now also a super nice guy, but now he's rich too. And then there's this police guy (played by Laughton) who suspects he's this former convict who missed a parole date years ago. Horse chase ensues, and, well, you can find out the rest on your own time. Good stuff though.
If faced with the choice of Les Miserables or Mutiny on the Bounty - it's definitely a close call. We watched Mutiny so long ago, that it's almost unfair to decide. But I think I would go with Les Mis. The jury is still out with Kim.
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