So, it's almost holiday time for everyone, which means everyone's busy and everyone's traveling somewhere. We're no different and the next couple weeks are going to be hectic. Therefore, we decided we should have just enough time to finish our next year, 1942, then take a short break until after the New Year. With that said, may we present the 1942 Best Picture, Mrs. Miniver.
Ahh yes, Mrs. Miniver. From the very beginning of our Best Picture challenge, way before we watched it, Mrs. Miniver carried a stigma to it. We had never heard of it, it was old, and the title was just the name of some woman. We were dreading it. It got to the point where it became a running joke all the way up until the point that we watched it. And what would you know? We both actually liked it. Quite a bit. It's a old WWII flick, but it was less about the war and more about a small town, and more specifically the Miniver family, in the days leading up to the war. It had great acting and character development, and kept us interested. I gave it a 4, while Kim gave it a 4.5, giving it an 8.5. Not bad at all for a movie we thought was going to be horrible. But I guess it did win a Best Picture...
Anyway, onto our picks for the lovely year of 1942...
Adam: The Pride of the Yankees
Kim: Roxie Hart
YAY! I finally picked a movie! Kudos to me. So, yeah, I went with the ole baseball flick about Lou Gehrig. Yeah, I'm not a Yankee fan, especially today's Yankees, but I have no issue with the old timers, and Gehrig was one of the best. So there you have it. As for Kim, like I said in the last post, she picked a movie she's never seen! And then I said "sort of", which seemed to draw a lot of boos or something. I just meant that, while she has never seen Roxie Hart, she has seen many times the movie Chicago, which is essentially the same story. That's all. No biggie. Both movies should be fun times, and we'll get back to you before Christmas for our thoughts. In the meantime...
Which movie from 1942 is your favorite? Mrs. Miniver, The Pride of the Yankees, or Roxie Hart? What movie from 1942 would you have picked? Let's hear your thoughts (if Blogger lets you post them!)
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
1950: All Done.
Before we begin, we would just like to apologize on behalf of blogger.com for not letting some of you post comments. We love hearing from anyone and everyone, so if it doesn't let you one night, try try try again! We have faith that the system will work eventually. But don't give up!
Now onto business. We only had to watch one movie from 1950, which was fine by us, considering it wasn't a very strong year for films (as reaffirmed by mother). As you read from last post, we very much enjoyed the Best Picture from this year, All About Eve. The movie we watched was a cute and just a little bit kooky film titled Harvey. Let's move quickly through the plot details, and if you've never seen the film before, I am not making this up. The movie stars good ole nice guy James Stewart, who plays this guy who is a fan of the drink, and who also happens to have an invisible 6 foot rabbit friend named Harvey. Basically Harvey goes with him wherever he goes, but that's mainly local bars. James Stewart pretty much talks to everyone he comes across throughout the film, introducing them to Harvey, gives them his "card", and invites them over to his house for dinner. His sister is pretty much ashamed of him and tries to have him committed into a mental institution. Lots of craziness ensues, and I won't give away anything else, except that James Stewart would like you over his house for dinner. Tomorrow night sound good?
Kim, who as we know has seen this movie before, has decided this is her new favorite movie. She believes everyone at some point in their lives should watch this film. As much as she liked All About Eve, she definitely liked Harvey more.
For me, however, the jury is still out. I enjoyed Harvey, thought it very cute and funny and had a nice message. But I'm not sure, after first viewing, that I can get past the ridiculous premise of this movie. It was certainly well acted and James Stewart could have gotten me over to dinner in 2 seconds, but for the most part, when I was watching this film, I was like, "are you serious?" pretty much over and over again. It's a close call in my book, but I am going to have to swing the other way and put my vote down for All About Eve this year. (Sorry honey!)
We've picked our next year - and I can happily announce that I did not pass and Kim picked a movie she's never seen (sort of....) We'll post back soon!
Now onto business. We only had to watch one movie from 1950, which was fine by us, considering it wasn't a very strong year for films (as reaffirmed by mother). As you read from last post, we very much enjoyed the Best Picture from this year, All About Eve. The movie we watched was a cute and just a little bit kooky film titled Harvey. Let's move quickly through the plot details, and if you've never seen the film before, I am not making this up. The movie stars good ole nice guy James Stewart, who plays this guy who is a fan of the drink, and who also happens to have an invisible 6 foot rabbit friend named Harvey. Basically Harvey goes with him wherever he goes, but that's mainly local bars. James Stewart pretty much talks to everyone he comes across throughout the film, introducing them to Harvey, gives them his "card", and invites them over to his house for dinner. His sister is pretty much ashamed of him and tries to have him committed into a mental institution. Lots of craziness ensues, and I won't give away anything else, except that James Stewart would like you over his house for dinner. Tomorrow night sound good?
Kim, who as we know has seen this movie before, has decided this is her new favorite movie. She believes everyone at some point in their lives should watch this film. As much as she liked All About Eve, she definitely liked Harvey more.
For me, however, the jury is still out. I enjoyed Harvey, thought it very cute and funny and had a nice message. But I'm not sure, after first viewing, that I can get past the ridiculous premise of this movie. It was certainly well acted and James Stewart could have gotten me over to dinner in 2 seconds, but for the most part, when I was watching this film, I was like, "are you serious?" pretty much over and over again. It's a close call in my book, but I am going to have to swing the other way and put my vote down for All About Eve this year. (Sorry honey!)
We've picked our next year - and I can happily announce that I did not pass and Kim picked a movie she's never seen (sort of....) We'll post back soon!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Year 11: 1950
I pose a math question for anyone who is reading this. There are 78 years of movies we are selecting for this challenge. 1930-2007. We select our years randomly. We each have 10 years in which we can "pass", which means over the course of the challenge we will each select 68 movies. I have, as you already know, pre-selected which years I am going to pass. What are the odds that we would select 3 years in a row in which I would pass? If you are looking for further information, at the time of my "3 pass years in a row" we had already selected 8 years to watch (which means we had 70 years left) and I had already used 2 of my passes (I had 8 left). If you can figure that out, I would love to know. Now that I've ruined the surprise, let's move on to our next year, 1950...
Ahhh 1950. This was one of our early early movies we watched in our Best Picture challenge. The Best Picture that year was a fun little flick called All About Eve. It starred Bette Davis, who played a bitter, aging actress who didn't want to give up the spotlight, and Anne Baxter, who played a young, (deceitful!) aspiring actress who "idolized" Bette Davis' character. It was a very pleasant film to watch, and even though it started slowly, the plot really picked up and there were some good twists and turns. There is even a brief cameo of a young Marilyn Monroe before she hit the big time. I gave the film a 4.5 and Kim gave it a 4.35, giving it a solid 8.85 score. This was probably the first older movie we really enjoyed.
And then there were our 1950 selections...yes this is the fun part, but not really (Let me tell you, this is driving me nuts!!)....
Adam: PASS (5 used already! 5 left!)
Kim: Harvey
I'm sorry, but I remember looking through movies from 1950 and I just couldn't find any good ones I'd seen already, or any that I really wanted to watch. Call me uncultured, call me whatever. It is what it is. But I told you that not all my passes are from the 1930s!! As for Kim, she stuck to her usual guns, picked a movie she's seen already and loves, which I know is a big controversy in itself, but in reality I'm totally cool with. It's really part of the reason we started this second challenge. Anyway, she's a big James Stewart fan, and an even bigger fan of imaginary six foot rabbits, so this seemed to be the perfect fit. I have never seen this movie, so it should be good times.
We will post back shortly with our post-Harvey comments! In the meantime, which movie do you like the best, All About Eve or Harvey? What 1950 movie would you pick? We love all the responses, so tell your friends, family, neighbors and strangers to respond as well!
Ahhh 1950. This was one of our early early movies we watched in our Best Picture challenge. The Best Picture that year was a fun little flick called All About Eve. It starred Bette Davis, who played a bitter, aging actress who didn't want to give up the spotlight, and Anne Baxter, who played a young, (deceitful!) aspiring actress who "idolized" Bette Davis' character. It was a very pleasant film to watch, and even though it started slowly, the plot really picked up and there were some good twists and turns. There is even a brief cameo of a young Marilyn Monroe before she hit the big time. I gave the film a 4.5 and Kim gave it a 4.35, giving it a solid 8.85 score. This was probably the first older movie we really enjoyed.
And then there were our 1950 selections...yes this is the fun part, but not really (Let me tell you, this is driving me nuts!!)....
Adam: PASS (5 used already! 5 left!)
Kim: Harvey
I'm sorry, but I remember looking through movies from 1950 and I just couldn't find any good ones I'd seen already, or any that I really wanted to watch. Call me uncultured, call me whatever. It is what it is. But I told you that not all my passes are from the 1930s!! As for Kim, she stuck to her usual guns, picked a movie she's seen already and loves, which I know is a big controversy in itself, but in reality I'm totally cool with. It's really part of the reason we started this second challenge. Anyway, she's a big James Stewart fan, and an even bigger fan of imaginary six foot rabbits, so this seemed to be the perfect fit. I have never seen this movie, so it should be good times.
We will post back shortly with our post-Harvey comments! In the meantime, which movie do you like the best, All About Eve or Harvey? What 1950 movie would you pick? We love all the responses, so tell your friends, family, neighbors and strangers to respond as well!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
1937 Doneville
OK, I'm going to keep this post short and sweet. For the year 1937, since as you know I passed yet again, we only watched Snow White, a Disney classic. In fact, it was the first feature length Disney movie ever made. Of course, we've all seen it at some point in our lives, and we all know the story. Evil witch thinks she's prettiest, but no magic mirror says snow white is prettiest, evil witch hires henchman to put snow white's pretty heart in a box, henchman can't bring himself to do it, kills pig instead and put's the pigs heart in a box, snow white is scared and runs away, finds some dirty unkempt house in the woods, cleans it up and takes a nap, 7 dwarfs who whistle own the place, dwarfs and snow white become friends, witch pretends to be old woman selling apples, apples are poisoned, stupid snow white eats apple, snow white dies, witch dies and falls off cliff being chased by 7 dwarfs, prince comes and kisses snow white while she is dead, snow white is awakened from death because it was true love's first kiss, they live happily ever after.
That was one long sentence. Well, to sum it up, we both liked it better than the Best Picture that year, The Life of Emile Zola. You would too, unless you hate Disney and are into 19th Century French Literature. One funny thing we came up with during Snow White was that every one of the Dwarfs appeared to have a disability and they would make for an interesting self-contained classroom. Let's see....
Doc: Learning Disabled and Dyslexic
Grumpy: Emotional Disorder
Sleepy: Narcolepsy
Sneezy: Rare medical condition
Dopey: Developmentally Disabled (and mute)
Happy: Down's or William's syndrome (look it up)
Bashful: Autistic/Asperger's (in the socially awkward sense)
Alright, so in all seriousness, we've picked our next year and you will truly not believe it. Stay tuned!
That was one long sentence. Well, to sum it up, we both liked it better than the Best Picture that year, The Life of Emile Zola. You would too, unless you hate Disney and are into 19th Century French Literature. One funny thing we came up with during Snow White was that every one of the Dwarfs appeared to have a disability and they would make for an interesting self-contained classroom. Let's see....
Doc: Learning Disabled and Dyslexic
Grumpy: Emotional Disorder
Sleepy: Narcolepsy
Sneezy: Rare medical condition
Dopey: Developmentally Disabled (and mute)
Happy: Down's or William's syndrome (look it up)
Bashful: Autistic/Asperger's (in the socially awkward sense)
Alright, so in all seriousness, we've picked our next year and you will truly not believe it. Stay tuned!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Year #9 and Year #10: 1930 & 1937
(Let me preface this entry by stating that I do not have anything against movies from the 1930's. Of the few I have seen, I have enjoyed most of them. I even loved a few of them. But what you are about to read is going to suggest otherwise....)
Why the hell do we keep picking years from the 30's? I mean, come on! In our 10 years we have selected thus far, 5 years have been from this wretched decade. And, frankly, it's making me look bad. These 10 passes we've received for this challenge were supposed to be spread out over the course of months and nobody was supposed to realize that I just about passed my way through this entire decade. (note: my passes were pre-selected if you were at all lost during my tirade). Well, not now. This cruel twist of fate (or random selection, whatever you want to call it) has put my 1930's bias right in the forefront. We first picked 1930. the earliest year we have to watch movies from. Well, guess what, we ain't watchin none. Don't give me that look, it's just the way it is, so suck it up. If you want further explanation, here you go....
Adam: PASS (3 used, 7 left)
Kim: PASS (1 used, 9 left)
Boo ya! Read it and weep. If you don't like it, take it up with consumer affairs. But it gets even better. More on that later. First I would like to briefly talk about the wonderful Best Picture from 1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front. No movie we could have picked from this year could have beaten this anyway. Whether you are pro-war, anti-war, or indifferent-to-war, this is a movie everyone should be watching, in their homes, in schools, wherever. It's basically a WWI that focuses on a group of school age boys who enthusiastically join the war feeling like they're invincible and are going to be heroes, then quickly learn the true horrific nature of war. I called it poignant, even though I am not quite sure what that word means. But there are certain scenes that will leave you with chilled fascination. I gave it a 4.5 score, while Kim gave it a 4.475 (Kim and her crazy scores!), totaling 8.975, a very respectable score. See, I'm not a 30's hater. Oh wait, yes I am.....
For the love of God, after we picked (and passed on) 1930, our VERY NEXT pick was 1937. Come on, man! (Think Keyshawn Johnson) This is where things started to get ugly, especially on my end. Let me show you how.
Adam: PASS (4 down, 6 to go)
Kim: Snow White
I swear I picked some movies from the 30's, so please don't be harsh. At least Kim picked a movie this year. But enough on this subject - we must move forward! The Best Picture this year was The Life of Emile Zola (yeah, we hadn't heard of it, or him, either). It was one of the earlier films we watched, so we don't remember much, but it was a decent film. Basically, this guy Emile Zola (real guy, for real) was this writer who was French and such, and he did some important things like 150 years ago. Don't ask me what. I gave it a score of 3, while Kim gave it a 3.6 and was interested enough in the movie that it didn't make her fall asleep. So, it finished with a 6.6, which was on the lower end of the scale, but certainly not the worst.
As for our picks, I seriously couldn't find any movie I wanted to watch in these years. I'm sure that somewhere, out there, there are some I would find enjoyable, but I'm just not a risk taker, I guess. Speaking of risk taking, Kim's one selection of Snow White was another safe selection of a movie she's already seen (but really who hasn't?) She swears she has selections of movies she hasn't seen, so I guess she's dealing with her own controversy...
We'll write back soon after we've watched the Disney classic, but for all you reading at home, now is your chance for audience participation. Who is more lame? Adam - who is too scared to watch old movies so he just skips them all, or Kim - who is too scared to watch films she hasn't seen so she just picks ones she has. And, of course, please tell us which movie was your favorite! All Quiet on the Western Front, The Life of Emile Zola, or Snow White, plus what other movies from 1930 or 1937 do you like? (if you know or have seen any) Lots of loaded questions on this post, so have fun!
Why the hell do we keep picking years from the 30's? I mean, come on! In our 10 years we have selected thus far, 5 years have been from this wretched decade. And, frankly, it's making me look bad. These 10 passes we've received for this challenge were supposed to be spread out over the course of months and nobody was supposed to realize that I just about passed my way through this entire decade. (note: my passes were pre-selected if you were at all lost during my tirade). Well, not now. This cruel twist of fate (or random selection, whatever you want to call it) has put my 1930's bias right in the forefront. We first picked 1930. the earliest year we have to watch movies from. Well, guess what, we ain't watchin none. Don't give me that look, it's just the way it is, so suck it up. If you want further explanation, here you go....
Adam: PASS (3 used, 7 left)
Kim: PASS (1 used, 9 left)
Boo ya! Read it and weep. If you don't like it, take it up with consumer affairs. But it gets even better. More on that later. First I would like to briefly talk about the wonderful Best Picture from 1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front. No movie we could have picked from this year could have beaten this anyway. Whether you are pro-war, anti-war, or indifferent-to-war, this is a movie everyone should be watching, in their homes, in schools, wherever. It's basically a WWI that focuses on a group of school age boys who enthusiastically join the war feeling like they're invincible and are going to be heroes, then quickly learn the true horrific nature of war. I called it poignant, even though I am not quite sure what that word means. But there are certain scenes that will leave you with chilled fascination. I gave it a 4.5 score, while Kim gave it a 4.475 (Kim and her crazy scores!), totaling 8.975, a very respectable score. See, I'm not a 30's hater. Oh wait, yes I am.....
For the love of God, after we picked (and passed on) 1930, our VERY NEXT pick was 1937. Come on, man! (Think Keyshawn Johnson) This is where things started to get ugly, especially on my end. Let me show you how.
Adam: PASS (4 down, 6 to go)
Kim: Snow White
I swear I picked some movies from the 30's, so please don't be harsh. At least Kim picked a movie this year. But enough on this subject - we must move forward! The Best Picture this year was The Life of Emile Zola (yeah, we hadn't heard of it, or him, either). It was one of the earlier films we watched, so we don't remember much, but it was a decent film. Basically, this guy Emile Zola (real guy, for real) was this writer who was French and such, and he did some important things like 150 years ago. Don't ask me what. I gave it a score of 3, while Kim gave it a 3.6 and was interested enough in the movie that it didn't make her fall asleep. So, it finished with a 6.6, which was on the lower end of the scale, but certainly not the worst.
As for our picks, I seriously couldn't find any movie I wanted to watch in these years. I'm sure that somewhere, out there, there are some I would find enjoyable, but I'm just not a risk taker, I guess. Speaking of risk taking, Kim's one selection of Snow White was another safe selection of a movie she's already seen (but really who hasn't?) She swears she has selections of movies she hasn't seen, so I guess she's dealing with her own controversy...
We'll write back soon after we've watched the Disney classic, but for all you reading at home, now is your chance for audience participation. Who is more lame? Adam - who is too scared to watch old movies so he just skips them all, or Kim - who is too scared to watch films she hasn't seen so she just picks ones she has. And, of course, please tell us which movie was your favorite! All Quiet on the Western Front, The Life of Emile Zola, or Snow White, plus what other movies from 1930 or 1937 do you like? (if you know or have seen any) Lots of loaded questions on this post, so have fun!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
1999 done!
Alright, so we finally got through our 1999 selections. Let's see...
First we watched "Virgin Suicides", which starred Kirsten Dunst, James Woods and Josh Hartnett, yet somehow managed to be a legitimate movie. It was about a set of 5 sisters, the youngest of which commits suicide and the events that follow. The girls' strict parents try to help them maintain normalcy while at the same time sheltering them from the evils of the world, and in the end, well... I won't spoil it for you, but it doesn't quite work out the way the parents intended. It was worth watching, not great but certainly not bad. American Beauty tops it without fail.
Last night we muscled through the 3+ hours of "Green Mile" starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan. Really excellent movie. We had both seen it before, and Adam had watched it pretty recently, but I hadn't seen it in ages, and I realized as we were watching it how little of it I actually remembered. Tom Hanks was great as usual, and Michael Clarke Duncan was excellent, and should have won Best Supporting Actor in my opinion (he lost to Michael Caine that year for his role in Cider House Rules, which I haven't seen, but there's no way it beats Duncan as the uneducated black drifter John Coffey.) This movie brought me to tears and that is not easy to do, so it has to win points there. As far as whether or not American Beauty beats it in term of Best Picture-ability, I'm sure Adam thinks that though Green Mile is excellent, it doesn't top American Beauty, and I see them as pretty evenly matched. I could not sit through Green Mile nearly as easily as I can American Beauty, but that doesn't make it a worse movie.
The next year(s?) have been drawn, so a new blog will come soon. Stay classy kids.
First we watched "Virgin Suicides", which starred Kirsten Dunst, James Woods and Josh Hartnett, yet somehow managed to be a legitimate movie. It was about a set of 5 sisters, the youngest of which commits suicide and the events that follow. The girls' strict parents try to help them maintain normalcy while at the same time sheltering them from the evils of the world, and in the end, well... I won't spoil it for you, but it doesn't quite work out the way the parents intended. It was worth watching, not great but certainly not bad. American Beauty tops it without fail.
Last night we muscled through the 3+ hours of "Green Mile" starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan. Really excellent movie. We had both seen it before, and Adam had watched it pretty recently, but I hadn't seen it in ages, and I realized as we were watching it how little of it I actually remembered. Tom Hanks was great as usual, and Michael Clarke Duncan was excellent, and should have won Best Supporting Actor in my opinion (he lost to Michael Caine that year for his role in Cider House Rules, which I haven't seen, but there's no way it beats Duncan as the uneducated black drifter John Coffey.) This movie brought me to tears and that is not easy to do, so it has to win points there. As far as whether or not American Beauty beats it in term of Best Picture-ability, I'm sure Adam thinks that though Green Mile is excellent, it doesn't top American Beauty, and I see them as pretty evenly matched. I could not sit through Green Mile nearly as easily as I can American Beauty, but that doesn't make it a worse movie.
The next year(s?) have been drawn, so a new blog will come soon. Stay classy kids.
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