Well, we're about to hit up Virginia Beach for a few days, but we wanted to check in and let you all know we did watch our 1964 movies, and after our vacation is over, we will be getting right back to it with our new year, 1972. Boy, I think that was a run on sentance. Yikes, I just spelled sentence wrong, and it's giving me those squiggly lines, but I don't feel like changing it. It's early, and I prefer to be grammatically incorrect! Ok, back on topic, here's how we fared with our 1964 films...
We first watched Kim's pick, Mary Poppins! I feel like you have to say her name with a higher pitched British voice and an exclamation point. This was a fun little number about these 2 kids who apparently no nanny can handle, until this lady Mary Poppins comes floating in from the sky with her umbrella. She is seemingly the creation of all the qualities the children wanted from a nanny, plus way more. She's got crazy magical powers to clean rooms and jump through paintings. Then there is Dick Van Dyke (who was definitely the best and funniest part of this film), who plays this guy who seems to be homeless and has various jobs around town, but is also in cahoots with Mary Poppins. Good times. I had never seen this movie before and enjoyed it very much - it was certainly entertaining. Kim has seen it before, and whilst it is not her favorite 60's musical, she felt it was an important piece of work and good enough to sit through again.
And now on to the complete other side of crazy town, we watched my pick Dr. Strangelove or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. Well this was interesting. Sometimes I forget how bizarre Kubrick can be. This is about this insane air force general guy named Jack Ripper who, in post WWII America, decided the Russian Commies are trying to infect their bodily fluids with tampered water, and orders a missions to nuke the bastards. Well, this order he made was called Plan R, which is an emergency tactic that the planes on the mission can no longer receive open communication and Ripper's base is sealed off, thus the order is basically irreversible. Anyway, the President and joint chiefs of staff get word of this, and are trying to figure out any way to stop this while sitting around a large table in the war room of the Pentagon. Hilarity and horror ensue, and can they stop the world from ending? We both enjoyed this one, although I think it's either A) a bit overrated or B) a movie that you need to watch more than once to fully enjoy. Either way, interesting stuff.
So now, we decide, what's the best? I think I enjoyed the two musicals, Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady, pretty equally, but Strangelove was a little bit more my style, so I'll go with that one. Whereas, Kim's love for My Fair Lady could not be topped by either of the two movies we watched.
Alright, time for our next year. Another solid pick: 1972! The year of the Best Picture movie many believe to be the greatest movie of all time (not us, but we'll get to that). Duh Duh Duh! Yes, 1972 was the year of The Godfather. Ah yes, Vito Corleone and his lovely Mafia family who put horse heads in your bed if you mess with him. Basically, this movie just chronicles his family and Al Pacino's transformation from reluctant Mafia member to crazy new leader. Lots of action, lots of blood, lots of food. We both really liked this film, but would not put it in the Top 5 movies of all time, which as I said before, many do. We both scored this film a 4.5, giving it a 9, which is a solid score, but it ain't no 10. And now to our picks...
Adam: Deliverance
Kim: Cabaret
Ooooooooooooh weeeeeeeeeee! Squeal like a pig! Yes, I did it. I remember watching Deliverance when I was younger and loving it, and also being terrified by it. Kim has never seen it, so there you go. As for Kim, Cabaret was another one of those movies that she thought, "Why aren't we watching Cabaret?" when we were watching The Godfather. To add insult to injury, Cabaret won 8 Academy Awards that year, Godfather only won 3. Also, I have never seen Cabaret, so there you go again. Time to be cultured once again!
And now your turn, which movie was the best? The Godfather, Deliverance or Cabaret (they were ALL nominated for Best Picture that year, yikes!) What other movies from 1972 did you enjoy? Please post!!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
1987 Done! Time for Year #17: 1964
Hello again, folks. We finished watching our 2 picks from 1987, Fatal Attraction and The Witches of Eastwick, and we want to let you know how they did. Here goes...
We first watched Fatal Attraction and this was a pretty sick movie. What seemed like an innocent little love affair between Michael Douglas and Glenn Close became a twisted, messed up, violent mistake on Douglas' part. To put it simply, Glenn Close went all Beetlejuice on him! Totally, head spinningly bonkers! Kim argues that Charlie Manson is the more appropriate reference. And she likely deserved a Best Actress award for her craziness. We both enjoyed it very much, although I think it freaked Kim out quite a bit.
Then came The Witches of Eastwick, which was a very bizarre film in itself. Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher and Susan Sarandon are these magical witchy women, who summon good ole Jack Nicholson to share as their lovers, or something like that. Well, turns out Jack is the devil (whoops) and wild fun times ensue. I won't give away the ending, but it was a little whack. Fun movie, however, and Jack was simply great, as usual.
We watched 3 incredibly different movies from 1987, but we both agreed that Fatal Attraction was the best film, and should have beaten The Last Emperor for Best Picture. But if you want to be most entertained, go see those Witches.
Alright boys and girls, now onto our 17th year, 1964. The Best Picture of this year was the fun little musical My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison as the proper British linguist Henry Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as the poorly educated flower girl turned Socialite Eliza Doolittle. Very good movie with lots of fun songs, including the wildly entertaining song Just You Wait. It also has that song from the Birdcage. Being a first time viewer, I gave My Fair Lady a fair score of 4, and Kim (who has always been a big fan of this movie) gave it a 4.6, totaling 8.6. Not bad, not bad. Now, let us tell you the movies we picked...
Adam- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Kim- Mary Poppins
This year should be a doozy! I picked Strangelove because it looks very interesting and you can't go wrong with Kubrick. Kim went with Mary Poppins because she felt it's a movie everyone should see at least once (and poor, uncultured me has never really seen it). So, here we go!
This is a good one. Let's hear the responses! Which movie from 1964 was your favorite, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, or Dr. Strangelove? What other movies are your faves?
We first watched Fatal Attraction and this was a pretty sick movie. What seemed like an innocent little love affair between Michael Douglas and Glenn Close became a twisted, messed up, violent mistake on Douglas' part. To put it simply, Glenn Close went all Beetlejuice on him! Totally, head spinningly bonkers! Kim argues that Charlie Manson is the more appropriate reference. And she likely deserved a Best Actress award for her craziness. We both enjoyed it very much, although I think it freaked Kim out quite a bit.
Then came The Witches of Eastwick, which was a very bizarre film in itself. Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher and Susan Sarandon are these magical witchy women, who summon good ole Jack Nicholson to share as their lovers, or something like that. Well, turns out Jack is the devil (whoops) and wild fun times ensue. I won't give away the ending, but it was a little whack. Fun movie, however, and Jack was simply great, as usual.
We watched 3 incredibly different movies from 1987, but we both agreed that Fatal Attraction was the best film, and should have beaten The Last Emperor for Best Picture. But if you want to be most entertained, go see those Witches.
Alright boys and girls, now onto our 17th year, 1964. The Best Picture of this year was the fun little musical My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison as the proper British linguist Henry Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as the poorly educated flower girl turned Socialite Eliza Doolittle. Very good movie with lots of fun songs, including the wildly entertaining song Just You Wait. It also has that song from the Birdcage. Being a first time viewer, I gave My Fair Lady a fair score of 4, and Kim (who has always been a big fan of this movie) gave it a 4.6, totaling 8.6. Not bad, not bad. Now, let us tell you the movies we picked...
Adam- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Kim- Mary Poppins
This year should be a doozy! I picked Strangelove because it looks very interesting and you can't go wrong with Kubrick. Kim went with Mary Poppins because she felt it's a movie everyone should see at least once (and poor, uncultured me has never really seen it). So, here we go!
This is a good one. Let's hear the responses! Which movie from 1964 was your favorite, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, or Dr. Strangelove? What other movies are your faves?
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
1940 DONE! & Year #16: 1987
Alright, so for our 1940 movie we watched "The Great Dictator" starring the great Charlie Chaplin. I must say, we rather enjoyed it. The humor was very silly as you might expect from old Charlie, lots of physical goofiness going on. The story is basically about a Jewish barber (Chaplin) living in the 1930s slums who just so happens to look exactly like the Great Dictator of Tomania (think Germany) whose name is Adenoid Hynkel (also Chaplin, don't think we need to explain who this represents). This barber somehow keeps outwitting the "Nazi's" whenever they try to kill him by having his girlfriend hit them over the head with a frying pan (this happens like 4 times, you'd think the Nazi's would see it coming eventually) and at the end of the movie the fact that the barber and the dictator look EXACTLY alike finally comes into play when he is actually mistaken for Hynkel. Well, that got fun. Actually, it got quite serious. Right at the very end of the movie when Chaplin is playing the barber who is being mistaken for the dictator he is at a rally and gives a pretty awesome and very serious speech about freedom and equal rights and stuff. Pretty much the most serious ending to such a ridiculous film we've ever seen. It was quite the gutsy movie, considering it was made in 1940, one year into World War II.
Both movies we watched from 1940 were very good - Rebecca and The Great Dictator - but were extremely different styles, which makes it very hard to compare. I mean, it's Hitchcock vs. Chaplin, so either way you know you're in good hands. However, we would both have to choose Rebecca as the "better" film.
So now we move along to our next year, 1987. The Best Picture from 1987 was "The Last Emperor" starring some Asian guy and Peter O'Toole. It was a good movie but not great, Adam gave it a 4, I gave it a 4.2, totaling out at 8.2 It was very interesting especially considering it was based on the true story of China's transition from being a nation run by an emperor to more of a republic. It follows the story of the last emperor (duh) from when he comes into power (basically when he's still a baby) to his adulthood. O'Toole comes in a little ways into the film as the emperor's tutor in the teenage years, when China is in the process of switching over their government but no one has told the kid this yet, so the emperor still lives in and rules the forbidden city and doesn't even realize that he's going to be losing his power soon. Anyway he eventually becomes an adult and is sent to prison for some reason (I honestly don't remember and neither does Adam) but I do remember that in one scene his wife starts eating a bunch of flowers at a party to get herself high, which was cool. It was a long movie that felt long, and even though it was interesting I probably wouldn't watch it again by choice. I will say it was the kind of movie that made you want to read up on the actual story, which is at least serving some sort of purpose.
So, onto our picks from this year!
Adam's pick: Fatal Attraction
Kim's pick: Witches of Eastwick
Adam picked Fatal Attraction because he remembers seeing some parts of it when he was younger and thinking it was good and he wanted to watch it again, plain and simple. I have also heard that this is a good (albeit completely messed up) movie, so I'm quite excited for it.
I picked Witches of Eastwick on a recommendation from Adam's parents who said it was a fun movie, and I won't usually turn down a chance to watch a movie that has Jack Nicholson playing the devil.
It is worthy of mentioning that we actually both picked "Good Morning, Vietnam" as our backup choice for this year, but we would have only needed to use it if we picked the same movie as our #1 choice, which we didn't. Oh well, sorry Robin Williams! Better luck next time.
So now it's your turn, which movie from 1987 did you like best?
Both movies we watched from 1940 were very good - Rebecca and The Great Dictator - but were extremely different styles, which makes it very hard to compare. I mean, it's Hitchcock vs. Chaplin, so either way you know you're in good hands. However, we would both have to choose Rebecca as the "better" film.
So now we move along to our next year, 1987. The Best Picture from 1987 was "The Last Emperor" starring some Asian guy and Peter O'Toole. It was a good movie but not great, Adam gave it a 4, I gave it a 4.2, totaling out at 8.2 It was very interesting especially considering it was based on the true story of China's transition from being a nation run by an emperor to more of a republic. It follows the story of the last emperor (duh) from when he comes into power (basically when he's still a baby) to his adulthood. O'Toole comes in a little ways into the film as the emperor's tutor in the teenage years, when China is in the process of switching over their government but no one has told the kid this yet, so the emperor still lives in and rules the forbidden city and doesn't even realize that he's going to be losing his power soon. Anyway he eventually becomes an adult and is sent to prison for some reason (I honestly don't remember and neither does Adam) but I do remember that in one scene his wife starts eating a bunch of flowers at a party to get herself high, which was cool. It was a long movie that felt long, and even though it was interesting I probably wouldn't watch it again by choice. I will say it was the kind of movie that made you want to read up on the actual story, which is at least serving some sort of purpose.
So, onto our picks from this year!
Adam's pick: Fatal Attraction
Kim's pick: Witches of Eastwick
Adam picked Fatal Attraction because he remembers seeing some parts of it when he was younger and thinking it was good and he wanted to watch it again, plain and simple. I have also heard that this is a good (albeit completely messed up) movie, so I'm quite excited for it.
I picked Witches of Eastwick on a recommendation from Adam's parents who said it was a fun movie, and I won't usually turn down a chance to watch a movie that has Jack Nicholson playing the devil.
It is worthy of mentioning that we actually both picked "Good Morning, Vietnam" as our backup choice for this year, but we would have only needed to use it if we picked the same movie as our #1 choice, which we didn't. Oh well, sorry Robin Williams! Better luck next time.
So now it's your turn, which movie from 1987 did you like best?
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