Movie Nights (In and Out)

We watched Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison which is a 1957 war/romance film. Robert Mitchum plays a Marine who is shipwrecked on an island that Deborah Kerr, a nun, has also found herself alone. This movie was kind of blah to me. I think it was over-acted. Especially on Kerr’s part. It’s a love story in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

Nomination: Deborah Kerr for Best Actress (did not win)

I’m going to go ahead and blog about a few movies we’ve seen in this one post.

Next we watched You Can Count On Me which is a 2000 indie film that (I think) won Cannes that year. Don’t quote me on that. It is the story of an estranged pair of siblings who both struggle with their own demons, to sound overly cliche. It stars Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo, and debuts Rory Culkin (who was splendid.) Jonathan really liked the film, I didn’t think it was pretty enough to be so slow to develop. But I guess that’s indie film for ya.

Nomination: Laura Linney for Best Actress (did not win)

LAST NIGHT, we went to the movies! And saw Iron Man II. I’m not going to talk too much about it but I will say that it was just ok. I might feel that way because the first one was so good and I was expecting a lot. Mickey Rourke was amazing, as usual. I was very underwhelmed with the big final fight between Rourke, Don Cheadle and RDJr. It was like fight fight fight for a few seconds and then BAM Don and RDJr just figure it out and then done. It was all over. Weird. Scarlett Johannson was super hot.

UP NEXT: The Way We Were (1973). Love me some Babs.

Movie Night: A Star Is Born

Judy Garland is odd-looking. A Star is Born was just shy of three hours. It quite literally could have ended and hour and a half before it did. It was really gimmicky- at one point in time, we were watching a movie inside a movie inside the movie. I guess I should mention it was a musical with pretty much the same plot as Singing in the Rain. Not exactly, but similar. The big production numbers lasted like twenty minutes a piece. Jonathan really liked it. I guess I did. They did have some really cool shots, I was just ready for it to be over. Jonny told me that Judy Garland not winning the Best Actress award was supposedly one of the biggest snubs in Oscar history. I’ll believe that- she did a very good job of acting like an actor. Hats off. Also worth mentioning is that fact that a little ways into the movie, parts of the print were missing! They just showed production stills during quite a bit of the film. Jonathan looked it up and found out that only one full print of the film is said to exist and the guy that owns it won’t release it. It was bizarre.

Nominations: James Mason for Best Actor (did not win), Judy Garland for Best Actress (did not win)

Preview: Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. What? That’s the title of a movie? Srsly? It’s a love story about a marine and an Irish nun. Hm…

Movie Night: Spellbound

In 1945, a little movie called Spellbound came out starring Ingrid Bergman (where is she from?) and Gregory Peck. It is an extremely melodramatic Hitchcock psycho-thriller, with Ingrid Bergman playing a psychoanalyst and Gregory Peck playing an amnesia patient who supposedly killed a doctor. I guess it wasn’t bad. Gregory Peck made some amazing faces during his meltdowns. A-mazing. And Michael Chekhov playing Bergman’s friend/teacher was superb. Oh there’s this scene with Peck and Bergman skiing that is hilarious- it’s totally obvious that the scene was rear-projected; they were standing still and wiggling around with the mountain flying by them in the background. The dream sequence scenes were awesome because they were inspired by Dali paintings. They were super trippy, giant eyeballs floating around, etc. And Jonathan wants me to mention the camera moves. Apparently they did some neat camera stuff.

Nominations: Best Picture (1945)- did not win, Michael Chekhov for Best Supporting Actor (did not win) and Alfred Hitchcock for Best Director (did not win)

Preview: Up next we have “A Star is Born” with ol’ Judy Garland. Do it, to it.

Movie Night: Doctor Dolittle

Doctor Dolittle is so lame! It was really long and although supposedly a musical, all of the songs were terrible and forgettable. At least the Eddie Murphy version probably had some funny one-liners. I don’t remember much of anything I liked about the Rex Harrison version. Oh yes I do, there is a creature they sell to the circus called a “Push-mi, Pull-yu” which is basically a two-headed llama. It looked hilarious. And it was clearly two people in a puppet; the dance that it did was like man legs with a two-headed llama body. Entertainment at its finest.

Nomination: Best Picture (1967)- did not win (no surprise there)

Preview: Spellbound (1945) with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. Sounds classy.

Movie Night: Arthur

In 1981, “Arthur,” a lovely little comedy with Liza Minelli and Dudley Moore was released. Jonny and I got to watch it the other night and it was nice. There were some really funny parts. Liza Minelli is so weird looking. It was hard for me to get past that. She’s definitely an odd bird. Dudley Moore played a very giddy, giggly drunk, which was entertaining. It’s about this spoiled rotten man (Dudley) who’s uber-wealthy family have given him the ultimatum or marrying this really square woman or losing his millions of dollars that he would inherit. But he’s in love with Liza Minelli (God only knows why). Everything works out better in the end, Dudley gets his woman and his money. Peachy.

Nominations:

Dudley Moore for Best Actor (did not win), John Gielgud for Best Supporting Actor (winner)

Preview: Doctor Dolittle. No, not the Eddie Murphy version, you’re hilarious. The 1967 version with Rex Harrison. Looks simply whimsical.

Movie Night: The Last King of Scotland

2006: The Last King of Scotland. Great movie. Gruesome, politically- fueled, bloody drama. This film probably has the most disturbing scene I’ve ever seen in my life: the dismembered body of the king’s unfaithful wife. Ick. So sad.

I found it weird that the lanky ginger (James MacAvoy) was getting all the ladies’ attention. Anyway, Forest Whitaker was brilliant. The colors were amazing, the story was both sad and uplifting. Good day for Ugandans when Idi Amin was overthrown.

Nomination:

Forest Whitaker for Best Actor (winner)

Preview: Arthur (1981)- I’m not really sure what this is all about but it has Liza Minnelli, so I’m sure it’s weird.

Movie Night: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

About the hiatus: busy week at school… and we’ve been watching Life on the Discovery channel (which is amazing btdubs.) Moving on.

Jonny and I watched Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, the 1967 drama about an interracial couple (Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn) revealing to their unknowing parents their intent to marry. I didn’t have any qualms with the actor’s portrayals, I had a problem with the film being so preachy. I think it’s a category of films whose social agenda would have been more poignant at the time of its release, so although I get it, the “moral of the story” was way too in-your-face.

Nominations:

Best Picture (did not win), Spencer Tracy for Best Actor (did not win), Katharine Hepburn for Best Actree (winner), Cecil Kellaway for Best Supporting Actor (did not win), Beah Richards for Best Supporting Actress (did not win), and Stanley Kramer for Best Director (did not win)

Preview: The Last King of Scotland (2006) nice, light movie watching. love it.

Movie Night: The End of the Affair

The End of the Affair was made in 1999 and is a period piece from 1940s England with Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore about a man who is having an affair with his friend’s wife. Jonathan thinks Ray looks good in 40s gear. I really like Julianne Moore. Aside from the awkwardly graphic sex scenes and the semi-unbelievable “husband” character (Stephen Rea), I really enjoyed the film. It was a romantic story that was beautifully shot.

Nominations: Julianne Moore for Best Actress (did not win)

Preview: 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. It got nominations in all 6 categories. Which is good. For us. It feels good to be able to make a lot of marks off of our gigantic 42 page word document.

Movie Night: Monster

So we watched Monster. It was just as horrifying as the first time I saw it. Despite the amazing performances by Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci, you just can’t like this movie. It’s so creepy. And sad. And awful. Not a film that you can watch over and over again. Charlize Theron does have a really really cool gun though. It’s like a cowboy gun. Anyways… that’s it for my technical analysis.

Nominations (2003): Charlize Theron for Best Actress (winner)

Preview: 1999’s The End of the Affair with Ray Fiennes and Julianne Moore. Eh. We’ll See.

Movie Night(s)

This blog is glitchy. I haven’t posted in a few days. Back in school. But I have still been watching movies, although none of them are on the list of the Academy Awards Big 6.

First up is It Might Get Loud, the documentary by Davis Guggenheim about the electric guitar and 3 icons: Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. I don’t know how I feel about The Edge. I guess his redeeming quality is knowing how to translate the sounds that he hears to the pedals. On the other hand, Jack White is the coolest person of all time. I’m pretty sure I want to be his best friend. Overall, very cool documentary. Check it out.

Next, me and Jonathan went to see Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. It was so pretty. Like really, really pretty. We saw it in 3D which I do not recommend. Ok, here’s my thing with 3D. I like it when it is used just to enhance a film but not when filmmakers purposely put things in for the sake of looking cool in 3D. For example, when things are flying at your face: not necessary. The scene with Alice falling down the rabbit hole was unwatchable to me. It was a mess, 3D stuff flying all over the place, I had to turn my face. That being said, I think all of the players gave really good performances. I’ll admit that I liked Helena Bonham Carter and Crispin Glover the best. The costumes were amazing. I think the reason I wasn’t completely thrilled with it was because my expectations were really really high. Jonathan didn’t like the dialogue. That didn’t really bother me so much. Good movie, go see it.

Last but not least (certainly not least) Jonathan and I got to go see Under Great White Northern Lights with our buddy Bill. In case you aren’t aware of this film, it’s a documentary about The White Stripes for the band’s 10th anniversary. It was very very good. Again, Jack White is so cool. I think a lot of people don’t get them. Meg is quiet and Jack is cool and that’s basically it. Don’t overanalyze things. Jack has really cool ideas about taking the blues to a whole notha level. Love it. Love it. They eat raw caribou while sitting with some indian elders before a concert. How weird. And amazing. See it if you get the opportunity.

Preview: Up next we have Monster with Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci. Yikes. I’ve seen this before but Jonny hasn’t. I’m not sure he’s ready….