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I want to talk about movies. I love movies. I also want to talk about friendship and I don't know what it says about me that I'm going to go ahead and talk about movies first. Chalk it up to that I've always been somewhat of a loner. I cherish my friendships but I'm certain I need to nourish them more. My next blog will be about friendship.
As I said, I love movies. I love going to the movies. I love the whole moviegoing experience. I love sitting in those cushy seats with my soda & popcorn, watching on that big screen and listening in surround sound, and just losing myself in another world for 90+ minutes.
I love IMDb.com The internet movie database. Hallelujah! If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and check it out now. Seriously, right now. My blog will be here later. Go right now to imdb.com and enter the name of your favorite movie. You will find a treasure trove of information about that movie followed by a message board where people talk about the movie and you can add your two cents worth if you like. IMDb is breathtaking in its fullness. I wish I could find a similar site for music, and if you know of one please tell me, but I digress ...
Anway, I love movies. I love great, good, and even so-so mediocre movies. I'm not one of those highbrow people who only like the best and pooh pooh the rest. Nope. I'm about the easiest movie reviewer in the world. I'm easily entertained. I'm not into scary movies, and action isn't really my thing., but except for those, just about anything goes.
Take Batman The Dark Knight, for example. On IMDb it has an average user rating of 8.9 out of 10. That's an amazingly high number. People love that movie. Well, I liked it just fine. I thought Heath Ledger was fantastic as The Joker. Especially in that nurse's uniform - what a crack up! But seriously, an 8.9? Whatever! For the whole movie I just kept wanting to give Christian Bale a throat lozenge. That voice he used was just plain weird!
(note to self: that last sentence reminded me of an old movie review column I used to love: Libby Gelman Waxman in, oh, what magazine was that? Her movie reviews were always so funny. I'll never forget the time she rhapsodized over Dennis Quaid, "Oh, Dennis, Dennis, Dennis." Hilarious! Oh, one quick internet check & apparantly "she" was the alter ego of writer Paul Rudnick. That just makes it even funnier, but again I digress.)
The things I like about movies are usually small things, human things, not the big explosions. As the title of this blog alludes to, I'm a big fan of Steve Martin movies. I've always wanted to write an examination of the real tenderness in even his silliest movies. Like in The Lonely Guy, when he's in bed talking to his pillow as if it was a woman. In Roxanne, when he's expecting Roxanne to confess that she likes him and instead she tells him she likes someone else. He's crushed but doesn't show it. Then she tells him that she thought he was brave the night before at a bar and he says kind of off-handedly "oh, I've been a lot braver since then." Breaks my heart! Or like in The Jerk, when he & Bernadette Peters are walking along a moonlit beach singing "Tonight You Belong to Me." Sigh .... so sweet, and then she busts out with a trumpet. Or is it a cornet? Anyway, it's movie perfection!
These are the kinds of movie moments I adore. A few months ago I was absentmindedly watching Fred Claus on cable. Not a great movie, okay, but near the end, there's a scene between Santa (Paul Giamatti) and the bad guy (Kevin Spacey) who's trying to stop Christmas. Two Oscar caliber actors playing a Santa with pathos and a bad guy who hates Christmas because he never got the superhero cape he wanted when he was a boy. That scene is priceless and kind of surreal. How wonderful!
And don't even get me started on The Notebook. (SPOILER ALERT:) The whole "it still isn't over" scene in the rain on the dock, and later when bearded Noah comes out of the house wrapped in that red blanket to embrace Allie for good - aaah, these are just two of many, many beautiful moments in a beautiful, sentimental (in a good way, really) movie that is maybe my all time favorite.
Other faves: Romancing the Stone, Peggy Sue Got Married (yeah Kathleen Turner), Parenthood - these are my movies - romantic comedies - sweet and funny movies - silly stuff - the best thing in the world!
Here's some props for a newer movie of a different genre. I loved Inglourious Basterds. I'm pretty much a Tarantino fan as well. Two scenes stand out in my mind: Shosanna in the red dress in the movie theater projection room & then going up in smoke on the screen. Total movie magic. Iconic. Resonant. Super cool.
These are just a few of my favorite movie moments & movie memories. What are some of yours? I'd love to know!
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First of all, madam, gotta say, that movie theater seat you are sitting in...enjoying that popcorn, right? Well, that seat has been farted on, probably sharded on, and also probably thrown up on. And you spend 90+ minutes in all that filth...yikes! Favorite movie moments? Well..."there made out of people...there made out of people!" Soylent Green was an excellent film. Other ones that come to mind....Weekend At Bernies, Part 1. Hilarious...I mean, the guy is dead!
ReplyDeleteOld School...there behind us...there coming...FAS!
War of the Roses, with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, was just a riot. The lengths that they went through. Wow.
The movie that I quote, and remember the most, is a movie my sister introducted me to, Falling Down. Makes you rethink the good versus bad. Sure he was bad, but who can't associate with the character played by Michael Douglas?
Very funny! You know there's a new pre-movie promo for AMC theaters (at AMC theatres) that shows a few friends sitting in those movie seats & the seats quickly grow roots & the theater transforms into an outdoor forest setting. Everytime I see it, when the roots start growing from the seat bottoms - to me it just looks like all the gunk and ickiness that's been spilled on those seats. Super gross! :) chris
ReplyDeleteLast movie I saw at the theater? hm.... Madagascar 2. And it wasn't pretty. And before that? Elf I think, while preggo with BigBoy. Sad Huh? Oh wait! I DID see MamaMia.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a movie person, have never been and probably never will be. I get too into them and don't enjoy the ride so to speak. I get stressed, or emotional or whatever might be on the screen. I become the person running from the cops, or in the bus that won't stop or hanging from the skyscrapper window or getting cheated on. I walk out exhausted! :)
~Lisa