30 day movie meme
Jul. 30th, 2010 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmegaeraOops. I forgot to post yesterday. So here's Day 19 and Day 20.
Day 01- The best movie you saw during the last year -- I haven't been to all that many movies in the theater in the last year. Probably the Star Trek reboot, but then I'm a sucker for a good popcorn movie, and I liked the casting a whole lot.
Day 02 - The most underrated movie -- A little gem called Housekeeping. Please ignore the horrible picture on the box. It's a lyrical, sad, beautifully-filmed movie about someone whose drum beats so differently that the world has no real place for her -- and about how her life influences two young girls, one who runs from her and the other who embraces her. It's set in a small town in the Pacific Northwest that could have been Libby, Montana, sixty years ago. An incredible, lovely movie. ETA: There doesn't seem to be anything I can do about the link. If you hit refresh several times, the real page will come up, or at least it does for me.
Day 03 - A movie that makes you really happy -- Trying not to list my alltime favorite movie here, because I don't want it to be the answer to most of the questions [g]. Hmm... Oh, heck. I'm going to put my "happy as in makes me forget I'm depressed for an hour and a half" movie in here, and that's Disney's Aladdin. Aladdin is better than drugs for that particular purpose. So there.
Day 04 - A movie that makes you sad -- Okay, it's probably a cliché, but Brokeback Mountain. It's just so bittersweet at the end. And since Heath Ledger died, well...
Day 05 - Favorite love story in a movie -- I am so trying not to list my alltime favorite movie until I get to Day 30, but it's getting harder by the day... So. With that as a given, hmmm. Given a quick glance through my movie collection, I'd say at least half of them have a love story, if not as the primary plot, then still as an important plot point. Lessee. Here's a few to choose from. There's The Big Easy, Bull Durham, Ever After, An Officer and a Gentleman, Romancing the Stone, Truly, Madly, Deeply, and Enchanted. Those are a few of my favorite movies with love stories that hopefully won't be needed to answer questions the rest of the month. Oh, and The Tall Guy. Mustn't forget The Tall Guy.
Day 06 - Favorite made for TV movie -- I don't watch a lot of TV movies, but one I do remember fondly is The Love Letter (I hope the link works this time, if it doesn't, please try hitting refresh several times since that worked on the last one). It was a Hallmark Hall of Fame production from 1999, about a modern-day man who finds a letter in an antique desk and discovers that via the desk he can correspond with a woman living in the 1860s. I'm a sucker for any sort of timeslip story, and this was a good one.
Day 07 - The most surprising plot twist or ending - Probably Dead Again. The whole reincarnation thing did not work out the way I expected it to the first time I saw it. And for you I, Claudius fans out there, there's a nifty little shout-out by the villain, who also played Claudius (actually, he's played two different Claudiuses over the years, but I mean the one who stuttered -- oops [g]).
Day 08 - A movie that you've seen countless times - Harold and Maude (usual disclaimer about the link, highlight url in taskbar then hit refresh a few times, yadda yadda yadda). This was the cult movie of choice during my early college years. The first time I saw it was in a high school English literature class, of all places (it was the last day of the semester, and considered a special treat, which it was). It was the regular "Friday night in an oncampus auditorium" movie at three different institutions of higher learning I attended, back in the days before -- gods, I feel old -- VCRs (no, not DVDs, videotapes, yes, I'm ancient). I probably saw it two or three dozen times over a period of a couple of years. Anyway, it still holds up, I recognize most of where it was filmed (I went to high school in the SF Bay Area), both Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort were fantastic, the script was hilarious, and I just have more fond memories of it than I want to think about. I really ought to pull my tape out and watch it again, because it has to have been at least a couple of years since I've done so. Oh, and honorable mention to my alltime favorite movie, which at one point in my life I was watching (on videotape) once a week whether I needed to or not [g].
Day 09 - A movie with the best soundtrack - Snicker. I'm going to choose a soundtrack to a movie I've never seen. Which is Wag the Dog. I bought it when I was on my Mark Knopfler kick a few years ago, and I absolutely love it. I have no real plans to see the movie, though, because the subject matter doesn't do a thing for me. But the soundtrack is brilliant.
Day 10 - Favorite classic movie - Oh, I have two. It Happened One Night and The African Queen. Both are about two people who think they hate each other and wind up falling in love, which is my absolutely favorite romance theme. And, come on. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert? Or Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn? What more could you possibly want? And yet... In IHON you get the daring young man on the flying trapeze, and the terrorizing of Shapley, and the hitchhiking scene, and let's not forget the walls of Jericho. And in TAQ you get "more tea, Mister Allnut?" and Charlie as engineer, and Rose learning to navigate down her first rapids, and the wonderful African scenery, and Hepburn's lovesick way of saying "Charlie". I can do without the leeches, though [g]. I just rewatched IHON last week. I may need to rewatch TAQ soon.
Day 11 - A movie that changed your opinion about something - This question annoys me. I watch movies for entertainment, not to be preached at. I'm not going to answer it. So there.
Day 12 - A movie that you hate - Braveheart. I have never had such a gut-level negative reaction to a movie in all my life as I did to that one. It's the only movie I ever walked out on (well, unless you count stepping out of the theater until the Shelob scenes were over in The Return of the King, but that was just for a few minutes). And it's not because of all the historical inaccuracies and terrible choices Mel made and all that. That didn't come till later. At the time I walked out (about fifteen minutes before the end), I was just so angry on a visceral level that it took me sitting in the car calming down until after everyone else had left after it was over before I felt safe enough to drive myself home. I still don't know exactly why. I've never done anything like that before or since. So, yeah. I hate Braveheart. With a passion. I just wish I knew why it affected me that way.
Day 13 - A movie that is a guilty pleasure - Define "guilty" [g]. I can't really think of a movie I'm embarrassed to like. I suppose I could mention my middle-aged lady's fondness for popcorn movies with lots of special effects (although explosions don't do much for me, and car chases have squicked me out ever since I rolled mine 11 years ago). You know, the kind where I'm the lone person over 30 in the theater... But I'm not embarrassed about it. As one of my refrigerator magnets says, "If you haven't grown up by the time you're forty, you don't have to." That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Day 14 - A movie that no one would expect you to love - Nobody's ever expressed surprise at my love of any particular movie. Maybe this will surprise a few people, I don't know. The Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Banderas as a disgraced Arab nobleman who gets shanghaied into a Viking raid on an enclave of cannibals in the northern wilderness. Based on the journal-style novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton, who in turn based it on the story of Beowulf and on the journals of Ibn Fadlan, a real Arab nobleman of the time. The epilog of the book says Crichton hopes Fadlan wouldn't have minded the bizarre fictional adventure he sent him on. I've loved the movie for years, but only read the book recently. Oddly enough, my favorite bit in the movie doesn't occur in the book, much to my disappointment. It's the part just after Fadlan has gone off with the Vikings and no longer has anyone who speaks his language to talk to. We hear the Vikings' speech from his point of view for a few days, first as complete gibberish, then with an understandable word here and there, gradually increasing until one day one of the Vikings insults him, and Fadlan shocks everyone by answering him in their language. It was just nifty. Anyway, it's a good movie, I think.
Day 15 - A character who you can relate to the most - Funny, I can think of lots of fictional characters I relate to, but they're all in books. Hmm... Now that I think about it (and peruse my video shelves), I think the reason is because in fiction I don't see an actor playing the part, and in television and the movies I do, so I peg the character to the actor (to the point sometimes where if I hate the character enough, I can't watch that actor anymore, no matter what the part), not myself. I do have a sneaking sympathy for Joseph Fiennes' portrayal of the title role in Shakespeare in Love, though. Mostly the frustrated writer part [g].
Day 16 - A movie that you used to love but now hate - I can't think of a single movie that fits this category. I either love a movie or I hate it, and that's the way it is. I don't change my mind...
Day 17 - A movie that disappointed you the most - The first movie that jumps into my brain on this subject is The English Patient. But not for what it was, actually, even though I really, really didn't like it. It was interminable, and the story went absolutely nowhere (no, I haven't read the book, no, I have no intention of ever reading the book if the movie was even a sample). But the reason it disappointed me was that it took Hamlet's Oscar for Best Picture. TEP came out the same year as Kenneth Branagh's epic all-star version of Hamlet, which I absolutely adore. IMNSHO, Hamlet was supposed to be Branagh's Dances With Wolves, his Braveheart (spit), in that it was his turn to take the Oscar hat trick, writer, director, star. When he didn't, well, it disappointed me. Not quite to the extent that the Stealers and the referees' stealing the 2005 Super Bowl from my beloved Seahawks did, but almost. So, yeah, The English Patient disappointed me. If "disappointed" is the word, and not "really, really ticked me off."
Day 18 - A movie that you wish more people would've seen - Well, there's always the aforementioned Housekeeping, but I'll toot Branagh's horn again and talk about The Theory of Flight. You've got to have a deaf ear for four-letter words for this one, and there's a couple of bits that make me cringe, but it really is a nifty movie otherwise. It's about a feckless man who, in an attempt to reinvent mechanical flight, crashes into a building and is assigned to community service as a punishment. He is assigned to help care for a woman with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) who is the one with a foul mouth, albeit through a Stephen Hawking-like voice generator. It's almost the same plot as Harold and Maude, in that the woman, whose physical life is winding down, takes a mentally and emotionally troubled man under her wing and gives him hope. The flight scenes are magnificent, the love story is sweet, and it really deserved more exposure than it got. Starred Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter, and was directed by Paul Greengrass back in his indie days. Just a plain good movie.
Day 19 - Favorite movie based on a book/comic/etc. - Well, if plays count, we're back to my alltime favorite. I could plug Housekeeping again, because it's based (incredibly faithfully) on the book by Marilynne Robinson. I could choose Brokeback Mountain, based on the short story by Annie Proulx. I'm not going to go the standard route and choose Lord of the Rings, because while I love the movies with a passion, that's such an obvious choice. Suffice to say that about half of my favorite movies are based on books or short stories or plays. I know! I'll pick Cold Comfort Farm! Based on the hilarious book by Stella Gibbons, it's an even more hilarious movie, with a fantastic cast headed by Kate Beckinsale in her pre-action-heroine days. "There's something nasty in the woodshed..."
Day 20 - Favorite movie from your favorite actor/actress - Alltime favorite falls in this category, too. It's hopeless [wry g]. My favorite actor since the first time I saw a movie of his (yes, it was to become my alltime favorite) in 1993 is Kenneth Branagh. A few of his movies I like less than others, and he's made a couple of bombs (Wild, Wild West, anyone?), but by and large I could watch him read the phone book and be happy (that's my highest accolade for any actor). So, at the risk of re-inciting the Branagh basher who commented on one of my earlier posts, I'm going to say Hamlet. All four glorious star-studded (having Charlton Heston voiceover for Sir John Gielgud? takes chutzpah, and I love him for it) hours of it. I saw it in the theater multiple times, and own the DVD, and I love it, love it, love it. Any snark on this post will be deleted, BTW, so just don't go there in the first place, thanks.
Day 21 - Favorite action movie -
Day 22 - Favorite documentary -
Day 23 - Favorite animation -
Day 24 - That one awesome movie idea that still hasn't been done yet -
Day 25 - The most hilarious movie you've ever seen -
Day 26 - A movie that you love but everyone else hates -
Day 27 - A movie that you wish you had seen in theaters -
Day 28 - Favorite movie from your favorite director -
Day 29 - A movie from your childhood -
Day 30 - Your favorite movie of all time -
Day 01- The best movie you saw during the last year -- I haven't been to all that many movies in the theater in the last year. Probably the Star Trek reboot, but then I'm a sucker for a good popcorn movie, and I liked the casting a whole lot.
Day 02 - The most underrated movie -- A little gem called Housekeeping. Please ignore the horrible picture on the box. It's a lyrical, sad, beautifully-filmed movie about someone whose drum beats so differently that the world has no real place for her -- and about how her life influences two young girls, one who runs from her and the other who embraces her. It's set in a small town in the Pacific Northwest that could have been Libby, Montana, sixty years ago. An incredible, lovely movie. ETA: There doesn't seem to be anything I can do about the link. If you hit refresh several times, the real page will come up, or at least it does for me.
Day 03 - A movie that makes you really happy -- Trying not to list my alltime favorite movie here, because I don't want it to be the answer to most of the questions [g]. Hmm... Oh, heck. I'm going to put my "happy as in makes me forget I'm depressed for an hour and a half" movie in here, and that's Disney's Aladdin. Aladdin is better than drugs for that particular purpose. So there.
Day 04 - A movie that makes you sad -- Okay, it's probably a cliché, but Brokeback Mountain. It's just so bittersweet at the end. And since Heath Ledger died, well...
Day 05 - Favorite love story in a movie -- I am so trying not to list my alltime favorite movie until I get to Day 30, but it's getting harder by the day... So. With that as a given, hmmm. Given a quick glance through my movie collection, I'd say at least half of them have a love story, if not as the primary plot, then still as an important plot point. Lessee. Here's a few to choose from. There's The Big Easy, Bull Durham, Ever After, An Officer and a Gentleman, Romancing the Stone, Truly, Madly, Deeply, and Enchanted. Those are a few of my favorite movies with love stories that hopefully won't be needed to answer questions the rest of the month. Oh, and The Tall Guy. Mustn't forget The Tall Guy.
Day 06 - Favorite made for TV movie -- I don't watch a lot of TV movies, but one I do remember fondly is The Love Letter (I hope the link works this time, if it doesn't, please try hitting refresh several times since that worked on the last one). It was a Hallmark Hall of Fame production from 1999, about a modern-day man who finds a letter in an antique desk and discovers that via the desk he can correspond with a woman living in the 1860s. I'm a sucker for any sort of timeslip story, and this was a good one.
Day 07 - The most surprising plot twist or ending - Probably Dead Again. The whole reincarnation thing did not work out the way I expected it to the first time I saw it. And for you I, Claudius fans out there, there's a nifty little shout-out by the villain, who also played Claudius (actually, he's played two different Claudiuses over the years, but I mean the one who stuttered -- oops [g]).
Day 08 - A movie that you've seen countless times - Harold and Maude (usual disclaimer about the link, highlight url in taskbar then hit refresh a few times, yadda yadda yadda). This was the cult movie of choice during my early college years. The first time I saw it was in a high school English literature class, of all places (it was the last day of the semester, and considered a special treat, which it was). It was the regular "Friday night in an oncampus auditorium" movie at three different institutions of higher learning I attended, back in the days before -- gods, I feel old -- VCRs (no, not DVDs, videotapes, yes, I'm ancient). I probably saw it two or three dozen times over a period of a couple of years. Anyway, it still holds up, I recognize most of where it was filmed (I went to high school in the SF Bay Area), both Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort were fantastic, the script was hilarious, and I just have more fond memories of it than I want to think about. I really ought to pull my tape out and watch it again, because it has to have been at least a couple of years since I've done so. Oh, and honorable mention to my alltime favorite movie, which at one point in my life I was watching (on videotape) once a week whether I needed to or not [g].
Day 09 - A movie with the best soundtrack - Snicker. I'm going to choose a soundtrack to a movie I've never seen. Which is Wag the Dog. I bought it when I was on my Mark Knopfler kick a few years ago, and I absolutely love it. I have no real plans to see the movie, though, because the subject matter doesn't do a thing for me. But the soundtrack is brilliant.
Day 10 - Favorite classic movie - Oh, I have two. It Happened One Night and The African Queen. Both are about two people who think they hate each other and wind up falling in love, which is my absolutely favorite romance theme. And, come on. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert? Or Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn? What more could you possibly want? And yet... In IHON you get the daring young man on the flying trapeze, and the terrorizing of Shapley, and the hitchhiking scene, and let's not forget the walls of Jericho. And in TAQ you get "more tea, Mister Allnut?" and Charlie as engineer, and Rose learning to navigate down her first rapids, and the wonderful African scenery, and Hepburn's lovesick way of saying "Charlie". I can do without the leeches, though [g]. I just rewatched IHON last week. I may need to rewatch TAQ soon.
Day 11 - A movie that changed your opinion about something - This question annoys me. I watch movies for entertainment, not to be preached at. I'm not going to answer it. So there.
Day 12 - A movie that you hate - Braveheart. I have never had such a gut-level negative reaction to a movie in all my life as I did to that one. It's the only movie I ever walked out on (well, unless you count stepping out of the theater until the Shelob scenes were over in The Return of the King, but that was just for a few minutes). And it's not because of all the historical inaccuracies and terrible choices Mel made and all that. That didn't come till later. At the time I walked out (about fifteen minutes before the end), I was just so angry on a visceral level that it took me sitting in the car calming down until after everyone else had left after it was over before I felt safe enough to drive myself home. I still don't know exactly why. I've never done anything like that before or since. So, yeah. I hate Braveheart. With a passion. I just wish I knew why it affected me that way.
Day 13 - A movie that is a guilty pleasure - Define "guilty" [g]. I can't really think of a movie I'm embarrassed to like. I suppose I could mention my middle-aged lady's fondness for popcorn movies with lots of special effects (although explosions don't do much for me, and car chases have squicked me out ever since I rolled mine 11 years ago). You know, the kind where I'm the lone person over 30 in the theater... But I'm not embarrassed about it. As one of my refrigerator magnets says, "If you haven't grown up by the time you're forty, you don't have to." That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Day 14 - A movie that no one would expect you to love - Nobody's ever expressed surprise at my love of any particular movie. Maybe this will surprise a few people, I don't know. The Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Banderas as a disgraced Arab nobleman who gets shanghaied into a Viking raid on an enclave of cannibals in the northern wilderness. Based on the journal-style novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton, who in turn based it on the story of Beowulf and on the journals of Ibn Fadlan, a real Arab nobleman of the time. The epilog of the book says Crichton hopes Fadlan wouldn't have minded the bizarre fictional adventure he sent him on. I've loved the movie for years, but only read the book recently. Oddly enough, my favorite bit in the movie doesn't occur in the book, much to my disappointment. It's the part just after Fadlan has gone off with the Vikings and no longer has anyone who speaks his language to talk to. We hear the Vikings' speech from his point of view for a few days, first as complete gibberish, then with an understandable word here and there, gradually increasing until one day one of the Vikings insults him, and Fadlan shocks everyone by answering him in their language. It was just nifty. Anyway, it's a good movie, I think.
Day 15 - A character who you can relate to the most - Funny, I can think of lots of fictional characters I relate to, but they're all in books. Hmm... Now that I think about it (and peruse my video shelves), I think the reason is because in fiction I don't see an actor playing the part, and in television and the movies I do, so I peg the character to the actor (to the point sometimes where if I hate the character enough, I can't watch that actor anymore, no matter what the part), not myself. I do have a sneaking sympathy for Joseph Fiennes' portrayal of the title role in Shakespeare in Love, though. Mostly the frustrated writer part [g].
Day 16 - A movie that you used to love but now hate - I can't think of a single movie that fits this category. I either love a movie or I hate it, and that's the way it is. I don't change my mind...
Day 17 - A movie that disappointed you the most - The first movie that jumps into my brain on this subject is The English Patient. But not for what it was, actually, even though I really, really didn't like it. It was interminable, and the story went absolutely nowhere (no, I haven't read the book, no, I have no intention of ever reading the book if the movie was even a sample). But the reason it disappointed me was that it took Hamlet's Oscar for Best Picture. TEP came out the same year as Kenneth Branagh's epic all-star version of Hamlet, which I absolutely adore. IMNSHO, Hamlet was supposed to be Branagh's Dances With Wolves, his Braveheart (spit), in that it was his turn to take the Oscar hat trick, writer, director, star. When he didn't, well, it disappointed me. Not quite to the extent that the Stealers and the referees' stealing the 2005 Super Bowl from my beloved Seahawks did, but almost. So, yeah, The English Patient disappointed me. If "disappointed" is the word, and not "really, really ticked me off."
Day 18 - A movie that you wish more people would've seen - Well, there's always the aforementioned Housekeeping, but I'll toot Branagh's horn again and talk about The Theory of Flight. You've got to have a deaf ear for four-letter words for this one, and there's a couple of bits that make me cringe, but it really is a nifty movie otherwise. It's about a feckless man who, in an attempt to reinvent mechanical flight, crashes into a building and is assigned to community service as a punishment. He is assigned to help care for a woman with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) who is the one with a foul mouth, albeit through a Stephen Hawking-like voice generator. It's almost the same plot as Harold and Maude, in that the woman, whose physical life is winding down, takes a mentally and emotionally troubled man under her wing and gives him hope. The flight scenes are magnificent, the love story is sweet, and it really deserved more exposure than it got. Starred Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter, and was directed by Paul Greengrass back in his indie days. Just a plain good movie.
Day 19 - Favorite movie based on a book/comic/etc. - Well, if plays count, we're back to my alltime favorite. I could plug Housekeeping again, because it's based (incredibly faithfully) on the book by Marilynne Robinson. I could choose Brokeback Mountain, based on the short story by Annie Proulx. I'm not going to go the standard route and choose Lord of the Rings, because while I love the movies with a passion, that's such an obvious choice. Suffice to say that about half of my favorite movies are based on books or short stories or plays. I know! I'll pick Cold Comfort Farm! Based on the hilarious book by Stella Gibbons, it's an even more hilarious movie, with a fantastic cast headed by Kate Beckinsale in her pre-action-heroine days. "There's something nasty in the woodshed..."
Day 20 - Favorite movie from your favorite actor/actress - Alltime favorite falls in this category, too. It's hopeless [wry g]. My favorite actor since the first time I saw a movie of his (yes, it was to become my alltime favorite) in 1993 is Kenneth Branagh. A few of his movies I like less than others, and he's made a couple of bombs (Wild, Wild West, anyone?), but by and large I could watch him read the phone book and be happy (that's my highest accolade for any actor). So, at the risk of re-inciting the Branagh basher who commented on one of my earlier posts, I'm going to say Hamlet. All four glorious star-studded (having Charlton Heston voiceover for Sir John Gielgud? takes chutzpah, and I love him for it) hours of it. I saw it in the theater multiple times, and own the DVD, and I love it, love it, love it. Any snark on this post will be deleted, BTW, so just don't go there in the first place, thanks.
Day 21 - Favorite action movie -
Day 22 - Favorite documentary -
Day 23 - Favorite animation -
Day 24 - That one awesome movie idea that still hasn't been done yet -
Day 25 - The most hilarious movie you've ever seen -
Day 26 - A movie that you love but everyone else hates -
Day 27 - A movie that you wish you had seen in theaters -
Day 28 - Favorite movie from your favorite director -
Day 29 - A movie from your childhood -
Day 30 - Your favorite movie of all time -
