Easter movies

The Judas Project (1990)
How would you, in this crazy mixed up world we live in, react
if a man claimed to be the son of God and performed miracles?
The movie's aim was to be a more modern telling of Jesus' life.
Here is the official site of The Judas Project.

The Robe (1953)
The "robe" refers to Jesus' robe taken before his crucifixion.
The officer who ends up with it has nightmares and delusions.
He goes to Palestine to learn more about the man he helped kill.
It starred Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature.

Easter Parade (1948)
This is one of my favorite musicals.
It stars Fred Astaire and Judy Garland,
as well as Peter Lawford and Ann Miller.
And the songs are by Irving Berlin.

Music Everywhere

The AFI pick was The Jazz Singer (1927).
It was mostly a silent movie with musical numbers.
I'll let Randy post more about it later.
We decided to stay with the music theme.

Walk the Line (2005) about Johnny Cash.
I was pleasantly surprised at liking this movie.
Johnny Cash was played by Joaquin Phoenix.
June Carter was played by Reese Witherspoon.
They both performed all the songs themselves.

Chicago (2002) is a great contemporary musical.
While it is a remake the action onscreen was ALIVE.
As with all good musicals it was colorful and energetic.
It was interesting to see well known stars singing and dancing:
Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, and Richard Gere.
Christine Baranski plays the reporter Mary Sunshine.
Queen Latifah plays Matron Mama Morton.

Family Fantasy Explored

The first two movies we watched Monday.
And the latter two were viewed Tuesday.
The first three are Irish for St Patty's Day.
They all have accents to varying degrees.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)
Darby explores the land of the little people.
He believes in leprechauns and banshees.
A relatively young (29) Sean Connery is in it.

The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
Two children explore the island of their forefathers.
They hear many tales of events that happened there.
They come to believe in mermaids which is part of their family tree.
And they spot a lost sibling once thought to have been drowned.
But instead his seal relatives of the sea have taken care of him.
These young people also rebuild the family's abandoned homes.
It's amazing what they can do and what they know how to do.
I totally recommend this family fantasy to all.

Finian's Rainbow (1968)
Finian explores the best use of his fortunes in Rainbow Valley.
Rainbow - Irish - yes, there is a leprechaun in this adventure.
I remember watching this musical when I was a young adult.
I like the storyline about people of all colors living in harmony.
It was directed by a 29 year old (hippie) Francis Ford Coppola.
It stars Fred Astaire as Finian and his daughter is Petula Clark.

Five Children and It (2004)
The five children explore their uncle's home.
They find a doorway to a mystical land with an "IT".
The sand fairy grants them wishes to teach them lessons.
As with leprechauns it usually does not work out.

Oldies but Goodies

I was surprised I had not seen either one of these oldies but goodies.

Sunday I watched the musical Hit the Deck (1955).
There were so many great folks in it ...
The ladies - Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Ann Miller
The gents - Walter Pidgeon, Vic Damone and Richard Anderson
Randy was surprised to see a young Russ Tamblyn, Amber's dad.
Richard Anderson we knew better (in the 70's) as Oscar Goldman.

Today I watched the romantic comedy with music Honolulu (1939).
Eleanor Powell was the female lead and did many tap numbers.
Robert Young was the male lead playing multiple roles.
Husband and wife, George Burns and Gracie Allen were in it.
I believe this is the first movie I've seen Gracie in - she's funny.
Young George I did not easily recognize until I heard him talk.

Week ending 02-02-08

I did not blog last week but wanted to mention some things that we did do partly for our own benefit so we remember what we did when. I tried a few new recipes. The first new recipe was Macaroon Cookie Cake, a chocolate cake with coconut topping made with pre-melted chocolate. It was from an OLD cookbook my mother had given me from the sixties, a Pillsbury Cook Off compilation. I asked my mom if that ingredient still existed today and found that it did. Me thinks I will use it again; it beats melting chocolate squares. The second new recipe, Potato Bacon Casserole, was my first use of our crockpot. It went well enough. The original recipe called for hash browns but I replaced it with potatoes thinly sliced. Only slight problem was that even after cooking for 6 hours the potatoes were somewhat hard. We both did like it so will be doing it again with precooked potatoes. I will be backdating the recipes a little later and adding links in this post.

If you know us you know we love movies. I was still a little out of it health wise so spent even more time than usual watching movies. I'll list by genre things we or just I watched. Later I may backdate entries to expand on some of these so look for last weeks entries a little later. The sci-fi picks included Taken (mini series), Lost Room (mini series), Alien Nation (original movie), and Stargate (original movie). Musicals watched Babes on Broadway, Broadway Melody of 1936, Broadway Melody of 1940, Ziegfield Follies and Words and Music. Comedies including romantic comedies included My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Repli-Kate, Just Like Heaven, My First Mister, Music and Lyrics and The List. The latter is the best romantic comedy I have seen in a long time.

During the last week we also found imdb's My Movies feature. It's your personal subset of their database. We each created an account over there. Randy is inputting all our movies and tv shows. Right now he is doing the DVDs and later the VHS. I am keeping track of what movies we actually watch. I have it set up by genre according to us (not imdb). Some of these will be linked on our website. Needless to say we are keeping busy.

AFI Movie Date Night

Tonight we started AFI Movie Date Night.
AFI stands for American Film Institute.
They have a list of top 100 movies.
We plan to watch one a week for the next two years.
We started with #100 - Yankee Doodle Dandy, a musical.
James Cagney played George M. Cohan who's life it is about.

Showboat

I enjoying watching Showboat again.
It stars Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel.
I had not seen the movie in a long while.
And of things it had to do with New Year's.
At one point the father goes to see daughter in big city.
It apparently is on New Year's Eve and he gets drunk.
And at the end of the movie it also says "Happy New Year".
But I think that had more to do with romance rekindled.

Merry Christmas

It was our first Christmas married.
My parents came over for dinner.
I made lasagna - a nice simple meal.
Mom brought roast beef and cranberry salad.

We also watched three movies today.
Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.
White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.
Deck the Halls with Danny Devito and Matthew Broderick.

Vacation Day 4

Called Randy at 1 PM since I had not heard from him.
Found out he had not gotten to sleep till 6 AM.

We watched Nanny McPhee. I really enjoyed it.

Went to Fat Boy carhop on way to Orr's and Bailey's Islands
Took him down to Land's End to see the Atlantic Ocean

Went to the Dollar Store on the way home.
Our first shopping trip together.

We watched Moulin Rouge with Nicole Kidman.