Back to Classics

After watching a number of sci-fi movies/series lately ...
decided to watch a few classics the last couple of days.

The Fountainhead (1949) - thought provoking
It's about intellectual property - an architect's work.
He dared to design his own way and demanded ownership.
His unique designs reminds me of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) - romance abroad
Three American girls working in Rome find love.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) - AFI pick of the week

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) - fantasy romance

Toni Collette movies

These were actually watched on Wednesday.
Randy was out and about all afternoon.
So the first two movies I watched alone.
Randy was not interested in seeing them (again).

Clockwatchers (1997) - imdb trailer
Its about the life of office temps. If you have ever worked in an office environment you will see that it is pretty true to life. The new girl gets embraced by three other temps. They socialize both at the office and after hours. They believe everyone is out to get them and keep them as temps especially when a new permanent is hired from outside their group. The movie reminded me of Working Girl and there was even a referrence to Tess. The "clockwatchers" aka temps are played by Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow and Alana Ubach.

I thought I was going to watch "gal pal" movies ...
but after watching this movie I was interested
to see what else Toni Collette had acted in.

About a Boy (2002) - imdb trailer
This is a romantic comedy based on a Nick Hornby's best-selling novel. Hugh Grant plays a young-ish man who decides to pick up single mothers by pretending to be a single parent himself when in reality he does not even work but lives off an inheritance of sorts. He ends up being involved in the life of the son of one of the ladies he dates friend. The boy who has a depressed mother in turns helps Hugh's character grow up and find purpose in his life. After starting to watch it realized I had seen it before. Toni Collette played the boy's mother.

Evening (2007) - imdb trailer
This is a romantic drama in which a dying mother, Anne, remembers her past and the "big mistake" and proclaims the love of her life is Harris - a name the two daughters, Nina and Constance, have never heard of before. The story goes back in forth between current day and fifty years past when Anne was maid of honor at her best friends high-society Newport wedding. Her best friend, Lila, has a brother that is interested in Anne while she is taken with wedding guest Harris. This back and forth element is reminiscent of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and the old love element is even more like The Notebook.

SO impressive is the cast of amazing woman actresses:
Claire Danes as young Anne and Vanessa Redgrave as dying Anne
Toni Collette as Nina and Natasha Richardson as Constance
Mamie Gummer as young Lila and Meryl Streep as older Lila
Glenn Close as Lila's mother and Eileen Atkins as night nurse

Natalie Portman movies

We decided to watch Natalie Portman movies.
She is a contemporary favorite of Randy's.
I like what I have seen of hers.

Closer (2004) - (independent) romantic drama
Natalie's Alice starts and ends with Jude Law's Dan.
Julia Roberts' Anna starts/ends with Clive Owen's Larry.

Garden State (2004) - romantic comedy
A mother's death brings a troubled young man back home.
While there he falls in love with Natalie's character.

Mars Attacks! (1996) - comedy sci-fi fantasy thriller
It's a Tim Burton movie with Jack Nicholson as President.
Glenn Close is the first lady and Natalie the first daughter.
Other greats: Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito,
Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Michael J. Fox.
Following is 1996 Theatrical Trailer for Mars Attack! (2:21)

Romance for the evening

After watching horror movies we switched
to romance with an element of fantasy.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
It stars Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison
It looked like a good movie but sadly the VHS had trouble.
So we will have to watch it all another time.

Bell Book and Candle (1958)
I had been waiting to have Randy see it.
It stars James Stewart and Kim Novak.
As well as Jack Lemmon and Elsa Lanchester.
Interesting to note that Rex Harrison played
the male lead in the Broadway production.

In the Land of Women

In the Land of Women (2007) was gretty good.
The write up intrigued me enough to want to watch it.
"His world in complete disorder after his break-up ...
Carter goes to suburban Detroit to care for his sickly Grandmother
and heal his broken heart. Along the way he forms a special bond
with the (Hardwicke) family that lives across from his Grandma,
and changes the life of each woman ... (and) his own life as well."

The main character is played by Adam Brody.
The grandmother is played by wacky, opinionated Olympia Dukakis.
The next door neighbor mother is played by Meg Ryan.
Her two daughters also fall for the Adam's character.

Neighbor visit and the nanny

Our upstairs neighbor came over for lunch.
And we visited all afternoon.
It was good getting to know her.
We heard stories about her children and family.

Do keep her in prayer ...
she is having back surgery Friday morning.
She'll be laid up about a month.
We offered her some of our videos.

In the evening Randy actually rented a couple.
We watched The Nanny Diaries (2007).
It stars Scarlett Johansson as the nanny ...
Actually an anthropology graduate trying to figure out life.

Daddy Deliver Us

We watched two movies that starred Gabrielle Union.

First there was Daddy's Little Girls (2007).
It was written and directed by Tyler Perry ...
but still it was a nice dramatic romance.
The three girls that played sisters really are sisters.
A number of the other actresses are from Girlfriends.

Then we watched Deliver Us from Eva (2003).
It's based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
I did not initially notice that but looking back can see it.
Obviously updated and with a black cast ...
and a different family dynamic (no father image).

Black and White Romantic Classics

The day started with the furnace getting cleaned.
Yeah - we've had heat all day - first time in 4 days.

The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (1936)
Starring Cary Grant and Mary Brian.
It's a drama, comedy and romance.

Pot o' Gold (1941)
Starring James Stewart and Paulette Goddard.
It's a musical, comedy and romance.

Made for Each Other (1939)
Starring Carole Lmbard and James Stewart.
It's a drama, comedy and romance.

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday we decided to watch movies with "changes".
This was prompted by Leap Day (the day before).

In the morning we watched The Skeleton Key.
It's a horror flick which ended with a soul tranformation "change".
Seems we picked a lot of odd and weird movies lately.
Randy was sick most of the day and slept.

In the evening we watched A Saintly Switch.
It's a family movie about a husband and wife having problems.
Their children wish theier parents understood each other better.
And sure enough they switch bodies to walk in each other's shoes.

Sunday we watched movies with titles that had special meaning to us.
Most of the movies were pretty weird regardless of the cool titles.

It's All About Love stars Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes and Sean Penn.
The love story takes place in 2021 in a world on the brink of disaster:
In summer it snows in New York City and people are flying in Africa.
A weird part is the multiple versions of Claire's character.

Funny Valentine stars Anthony Michael Hall and Marlo Marron.
A truly nice guy has a hard time finding romance in the big city.
His friends place a personal ad for him and screen the respondents.
In the meantime he finally falls for and starts dating a single mom.

Happy Endings stars a lot of well known actors like Lisa Kudrow,
Jason Ritter, Tom Arnold, David Sutcliffe and Laura Dern.
A lot of weird relationships with weird pregnancies and births.

Yes stars Shirley Henderson as the cleaner.
I admit I fell asleep towards the beginning.
Even at that point I could tell it was weird.

School Days

Decided to mostly focus on movies associated with school.
Simply because it was a holiday which mean "no school".

The Perfect Score (2004) - comedy
An odd combination of high school students ...
decide to steal the answers to the SAT.
They each have their own reason as to why it is unfair.

Bewitched (2005) - romantic comedy
Not about school but loved this as a youngster.
It's a reinvention of the tv show with a great cast...
Nicole Kidman as "Samantha" and Will Ferrell as "Darrin".
Supported by Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine.
It was co-written and directed by Nora Ephron.
She is known for great romantic comedies such as
Sleepless and Seattle, You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally.

Finding Forrester (2000) - drama
It stars Sean Connery as a reclusive author only publishing once.
An "afro-american teen writing prodigy" befriends him.
Randy was anxious for me to watch this. Overall it was okay.
It is slow moving building the characters but ended very well.

P.S. (2004) - romantic drama
This is one I thought would be cool to see.
The plot reminded me of Chance Are which I loved.
I enjoyed it but it still left a lot of unanswered questions.

Comedy Please

After being disappointed with the movie picks yesterday
we really tried to find some that were bound to be comedic.
One out of two isn't bad - is it?

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
It's an Albert Brooks movie.
Written, directed and starring him.
Some of his stuff I like and some not so much.

Guess Who is a nice romantic comedy!
The title is a take on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Bernie Mac plays the father who's daughter brings home
a "white boy" to marry played by Ashton Kutcher.

Valentine's Day recap

The day started with a snow-rain mix.
We mostly were planning to stay in anyway.
In the morning we watched Freedom Writers.
It's a love story of a different kind - a teacher's.
I will write more about this movie Saturday in the blog.

I made some Macaroonies while Randy cleared snow.
There was a lot of ice so decided to see if sun would help.
So we watched second movie of the day: Catch & Release
It's a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Garner of Alias.
I liked it although there were some strange elements.

Randy again attempted to go out to do a few errands.
We needed the paper because I had placed a "love message".
Decided to watch another movie: Come Early Morning
It stars Ashley Judd in what some say is her best performance.
It was a good relationship movie that included country music.

Randy finally headed out while supper was heating up in the oven.
So I did not have to cook we decided on On-Cor lasagna.
I was going to make bread sticks but temps varied too much.
When out Randy picked up Little Caesar's cheese bread sticks.
We ate by candlelight with a glass of Welch's Sparkling fruit cocktail.

During the course of the day my left eye had become a "red eye".
My nose was also draining pretty heavily as well - thinking allergy.
I decided to lay down and put a hot compress on eyes for a little bit.
This gave Randy a chance to sit down and read the paper.
He did find the "love message" I had placed for him.

We finally settled into watching the last movie of the day.
It was Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.
Since I was not feeling well I feel asleep in Randy's arms.
I saw the beginning and the end. Will watch the rest of it later.
Evening snack: Chubby Hubby for me and Moose Tracks for Randy.

Romance for Cathy and Action for Randy

Tuesday:

Paris Holiday with Bob Hope and Fernandel
The tagline is "The Comedy Team Of The Century".
Fernandel is Bob's comedian counterpart in his homeland of France.

Deja Vu with Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer
I am not big into action but I liked the intrigue in this one.
It was a combination of drama, romance and sci fi.

Wednesday:

Paris - When It Sizzles with William Holden and Audrey Hepburn
It's marked as a romantic comedy but I just consider it a comedy.
The romance seemed contrived as they wrote a screen play.

Sky High with Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston
It's a great movie - action, adventure, comedy, family, sci -fi.
Another of the super hero movies I would recommend to others.

A New Kind of Love with Paul Newman and (wife) Joanne Woodward
Also in it are George Tobias aka Abner Kravitv from Bewitched.
Thelma Ritter and Eva Gabor were also a part of this great movie.

Batman Begins with Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Liam Neeson
Randy calls it a "reinventure of Batman".
There is more looking into his young adulthood.

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.

Seat Filler leaves Deep Impact

Yesterday we watched a romantic comedy and an action movie.

The Seat Filler (2004) starred Duane Martin and Kelly Rowland.
While I did not recognize either of their names it was a good movie.
Different elements reminded me of a couple other movies ...
Maid in Manhattan for its mistaken identity/deception for love.
The Bodyguard for its entertainment industry and class difference.

Deep Impact (1998) is a drama sci-fi thriller according to imdb.
We definately also classify it is an action movie. AMAZING cast!
Morgan Freeman plays the President of the United States.
Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Elijah Woods, Vanessa Redgrave.
And Leelee Sobieski who I recently saw in My First Mister.

Week ending 02-09-08

At the beginning of the week we purchased our first HDTV.
We spent the week watching Alien Nation the series from 1989.
Among those 22 episodes we also did watch some other movies ...

White Noise (2005) and Good Luck Chuck (2007).
I was not impressed with White Noise at all.
Good Luck Chuck was an okay romantic comedy.

The Country Girl (1954) and Blue Skies (1946).
I also was not impressed with The Country Girl.
Blue Skies' story got lost in the 32 Irving Berlin hits.

Friday night's AFI selection was Pulp Fiction. I did not watch it.
There simply was too much foul language for my liking.
Instead I watched an episode of CSI: Las Vegas.

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.

That Funny Feeling

That Funny Feeling stars with Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin.
I like Sandra but could take or leave this movie- it was okay.
Some of the other actors I knew from other places as well.
Sandra I knew as character Tambrey 'Tammy' Tyree.
Donald O'Connor as Cosmo in Singin' In the Rain.
Nita Talbot I remember from Hogan's Heroes (Marya).
Larry Storch on "F Troop" as Cpl. Randolph Agarn.
Reta Shaw (lady at phone booth) is a great supporting actress.
I remember her on Bewitched as Aunt Hagatha.

Miracle Box

Another three more Christmas movies were watched:
The Christmas Box (1995 tv) - very nice story
Mr. St. Nick (2002 tv) - I like it - it's fun and different
- love the romance between the cook and Mr St Nick
Miracle On 34th Street (1947) - It's truly a Classic!!!

Angel in the Clouds

Three more Christmas movies were watched:

The Angel Doll (2002) - A little slow to start, has a sad factor, but ends on an inspiring note.

Christmas in the Clouds (2001)- "A classic comedy of mistaken identity and romance set during the holiday season at a ski resort..." Excellent reviews if you look it up in imdb especially the one titled "enjoyable perfection" which I agree with.

The Nativity Story (2006) - I liked it. It stays pretty true to the facts we know in the Bible.