Library Movie Quest

Starting now:

A-Z.

#1) American Flyers. Fairly old, Kevin Costner and a bunch of nobodies. I could tell you the whole movie in two sentences. Eh.

I'll continue the quest.

The Women

To top off the weekend, I decided to see a third.  "The Women" it was.  Apparently, as we figured out in the end there were no men in the entire movie.  Interesting.  An all star female cast -- focused around Meg Ryan who finds herself married to a cheating husband, with a daughter who prefers an ex-friend to mother her (and ask advice from)... and that's the premise.  Typical, in all senses, but a good movie anyway.

Burn After Reading

Ah.  One of the weirdest movies of my life.  Seriously.  They have outdone themselves this time (the Cohen brothers), creating a movie that was totally bizarre, yet was something you couldn't take your eyes off of.  About a ex-CIA man who has his memoir found by two idiots... and it results in a lot of messes.  Add a sex crazed George Clooney and you've got your movie.  Not sure it's recommendable. 

Bottle Shock

Not the poster I remember seeing when I was dying to watch this movie, but still.  The movie was fantastic.  If you love Alan Rickman, and I do, then the movie is great.  He's a British wine snob, living in Paris, and arranges a tasting between California wines (Napa Valley) and french wines.  Ab fab, although a bit slow.  A great cast, with some famous people here and there, and a great background.  Must download the soundtrack and review that as well.

Double Feature

What do I do these days? Movies, a double feature to be exact.

Made of Honor: Funny, and Patrick Dempsey is some star.

What Happens in Vegas: Less funny, but still enjoyable.

Once

This movie is a real keeper -- or see-it type movie. Apparently they're real musicians in life and have an album out besides the soundtrack for this movie. His voice reminds me of Damien Rice, but I'm sure some music-phile could say better who he (and she actually) remind you of. Either way, they meet in the street as he's a street musician and become fast friends. I'll leave the rest for you to find out about, but the movie is absolutely fabulous as is the soundtrack and their songs. A+. See it now in your nearest independent movie theater or wait for it to be out on DVD.

Annapolis

A navy movie this time, with James Franco. No one thinks he'll make it, but of course he does. Hope I didn't spoil it for you... but not really worth your time or mine either. Just an update.

Firewall

Another Harrison Ford movie, although I do have to say he's aging well.

The gist: He works for this bank, and a few men want some money (typical) so they take hostage of his family. Not too thrilling I must say, and halfway through I was sure the movie was over, but no.

Honestly, don't bother.

Kingdom of Hearts

Don't know why I even bothered.  The fighting, not too superb.  The love story?  Not too thrilling.  It's about a blacksmith who finds out his father is a knight and a lord, and later fights to defend Jerusalem.  One of the longest movies I've watched where I kept thinking I should turn it off. 

Why you should watch it?  Just don't.

Invincible

The short of it?  A sports movie featuring Mark Wahlberg. It's a biographical movie based on Vince Papale who became a star player on the Philly Eagles in the 1970s.  Drafted from the general public, he rose to become a great football player.

Why you should see it?  Only if you're a sport movie lover.

A Hard Day's Night

If you can't recognize this poster, you're missing out. It's been hanging on my wall for ages :D. Either way, decided to rewatch the movie today, and I got my Dad watching and singing along with me. Oh, what a British day. It's so much more enjoyable this time around, perhaps since I can finally understand them clearly. Turning on the closed captioning helps out too. The Beatles are a crazy lot, jumping all about, taking baths with submarines, singing with mysteriously appearing instruments, and that dirty little old man. Watch it for yourself, it's one of those classic experiences you need to have. Enjoy it all you can.

Hot Fuzz

A superior movie, that was all fun. This movie actually made me laugh out loud, something that hasn't happened in a movie theatre for a long time. And it happened more than once. OK, a bit gruesome, and bloody, but it was all in good fun. It was a British day all around. (See the next post), and I enjoyed every second of it, and all the slang too. The movie was about a cop sent from London to the countryside since he was too good. Haha. Turns out the "perfect" village wasn't so perfect, and instead mostly criminals. Definitely recommended. I'm glad I only paid $3 for it, but it's probably out in a file or on a disc somewhere.

Take The Lead

Another one of those teach dance to public school students. This was done up with Antonio Banderas and was more of a reenactment in comparison with a movie like Mad Hot Ballroom. The students turned out to be really good at dancing, and as it said at the end, it eventually lead to a larger program in NYC, perhaps fueling the other movie I mentioned. It was cute, and well done, and I do love these dancing movies. Not particularly recommended, unless you too have a soft spot for dancing.

The Lake House

An interesting movie. Haven't seen either Sandra Bullock or Keanu Reeves for a very long time in any picture. Don't know if I like these love stories across the boundaries of time type, but I feel like I've watched something comparable before. Either way, it was a nice relaxing film to watch filmed in a suburb of Chicago, since it's all around Chicago, and the house itself was pretty neat, at least I thought so. The film wasn't fabulously beautiful, heart-wrenching, or all that fascinating, so I'm not suggesting it, just telling what I saw.

Who Killed the Electric Car

This is a wonderful documentary that everyone should go and watch this instant. It's not about our environment, but rather why we can't even change our cars to use electricity rather than oil. Absolutely enlightening. It brings to mind the idea about how much these documentaries influence us -- think about that one about McDonalds, remember that? Did you eat at McDonalds after watching the movie? I probably have. It just goes to show, that we watch, we learn, but do we really follow? Either way, it was a great movie and exposed a lot about General Motors and what they did to squash the electric car. Then what the car companies did to squash all electric cars and lead us to Hydrogen Fuel Cells, which the movie implies is not going to work out in the short term future, and will be even more costly. Definitely go watch this film, and enjoy it for what it tells you. It's frightening that such things can occur, with conspiracy theories leading the way about who is at fault. And in addition to those companies and perhaps the California board, the consumers too are at fault. Why do we need four seats and a huge trunk? Why do we need a car to go 300 miles in a day? How far should work and school, etc., be?

Running With Scissors (movie)

Oh my! If the book wasn't messed up, the movie certainly was. Instead of imagining his drugged up mother, we got to see her firsthand. A lot of the book was left out, thank goodness, and there was a lot of expression showed on faces where they did not show the actual horrific items mentioned. Not to spoil it or anything, but I think they ended differently as well, I'm not certain though, since my recollection is limited to some specific things. I'm not sure if it was touching actually, but it was definitely interesting, and I don't think I recommend it to just anyone, so ask if you're curious.

Lord of War

This may very well have been the best movie I've seen in months.  Very well done and it was very on the spot.  I mean, it is a movie about Nicholas Cage as an arms dealer, but it's much more than that.  Well filmed, a good narrative and voice over, and a plot that was just grabbing considering much of the same was being done over and over.  There was a love element, a family element, and a small bit of chase element, and I personally wonder how much is real.  Historical events were referenced, but I suppose we'll never see the real thing about arms dealers.  IMDB references that one of the piles of weapons or trucks or whatever was one borrowed from a real arms dealer since props would have been more expensive, but either way, that was a whole lot of weapons.  Definitely recommended.

Marie Antoinette

Well, I suppose my own thoughts are my own.  Even if she was glorified and humanized (thanks to Martin for bringing this all up) I thought the movie was a bit touching.  In case you don't know, she was once the Queen of France and apparently loved sweets and purchasing things.  Either way, it was sweet, or at least I thought so, and the cinematography was excellent - and the music and visualness of it all made it fun to watch. 

Admittedly, I was shocked at the end.  I remembered they'd escaped, at least from history, but that's not how I remember/imagine it all went down, but instead they made it out to be quite dramatic.  Recommended.

Love Is All There Is

Oh boy.  The absolutely cheesiest, sappiest, stupid movie I've ever seen.  With a bunch of famous people (including Angelina Jolie real young) it's about two rivalry families and their respective son and daughter reliving Romeo and Juliet.  After they play in it together.  But it's hilarious, really, and I wanted to turn it off the whole time but couldn't stop myself.  My suggestion... turn the channel as soon  as you can.

Two for the Money

So, another night, yet another movie.  At this rate, I'll either finish all the movies on my hard drive, or stop watching cause I'll get to the depressing ones... either way, this one was not depressing, but rather one of the sport type movies I'm so fond of.  The main guy is a sports lover, and becomes a picker for some kind of 900 number system, but he picks and sells.  So, he's got this nice upward winning streak, but then he loses it.  I'll let you watch the movie to find out what happens, but I will say it is predictable, and only watch if you like this kind of thing.