Movie Monday

Where to start?!  The charm (for me) of movie Mondays is to document both the good and the bad films that I subject myself to on a weekly basis.  Otherwise I wouldn’t know why I wake up with eyeball pain.

But I haven’t written a movie Monday in a month… and I’ve probably watched 100 movies and the temperature drops below 70 at night and my wrists are cold and won’t let my fingers move right and I don’t want to subject you to 100 movie reviews in one post because you’d get angry.

So here’s what I’ll do… I’ve seen some amazing movies this month and I’ve seen some real turkeys too- so let’s look at the best of both then start next week on a clean slate?

 

So with that out of the way-

Here’s a recap of this month’s screenings.  Proof in writing that I watch too many movies.

 

The Warrior’s Way (2010) - A ninja assassin moves to a broken American western town.  I enjoyed the hell out of this movie that I had never heard of.  Of course, I don’t watch TV so I never see trailers so I hardly hear of any movies.  The lead is a sexy assassin; there are lots of interesting characters and exciting action scenes.  My only complaint—a little too much obvious green screen.

 

The Warrior's Way

 

The Musketeer (2001) - You know this story right?  D’Artagnan wants to be a musketeer.  Lots of sword fighting and king protecting ensues.  But, I deserve your pity.  Why?  Because I have in my life accidently watched The Musketeer twice.  Yes, this movie is so bad (in every way) yet so forgettable that I accidently watched it again tonight and didn’t realize it until an hour in.  If you have seen this turkey, you would understand my pain.

Vernon, Florida (1981) - Documentary about the little town of- yes you guessed right!  Vernon, Florida!  I liked this film from the first shot.  It reminded me instantly of the little town in Alabama where most of my relatives live and where I spent my summers as a girl.  And when the people started speaking I felt a little homesick.  Vernon is in the panhandle of Florida and very close to the border of Alabama, and the accents and cadences are very similar.  The turkey hunter in particular sounds like my uncle. 

I will say that people may feel the film maker is making fun of the residents of this town, but I couldn't disagree more.  Any feeling of ridicule is in the viewer's preconception that the residents are, by being simply themselves, ridiculous.

 I don’t even think the residents are very ‘eccentric’as the description boasts.  What I see are people that are at once familiar to me.  I think there is a dignity and a reserve to the people of the south, and keep in mind the film maker lived in Vernon for a year and befriended the residents before he got these relaxed interviews.

 

Vernon, Florida

 

 

How about some cult classics that I had never gotten around to seeing?

Footloose (1984)- Young city boy loves to dance.  He’s also the new guy in a small, conservative (Texas?) town.  This is a classic teen flick.  I’ve seen several spoofs of Footloose (Brett’s dance in the Flight of the Conchords comes to mind) so it was extra entertaining to see what people had been spoofing.  Of course this one is silly, but I like the genre so I enjoyed it in general.

 

Footloose
The 80s: Bowling shoes and sweats. 
Is it any wonder I grew up thinking mix-matched socks were cool?

 

Teenwolf (1985)- Boy doesn’t realize he’s turning in to a werewolf- isn’t high school hard enough already?  This one had a few good parts, but it fell a little flat I think!  Something about it never took off and the pace was all over the place.

 Harold and Maude (1971)- An odd couple movie; young unsure teenage boy obsessed with his own death and a cooky 70 something lady who’s eating life!  Oh how I enjoyed this!  Lots of things rolled in one; comedy, romance, drama, satire.  I loved the backgrounds and soundtrack too.

 

Harold and Maude
Harold with his therapist.  They are dressed the same...
which is hilarious

 

 Rain man (1988) – A slick 80s man meets his autistic brother for the first time.  Eh- I could take this or leave it really.  It was ok I guess… sort of predictable, shallow, sad.  I’m really not sure why this one was so popular.  Love Dustin Hoffman in general though.

 

 

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Blank City (2010) – This is a documentary about the late 70s/ early 80s in New York City.  There was a new form of music (punk rock) and a new art form (graffiti art) and, as this documentary focuses on, a new style of movie making.  You could almost think of this as a companion piece to Kill Your Idols.  It features lots of interviews with people who are a little on the pretentious and narcissistic side… I am aware of the hypocrisy of a statement like that coming from a lady who has a personal blog.  Unrelated question: why is it impossible for someone from New York City to tell a story without first naming the street they were on?

Amadeus (1984) - Story about Mozart, some real elements and real life people woven in to a fictional story.  What can I say about this masterpiece?  It is… so good.  I can’t think of a flaw in this movie.  There is such an attention to every detail.  It’s three hours long, but doesn’t feel it.  If you’ve never seen this one, I can’t recommend it enough!

 

Amadeus

 

The Van (1977)- Teen flick from the late 70s about a boy and his van.  This one is silly and a lot of the gags miss the mark, but I’m such a sucker for films from this era that I excused it a lot.  I had to verify with my mom that shitty Dodge vans with carpet in the back were really the height of cool… because I really don’t get it!  (She confirmed and told me her cousin had one with custom paint and shag carpet).

 

The Van

 

Dragon Tattoo Trilogy (2009) – These movies are based on a book series by Swedish author, Stieg Larsson.  The main character is a girl named Lisbeth; she’s a little troubled and she’s a hacker and she has bum luck a lot of the time.  I watched the Swedish language films (later found out there was a Hollywood version of the first movie as well).  I don’t normally enjoy modern day intrigue/thriller type movies, but I enjoyed these, especially the first one.

All’s Faire in Love (2009) –Rom-com that takes place at a renaissance fair.  A jock is forced by his professor to spend three weeks at a ren-fair and he meets a whole group of new friends.  The other night I had watched several heavy things (H.H. Holmes documentary, etc) and I was really in the mood for something light!  This hit the spot.  It was dumb in a few spots, but I thought the romance was well represented.  In general a solid average flick and great for its intended purpose.

 

All's Faire in Love

 

Pick of the Month:

I couldn't decide, so there are two!

The Artist (2011) – This is a modern silent film. It had a huge buzz when it was released and it won a lot of awards. It is about the rise of one Hollywood star and the fall of another. If you’ve read my movie Monday’s in the past, you know I love silent films, so I was so excited when this one showed up in the new releases section of Netflix. I enjoyed this one so hard. If you read some reviews, you’ll find that haters are gonna hate, but don’t believe it! This movie is a great revival/homage to a style of filmmaking that has sadly fallen out of use.

Super 8 (2011) – Some kid friends are making a zombie movie on their super 8 camera. But something unexpected happens… I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. I put it on as background while I worked on other things, but ended up only watching the movie! It’s very goonies but with crazy good special effects. I’m going to make my husband watch it with me.

 

Super 8