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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Let's all go to the movies...

Ok, so I haven't gone to the movies recently, but I did recently watch some movies. The following movies I watched in the past week a couple of months ago during the week of January 4th...man I shouldn't let drafts get so old. Anyway, these movies are mostly old ones that I had never seen before. So here go the reviews!

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The first movie I watched was "Fiddler on the Roof" I had heard this was a great classic movie, and I have to agree, it was. Now I must warn you, this movie is LONGGGG. Over 3 hours I believe. So get comfy with this one. It's so worth the watch. The story centers on the life of a Jewish man named Tevye. Tevye is very much about his family traditions, but as times are quickly changing, he finds himself having to be a bit lenient on his traditions to please his family and in the end please himself.

I love how this man loves to break down the fourth wall. It's never just you alone in the room watching this movie. Oh no. Tevye makes sure you are included in on the fun. LOL! He talks out his problems with you to help him come to a conclusion. The decision making of course always starts with TRADITION! Get used to that. No, literally. He yells it several times throughout the movie.

Tevye and his family are poor, but he gets by and doesn't complain...much. He does have a song and dance about what his life would be like if he were a rich man, but that's about the extent of it.

Now, the fiddler part. I'm going to nab a part from Wiki that better explains it. I loved the fiddler because of the symbolism he stood for. He was in the very final scene of the movie to remind Tevye as well as us that no matter where we go, we still face the same issues in life but we just need to do our best to deal with it and keep carrying on. The following is how the Wiki describes it.

The film begins with Tevye explaining to the audience that what keeps the Jews of Anatevka going is the balance they achieve through following their ancient traditions. He also explains that the lot of the Jews in Russia is as precarious as a fiddler on a roof: trying to eke out a pleasant tune, while not breaking their necks. The fiddler appears throughout the film as a metaphoric reminder of the Jews' ever-present fears and danger.


Just before the closing credits, Tevye spots the fiddler and motions to him to come along, and the film ends with the fiddler following Tevye down the road, playing the "Tradition" theme.


Now the music from the movie was amazing. Beautiful songs that you fall in love with honestly. They songs themselves told the story and made you feel for the characters.

All-in-all, the movie is a very touching and also intense movie about life and prejudice and how it effects those that are the subject of it. Very good movie. On a scale of one to ten, one being worse and ten being best, I give this movie a 10.



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The next movie I watch was "Singing in the Rain".

This movie is another great movie. Though not nearly as long as Fiddler, this movie still has a lot of story in with plenty of comedy. The movie is basically about how the company that makes a silent film series called "The Dueling Cavalier" is faced with the reality that silent films are a thing of the past and movies with sound, talkies, are the new rage. However, they have one tiny problem. The leading lady of their films makes scratching on a chalkboard sound like sweet music when she talks. Uh oh. What do they do now?

Well the star of their series, Don Lockwood, meets a young lady by the name of Kathy Selden when he unexpectedly jumps into her car to escape a mob of fans. They don't hit things off on the right foot, but he can't get her out of his mind. He moans about "the one that got away" to his best pal Cosmo Brown, who I think is the real cutie of the show. Cosmo does the music for the silent movies and has worked along side Don since they were kids. He vows to help Don find his leading lady, that is until she walked into set that day for a job. She gets the job but turns it down once she sees Don is involved. A few songs and dances are involved over the next part, but the three become friends after it all. It was then that Cosmo discovers the solution to their problem with leading lady Lina Lamont's "lovely" voice. Can anyone say voice over? A few more songs and dances happen, some conflict, and the story ends happily as most movies from that time did.

This movie was a nice lighthearted movie that made you smile, laugh, and maybe even swoon a little over the cuties in the movie. I give this movie on a scale of 1 to 10 with one being worse and 10 being best a 9. It was a very interesting movie with great music, great dancing, and an interesting plot. The plot was very overdone back in those times, but still a very nicely pulled off plot. The reason I gave it a 9 is because some of the songs are very drawn out and very slowly. Kind of made the story a big sluggish in pace. But other than that I loved the movie.

Can't find an embed link on any of the videos, so you will have to go to the video on YouTube. Click here to watch "Make'em Laugh" sung by Cosmo.

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The next movie I watched was "For Me and My Gal". It's about a guy and gal vaudeville act. They are trying so hard to get their act into the Palace Theater on Broadway. When it finally happens, the guy, Harry Palmer, gets drafted into the Army to go fight in World War I. But Harry just can't miss this opportunity. Him and his gal pal, Jo Hayden, worked to hard to give up now. In order to get out of the draft Harry figures out a plan to hurt himself and disfigure himself. On the way to tell Jo that they can still do the Palace Theater gig Jo gets a telegram telling her that her only brother and only sibling died in the war. Crying her heart out Harry comes to tell her "the good news". When Jo figures out what he did she ends the act right there. Harry sees what a mess he made of things and tries to fix unsuccessfully until one night an opportunity presents itself and he takes it. It ends very happily and the two live happily ever after.

This movie is a very cute musical with a lighthearted story. It had it's sad moments but for the most part it was a cheery story that's sure to make you smile. On a scale of one to ten with one being worse and ten being best I give it an 8. The movie was very good, just not 10 good. It had it's sluggish slow parts and sometimes the plot felt holey, but for the most part a very good movie.



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The next movie I watched was "Julie and Julia". I know, woo hoo a modern movie! ;-) I had wanted to see this movie since last year when it came out two days before my birthday. But of course I wasn't feeling well due to the tummy so I missed out. Also no one wanted to see it with me and going to the movies alone just plan sucks. So I waited until I got a chance to see it. It was so worth the wait.

Can I just say they picked the two perfect actresses to play Julie and Julia. I love them both and they just told the story perfectly. Love, love, love, love, love! Ok so the story is pretty simple. Julie is a striving writer. She works at a heartbreaking and sometimes heart-wrenching job answering phone calls from and for victims of 9/11. She finds herself in a rut. Unable to get published and working in a job that is killing her spirit. It's then that her husband suggests she get a hobby. She thinks about it and finds out one of her friends has a popular blog. she feels she could blog and blogging would make her a writer. But what does she blog about? Her hubby gives her suggestions and she finally comes up with the idea to blog about cooking since she loves it so much and it takes her away from her daily troubles. She decides to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". Enter Julia's side of the story.

Julia is with her husband in Paris. He's there on business and she's just...well...there. She doesn't have a hobby or anything. She tries to decide what she could do. She tries several things but they just don't click. It's not until she noticed that she loved french food and eating that she decided to learn how to cook french cuisine. Yum. She starts off at a ladies school and finds that she is not challenged enough so she goes to the male school. I believe it was military men learning how to cook. She learns to become fearless in her cooking and begins to learn what she coveted most, the art of french cooking. After her classes she meets some lovely ladies who are trying to create what Julia wanted, a simple English french cooking cookbook. But the publishers did not think it was clear cut enough and Julia stepped in to help them. She "dumbed down" the book and made it perfect for the English speaking audience.

The two ladies' stories are interwoven together throughout the movie and they moved back and forth seamlessly. It ends happily with Julia getting her book published and Julie reaching her goal and going to the Smithsonian to see Julia's actual kitchen, leaving her a keepsake...a stick of butter. *tear*

Loved this movie. The only sad part was Julia saw what Julie was doing as a joke and was turned off by her. So Julie never got to meet Julia, but she had her Julia in her head and was happy with that. She still loved Julia through it all and that made it all better. :-)

On a scale of one to ten with one being worse and ten being best I give this movie a 10. Sweet movie, with great actresses and actors, and a seamless transition. It's a must watch.

No embed video links so you will have to go to YouTube to see a video of the movie. Click here to see a clip of Julie and Julia. Bon Appetit!

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The final and I think the best movie I watched in this particular week was "Bringing Up Baby". This movie is CRAZY. It stars Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. This movie was one of those that was way before it's time. It was not well accepted and critics said Katherine Hepburn was horrible at comedy and slapstick. I so disagree. Katherine Hepburn did wonderful in this movie. I laughed my rear off at this movie. And Cary Grant was perfect too. The two worked perfectly off their delivery.

So what's the cra-cra movie about? At first it's about Cary Grant's character David Huxley is a paleontologist that for several years has been trying to put together the skeleton of a Brontosaurus, but he is sadly missing one piece of it. At the beginning of the story he happily learns from his fiancee it was found in a dig and it was on the way to him. With that problem off his shoulders her had his looming nuptials as well as a golfing appointment with the man who could donate a million dollars to his museum. When he makes his appointment on the golf course this is where he makes the unfortunate acquaintance of one Miss Susan Vance, Katherine Hepburn's character. This is where all of David's troubles started. She ruined his golf game and stole his car, along with him. Gotta watch the movie to understand that last part.

After recouping from the golf disaster, David arranges a dinner to meet again with his hopeful donator. Only one problem. He once again runs into Susan who once again manages to cause him trouble. She continues to cause her trouble until the end of the evening where David hoped he had seen the last of her. Nope. He gets a call from Susan the next day who explains that she has a baby leopard in her apartment. Enter Baby. From this point on Susan and David go through one crazy mishap after another from trying to get Baby to a much safer place, to losing the coveted Brontosaurus bone back from a dog, to getting arrested, to ending the day on a good note after surviving an encounter with a leopard that just happened to not Baby and very wild. In the end Susan and David end up happy but not without one more mishap on Susan's behalf. Very funny stuff in this movie and it's sad it didn't do well in it's time. It severely affect Hepburn's career as well as the director of the film. Very sad. But I guess better late than never. This movie is loved by many now and is definitely at the top of my list.

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being worse and 10 being best I give this movie a 10. It purely a classic movie and so funny it will have you in giggling at all the crazy stuff these two characters go through. Katherine Hepburn reminds me so much of Parker Posey in this movie, especially from Party Girl.



Well that is my long-winded post on the movies I watched several months ago and actually MEANT to post about, but got lazy and didn't. *sigh* I so need to keep on the ball more with these posts. Oh well, better late than never. Wait, that's the second time I've said that in this post. Yep, time to close this post. Bye for now kids.

Loves ya,
Mouse

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