I was sad to hear of the death of Bill Paxton over the weekend. He has such an impressive movie resume! It’s funny how, even though he was only in very small roles at first, he still managed to be in so many beloved, kick-ass classics. Especially numbers one & two on my list… AWESOME films! It’s great that he ended up in bigger roles in things such as Twister & Apollo 13 but I’ll always first think of him as the lovably annoying Hudson in Aliens and as the hilarious asshole brother Chet in Weird Science.
I honestly thought I’d already done a Bill Paxton Top Ten list in the past as he’s been in several of my favorite movies but it looks like I never did. As always, I’ve ranked these in order from my least favorite to favorite movie as opposed to character role. So, in his memory, here are My Top Ten Bill Paxton Movies (counting down from 16 to include everything I’ve seen):
16. True Lies
15. Mighty Joe Young
14. Nightcrawler
13. Frailty
12. The Last Supper (but need to re-watch & refresh my memory, really)
11. Near Dark (also need to re-watch)
Seen But Don’t Remember:
Stripes
Indian Summer
U-571
Never Saw:
Navy Seals (Can you believe that, with my Michael Biehn crush??)
Brain Dead (I like the sound of this one…)
Tombstone
Boxing Helena
The Evening Star
A Simple Plan
Haywire
2 Guns
Finally, I think most people my age know that Bill Paxton directed & starred in the bizarre Barnes And Barnes “short film” video for the song Fish Heads.
In looking up his film credits, I noticed he was also in two other music videos. Love the Pat Benatar video for Shadows Of The Night! I’d forgotten about that video. I miss the “story” videos of the Eighties. Anyway – watch out for Paxton in a small role as a WWII baddie in that video. Also, he starred in New Order’s Touched By The Hand Of God, which I must admit I’d never seen. What a great, eclectic career. Bill Paxton will be missed.
R.I.P. William “Bill” Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017)
It’s Day 3 of Coppola Week & I’ll be reviewing Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. I reviewed her film The Bling Ring on Monday and her father’s 80’s classic The Outsiders yesterday. Tomorrow will, as usual, be a Top Ten List (My Top Ten Coppola Movies, of course) and I’ll finish on Friday with a review of a 1974 film from Francis Ford Coppola. Now let’s talk about the lovely Marie Antoinette!
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Directed by Sofia Coppola
Based on Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Rose Byrne, Asia Argento
Plot Synopsis: (via IMDB) The retelling of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 15 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
My Opinion:
It feels like I’d been wanting to see this movie for years. But as fellow movie bloggers will understand, I have a huge “To Watch” list & this one just kept getting put aside. I finally got up off my ass & watched it in preparation for a week of Coppola reviews when I realized that I’d already watched a few Coppola movies by coincidence. Well, damn… I think that I hyped it up too much in my mind while it sat on my To Watch list all these years. For the most part, I’m afraid to say that I found Marie Antoinette a bit boring.
There were three reasons why I really wanted to see this: 1) I think Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation & The Virgin Suicides are quite beautiful & brilliant and this appeared to have a similar look & feel. 2) It looked visually appealing from pictures I’d seen. 3) Coppola often chooses great music, such as the amazing Air score for The Virgin Suicides, so I was eager to hear what was on the soundtrack for this.
Well, I can confirm that this was indeed visually appealing and I really liked that about it. The costumes, the castle, all that CAKE! So I have no complaints there. I also liked Kirsten Dunst just fine – she’s not a favorite of mine but I’ve always liked her okay (although I assume she’s nothing like the real Marie Antoinette! Her Virgin Suicides role was more fitting). Sofia Coppola really has a thing for the female butt, though, doesn’t she? Didn’t Lost In Translation start with a shot of Scarlett Johansson’s butt? Well, you see Dunst naked from behind as she’s dressed to meet her future husband then you see plenty of her throughout the film as everyone gathers around to dress her every morning. Is that what they did with royalty in the old days? No thank you! I like my privacy.
As for the soundtrack, Coppola once again chose some great music. I’ll never complain about hearing The Cure or New Order! But, for some reason, I guess I thought we’d hear much more of the music. It’s mostly prominent in a couple of montages but, scattered throughout, I didn’t notice it all that much. It’s a small complaint – I think I was expecting loads of modern(ish) songs set in a time period from the past but, hey, this isn’t some Baz Luhrmann film. I prefer Coppola’s films to his anyway so I suppose I prefer the way she used the music. This would certainly be a good soundtrack to own.
I’ll admit that my knowledge of history is crap so I won’t pretend to know a thing about Marie Antoinette (or about any history – it’s not a subject that has ever interested me for some reason). I have zero clue how accurate this movie is meant to be. I mean, I’m pretty sure Marie Antoinette wasn’t a cute blonde American girl and that everyone in France spoke English, right?! I take it that this film is just meant to be a bit of fun and that Sofia really just wanted an excuse to play with pretty dresses, powdered wigs, and cake.
I found it interesting if the basic storyline is accurate, though. I did read a (tiny) bit about Marie Antoinette after watching the movie & the broad, overall story does sound correct. I was expecting a dumb & slightly annoying character as that’s how the real Marie Antoinette is portrayed somewhat with the “Let them eat cake” quote but that’s not at all how she’s portrayed in this film. She’s young & a bit naive but mostly is a “little girl lost” just doing as she’s told in her arranged marriage. In the film, she’s also unfairly hated by the general public and used as a sort of symbol for their negative feelings toward the monarchy. From the little I read of the real woman, this was true. I was also surprised to read that there is no evidence that she ever actually said “Let them eat cake” and that it’s very unlikely that she did. Talk about unfair!
Hey, maybe I’ll actually try to find some Marie Antoinette documentary to watch now. If you’re looking for that sort of thing, though, you probably wouldn’t watch Coppola’s film. I didn’t watch it for a history lesson – I watched it for the imagery & the soundtrack and I think that’s the whole reason it was made, with the Marie Antoinette story just happening to be the film’s backdrop. With that in mind, it was an enjoyable enough film & Coppola once again did a great job with the look & sound but it didn’t stop it from ultimately being a bit boring and feeling far longer than its actual runtime of just over two hours. I’m glad I saw Marie Antoinette and I liked it okay. I was just a little disappointed as I wanted to love it.
My Rating: 6.5/10
CAKE!!!!!!!!
This is a good montage to watch if you want to get a feel for this movie. It features Bow Wow Wow’s I Want Candy:
And I have to include the New Order song, Ceremony, which is used in the film. Because I LOVE it:
I’ve been meaning to do this list for a while but there are just SO many songs with colors in the title. I decided to not go overboard like when I did My Top Ten Devil & Hell Songs and spent ages making sure I hadn’t missed any favorites with “Devil” or “Hell” in the title. There are too many color songs (or colour in the UK – I wish autocorrect would stop correcting me) so I’ve not spent ages doing an exhaustive list and am sure I’ve missed a favorite that’ll have me kicking myself.
However, there are too many to narrow it down to only ten so I’ll count down from 20 to my favorite. And, okay – I have honorable mentions too. Sorry! 😉 But I’ve still left out loads of songs. Would love to hear what other Color Songs are the favorites of fellow bloggers!
Here are My Top Ten Songs With Colors In The Title (based, of course, on how much I like the song):
My Top 20:
20. Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones 19. Red Alert by Basement Jaxx 18. Rainbow Connection by Kermit 17. Black History Month by Death From Above 1979 16. Little Black Submarines by The Black Keys 15. White Unicorn by Wolfmother 14. Blackbird by The Beatles 13. Behind Blue Eyes by The Who 12. Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix 11. White Room by Cream
My Top Ten:
10. Back In Black by AC/DC
9. Crimson And Clover by Tommy James & The Shondells
By the way – I already had the argument with the hubby on if “Rainbow” could be included or not. As always, I won. It’s my blog, after all. 😉 I’ll now do my best to not list 1,000 honorable mentions…
Honorable Mentions:
– Green Onions by Booker T. & The M.G.’s – White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster & Melle Mel – Fool’s Gold by The Stone Roses – Fade To Grey by Visage – Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan – White Wedding by Billy Idol – Black by Pearl Jam – Golden Brown by The Stranglers – Green Hell by Misfits – Gold Lion by Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Violet by Hole – White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane – Colours by Donovan (also, Turquoise & Mellow Yellow…)
I get really annoyed when a song isn’t named what it should be. Such as: Why the hell isn’t Baba O’Riley by The Who called Teenage Wasteland?! They don’t mention the words Baba O’Riley at all in the song but they sing “Teenage Wasteland” over & over again!
Okay, it doesn’t REALLY annoy me all that much – there are bigger things in life to worry about. 😉 But I did think it would make a fun top ten list! Like last week, though, I’m going to be annoying & make this a Top 20 (there were too many!). Feel free to add any you think of – I admit that with this list I’ve only looked through what’s on my iPod so there will be loads of songs I’ve not thought of or not mentioned.
So here are My Top Twenty Songs Where The Title Isn’t In The Lyrics (ranked roughly according to how much I like the song – I don’t think the order is important with this one):
20. MGMT – Kids(Should Be: Take Only What You Need) 19. Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy(Should Be: Really Hurt Me Baby) 18. Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song(Should Be: Ah Ah Ahhhhhhh AH!) 17. Death From Above 1979 – Black History Month(Should Be: Dunno. Maybe “Hold On”. But that’s a Wilson Phillips song…) 16. Blink 182 – Dammit(Should Be: This Is Growing Up) 15. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Brendan’s Death Song(Should Be: I’m Almost Gone)14. Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues (Should Be: I have no idea… How about “Mixin’ Up The Medicine”!) 13. Interpol – Evil(Should Be: Rosemary) 12. New Order – Blue Monday(Should Be: How Does It Feel?) 11. Daft Punk – Instant Crush(Should Be: We Will Never Be Alone Again)
Top Ten:
10. Public Image Ltd – The Order Of Death Should Be: This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get
I adore John Lydon & this Public Image Ltd song, which is used prominently in the shower scene in Hardware. Yes! I’ve managed to once again mention the movie Hardware on my blog! Anyway, it’s an awesome song title even if it’s not said – most of the titles in this list are better than my “Should Be” titles.
9. Blur – Song 2 Should Be: Woohoo!
Such a fun song! It’s apparently named Song 2 because it’s two minutes long plus I think it was also the second song on the album? I sometimes play it when timing my kid’s toothbrushing (because kids are meant to brush for two full minutes, right?). Well, it’s a fun way to brush teeth!
8. The Police – Synchronicity II Should Be: Not sure – maybe “Many Miles Away”
I used to really be into song lyrics as a teen/early twentysomething – you know, the age when you have time to waste on that kind of shit. But I never looked into the lyrics to this one at all until now. Pretty deep stuff with this one! And pretty bleak. This is quite possibly my very favorite song by The Police, who I don’t think really got the credit they deserved. An excellent band & I think I now like this song even more after reading the lyrics but I have to say I still don’t understand the title. I’m too old to think about these things.
7. TIE: Gorillaz – Dirty Harry & Clint Eastwood Should Be: I Need A Gun & Sunshine In A Bag
I love Gorillaz!!! Do any Americans here know their songs? I think they were far bigger in the UK. I’m actually reading Tank Girl at the moment because it was created by the same guy (Jamie Hewlett) who created this “cartoon band” (one member of the band being adorable Damon Albarn from that picture of Blur I posted for Song 2). These are my two favorite songs of theirs & it made sense to put “Clint Eastwood” & “Dirty Harry” together for this post. The titles are cool. The look of the band is cool. The songs are cool. They should be even bigger than they are!
6. Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five – The Message Should Be: Don’t Push Me
Seriously. Don’t push me. I’m close to the EDGE!
5. The Who – Baba O’Riley Should Be: Teenage Wasteland
I’ve not researched all of these songs but did of course look into this one. Here’s a bit about it from Genius.com:
Initially part of an idea (later thrown aside) of a follow up rock opera — Lifehouse — to Tommy, Pete Townshend wrote it after his experience at Woodstock. The name of the song is a combination of Meher Baba – an Indian guru that kept silent from 1935 until his death in 1969 who inspired Townshend spiritually, and Terry Riley — a musician and classical composer that also inspired him.
There’s actually a lot more to it if you want to read about it at Wikipedia – it’s an interesting read. But whatever the reason for the title, it’s a damn good song.
4. The Cure – Lullaby Should Be: The Spiderman
I just really really like this song. 😉 Love The Cure.
3. David Bowie – Space Oddity Should Be: Ground Control To Major Tom
Well, okay – I assume this title is a play on words after 2001: A Space Odyssey. I looked this one up too. Turns out this song is actually about alienation. I thought it was about a guy going into space! I’m so damn literal. This song has now gone up even more in my estimation. And I already loved it like crazy before. Because: Bowie. 🙂
2. Black Sabbath – Paranoid Should Be: Not sure but any excuse to get Black Sabbath into a list… How about “I Am Frowning All The Time”
Black Sabbath have quite a few songs where the title isn’t in the lyrics (except Iron Man, of course). I almost used Black Sabbath but the word “black” is said, so – close enough! I do love the lyrics to Paranoid – you can tell that Sabbath come from dark, grey, dreary England… 😉
1. The Clash – Train In Vain Should Be: Stand By Me
Okay – clearly The Clash couldn’t use Stand By Me as the Ben E. King song was such a huge hit. I’m thinking I like The Clash even more than I realized – this song also topped my list of My Top Ten Happy Songs. I love it! And Train In Vain is an excellent title even though I’m sure most people can’t name it.
Almost Mentions: (I considered these but in looking up the lyrics, I ruled them out as at least one of the words was mentioned)
Harvey Danger – Flagpole Sitta
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
The Smiths – How Soon Is Now
Radiohead – Paranoid Android (how can I have not noticed that in this song, one of my absolute all-time favorite desert island tracks, there’s a voice saying the words paranoid & android in the background the whole time?!)
Cinema Parrot Disco 