My Movie Picks For MovieRob & Silver Screen Serenade’s Cara

 
I recently won a quiz put together by MovieRob for Cara’s blogiversary bash over at Silver Screen Serenade (you can see the post & quiz HERE). Anyway, I correctly named a bunch of lesser known Star Wars characters (because I’m a nerd who goes to things like Secret Cinema’s The Empire Strikes Back). 😉 So my reward is choosing three movies for Cara & Rob to each watch. Here are my picks!:

  FOR CARA:

I e-mailed Cara a little list of about ten movies asking her if she’d seen any of them and was surprised that she’d only seen one. Cara is young and still has plenty of classic movies to see so it was much easier picking three for her than for movie-watching-machine Rob. I’d like Cara to watch:

• The Terminator
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
• EITHER: Cinema Paradiso (original version, not the Director’s Cut) or City Lights

*Cara – I’ll let you choose whether you’re in the mood for a silent film or the Italian film my blog name is based on – I love them both! They both have two of the most amazing endings ever. But next quiz I win, you’re watching a Studio Ghibli. 😉

 FOR ROB:

Rob is very hard to choose a movie for because he’s seen everything worthwhile! He’s a movie-reviewing-maniac. So, Rob – I’m not doing this to be mean but you’re going to have to step out of your comfort zone and watch the very few movies on this planet that you possibly haven’t seen. 😉 I know you’re unlikely to like these but, every movie to your taste that I thought of, I checked your blog and you’ve seen it! So… I’d like Rob to watch:

• A film directed by David Cronenberg that he’s not seen
• Seven Samurai if he’s not seen it (Rob – as a Star Wars fan, you should really see some Kurosawa if you haven’t)
• EITHER: One of the Jackass movies or Slither if not seen

*Rob – it has to be a movie you’ve not seen so, if you HAVE seen any of the above, let me know as I have a few alternatives. But you REALLY won’t like those… Lol. (For the record, I like all of the above)

There you go! Cara, I hope you enjoy my picks. And, Rob, I hope you don’t hate me. 😉

 
I’d just like to add that Kelli Maroney favorited my tweet yesterday about My Top Ten Drew Struzan Movie Art Pieces. Did you say “who”?! I forget you’re all only 20. Kelli Maroney from Fast Times At Ridgemont High & Chopping Mall & the AWESOME Night Of The Comet!!! 🙂 (I take every opportunity I can to mention the fact that she & Catherine Mary Stewart follow me on Twitter…) 😉

Thanks also to @videovangaurd @le0pard13 & @RobbinsRealm for retweeting it. Drew Struzan needs more recognition!  

My Top Ten Stand By Me Insults

I did a post about Stand By Me, an all-time favorite film of mine, to celebrate Cara’s Blogiversary Bash over at Silver Screen Serenade. Thanks for letting me join in on the celebrations, Cara! Happy Blogiversary! I hope you have many, many more. 🙂

You can read my post (in which I said I was unable to talk about my love of Stand By Me & then spoke of it at length) HERE. I’ve done another one of my Top Ten Lists for it – My Top Ten Stand By Me Insults. Stand By Me is filled with loads of great, foul-mouthed insults and I LOVE IT. 🙂

Society (1989) For April Fools At Silver Screen Serenade

Cara over at Silver Screen Serenade is running a great guest series this month where fellow bloggers have all written about movie endings “that fooled us“. There have been lots of great write-ups about those twist endings that we just didn’t see coming. Well… I’m not sure if the ending of Society is exactly a “twist” ending but it’s certainly one I didn’t see coming! You can read what I have to say about it HERE. You’ll have a shunting good time!

Thank you for letting me join in, Cara! And, um… I apologize… 😉

(Warning – SPOILERS & NSFW IMAGES)

In A World… (2013) Review

I’ve done a review for the lovely Cara over at Silver Screen Serenade for her NOOOOvember Series. The idea of this series is to talk about movies we expected to love (or at least like in my case) but that ended up leaving us very disappointed.

You can read my entry, a review of In A World…, HERE. Thanks for letting me be a part of this series again, Cara! I’m really not as grumpy as I may appear after writing this review and the one for Interstellar yesterday! 😉

How To Train Your Dragon (2010) IMDB Top 250 Guest Review

Today’s IMDB Top 250 Guest Review comes from Cara of Silver Screen Serenade. She also reviewed Fargo HERE. Thanks for the reviews, Cara! 🙂 Now let’s see what she has to say about How To Train Your Dragon, IMDB rank 166 out of 250…

There are still some movies up for grabs if anyone wants to do a guest IMDB Top 250 review. You can find the list of remaining films HERE. See the full list & links to all the reviews that have already been done HERE.

How to Train Your Dragon (2010) IMDB Top 250

This movie…THIS MOVIE. Oh my God. I’m a little obsessed.

How to Train Your Dragon was one of those movies that came out, and I thought, “Huh. That looks kind of cute. I guess I’ll check it out.” So I went to the movie theater…and it blew my mind. I saw it twice, and I have been watching it over and over on DVD ever since I got it. When HTTYD popped up on Miss Mutant’s IMDb Top 250 Challenge, I was all over it. So here I am. Let’s do this.

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders

Starring:

Jay Baruchel
Gerard Butler
Craig Ferguson
America Ferrera
Jonah Hill
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
T.J. Miller
Kristen Wiig

Music by John Powell

Running time: 98 minutes

Plot synopsis: (via IMDb)

A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.

What I liked:

 

• Gees where to begin? How about the entire freaking voice cast? Jay Baruchel is perfect as misfit Hiccup; he’s sarcastic and funny and lovable all at once. Gerard Butler just…is Stoick, and it’s so wonderful to hear him with his natural Scottish accent. Same for Craig Ferguson as Gobber—love his accent. Plus, he’s just hilarious. Add in the voice talents of America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, and T.J. Miller, and it’s quite a cast.
• Oh! And did I mention David Tennant? Because David Tennant (a.k.a. the Tenth Doctor, for my fellow Whovians) tooootally has little fill-in lines for this! Apparently he voices the audiobooks for the series this film is based on, so they brought him on for this, too. Neat, right?
• Can I just say in general that I love this premise? Due credit to Cressida Cowell for that—she is the mastermind behind the books. I think bringing Vikings and dragons together is not only a lot of fun, but very visually interesting, too.
• The humor in this film is spot-on. It may lean toward appealing to the kiddies, but there are plenty of laughs to be had for grown-ups as well, which makes it an excellent candidate for family movie nights.
• TOOTHLESS THE DRAGON. He is adorable and hilarious, and he will absolutely warm your heart. The relationship he develops with Hiccup is too wonderful for words. Imagine the best human-animal relationship you can think of and multiple it by a thousand. I mean, that scene where Hiccup reaches out and touches Toothless for the first time…PERFECT.
• There’s an absolutely gorgeous scene where Toothless flies through the clouds with Hiccup and Astrid. Love it.
• The end of this film is sheer perfection. There’s a dramatic final fight, a very touching moment, and then just joy. I won’t ruin it if you haven’t seen it, but I will say this: Hiccup and Toothless were made for each other (*sniffle*).
• There’s a nice lesson to be learned here about being your own person—even if that means going against the grain. Hiccup has a tough time convincing his fellow Vikings about a few things, but he knows what’s right, and he stands by that. The little guy is an excellent role model.

 

What I didn’t like:

 

• Though the little romantic thing between Hiccup and Astrid is cute, it’s kind of unnecessary—the relationship we really care about is Hiccup and Toothless. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see Hiccup get the awesome dragon bestie and the girl, but it simply becomes a subplot that is barely touched (heck, it’s hardly addressed in the sequel either).
• I do love the supporting Viking kids, but does anybody else find it weird that none of them have the thick Scottish accents that all the adults have? It’s a minor qualm, and I’m sure this was done to set the kid characters apart from the adults (and maybe to make them more relatable to American kiddies), but still…
• I wouldn’t mind spending more time getting to know some of the types of dragons. Some of them have weird rules—like having limited fire, needing two heads to start a fire, having to report to an alpha dragon, etc.—and some don’t. I think the film does a good job covering most of this, but there are a few questions here and there.
• By the end of this film, you will want a dragon. Like, a lot. I struggled with this for a long time. And after seeing the sequel, I am struggling with it all over again.

 

Summary: My issues with this film are very, very minor. I’ve already made it abundantly clear, I’m sure, but I’ll say it anyway: I adore How to Train Your Dragon. It’s one of the most creative, touching, humorous, and adorable animated films I have ever seen. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’m going to be super bossy and tell you to go watch it RIGHT NOW—RIGHT NOW, I say!

My Rating: 9.5/10 (An A, maybe even an A+ on my rating system!)

Thanks, Mutant, for letting me geek about this film! Also, I’m sorry for so much geeking about this film. 😉

**Note from Cinema Parrot Disco:

Cara also reviewed How To Train Your Dragon 2 over on her blog. You can read her review HERE. Plus, if you’re interested, I’ve just seen the sequel as well and will also be reviewing it HERE tomorrow. 🙂

My Top Ten Star Wars Dismemberments

So the wonderful Cara over at Silver Screen Serenade has been celebrating her one year blogiversary with loads of great posts in which she & guest bloggers have been talking about some of their all-time favorite films.

I just HAD to do something about my beloved Star Wars. When I did this list a while back, I realized I could easily do one with the Star Wars films alone. You can check out my post for Cara, a list of My Top Ten Star Wars Dismemberments, HERE. 🙂

Fargo (1996) IMDB Top 250 Guest Review

Today’s IMDB Top 250 Guest Review comes from Cara of Silver Screen Serenade. Thanks for being a part of this project, Cara! (and Happy Blogiversary). 🙂 Now let’s see what she has to say about Fargo, IMDB rank 127 out of 250…

There are still some movies up for grabs if anyone wants to do a guest IMDB Top 250 review. You can find the list of remaining films HERE. See the full list & links to all the reviews that have already been done HERE.

I have a confession to make: I’m not a huge fan of the Coen brothers. I’ll pause to let the many, horrified gasps die down…

Everybody good? Because yep. I said it.

Admittedly, I haven’t seen all of their allegedly best stuff (i.e. The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, Inside Llewyn Davis, etc.), but what I have seen has gotten a mostly “meh” reaction out of me—the one exception being O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which I find quite wonderful. But I wanted to watch Fargo because I was very curious about the FX series based on the film (and starring Martin Freeman, whom I adore). So when Miss Mutant’s list popped up and Fargo was a choice, I snatched it up. Was it a worthy choice? Let’s talk about that, shall we?

Fargo (1996)

Directed by Joel Coen

Starring:

Frances McDormand
William H. Macy
Steve Buscemi
Harve Presnell
Peter Stormare

Music by Carter Burwell

Running time: 98 minutes

Plot synopsis: (via IMDb)

Jerry Lundegaard’s inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen’s bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.

What I liked:

• The accents. They. Crack. Me. Up. I don’t know what it is about Northern Midwest American accents, but I find them completely hilarious. I think it stems from my longtime love of the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous. Have you guys seen that? It’s wonderful. Or maybe only I think it’s wonderful. Whatever. Point is, the accents in Fargo are just as funny.
• The actors. William H. Macy as bumbling, seemingly nice guy Jerry Lundegaard, Steve Buscemi as lusty, overly talkative henchman Carl Showalter, and Frances McDormand as clever, very pregnant police officer Marge Gunderson. It’s a bizarre cast of quirky characters, and they’re all fantastic.
• Not only are many of the individual characters great, but the relationships are great, too. Marge and her husband, Norm (John Carroll Lynch), have the most adorable marriage ever. Tough Marge goes to work to keep the town safe while easy-going Norm enters painting competitions. They have meals together—big meals since pregnant Marge is constantly hungry. They fall asleep watching TV. Then there’s Carl and his strong, silent partner, Gaear. Definitely not as cohesive a relationship (as anyone who has seen the end of this film knows), but they’re a pretty funny odd couple. There are a lot of opposites like these in the film, and it works well.
• The setting. There are more snow-covered scenes than you could possibly think to count, and it gives the film a very unique vibe. This is a place dominated by winter for a good portion of the year, and it shows.
• The fact that some of these things actually happened. Fargo makes a big show of proclaiming itself a “true story” during the opening scene, which is embellishing—the plot and the characters are completely imagined. However, some of the events are taken from real-life, reminding us what a bizarre world we live in…
• The wood chipper scene. Gruesome and severely twisted, but…lol.

What I didn’t like:

• Aside from Marge, it seems like no one in this town has more than a brain cell apiece. I realize this is supposed to be for comedic effects—and there are several moments when it’s very funny—but c’mon…no one else is even remotely intelligent? It seems like there ought to be at least a couple more characters in there who aren’t brain-dead.
• A person gets shot in the head, and it’s very “eww.”
• There’s a very random, very bizarre scene involving a hotel room hook-up. It’s supposed to be funny, and I guess it kind of is, but part of me couldn’t help thinking, “Wait, what purpose does this scene have?” And dovetailing off of that…
• At one point, Marge meets up with an old high school buddy, and things get downright awkward. Again, the scene is so random and unnecessary that I was a little confused about why it made it into the film in the first place. Stuff like this happens so often in Coen films. In fact, can we just all agree to start calling throw-in scenes like this a “Coen?”
• The ending. Marge gives a great speech toward the end that I fully expected to be followed by the closing credits, but the film goes on a bit longer, making you think maybe it’s leading to something more…and then it ends. It’s a bit of a letdown. Coen films do that a lot, too, don’t they? Hmm. At this rate, we’re going to have to start calling a lot of things a “Coen.”

Summary:

Despite my qualms, I did enjoy this film. It’s a quirky, funny crime film that is bursting with personality, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that the performances are superb. Plus, the “true events” aspect of this film adds an interesting layer—even if the truth is super stretched. I still don’t like this one better than O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and I think I actually might prefer FX’s Fargo series to this, but I’d still say this film is worth a watch.

My Rating: 8/10 (Probably an A- or so on my rating system)

Thanks for letting me partake, Mutant! You’re the coolest!

My Top Five April Fools

The beautiful Cara over at Silver Screen Serenade is doing a really fun series called “April Fools” in which we all discuss our favorite lovable idiots from films and/or television. Go have a look at all the great entries so far! You can see my list of My Top Five April Fools HERE. Thanks, Cara! 🙂

And speaking of lovable idiots, I never mentioned that I also took part in Eric’s epic post about the, um, *wonderful* television show True Detective over at The IPC. A bunch of great people got together & talked about how much they love that damn show. Read all about it HERE (but maybe skip my bit if you really love the show – I’ve had enough abuse!). 😉

And here’s a photo of Garrett Hedlund for no reason whatsoever:

Oh! And I almost forgot – I did some bitching once again at the blog I call by its shorter title because I’m lazy: Don’t Sit By Me Ahole. Read about annoying couriers HERE and let the lovely Eric above know if you’d like to contribute to this fantastic blog. 🙂