Day 53: 50 First Dates

50 First Dates

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: One of Sandler's Best

Every time I watch this movie, I cry.  I love Adam Sandler in this movie!  It's really one of my favorite Adam Sandler movies (right behind the Wedding Singer).  He is so romantic in this movie, that it's really hard not to cheer him on.  This is also a movie of his where he's not too over the top.  He is funny without going overboard.  Drew Barrymore is also really good in this movie, and I really like them when they team up.  I have seen this movie a lot, but it makes me cry like a baby every time.  It's happy and fun and it has a penguin.  How can you go wrong?

Next up: Finding Neverland, First Blood, First Blood 2 and Flashdance

Day 52: The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element

Whose Movie: Matt's

Rating: Action Packed, yet cheesy

This was the second time that I've seen it, and I noticed somethings that I didn't notice before.  I noticed that it's in the future, but it's the 80s...like the music is very 80s ish and one person was wearing parachute pants!! Bruce Willis was pretty awesome in this movie, but I dare you to name a movie in which he isn't awesome.  We still have at least 2 more movies with Bruce Willis left in our collection, but they're closer to the end of our collection.  The movie was very cheesy, but it was pretty fun too.  I enjoyed it, Matt fell asleep.

Next up: 50 First Dates, Finding Neverland, First Blood

Day 51: Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof

Whose Movie:  Steph's

Rating: Timeless

We finally watched Fiddler.  We've stalled on this one for almost 3 months because Matt, while he can agree that it's a good movie, he finds it really depressing.  Which I can see.  I mean the movie is about how the Jews of the city of Anatevka are persecuted and eventually kicked out of the country.  But in the three hours, it's mostly about Tevye and his relationship with his three oldest daughters as they prepare to get married.  I think that's why I love this movie/play so much, as it's about a father who loves his daughters so much he is willing to move away from the traditions of his religion in order to accommodate them  and their future husbands, but only up to an extent.  He does have his limits.  I'll imbed his limit below, so I don't spoil it, but you can watch if you want to see it.  It's a beautiful scene, and it makes me cry every time I see this movie.

What I also love about this movie/play is the symbolism of the Fiddler.  He represents the Jewish traditions that Tevye and the town of Anatevka follow, and if you watch closely through the movie, if he's not there, the theme song is there, and you can see when they follow traditions and when they have to choose between doing the traditional thing and when to follow a new idea.

One other thing about this movie.  Topol is the best Tevye ever, in my opinion.  He does an amazing job capturing all the emotions that Tevye is feeling. 

Next up: Fifth Element, 50 First Dates, Finding Neverland

Day 50: Fanboys and Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fanboys

Whose Movie: Mutual Buy

Rating: Must watch for a Star Wars nerd!

This movie is totally awesome.  If you love Star Wars, then you would love this movie.  I love that when we watch it, Matt answers all the Star Wars trivia questions before the characters do.   I think we love this movie because we are these characters.  We LOVE Star Wars.  We own the original trilogy 3 times over (4 if we decide to buy the Blu Ray edition), and if you've ever been over to our apartment, you know about our Star Wars lego collection.  The movie is hilarious, but if you're a fanboy, then you can totally relate.  The movie is also rife with cameos.  If you watch the movie, keep your eyes open for Shatner, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Seth Rogan and Jay and Silent Bob.  We also found it amusing when they paid a visit to Riverside, IA.  As someone who has visited there, we could recognize that they weren't really there, and that they have obviously never been there.  But it was fun to watch.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Whose Movie: Matt's

Rating: A Cuss good movie.

This is one of those movies that we can watch over and over and over again and it will never get old.  This is hilarious.  The plot is great, the dialogue is great, and the voice acting is great.   We love this movie so much that we could probably watch it fifty times in a row and never get tired of it.  

Next up: Fiddler on the Roof, The Fifth Element and 50 First Dates.

 

Day 49: Evil Dead and Evil Dead II

Evil Dead

Whose Movie:  Mutual Buy

Rating: Campy, but it's Sam Raimi :)

This movie is totally awesome.  It's supposed to be scary, but you end up laughing through the whole thing.  the effects are terrible, the plot is awful, but it all fits together to be so bad it's good.  The real star is Bruce Campbell, who totally rocks as the hero of this movie.  This movie is also very controversial because of a scene where **SPOILER ALERT** a tree rapes a woman.  All in all I can watch this movie over and over again, because it's very entertaining.

Evil Dead II

Whose Movie: Mutual Buy

Rating: Even campier than the first.

The best part about this movie is that it TOTALLY re-writes the first movie in the beginning.  Don't believe me? Watch both of them.  The next best part of this movie: 90% of it is Bruce Campbell vs. Bruce Campbell.  This movie has a lot more slapstick in it than the first.  It also has a pretty weak plot.  But again, this is a movie that is so bad, it's good.  And it totally sets up for the conclusion of the trilogy: Army of Darkness, which we don't own.

Next up: We begin the F's: Fan Boys, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Fiddler on the Roof.

 

Day 48: Escape from LA

Escape from LA

 Whose Movie: Matt's

Rating: Campy with a side of disbelief

Okay, so I think that Escape from New York is the better movie.  Matt thinks that this one has the better music.  I think Kurt Russell has a better costume in the other one.  I like this one because it takes place in LA, my home turf.  When they talk about things I know where they, so I could figure out that it's IMPOSSIBLE to hang glide from the QUEEN MARY to DISNEYLAND on the Santa Ana winds, in less than 10 minutes. *eye roll*  The movie was so campy, that it included Bruce Campbell, King of Campy movies in a bit part.  It was enjoyable, and if you have seen the first movie, it was incredibly predictable.  But, it's a bad Kurt Russell movie, what more could you want?

Next up: Evil Dead 1 & 2, Fan Boys, and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

 

Day 47: Enemy at the Gates & Escape From New York

Enemy at the Gates

Whose Movie: Matt's

Rating: Better than I thought.

Typically, I'm not a big fan of "modern history" nor am I the biggest fan of war movies.  However, I found that I enjoyed this movie.  It helped that the main character was Jude Law and the secondary character was Joseph Fiennes.  The acting was really good, and the story was also really good.  It also made me really happy that the story was based on a true story.

Escape from New York

Whose Movie: Matt's

Rating: It's a bad Kurt Russell movie, so not very high expectations

And we're back at John Carpenter and Kurt Russell.  This movie isn't very good, but I have an emotional attachment to it because Matt and I watched it the night we got engaged.  I love the fact that it's a movie set in "the future" but everyone is dressed decidedly 80s.  I also love the fact that Kurt Russell is super hot and he took his shirt off a lot.

Next up: Escape from LA, Evil Dead I & II and Fanboys

Day 46: Edward Scissorhands & Emperor's New Groove

Edward Scissorhands

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: It's Tim Burton, of course it's awesome

This is my favorite Tim Burton movie.  Matt says it's the music, which I have to admit, is awesome.  It's my favorite composition from Danny Elfman.  Everything about this movie is wonderful.  Tim Burton is such an amazing director/writer.  And Johnny Depp was wonderful in the movie. And so was Winona Rider.  Matt loves the movie because of Vincent Price.  He loves Vincent Price.  He was confused with the cookies...did Vincent Price make cookies? Was that what his factory was?  I could watch that movie a thousand times over, and still cry on cue as the music swells up and Winona Rider utters the final line: "If he weren't up there now, I don't think it would be snowing."

Emperor's New Groove

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: It's about a LLAMA!!! A LLAMA!!!

Everyone who knows me, knows of my major love for Llamas.  My dream is to OWN my very own Llama.  This movie is HILARIOUS! I can quote this movie all the way through.  I have seen it a million times, but I still laugh hysterically  at all the jokes.  I guess I'm very easily amused.  But you can never go wrong with a good Disney cartoon!  Especially one about a Llama!!!

Next up: Enemy at the Gates, The Escape movies, & The Evil Dead Movies.

Day 45: Drag Me to Hell & Dune

Drag Me to Hell

 Whose Movie:  Mutual Buy

Rating:  Awesomely Great

Technically we didn't watch this tonight. We bought it recently and then watched it out of order.  we love this movie.  We love awesome Sam Raimi horror flicks, as you'll see when we get to the E's.  So, we watched this back when we were in the C's still, but didn't blog it because it was out of order.  Now that we've come across it again, we opted to just skip over it, and blog about it.

Dune

Whose Movie: Matt's

Rating: *sigh*

Okay, so Matt has seen this movie a million times.  He has read the book like 3 times.  He's a huge fan of Dune.  Me? I found this movie confusing, I found the pacing to be off and don't even get me started on the inner monologue!  At first Matt wanted me to watch the extended version, but when we were three minutes in and I was confused, he changed us back to the theatrical version.  This movie was paced badly.  It moved really slow and then crammed everything into the last 10 minutes.  What I liked most was Sting in his underwear.  Totally serious.  Oh, and there was a creepy weird kid. In all it's not a movie that would watch again.

Next up: We move to the E's. Edward Scissorhands and The Emperor's New Groove

Day 44: Dracula

Dracula

Whose Movie: Matt's

Rating: Awesome and corny at the same time

Okay, the only real complaint I have about this movie is Keanu Reeves! OMG he can't do an English accent to save his life! Sometimes he spoke with one, sometimes he didn't! The good part of the movie was Gary Oldman. He was AMAZING in this movie! Totally amazing!   You could also tell that they spent very little money on the sets and special effects, and more money on the a-list stars they hired.

Next up: Two more D movies left! Drag Me to Hell and Dune!

Day 43: Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: Corny, but in a good way

So, in the first 10 minutes of this movie we find out that the mom is leaving town, the 5 kids have a babysitter, the babysitter turns out to be a crazy old lady who's super strict, she dies, and the kids take care of the body. Whew.  Fast 10 minutes. The whole movie is like this.  Fast paced, getting through A LOT in a short amount of time, and everything gets more and more unbelievable as the movie goes on.  I bought this movie from the $5 Wal-Mart bin, and I bought it because I liked it when I was a kid.  So, it's one of our nostalgia buys. Matt was rolling his eyes at the fashion choices Christina Applegate's character made, and we both found ourselves rolling our eyes at the tidy plot wrap up in the end where everything worked out just fine.  But we can't complain, it was good fun entertainment for an hour and a half.

Next up: Dracula, Drag Me to Hell and Dune

Day 42: Dr. Horrible's Sing A Long Blog & Dogma

Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: A PhD in HORRIBLENESS (Not really horrible, AWESOME)

This "movie" technically isn't a movie, but our DVD collection is divided into two sections: TV Shows and Movies.  If it's not a serialized TV program, it gets filed with the movies.  So that is why every once in a while our collection will pop up something like Dr. Horrible.  This is what made me fall in love with NPH.  I mean, I was already a fan, and I loved him on HIMYM, but this what made me fall in love with him.  Everything about this web-movie screamed awesome. Joss Whedon, the man who created the best show ever, Buffy, wrote and directed this. NPH starred in it.  The music was awesome. The acting amazing.  The ending made me cry, what more could you want in a movie??

Dogma

Whose Movie: Mutual Buy

Rating: Very Well Made Movie

Lately I've been watching things where the writer/director *cough*AllanBall*cough* will slap the audience in the face like they're stupid. They TELL instead of SHOW like any writer has been told in writing 101.  Kevin Smith, is just the opposite.  He assumes the audience is intelligent and doesn't feel the need to beat them over the head with his writing.  This movie is VERY well done.  Smith does a great job at SHOWING the audience things rather than spelling things out.  This movie is FULL of great actors and actresses.  Our second Alan Rickman film! (Too bad we own ZERO Harry Potters at this time, or there would be TONS more) In summary, the film making is great, the writing is great and the acting was awesome!  Great movie all around.  

Day 41: Dirty Dancing

Dirty Dancing

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: Swoon worthy

Okay, as you can imagine, Matt hated this movie, but this is in my top 5 movies of all time.  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie.  I can't peg what it is. The plot? The Music? Patrick Swayze? All three combined?  All I know is whatever I LOVE about this movie causes Matt to hate it.  He said that sitting through it was like pulling teeth.  Typically this is the type of movie Matt would stall at, but we're 1 movie away from Dogma, 3 movies away from Dune and a handful of movies from the Escape and Evil Dead movies, so he wants to power through the "crap" and get to the "good stuff"

Next up: Dr. Horrible, Dogma, Don't tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead and Drag Me to Hell

Day 40: Die Hard 3 & Live Free or Die Hard

Die Hard 3

Whose Movie: Mutual Buy

Rating: Almost as good as the first

Okay, Matt and I were talking about which Die Hard movie was the best.  I said the first one was the best.  Matt said it was a tie between the first and the third.  I can see that.  The third one reincorporated all the things that made the first one successful, and then added a buddy.  Samuel L. Jackson totally kicks ass in this movie, and he adds to the plot.  He is an active "buddy" in the buddy film, and he doesn't slow Bruce Willis down.  This movie also used music the same way the first one did, but instead of Ode To Joy, they used Johnny Comes Marching Home.

Live Free or Die Hard

Whose Movie: Mutual Buy

Rating: Disappointing Buddy in a Buddy Flick

For a buddy movie, the buddy kinda sucked.  I love Justin Long, but after watching Die Hard 3 where the buddy kicked ass, this one was disappointing.  All he did was whine and need saving.  He didn't even kick ass until like the very end.  Other than that, the movie was awesome.  Bruce Willis still can kick ass.

Next Up: Dirty Dancing, Dr. Horrible, and Dogma

Day 39: Die Hard 2

Die Hard 2

Whose Movie: Mutual Buy

Rating: An honorable sequel

Okay, so not as great as the first one, but still totally awesome.  I do have to mention this is our second William Sadler movie!  I didn't even know we had another movie with him, but we do! He played Death in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, and the villain in this one.  And you know what?  He was pretty hot, considering I only knew him as Sheriff Valenti in Roswell.  Anyway, this movie was great, even though Matt was able to call the double cross before I did, of course he had an advantage: he's seen the movie before, this was my first time.  I was getting kinda worried when we had 10 minutes left of the movie and we hadn't had the Yippee Ki Yay yet, but then it didn't disappoint.

Next up: Die Hard 3-4, Dirty Dancing and Dr. Horrible :)

Day 38: Die Hard

Die Hard

Whose Movie: Mutual Buy

Rating: Wicked

This movie is really awesome.  No matter how many times we watch the movie, it still has that awesome factor.  We noticed this time around the liberal use of "Ode to Joy." Watch the movie and listen to the background music.  It's used as a celebratory song and it's used as an ominous mood setting song.  We also noticed how well the movie is made.  They successfully build up the tension throughout the movie, making you wonder when Hans Gruber is going to find out that Holly is McClain's wife.  I can't wait to watch the rest of the movies, and see if they are able to maintain that level of intensity.

Next: Die Hard 2-4, Dirty Dancing.

Day 37: James Dean Collection: Giant

James Dean Collection: Giant

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: LONG...really, really LONG

Okay, to be honest, I own this movie because I'm a huge fan of James Dean and it came in my James Dean collection.  Before tonight, I had only seen this movie one time, back when I was like 13 and just beginning my love for James Dean.  I forgot 90% of what happens in this movie.  I also forgot how SLOW the movie moves and how little James Dean is actually in the movie. Matt really didn't like this movie.  He was bored through the whole thing, and I don't blame him.  This is my least favorite James Dean movie, in fact I found it boring too.  It's almost three and a half hours!!! And I bet if you combined all the footage that James Dean was in, it would add up to about half an hour.  I'm glad we got this out of the way, because now we don't have to watch it again for a while.  And it's the last long movie we have in our line up until we hit Gone with the Wind.  But at least GWTW doesn't feel like we're sitting there for three and a half hours.

Next up: The Die Hard movies!! Followed by Dirty Dancing.

Day 36: James Dean Collection: Rebel Without a Cause

James Dean Collection: Rebel Without A Cause

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: Still manages to make me cry after the hundredth time watching

Another classic.  This has to be Dean's best performance.  He packs such an emotional punch into every scene that he's in it's amazing.  The movie spoke for a generation, and it still resonates today.  No matter the decade, teens will still feel their parents just "don't get it."   All of the actors in this movie were amazing.  No matter how many times I watch this film, I am just in awe at the amount of talent packed into one film, and then remember that the three main actors all died young and tragically.  

Take a look at this video that highlights Dean's performance.  Warning: it does contain spoilers, so i fyou haven't seen the movie, you may not want to watch, unless you don't mind seeing the end of the film.

Next Up: James Dean: Giant, Four Die Hards, Dirty Dancing.

Day 35: James Dean Collection: East of Eden

James Dean Collection:  East of Eden

 Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: Classic, and emotional.

So it's been a while since we've been watching our own movies.  Between looking for a job, working, moving and getting movies from the library, it was hard to get back into watching our movies.  Add to the fact that Matt's not a James Dean fan, there was a huge stall at the end of the C's and the beginning of the D's.  But after being reassured that if we just get through the three James Dean movies, we can move onto Die Hard, Matt felt like we can do it.  So tonight, we watched East of Eden.

This movie was directed be Elia Kazan, and he is known for his unique directing capabilities.  This was Dean's first movie, and if you went into this not knowing that, you wouldn't be able to tell.  Dean is a strong actor and he brings the emotions of Cal right to the forefront.  He demonstrates that "neglected" feel that Cal has throughout the movie.  He acts the hell out of every scene he is in, and you forget that he's a 24 year old in his first major movie.

Next up: James Dean: Rebel w/o a Cause, James Dean: Giant, then the Die Hard Collection.

 

Day 33 and 34: Click, Clue, and Corpse Bride

Click

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: Super Sad, but really good

We kind of stalled out on this movie, because Matt doesn't particularly like it.  He thinks it's a good movie, but he finds it painful to watch.  He is a person who values family  and spending as much time with them as possible, so he gets upset at Adam Sandler's character when he chooses work over family.  And then as the magical remote fast forward's through his life and he loses his wife, and misses seeing his children grow-up, it causes Matt and I both to cry over the sadness of it all.  Overall, this has to be one of my favorite Adam Sandler movies, simply because he doesn't really do anything he's known for: funny voices, etc. I think he can has the potential to be a great dramatic actor, just wait until we get to the R's and we watch Rain Over Me.

Clue

Whose Movie: Mutual Buy

Rating: Awesomely Cheesy 

So, this movie was a nostalgic buy from the $5 Wal-Mart movie bin.  It was so bad it was good.  Tim Curry is amazing in it, and I realized halfway through, that I'm so used to watching him in RHPS in 5 inch heels, that I never realized how short he really is.  We watched this movie late after Click, so I fell asleep for about 10 minutes in the middle, but that's okay, because Tim Curry's character recapped everything at the end before revealing the killer in 3 separate and different endings of the movie.

The Corpse Bride

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: Short and Sweet

Another Tim Burton movie, this brings our total up to 4 by now, I believe.  I love this movie because it has a cool plot, great music and great animation.  I like that it has a happy ending.  Matt really likes this movie too. 

Next: The final 'C' movie, Crash, and then beginning the 'Ds' with The James Dean Collection. 

Day 32: Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans

Whose Movie: Matt's

Rating: Super lame

This movie is terrible.  Another example of the things that get bought from the $5 movie bin at Wal-Mart.  Two historians watching this movie results in a lot of comments about how the movie is wrong historically/mythologically.  The acting is AWFUL, and the writing is terrible.  I told Matt that it felt at times like the writer had just picked up our classical mythology textbook and copied and pasted the text into lines.  The effects were cheesy as well.  Harry Hamlin proved to be a terrible actor who just wore the same vacant expression throughout the entire film.  On a different note, Matt used this movie to teach a lesson on Perseus in his latin student teaching last year.

Next up: Click, Clue, Corpse Bride and Crash

Day 31: Chicago

Chicago

Whose Movie: Steph's

Rating: It's okay, kinda lost it's appeal somewhere down the line

We're back!  So we kind of stalled in the movie watching thing.  Between Christmas, and then my Harry Potter obsession, and then trying out our new BluRay player, we had a pretty big gap in our movie watching.  But we're back on track and now that we've gone through Chicago, which Matt REALLY didn't want to watch, we'll be back to watching movies more regularly.  This one is a movie that Matt really dislikes because of the main plot.  He really doesn't like the fact that the main character is a bitch to her husband, and that she gets off with no comuppence. I personally like the movie, but not as much as I used to.  The one thing about the movie that I really dislike is the way they did the musical numbers.  I really wish they would have incorporated the musical numbers into the plot line rather than making them "fantasy" numbers.  

Next up: Clash of the Titans, Click and Clue