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