Peter and the Wolf

Directed by George Daugherty and Jean Flynn

1996

Date Viewed: Sunday April 18, 2010

This is probably the worst version of this story that I've seen. Lloyd Bridges plays a grandfather living in some mountains that aren't in the U.S. (They make a big deal about living in a different country from his daughter and grandson) and his daughter (Kristie Alley) and grandson (Ross Malinger aka the kid from Sleepless in Seattle) come for a visit. They sit around the fire and Kristie Alley tells thestory of Peter and the Wolf. The story is animated with some really incredibly horrid animation. Every once in a while the kid interrupts to ask a question or whatever and then they go back to the story. The basic story was obviously the same, and I liked that the animals still moved the same as the music suggests, but it was just so long and boring and cheesy. (for my silings: It was I think even worse than those Timeless Tales that we used to watch and the live action reminded me a lot of Grandpa's Magical Toys....) I guess I can see how kids could like it. I know I liked some cheesy crap when I was a kid, so for that I won't completely label this movie as a fail, but it still only gets a D

The Ghost and the Darkness

"The Devil has come to Tsavo."

Directed by Stephen Hopkins

1996

Date Viewed: Sunday April 18, 2010 (third viewing)

This is one of the first R rated movies that I ever saw.... Ah memories of being young and deprived of R rated movies.... :) Anyways, I really liked this movie even after all these years. It's about Col. John Patterson (Val Kilmer) who is a bridge builder and is sent to Africa to build a bridge. While he is there two man eating lions start attacking the camps. The workers call them The Ghost and The Darkness (one has a black mane, so he is The Darkness). A hunter named Charles Remington (Michael Douglas) is called in to help kill these two lions. The figure out that the lions are not killing to eat, but they're doing it for the sport of it which is very unusual behavior. So then they were all scared and it was all ominous.... This movie is based on a true story and it still fascinates me. Animals are so strange and amazing. The lions are on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, and I went and saw them when I was a kid (I don't really remember it). I'd like to go back and see them again now that I know a little bit of the story. Now its time for some fun facts about the real Tsavo lions:

1. They were maneless male lions which could be a family trait.
2. The first lion killed was measured at 9 feet 8 inches from nose to tail and took 8 men to carry it.
3. The exact number of people killed by the lions is unknown, but according to Wiki it was probably 35, but according to the Field Museum it was 140.
4. There was a break out of Rinderpest Disease in the late 1890s that killed off a lot of the wildlife. The lions may have gained a taste for human flesh due to poor burials, they probably weren't "doing it for the sport" as the movie suggests.
5. John Patterson sold the lion skins and skulls to the Field Museum in 1924 for $5,000.00

B+

IMDB's top 250 movies

I just downloaded this app to my phone and thought I'd share the list and also which ones I've seen. So here it is:

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. The Godfather
3. The Godfather: Part 2
4. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
5. Pulp Fiction
6. Shindler's List
7. 12 Angry Men
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
9. Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back
10. The Dark Knight
11. The Lord of theRings: Return of the King
12. Star Wars (I'm assuming they mean Episode IV- A New Hope)
13. Casablanca
14. Goodfellas
15. Seven Samurai
16. Fight Club
17. City of God (This movie is AMAZING)
18. The Lord of theRings: The Fellowship of the Ring
19. Raiders of the Lost Ark
20. Rear Window
21. The Usual Suspects
22. Psycho (1960 version)
23. Once Upon a Time in the West
24. Silence of the Lambs
25. The Matrix
26. Se7en
27. Memento
28. It's a Wonderful Life
29. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (this one is actually my fave of the LOTR movies)
30. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb
31. Sunset Blvd.
32. North by Northwest
33. Citizen Kane (Thanks to a Clifford book and a parent who thought he was being funny, I know how thismovie ends...)
34. Leon (AKA Leon the Professional, or The Professional)
35. Apocalypse Now (I actually am not sure if I've seen this one or not)
36. American Beauty
37. Forrest Gump (funny tidbit: I just typed Forrest Bump 3 times before I got it right...)
38. American History X
39. Taxi Driver
40. Vertigo (I've started watching it, but never finished)
41. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
42. Lawrence of Arabia
43. Alien
44. The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain (aka Amelie)
45. Wall E (one of my fave Pixar movies, second to Up)
46. Saving Private Ryan
47. A Clockwork Orange (I still have nightmares about the scene where they're beating the woman with her big penis statues)
48. The Shining
49. Paths Of Glory (I actually own this movie, it came as part of a set, but I haven't watched it yet)
50. The Departed (My favorite Scorsese film)
51. The Pianist
52. To Kill a Mockingbird
53. Aliens
54. Spirited Away
55. The Lives of Others
56. M
57. Double Indemnity
58. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
59. Chinatown
60. Requiem For A Dream
61. The Third Man
62. L.A. Confidential (one of my all time favorite movies)
63. Reservoir Dogs
64. Das Boot
65. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
66. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
67. City Lights
68. Avatar
69. Pan's Labyrinth
70. The Bridge on the River Kwai
71. Inglourious Basterds ( I think this might just be my favorite Tarantino film)
72. Raging Bull
73. The Prestige
74. Up
75. 2001: A Space Odyssey
76. Singin' In The Rain (a childhood favorite)
77. Life is Beautiful
78. Back To the Future
79. Modern Times
80. Downfall
81. Some Like It Hot
82. Amadeus
83. Full Metal Jacket
84. The Maltese Falcon
85. Braveheart
86. Gran Torino (I hated this movie)
87. Cinema Paradiso
88. Rashomon
89. Once Upon A Time in America
90. All About Eve
91. Metropolis
92. The Green Mile
93. Slumdog Millionaire (Jai Ho!)
94. The Elephant Man
95. Sin City
96. The Great Dictator
97. Rebecca (I think I may have actually seen this one, but I'm not positive)
98. The Apartment
99. The Sting (This movie is super awesome)
100. The Gladiator
101. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
102. The Great Escape
103. Star Wars: Episode VI- Return of the Jedi
104. Bicyce Thieves
105. Unforgiven
106. Batman Begins
107. Jaws
108. Blade Runner
109. Hotel Rwanda
110. Die Hard
111. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
112. On the Waterfront
113. No Country for Old Men (aka Old Men Doesn't Have a Country.... lol)
114. Oldboy
115. Touch of Evil
116. The Seventh Seal
117. District 9
118. Fargo
119. Princess Mononoke
120. The Wizard of Oz
121. For a Few Dollars More
122. Heat (I'm still convinced that Where it the Van? is from this movie somehow, even though we watched it and it's not.... its a mystery...)
123. Strangers on a Train
124. Donnie Darko
125. Cool Hand Luke (I have seen the scene with the eggs... I think that's from this movie...)
126. High Noon (1952)
127. The Sixth Sense
128. There Will Be Blood (I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! I drink it up!... Love this movie)
129. Notorious (1946, not the one about Biggie)
130. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
131. The Wrestler
132. The Deer Hunter (Technically I didn't finish this, but I watched as much as I could...)
133. Annie Hall
134. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
135. Snatch (LOVE this movie too)
136. The General
137. Platoon
138. The Big Lebowski
139. Ben-Hur
140. Into The Wild (meh)
141. The Big Sleep
142. Yojimbo (no idea)
143. Million Dollar Baby
144. Ran
145. It Happened One Night
146. The Lion King
147. Life of Brian (Always look on the bright side of life)
148. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (I cannot believe that I've never seen this one)
149. The Bourne Ultimatum
150. Witness for the Prosecution
151. Wild Strawberries
152. Finding Nemo
153. Trainspotting
154. Star Trek (2009)
155. Stand By Me
156. The Graduate
157. The Terminator
158. Gone With The Wind
159. Toy Story ( the second one was better than this one. I'm interested to see what 3 will be like)
160. Groundhog Day
161. Scarface (has everyone seen the elementary school production of this? hilarious and sad at the same time)
162. Amores Perros
163. Ratatouille
164. The Thing
165. Dog Day AFternoon
166. Gandhi
167. V for Vendetta (remember remember the 5thof December.... Wait, is that even the right date? I always get it confused)
168. The Gold Rush
169. 8 1/2
170. The Grapes of Wrath
171. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
172. Twelve Monkeys (Nate can do a great crazy Brad Pitt impression from this movie)
173. The Wages of Fear
174. Les Diaboliques (I think this is the one that partially inspired Psycho. It's really good)
175. Casino
176. The Night of the Hunter
177. The Princess Bride (as you wish)
178. The Incredibles ( I'm still waiting for the sequel!!)
179. The Grave of the Fireflies
180. The Killing
181. Judgement at Nuremberg
182. Kind Hearts and Coronets
183. The Wild Bunch
184. Children of Men
185. In Bruges (a current fave)
186. TheExorcist
187. Nights of Cabiria
188. Sunrise:A Song of Two Humans
189. The Best Years of Our Lives
190. The Hustler
191. The Kid (1921, not the Bruce Willis version)
192. Harvey
193. Ed Wood
194. Dial M for Murder
195. Good Will Hunting
196. Rosemary's Baby
197. King Kong (1933, not the Peter Jackson)
198. Big Fish (I love LOVE this movie)
199. Letters from Iwo Jima
200. Let the Right One In
201. A Streetcar Named Desire
202. Shadow of a Doubt
203. Sleuth
204. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
205. Stalag 17(no idea)
206. Magnolia
207. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
208. Brief Encounter
209. Crash
210. Mystic River
211. Rocky
212. The African Queen
213. Network
214. Duck Soup
215. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (should have been so much better than it was)
216. Shutter Island(I chuckle to myself when people are like oh I've heard its so confusing and you gotta pay close attention or you won't know whats going on...)
217. Rope
218. Bonnie and Clyde
219. Manhatten
220. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
221. The Road (1954)
222. The Battleof Algiers
223. Patton
224. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
225. Changeling
226. Little Miss Sunshine
227. The Conversation
228. Planet of the Apes (1968)
229. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
230. The Nightmare Before Christmas (another one that I can't believe that I haven't seen yet)
231. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
232. The 400 Blows
233. Barry Lyndon
234. All Quiet on the Western Front
235. Anatomy of a Murder
236. The Lady Vanishes
237. Shaun of the Dead
238. Mulholland Dr.
239. Spartacus
240. Glory
241. My Neighbor Totoro
242. Monsters, Inc.
243. The Truman Show
244. (500) Days of Summer
245. The Philadelphia Story
246. Toy Story 2
247. His Girl Friday
248. Arsenic and Old Lace
249. Brazil (I may have seen this one too, but I'm not positive)
250. Edward Scissorhands

Well there you have it.... My list.... Congrats if you made it all the way to the end! How many have you seen and what are your favorites?

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

"I'll meet you on the corner of Ne and Ver!"

Directed by Steve Carr

2009

Date viewed: Friday April 16, 2010

And now it's time for a 4 sentence review! (1) This movie is not very funny. (2) Watching Kevin James roll around on a Segway through the mall was only funny because he reminded me of my brother in law Jake. (3) For some reason I could totally see Jake rolling around on a Segway telling people what to do.... (4) Jayma Mays is so cute in everything she's in, but why in the world would she settle for Kevin James? D

Make Mine Music

Directed by Bob Cormack, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, and Josh Meador

1946

Date Viewed: Friday April 16, 2010

Make Mine Music is Disney's follow up to 1940's Fantasia. I have never actually seen the original Fantasia, but Fantasia 2000 is definitely a superior music film to this one. MMM is SO boring and slow (and dated). I watched it because I was previewing the Peter and the Wolf segment to see if it's suitable for showing to my class and I figured I might as well watch the whole thing. It opens with "Blue Bayou" which actually all I remember about it was a blue bayou and a heron and singing. I don't remember what else there was... So obviously it did not make a huge impression on me. I did like the next song which was a jazz interlude called "All The Cats Join In". It started out with a pencil on paper and the pencil drew everything which was kind of cool. I was kind of confused though because it made a big deal about introducing "the cats" (the jazz band) but then the cats had nothing to do with the rest of the segment. The segment was basically a bunch of kids going to the malt shop to dance. It was pretty cute. The pencil would draw things as it went along and at one point it drew a boy who looked at a girl that the pencil was in the process of drawing. The pencil drew the girl to have a rather large butt and the boy made a disgusted face and the girl was like "hey!" and the pencil erased it and gave her a nicer butt so that her and the (shallow) boy could go dance... Nice. I vaguely remember seeing another segment called Casey at the Bat when I was a kid. Again, it was dated saying something to the effect of the ladies don't understand baseball a bit, they don't know a strike from a foul or a hit... so again, nice....

I really really liked their telling of Peter and the Wolf though. I liked the way they introduced the instruments using the theme and also the character moving in the same way as the music suggests. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too scary or violent as old cartoons sometimes can be. The other segment that I really liked was about Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet who were two hats in love. It was sung by the Andrews Sisters and the animation was so cute. The last segment was about Willie the whale who wanted to sing opera at the Met.... I fell asleep. This movie is kind ofhard to grade because its broken up into so many different segments and each segment is so different. As I'm writing this I realize that I liked more of them than I thought I did, but that's still only about half so I think I'll have to give this movie a halfway grade which would be about a C

The Propsal

"You can do this but that would require you to stop snacking on children while they dream."

Directed by Anne Fletcher

2009

Date Viewed: Thursday April 15, 2010

This movie is HILARIOUS. I love LOVE Ryan Reynolds when he plays charmingly sarcasticly witty charactersas he does here. Reynolds plays Andrew who is the personal assistant to Editor in Chief Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock). Margaret is "Satan's mistress" a.k.a. a hard nosed icy witch who makes Andrew's life a living hell every day. She finds out that she's going to be deported to Canada and to stay in the States she tells INS that she's getting married to Andrew. They end up spending a lovely weekend with Andrew's family in Alaska and shenanigans ensue. There are so many awesomely hilarious and witty lines. I think one of my favorites is when Margaret is climbing down a ladder to a dock (she's freaked out and in heels so she takes it SUPER slow) and she finally gets to the bottom and Andrew says "Congratulations. I'm 100 years old." Maybe you had to see it for it to be funny but I laughed SO hard! Just his dry delivery was too funny. Of course it had all those cliched RomCom moments, but it was just so darn funny (without being crass!). Definitely a must see. (It's currently on Netflix streaming, so check it out!) A

"You can't handle the truth" Thursday

"A dog has not use for fancy cars, big homes or designer clothes. A water logged stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel so rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?"

Peter and the Wolf

Directed by Suzie Templeton

2007

Date Viewed: Wednesday April 14, 2010

This is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen, but at the same time it is oddly beautiful. For those who don't know, Peter and the Wolf is a musical story where each character is represented by an instrument of the orchestra. There are no words in this movie, just music. I love how it illustrates how music can be used to convey a feeling or an image. Peter sneaks out of his yard and plays with a duck and a bird. His grandfather's cat comes to try and catch the bird, but fails. The grandfather wakes from his nap and motions for Peter to stay in the yard and stay out of the forest. Eventually a wolf comes creeping up and its up to Peter to save his animal friends. This won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 2007 and is a stop motion film. The characters are all kind of weird and creepy looking, so this version is definitely not for children. I really enjoyed it though. A-

On another note, I can't believe its been so long since I've watched a movie! Also, look for more reviews of other versions of Peter and the Wolf this weekend. I'm viewing a bunch to pick one to show my kids at work since we're talking about PATW in Music.

Update

I am currently wading my way through Deer Hunter... So far it has been an hour of wedding. Someone suggested to me that I should have guest reviewers. So if you want to review a movie just send me an email with your review and whatever screen name you'd like to be known as and I'll post it here. I promise to post word for word what you wrote even if I disagree :) So send your reviews to Megs621@gmail.com! Also I now officially have 4 followers! Woo hoo!!! :-p

"You Can't Handle The Truth" Thursday

"There's only us, there's only this, forget regret or life is yours to miss. No other road, no other way. No day but today."

Good Hair

"A woman's hair is her glory"

Directed by Jeff Stilson
2009

Date Viewed Thursday April 1, 2010

This is a documentary in which Chris Rock explores African-American hair culture. It's very interesting and I learned more about relaxer and weaves than I ever thought I would know. Chris Rock interviews celebrities, goes to the Bronner Bros. Hair Show in Atlanta, goes to a relaxer plant and even travels to India (where a lot of the hair for human hair weaves come from) to find out more about hair and what makes hair "good". It got a little bit long when he was interviewing the contestants for a fancy hair competition at the Bronner Bros. Show simply because I didn't really care about who won or how their show went. I also think it could have gone deeper, it seemed to stick to scratching the surface. However, in the end, it is a very sweet love letter from Chris Rock to his daughters saying that they are beautiful no matter what their hair looks like and to embrace their beauty instead of trying to change it. B

"You can't handle the truth" Thursday

"Short people have long faces, and long people have short faces. Big people have little humor, and little people have no humor at all"