I Hit 150 Posts! WooHoo! Favorite Movies List

I've compiled a list of movies that I love to watch and recommend to other but it's hardly a complete list.  

Animated: The Little Mermaid or Ningyo Hime (Mermaid Princess) by Toei Animation NOT Disney

Disney: Aladdin

Book made into Movie: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Book Made into Cartoon: The Last Unicorn (ITC)

Computer-Animated: How to Train Your Dragon

Puppet Movie: The Dark Crystal 

Muppet Movie: The Muppets (2011)

Anime Movie: Sailormoon R (Romance)

Studio Ghibli: Spirited Away or Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi

Fantasy Movie: The Fall (2006)

80's Fantasy: Legend

Holiday Movie: The Muppet's Christmas Carol

Cartoon and Live Action Massup: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? / Anchors Aweigh

Disaster Movie: Twister

Parody: Spaceballs

Alien Invasion: Independence Day

Superhero Movie: The Dark Knight

Horror Movie: Exorcist

Spy Movie: The Man of U.N.C.L.E

Bond 007 Movie: Skyfall

Comedy Movie: Dogma

Science-Fiction Movie: Bladerunner

Adventure Movie: Indiana Jones (all by the last one)

Musical: Little Shop of Horrors

Zombie Movie: Zombieland

Mafia Movie: The Godfather

Coming of Age: The Breakfast Club

Crime: Snatch

Suspense: Momento

Mystery: Bone Collector

Thriller: Silence of the Lambs

Based On A Video Game Movie: 

Comic into Movie: Deadpool

Action: True Lies

Romance: Anne of Avonlea 

Western: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance / The Quick and the Dead

Spaghetti Western: Once Upon a Time in the West

Biography: The King's Speech / Kundun / Elizabeth

French and Indian War: Last of the Mahicans 

Revolutionary War: The Patriot / 

World War I: ...???  Need to find one 

World War II: The Way Back / The Flowers of War

Korean War: My Way

Vietnam War: Apacolypse Now

Modern Warfare: Hurt Locker

Historical: Doctor Zhivago

Samurai: Seven Samurai or Shichinin Samurai

Movie: Cinderella 2015 Part I

This is a LONG one, folks.


So I just watched Cinderella and I liked it.  It was much better than Disney's revival of their classic tale of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent (sorely disappointed!).

I think it's smart of Disney to introduce a new generation of girls to their 'Princess' collection, but revamping it to live action.  And LOTS of BLUE (I'll get to that later).

I wasn't sorely disappointed by the cast, that was for sure:

Lily James...I don't know who she is but all I can think of is Harry Potter

Cate Blanchett

I couldn't keep my eyes off of her!  She's a great actress, yes, but I feel like the person doing the costumes for this movie was all 'princessed' and 'princed' out that they just had a field day with making her costumes because she was absolutely stunning!  If I didn't like Disney, I'd just go to watch this movie just for the costumes.

                                    The costumes are gorgeous!

Is it sad that I find the evil stepmother more charismatic and beautiful than Ella? ...Nah!

Another favorite actress, Helena Bonham Carter

Definitely a nice transformation from her usual dark look she's been associated with as of late.

This girl from Downton Abbey, Sofia McShera and this girl from I don't know what:

 

Holliday Grainger!  That's her name!

The cast of Game of Thrones!

This guy... Nonso Anozie who played Xaro Xhoan Daxos

 

And Robb Stark!  Holy $#*%!  (Not because he's good lookin' but last time we saw him, he was a King and...well, you know what happened! If you don't, <--- Click that link and find out if you really want to know - 3:30 GoT SPOILERS for Season 3)

Anyhoo, enough about the cast and back to the movie!  I liked it and it was cute and cheesy and corny like most Disney films but it pretty good and they kept a lot of elements from the cartoon that I thought were rather charming.  In fact, I feel like there was an amalgamation of Disney's 1950's as well as Drew Barrymore's Flower Production adaptation, Ever After: A Cinderella Story and a tiny bit of Ella Enchanted directed by Tom O'Haver.

Three things - other than it being a very cute movie - stuck out in my mind.  I felt that Ella just couldn't get over how pretty she became during the transformation!  Ella kept on twirling and marveling at all the finery - granted, if I were here and knew it wasn't a drug trip, I'd probably do the same thing - not once, not twice, but all the time!  Maybe she was just doing her best impersonation of being a snooty princess by checking herself out all the time but it was very distracting.  When Ella was dancing with Prince Kit, I couldn't help but notice that she would slip into the doting princess that would swoon around the Prince, and if I was mistaken, I think the Prince noticed her more because she wasn't one of those girls.

Enough about her, now let's talk color the BLUE (brought you by Sesame Street)

There was definitely an overall color scheme in this movie and though the stepmother's GREEN colors stood out a lot - she was green with envy -  BLUE was in your FACE!

ALL BLUE!

I'll talk more about this in my next post but I feel like my eyes are not accustomed either to whatever blue they used or if they digitally enhanced that color, man does it not look natural!

Just sayin'.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the third recurring thought in my mind, especially at the end when they got married (Whoops!  Spoiler! As if you didn't know how Cinderella ended and if you did, Thank GOD you came out from whatever rock you lived under!) I couldn't help but think that someone was going to ambush the castle and kill them all.

Trailer

 

Movie: Mr. Pip

So, I look and see what Netflix has to offer from time to time and every now and then, I find a gem.

Mr. Pip is one such movie.

I am huge Hugh Laurie fan but the synopsis is what drew me in:
In the early 1990s, civil war plagues Papua New Guinea. Against this backdrop, eccentric teacher Mr. Watts forms an unlikely bond with a 12-year-old local girl over their love of Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations.

This movie is PG-13 and deals with very hard issues about civil war and oppression as well as corruption for the rating it received.  I feel like movie addressed these topics artfully and would move you emotionally but it wasn't doing it so much for shock value as much as telling a story from a girl's point of view.

Matilda lives with her mom in Bougainville or the Solomon islands of Papua New Guinea and are stuck there since a blockade kept people from leaving the island or entering.  Mr. Watt is the only foreigner left and he takes it upon himself to teach the children about literature after all the schools on the island shut down.  He reads to them 'Great Expectations' and enthralls everyone with Pip's journey.

Unfortunately, there is a civil war waging around them and Matilda uses her vivid imagination to block out the less than savory parts of her life: violence, death, etc..

Who ever was in charge of Costumes must have had lots of fun!

There are some beautifully shot scenes on site as well as in New Zealand.  When Matilda gets lost in her imagination, she is placed in Dicken's world and time.  The costumes are so vibrant and fun, and the setting is perfect for the story they are telling.

On a side note, I really appreciate this movie because the story telling was beautifully done with stunning shots of Bougainville and the movie was well casted.  All in all, I thought it was tactful when dealing with hard issues and very poetic with their writing or setting up a scene.

On a side note:
Other movies that deal with similarly difficult issues/topics: Hotel Rwanda, the Pianist, Casualties of War, etc...
These movies did a good job of portraying these horrific times but there is usually too much gore, swearing and sex - especially for the more recent movies - for it to be PG-13 so the ratings usually were rated-R.  If I were to show the aforementioned movies to a bunch of 13-year-old kids, I don't know if I'll be comfortable with showing these movies in their entirety even though many say that preteens and teenagers are desensitized to media.  Granted, maybe I was a weird teenager back and that liked and sought out movies that were a bit more gritty and pushed you emotionally but Mr. Pip does it artfully and tastefully - if you can even use those words for these harsh topics.

Point being, I thought it was well done.  A bit of an emotional roller coaster but well done.

Bring Tissues.

Spoilers:
Interview at Toronto Film Festival

Movie: Scott Pilgrim vs the World

For all the gamers and closeted-gamers-that-don't-want-to-be-associated-with-gaming-but-still-love-games-on-the-inside, I've found the perfect movie for you!

Meet Scott Pilgrim!

Scott Pilgrim is a musician for Sex Bob-Omb and his group is competing in Battle of the Bands to be #1.  Along the way, Scott falls in love with a new girl in town but in order to win her heart, he needs to battle all of her evil exes!

I know the premise doesn't sound all that great but it's all the little details in this movie that makes it so fun!  Gaming fans along with comic book fans will enjoy the little references.

I know I did.

Reminds me of the old Adam West Batman series

Reminds me of old RPGs where you would go up to an item press B or something like that and it'll give you a nice little descriptor...before you throw it!

You remember those games or even the game walk-through with sections that tell you about the 'monster'...?

This movie is like going through an Role Playing Game.  There is also reference to their source material, the graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Just go watch it.

Movie: Easy Virtue

Easy Virtue is a fun movie directed by set in the jazz-age, a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1928 movie of the same name.

A glamorous American car racer, Larita, is brought home to her new husband's family back to England.  What she thought was only going to be an introduction to the family turned out to be an induction to a culture and a life that she didn't expect to be a part of.

I'm normally not a Jessica Biel fan (however, I love Ben Barnes), but she was actually entertaining in this role as Larita, an unconventional and somewhat rebellious widowed women of that era.  Her husband, John Whittaker, is the heir to a large estate and once he's home, he's constantly reminded about his duties that will one day fall on his shoulders.

Larita is now stuck in a society that wants to put her back into a mold that she tried desperately to break from but she has a few creative schemes up her sleeve to keep true to herself and carve a place within the dusty halls of Whittaker mansion.

Oh, Did I mention that Collin Firth is in it.  (great scene by the way)

Definitely fun to watch