ten day challenge, day eight

Let's just jump right into it, shall we?  Three movies.  These are probably not your favorite movies!  I have weird taste in movies I think.  Now, I've already briefly discussed these movies way back in the day so if you're a regular reader of the blog sorry for the repeat!

1.  Dream for an Insomniac.  Sounds silly, but this movie literally changed my life.  I was living in Texas where my ex-husband (before he was the ex) was attending his A-School for the Navy.  I watched this movie 100 times.  I was Frankie.  Literally, everything that came out of her mouth I could relate to.  The way her friends saw her, well, that was me.  To top it off she was an insomniac and guess what??  So was I!  But it was the line 'Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love is a waste of your time.  There are too many mediocre things in life to deal with and love shouldn't be one of them.'  Here I was living in this horribly run down pay-by-the-week motel in a town where I knew no one, basically all by myself to be closer to a man that I just didn't love anymore, if ever.  When I thought about those words I realized that I was wasting my life away, living for someone else and I just wasn't going to do that anymore.  So I didn't.  And I made the best decision I've made in all my life.  And I'm sure that at some point I would have come to that conclusion myself, but hearing those words on my little tiny motel TV just made it happen sooner.

2.  Another dialogue centric movie.  Kevin Smith's third movie and the third in the Jersey series, part of the View Askewniverse.  Chasing Amy is probably my favorite Kevin Smith movie maybe tied with Mallrats.  I love Alyssa's reasoning for being bi-sexual and Silent Bob's Chasing Amy's story.  Where Mallrats was pretty much hilarious all the time, Chasing Amy has moments of poignancy that seemed to resonate with me.  And just like the other two in this list I could, and have, watch this movie over and over again.

3.  A Place in the Sun was the first black and white movie that I watched of my own choosing.  I stayed home sick from school on day and Channel 36 was showing classic movies.  This one started and I just didn't get up off the couch to change the channel (we didn't have a remote control).  But I was quickly engrossed in the movie.  The plot was suspenseful and full of irony, but more than that Elizabeth Taylor at 19 years old, was flawlessly beautiful.  I spent years trying to figure out what this movie was called (again, beside not having a remote there also was no imdb.com).  It definitely jump started my love for the classics and though I've not seen too many Elizabeth Taylor or Montgomery Clift movies the black and whites will always be among my favorites.

If you missed the first seven days and are curious about them you can find those:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

it all ends here

For those of you who might be living under a rock and do not know today is Harry Potter day.  Well, really tomorrow is as the movie officially comes out tomorrow, but we're going to see it tonight so today, for me, is Harry Potter day.

Since I haven't posted in awhile (been busy, I'll catch you up later) I thought I'd leave you with a little Harry Potter fun-ness.  This is not for the prudish, okay?  This is going to be a lot of cursing and other such fun stuff.  I'd probably give it a R+ rating, but it's freaking hilarious and one of my favorite Smodcasts & Smodimations of all time.  Enjoy people!

Well, Yes, I’m a Geek.

I used to watch movies a lot.  A lot a lot a lot a lot.  Lately they’ve kind of taken a backseat to reading and other stuff.  I think I’ve mentioned before the gross amount of TV I have backlogged as well.

There’s quite a few movies slated to be remade (or as they call it now ‘rebooted’ so as not to seem tired and boring).  I can honestly say that I have never once been excited about a remake.  There have been ones that I’ve liked, but I never heard of a remake and thought to myself, now that sounds like a good idea.
So it got me thinking about movies I do love and because you all know how I love my lists I’ve decided to compile a list of my faves.  These aren’t in any particular order.  If I were to do that I would be here all day.

1. Dream for an Insomniac – Beautifully written, dialogue centric.  This movie literally changed my life.
   
2. Annie – I still know every song and have the greatest memories of playing Annie in my cousins' closet.  Pretending we were all orphans trying to escape after Ms. Hannigan locks us up.
   
3. Grease – For some reason my mom thought this movie was appropriate for children.  Of course, it wasn’t until I was older that I realized just how scandalous those songs were!
   
4. Charade – Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant.  Comedy, romance, intrigue.  Need I say more?
   
5. Casablanca – I remember thinking that this movie was probably going to be overrated.  Oh, but it wasn’t.  It’s called a classic for a reason people!
   
6. You’ve Got Mail – *gasp* A remake??  Yes, but out of the Meg Ryan & Tom Hanks pair ups this is my favorite.  I love the script, I cry every time she sees herself twirling with her mother in the bookstore and it’s about books!
   
7. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi – I loathe the newest additions to the Star Wars saga, but these three (in my mind they will always be the first three) were the most amazing and perfect movies I had ever seen as a kid – and they still are.
   
8. Chasing Amy – Oh, Kevin you slay me with your words.  The dialogue in this movie is priceless.  Do people really talk like this?  Who cares!  It’s so awesome and even though he’d done amazing things before this (ahem Clerks!) this is the movie that put Kevin Smith on everyone’s radar.
   
9. Clerks & Mallrats – I love the quote-ability of Kevin Smith’s movies, but these are the classics and they are not to be messed with.
   
10. Memento – This movie blew my mind the first time I saw it.  Genius.
    
11. Amelie – charming, sweet, funny and in French!
    
12. The Godfather Part II – The first was great, the third was okay, but the second was my favorite.  And the reason why I always loved Robert DeNiro.
    
13. A Place in the Sun – This was the first black and white movie I had ever seen.  I was sick, home from school and it was on Channel 36.  Not only is this movie based on a book, but it was also a remake!  Originally a book, An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (which was based on a true story) the movie of the same name was released in 1931.  When Paramount began to make noises about not making A Place in the Sun, director George Stevens sued them for breach of contract.  His movie began filming in 1949.  Elizabeth Taylor was only 17 at the time and she was exquisite.  I remember being stunned by her beauty and the story was so heartbreaking and tragic.  It was a piece of art.

I could probably go on and on some more, but I fear you would all either lose interest or find my taste in movies to be nuts.  Though, I will readily admit that most, if not all of the movies I would add to this list haven’t seen a movie theatre in at least 10 years.  You’ll also be so kind to note that I didn’t include any of the Twilight, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings movies.  While I love them, I love them more for being a visual version of books I love more than just movies I love.  But I still love ‘em!

So what’s on your list?  Are there any movies coming out soon that you’re excited for?  I think the only thing I’m excited about right now is Sucker Punch.  It looks AH-Mazing!

Why Kevin Smith is So Rad, Part I

I was going to do a quote post dedicated to the awesomeness that is Kevin Smith, but I have a lot of quotes and some a really long because well, sometimes Kevin lets his characters go on for awhile.  I’ve decided to do numerous Kevin Smith quote posts and this one is just one quote from Chasing Amy, which is most definitely my second favorite Kevin Smith movie.  What’s my favorite, you ask?  You’ll find out another time oh curious friends of mine!

‘Why me, you know?  Why now?’

‘Well, why not you?’

‘Well, I’m a guy.  You’re attracted to girls.’

‘I see you’ve been taking notes.  Historically yes, that’s true.’

‘Then why this?’

‘Well, I’ve given that a lot of thought, you know?  I mean now that I’m being ostracized by my friends I’ve had plenty of time to think about it and what I’ve come up with is really simple.  I came to this on my own terms, you know?  I didn’t just heed what I was taught – men and women should be together, just the natural way – that kind of thing.  I’m not with you because of what family, society, life tried to instill in me from day one.  The way the world is, how seldom it is that you meet that one person who just gets you … it’s so rare.  My parents didn’t really have it.  There were no examples set for me in the world of male/female relationships and to cut one’s self off from finding that person, to immediately half your options by eliminating the possibility of finding that one person within your own gender, that just seemed stupid to me.  So I didn’t.  But then you came along.  You, the one least likely.  I mean you were a guy.’

‘Still am.’

‘And while I was falling for you I put a ceiling on that because you were a guy.  Until I remembered why I opened the door to women in the first place.  To not limit the likelihood of finding the one person who’d compliment me so completely.  So here we are.  I was thorough when I looked for you and I feel justified lying in your arms ‘cause I got here on my own terms and I have no questions there was someplace I didn’t look and for me that makes all the difference.’
-Holden & Alyssa