Movies: Week 1 - I Need to See Some Favorites

Am I doing a movie-a-day in 2009? Not officially, but I know I'm going to watch a lot anyway and I'd like to write about them. I do want to keep up with the blog better than last year. There were dozens of movies I really wanted to write about, but after I got so far behind digging my way out just seemed too overwhelming.

Week 1 - Movies 1 thru 8

After watching so many 1, 2 and 3 star movies last year, I guess I felt the need to watch some favorites. In fact, I actually started watching only movies I know and love during the last week of last year.

5 Stars:

I've seen Signs (2002) so many times that it no longer gives me creepy-goosebumps, but I still enjoy it. Of course, now it also makes me sad remembering how much I used to look forward to new M. Night Shyamalan's movies. Some people say only every other Star Trek movie is good and I kind of feel that way about M. Night's movies: The Sixth Sense (great), Unbreakable (terrible), Signs (perfect), The Village (awful). I'd rate The Happening as the worst, so does that mean I'd like Lady in the Water? I'd skipped it because I still hadn't recovered from The Village. Next up, in production, is The Last Airbender. It's the first of a trilogy of live-action movies based on a Japanese anime-styled American cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon. Hmmm, I'm not exactly holding my breath.

I think I actually enjoy The Incredibles (2004) more every time I see it. From time to time I check out director Brad Bird's information on IMDB to see if he's working on any new projects. What a great resume - he worked on The Simpsons (early seasons) and a couple episodes of King of the Hill and Amazing Stories. He wrote and directed *batteries not included (an old favorite) and The Iron Giant (an all time favorite). For The Incredibles, he called in Lily Tomlin to provide the voice for Edna Mode. He demonstrated how he thought Edna should sound, and Lily said, "That's terrific - you should do the voice" -- so he did. Next up, a live-action drama that uses California's 1906 earthquake as the setting. Hmmm, I vote on dropping that for The Incredibles 2.

Oh yeah - I almost forgot - the scenes when Mr Incredible is wedged into his tiny car always reminds me of when we stuffed Randy into the back seat of my 1999 Firebird.


4 Stars:
Spaceballs (1987) is very, very stupid and I really like it. It's a "comfort food" movie - I think it evokes memories from when I was a carefree teenager.

Last Holiday (2006) surprised me. I probably never would have picked up this remake without the recommendation of a friend. Queen Latifa plays the lead of Georgia Byrd, a frumpish department store drone who keeps a Scrapbook of Possibilities but is too meek to act on her dreams. When informed she only has a short time to live, she cashes in her savings to enjoy her remaining days to the fullest at the posh Grandhotel Pupp in the spa city of Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. ("It's really pronounced Hotel 'Poop'?", she asks.) L.L. Cool J plays Latifa's love interest. In the DVD extras he tells of being thrilled to play an upstanding "regular guy" in a movie instead of a hardcore thug wearing a wife-beater (and he did it well.) It seems impossible that a movie written as a (probably slapstick) remake for John Candy, then re-written for Latifa could turn out so good. Alec Guinness played the role of George Byrd in the 1950 original.


3 Stars:
What the heck - Ice Age (2002) and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) were at the library so I picked them up. Ray Romano, John Leguizamo & Denis Leary voice the leads and dozens of other well-known stars - including Queen Latifa (again) in part 2 - take care of various minor characters. They were entertaining, but not stellar.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997) starring Richard Crenna was on one of the movie channels so decided to give it a chance. You have to be very specific when you reference "2okLUtS" because it's been done so many times. You can't simply state the year of the remake as there were actually two made-for-TV versions in 1997. If you're a big fan and have already seen all 7 or 8 versions, I hope you can show a little patience because the next one won't be out until 2010 according to IMDB. I think 2okLUtS is an interesting concept and I hoped I'd like this one better than 1954 version I watched last year. In 1954 people still thought a movie couldn't be made unless somebody sang at least one song and the special effects were kind of dopey-looking. 43 years later they dropped the crooning and didn't improve the effects. In fact the Nautilus from '54 looked much cooler.


2 Stars:
Well, concentrating on "better" movies didn't last very long, did it? Airport '77 was at the library, too. Half Airport/Airport 1975 + half Poseidon Adventure = all dorky. I saw the first two just last year - why did I willingly watch the 3rd one? Is my OCD really that bad? Oh well, only one more left...

Lee Grant gets a right to the chin from Brenda Vaccaro for trying to open the door while the 747 is still under water.