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Watching (or at least listening to) kids’ movies is something I do WAY too much, thanks to having two little ones about, so this week’s topic is a very salient one for me. Some of the kids movies are much less painful to watch 20,000 times than others! Here are my favorites:
1. The Lion King – possibly the best last scene in a movie ever (well, at least a kids’ movie), and just great throughout; the combination of story and music works well here in a way it doesn’t always. 2. Mary Poppins – I had never actually seen this until I had kids, now I LOVE it! What great parenting messages, and the interplay of color with the black & white is fascinating at multiple levels. Plus Dick Van Dyke steals the show as Bert. 3. The Incredibles – STRONG female characters, enough said; my kids and I have been waiting impatiently for a sequel on this one! 4. E.T. – my kids actually don’t like this one as much as some of the others, but it made a HUGE impact on me as a child, so gotta have it on the list. 5. Mulan – again, strong female characters, rare in a Disney film! Very engaging story, too, for both girls and boys. 6. Finding Nemo – phenomenal characters, and more good parenting messages 7. The Wizard of Oz – love this one as both a psychologist and a mom! 8. Transformers – okay, I know, this one is inexplicable, I just love this movie somehow… 9. Harry Potter – I know, they’re really books, and the books are MUCH, ***MUCH*** better than the movies. But, still, the movies don’t do a bad job of capturing the magical world – some of the visuals are stunning, and key plot elements are there. My kids still aren’t quite old enough to read the books, so the movies are a good stand-in until then. Order of these movies in terms of favorites so far – 1, 3, 4, 2, 5. 10. Shrek – great messages about inclusiveness and being true to yourself, and at least puts an interesting spin on the whole “rescue the princess” shtick.
Please note, even though I did love them as a child (and continue to as an adult), I don’t consider the Star Wars movies to be children’s movies (in the sense that I don’t think they were made FOR children). If they were children’s movies, they would definitely be at the very top of this list (in the order 5, 4, 6, 3, 1, 2). Other favs that almost made this list – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Monsters Inc.
What fun – a topic combining two of my favorite things, movies and music! I had a blast going through iTunes this morning – quite the walk down memory lane. You will be able to tell from my list that I was a teenager in the ’80s – like, totally! Another note: I interpreted “song” as meaning music and words – otherwise the themes from Star Wars & Jaws would’ve definitely been on this list! I also *tried* to focus on songs that were written specifically for movies, rather than songs later co-opted for a soundtrack.
Here are my top 10 movie songs: 1. Footloose (Kenny Loggins) 2. Animal House (Steven Bishop) 3. Flashdance … What a Feeling (Irene Cara) 4. Tonight is What it Means to Be Young (from Streets of Fire; Fire, Inc.) 5. Eye of the Tiger (from Rocky; Survivor) 6. In Your Eyes (from Say Anything; Peter Gabriel) 7. Fame (Irene Cara) 8. This Kiss (from Practical Magic; Faith Hill) 9. Axel F (from Beverly Hills Cop; Harold Faltermeyer) 10. Don’t Worry, Be Happy (from Cocktail; Bobby McFerrin)
okay, actually I couldn’t stop at 10 today, so for this week I have 20 on Tuesday: 11. Danger Zone (from Top Gun; Kenny Loggins) 12. St. Elmo’s Fire/Man in Motion (John Parr) 13. Holding Out for a Hero (from Footloose; Bonnie Tyler) 14. Rhythm of the Night (from The Last Dragon; El Debarge) 15. On the Dark Side (from Eddie & the Cruisers; John Cafferty) 16. Good Enough (from Goonies; Cyndi Lauper) 17. Who’s Johnny (from Short Circuit; El Debarge) 18. A View to a Kill (Duran Duran) 19. Magic (from Xanadu; Olivia Newton-John) 20. Climb On A Back That’s Strong (from As Good As It Gets; Shawn Colvin)
Okay, so today I am obviously being work avoidant. This all got me thinking about soundtracks that are just awesome start-to-finish-, even though none of the individual songs made the list above. So, just for fun, here’s a list of my top 25 movie soundtracks:
1. Saturday Night Fever 2. The Big Chill 3. Good Morning Vietnam 4. When Harry Met Sally 5. Grease 6. Boys on the Side 7. Fast Times at Ridgemont High 8. Forrest Gump 9. Purple Rain 10. Coyote Ugly 11. Pretty Woman 12. Mr & Mrs Smith 13. Pulp Fiction 14. Boogie Nights 16. What Women Want 17. American Graffiti 18. Bridget Jones’ Diary 19. High Fidelity 20. The Lost Boys 21. The Lion King 22. Wayne’s World 23. Risky Business 24. Cars 25. Notting Hill
Whew, I guess that’s enough for today! Possibly I should get some actual work done now…
Ah, the bad guys…for this week’s topic, I couldn’t decide whether to focus on bad guys I empathize with, or was terrified of, or were just awesome. In the end, my list is a hodepodge, doesn’t stop at 10, and also reveals my almost-diagnosable obsession with Star Wars…enjoy!
1. Darth Vader (duh) 2. The Terminator (Arnie’s original) 3. Voldemort (Harry Potter series) 4. Hans Gruber (from the original Die Hard) 5. Hannibal Lector (Silence of the Lambs) 6. Darth Maul (Star Wars: Phantom Menace) 7. General Grievous (Star Wars series) 8. HAL 9000 (2001, A Space Odyssey) 9. Michael Meyers (Halloween) 10. Annie Wilkes (Misery) 11. Billy (Scream) 12. Alex Forest (Fatal Attraction) 13. The Corleones (The Godfather series) 14. Scar (The Lion King) 15. The Emperor/Palpatine (Star Wars series)
Just got back from a trip to Boston, and leaving for London on Saturday, and am completely frantic, so for this week’s topic, I’ll be short and sweet – a rarity for me!
Remember, these are favorites, not ones I necessarily think are the BEST. These are characters that stuck with me long after the film, and made me want to see the films over and over again. Also, remember the list calls for favorite CHARACTERS, not favorite ACTORS. My list would’ve been very different if the focus was on the performance itself and not the character. Also, I tried not to include characters based on books … ’cause then they’re really book characters, not movie characters! There are a few exceptions where the movie brings the character to life in a way the book didn’t…
My Top 10 Favorite Movie Characters:
1. Yoda 2. THE Godfather (yes, also based on a book, but … have you SEEN these movies?!!) 3. Bond, James Bond. (I know, I know, based on books … but did anyone actually read them?!!) 4. Otto (“A Fish Called Wanda”) 5. Rocky, Rocky, Rocky 6. Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver’s character in the Alien series) 7. Tie between The Terminator (the Arnie version) and Sarah Conner 8. Adrian Cronauer (“Good Morning, Vietnam”) 9. The shark in Jaws 10. Bueller … Bueller
This was really hard to contain to 10! Here are some other favorites … Han Solo and Darth Vader (always a Star Wars theme in my movie choices! , Archie (“A Fish Called Wanda); John McClane (“Die Hard” series), the entire cast of “Animal House”, Lloyd Dobler (John Cusak’s character in “Say Anything”), Kevin McCallister (the kid in “Home Alone”), Raymond Babbitt (“Rain Man”), Judy Benjamin (“Private Benjamin”), and (I’m a little ashamed to admit) Scarlett (“Gone With the Wind”),
Oh, and Darth Maul – and that dude really should’ve gotten some more play time!
Now I really have to do some laundry and re-pack…
Tax day is a great day to think about comedies! I had trouble narrowing to 10, so I cheated and had a 5-way tie for 10th place (also known as a top 14):
1. A Fish Called Wanda 2. The Bird Cage 3. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 4. Animal House 5. National Lampoon’s Vacation 6. Private Benjamin 7. The Money Pit 8. Office Space 9. Home Alone 10.a. Back to the Future 10.b. When Harry Met Sally 10.c. Shrek 10.d. Good Morning Vietnam 10.e. There’s Something About Mary
Happy Halloween! I love Halloween – for me, it has nothing to do with candy; it’s about the chance to throw off everything else and assume an alter ego for a day! Halloween has changed a lot for me since having kids – fewer late night bashes and many more negotiations about how we really can’t keep changing our minds about costumes once we buy them! %-)
Halloween of course is also about attempting to creep ourselves (and others) out! I am a HUGE fan of scary movies, though I have to admit many of them really do scare me – or at least temporarily creep me out. I did a list like this on a previous meme (Tenika’s challenge #16 from Halloween last year), but I’ve updated to accomodate some REALLY scary movies I’ve seen in the past year. Also, since this is a TEN challenge, I’m limiting myself to the top 10 only. So, here is my current list of top 10 all-time favorite Halloween (aka scary) movies:
1. Nightmare on Elm Street – though the series later devolved quite a bit, the original is still awesome. I think that song “One, two, Freddie’s coming for you” will probably make my blood run cold “forever ’til I die”, as my son would say. Ugh – gives me shivers just thinking about it!
2. Saw – total, twisted genious. Loved it!
3. Rosemary’s Baby – seriously, who let’s the Devil rape their wife?!! Truly, truly disturbing flick on many levels.
4. Alien – self-explanatory
5. Scream – very clever premise, I thought. And even the sequels didn’t suck the way they often do.
6. Jaws – on the soundtrack alone; plus, the moment where you first realize just how big this thing really is…priceless
7. The Vanishing – OMG, buried alive!!!
8. Urban Legends – I have started using Urban Legends as a teaching tool in my social psychology class, so this one has gotten bumped up on the list. Watching it is “work” … yeah, that’s it…
9. Saved! – I know, I know, it’s supposed to be a comedy. It’s just that it’s not funny. At all. Instead, it is scary. Very, very scary. Truly.
10. Halloween – this first movie is an absolute classic, presented the ultimate boogeyman for my generation, the totally freakily scary dude who just WOULD NOT DIE.
Happy Independence Day! Since we’re the parents of two little munchkins, no downtown fireworks display with throngs of people and not getting home until midnight for us. We waited (barely) for dusk, and did sparklers and a couple of small fountain and race car firecrackers with the kids. Very low key, but fun in its own way. Now they’re in bed, and here I am…
I *love* movies! This week’s topic asks for 10 ten movies in my collection, so I’ll focus on movies I own, not necessarily my all-time favorites. 1. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 2. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi 3. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (Yes, I know this list isn’t in order of release; I’ve put them in order of preference instead. And, yes, I deliberately left off “Attack of the Clones”) 6. A Fish Called Wanda 7. The Godfather 8. The Godfather, Part II 9. The Incredibles (gimme a break – at my house we have to watch A LOT of kiddie movies – this one’s actually pretty good! %-) 10. The Rock (guilty pleasure, true, but it has great one liners, and of course you can never go wrong with Sean Connery)
I have a love/hate relationship with scary movies – I am absolutely addicted to watching them, but I do get scared very easily. So in listing out “scariest movies I’ve ever seen” for this week’s challenge, these are actually movies that haunt me, truly. I’ve watched each of these movies over and over again, but always with my eyes covered during the scary parts!
1. Nightmare on Elm Street – honestly, the part where the kids are singing the song “one, two, Freddie’s coming for you…” makes my blood run cold. Even typing that scared me! Not the whole movie, but somehow that particular part just totally creeps me out.
2. Halloween – the first true boogeyman, and still the best; the scene where he stands up behind Laurie in the closet – yikes!
3. Rosemary’s Baby – amazingly well-made…the tension builds & builds…even though you suspect, you still can’t believe it in the end
4. Scream – refreshing take on the whole genre, offers some genuine twists; I STILL can’t watch this movie alone
5. The Omen – the scene with the nannie hanging herself saying “Damien, it’s all for you”; again, I start tripping just thinking about it.
6. Alien – enough said. AWESOME movie, start to finish. The monster was amazing, and it was so refreshing to see a heroine do more than scream; Sigourney Weaver kicks serious butt!
7. Deliverance – yeah, this is why I’m a city girl…
8. Jaws – again, kind of quintessential scary movie thing, and of course the music…
9. Misery – who knew having someone adore you could suck SO MUCH?!!
10. Carrie – okay, high school might’ve been bad, but it couldn’t POSSIBLY have sucked for you as much as it did for poor Carrie; I know the end is supposed to be the worst part, but the scene in the beginning where she gets her period and all the other girls make fun of her…THAT is horrifying
11. Open Water – truly, worst nightmare. I think the anticipation would kill me way before a shark did!
12. Pet Cemetary – the book is WAY more scrary than the movie, but the kid turning psycho and the ending where the wife comes back…very wacked
13. Poltergeist – this one, I don’t even know why, but it totally creeps me out
14. The Shining – okay really only the “All work and no play…” thing, but still, imagine if that were YOUR husband?!!
15. Single White Female – imitation sometimes is NOT flattery, not by a mile
16. The Vanishing – BURIED ALIVE?!! (obviously, my claustrophobic tendencies come out here)
17. Urban Legends – I know, I know, not a great quality film, but the IDEA of it, someone taking urban legends and making them real, and just seeing images of all those campfire stories you’ve heard over the years … very, very creepy.
18. The Last Supper – scary because it is probably everyone’s potential
19. Saved! – given the current cultural climate, this movie is in NO way funny to me, just very VERY frightening
20. Child’s Play – I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s true…Chucky scared me
21. The Hitcher – THIS what your mom meant when she warned you not to talk to strangers…
22. A Clockwork Orange – disturbing both because of the initial violence itself, but also because of the “reform”; it’s too believable that our society would end up here.
23. The Amityville Horror – the original, not the remake! The idea that evil voices could come out of nowhere and turn you into a murderer … very not cool to an 7 year old girl!
24. Helter Skelter – I saw this as TV miniseries when I was a kid, it totally terrified me. I’ve been skeptical of hippies ever since!
25. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest – scary commentary on society, especially given the political climate these days.
I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t consider Seven, or Silence of the Lambs scary – just very intensely suspensful. Psycho – same thing. Also, Excorcist doesn’t scare me, just really weird. I should also note that I have never seen “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”, “The Thing”, or “The Ring”.
By the way – my kids were so adorable tonight! Sami was a fairy princess and Eli was Micky Mouse.
Even though I tend to prefer suspenseful, dramatic movies, for this week’s challenge on favorite movie lines, I’ve drawn from mostly from comedies or horror films. Somehow they always seem to have the best one-liners!
1. “Asshole” — Otto (Kevin Kline) to pretty much anyone and everyone in A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
2. “Bond. James Bond.” — no explanation needed, I imagine
3. “I’ll have what she’s having.” — anonymous female diner (Estelle Reiner), following the infamous “faking it” scene in When Harry Met Sally (1989)
4. “We all go a little mad sometimes.” — Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Psycho (1960)
5. “Game over, man! Game over!” — Hudson (Bill Paxton) in Aliens (1986)
6. “Love your suit.” — Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
7. “I can’t believe I gave my panties to a geek.” — Samantha (Molly Ringwald) in Sixteen Candles (1984)
8. “My Mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.’” Forrest (Tom Hanks) in Forrest Gump (1994)
9. “Look, Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this” — HAL (voice of Douglas Rains): in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
10. “There are just some mistakes you can’t make when you have children” — Flor (Paz Vega) to John (Adam Sandler) in the 2004 movie Spanglish; decidedly NOT funny, I know, and not chilling either, but something that speaks to me in a very profound way at this point in my life.
Here are my favorites: