College Movie Project: Christmas Movies!

Fall 2003: Love Actually 



Movie Facts:
Directed by Richard Curtis
Google Genre: Comedy Drama/Drama (redundancy, it also repeats itself) 
Movie Tagline: Love actually is all around. 
Actors: This was one of the first of one of those movies with 9 million actors you know and love. Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, and Emma Thompson- love them all!!! They're fun and British and delightful. 

Before Rewatch: 
Christmas movie! I probably saw this 3 times in the movie theater I loved it! It's fun and light hearted. It's a Christmas tradition. I doubt I've skipped watching it a single year since it came out and probably watched it multiple times. For a while I was in charge of  our Christmas movie playlist so this was always on there...along with Apocalypse Now...but mostly this. I love this movie and can always watch it. 

After Rewatch:
I don't get all the hate for this movie, besides the unrealistic airport scenarios and the fantasy aspects of it I still love it! Bill Nighy is delightful, Kiera Knightley is gorgeous as usual. I still scream at the Alan Rickman character for being a total idiot! What is wrong with you!?  Laura Linney's sister character is also horribly annoying- why does her brother how such unbelievable access to a phone...

"Would we call her chubby?" Thank you Hugh Grant! So this was Fall 2003, this was probably the first time I was ever consciously aware of the whole people calling NORMAL sized women fat OMG. I remember totally not seeing this or understanding it before then. I'd always heard and listened to women complain about too skinny women (Ally McBeal was my favorite TV show for a while) but I guess I hadn't really seen it till then. I remember thinking the Natalie character looked amazing, she was pretty and totally not fat. I had a friend who I totally thought looked like her (She really did) and I told her and she got so offended because she said she was fat- SHE IS NOT FAT your freak! Anyways side track...

Funny to think about any national leader being able to do what Hugh Grant does unnoticed. So if it was today there would immediately be photographers following the motorcade and finding the Prime Minister at a local school. 

This movie is endlessly quotable too- "there was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?" or "And I'm sorry for all the cock-ups, my cabinet are absolute crap" or " Don't buy drugs, become a popstar and they give them to you for free!" 

Love this movie will rewatch...proabbly at least one more time this year before Christmas...it's on the holiday rotation. 

Fall 2005: Rent 

Movie Facts:
Directed by Chris Columbus 
Google Genre: Drama/Romance (ummm how about Musical?)
Movie Tagline: No day but today.
Actors: Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Jesse L. Martin, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia from the Original Broadway cast and they look and sound amazing! They brought in a few new folks Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thomas and they're fab too.  

Before Rewatch: 
My HS and College BFF Robynne and I went to see this over Thanksgiving break. We were like the only ones in the theater and it was a huge theater over at Huebner Oaks. We were super excited and cried and remember doing Selections Rent in HS. I remember HATING that they cut Halloween! One of my favorite songs, but I still loved it and thought it was awesome. How does Taye Diggs not age? He looked/looks and sounds amazing. Idina, Jesse and Wilson too! They did not age! Adam and Anthony well they may have aged but they still sounded great. But I remember loving it and this was before I was too angry about movie musicals cutting songs (flashforward to my violent hostility with Into the Woods- fuck that shit).

After Rewatch:
Love. Still love it. I have never cried at the end of Rent, I've always cried during One Song Glory, Goodbye Love, Will I...uhhhg it kills me! Also "I'd be happy to die for a taste of what Angel had" I die. Also I want to sing that harmony with someone...

I can't think of any number it really improves on...I enjoy the hallucination in Tango but that's about it. I get annoyed in What You Own with the New Mexico stuff just visually it's excessive. I enjoy Mark being on the roof and stuff but Roger's stuff is distracting. OOOhh Santa Fe the number though I love! I do enjoy it on the subway. And the funeral also kills me. So good! 

"There will always be women in rubber flirting with me!" so true. Such a fun scene. 

Okay criticisms, gonna force myself, the visible breath looks totally fake!  I actually remember listening to the audio commentary by Chris Columbus a hundred years ago and he talked about it - when it was real it looked fake and when it was fake it looked real so funny. But it's totally distracting sometimes. I miss Halloween still. I also miss some of the extra narrative in Rent and Goodbye Love. I'll Cover You while one of my favorite songs totally is over choreographed I don't know what happened there but the fake running is awful. I miss that they don't sing-through the dialogue - recitative. 

This is also probably one of the only movie musicals I have to actively stop myself from singing along to. Most of them I can just watch or have in the background, but this one I start singing along...constantly. 

Previous Movie Posts:

College movie project overview
Fall 2006 - Stranger than Fiction
Clerks 2, Lost in Translation, Sideways and V

Saved and Closer

Kids Movies: Harry Potter, Narnia and Incredibles 

College Movie Project: Fantasy and Kids Movies

Fall 2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Movie Facts:

Directed by Mike Newell
Google Genre: Fantasy/Mystery
Movie Tagline: Difficulty times lie ahead, Harry.
Actors: The most perfectly cast children ever in the history of anything. I really don't need to talk about them do I? Emma Watson became the best role model for any smart, confident girl ever. Rupert Grint made dating redheads okay again. Daniel Radcliffe plays internal struggle so well. 

Before Rewatch: 

In fall 2005 I was an RA in the Freshman girls dorm Baldus at TLU. This was the dorm I'd been a Freshman in too. I didn't really know or remember my RAs, but I wanted of course to be the best RA. My door decorations were super elaborate and I always had very unconventional programming (we were required to do so many a month). So I decided to take a group of my residents to San Antonio to see Harry Potter on opening night. There were only about 5 of us that went but it was awesome! I hadn't read the books at this time so I didn't know anything about what was going to happen. But knowing that I was a super scaredy cat one of my residents warned me about the maze scene that would make me jump and told me. I had already screamed in the great lake scene. But this was such a fun little field trip to make with a group of students and would be very familiar a few years later when I got to rent out an entire movie theatre to show an advanced screening of Harry Potter for my students at SAC. 

After Rewatch:

I love all the Harry Potter movies and had never watched one out of order before. While HP and Prisoner of Azkaban is the one Hail and I always talk about them being uncomfortable in their adolescence with, this one they're also pretty uncomfortable with it too. Hermione comes into her own and is just so beautiful and mature. The boys have super shaggy hair, I think it gets worse in Order of the Phoenix, but it's pretty bad here too. Maggie Smith is delightful as always and there are just so many fun moments. This is the first of the HP movies that ends on such a downer note and it only gets darker from here, so it was nice that there was so much lightness and levity in this one. 

Fall 2005: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Movie Facts:

Directed by Andrew Adamson
Google Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Movie Tagline: Aslan is on the move.
Actors: Again delightfully cast children in this film. I haven't really seen them in anything else since this but that's okay because they're perfect here. Tilda Swinton as the White Witch is also perfect and beautiful and creepy and evil. Love her.

Before Rewatch:

I hadn't read the books and wouldn't for another 6 years. I had seen The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe as a stage play as a kid but I hadn't really thought about it for years till I saw the movie. I remember loving the movie from first watch, it's so pretty and fantastical. I cried when Aslan was killed and remember I didn't make the religious parallels till much later. Yes, yes, even with all the sons of adam and daughters of eve things...I don't know I'm just not one to make religious parallels easily I guess. I don't think at the time we were as obsessed with sequels so I don't think I knew there would be more movies. Years later I'd be so upset when I realized they weren't continuing the series right away because they are so good! 

After Rewatch:

Now I can't stop seein ghte religious meaning in it. I see sacrifice and the god and selflessness and so much in it. Aslan is a god I can behind, he takes care of his people but also lets things happen to them and to see their chocies.

This is a Christmas movie, if you don't believe me that's fine. But I love it. A few years ago I read all the books, I was probably 25 or so and I remember loving them so much and crying at the end. I still love these movies though and find them beautiful. I can't wait for my niece and nephew to watch them and read the books. I often wonder what it would be like to experience them as a child. What is that quote about the reading you do as a child as being some of the most important reading of your life...So I have friends who feel that way about the Narnia books, they read them as children and they became a part of them...like so many children in the last 20 years with the Harry Potter books. But I'm supposed to be talking about the movie right? I love it. It's lovely and totally a Christmas movie. 

Fall 2004: The Incredibles

Movie Facts:

Directed by Brad Bird
Google Genre: Action/Adventure (animated)
Movie Tagline: Save the day.

Actors: Voice actors...actors with very distinct voices- They're all great.

Before Rewatch:
My sophomore year of college on October 24, 2004 my college roommate was killed. She died while running with a classmate on Highway 90 near the TLU campus. She was a cross country runner and we were roomates our freshman year and planned to live together all throughout our time at TLU and in grad school too. We both wanted to be teachers. This movie came out two weeks after her death and about 3 weeks after a group of our friends decided we needed to go see it. It was the first time I laughed after she died. We laughed and then cried but it was exactly what I needed. I stopped hanging out with most of my friends as much after that, it was too hard. But as much as I love this movie I don't watch it very much. I've probably watched it 3 times since then, but I bought because of what it means. To me it reminds me of the worst year of my life but it's a lovely movie that shows what it means to be a hero.

After Rewatch:
I hadn't seen this movie in years. I tried to watch it with my nephew reccently but he wasn't really interested. It's never been one of my favorite Pixar's but because of it's sentimental value I love it. It has parts that are really funny - I love the end when Dash is trying to run and he keeps having to speed up and slow down. I also love Edna their costume designer she's fabulous. Frozone's "Where is my super suit" and his never seen wife's "why do you need to know!" still makes me laugh. I think it's fun but it's too damn long, omg why is this children's movie 9 hours? It's actually 2 hours but that's still too damn long. Jason Lee is delightful and who doesn't love Holly Hunter, I could listen to her voice for hours, she's awesome. 

Previous Movie Posts:

College movie project overview
Fall 2006 - Stranger than Fiction
Clerks 2, Lost in Translation, Sideways and V

Saved and Closer

September 2003 - December 2006 in Movies

Before I turned 30 I did this really silly movie project where I watched 30 movies in kinda 30 days where I challenged myself to watch a movie from every year I'd been alive. It was a super fun project that totally took more than 30 days but I did watch a movie from each year and some were good and some were bad. But since I enjoyed it so much I thought I'd do the same thing (kinda) for my 10 year college graduation anniversary! I was just going to do a movie per year like my 30 project but then that'd be really short and I wanted to make it more interesting...so I'm going to do more than that but break it up into semesters. So Fall 2003, Spring 2005, Summer 2006...etc. I made a list to start it off!  I'll have till December 16th to finish it.

These are all the movies I saw when I was at TLU, the ones in italics are the ones I think I'm going to watch. * = I own it. If it was in my 30:30:30 project it's noted and will not be re-watched for this project. (Special Note: Google and Wikipedia have a disagreement or two on when movies came out so there could honestly be a few more I'm missing but I'm only including here the ones I saw in the theatre not movies that came out and I then saw later, I may make another list of those later...)

Fall 2003

Lost in Translation*

Mystic River*

Love Actually*

Something’s Gotta Give
Anything Else
Matchstick Men

The Lord of the Ring: Return of the King
Big Fish*

Mona Lisa Smile

Spring 2004

Along Came Polly

50 First Dates*

The Butterfly Effect
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights*
Hidalgo

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*

Secret Window

Jersey Girl
Troy

The Ladykillers

Mean Girls*

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*

Saved*

Summer 2004

Napoleon Dynamite

The Stepford Wives

Dodgeball

The Terminal
The Door in the Floor
De-Lovely*

Anchorman

Garden State* (30:30:30)

Fall 2004

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Sideways*

The Incredibles*

Closer*

The Phantom of the Opera*

Spanglish*

Meet the Fockers*

The Life Aquatic*

In Good Company*

Spring 2005

Sin City
The Longest Yard

Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith* (May the Fourth binge)

Summer 2005

Batman Begins*

March of the Penguins

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The Constant Gardener

Fall 2005

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*

Walk the Line* (30:30:30)

Rent*
Crash*

The Chronicles of Narnia, Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe*
The Family Stone
Shopgirl*

Spring 2006

Failure to Launch

V for Vendetta*

Ice Age the Meltdown

Lucky Number Slevin*

The Da Vinci Code

X-Men the Last Stand

Summer 2006

Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest*

Clerks II*

Fall 2006

The Last Kiss*

Man of the Year

Stranger than Fiction*

Dream Girls*

Pursuit of Happyness

Night at the Museum

Pan’s Labyrinth* (30:30:30)

I graduated college early how did I have time to see 67 movies? Some of these were clearly not my choice to see and I am going to only watch movies I own for this project. But I'm going to try to do at least 16 movies since I graduated on December 16th (yes I know I'm ridiculous). But may do a bonus one for fun! I think it'll be fun to look back on these movies, do similar reviews like I did last time but also think about where I was when in my life when I saw these different movies, who I saw them with, what they meant then and if they mean the same thing now. There are some semesters where I loved so many movies and then others I was kinda meh on, so should be fun.

Stay tuned....also I need a project name...16 for 16? 10:16? TLU 3, 4, 5, 6? Suggestions?

What did I see in 2015? Movies!

Happy New Year! This is my first of my annual movies and books and sometimes music of the past year review. Last year I saw quite a few movies, I even saw more movies than a good friend of mine who I feel is always at the movies.  Technically 21 but I saw one twice...can you guess which.

Here's the quick and dirty view of what I saw and my immediate thoughts afterwards (***Star Wars maybe spoilers if you haven't seen it yet****)

1. Big Eyes- good, predictable, but good
2. Whiplash- so good!!! OMG why aren't I a musician?
3. Mortdecai- about what was expected which was not a lot...I don't know why I saw this...who's idea was this?
4. A Most Violent Year- SO GOOD! Really enjoyed. OMG
5. The Last 5 Years- terrible, awful, no good. Why God why?
6. 50 Shades of Grey- about as expected- actually I expected a little more maybe...thank god for purse alcohol
7. Woman in Gold- nothing special, but fine
8. Aloha- not as bad as I expected but not good
9. Magic Mike 2- Tanning Chatum is everyone's type...
10. Trainwreck- not nearly as good as expecting- such an average chick flick
11. Minions- saw for work..it was fine
12. Ricki and the Flash- excellent mother daughter movie...awwww
13. The Gift***- soooo good!
14. The Man from UNCLE- really good, very enjoyable, just fun
15. Grease- Sing-A-Long...ummmm I remember this movie differently 
16. American Ultra- weird but good
17. Psycho- TCM September movie- good
18. The Intern- cute chick flick nothing special
19. The Martian- LOVE! 
20. Joy- interesting...not bad but not excellent, loved the actors
21. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- OMG! Why, why did you kill him? Rey is so Luke's, I must see this again.
22. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- second viewing...Duh Rey is so Luke's bite me if you don't believe me listen to the music. Also why is their piano, Star Wars doesn't do Piano...this deserves at least one more viewing...

So my favorite movie is a tie between The Gift and The Martian and yah I guess Star Wars (we'll get to that later). The Gift was a total surprise favorite I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. It was creepy it was suspenseful I'm not a good mystery solver so I was surprised. I just loved it.  The Martian was a non-surprise favorite. I loved the book and knew I'd love the movie. This was just a fun feel good movie. 

The three runner ups and also surprises that are in the favoritish category are Whiplash, A Most Violent Year and The Man from UNCLE.  Whiplash was intense, I hadn't planned to see it but some friends were going and I was invited- movies are $4 here it's easy to justify going to any of them- and I was so pleasantly surprised. I knew it would be good but didn't know how good. Fun, intense movie.  A Most Violent Year I really wanted to see because of the actors in it and it did not disappoint. I had just watched another violent movie that weekend and this fit right in. Not a feel good movie but great. It was so pretty in a dark mysterious way. I just really liked it and remember it fondly.  Then The Man from UNCLE I didn't hear about till the week it came out and was like, okay why not go to a movie. It was so fun! I loved it. I found it light hearted and entertaining something I don't normally go for in movies, so it was fun.

WORST movies I saw this year hmmm that' tough there were a lot...Mortdecai- still don't know why we went to this movie, seriously someone please remind me- terrible. The Last fucking 5 Years. Who is responsible for this?!?! Seriously WHO and WHY and please don't ever direct anything again. 50 Shades of Grey- eh we knew what we were getting into so we brought alcohol. It wasn't worse than expected though...

Everything else is somewhere in the middle.  Movies I'll probably purchase eventually from 2015- Ricki and the Flash, The Gift, The Martian and Star Wars. That's really it. 

Now Star Wars- oh Star Wars. I could probably just write a full review but I'm lazy. I loved Star Wars. I was supposed to originally see it at Midnight with my family, I was going to drive to SA and see it with them, but then we decided we were too old and would just see it when I get home. THEN one day I get a message from my brother in law asking me when I was coming home for Christmas...I responded and he said something along the lines of that sucks and I slowly learned that his office has rented out theaters to see it and he and my sister would be seeing it without me. I disowned them and told them they were dead to me...then got over it and made a plan to just see it with my dad when I got home. My sister loved it and decided she wanted to see it with our father too so she saw it for a second time when my father and I saw it for our first on the Saturday after Christmas.

I only cried 3 times. I was expecting more tears, but it was great. I loved it immediately and decided I needed to see it again.  So two days later I got to see it with my brother in law and his best friend for my second viewing. This time I got a little misty but not big tears. I still loved it. In the end I got to see it with my dad, sister and brother in law- the three people I wan't to see it with most and who care that I didn't get to see it when it first came out. I successfully avoided all spoilers for it and didn't know who died or really the backstories of anyone and so all was good. I will still probably see it one more time before it leaves theaters.

So it was a good year for movies. I think like last year I wouldn't have seen so many movies if I didn't live in a town that has $4 matinee prices. Evening prices are only $6 so that's not really bad either. In San Antonio I don't even want to think about how much 22 movies would have cost me, but here in College Station I'm fine with it.

Here's my movie post from last year. 

30 Movies in 30ish Days before 30: Final Thoughts

So....I did it! I successfully watched 30 movies form the 30 years I've been alive before I turned 30...in 30ish days. I got a 2ish day head start since I knew it would be a busy month.  But I did it! What a crazy and interesting and satisfying project.

So setting off on the project I was always excited about. I thought it'd be fun to see how poorly some movies aged, how poorly I remembered some movies and if I still liked the ones I thought I did.  For the most part there weren't a lot of surprises there either.  But about 7 movies in...I started to realized what I'd committed myself to. 30 is a lot of movies. It's 30...movies...none of the movies were under 90 minutes and several were over 120...so it was a COMMITMENT. I wrote 11 blog posts in March which is about 11 more than I'd been writing over the last few years. So the watching was time consuming and then the writing was even more so.  Some of the movies I found entertaining to liveblog my thoughts to - OMG there were some bad movies.  Other movies I watched with friends and their commentary was awesome.  Then some movies I was just kinda meh about and just wrote some closing thoughts to. I also ranked all the movies...did I not give any Cs? That's hard to imagine, apparently I'm not a very tough movie grader. I gave a lot of B-s and a lot of A-s not a lot of A+s though.  Anyways here are the movies that were selected.

One thing I was asked over and over again throughout this challenge was, "Is {insert weird movie title here" really your favorite movie from {insert year here}?" And the answer was always no. I don't think any of the movies I watched were actually my Favorite Movie for that year, but movies I really liked, thought were interesting, movies I remember scaring the Jeebus out of me, or just movies I had a specific memory or emotional attachment to.  I watch a lot of movies apparently so I also tried to pick movies I hadn't seen in a few years. That got more difficult after I passed 2010 but it was still fine.

I also ended up renting a lot of movies online. I only ended up having 14 of the ones I watched. Friends had a couple of them, but I had a bunch of free Google $ from my Chromecast but I did probably spend about $20-30 renting movies for this project as well.  There were some that were originally on the list that I'm bummer I couldn't find to rent. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead?!? Seriously how is that gem not available for rent! I also ended up buying a few movies during the project because I knew I wanted to own them anyway. Mitty and Big Hero 6 were on sale at Target so they entered my collection during the month.

I'm super thankful for my friends who put up with my movie project and constantly talking about movies and what it all meant to me because I'm sure it was a bit annoying.  But one of the things I've told everyone about after this was all said and done was how I didn't realize before this how much movies have been a part of my life. I always say I was really shaped by my books and music I listened to, but movies are there too.  I love movies like I love music and books, I really like the sad and depressing stuff.  I like the light bubblegum stuff here and there but when you ask me what my favorites are they're going to be a little darker and without a happy ending. Oh my gosh give me a movie without a happy ending and I am so excited.

Anyways it was a super fun project, no I will not be doing this in 10 years for 40. I have yet to watch another movie this week and it's felt kinda weird. I don't know if I'll watch one this weekend, I'm so movie'd out! But there were a bunch on my initial list that I didn't get to watch that I may sporadically watch but we'll see.  I did really enjoy blogging about movies, so I may try to blog more about some of the crap I watch we'll see.

Here's are the links to all the previous blogs!
Overview of the Project
My thoughts on Legend
1986-1989 Movies
1990-1993 Movies

1994 Leon

1995-1999

2000 - 2005

2006-2010
2006 & 2013

2011 & 2012

2014

****** Special Note on Legend because there has been some controversy as to when it was actually released. It was limited released in 1985 but wide released in 1986- So I counted it for 1985. It's my project I can do what I want :) Thanks. ***********

2014: Big Hero 6 - the final movie!

Okay- we're there! The last movie.  After tonight I will have watched 30 movies in like 31ish days. Oh my goodness it was a lot of movies. But it was a super super fun project. I'll have a final wrap up blog either later tonight or tomorrow on my actual birthday- we'll see.  Thanks to all my friends that put up with me during this challenge and also kept reading my posts even when they went down hill...or very off topic :) Let's watch Big Hero 6!

2014: Big Hero 6

Movie Facts:
Directed by Chris Williams
Rated G
Genre: Disney Animation/Comic Book Movie
Tagline: (apparently none)
Lots of Voice Actors in this movie that I don't know based on name alone.

Before Movie Thoughts:
We are basically in the present now, I saw this movie last fall when it came out with my friend Casey. It was one of our early morning Sunday or Saturday movies. We tried to go before there were too many kids or families.  We failed.  But usually Casey falls asleep in our early morning movies, but she stayed awake this time! Partially maybe because I was sobbing like a baby through the whole thing. Oh my gosh this movie made me cry.  It's so good. I was really looking forward to it before we saw it and afterwards I just couldn't get over it, I just loved it. Like a lot of movies I couldn't wait for my nephew to see it too, I know he'll love it- hopefully his dad will share it with him soon- because it's a sweet fun action-y cartoon I know he'll love! It was funny, it was silly, it was sad and it was serious. I've only seen it the once and am so looking forward to watching it again. I basically knew from the beginning of this project that this would be my 2014 choice.

During Movie Thoughts:
I've never been to San Fransisco... or Tokyo
Also robots usually scare me- thanks Daniel H Wilson- but I like Baymax he's cute and I want to hug him
Neurotic Aunt is kinda annoying- I can't remember if she ever redeems herself...
BAYMAX!!!! Hi I want to hug you!
Stop whining- woman up. Oh Disney trying to be so progressive.
And fire and death...thanks Disney.
Diagnosis Puberty
I am not fast- no shit come on Baymax get your life together!
Low-Battery/Drunk Baymax is my favorite Baymax...
This armor may undermine my huggable nonthreatening design.
And the tears
OMG when Hiro loses Baymax his face looks like my nephew Isaac's! Oh god tears.
And a happy ending- yay. More tears.

After Movie Thoughts:
Didn't cry as much thing time. I cried more at the end when Baymax is trying to sacrifice himself- oh god the tears. Still really enjoyed it and thought it was just a lot of fun.  Good story. I think Hiro is a good representation of what it's like going through the grief process...minor the fighting robots and becoming a super hero thing. But I think you forget those things and lash out when grieving and luckily he had awesome friends around who understood that's why he was being a jerk. Baymax is awesome and I still just want to hug him. It's a sweet little cartoon and I hope my nephew likes it!

Tyler's Rating: A+

I'm glad my last movie was a happy ending one...considering that like the majority of my movies were not....Summary blog post to come...eventually.

--------------------

Overview of the Project
My thoughts on Legend
1986-1989 Movies
1990-1993 Movies

1994 Leon

1995-1999

2000 - 2005

2006-2010
2006 & 2013

2011 & 2012

2011 - 2012: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Silver Linings Playbook

What's fun about these two movies is they're also the only ones on this list that I also read the books for. I looooved both books and while the movies are different I also really liked the movies as well.

2011: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Movie Facts:
Directed by  David Fincher
Rated R
Genre Thriller/Drama
Tagline: The feel bad movie of Christmas.
Daniel Craig - as sexy and frequently stupid.
Rooney Mara - as creepy as hell
Stellan Skarsgard - as perfect
And everyone else. Like everyone else lots of people.

Movie Thoughts:
I haven't seen this movie since I saw it in the theater. It's no that I didn't like it, because I do, but it's one of those movies you don't need to see over and over again to remember the details. Especially after reading the books and watching the Swedish films as well.  I read the books on my first Cruise bake in 2010 and I saw the Swedish movies shortly after.  When this movie came out the following Christmas I guess I was just wanting something more.  But the Swedish movies didn't leave anything to be desired and neither does this movie. As far as movie adaptations there's nothing that makes me angry about this film.  The scenery is gorgeous and stark, perfect for the story.  The cast is also pretty perfect when I read the books I imagined Stellan Skarsgard involved somehow so I saw super pleased when he was.  It's such a good fun mystery, the books suck you in and I feel like the movies do too.

The rape scene in the movie was just as painful as the rape scene in the book. I used it for a drink remix break because really the scene is hard to forget and who needs to relive it. And when Lisbeth gets him back it's still hard to watch- yes he deserves it but still hard to watch.

For some reason the ending of this movies doesn't surprise me as much as it did in the book. I feel like you can see it coming more in the movie- anyone else feel that way? Just realized that. About Harriet, not Lisbeth. This deviation from the book is probably the biggest but really doesn't bother me.  I wasn't too disappointed when they said they wouldn't make the other movies, they aren't needed. The Swedish ones are great! Again, this one is good too though.

Tyler's Rating: Aish  maybe A-.

2012: Silver Linings Playbook

Movie Facts:
Directed by David O. Russell
Rated R
Genre Drama/Comedy
Tagline: Watch for the signs.
Bradley Cooper - as crazy and awesome
Jennifer Lawrence - as crazy and neurotic
Robert DeNiro - as heartbreaking

Movie Thoughts:
One of the things in the book and movie I never understood was the fanaticism of football fans. I don't understand how these grown men act - I asked lots of people and apparently it's realistic...I just don't get it. So this is a movie that's I've definitely seen in the last 6 months. I love this movie. I find parts of it uncomfortable to watch but that's a good thing. It's acted really well and I just love Cooper and Lawrence together. I love the music, David O Russell really likes music he tends to do that part well too. I love that this movie is about mental illness, I love that Robert DeNiro came out and spoke about his son's illness during promotions. I like that their craziness is relatable and real and a work in progress.  There are so many deviations from the book in this movie but that's not what this project is about. I think the movie is a good clean happy ending that doesn't feel cheap- predictable yes but not cheap. So yay.

Tyler's Rating: A. Solid A.

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One more movie. One more.

Overview of the Project
My thoughts on Legend
1986-1989 Movies
1990-1993 Movies

1994 Leon

1995-1999

2000 - 2005

2006-2010
2006 & 2013