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

College Movie Project: Stranger Than Fiction Fall 2006

It's movie project time!  Read about it there <<<<<

Fall 2006: Stranger Than Fiction

Movie Facts:
Directed by Marc Forster

Google Genre: Fantasy/Drama 
Movie tagline: Harold Crick isn't ready to go. Period. 
Will Ferrell being not funny- I mean he's funny too, but it's a serious role (also I will never not first call him Colin Farrell)
Emma Thompson who is a goddess and I love her.
Maggie Gyllenhaal who always annoys me- why is she a love interest ever! but I love her husband. 

Before the Rewatch:

Monday night? I laid out all the movie choices on my coffee table and let the man in my life pick one since obviously I'd be watching all of them. Me to the man in my life- "you haven't seen it? It's so good!"...that's it. Apparently I sold it/he already wanted to watch it- whatever.

The next day talking to my sister she said "oh I don't think I've seen that" and I reminded her that she vehemently refused to see it with daddy and I. Dad and I went to see it back over Christmas break that year and she wanted nothing to do with it. After I shared the summary she said "oh yah that doesn't sound like something I'd like" and I STILL disagree, she would like it. I really enjoyed it, dad thought it was weird but enjoyed Dustin Hoffman's role and he always likes when funny people play drama roles. 

After the Rewatch:
The man in my life laughed a lot during this movie. There were a couple of places where I re-laughed. I can't remember if I cried the first time I saw it- I could see myself crying back then, but now I'm just touched, it's sweet. I love the ending and think it's all really touching. I love when Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson's characters finally meet and hope they got together after that scene. (cheese city I know) Queen Latifah is fairly forgettable in her role but has some good moments. It's nice she wants to help Emma Thompson kill Harold...kinda. 

My favorite scene back then was when Harold brings Ana "flowers". I always loved that! Now I just roll my eyes but that's also probably because I have a really screwed up sense of romance...no not screwed up I just don't like most romantic things is what it actually is.

Now my favorite scene is probably the one right after that, Ana makes Harold dinner and as she's cleaning up he starts playing her guitar and she walks back in and jumps him. Much more realistic to me.

The funniest parts to me were either after Harold finds out he's going to die and he runs back to his apartment "Harold frantically grabbed his lamp. Harold, incensed, shook the hell out of it for no apparent reason" or when he's trying not to move the plot along and watches a days worth of Discovery channel where animals are being violently eaten- then a wrecking ball finds him.  

Final Thoughts:
I still really like this movie. It's not very frequent on my rotation but every once in a while I pick it up for it's dry humor. If you know my movie taste you know comedy is so not my thing, I like thoughtful comedy and typical Will Ferrell movies are not my thing (and yes sometimes I do say that in a really mean way- sorry). I love all the Spoon songs sprinkled throughout and just find it entertaining. 

So good job 2006 starting things off well. 

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?