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Sunday, August 28, 2005

"Will not break! Will not --- it broke."

You know how much movies mean to me. Don't you? Come on - if you've read any of my posts or comments then you know that I don't have an original thought in my head, and that everything that comes out of my mouth (or keyboard) is a line from a movie. I think I'm annoyingly obsessed with movies.

And now my DVD player is broken.

Superstar broke it. The tray thingey won't close. I can hear the mechanism moving around in there, but something's in the way. Atleast the VCR side still works, right? So, let's see...I can watch: What About Bob?. Or Raising Arizona, or 101 Dalmatas (Espanol),or The Wiggles, or Fletch ("Provo, Spain?").

I watched 'Million Dollar Baby' last night. Did you see it? What did you think of it? I want to like Clint Eastwood, really, I do, but I hadn't seen him in anything that I particularly liked. I liked his performance in this, though. I was a bit skeptical when he half-growled, half-whispered, through clenched teeth, "I don't train girls," and then, even worse, "Girlie, tough ain't enough." Duh. But, at movie's end, I was okay with him.

Last weekend, I rented 'Guess Who?' and 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' I liked the modern one. I like Bernie Mac. Now, as for the Classic: you cannot beat a performance done by Sidney Poitier. Can't. But that girl, who plays opposite...well, I can't stand to watch stage actors on screen. Makes my skin crawl.

Also watched 'The Phantom of the Opera." From about the age of 10 until about 17, I had spent hours equalling weeks, if not months, listening to the original Broadway Cast recording of this - the one with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. The music had been etched in my memory, yet it had been years since I had heard any of the songs. My freshman year of high school, we took a trip to see this show at the Pantages Theatre in Toronto which, in 1989 (I think) re-opened having been re-finished, re-constructed, what-have-you, specifically for this show. Unbelievable. Took my breath away. Old Lady in front of me started humming along to 'Music of the Night' (aka, 'School Days'), though. Could have done without that. Darin really liked the movie version, although at one point jokingly asked, when Raoul came on screen, "So...is that Jean Valjean?"

The thing about watching the Phantom movie was that li'l ~j. was fixated, glued, could not and would not be torn away. I like to think that somehow she was maybe hanging around me in my younger years while I spent all that time with this music, and maybe it had been etched in her, too, and that's why she loves it so much.

Have you seen any good movies lately?

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh, pretty new screen...blue...I like. =)

After a 9 month hiatus, Brian and I went to the movies last night! We saw Wedding Crashers. Very amusing.

I loved Phantom too. We went up to Toronto twice last summer (once on the Rochester to Toronto high-speed ferry, which rocked!) and I was hoping to see it...turns out it closed in like 1995 or something. We saw the Producers instead, which was also very good.

wendysue said...

Fletch! I need to see that one again soon! I love the roller skating rabbi part!! And the airplane repair guy with the great teeth (there was "Filth and Muck"). Maybe I could use an alias for my husband on my blog. . .how about John Cock-toast-onne??? OH, I just remembered another great line. "We're a little grey in that area. .. ok, how grey?. . . Uh, Charcoal?"

I haven't seen any great ones lately. That's what a new baby will do for ya. I just need to go through all our DVD's and start over. I tell all our neighbors to stop by anytime and borrow from the Mar family rentals. A couple of years ago we bought (on ebay!!) a 300 disc DVD player. We aren't quite to 300 but we're close! It's awesome!! But last year one of the kids pushed some odd button and it wouldn't release the movie that was in, so all we could watch was Stuart Little!!
Thanks for the great blog! I'm with you, I could go on and on and on (and obviously I just did. .. ) about movies/movie lines!!

Anonymous said...

first things first. I have a great story about breaking a VCR. When we were young and living in Michigan the first time, my little brother Ricky (you may know him)had a pet gerbil. I don't know its name, so I will call him Steve. Anyway, we also had this way old-school gray VCR that was so old you had to pop the tape player portion of it up out of the top of the machine, put the tape in, and then push it down. Being lazy, we often did not push it down. This became a problem when, one night, Steve disappeared. Coincidentally, the VCR stopped working at the same time. Ricky was frantic; I was pissed at not being able to tape record Yo! MTV Raps any more (give it up for Ed Lover and Dr. Dre), and my family bought a new VCR. We kept the old one, though. Then we noticed a smell. Needless to say, when we took the VCR apart, there was Steve, dessicated and pathetic. On the upside, the VCR started working again, so then we had one for upstairs and one for the basement.

Great movies: Three Amigos. Also Fletch. And interestingly enough, although the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer sucks almost as bad as the movie Ishtar, the TV series is really compelling.

That's it for me... off to do the Ed Lover Dance....

~j. said...

Waldo, I have Three Amigos. It's your copy. And it's a DVD.

La Yen said...

This is the only VALID excuse you have to not watch "boy in a bubble" that I sent you.

total said...

One of the greatest things I ever did was to purchase a Blockbuster Movie Pass which allowed me and the family to get unlimited movies for a mere $25 a month. Sure we could only get out two at a time, but since we live closeby and it's in the same plaza as a store I work at PT, we were there daily. Unfortunatly since I started my new job the number of movies I can watch is somewhat limited, I'm going to have to work on that.

~j. said...

Chelsea, what about the crazy woman who jumps on the truck and yells, "Tartan spelled backwards is Satan!!"? I like that part. And the ward talent show. But, yes, it's a terrible movie. Along with my dislike for stage actors on screen is my dislike for non-actors in movies (that girl? What's her deal?).

~j. said...

Joe, I did the same thing at Hollywood Video, but only for the first three months when it was only $14.95/month, and then I never re-newed it. I probably should...I like going in there and having all the clerks yell, "WELCOME TO HOLLYWOOD!" I think it's a contest they have.

Any news on your in-laws' house?

waldo said...

this is waldo again. I have started a blog (peer pressure sucks). I don't know the address, but hopefully the title will link to it.

That is all.

Anonymous said...

ohhh blogs... blah

~j. said...

Thank you, AnDREa Robson. I am happy that you are in the blogging world. :)

~j. said...

Uh, Chelsea? Are you out there? Where's your blog? And, ps, I too love The Poisonwood Bible. It's like nothing I've ever read. It's amazing.

C. Jane Kendrick said...

jenny..
that school days comment made me laugh and laugh...what movie is that from? I know billy crystal says it and christian and I talk about that all the time and laugh so hard!!!!!!
have you seen bottlerocket??

~j. said...

It's from 'Forget Paris'. And, no, is bottlerocket a movie?

C. Jane Kendrick said...

oh jenny...you must rent bottlerocket....it is rated R, but we have it edited...see if you can get it at clean flicks or something....you must!!

~j. said...

I've never been to a Clean Flicks. Do I have to sign anything in blood? Sacrifice an animal? Kneel before a golden calf?

C. Jane Kendrick said...

I don’t know...we did it the illegal way and had our friend copy it for us...let me know if you have to give like an arm to sign up...Ok, but remember if you have to sacrifice a arm, hooks are cool. Pirates are cool remember?
;)

Anonymous said...

Arrrrrrright you are!

Anonymous said...

Hey! I have loved Clint Eastwood forever! Since Rawhide and Paint Your Wagon. I was initially disappointed with Million Dollar Baby, but it ended up being pretty good. My next movie rental (tonight?) will be Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Iheard it's wonderful, don't know the rating, but I am in the world and probably of it. I'll let you know how it is.

Anonymous said...

One other note. Uncle Ken likes Clints westerns.

Anonymous said...

One other thing. The deal about Rae does no surprise me at all, she is so much like you!

La Yen said...

Just watched my ALL TIME FAVE movie that I found at WalMart for $5.50-Clue. Do you remember Clue with Time Curry? I have probably seen it a million times and, like Fletch, it is still worth seeing.

La Yen said...

Tim Curry. Not Time Curry. (Like Time in a bottle, only Indian?)

Carina said...

I just saw Ray and I liked it a great deal. Even better news, my friend sent me the Clueless special Whatever Edition and The Tommy Boy Holy Schnike! Special Edition. Hooray!

I share a Netflix account with my friend Tiffany and we LOVE it. 20 bucks a month (10/each) with unlimited movies from a massive database, no late fees, and super-fast delivery. The Chorus (Les Choristes) and Jet Lag (Decalage Horaire) are on deck, so I'm looking at a pretty frenchified weekend.

~j. said...

Oooh, I liked Ray, as well. Also, Hotel Rwanda. And Clue.

Carina said...

This does call for lunch.