Okay, this week's Theater Thursday will be quick and dirty. Three lists from Sara's email last week: (Loosely) Based on a True Story; Grossly Overrated Films (I'll do underrated at some point, too); Best Sequels.
Based on a True Story - My favorite movies like this are usually one of two things: about something I would have never learned about otherwise (read: cocaine and Mozart) or about something in history that I find wildly fascinating (read: Nixon and the death penalty).
1. Frost/Nixon - I loved this movie. I loved Michael Sheen. I loved Frank Langella. I thought this story was so cool to watch and was fascinated to learn about Nixon. (Another great movie about Nixon would be Oliver Stones Nixon starring Anthony Hopkins. It's long but worth it. Also, see #3).
2. Blow - Johnny Depp is cocaine king pin George Jung. This was the first movie I saw that really showed how much drugs can destroy your life. And how enticing they can be at first. I am not a Johnny Depp fan but I think this is him at his best. And Penelope Cruz is a crazy bat in this and I love it.
3. All the President's Men - Okay, this movie is about Watergate. Clearly I am kind of obsessed with Nixon and Watergate. I just think it is an invaluable study on how we can destroy ourselves in such a HUGE way. And it is unbelievable to see someone do that in such a public and devastating way. I was also a journalism major so watching how two reporters relentlessly researched and pushed to have their very controversial stories published in Washington was very exciting to me. Oh, and super hot 1970's Robert Redford is in it - yes, please.
4. Amadeus- I think this is the movie that I was most shocked by on the AFI Top 100 list (read below about my undertaking of that list). It looked boring and I really don't like period pieces. But (in the words of my mother-in-law) Oh. My. Stars. I love this movie. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was MAD. He was crazy. Off the wall crazy. And he suffered so much because of his incredible talent. Of every movie I write about today this is the one you should watch. Love it.
5. Dead Man Walking - This movie could be construed as anti-death penalty. And that really is probably the point of it. But I didn't see it that way. I think it's a story of love and the fact that we should love all of God's children. No matter what they have done. In the movie Sean Penn is a murderer on death row and Susan Sarandon is a nun who meets with him and grows to really care about both him and his victim's family. It's a great movie.
Grossly Overrated Films - Okay, in high school I decided to watch the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1896-1996). It was aggressive and such a random goal for a 17 year-old to set. I still haven't finished because some of the movies are really hard to find and I don't want to buy them to watch them. Also, they came out with a new list recently so I need to go through that one to see what has changed. ANYWAY, these five films are on that list and I just wasn't that impressed. At some point I will do a list that includes overrated by popularity but that will require a lot more thought...
1. Lawrence of Arabia (#5) - Tried to watch it three times. Fell asleep (twice during the day) all three times.
2. 2001 A Space Odyssey (#22) - I get it. Computers could take over. Whatever. HAL's voice was creepy and that's all I really got from this movie.
3. All About Eve (#16) - Okay, this will/would offend a lot of huge movie fans and movie buffs but I am just not the biggest Bette Davis fan. Knowing that I am borderline obsessed with Meryl Streep, I probably would have loved Bette Davis back in the day but I just don't connect with her movies that much.
4. Hitchcock Movies (#18, 40, 42, 61) - I'll give you Rear Window - I actually really like that movie. But there are four Hitchcock movies on the list (Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest). I just don't get the big deal.
5. Fargo (#84) - I mean, this is a good movie but it seems so mediocre compared to some of the amazing movies on the list. And the fact that William H. Macy can talk like that in one of the top 100 movies - NO.
Best Sequels. This is me challenging myself. This really is a tough category to not be cliche. But I am going to start with the most cliche "best sequel" possible...
1. Duh. Godfather Part II - Only sequel to ever with the Best Picture Oscar. For a reason.
2. The Dark Knight - Only movie I remember leaving in the past five years where I thought, "I would have paid double to see that and still been totally happy."
3. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith or The Empire Strikes Back - I am not a full fledged Star Wars fan by any stretch of the imagination. But I love the entire story arc and I like both of these movies as stand alones. I thought they were both great - the end of Revenge of the Sith was the most exciting and insane part of any of the movies and in The Empire Strikes Back Han and Leia kiss, Luke is trained by Yoda, Han is frozen and (of course) Luke finds out that Vader is his father. So, best Star Wars scene goes to Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vadar in Sith and pretty much everything else great in the series happens in Empire. Okay, maybe I am a bit of a Star Wars nerd...
4. Christmas Vacation - I think I like this one better than Family Vacation. I mean, Julia Louis Dreyfus and David Duchovny alone make it worth watching.
5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Sean Connery. Nazis. The Holy Grail. Love this movie. And I love that they had the cajones to make it after Temple of Doom was such a crock. Also,I do not think it is a coincidence that the only good Indiana Jones movies are about Christian artifacts. The aliens and the glowing stones were just too weird.
Hope you enjoyed the lists (they were totally Meryl free today - I am proud of myself - well, I did mention her though. Dang it...). Also, as a movie side note - I saw Crazy Stupid Love this week and loved it. It's funny and a totally different story than I've ever seen. I definitely recommend it as a date movie. And (here comes the obligatory mention of the weather) it's too hot outside to do anything other than go to the movies!
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