Classic Holiday Movies

I'm one of those people that every holiday season takes out all my favorite xmas movies and watches them. I love this. It gets me in the holiday spirit and who doesn't love to watch one of their favorite movies again?

My list of favorites include:
Frosty the Snowman
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Bishop's Wife (the original with Cary Grant, not the remake with Whitney)
Miracle on 34th Street
It's a Wonderful Life
Love Actually *
A Christmas Story
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Muppet Christmas
Charlie Brown Christmas
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Christmas Vacation

* one of the best movies ever - this is a MUST watch every year!

I don't watch all of them every year, but definitely many of them. However, my boyfriend seems to think "we've already seen this, why would you watch it again" and basically makes fun of the movie the entire way through so as not to allow me to enjoy it either. He thinks it's hilarious to get me annoyed throughout the film. But seriously who watches a movie they like once? He doesn't do that either!! He's seen Napolean Dynamite 20 times at least! And how can one really hate all Christmas movies? The only one I can get him to watch without complaint is A Christmas Story (it has a bb gun, shooting your eye out, fights, a horrible cheap lamp women hate and men love... you know all the stuff guys like). I just want one holiday movie without 'hilarious' commentary...

What a Ripoff

The movies have become. Now I know why I never go.

Last night bf wanted to see Wall E - a cute, but also serious, Disney/Pixar animation. He ordered tickets online for the Fenway theater and all we had to do was pick them up. We get to the theater - the place is a complete madhouse. I don't know what was going on last night or why so many people decided to go out to the theater, but it was the busiest I remember it in a long, long time.

We waited in a huge line to print out our stubs. Which is annoying there should be a kiosk for buy tickets, and a kiosk for print tickets. They had 3 working kiosks, but they all did both tasks. There were huge lines at each and we got stuck behind a couple that decided to look at EACH movie and then see what time it was playing before deciding on a movie. I mean WTF just go up to the counter if you want to do that!!! The counter with actual people was almost empty because everyone was in line trying to use the damn kiosks!

Luckily we had picked the fastest moving line so we only waited ~15 minutes.

We decided to get seats since the theater seemed to be unusually busy. Good thing we did, or we wouldn't have had a seat. The theater was packed. We had to sit in those front rows - way in the front. We luckily got the last row of that row, but it was insane. After we sat down the theater filled up even more. There wasn't an empty seat in the whole place. It was totally insane.

BF then got up to get us some popcorn and a drink. I wanted diet coke - he likes regular so usually we get 2 drinks and everyone is happy. He goes to the counter and they have a 'special' 2 medium sodas and a medium popcorn. Ok he thinks - that seems reasonable. They don't list a price, but he thinks how much can that be? It's a medium right? Well holy shit!!! the 'medium' sodas were 44 oz each!!!! MEDIUM WTF and they wonder why Americans are obese? Who needs 44 oz of soda at 10pm???? Are you kidding me? But wait, there's more!! The fucking popcorn was a GIANT tub. And I mean GIANT - it looked like it could hold 2 gallons of ice cream and that's not an exaggeration. We ate a ton of that stuff and still only ate 1/4 of the bucket. He was so pissed how huge it was. He was expecting a real medium. And the damn thing cost $17!!!!! He was even more pissed. He's like that is not a special value! It's a monstrosity! It was way too much, they should clearly show the sizes and the prices of that stuff. Now perhaps they did and he just didn't notice - I don't know as I was holding the seats.

And then to the parking situation. We have our movie stubs. It's clear we've attended a movie, but they won't give us the movie theater price for parking unless we get our ticket validated - even though we showed him our tickets. I mean really they KNOW everyone is either going to A: not know about the validation or B: forget. so it cost us an additional $15 to park!! And the garage is the most poorly designed garage I've had the displeasure to be stuck in for 45 minutes. There's only one way out, it's really tight in there, hard to park, hard to make turns etc. Then they had one guy taking the money and EVERYONE was arguing about the validation they didn't know about and/or forgot. He refused of course to accept the movie stubs and everyone was arguing. The line was insane to get out of the garage. We didn't move for a good half hour at all. we put the car in park and sat. It was the most insane thing I've ever seen at a movie theater. It was like I was trying to leave Gillette after a Patriots game.

The good part was of course the movie. Very cute. It had fantastic animation and took a hard look at people- who are depicted at fat people on couches watching tv that forgot how to walk or do anything expect watch tv and eat - living on a giant space station because earth is only full of garbage. the only things left on earth are a robot named Wall E who is trying to clean up the garbage and a cockroach that hangs out with him. Eva is a robot probe sent from the space station to find evidence of regrowth of plant life on earth - and Wall E falls in love with her and follows her back to her space station.

Love it Love it Love it!

Sex and the City was FABULOUS!

Can't wait to see it again! What a roller coaster of a ride it was! It was all I wanted it to be and more. I will have to watch again to further analyze...

Atonement

I almost had this in my previous post then realized it was just getting far too long. I'm chatty... can you tell???

We went to go see Atonement @ the Capitol Theater in Arlington last night. An absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking film of love, loss, and redemption (sort of).

It was not the film I expected. I thought a young couple in love was just separated by war and then reunited. I wasn't sure who needed atonement.

The story is of a little sister (Briony) that is in love with a man (Robbie). He was in love with her older sister (Cecilia). She witnesses some interactions between the two and is torn between jealousy and bitterness that it's not her, and not really understanding the situation at her young age. She then decides to wrongfully accuse him of a crime when she KNOWS it wasn't him that committed it. He gets taken away to jail and disgraced in front of their family and friends. This lie changes the path of all three of their lives forever.

Five years later we catch up with Robbie who has now gotten out of prison by entering the war (WWII). Cecilia has disowned her family for their wrongdoing and is living in London and working as a Nurse. They meet up at a restaurant before he ships off to war where she begs him to come back to her and hands him a photo of a house they will stay at for a vacation when he gets back. This hope keeps him and Cecilia going throughout their separation during the war.

Time lines bounce around in this movie - for example: we see Robbie in France somewhere, then find out what happened 6 months earlier before he went to war. Each account is from a different perspective: Robbie's, Cecilia's, or Briony's. The cinematography is beautiful and the movie doesn't quite give you the Hollywood ending I expected. I won't spoil the ending - it's worth watching this emotional film on your own. Even if it's just to admire how hot James McAvoy is :)

Fantastic Film: Dig!

Yesterday I watched two fantastic movies and I don't think they could have been any more different.

First movie: a co-worker had lent me the dvd Dig! - which is a 2004 documentary of the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre - following them over a 7 year period during the 90s. It chronicles how the Dandies get signed to a major label, have huge success in Europe and mild success in the US (though to me I thought they were 'huge' in my circle of friends). Conversely, it also chronicles how BJM basically implodes on itself and never gets signed to a major label mostly because of Anton's erratic behavior, inability to compromise, and drug abuse. Which is heartbreaking because he truly is an amazing artist.

I've always like the Dandy Warhols (started listening in '96 or '97 - first album I bought from them was 'Dandy Warhols Come Down'), but I hadn't heard of the BJM - although watching the movie I realized I had actually heard some of their songs before. What a fantastic film.

And WOW BJM was a messed up band - although Anton Newcombe is just so amazingly talented. It's a bit sad they never had more commercial success. I checked the website and he's selling all the previous albums for $10 a piece. I think I may have to pick up a few.

I felt that Courtney Taylor-Taylor was a bit full of himself and clearly he is jealous (and in awe) of how creative Anton was/is. On the other hand Anton was so obsessed with making a statement and not bowing to the music industry that it seemed like he sabotaged his own potential success by doing insane things when he KNEW record execs were watching. Yet he was always jealous of the commercial success of Courtney and the Dandy Warhols. Success he probably could have achieved had he behaved just once during a live show.

I find it amazing the amount of drug these people did and still manage to function at all, nevermind write songs and perform them on a regular basis. I assumed I was going to find out some of the folks from BJM had OD'd but they were all still alive during the interviews in 2004 after the release of the film. Namely Joel Gion - super likable, but I was convinced that guy must have not made it because he seemed really high all the time (watching the film I kept expecting him to fall over on stage and pass out, but it never happened) - now he's working at my favorite west coast record store: Amoeba Records on Haight St. and in the band The Dilettantes.

Anyway - I loved this movie and the music. I felt like I really got to know the people in the bands. And WOW never realized before how HOT Peter Holmström from the Dandies is! I watched almost all the additional footage (deleted scenes, interviews after the screening of the film, videos etc) on a 2nd dvd. Great stuff!

Second movie: (and now I'm regretting putting both of these films in one post as it's getting rather lengthly). Ok I need to just make a new post for this...

Juno

What a great movie. Wers 88.9 has been playing some of the songs off the soundtrack and I like them - at first that Moldy Peaches song annoyed me - now the damn thing is stuck in my head and I can't stop humming it.

Friends had been telling me it was a great movie. So since it was cold and snowy we figured it was a good day to check out a movie at the Somerville theater.

Michael Cera is so geeky and lovable - I really like that kid, and Ellen Page is great as Juno. Even though I was never in that kind of a situation I felt like I could relate to her. She looks so much like a friend of mine's college roommate. The rest of the cast is great too - I love Jason Bateman - he always has the most random roles. I really liked it - it's a great story - and cried at the end - I don't know what is with me and crying at movies, but I always do.