My husband and I are going to go and see Wonka later today. We are going to a brand new cinema which has only been open for a few days in a suburb around 30 minutes away. While we are there wll go to a new branch of the coffee shop where we had our first ever date!
It kind of surprised me but from the first moment I saw the trailer for this movie I knew I wanted to see it.It is the movie remake that I didn't even know that I wanted to see. In fact, until I saw the trailer I had no idea that it was even being made!
I am not really sure what it is about this clip that made me want to see it so badly.I remember watching the Gene Wilder version and liking it well enough. I didn't particularly love the Johnny Depp version. I will be back later with my thoughts on the Timothy Chalamet version.
But first here's the trailer:
And we're back! And what's my take on the movie....it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. I am not sure I was expecting it to be as much of a musical as it was!
This is in effect a prequel to the first Wonka movie, and tells the story of how Willie Wonka came to own the chocolate factory. There are no golden tickets here, but there are plenty of nods back to the original movie including the Oompa Loompa song. Here there is really only one Oompa Loompa, played in a really fun way by Hugh Grant.
In some ways this is a very black and white movie when it comes to the good guys and the bad guys. The existing chocolate owners are definitely on the bad side, and Wonka and his friends are definitely the good guys. There are lot of familiar faces on both sides, including Olivia Colman as Mrs Scrubit and Jim Carter from Downton Abbey as Abacus, the former accountant.
Another famous face was Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius. I was a little surprised to hear the kids in the theatre recognise him as Mr Bean, even after all these years.
All in all, this was a fun story telling us how Willy Wonka came to be the character that we know and love from the later movies! I will say we had some M&Ms during the movie. By the time that the movie finished, I was all chocolated out because there is lots and lots and lots of chocolate in the movie!
Going to watch this movie was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, especially as a respite from Christmas preparations!
I just wanted to thank everyone for your participation in Weekend Cooking over the last year.
Next week, I am planning to announce my cookbook of the year and recipe of the year! If you would like to join and share you favourite cookbook and recipes of the year please feel free to do so.
Wishing everyone a happy holiday season, whatever it is that you celebrate. For me, that means Merry Christmas!
Weekly meals
Saturday -
Sunday - Christmas Dinner with the family
Monday - Pressure Cookie Spaghetti Bolognaise
Tuesday - Pork chops with mash
Wednesday - Asian glaze Salmon
Thursday - Mac and cheese
Friday - Takeaway
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
A couple of months ago Midnight in Paris was nominated as the selection for Food 'n Flix and I had every intention of watching it that time, but it didn't happen.
So this weekend I ended up finally watching it again in honour of Paris in July. I have seen this movie quite a few times now.
The first time was on a Friday night when I made an impulsive decision to leave work early and to go to the movies on my way home. I went to my favourite movie theatre, not expecting that I would be one of only three people in the cinema.
I am not really a Woody Allen fan but I do enjoy this movie. It's hard not to enjoy this just for the way that it portrays Paris, both the now and then. When I was watching this today, it surprised me to see some of the actors who played the famous names from the past. I had forgotten that Tom Hiddleston was F Scott Fitzgerald. I also had forgotten that Michael Sheen was in the movie.
I also enjoyed the exploration of the idea that everyone's idea of when the most amazing time to live is different. In the movie, the main character, Gil, thinks that there is no better time in the past or present than 1920's Paris, another character dreams of the Belle Epoque, or the Renaissance.
This is a perfect way to spend Saturday afternoon, and this opening scene, is a perfect way to open the movie.
Last week I mentioned that I was trying to work out ways to find time to actually read. Turns out one of the easy ways is to forget your phone but still have your Kindle with you so you can read! Also, not sleeping properly helped me make it through Fangirl, which I ended up finishing early on Saturday morning.
The big news this week is that we booked our big holiday for this year. Without giving away too many details because we are still very much in the planning stage, we will be visiting France, which is one of the reasons that I have picked up Sixty Summers by Australian author Amanda Hampson. It looks as though this author has a number of books set in France, so if I enjoy it, I could be set for a while.
To be honest though, it's not like I have a shortage of books set in France. Even after all of these years, France is one of my favourite settings to read about, and to dream of visiting.
At least one of the places I have on our must visit list is somewhere I read about a while ago, but I'll tell more about that when it happens.
I'm watching...
In my quest to find something new to watch we started watching the The Marvellous Mrs Maisel this week. So far, I am enjoying it a lot, and I like that there is more than one season to watch!
I also watched an episode of Outlander this week. I love the books, and I enjoy the TV series, but for some reason I haven't yet watched the fourth season. I know I really need to hurry up because season five is coming up very soon.
We went on date night on Friday night and saw 1917 in Gold Class. I thought it was a very good movie, and can see why it is receiving so many accolades. I also thought the main actor, George Mackay, was excellent. I have seen him before in the movies Sunshine on Leith and Pride which are both good movies!
In life...
I managed to surprise a couple of my staff this week with my ability to talk books at length. Since starting my new job last year I haven't really found my book buddy yet, so it was great to be able to chat!
Apart from booking our trip (did I mention that yet?), the other thing that we are spending a fair amount of time on is preparation for our bathroom renovations which we are planning to start/finish when we get back home. Right now we are in planning stage so thinking about tiles, fixtures, colours etc. These things are not really my strong points but having said that, everything we have done so far has turned out pretty well.
We did, however, get a bit distracted at one point. We decided we would go and have a look at display homes to see what is current in bathrooms. All was going well until we walked into particular show home and it took our breath away. We literally walked in with no plan to even look at houses with a view to building a house, by the time we walked out we were practically ready to sign the paperwork. We didn't because moving house is not on the agenda for quite some time, and building has never been on the agenda, but we will be potentially thinking about that house for some time to come! It's probably a good idea for us not go to look at that house again!
The other thing I did this weekend was go to a cocktail event called The Wizards Cauldron. The idea is that you solve a series of clues that lead you to the ingredients that enable you to complete a magic potion spell to create a cocktail! It was a bit of fun for a Sunday afternoon!
The last time I posted about going to the movies I called the post Pass the Popcorn Please, but the reality is that I don't really do popcorn. I don't dislike it. It's more that the giant buckets of popcorn you get at the movies are a) too expensive and b) too big! I do like a choc top icecream but I have usually finished eating it way before the movie starts to that hardly counts does it.
Anyway, I've been to see a few movies since my last post. Here are my thoughts on them.
I went to see this because it's set in WWII and I was also looking for a movie that would appeal to both me and a male of the species, and I think it hit the spot. Even though I had seen the trailer, it didn't really play out the way I thought it would which I guess is a good thing unless you don't actually up with satisfaction. It is interesting because there are some war related scenes in there, but it wasn't really all war, all the time. Marion Cotillard is gorgeous and some of her costumes were very nice, and Brad Pitt is, well, Brad Pitt so it was easy on the eye. I've never really got the Brad Pitt thing, or the Ryan Gosling thing either I guess come to think of it, but he was good in this.
A couple of weekends ago I went on a road trip to Canberra with a couple of friends. We did lots of very cool stuff, exhibitions, art galleries, food and sight seeing, and on one night we headed to the movies to see this. When I first saw the trailer for this I was trying to place who the Australian actor was in the lead role, so I was very surprised when it turned out that the main actor was Dev Patel. He totally nailed the Aussie accent, and lets face it, there have been some great names who have tried and failed in that regard (Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain anyone?)
One of the good things about going to the movies while on holidays is that I didn't have to drive and so I thought I would be totally decadent and have a glass of wine during the movie. Great plan....until I knocked it over when it was still 3/4 full.
So what about the film you ask? I enjoyed it a lot. It was a very moving story about a young Indian boy who gets separated from his family and ends up being adopted by an Australian family and then needs to go back and find his home. This one is based on a true story, and any film based on a true story is instantly a degree better than it would have been if it was just made up. And I'm not sure that you could necessarily believe the story if it was made up. It was very moving, and the final scenes were very emotional
Last night this was our choice to go and see, mainly because it was the main move that we both had some interest in seeing. I was hoping to see Live by Night but it looks like we may have missed it unfortunately I am just getting to know my movie watching companion and so it felt like it could be a movie that had them not necessarily enjoying it, but I think he did.
It was once again a very moving story, and Casey Affleck's performance was stellar. As the story unfurled to the point that we learned why Lee was so reluctant to return to his home town under any circumstances, no matter how much his nephew wanted to stay, you couldn't help but feel for Lee, to understand why he was so melancholy and angry all at once.
I was surprised by how humourous the film was, particularly in it's observations about life with a teenage boy who is dealing with unexpected loss the best way he could.
It was slow in parts, but I can totally see why the movie and the performances of the cast are receiving so many accolades during prize season.
So, here's a thought that I should have considered a year ago. While I am slowly getting back to reading (I think), I do go to the movies quite regularly, so I could, you know, talk about the movies I have seen. I have already been lucky enough to see 3 very enjoyable movies so far this year, and there are so many films coming out that I want to see. So many. Maybe I need to create a list to keep track.
Firstly, I saw LaLa Land. I know that it is getting mixed reviews from my amongst my friends, but I enjoyed it. I loved the homage to the magic of jazz, musicals, and Hollywood. I loved the way that the movie was shot, the colour and movement. I must confess I was a little surprised that it is a current setting. I think I was expecting that it was set in the 1950s or 60s but no. There was a particularly fun little section in the film which featured some 80s music which was amusing and enjoyable.
At first, I wasn't keen on the ending of the . The friend I went with and I both agreed that we were left feeling a little bit melancholy at the end of it, but maybe it had the effect of leaving you with something to think about rather than walking out of the cinema and just forgetting about it. Or maybe the ending didn't quite work. Maybe one day I will decide, after watching it again.
The next film I saw as A United Kingdom.
I am part of a group that meets up once a month to watch movies. It's kind of like book club, but for movies instead. Part of the reason we meet on a Monday is that the cinema we go to is super cheap on that day, but is also central for us all. One of the good things is that we all take turns to choose the movie. This means that we have on occasion seen movies that we didn't like, or that we did like despite the fact that we possibly wouldn't have chosen to see it ordinarily, some Australian films, some mainstream films, some foreign films, some documentaries. Basically, it's help broaden all of our horizons.
I really enjoyed this choice. It is the story of the last king of Bechuanaland (modern day Botswana) who fell in love with an ordinary English white girl in London just after the end of World War II. It covers the opposition that they faced both in the UK and in Africa when they decided to marry, but also the constitutional crisis that it prompted in the Commonwealth, particularly in respect to the fact that neighbouring South Africa was introducing the policy of apartheid at the time.
One of the things that I didn't make the connection to until very late in the film was that it was about Botswana, but as soon as I did make that connection it made me think of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books. The main character in that book often talked about the beloved president of Botswana and it was this man that she was talking about.
One of the movies I am looking forward to seeing when it comes out here is Loving, which is another film about mixed race relationships. I think I am attracted to these stories because my ex is African, or maybe I just love a good story where love overcomes the odds, and if it's based on true life...even better.
The third movie I have seen this year is Jackie, which stars Natalie Portman, and tells the story of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of her husband, President Kennedy.
Given the subject matter, it is quite a heavy movie, but it is so well done that it didn't feel overwhelmingly heavy. Natalie Portman was excellent in her portrayal of a woman facing the loss of her husband, and to a degree her identity as the first lady.
One of the things that was a bit odd about going to see this movie was a bit of a drama around allocated seating. I know that it is pretty much normal now for cinemas to have allocated seating but I really don't get why it has to be this way. That is especially the case when the ticketing system breaks down and they still insist on manually allocating the seating. Whhhyyy. Once we got inside there were all sorts of issues as people were complaining that people were in their seats etc etc, It's not like there weren't any empty seats because there were, but they wanted their exact seats, to the point where one woman refused to move one seat over to help resolve the issues because she had paid for THIS seat. I'm pretty sure you paid for a seat, not that exact one, but never mind. One of the bonuses with all this dramas was that the movies were all running late, so they chopped out all the ads and the previews. It's not uncommon for those to go for 15 minutes or more these days, so that was a welcome omission for me.
And actually...don't worry about the popcorn. I will have a couple of pieces if someone else has some but other than that I am not particularly fussed about it.
This week I discovered the World Movies channel on our version of cable. I probably shouldn't quite put it like that. I mean, it isn't like I am the first person ever to find it. More the discovery was that when I take a little time to look closely at the schedule I find numerous movies that I think I might like to watch!
Perhaps unsurprisingly a number of them had food type connections and several of them are French. I therefore thought I might start an irregular and possibly infrequent series of posts about some of these movies. It could be even more irregular than I anticipate because my ability to watch these movies that I have recorded is somewhat impeded by the fact that I would need to actually be in charge of the TV for long enough to watch the movies but we will see how we go!
The first movie that I am going to focus on is the French movie Chicken with Plums. The movie is based on Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name. Whilst I read and loved her Persepolis graphic novels I had never read this book, and in fact it was only as I got part way through the movie that I realised that this movie was based on a book, let alone a graphic novel. In addition to writing the book, Satrapi was one of the directors.
Here is the trailer for the movie
Nasser Ali is a world famous violinist. He travelled the world for many years before returning to his home in Tehran, marrying and having children.. He is a somewhat morose character, as evidenced by the fact that when his beloved violin is broken and he can't find another to replace it, he simply decides that he wants to die.
Over the course of the next few days we get to know Nasser's life story as narrated by Azrael, the angel of death. From his childhood to his true love, his marriage, the lives of his children (including glimpses of their future lives), his relationship with his family and so much more.
I mentioned before that this movie was based on a graphic novel. This is a live action movie (with one short animated section) but you can definitely see the graphic novel influence. The setting is Iran prior to the revolution, but it is mostly a picture book rendering of the city of Tehran and the countryside. The action varies from over the top humour to deep poignancy, with perhaps some magical realism thrown in. It is a compelling mix as you don't necessarily know what is going to come next. And yet as a whole, the movie feels cohesive.
The final 20 minutes of the movie is an amazing montage of Ali Nasser's life over the last 20 years. Whilst it repeats some of what we already know from the film, these are often displayed from different perspectives and there are other revelations too. Visually it a gorgeous feast for the eyes and I ended up watching that section of the movie several times because it was just so beautiful, so touching, so well done. In fact, I might have to go and watch that last 20 minutes again right now.
While the whole movie is worth watching, I would strongly encourage people to try it out just so that they can get to that last 20 minutes too, and probably watch it multiple times like I have!
Of course, given that this is a Weekend Cooking post, I do feel as though I need to tie it back to food. The title of the story is a reference is a fact that Nasser Ali's favourite dish is Chicken with Plums. Whilst Nasser and his wife are pretty much in an unhappy marriage, she tries to snap him out of his depressed funk and to show that she does care by cooking his favourite dish. It did have me wondering what kind of dish it is. Obviously, without the author confirming which dish it is precisely we won't necessarily know, but I did find this video which I thought was interesting and the dish looks quite tasty too.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.
I did something that was a first for me today! I watched a South Korean movie, and I did it specifically for Weekend Cooking.
I found the movie because our World Movies channel is currently having an animation special and I thought from the image that they were using to promote the special that there was a chance that I might finally be able to watch the adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis. I never did find that movie on the schedule (must go and check it again) but I did notice a movie called The Recipe so that had to be food related right?
The story starts at quite a dark point. A man, who had spent the previous 5 years on the run, was being executed for his crimes and when he was asked for any last words, he wished that he could have some doen-jang, a bowl of bean paste stew!
A young man who was at the execution brings the story to a hardened TV producer and tells the story not only of the execution but also of the night that the notorious prisoner was captured. He was at a small restaurant, hidden in the mountains and he was eating a bowl of this bean paste stew. He was so engrossed in this meal, that he didn't seem to notice that the police were there to arrest him. Even the police who could only smell the stew were in an entranced state with everything happening in slow motion. The arresting official said (English translation of course) that it smelt so good that "I would have licked the bowl like a dog if that bastard had left even one drop in it."
The producer, Choi, begins to wonder what was so good about this that a condemned man would think of it at his dying moment and so travels to the restaurant to try their doen-jang. It's good, but not as great as he was expecting. It is only when the restaurant owner (who for some reason has her hair in curlers in just about every scene she is in) confesses that it was not her cooking but that of a mysterious young woman that his story really begins much to the chagrin of his boss who thinks he is wasting his time. Little is known about Jang Hye-Jin other than her name but eventually Choi is able to track down her home village.
What follows is not only Jang's story, but also the provenance of the ingredients in the stew. The salt, the water, the bean curd all have a special story to be told but it is how it comes together in this one stew that is made by Jang Hye-Jin which has everyone who comes near to it drooling.
It should be noted that Jang's story is not a happy one, but despite that the movie retains a feel good atmosphere, a good balance between the sometimes silly characters, the more heart felt moments, the food and the scenery.
Now, I am no expert on South Korean cinema given that this was my first one ever. I did find a few of the things in the movie to be a little .... interesting. The main journalist character was a bit buffoonish as were several of the supporting characters (although the bickering farmers in the soy bean field were both buffoonish and really funny at the same time) and there was lot of eyebrow acting going on. That may well have just been the idea of trying to bring out the humour in the movie, because it definitely was funny!
This movie also made me think of other movies like Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate which had that kind of magical feeling to it relating to the food and the properties of the food.
All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spent Saturday morning and I was left wondering exactly how good doen-jang really could be.
Here is the international trailer, and I believe that you can find links to watch the movie on Youtube.
One note, I have used the spelling doen-jang throughout this post as that was the way that the subtitles spelt it, but I did note that when I was searching for the trailer there were times when it was spelt doenjang jjigae.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.
Last night I took my son and his friend to the drive-in to see Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman. It wasn't the most ideal night for it given that it rained a bit so we had to keep on putting the windscreen wipers to clear the screen but it was still fun.
We used to live about 10 minutes from the drive-in and so we went all the time, but now it is a bit of a drive to get there. It was also much cheaper than going to the cinema but now that the little chef has turned 13 I have to pay concession prices rather than get him in free and so it isn't much cheaper anymore, so it may well be that our days of watching movies there may be numbered.
Part of the reason why I enjoy going to the drive in is that you are enclosed in your own space so if you want to talk, or rustle lolly bags or whatever the only people you are disturbing are the people that you came with and not everyone else in the cinema. You can stock up with your own choice of snacks and drinks and spend a couple of hours being entertained.
I have actually been known to read at the drive-in! There have been a couple of movies that I had no interest in watching that the boy wanted to see so I climbed in the back and read my e-reader. The noise can be a bit distracting but in those cases it was better than watching the actual movies!
Every time we go to the drive-in it is inevitable that I will think of this song (dodgy choreography and all):
There are a couple of other songs that use a drive-in as a backdrop that I can think of - And We Danced by The Hooters (one of my favourite songs of all time) and Blaze of Glory by Jon Bon Jovi come to mind. Then my thoughts turned to fiction and I could only think of one book that I have read recently that featured a drive-in scene and that was in one of Linda Lael Miller's recent books. The scene was incredibly romantic (a full on gourmet dinner at a disused drive-in that he owned but he had fixed up for just that night, with the only people being the couple concerned), until the hero unknowingly messed up and it turned out to be a disaster!
I actually am not sure that I can go back to the normal cinemas just yet though. Last weekend I went to see The Help with my sister and her friend (really enjoyed the movie and thought it was a good adaptation of the book!) but rather than going to our local multiplex type set up we travelled a little bit further afield and went to an older style cinema about half an hour away.
The Sun Theatre in Yarraville was originally opened in 1938 and at one stage held more than 1000 people in the single screen theatre! After the theatre fell into serious decline and after a refurbishment back to the Art Deco glory of it's heyday, there are now 6 small theatres. The seats are spacious and very comfy and there are even little tables in between each set of two seats to put your cups on. They show a mix of mainstream films and operas and theatre on film
We went for dinner beforehand but the service was a bit slow in the restaurant and so we didn't have time to have dessert. Instead we went to the cafe next door to the theatre and bought something to eat in the cinema.
I have to tell you that eating baked cheesecake whilst watching a movie is far more civilised than popcorn!
Currently Reading
I am glad that yesterday I picked up my glasses from being repaired as my eyes were really hurting using my old ones!
The books I currently have on the go are Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart, Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson, Jane Austen Made Me Do It anthology, Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears, How to Eat A Cupcake by Meg Donahue
I saw this over at Darla's and seeing as today has been such a movie day it seemed like a good idea, until I realised how few I have actually seen! Never mind. It's probably a good thing they don't ask about books that have been read because my I have a life statement may come back to bite me!
I am definitely going to be giving this to a couple of my work colleagues who I can guarantee don't have a life, but I might need to leave it for a day or two because I am already in the bad books with the biggest movie buff I work with (we'll call him Poker King) . You see, every year PK asks us all to say (or guess) who is going to win the Oscars and he prides himself on getting the most right, and because we all can be just a little competitive, there will be some good natured ribbing about how bad the rest of us are.
This year, PK came third behind a girl from outside our department, and well, me. I think the fact that I beat him hurts a little bit, because I don't get to watch grown up films. Of all the major categories, the only nominations I had seen were Bolt, Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E. Yep! Only kids films.
Anyway, onto the meme!
SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste this as a post. Then, put x's next to the films you've seen, add them up, and change the header adding your number. Have fun.
( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show (X) Grease (X) Pirates of the Caribbean (X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest ( ) Boondock Saints () Fight Club (X) Starsky and Hutch (X) Neverending Story (X) Blazing Saddles (X) Airplane Total: 7
( ) The Princess Bride (I've only seen parts of this) (X) Anchorman ( ) Napoleon Dynamite (X) Labyrinth ( ) Saw II ( ) White Noise ( ) White Oleander (X) Anger Management (X) 50 First Dates ( )The Princess Diaries ( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement Total so far: 11
( )Scream ( ) Scream 2 ( ) Scream 3 ( ) Scary Movie ( ) Scary Movie 2 ( ) Scary Movie 3 ( ) Scary Movie 4 (X) American Pie (X) American Pie 2 ( ) American Wedding ( ) American Pie Band Camp Total so far: 13
(X) Harry Potter 1 (X) Harry Potter 2 (X) Harry Potter 3 (X) Harry Potter 4 ( ) Resident Evil 1 ( ) Resident Evil 2 (X) The Wedding Singer ( ) Little Black Book ( ) The Village ( X) Lilo & Stitch Total so far: 19
(X) Finding Nemo (X) Finding Neverland (it's in my Netflix queue) ( ) Signs (X) The Grinch ( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre ( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning ( ) White Chicks ( ) Butterfly Effect ( ) 13 Going on 30 ( ) I, Robot ( ) Robots Total so far: 22
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story ( ) Universal Soldier (X) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events ( ) Along Came Polly ( ) Deep Impact ( ) KingPin (X) Never Been Kissed (X) Meet The Parents (X) Meet the Fockers ( ) Eight Crazy Nights (X) Joe Dirt ( ) KING KONG Total so far: 27
( ) A Cinderella Story ( ) The Terminal ( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie ( ) Passport to Paris (X) Dumb & Dumber ( ) Dumber & Dumberer ( ) Final Destination ( ) Final Destination 2 ( ) Final Destination 3 (X) Halloween ( ) The Ring ( ) The Ring 2 ( ) Surviving X-MAS ( ) Flubber Total so far: 29
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle (X) Practical Magic (X) Chicago ( ) Ghost Ship ( ) From Hell ( ) Hellboy ( ) Secret Window ( ) I Am Sam ( ) The Whole Nine Yards ( ) The Whole Ten Yards Total so far: 31
( ) The Day After Tomorrow ( ) Child's Play ( ) Seed of Chucky ( ) Bride of Chucky ( ) Ten Things I Hate About You ( ) Just Married ( ) Gothika (X) Nightmare on Elm Street (X) Sixteen Candles ( ) Remember the Titans ( ) Coach Carter ( ) The Grudge ( ) The Grudge 2 (X) The Mask (X) Son Of The Mask Total so far: 33
( ) Bad Boys ( ) Bad Boys 2 ( ) Joy Ride ( ) Lucky Number Slevin (X) Ocean's Eleven (X) Ocean's Twelve ( ) Bourne Identity ( ) Bourne Supremacy ( ) Lone Star (X) Bedazzled ( ) Predator I ( ) Predator II ( ) The Fog (X) Ice Age (X) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown ( ) Curious George Total so far: 38
(X) Independence Day ( ) Cujo ( ) A Bronx Tale ( ) Darkness Falls ( ) Christine (X) ET ( ) Children of the Corn ( ) My Bosses Daughter (X) Maid in Manhattan (X) War of the Worlds (X) Rush Hour (X) Rush Hour 2 Total so far: 40
( ) Best Bet (X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days ( ) She's All That ( ) Calendar Girls ( ) Sideways ( ) Mars Attacks ( ) Event Horizon (X) Ever After (X) Wizard of Oz (X) Forrest Gump (X) Big Trouble in Little China (X) The Terminator ( ) The Terminator 2 ( ) The Terminator 3 Total so far: 56
( ) X-Men ( ) X-2 ( ) X-3 (X) Spider-Man (X) Spider-Man 2 (X) Sky High ( ) Jeepers Creepers ( ) Jeepers Creepers 2 ( ) Catch Me If You Can (X) The Little Mermaid (X) Freaky Friday ( ) Reign of Fire ( ) The Skulls ( ) Cruel Intentions ( ) Cruel Intentions 2 ( ) The Hot Chick (X) Shrek (X) Shrek 2 Total so far: 63
( ) Swimfan ( ) Miracle on 34th street ( ) Old School (X) The Notebook ( ) K-Pax ( ) Krippendorf's Tribe (X) A Walk to Remember ( ) Ice Castles ( ) Boogeyman ( ) The 40-year-old Virgin Total so far: 65
( ) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring ( ) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers ( ) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King (X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Total so far: 68
( ) Baseketball ( ) Hostel ( ) Waiting for Guffman ( ) House of 1000 Corpses ( ) Devils Rejects (X) Elf ( ) Highlander ( ) Mothman Prophecies ( ) American History X ( ) Three Total so Far: 69
( ) The Jacket ( ) Kung Fu Hustle ( ) Shaolin Soccer ( ) Night Watch (X) Monsters Inc. (X) Titanic (X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail ( ) Shaun Of the Dead ( ) Willard Total so far: 72
( ) High Tension ( ) Club Dread ( ) Hulk ( ) Dawn Of the Dead (X) Hook (X) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (X) 28 days later ( ) Orgazmo ( ) Phantasm ( ) Waterworld Total so far: 75
( ) Kill Bill vol 1 ( ) Kill Bill vol 2 ( ) Mortal Kombat ( ) Wolf Creek ( ) Kingdom of Heaven ( ) the Hills Have Eyes ( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman ( ) The Last House on the Left ( ) Re-Animator ( ) Army of Darkness Total so far: 75
( ) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace ( ) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones ( ) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith ( ) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope ( ) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back ( ) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi ( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage ( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor Total so far: 75
( ) The Matrix ( ) The Matrix Reloaded ( ) The Matrix Revolutions ( ) Animatrix ( ) Evil Dead ( ) Evil Dead 2 ( ) Team America: World Police ( ) Red Dragon (X) Silence of the Lambs ( ) Hannibal Total so far: 76
Now Add them up and...
Put "I've seen ...__ out of 239 films" in the subject line and repost it.
With all the news this week, there have been moments when I have just had to watch something other than the news. On Tuesday night I watched the first episode of True Blood, but I have also watched 27 Dresses a couple of times.
I got up this morning and was flicking through the channels, which I came across the Showtime Greats channel, and they were showing The Pirate King. At first, I was a little surprised, but youknow I have fun memories of that movie so I watched it again! My goodness, it's so bad it is great!
The strange thing was I was looking at the actors thinking my goodness there are a lot of Aussies in this movie. Then I was looking at the mansion that Mabel's family lived in, and I was thinking I KNOW that house! Turns out that the movie was filmed entirely on location in Australia, and the mansion used for filming was Werribee Mansion, which is five minutes away from where I live!
Of course then I ended up at Youtube seeing what I could find there! Turns out you can watch most of the movie there, but I thought I was post just one example of how this movie is so bad that it is good!
I have had a sign from God that tells me that it is pointless to continue with the list!
I took my child to see Bolt today at the local cinemas. I thought the movie was quite good although I am glad that I am not taking a 3 year old to see it. I guess it is no different from The Incredibles in that there is quite a lot of blowing up of helicopters and cars etc, but it does seem that the cartoon genre has moved away from just cute with a message like the ones we got with The Lion King etc.
There were a number of trailers that looked good. The boy wants to see Return to Witch Mountain, mainly because it stars Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) because he is obsessed with wrestling at the moment. I want to see Inkheart, even though I haven't read the book, and then there is Ice Age 3 as well.
**aside**
I was looking for a picture to put with this post and I ended up on IMDB, where I was reading through the goofs, and something that someone has added is this 'error':
The CSX diesel locomotive pulling the train that Bolt swings onto from the bridge is an EMD SD70M, #432. CSX did not number any of their SD70Ms in the 400s. CSX numbered their SD70Ms from 4675 to 4699. CSX locomotive #432 is, in reality, a CW44AC (CSX's designation for an AC4400CW).
Seriously? Do you see my eyes glazing over? It's a cartoon for goodness sake!
**end aside**
One cute thing was that there was a little girl there who obviously has been listening to the Mamma Mia soundtrack, but she only knows, or likes, one line. I first saw her on the steps, and then again inside, and then heard her in the toilets singing "Honey honey, now you kill me" over and over again.
Anyway, onto the message about the list! I went outside to where my nice clean car should have been, to see a car exactly the same as mine, except there were multiple deposits of bird poop on it! Don't they understand that I have only just had it cleaned! Surely that is a sign from some higher power about the futility of the list?
See how easily I can be deterred from the list? That's why I needed to introduce some accountability!
I am really looking forward to seeing this! It opens here this week I believe, but I am not sure when I am going to be able to get to see it. Hopefully I will.
First it was Mamma Mia, and now I am watching Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog which I have to say is very entertaining, and whilst I don't know the songs as well as I know the Abba songs, or at all, they are very, very catchy.
You can only watch this Joss Whedon goodness which stars Neil Patrick Harris for free up until midnight on Sunday 20 July, but it is worth sparing a half an hour for! After that you will be able to download it for a small fee, or buy the DVD at a later date.
I went out for dinner and to the movies with a group of girls tonight. We saw Mamma Mia which was a lot of fun (although it should be said that as good as Pierce Brosnan is to look at he really shouldn't sing!).
I am looking forward to getting this movie on DVD and then dancing around the lounge room and singing along!
I have watched two movies in as many days this week...quite unusual really!
Not only have I been able to watch a couple of DVDs, I also got the full cinema experience, as devised by my son! Both nights he has selected the movie that I was to watch, made tickets complete with little clues as to what it is that I will be watching, lit the candles for just the right ambience, and provided me with a drink! And it is far more comfortable to lie down on the couch to watch a movie than it is to sit in the chairs at the real cinemas for the same length of time!
I'm not sure but I suspect that I will be going to the cinema in my lounge room again tomorrow night!
When I saw this over at Nichtszusagen I did it, and was just ready to post it just as it appears above, when I realised that there was no way that I could post this without making a confession that will undoubtedly surprise quite a few people.
I have never seen a Star Wars movie from beginning to end. That's right...NEVER! Can you tell how deprived my childhood was?
I actually don't know why I wasn't allowed to watch it. I have a feeling it had something to do with not being acceptable for a church-goer to watch. Another movie we were never allowed to watch was Grease. The first time I saw it was when I went and stayed at a friend's place. If it had of come on at home it would have been turned off extremely quickly along with the accompanying "You're not watching that rubbish".
Do you all have something that you have never seen which would surprise the rest of us?
Actually, it's a bit cheeky of me to call this post More North and South, because this time I am talking about both versions!
I went to the store today to try and buy 2 copies of the BBC's version of North and South. One was to give to my sister, so that she could share in the drooliness (although I am not sure that she is a drooler really...then again I never used to be either). The other copy was to give to her father in law - a man notoriously difficult to buy for. When he was in the UK last year though he did mention seeing Cranford, which is another BBC translation of a Gaskell book so I thought I would try my luck with N & S. The shop I went to didn't have any copies, and apparently didn't have any reference to it on their databases, which is very strange indeed seeing as it is the same place that I bought my copy just before Christmas.
Anyway, getting to the point, they did however have the other North and South on their database, the one based on John Jake's book of the same name. Apparently it is coming out here on DVD for the first time in a few weeks time! Yay!!! I remember watching that series when it showed on TV and absolutely loving it! I hope that I enjoy it when I watch it again, because I am definitely planning to buy it and see!
In the end I have bought my sister a different DVD, and will just have to lend her my copy to watch...when I have worked myself up to letting it out of my sight.
