Saturday, March 8, 2008

Don't Call Me Junior!

As you see I have redone my blog and given it the new title of When it Rains. The title has many meanings, some will hopefully be revealed to you in time, but for now it will be a secret. . .

:>

Appropriately though, today is a terribly rainy day. . .torential downpours at times. Poor Tom has a wedding today and is sick. . .two horrible combinations for a wedding photographer.

We ventured out for Melanie's last hip hop class, then to the library for their annual teddy bear picnic. It's sad to say my girls are becoming too old for these types of things. Instead of teddy bears, they brought their American Girl Dolls to enjoy the picnic.

While we were at the library we picked up Raiders of the Lost Ark. The fact that there is a new Indiana Jones movie coming up has had me "jonesing" for the old movies. We saw The Last Crusade a couple of weeks ago and the girls enjoyed it so much we tried Raiders. . .it wasn't nearly as rough as I remembered and the girls loved it just as much as the other one.

It got me to thinking about other great trilogies. I love the Indiana Jones movies (but not the second one as much), but other ones are great too. I grew up loving Star Wars (had a cat named Yoda and hamsters named Chewbacca, Naisa and Wicket). Pirates of the Carribean is another of my favorites. I know some people think they are hard to follow, but the deep intervoven plot is the best part about them! Well, ok, second best. Then I see in the TV Guide that Lethal Weapon is on tonight. . .another of my favorites. I think the last of those is the best. . .they just got funnier and funnier as they went on. I love the jokes they crack when they are being shot at, torched, beaten, etc. . .

It's funny, because I'm such a romantic and actaully don't list action adventure movies as my favorites, but when I think of favorite movies those are what come to mind.

So what calmer movies do I list as favorites? What other movies will I drop everything to see time and time again? Anything with a great romance and a happy ending top the charts. . .
Gone with the Wind (of course - imagine the happy ending)
Wizard of Oz (it's a given)
Dirty Dancing (I think a lot of my story ideas came from the basis of this movie)
Sabrina (love the remake with Harrison Ford - haven't seen the original)
Don Juan Demarco (one of my favorite Johnny Depp movies)
Sound of Music (my favorite movie to watch when I'm sick)
Grease - for the music
Hope Floats - Harry Connick, Jr as a cowboy??? It doesn't get any better.
St. Elmo's Fire
Pretty Woman
Footloose (I think I still have this one memorized verbatim. . .I could probably be tested on that)
Casablanca (It doesn't have the happy ending, but I like to think someday Ilsa and Rick meet again. . . "Here's lookin at you, kid.")
Clueless (the fact that it a modern day version of Jane Austen's Emma - one of my favorite books - makes this one a fun one to watch for parallels).

(Sad fact - they are mostly movies from my teen years. . .why aren't there any recent movies on this list???)

Then there are the movies that the clever writing makes them so good -
Forest Gump - weaving his life through all the historical references - love it
A Beautiful Mind
Good Will Hunting

I went through our video cabinet and ruled a few out to being included for various reasons. . .
Harry Potter - I love the books and read them with fervor when they come out but I'm a little uggh about the movies. . .I have a hard time staying awake through them.
Lord of the Rings - again they put me to sleep, but the story line is engaging if I can make it through all the walking, walking, walking. . .
Sleepless in Seattle - I actually really love this movie, but the fact that the main characters don't even meet until the end ruins it for me. I need more face time to make me want to see the movie over and over.
When Harry Met Sally - this time there is too much face time and not enough action! They take WAY too long to get together.
Shakespeare in Love - Shakespeare is just a little "out there" for me
My Best Friend's Wedding - I can't remember how it ends???

And then our video cabinet is filled with tons of Spiderman (just can't get interested in Tobey Maguire), Bourne movies (not enough romance), the Departed (who could really like a movie where EVERYONE dies??) and tons of war movies - TONS (yawn!).

What I also found in our video cabinet is a galore of kids movies that should be mentioned as favorites:
Annie
Mary Poppins
Princess Bride ("Mawwwaaage" by the priest and the Mandy Patikin lines make me smile, "My name is Enigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die")
Pete's Dragon ("I'll be your candle on the water," made me want to live near lighthouses)
Enchanted (Hey! A newer movie! Not out yet on DVD, but I hope the Easter Bunny brings it for the girls.)

So those are a few of the favorites. Too bad I can't think of many recent movies to include on the list. I did see Juno and liked it, but wasn't in love with it enough to put on the list. The writing was clever and engaging and REAL, but wasn't one I would rush out to buy as soon as it comes out.

Oh - Melanie wants me to include High School Musical and High School Musical 2! (OK, good music and cute story lines. . .the dialogue gets cheesy though).

Kylie wants to add Sleeping Beauty (I get frustrated with the whole 16 years away from her family story, but Kylie likes the pink dress and dancing with the prince at the end)and Little Mermaid (I don't like the idea of giving up your voice, family and potentially your life just to meet a guy, but Kylie likes pretty seashells and swimming).

If you can think of any good ones I missed, leave a comment! Oh, and which of these movies I listed is the title of today's post from??? Leave a comment if you know.

8 comments:

Sassy Frass said...

What about Sweet Home Alabama? I adore all three involved in that love triangle! And I really love the dad too.

Kelli said...

Sweet Home Alabama is good. . .when it came out, I still thought of Patrick Dempsey as the geeky guy from Can't Buy Me Love. It took awhile for me to see him as McDreamy. He's much cooler in Enchanted!

Micelle said...

Have you ever seen Notting Hill? Great movie - Andrew and I have seen that one about a zillion times. Some Kind of Wonderful was one of my all time favs growing up. And I second the vote for Hope Floats! Is that quote from Good Will Hunting? (really, I don't have much of a clue)

Kelli said...

Hmmm. Notting Hill. I think I've only seen it once. I get images of a book store, England, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts?? Yeah, I that's a good one. Also, I remember you always liked Some Kind of Wonderful. I like it too. All good ones!

Anonymous said...

I would add these to my list: Pride and Prejudice Under the Tuscan Sun Meet Joe Black (even though the ending is super sad and makes me miss my dad) The Green Mile "Don't call me Junior", that is absolutely from Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, my favorite of all of them! :)

Anonymous said...

I also like "My Fair Lady"

Kelli said...

Yes, Karen you're right. It's from the Last Crusade. He's says the line several times to his dad in the movie - once as he's shooting a bunch of Nazi's. At the end he says it again and this is how it goes.
"Why not? That's your name, Henry (something) Jones, Jr."
"I like Indiana."
"We named the dog Indiana."

I also like Pride and Prejudice (another of my favorite Jane Austen books), but which one? We just watched the one with Colin Firth (6 hours worth on PBS), but what about the Keira Knightley one?

My Fair Lady is another good one. My parents love that one.

lace1070 said...

Don't call me junior was said by Harrison Ford to Sean Connery in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade. Can u believe it's been 19 years since the last indiana jones movie!! My girls can't wait to see it. I saw "P.S. I love you" and I was surprised how good it was ~ Love Actually is also a good one ~ I can't wait to see "Made of Honor" ~ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0866439/ you gotta love Patrick Dempsey ~ and of course the "Sex in the city" movie is coming out this summer ~ i am a movie junkie. The springtime is coming ~ soon! Lace