And How Was YOUR Day?

So, as I was driving home tonight from my biopsy, my car chose to get a flat tire right in the middle of Glen Cove Road. As I am no do-it-yourselfer (see dictionary under "Do-it-Yourself, not one to"), I called up my dealer who insisted that I call a special 800 #. As I sat there staring at my now-dead cell phone (low battery), and waiting for a tow truck to somehow magically appear, I got to reflectin' on:

THINGS TO DO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WHEN YOU CAN'T GET TO SLEEP (AND YOU'RE ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY)

• Watch old Liz Taylor movies on TCM
• Do online Jigsaw puzzles
  Redecorate your home in your head
• Resolve that you're going to cut out Caffeine, like, forever
• And Sugar
  
• Think about the Songs You would like to download from ITunes tomorrow, should it ever arrive
• Attempt to recollect the lyrics to the "Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song" from Iolanthe
  
• Blog!

Darn it to Heck - THAT'S the movie I should have seen!

Something compels me to continue with this -

Movies I SHOULD have seen, but didn't:

1) La Strada (1954)
2) Being There (1979)
3) Spartacus (1960)
4) The Magnificent Seven (1960)
5) The Seven Samurai (1954)
6) Knife in the Water (1962)
7) Kagemusha (1980)
8) Repulsion (1965)
9) Seven Up! (1964)
10) A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Instead I saw:

1) Zoolander (2001)
2) There's Something About Mary (1998)
3) Anchorman (2004)
4) The Wedding Crashers (2005)
5) The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
6) Starsky and Hutch (2004)
7) Dodgeball (2004)
8) Elf (2003)
9) Shanghai Noon (2000)
10) Old School (2003)

Spotlight Movie: High Fidelity (2000)

Based on the novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, High Fidelity is one of a rare breed, that in which the movie is just as good as the book (SEE ALSO About a Boy, based on a book by the same author, and Gone with the Wind). Ostensibly starring everyone's favorite, John Cusack, as record shop owner/inveterate listmaker/bad breaker-upper Rob, every scene that's not nailed down is stolen outright by Jack Black, who made his first cinematic splash here. Just watch his face contort through the five stages of grief as a customer dares to request a recording of Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You!" Ably supported by an amazingly witty screenplay,THE movie soundtrack of the year, and a talented ensemble cast, including Iben Hjejle (who?) as Rob's true love, Laura; Todd Louiso as a fellow music store employee and a bevy of underemployed Hollywood actresses, including Catherine Zeta Jones, Lili Taylor, Lisa Bonet and Sara Gilbert, this movie is all that. Plus cameos from Tim Robbins and Bruce Springsteen(!) of all people. AND good news for theatre fans: though the musical version that was brought to Broadway closed after only a handful of performances, plans for the cast recording are still in play!

More Movies I Missed

Can you believe it?? I haven't seen these, among others:
1) Stalag 17; 2) Seven Days in May; 3) Days of Heaven 4) Heaven's Gate; 5) Heavenly Creatures; 6) Driving Miss Daisy; 7) Field of Dreams; 8) Harold and Maude; 9) Godzilla; 10) The Longest Day; 11) Tora Tora Tora!; 12) Patton; 13) Taxi Driver; 14)The Yearling; 15) The Best Years of Our Lives; 16) Only Angels Have Wings; 17) Gunga Din; 18) The Man Who Would Be King; 19) The Exorcist; 20) The China Syndrome; 21) The Postman Always Rings Twice; 22) Million Dollar Baby; 23) Unforgiven; 24) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; 25) A Fistful of Dollars; 26) For a Few Dollars More; 27) The Quiet Man; 28) Cleopatra; 29) Ice Station Zebra; 30) The End of the Affair; 31) The Longest Yard; 32) North Dallas Forty; 33) The Lives of a Bengal Lancer; 34) The Whales of August; 35) One, Two, Three; 36) Tess of the Storm Country; 37) Exodus; 38) Catch-22; 39) Gattaca; 40) The Searchers

By now you must be asking yourself, have you seen anything?
Well, yes, in fact, here's a handful:
1) Gone With the Wind; 2) Citizen Kane; 3) The Godfather; 4) Grand Illusion; 5) Lawrence of Arabia; 6) Casablanca; 7) The African Queen; 8) The Maltese Falcon; 9) Rear Window; 10) Sunset Boulevard; 11) Double Indemnity; 12) 8 1/2; 13) La Dolce Vita; 14) Smiles of a Summer Night; 15) Fanny and Alexander; 16) Ran; 17) Raise the Red Lantern; 18) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; 19) It Happened One Night; 20) The Last Emperor; 21) Vertigo; 22) Rebecca; 23) Strangers on a Train; 24) Shadow of a Doubt; 25) My Night at Maud's; 26) Le Beau Mariage; 27) Pauline at the Beach; 28) Jackie Brown; 29) Pulp Fiction; 30) Reservoir Dogs; 31) The Sound of Music; 32) Mary Poppins; 33) Play Misty for Me; 34) Fargo; 35) An Unmarried Woman; 36) Blow Up; 37) Woman in the Dunes; 38) Brokeback Mountain; 39) Animal House; 40) Sling Blade...

And the jury is still out - some movies I think I've seen, but for whatever reason can't be sure:

1) Bonnie and Clyde
2) Rashomon
3) Tom Jones
4) Rosemary's Baby
5) Two for the Road
6) Billy Liar

Yes, I'm sure it is a wonderful life!

Just a few of the many films I have yet to see in their entirety despite having proclaimed myself to be a lifelong movie buff:

1) It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
2) The Deer Hunter (1978)
3) The Shining (1980)
4) Rocky (1976)
5) Schindler's List (1993)
6) Jaws (1975)
7) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
8) Persona (1966)
9) The Seventh Seal (1957)
10) Mean Streets (1973)
11) Birth of a Nation (1915)
12) The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
13) The Ten Commandments (1956)
14) A Star is Born (any version)
15) King Kong (ditto)
16) Scarface (ditto ditto)
17) From Here to Eternity (1953)
18) Shane (1953)
19) Saturday Night Fever (1977)
20) Psycho (1960)

However, I did manage to make it all the way through:
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)
Ishtar (1987)
Showgirls (1995)
Earth Girls are Easy (1988)
Deep Throat (1972)
Mallrats (1995)
The Cable Guy (1996)
Cabin Boy (1994)
Striptease (1996)
Making Mr. Right (1987)

Fighting vainly the old ennui

Movies I have professed to love, though I really kind of, um, didn't:

1) Chinatown(1974)
Maybe it was the retro fabulous eyebrows that Faye Dunaway sported, but I couldn't look past them to figure out the complicated plot of this convoluted movie!

2) L.A. Confidential(1997)
Practically everything and everybody in this movie leaves me totally cold, with the sole exception of the amazing soundtrack.

3) Blazing Saddles (1974)
Let's just say it's no Young Frankenstein. Or even Support Your Local Sheriff!

4) Raising Arizona (1987)
I could probably stand to look at this again, as it's been awhile and I really do like their other movies, but to me this was a condescending piece of claptrap.

5) As Good as it Gets (1997)
Or not. As the case may be.

6) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
I know this one hovers around #1 on IMDB's top 250; however, escaping jail via a spoon?? Yeah, that could work.

7) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Yes, I know that this is an amazing and powerful movie, and one that I hope never to have to sit through again.

8) Raging Bull (1980)
As far as I'm concerned this is not the best film of the 1980's (see Reds). Or even the director's best work (see Goodfellas). What this is is borderline unsitthroughable.

9) Star Wars (1977)
This franchise-launcher took off like a bat out of hell, but it's charm completely eludes me. From IMDB's user comments: "the beginning of the end of serious filmmaking."

10) Brazil (1985)
Again from IMDB: "Bloated, pretentious, self-indulgent." Sometimes one is in the mood for this sort of thing. Most times not.

Great Screen Teams, Continued...

6) Fred Astaire may have had better dancing partners, and Ginger Rogers may have had better acting partners, but together they made millions happy in Depression-era America with their ostentatious displays of wit and charm. Here they are during a brief moment on terra firma in Roberta (1935).

7) After seeing Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin match lopsided grins in The Big Easy (1987), the only question that remains is: why haven't they reteamed? Perhaps now that she has freed herself from the tyranny of wealth...

8) Susan Sarandon may have met the true love of her life, Tim Robbins, on the set of Bull Durham (1988), but that didn't stop her from making cinematic magic with Kevin Costner. "Oh My!!!"

9) Never better than when they were together, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn reached their peak of sublimity when they went head to head as opposing counsel, married to each other, in Adam's Rib(1949).

10) To my mind, the most sophisticated and sexy of all screen teams were William Powell and Myrna Loy, who were first paired in The Thin Man (1934), based on the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name. The film became such a success that a series of sequels were launched. Their dog, Asta, also had quite a fanbase.

SEE ALSO: HUMPHREY BOGART AND LAUREN BACALL; KATHLEEN TURNER AND WILLIAM HURT; JACK LEMMON AND WALTER MATTHAU; DIANE KEATON AND WOODY ALLEN; MICHELLE PFEIFFER AND JEFF BRIDGES; JOHN WAYNE AND MAUREEN O'HARA.

"Yeah, Chemistry!"

Check out these classic movie pairings for a free lesson in chemistry:

1) Barbra Stanwyck sizzles as a man-baiting card shark in The Lady Eve (1941), and Henry Fonda is her hapless prey. Charles Pike: "You're certainly a funny girl for anybody to meet who's just been up the Amazon for a year." Jean Harrington: "Good thing you weren't up there two years."

2) Rock Hudson did have a career before Doris Day, appearing as a leading man in romantic melodramas. However, Pilllow Talk (1959) gave him a whole new lease on life as a light, romantic comedian, inheriting the mantle from Cary Grant. This was his and Day's first, and best, collaboration.

3) If anyone is still wondering why Marlon Brando was considered such a big deal, one look at Guys and Dolls (1955), when he was at his apex of cool, should answer all questions. He even sorta sings and dances. Here he is hitting on poor Jean Simmons, who doesn't stand a chance. Highlight: "I'll Know." Oh yeah, Frank Sinatra's in this too!

4) Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon make beautiful music together in Billy Wilder's Some Like it Hot (1959), as musicians on the lam from the mob, taking refuge in an all-girl band. That blonde's blonde, Marilyn Monroe, helps them in their resuscitation.


5) Naomi Watts finally emerged from the shadows of her BFF Nicole Kidman's Karl Lagerfeld skirts to become an a-list actress in her own right in Mulholland Drive (2001). Her beautiful co-star, Laura Elena Harring, was last seen wearing really expensive shoes at the Academy Awards.

More next post!