And with that...the end...

Day 30: Last movie you watched

I had thought this list would stand out as not being run of the mill and mediocre but as it is it does seem as though the impression made is that I am a shallow film type of person.  It depends on the mood, and whether or not I remembered the right film for the right reason.

Anyway, as the last day of the year that started so well but dipped then crashed in the latter part ticks ever closer the last movie I watched is going to be split in two as I recently watched a dvd with the Hobbits but also went to the increasingly bankruptingly expensive cinema.  (It's a word if I say it is!)

So to the cinema for the latest piece of fluffy fun, because I really, really do need it.

Yes it was silly but one of our cats is suspiciously close in looks to Puss and I've had a crush on Antonio Banderas since seeing Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down at a very impressionable age!  Plus the Hobbits have enjoyed all the Shrek films (but not to the point of wanting the dvds, hmmn...)

And our latest offering from Lovefilm (which is a hit and miss at the best of times and may be cut during the new year cull) was the brilliant Super 8.  The Hobbits also saw E.T. for the first time this week and one of the first things Youngest said was "this is like Super 8."  What can I say, if you are of a certain vintage, grew up on Speilberg films, always wanted to have adventures that seemed to only happen in America and like that little creature feature uncertainty of whether or not you should be scared then this is a definite.

(I also got Captain America and X Men: First Class which I also enjoyed but this I watched twice before sending them back!)

And with that, we're done.  With the list and the year.  Tomorrow I intend to stay indoors hiding from the last day to ensure nothing else is going to happen!  The start of 2012 is not shaping up well at all so helmets and protective gear on...the monster is about to be unleashed.

Oh my oh my oh my ONE MORE TO GO!

The finishing post is finally in sight - just in time to end the year!


Day 29: First movie you ever remember watching.


My dad took me to see Bambi when I was about two years old.  Unfortunately I remember nothing of it but this is the first film I ever remember seeing, to the fact that we spent ages waiting in the cinema itself as the time was wrong or something.  I got a box of Smarties, a box 'mind, not a tube - woohoo!  I loved the feel and atmosphere of the place, it seemed giant, cavernous - the ABC cinema, Sauchiehall Street Glasgow I don't think is even there now which is a shame.  

As mother didn't like going to the cinema my visits were either with my dad, neighbours or friends (when I was a teen our thing was Saturdays in Glasgow, an afternoon at the cinema and home in time for dinner!  Living the life!)

I also remember getting the book of the film and being really annoyed the girl wasn't in it much - why didn't girls get to join in adventures like the boys did.  (After being too young to see Star Wars I did get to see the darker Empire Strikes Back and Princess Leia became who I wanted to be, plus she got Han Solo but didn't need rescued as such or simper about the place in order to do so!)

The Water Babies is an okay film, an okay book and I wish I had a more impressive film as the second to last one!   (Maybe I should learn to lie and make up that it was The Railway Children or something!)

I'll slip this card under the door

I can't leave it with a post like the last one.  I'm not that pathetic, oh wait, look at the theme for this one, yes I am.


Day 28: Movie with your favorite hero


Ta da!  


I'm reading about the definition of hero in literature just now and what exactly that encompasses and to be honest perhaps it is a personal thing.  There are many adaptations that could then be used for this purpose.  I could go modern with Lisbeth Salander or classic with Jane Eyre (or even Elizabeth Bennett?)  Or using pop culture I could go controversial with Hit Girl or childhood hero with Princess Leia or cult with River Tam (although my favourite character was the mechanically minded Kaylee). 


Instead I'm going to go back a bit, sorry another French film here (I've only ever spent a day in the country as well but I do like their films!)


I saw this when I was young enough to be impressionable.  I like the protagonist's attitude and the fact that nearly every American action film has stolen the look of the film (there was the inevitable remake *sigh*).  So as hero(ine)s come then she is most surely my favourite. 

Embarrassing fact:  I deliberately had my hair cut in this style hoping some of her uber-coolness would rub off.  It didn't.

Note: internet *still* not working properly so I can't check this clip out though I would very much like to!

Goodbye Thirties... Hello Forties

I have now entered the age of being an area in the North Sea.  Wouldn't that be something?  I would look forward to then reaching my Viking and Cromarty ages, actually that would be better than reality.  I live in a society where women over forty are...over.


So today (or rather officially in one hour thirty five minutes - I'm writing this at 21:05) I pass the fortieth year marker of being on this planet.


Whoop-doop-de-do.


I have not finished yet.  I have not done as many things as I wished and I most certainly am not living the life I thought I would have had at this stage.  I still have much to accomplish.  Also there is a bigger celebration to be had with my boys reaching double figures in eleven days.


Don't mistake me, to have spent the evening surrounded by a loved one, friends and good company would have been wonderful but life hasn't worked out that way.  Instead it is, as always, just me, my boys and the dog - cats don't celebrate birthdays, or at least human ones.  I have to be content with this and the path I've ended up on as sometimes it happens and there isn't much you can do but walk onwards.


This is panic weekend when people suddenly realise that Christmas is next week and they haven't bought a thing.  Haha.  Spending the day in Edinburgh, the Winter Wonderland, I took my first step in changing things by going on the ferris wheel.


It's 35m high, the little seating circles aren't strapped in, they wobble, especially when you are stuck at the top floating in the breeze.  The views were amazing and, by holding on tight, closing eyes at the particularly worrying bits and saying "I am safe" as many times as need be to become a mantra, it is doable for anyone with not so much a fear of heights as a respect for safety.


I don't have photos as, typically, the camera battery was dead as dead can be.  So I've recycled one from a few years back, same wheel, same height but in the daytime you can see forever.  Well, at least to the Forth on both sides!

Like this ^ but daytime!  Plus everything on the lower part is rearranged and the big bungee thing was down there....oh you get the idea!  Look at the ferris wheel, I am ridiculously proud of myself!

On the way home we decided on Chinese food for din-dins and on the calendar they gave me it said for us Piggies (Year of the Pig - read the description, I'm happy to be a pig!) that next year will be a good one.  Result!

Day 27: Movie with your favourite villain

Ah jeez, there are so many as villains always get the best lines.  Usually they have more to them than the weedy hero.  There are so many children's films that could get this (anyone else have nightmares about the Childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?) 

But this guy, well, he's a flippin' Nazi.  You can't get worse than that.  Oh but you can because, you see, he relishes his job and sees it as being a job - despite the results he gets.  The actor practically eats the screen time so each time you see him you are not sure what he will do next and neither does anyone else.

As a villain he is the perfect epitome of bad, and doesn't even realise it.

First time I've heard of an Oscar going to someone and thinking "yup, well deserved."  Bingo!  Now go watch the film and see if you can watch the first ten minutes or so without getting a little sense of panic over what is about to happen.

Hans Landa - Inglourious Basterds

---

Col. Hans Landa: Now if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and the predatory instinct of a hawk. But if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast, it would be that of the rat. If a rat were to walk in here right now as I'm talking, would you treat it to a saucer of your delicious milk?
Perrier LaPadite: Probably not.
Col. Hans Landa: I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them. All you know is you find them repulsive. Consequently, a German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere *he* would hide, but there's so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. However, the reason the Führer's brought me off my Alps in Austria and placed me in French cow country today is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity. 

Enough Already With The Technology!

For this past year access to the internet in the Two If By Sea household has been, at best, fleeting.  The 30 Day movies thing has taken around four months to complete due to the dongle sucking up any and all download in a greedy, money-hungry manner.


So now I have to wait...again...to see what is causing the issue. 


You know, I don't live in a big, posh fancy house but there are plenty of people in this old town who do and I would have thought that all those lovely, lush customers would hold some sway in getting the exchange updated and the internet brought up to - oh at least 2007 standards.


Here I am, one week left of my thirties, *not* looking forward to the forties *at all* and I'd be as well returning to the typewriter and sending messages by carrier pigeon.


Since we moved we've had communication problems initially caused by the previous owner being a bit of a mare (thanks for telling us that the woman living next to us is an absolute nut - could really make it all legal but haven't the energy.)  The internet has never worked correctly and to be honest the person who did the wiring in the house was obviously a DIYer with absolutely no talent.  No kidding if I see one more half-hearted attempt at doing anything I'll scream - i.e. not one skirting board is finished properly, the workmanship is shoddy to say the least.  It does feel like I bought a big old lemon but now we're stuck with it for the moment and as many people are being made homeless for a while I am thankful for that.


Wish I was the optimistic, naive, altruistic kiddo I used to be before a rotten marriage and life wore me down to this grumpy version!  She's still there somewhere, perhaps life will begin again at 40?  See, a little glimmer...


I can't check the following video properly without spending more than I'd wish to on access (times being hard in the old bank balance as always.)


Day 26 - Movie you're most embarrassed to say you like


Well now, I have a front like Blackpool after parenting for nearly 10 years now.  You try and keep your dignified air when your child is going for the brat of the month award in the supermarket (no, they don't grow out of it.)


As has been seen by the previous entries I love a whole mix of movies from the frothy to the deeply moving.  This movie I'd say I'm embarrassed to admitting to watching as most of it is utter, unbelievable cack.


There are stories within though that are truly heart-rending.  These stories do not involve Hugh Grant or Keira Knightley.


Watch this film and see Emma Thomson wrench the heart of any woman watching as she realises the gorgeous present her husband has bought was not intended for her.  Grimace at the loneliness of Laura Linney as she struggles to have a life beyond her family commitments.


The other stories range from "meh" (Colin Firth) to "oh for crap sake!" (Hugh).  I could really have done with concentrating on Emma and Laura's character stories and the rest...


If embarrassment is fast forwarding through most of a film then I give you...Love Actually....

It's Oh So Quiet...

And also Day 4879 25 on the Movie Challenge thing which I am determined to finish in the same way one might chew relentlessly on a tough steak because be damned if it is going to get the better of me.


Anyway...


My Hobbits are away this week, gone to camp in Northumberland with their classmates.  So there will be lots of this...

And maybe some of this...

But without the sunshine, happy feeling.

Day 25: Movie with the most beautiful scenery  - when I was little, an only child (or lonely goatherd if you will) I adored this film, in particular the first couple of minutes when the cameras sweep across the Alps.  I've been to Salzburg, I've driven around and about the Alps.  I loved every minute of it and long to do it again...all because of this film.

When you think about it The Alps and Salzburg deserve a credit in the cast list.

Plus, as mentioned earlier, the only child desperately longed to be part of a huge, loving family.  Wins in all directions.

Home is not something I longed for

This time last week I was sweltering in the afternoon sun, lying lazy as a cat on a sunbed while the Hobbits played in the splash park with their little friends.


Perhaps this is what has ailed me.  Sitting in the sun, reading copious amounts, no mental stress other than what time shall we show up for the dinner I have not cooked (and eat from plates I will not need to wash.)  Although I have no real desire to move to Portugal my goodness I ached for some sunshine.  Some strong sunshine to bleach my tired old bones.  


For all we are not meant to sit in the sun, I smother our bodies in factor Scottish (i.e. 30) to negate some of the nastiness, my god but I could feel the warmth throughout.  Clarity of thought has evaded me for months yet I was sharper, quicker witted, than I have been in the longest time.  I wrote, I read, I relaxed and it was good.


I come home and zoop we are back to square one.


Sigh.


Anywhogivesashitway


Day 24: Movie with your favourite soundtrack


Sneaked it in there with no one looking.


This one is easy.  I saw the film, one of the best adaptations which seems so well suited to the original material in how the story has been opened, next day I bought the soundtrack and I listen to it still.  I am quite sure there are many who will turn their nose up at the film, too pop culture for them, too ready and tangible to people.  To hell with them.


Of all the songs I love this one the most, my heart sings along with it.  A very plaintive sound.

30 Days....yeah, yeah, keep on at it

Day 22: Movie you wish you could live in


Lately there has been a distinctly dystopian flavour to the news.  The wheels of change seem to be ever grinding and everything has such a dark tinge to it, I've never felt as though the worst elements of society were winning as much as they are now.  Greed is good is a way of life to the expense of all others it would seem.


So with that in mind.  If we are about to move into another mini-ice age, and if the last lot of Elizabethans survived it then we can too.  (Let's make a note to never allow another Elizabeth on the throne.)  If we are about to see the whole financial balance collapse with the rich skipping off merrily into the sunset while the rest of us clear up the mess.  If everything we have relied on is to be turned on its head.  Then I chose to be a browncoat...

Shiny it might not be for a future.  The Reapers are no more scary than the people who have been allowed to run riot, quite literally.  I could chose a fluffy bunny film where everyone has a happy ending but we all know that doesn't last.  And my other choice was a polar opposite - cause I always longed to be a Von Trapp - look what happened to them!  If there was a decent film version (similar to the German 70s series I loved) then I would go for Heidi - but there isn't and my fantasy life of Swiss mountains will be replaced by a more realistic Firefly class spaceship.


I am totally failing to attract positivity from the universe with my current frame of mind aren't I?  Well, failure I can do.

Movie Challenge - nearly there!

Day 21: Movie with your favourite actor


James Stewart reminds me of my Dad.  Recently I have been missing my dad more and more.  With all that has recently gone on with mother and the way she is now I have been thinking over the past.  There is so much I wish I could talk to him about things, there are things I should have said and done and I feel constant regrets that this won't happen.


There is a tendency to romanticise the past and people gone.  Rather I am not focussing on the times where we didn't get on but the truth that was evident at his funeral when not one person had anything but happy, good, worthy anecdotes about him.  So I can honestly say that my dad was one of the old-style gentlemen, like James Stewart himself (plus he was one of my Dad's favourites especially considering his WWII record).  


He was 50 when I was born.  An age most men are becoming grandfathers rather than first time fathers.  So there was a huge generation gap between us.  Now I can look back and say the boys miss their Grandpa and I miss my Dad.  


When I watch James Stewart I can feel comforted.  Odd as it sounds. 

Movie Challenge getting tricky now.

Day 20: Movie with your favourite actress


Oh gad do I even have a favourite?  I know I am beginning to think I should keep notes to remind myself of things I actually like because I am positive that in a short amount of time I will suddenly go "oh and I *really* like her as well."  But I am hopeless when put on the spot.


Of course the smart people will have already scanned down the list of what this challenge consisted of and prepared.  Smart people will also have done this in 30 days and not the epic amount of time I've taken to do it.


What can I say, at best I live in a constant state of chaos.  It is what it is.


So, what was the point of this...oh yes, favourite actress.  Well, I suppose there are a few.  I'm not so much a person who will see a film just because of who is in it, not really.  A lot of the actresses I do like are of the older generation, I don't know why (and you'll see in the next instalment my favourite actor is also mainly in black and white but for good reason.)


This is definitely one of those films which should be savoured rather than just watched.  I've always liked the actress because she seemed such an assertive bitch!  Call it admiration...

Don't older films look so much more appealing?  I love this film and Bette Davis is utter brilliance.  Strangely one of her later, more popular films I wasn't desperate to see over and over again but All About Eve, All This, and Heaven Too, Dark Victory, Now, Voyager, Jezebel...you could seriously have them on a loop and happily watch them over and over again.

30 Days, would it make you happier to know we're on the final stretch?

Day 19: Film that made you cry the hardest


Oh for goodness sake I won't watch this film unless I'm in need of a damn good weep.  It is about a dog, only not just any old dog but one who is a reincarnation of a man.  What can I say, you can keep your Hatchi...I can't even watch the trailer without welling up here.


I'm not going to go in to the story too much, not just because the very thought of the film has turned me into slush.  I hope to god they don't remake it - this film makes the end of Marley and Me seem mild.


Fluke


It's a man, who dies, and becomes a dog, and remembers his life, and there is something else about his death as a human, and his life as a dog isn't all walkies, and it is at least a 10 hankie film.  At least.


Forever.


*sniff sniff*

That 30 Day Movie Thing - Day 18

Day 18: Film that is your guilty pleasure


Pleasure should never be guilt ridden, absolutely not.  And most of my films give pleasure otherwise they wouldn't be on this list.  (Except for the "Least" ones of course, I didn't really need to explain that did I?)


Anyway,  I'm going to chose this one for the simplest of reasons - 

Perhaps it is my wicked sense of humour that means I snigger at the strangest and most inopportune things.  I know, we shouldn't make fun of people, we shouldn't gain so much pleasure from a film that has very dark undertones.  


I've been to Bruges, it made me feel like Ray does.


So I get pleasure from the fantastically well written script, seeing Colin Farrell and Mad-Eye Moody enjoy their roles to the point where they make their characters not only believable but (here is the guilty bit) sympathetic.  I also feel guilt as I hate the way gangsters and criminals are glamorised in cinema but I really do like Ray and Ken.


It's a bloody good movie.   Let's just leave it as that!

It's been an utter poo of a day so...

Movie challenge!!!  Really, desperately needed to divert attention from current car crash going on in life - yes *another* one, what can I say I obviously attract disaster.


Day 17: Least favourite book adaptation


Hmmn, now let me see.  Ah yes, that would be this turgid pile of cinematic crapola...

Now I was considering an adaptation where not only had I disliked the film but also the book on which it was based but that seemed to defeat the whole purpose.  A least favourite book adaptation should really be a disappointment of sorts.  Where they (the they being the film people naturally) have taken a much loved source and quite literally stuffed it up.


So I was thinking, what film did I desperately want to see and then wish I'd saved the money I spent on the cinema ticket.


It has to be the latest adaptation of Little Women.  I don't know what it was, perhaps the spectacularly miscast Whine-ona Ryder as Jo.  Something was just completely wrong.  


I had read all these books as a girl.  These were familiar characters.  I adored the 1940s interpretation even if it was a little twee - it seemed to have the right old-fashion atmosphere, that cosy family feeling.  It was a film to cheer the soul.


The new one did have a lot of the right components from the book, it was just bad.


(Had I to chose a least favourite adaptation from a book that was also dire then it would be Eat, Pray, Love - dear God but that woman was a selfish mare, get over yourself!  The whole world doesn't revolve around you!  Anyway, the film had Javier Bardem so not a complete loss - yes I did watch the film despite giving up on the book after the poor-mes got too much!)

30 Days Movie Challenge - you know the drill

Day 16: Favourite book adaptation


I was thinking along the lines of the more literary To Kill A Mockingbird as Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch is amazing and inspiring in great big actorly dollops.  The first time I saw the film I was completely mesmerised and horrified that such ignorance and cruelty existed - I was in high school at the time and burned at the injustice I saw.  This was one of the Saturday afternoon with my dad films.


If it was raining, or no one was around to hang out with, my dad would make soup and we would sit and watch whatever film was on tv (mother being at work on the weekends).  My dad liked WWII films having served in the RAF during those days.  I saw lots of classics, formed a lot of my tastes and was led to reading books I wouldn't have otherwise found.  Mockingbird being one.


But I'm not choosing it, and that is not because I just bored the bejesus out of anyone who bothers reading this other than me.  Huge explanation and now I'm away picking another.


This is going to be a bit of fluff but it merits the title of favourite book adaptation because it has made me sit through an entire film starring an actress I really can't be bothered with.  Of course the material is well known and this is not the first, and probably not the best, adaptation (no wet shirts here) but the soundtrack, the atmosphere and the actor who plays the main character with such arrogance yet with vulnerability means that if I'm at a loss what to do of an evening I stick the dvd on and snuggle on the couch.


I cried at this, cried for goodness sake.  I really don't like the actress as well!  That has to be good enough reason!

  

30 Days Challenge - Day 15

Favourite play adaptation* -


Or panto for that matter...


This has to be the best version of the story I've ever seen.  Kudos for keeping Tinkerbelle as the jealous, vicious little beast she is rather than the Disney-fied cutsie, mall rat version she is now!  I much prefer her character with some wicked bite.


Plus it has Jackson Brodie/Lucius Malfoy/Mark Brydon in possibly the most interesting portrayal of Mr Darling/Captain Hook ever.  Well, it kept my interest for sure.


I do, I do, I do believe in fairies, I do, I do, I do believe in fairies.....

Did you know that Peter started his life in play rather than novel form?  One hundred and eight years ago to be precise.  The novel followed one hundred years ago exact and there I've not only entertained but paid tribute to its centenary.  I'm good like that.

30 Day Movie Challenge - I'm keeping at this you know

Now we're on Day 13 (it's only taken a few months, I'm doing well) which is...


Favourite Chick Flick


This is not something I would  naturally admit to watching but I do, and have a tendency to have a good weep or chortle along like a good audience should.  The line between chick flick and love story must be a fine one but I'm thinking that chick flick should have some form of female friendship at the heart of it.


There is an obvious choice blaring like a klaxon - which is ironic considering that is the noise made by the main protagonists as they honk their way from one "adventure" in the Big City to another.  Oh you see, I gave a clue.


I've seen both those films, I do not know why as neither offered more than the comforting knowledge that (apart from the nice houses) I am glad my life did not take that completely soulless road.


So, my choice is about grown-up friendships and, oh look, there's a boy in it too and for added bonus - books!

30 Day Challenge - Day 12

Favourite love story...


Sometimes true love means having the courage and patience to believe in your heart that what you search for is out there...

30 Day Movie Challenge - Day 11 (Oh you thought I'd forgotten didn't you!)

Part of the internet blackout meant I couldn't go searching through videos at leisure (do you know how much dongles cost!) but now I can reinstate the challenge that isn't so much a challenge as a flick through a favourite photograph album.

Favourite Kid's Movie -

Because deep down all we want is to love and be loved in return...and to occasionally touch the stars.

And sometimes all we want to do is dance...

We need to be taught this by a little robot?  Yes, we do.

Wall-E

Day 10: Favourite foreign film

Three Colours Blue


I can remember the first time I saw this film.  Part of a trilogy following the colours of the French flag.  (Red was also very good, White...hmm not so much.) 



This was the first time I watched a foreign film and felt so moved that once it had finished I wanted to watch it again.  It opened up a whole world of cinema I'd previously ignored and now I'm more than happy to subtitle away.


Blue is the story of loss, of a woman who has gone through the worst tragedy possible and then follows the path her life takes...

30 Days Movie Challenge Day 9

Day 9: Favourite musical
An American In Paris


It's very clear...

Current mood is still annoyed at the fact that I can't get a decent internet connection.