Movies

Tony and I haven't been watching tons of films of late, but one movie we did watch recently that I ADORED was Tangled, Disney's retelling of Rapunzel. I LOVED it so very much, and have many times since remarked that I think it's a movie every little girl should watch (even if they happen to be 28! 😉 ) because this movie is just so kick-ass. I'm sure no one is surprised to hear that growing up one of my favorite movies was Disney's Beauty & the Beast, but I honestly think this might be better. Sure Belle will always have a place in my bookish heart, but Rapunzel was just so cool with her frying-pan-wielding ways and general "can do" attitude. It's a really great story of a girl becoming a woman and learning how to make her own way in the world, and I just thought Rapunzel was really awesome and the kind of female role model that more girls could use.

But Rapunzel wasn't a chameleon, which is obviously what is depicted in the above image. That would be Pascal, her animal sidekick. I loved him very much too, and upon watching the film, I flippantly asked Tony if he would draw me a picture of him. I pretty much forgot about my request, but the other day, Tony said he had a little gift for me, and when I opened up my email, the above picture was waiting in my inbox. I was having a super crappy day, so Pascal's little smiling face paired with Tony's sweet words really made my day. Every time I see it, I feel happy, which is why this is now my desktop background! Instant mood enhancer! I just loved Tony's drawing so much I had to share it with all of you. And if you haven't seen Tangled, you are missing out and need to get on that! 😀

We each of us have a Harry Potter story. Now when the franchise faces another ending, this time with the films, it seems only fitting to take some time to look back on my relationship with the boy who lived. I am not one of those fans who can say I grew up with Harry, because I didn't. Not really. When Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was first published, I was 14, but it wasn't until the age of 18 that Harry and I finally met. I was in my final year of high school, and my schedule at the time allowed for plenty of "spare" periods which I tended to spend in the library (big surprise) where I'd study and complete homework. More often than not, I'd find myself browsing in the fiction section of our school library, especially when I was meant to be completing my Algebra & Geometry homework. I was a good student, but AlGeo was my Achilles' heel and so I often spent my time reading instead of toiling away when it came up in my work pile. As I stared off into space wondering about imaginary numbers, vectors, and polar space, a paperback version of Philosopher's Stone caught my eye on one of the fiction spinners. By this time there was enough buzz about the series that I had actually heard of it and knew it was supposed to be really good. So I decided that I would give it a try and see what all the fuss was about. (more…)

We've got a hodgepodge of films for you this time round, some of them better than others, and some watched at the drive-in! This time we watched:

• We talk about why senior thesis projects don't always make good movies when we discuss 9
• Tony tells you how to be an effective stalker while critiquing Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo
• Everyone who works with him may hate him, but we still love Ricky Gervais in The Invention of Lying
• If you're looking for the definition of "80s humor" look no further than A Fish Called Wanda...
• Steph winds up with a lot of strong views about effective video game films, which come out when we discuss Prince of Persia
• Is Iron Man 2 the Ulysses of summer 2010? No, not really... unless you found Transformers 2 to be a subtle and intelligently-crafted art film

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Shocking to see a new installment of What We Watched up so soon, but we watched a freakish amount of movies in the past week and, for better or for worse, we just had to blab about them. Featured this time:

• Tony reveals a crush while we talk about The Girl in the Cafe... and it's not on a girl!
• Yes, Fantastic Mr. Fox is pretty fantastic!
• Generally time-lapse photography is meant to speed things up, but we talk about how it seems to slow things down in Chronos
• Michael Douglas may be the King of California, but he's also pretty creepy... and maybe that's a good thing?
• Steph insults Asians everywhere (and Tony) while discussing facial hair and Infernal Affairs
• We rag on Gwyneth Paltrow so bad while talking about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow that she may have to whine on Goop about us

Added bonus: despite talking about two more films than we usually do, we still manage to do it in the same amount of time as our other podcasts!  Brevity is clearly the soul of wit!

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On this installment of What We Watched:

• Much to Steph's chagrin, all the puns in the world aren't enough to make Running Man a good movie
• I Heart Huckabees? More like I ZZZZ Huckabees...
• Our discussion of Rosemary's Baby devolves into what makes a movie scary... Also, Tony tells you all the ways in which you are stupid
• We get passionate about education and inner-city school kids (who knew?!) while discussing the documentary Pressure Cooker

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Warning, this one's a doozy, folks.  Plenty of banter and grousing!

Today is our friend Trisha's birthday, and we know she gets a kick out of these podcasts, so in honor of Trisha turning another year AWESOME, here's the latest installment of What We Watched.  Warning: This one's full of giggling! Featured in this podcast:

• Tony gets all cranky when discussing the flapper fashion that features in Enchanted April
• Did you know that Steph loves musicals and had the weirdest childhood ever? Our discussion of Showboat makes this clear... for the 20th time.
• Like the protagonist in An Education, we fall for an older man... but his identity might surprise you!
• The Legend of The Shadowless Sword teaches us the valuable lesson that the line between good and bad martial arts movies may be fine, but it does exist!

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Good morning, read-a-thoners!  In case your eyes are too tired to do any more reading, why not take a listen to what we've been watching over the past few weeks? Featured in this installment:

• Red Riding (1974) makes us wonder whether movies that feature actors from Yorkshire, England qualify as "foreign language" films...
• Another win for Pixar with A Bug's Life (even if it's about actual bugs, and not our little bug, Rory).  Also, Tony geeks out.
• Tony schools Steph in American history, though she makes a legitimate point about settlers in Washington state while talking about Sleepy Hollow.
• We revisit Savannah and Kevin Spacey with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  We probably prefer Spacey's performance as a grasshopper to Jim Williams, but we definitely prefer John Cusack when he plays "that guy who is not in whatever movie we're watching".
• We belatedly continue to watch movies that were nominated but did not win the 2010 Oscar for Best Picture, this time with A Serious Man. I think we know why this one did not win.
• Did you know Bruce Willis once had hair?  Don't believe us? Watch Die Hard.  Also: Alan Rickman!  Who knew?!?!

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We know the excitement is killing you, so let's just cut to the podcast! Featured this week on What We Watched: Highlights from the podcast:

• We pontificate on what Franka Potente’s audition must have been like for Run Lola Run
• No, your eyes don’t deceive you.  We really did watch Labyrinth again.  But this time, ON THE BIG SCREEN!!!
• We discuss the various ways in which A Perfect Getaway was anything but perfect
• Steph reveals another girl crush when discussing A Mighty Wind
• Tony threatens to end our marriage when he discovers another egregious lapse in Steph’s movie watching history which is revealed when we discuss Assassination of a High School President

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Another hiatus - though this time a rather prolonged one.  Apologies, of course.  We make excuses at the start of the podcast, but really the gap between this and the last podcast is simply due to us being hella busy during February with social obligations and also illnesses (seriously, Steph is better now, but she still has a bit of a cough... which makes a few cameos in the podcast) and pretty much we watched very few movies.  I mean, over the course of a month, we only have six films to talk about, which should tell you something! But in the end, we did watch the following six films: Highlights from this long overdue podcast:

• Find out who Ray D. Tutto is when we discuss The Adventures of Baron Munchausen!
• We debate the titular appropriateness of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove
• NY I Love You may be all about love, but we think maybe we're better off just as friends... and Steph may or may not make a culturally insensitive joke in this segment (but she promises it was a joke!)
• When in Rome don't see this movie.  Really, that's a good rule of thumb whichever country you happen to find yourself in.
• Into the Wild teaches us the important life lesson of not heading into the wilds of Alaska with a 5-lb bag of rice, a 22 shotgun, and a shaky knowledge of edible plants.  There go our one-year wedding anniversary plans...
• Is The Hurt Locker a worthy Oscar nominee?  Consensus: ????... ????

We won't lie: this is one of our longer podcast, but I guess we were making up for lost time!  And hopefully we're back in the movie-watching groove.  We've already watched two new flicks since recording this, so all signs point to "outlook good".

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Sorry for the one-week hiatus!  Totally unintentional, but things have been busy and movie-watching wound up taking a back seat to other stuff, and it's taken us this long to accrue enough material to bother podcasting. BUT.  We did manage to watch some doozies over the last two weeks... On this week's podcast:

• We coin a new term - "mehcommendation" - while discussing the mediocre Inkheart
• Find out why Three Coins in the Fountain is filled with dirty, dirty lies, starting with (but not limited to!) its title
• Steph finally catches up to 1999 and watches Fight Club... Was it worth the 11 year wait?!?
• We revisit childhood favorite, Labyrinth, and discuss whether David Bowie automatically makes a movie inappropriate for children...

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