Month: April 2015

“H” is For Heathers

| rachelhamm
source: foreveryoungadult.com
source: foreveryoungadult.com

Watched: April 5, 2015 on Netflix

Hashtag: #WatchingHeathers

Year Released: 1988

Genre: Dark Comedy

Starring: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty

Run Time: 103 minutes

Description (from IMDb): A girl who half-heartedly tries to be part of the “in crowd” of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics; killing the popular kids.

 

 

source: tumblr.com
source: tumblr.com

This teen comedy from the 80s is often compared to Clueless from the 90s and Mean Girls from the 00s.  And for good reason – all three are awesome.  Clueless is probably the least like the three as it has the popular girl as the heroine and not a villainy type, but Heathers is definitely the darkest.  It deals with heavy themes of teenage suicide, murder, and school massacres all while the characters are trying to either accept themselves for who they are or trying to completely hide who they really are in order to be accepted.

I have been having difficulty with the internet at my apartment this week, so I headed over to Starbucks today and sat for 4 hours, watching this and another film.  It was almost like I was watching with friends, even though I had headphones on and was sitting by myself.  There were distractions, moments when I had to pause due to MORE internet issues (stupid free public WiFi), but that almost made me enjoy the movie more. It felt more like a natural experience.

I really loved this movie.  It was so WEIRD. So random. So funny.  There were several moments I laughed aloud and caused other customers in Starbucks to look up and wonder what was wrong with me.  I’ve been quoting “What’s your damage, Heather?” for years  thanks to Gilmore Girls, but I have a feeling it’s going to become even more of a go-to phrase for me now.  I can’t wait to watch it again.

Did I mention I thought post-Girls Just Want to Have Fun, pre-90210, pre-Charmed Shannen Doherty was one of the best parts of the film?

source: gurl.com
source: gurl.com
source: tumblr.com
source: tumblr.com

 

 

For more of my Heathers tweets, follow me on twitter @RLHammAuthor and search for #WatchingHeathers.

“G” is for Good Morning, Vietnam

| rachelhamm
source: rogerebert.com
source: rogerebert.com

Watched: March 21, 2015 on Netflix

Hashtag: #WatchingGoodAMVietnam

Year Released: 1987

Genre: Dramedy?

Starring: Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker

Run Time: 121 minutes

Description (from IMDb): An unorthodox and irreverent DJ begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the US Armed Services Radio station in Vietnam.

source: tumblr.com
source: tumblr.com

The first half of this movie was really funny – I laughed aloud several times and the most of my tweets were just quotes from the film.  Unfortunately, there were also several dramatic moments, especially in the latter half, which made the story feel uneven.  I realize it’s a movie about war, but it didn’t weigh the comedic and dramatic moments equally, making the drama feel shallow.

I’m finding it very interesting as I watch some of these older movies the evident lack of respect for women.  A few years ago, I probably wouldn’t have noticed at all.  It would have been just another movie, just another group of guys being guys, but I DO notice now.  And it bothers me.  I want to watch a movie where there are an equal number of male and female named characters.  Where every woman a man looks at doesn’t immediately become his next sexual conquest.  Ideally, I’ll watch a lot of movies like that during my lifetime.  One thing’s for sure, Good Morning, Vietnam was not that movie.  It doesn’t even come close to passing the Bechdel test.

Here’s a sampling of some of my tweets while watching the movie:

 

To read all of my tweets for the full experience of watching Good Morning, Vietnam for the first time, check out my Twitter @RLHammAuthor and look for #WatchingGoodAMVietnam.

“F” is for Four Weddings and a Funeral

| rachelhamm
source: movieguide.org
source: movieguide.org

Watched: March 5, 2015 on Netflix

Hashtag: #Watching4WedsAndAFuneral

Year Released: 1994

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Starring: Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell

Run Time: 117 minutes

Description (from Amazon): A reserved Englishman meets attractive American Carrie at a wedding and falls in love with her, but his inability to express his feelings seems to forestall any possibility of relationship – until they meet again and again.

 

I’m 50/50 on this movie.  I liked the comedy – there were several moments where I laughed out loud.  There were great one-liners, like this one

source: pinterest.com
source: pinterest.com

Hugh Grant (Charles) was charming, as he is in all his Richard Curtis collaborations, but it was not lost on me that he wasn’t really playing a character so much as playing a less skeezy version of himself (as he does in all his Richard Curtis collaborations).  Andie MacDowell as Carrie was fine, but she really had some horrible dialogue to deliver and it never felt as though we were getting much of a personality from her.  She was an ideal.  A Richard Curtis manic-pixie-dream-girl with a Southern American accent and a lot of sexual experience.  I didn’t buy their romance. It was too sudden in the beginning, too unrealistic at the end.

The rest of the cast of characters, on the other hand, was superb.  I found myself rooting for supporting characters whose names I didn’t even know, wishing they had more screen time (to replace stupid Charles and Carrie).  Kristin Scott Thomas as Fiona was droll and sneering with a bad word for everyone, but also vulnerable and relatable.  John Hannah (Matthew) and Simon Callow (Gareth) were the real couple to root for.  So subtle in their relationship their own best friends didn’t realize the extent of their commitment, yet so deeply in love that Matthew’s eulogy caused the only real stir of emotion in me while watching the film.  A gay couple who weren’t played as the gay couple.  A May-December relationship not played as a May-December relationship.  It was stunning.  Where’s THAT movie?  Attention Richard Curtis – the Matthew-Gareth RomCom is what you should have made.

source: online-video-company.co.uk
source: online-video-company.co.uk

Check out Twitter for more of my thoughts and tell me in the comments your favorite couple from the movie.

 

“E” is for Edge of Tomorrow

| rachelhamm
source: en.wikipedia.org
source: en.wikipedia.org

Watched: March 24, 2015 on DVD (rented from the library)

Hashtag: #WatchingEdgeofTomorrow

Year Released: 2014

Genre: Action

Starring: Emily Blunt, Tom Cruise

Run Time: 121 minutes

Description (from IMDb): A military officer is brought into an alien war against an extraterrestrial enemy who can reset the day and know the future. When this officer is enabled with the same power, he teams up with a Special Forces warrior to try and end the war.

 

 

source: tumblr.com
source: tumblr.com

Oh. My. Goodness.  I loved this movie.  It was so badass – Emily Blunt was so BAD ASS.  Tom Cruise did what he does best, inhabited a smarmy douche who needed to go through a lot of growth to become the hero of the movie. I’d heard/read great reviews of this movie, so I was excited, but then the previews came on and I got anxious.  They were all for really cheesy-seeming action movies and I worried that meant Edge of Tomorrow was going to be cheesy, too.  But no, it was amazing.  The story line, other than the Groundhog Day-ness of it, was so original.  The acting was phenomenal, the visual effects were great.

After watching, I went to IMDb (of course) and found out the movie was based on manga and novel ‘All you need is kill’ by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. So, then I had to go and find out what a “manga” is.  According to Wikipedia, manga are comics created in Japan, or by Japanese creators in the Japanese language, conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century. Now I really want to read it! If anyone wants to get me a gift, it’s on my Amazon wishlist 😉

source: businessinsider.com
source: businessinsider.com

 

 

For more tweets from this Watching experience, check out my twitter feed @RLHammAuthor and look for #WatchingEdgeofTomorrow

“D” is for The Descendants

| rachelhamm
source: sequoiaprod.com
source: sequoiaprod.com

Watched: March 19, 2015 on DVD

Hashtag: #WatchingTheDescendants

Year Released: 2011

Genre: Drama

Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley

Run Time: 115 minutes

Description (from Google): Native islander Matt King (George Clooney) lives with his family in Hawaii. Their world shatters when a tragic accident leaves his wife in a coma. Not only must Matt struggle with the stipulation in his wife’s will that she be allowed to die with dignity, but he also faces pressure from relatives to sell their family’s enormous land trust. Angry and terrified at the same time, Matt tries to be a good father to his young daughters, as they too try to cope with their mother’s possible death.

source: wifflegif.com
source: wifflegif.com

I went into this movie not knowing much about it (like most of the movies I’m watching for this project), except that Shailene Woodley had received a lot of praise for her performance and my mom didn’t understand why.  See, I got the copy of the DVD from my mother and she said that while Shailene was fine in the role of Alexandra, there wasn’t a lot to it, certainly nothing extraordinary.  I actually disagree.

Shailene and Amara Miller, who played the younger daughter Scottie, were the best part of the movie.  I was a little worried that Shailene would be too angsty, too misunderstood teen, but she actually took that start and really amped it up with pain and betrayal and grief and loyalty to her father, yet at no time did it feel like she was acting the part.  It was so natural.

Mr. Clooney, on the other hand, I really didn’t care for.  Especially at the beginning of the movie – his narration just keep reminding me of the old writer’s adage, “Show, don’t tell.”  I wanted him to stop telling us the story and let it unfold for itself.  Usually I like narration in film and television, but it really took this film down a few notches for me.

I liked the Hawaiian music and the overall plot, but I probably won’t watch the movie again.  I can’t see myself getting anything else out of it on repeat viewings.

source: chels725.com
source: chels725.com

 

 

If you want to see more of my tweets from my viewing of this movie, follow me on Twitter @RLHammAuthor and search for #WatchingTheDescendants

“C” is for Clue

| rachelhamm
source: pixgood.com
source: pixgood.com

Watched: March 4, 2015 on Netflix

Hashtag: #WatchingClue

Year Released: 1985

Genre: Mystery / Comedy

Starring: Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd

Run Time: 94 minutes

Description (from Google): Based on the popular board game, this comedy begins at a dinner party hosted by Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), where he admits to blackmailing his visitors. These guests, who have been given aliases, are Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), Mr. Green (Michael McKean), professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn) and Col. Mustard (Martin Mull). When Boddy turns up murdered, all are suspects, and together they try to figure out who is the killer.

source: darrenstein.tumblr.com
source: darrenstein.tumblr.com

This movie was really funny, super quirky. It was just a good time.  You could tell that the cast and director had a great time making the film.  I’ll definitely watch again.  I’m actually looking forward to getting to know the movie well, it seems like a great new film to add to my forever-quotable repertoire.

For those who’ve never watched it – the movie has three endings.  When it was first released in theaters, the endings were distributed to different locations, with the theaters advertising which ending they were showing so moviegoers who wanted to see each ending could find where they were.  Netflix shows all three endings back to back, with title cards in between.  “C” was definitely my favorite – it was the funniest and made the most sense with the rest of the movie.

Go to Twitter and search for #WatchingClue for more of my thoughts on the movie.

source: ifrymineinbutter.com
source: ifrymineinbutter.com

 

“B” is for Blood Diamond

| rachelhamm
source: imdb.com
source: imdb.com

Watched: March 7, 2015 on DVD

Hashtag: #WatchingBloodDiamond

Year Released: 2006

Genre: Drama

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Dijimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly

Run Time: 143 minutes

Description (from Google): As civil war rages through 1990s Sierra Leone, two men, a white South African mercenary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a black Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou), become joined in a common quest to recover a rare gem that has the power to transform their lives. With the help of an American journalist (Jennifer Connelly), the men embark on a hazardous trek through rebel territory to achieve their goal.

 

This was a difficult movie to watch.  Sitting on my couch, with my laptop and a bowl of popcorn, I was supremely aware of my privilege and good fortune.  Watching this man’s family be torn apart and knowing that I’ve never struggled for anything real in my entire life was uncomfortable, to say the least.  We watch these movies as entertainment, but are we educated?  I hope so, but I don’t know.  I’ll go about my life tomorrow, I may even tell my friends what a good movie it was, but will I do anything else?  I don’t know.

All this to say, it’s a very powerful movie.  The performances by DiCaprio (as Danny Archer) and Hounsou (as Solomon Vandy) were magnificent.  I would have liked to see some acknowledgement of the struggles women are also facing in Africa’s war zones, because it seems like powerful movies like this are always told from the male point-of-view, but one step at a time, right?

Anyways – watch this movie. It will make you emotional, but hopefully, it will also make you grateful for the ease of your life.

source: imoviequotes.com
source: imoviequotes.com

 

“A” is for An Affair to Remember

| rachelhamm

Welcome welcome welcome to Day 1 of the April A to Z Blog Challenge.  I’ll be participating by watching movies I’ve never seen before and telling you all about them.  I’m super excited, because I love movies and I love giving my opinion on things 🙂

To select my movies, I had a few simple criteria: 1) It had to be a movie I hadn’t seen before (duh) which meant I passed on a lot of movies I’ve seen once and wanted to watch again. 2) I wanted to be able to view for free so I could watch it easily at any time. This meant a few DVDs I’ve had on hand for a while but haven’t gotten around to, and a lot of Netflix. 3) I wanted to mix up genres and release years.  I didn’t want to exclusively watch classics or new-releases and I wanted to get out of my comfort zone in terms of the types of movies I normally watch. 4) “A” “An” and “The” do not count towards the alphabetical order, so the “A” in An Affair to Remember is for “Affair” and when I get to “D” for The Descendants, the “D” will stand for “Descendants.”  Get it?  Now on to the main event.

First up, the letter A!  As you can see by the title of the post and the previous paragraph, I selected An Affair to Remember for my “A” movie.  I was really excited as I love a good love story and Nora Ephron gave it a huge endorsement in her film Sleepless in Seattle.  I live-tweeted the experience.  Here are the details you need to know:

an affair to remember posterWatched: February 25, 2015 on Netflix

Hashtag: #WatchingAff2Remember

Year Released: 1957

Genre: Romance

Starring: Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr

Run Time: 119 minutes

Description (from Amazon): In this poignant and humorous love story nominated for four Academy Awards, Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr meet on an ocean liner and fall deeply in love. Though each is engaged to someone else, they agree to meet six months later at the Empire State Building if they still feel the same way about each other. But a tragic accident prevents their rendezvous and the lover’s future takes an emotional and uncertain turn.

An-affair-to-remember-an-affair-to-remember-32481243-500-213

I was actually pretty surprised by my reaction to this movie.  Perhaps I’m growing more cynical and sarcastic as I get older, but I found it more ridiculous than romantic.  The dialogue was unrealistic, the situations were contrived, and the plot felt forced.  The two leads did have chemistry (for the most part) and the locations and costumes were beautiful, which were the saving grace of the film.  It made me want to watch more films starring Cary Grant.

Several times throughout the film, I found myself thinking about the changes in cinema from then to now.  The characters seemed so distant, so removed from the audience.  Movies made nowadays feel more intimate, like the audience is allowed to be a part of the action.  It took me forever to figure out character names and careers in Affair, but in modern films, we know those things straight-away.  I probably wouldn’t watch again.

Here’s a sampling of my tweets, but if you want more, follow me on Twitter @RLHammAuthor.