Movie Blog Tag

Ah, another game of blog tag! This one come via Thomas at Newsrack Blog.

Four movie questions

Total number of films I own: I'm going to say 100 - but some of those are the kids'.  I'm not, for instance, a big fan of the first Pokemon movie or some of the later Scooby Doo cartoons.

The last film I bought: The Life Aquatic   But I haven't had time to watch it yet.

The last film I watched:  The Devil and Miss Jones.  It's about a millionaire department store owner who goes undercover as an employee in his store to ferret out the union organizers who are trying to organize the store.  While living among the working class, he falls in love with one of the pro-union gang and comes to respect the others.  The end wimps out on the question of how the labor dispute is resolved, which was a big disappointment.   It should be remade today, but who would fund it?  The orignal even opens with this note to America's wealthy men: (paraphrase)

The character of the world's richest man is fictional and  based on nobody in particular.  It would be a shame to make anyone angry.  P.S. Nobody sue.  P.P.S. Please.

Watch it just to see Bob Cummings' Declaration of Independence scene in the police station. 

Five favorite films I either watch frequently or that mean a lot to me: I'm going with six, even though I could go with twenty-five easily.  I have a lot of favorite movies.

Notorious - This is my favorite movie.  I always feel bad that I don't like Casablanca more, because I love Casablanca, but Notorious has Ingrid Bergman AND Cary Grant and this is his best film.  I could watch this movie every day and not get tired of it.  It's romantic, it's sexy.  I love it.  I even loved the MI2 remake of it.  Wag the Dog - "This is nothing."  There's only one wasted scene in this whole movie. If if weren't for the very awkward plane crash, where, I assume the pilot died but nobody cares, it would be perfect.   Life of Brian - "He has a wife, you know."   It's a Wonderful Life - "George Bailey lassos stork!"  I'm a sucker for stories about people dealing with life's little, consistent disappointments instead of the crushing ones, which bum me out.  This is my favorite movie for that theme.  Singing in the Rain - best musical ever, even though Gene Kelly said On the Town was his favorite.   The More the Merrier - Joel McCrea walking Jean Arthur home is even sexier than Notorious and the whole movie is hysterical.   

I'm passing this on to Doghouse Riley, who's always dissing Turner Classic Movies and I want to know why, damnit.   Riggsveda, at  It's My Country Too because she needs a bloggy distraction and Michael at Reading A1 because he hasn't done one of these silly things yet as far as I remember.  An unexamined movie collection isn't worth having.

UPDATE: I forget to invite anyone who feels like it to leave their answers in the comments.  Bad blogger.  Comment away!

Comments

[PSoTD]

Alright, moving on to movies.

Here's my five:

The Iron Giant - I don't care that it's animation, it was supposed to be for a younger audience, etc. Brad Bird did an awesome job of bringing the mechanical alien Jesus story to life. Our kids love this movie, and we love it too. It is the It's A Wonderful Life movie the last ten years - I think it's going to be seen as a classic in the years to come, but really wasn't appreciated the first go-around.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. " Well, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!"

It's A Wonderful Life. Enough said.

Eight Men Out. It may not be John Sayles' best movie, but it's the best baseball movie - ever. Don't give me that League of their Own or The Natural or Field of Dreams crap. This is the real thing. This is baseball. This is class struggle.

The Thing (John Carpenter's version). Yep, I like the horror and monster movies, the little boy in me just won't let go. This one still has some great freaky moments. Carpenter was never better.

[Thomas Nephew]

Great choices; I'll have to check out "Notorious" again. And I've never seen "The More the Merrier" so I'm going to check it out next chance I get.

[eRobin]

I have been avoiding Eight Men Out because I know the ending and it's a sad one. But someone else I really respect likes it too so I guess I'll have to suck it up and see it. This minute Bull Durham is my favorite baseball movie and not because of the romance, which leaves me cold. I like the struggle between the kid on the way up and the guy on his way out. That's baseball to me.

[Michael]

Thanks for the tag, eR. I'd have emailed, but for whatever reason my mail server isn't letting anything out right now. So the post (which I took too long at, but it was fun anyway) is here.

[Riggsveda]

I finally posted on this, but strangely enough, I left a long comment right here the other night when the big storm came through, and when I came back later, it was gone. Don't know if I forgot to hit post or if my laptop was struck by lightning or what. But thanks.