Movie – The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

More people have probably seen the 1999 version of The Thomas Crown Affair that starred Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.  That was a remake of the 1968 film of the same name that starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.  I like both equally, but for different reasons.  For this post I will concentrate on the 1968 version, which includes a very sexy….chess game.

Movie – Sirens (1993)

The movie Sirens features early roles for Hugh Grant and Tara Fitzgerald.  They would re-team two years later for The Englishman Who Went up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.  In Sirens it is much more Fitzgerald who gets to be sexy rather than Grant.

He plays a young reverend that has come to Australia with his wife (Fitzgerald) in the 1930s.  He is asked to visit an artist (Sam Neill) who has painted a scene that the church considers blasphemous.  The reverend is to convince the artist to withdraw the painting.  He thinks this will be easy.

Movie – Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Girl with a Pearl Earring came out the same year as Scarlett Johansson’s movie Lost in Translation.  While the latter is much better known she ended up getting Golden Globe Best Actress nominations for both.  I consider her performance in Girl with a Pearl Earring not only better than her performance in Lost in Translation, but also better than any other performance in her career.

Movie – Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

Dangerous Liaisons is based on the 1782 novel Le liaisons dangereuses, which has been adapted many times.  The 1999 movie Cruel Intentions is another example.  The novel captured all the decadence, sin, and plotting that was going on in the French courts at the time.  The fact that it has been adapted so many times shows that stories about these subjects never go out of style.

Movie – Don Juan Demarco (1994)

A couple of years ago I was discussing the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie with a co-worker.  She mentioned she had “a thing” for Johnny Depp.  I told her that if that was the case then she had to see his movie Don Juan Demarco.  She smiled fondly, and a little naughtily, and said that she had.

Movie – Pump Up the Volume (1990)

Pump Up the Volume is one of those semi-forgotten movies.  It stars Christian Slater, who’s earlier movie Heathers overshadows this one.  In fact, this movie pretty much is Christian Slater.  He is in almost every scene and he gets to play two very different personalities.  I’m here to remind people of this movie and to let you know why I feel it should not be forgotten.

Humor – Guess the Movie Quiz #1

I’m going to do a little quiz from time to time as I run across photos that apply.  How will the quiz work?  I will post a photo and from that you try to figure out what movie it refers to. 

I’ll start with one that also ties into another blog I recently started following: The Large Association of Movie Blogs.  You can read their post about my blog here.

Here is the photo.  What is the movie?

You can find the answer here.

Movie – Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

First things first: this movie is not a sequel or prequel to the flawed 2001 Planet of the Apes movie.  It is also not directly related to any of the five Planet of the Apes (POTA) movies that came out from 1968 to 1973, although it is somewhat similar to the fourth one – Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.  No, this movie is essentially a reboot of the franchise and it starts it at the beginning of the story.  It’s a very good movie, and it is better than all the other POTA movies, with the exception of the original 1968 classic.

TV and Book – Game of Thrones

The book A Game of Thrones was first published in 1996.  It is the first book in the series titled A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.  In the summer of 2011 HBO adapted it into a ten episode television season by the name Game of Thrones.  The series proved to be very popular with viewers.  HBO is currently filming the second season, which will be based on the next book in the series.

Whistling While I Work

I’ve spent the last couple of days making some changes to the posts here on the blog. 

1.  All hiking videos have had their hosts changed from the blog itself to Youtube.  I was never happy with what the blog did to the quality of the videos when I uploaded them.  I originally avoided Youtube since some places (such as my last employer) block their videos, but I finally decided that the quality of the videos had to be improved.  You will now be able to watch them full screen to get a much better view of these locations.

2.  I added links among posts on this blog to make it more understandable how to get to related posts.  It turns out that the Labels I have been creating are not being used by everyone because they don’t understand what they are there for.  People also don’t notice the Search box in the upper right, either.

To try to make it easier, I have added links to the related, individual posts in the Category Intro posts.  The Labels will still be there, so if you are used to using those, nothing will change.

3.  Another thing that has been happening is some people have been reading this blog from newest posts to older posts, which means the Category Intros are not being seen until after the movie posts related to them have been seen.  In the future I will post so that the Category Intros show up above the movie posts.  Please note that this will not always be possible, though.  Situations like my reviews of the 2011 Summer movies will require me to continue to post in the order I have been doing.

For those who have not noticed the Labels, or not known what they were for, here are all of the Categories I have posted about.  Clicking on the links will take you to posts describing them and within them will be links to the movies that fall into those Categories.

Movie Categories:

Won All Five Major Oscars

Great Child Performances

Narrated By Dead People

Musical Numbers for No Reason

2011 Oscar Nominees  [Note - search results list, not individual post]

Gwyneth Paltrow is British

Serious Badasses

Everyday Heroes

My Top 10 of 2010

Before Star Wars

The Millenium Trilogy

Zack Snyder

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost

Commentaries Done in Character

2011 Big Summer Movies
Sexy Moments
After Star Wars
Pretending to Play Themselves
Women with Big Guns

Other Categories:

All Things Castle

All Things Joss Whedon

Uncommon Teen Musicians

Note:  I also have Labels for movies by decade, by my star rating, and by foreign language to make it easier to find them.  Those links, and others, are over on the right.

Humor – Look-alike Celebrities

Have you ever been watching a movie, or a celebrity interview, and thought it was one person, only to find out that it was someone else?  Me, too.

It makes sense that some entertainers resemble each other, since attractiveness is a key attribute to have to be successful, and since attractiveness falls into some pretty standard categories.  Maybe it’s the eyes, or the cheekbones, or even the entire face that is similar.  Here is an example of what I mean:

Eric Dane (Grey's Anatomy) is on the left and Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception) is on the right.

Click “Read more” for the others.

Movie – Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Captain America is the last of the movies Marvel Studios is releasing prior to next May’s Avengers movie.  This movie introduces the last major character for the coming film.  Captain America: The First Avenger has something that none of the other lead in movies had – an honest to God hero.  This is a big, old-fashioned superhero movie, one where the good guy is actually worthy of being called a hero.

Movie – Sucker Punch Extended Version (2011)

A new review of the superior, extended version of Sucker Punch now available on Blu-ray has been included with my original review of the censored, theatrical version.  It raises it from a three star movie to a four star movie.  Both reviews are available here.

Humor – Harry Potter Album Covers

Ever wonder what some classic album covers would look like if Harry Potter characters were on them?  Me neither, but seeing them gave me a good laugh.

(And if your response is “What’s an album cover?” then, yes, I am much older than you.)

Here is my favorite – Snape as Elvis:

Click “Read more” for the others.

Movie – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

As the poster says, “It all ends.”  This is the eighth and final Harry Potter movie.  The prior seven have all been very popular and this one may end up being the most popular of them all.  Critics almost universally approve of the movie.  People who have read the books have been a little more critical of it, and not in a nitpicky “he wore a RED shirt in the book, not a GREEN one!” kind of way.  Reactions have been the strongest to the moviemakers choosing to weaken the intensity of the final Harry vs. Voldemort battle.  The result is that many readers who were looking forward to this incredible scene got something that was more anticlimactic than they were expecting.  I share this feeling.  Personally, while watching the movie I was figuring I would give this film five stars, but the last 15 or 20 minutes were a little bit of a let down.  It’s still a very good four star movie, though.

Hike – Ocean Path

Otter Cliffs from the Ocean Path

The Ocean Path is a very scenic walk along the ocean side of the Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park.  It leads from Sand Beach to Otter Cliffs.  While you can drive by the same views in a car, you get an entirely different perspective when you walk it.  This is an easy way for even non-hikers to enjoy tremendous views and it is highly recommended.

Hike – Gorham Mountain

Otter Cove from Gorham Mountain

Gorham Mountain is located in Acadia National Park in Maine.  It is a not-too-difficult way to get excellent views of the ocean and Park area from Great Head to Otter Cliffs.  It is also the first hike I ever did in Acadia.  My sister Lynette and her husband George asked me to join them on it. 

This post describes a loop that traverses Gorham Mountain and returns to the starting point via part of the Ocean Path.  

Movie – Bad Teacher (2011)

Bad Teacher is full of rude humor, bad language, and doesn’t teach us An Important Lesson.  In other words, it’s not like most of the comedy pablum that Hollywood has been pumping out for years.  It’s a movie with enough laughs to recommend it, if you are not in one of two major groups – 1. Idiot parents who took their children to see it because it was about a teacher; and 2. People in the “Justin Timberlake is so sexy no matter what he does” club.

Humor – Fails

The world has a lot of idiots and proof of this seems to eventually end up on the internet.  I have tons of these.  Here is a sampling:

Movie – Cars 2 (2011)

So what’s up with this movie?  It’s from Pixar, which has been a guarantee of quality over the years, yet for the first time movie critics have largely given a Pixar movie bad reviews.  Audience scores are quite high, though.  Why the big difference?  One word: Mater.  If you don’t like this character then you won’t like this movie.  If you love this character you will love this movie.  I may be one of the few people in the middle.  I think that this sequel is as good as the original, but I feel the original is one of the weaker Pixar movies.  I like Cars 2 well enough to recommend it, but not to say it is a must see.