And I remember your charming story about "All You Need Is Love" playing at your wedding and the best man training the camera on you the entire reception because he was secretly in love with you! You, crazy Brits, and your whimsical ways!

McCabe and Mrs. Miller: Not half bad. Dull, bleak and smug, but I’ve been to British Columbia before.

Altman goes on and on about this being the first movie to go up to Canada, just to be the trend setter. So we have him to thank for all the movies trying to pass off Toronto as New York.

So a functional demystification of the west if overrated, but then again what has Altman done that isn’t? This was back in the day when he could do a scene without leaning over and saying “You gettin’ this?”

I will admit the finale in the snow was a happy accident. I just don’t know if I can forgive all the subsequent tangents Altman went on because of such minor mishaps (and all the ensuing critical circle jerks).

Minor note: I was totally distracted by Julie Christie’s Afro.

I’d also like to point out thanks to Gosford Park I took immense pleasure in eating with a spork this weekend.

It would be so silly of someone to sniffle through that sequence where Keira Knightley's character was watching the tape, wouldn't it? Or the part when Emma Thompson's character gets weepy after >>opening the Joni Mitchell CD, when she was expecting the necklace?<<

Not that I know anyone who did that.

*cough*

I need to watch something like the Matrix trilogy, which will make one weep only at how bad the second/third installments are.

Dude, who didn't at least sniffle at that second part you mentioned?

Those are some damn sniffy parts. Hell I cried when Laura Linney was <<all alone at the end, and at parts of Liam Neeson's hot widowerness. So hot. So sad. >>.

Plus that movie has Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister and Bill Nighy as Billy Mack. Making it the best film, ever.

I still prefer Richard Curstis's pristine, sumptuous distortion of reality to Nancy Meyers's.

Yeah the soundtrack is usually better too in Richard Curtis land and the quirky minor characters seem like more fun.
I saw Love Actually in the theaters three times.

Been going through a load of World War One movies lately. I was watching The Blue Max and had the captions on. I paused it to go to the kitchen and returned to see George Peppard and Ursula Andress in a Greman castle with the caption "Say What?"

I finally rented Sixteen Candles, after realizing that I've missed out on a lot of teen classics/chick flicks and wanting to catch up. Except it turns out I wasn't missing out, and could have lived happily after without ever seeing this, because I really didn't like it. I thought it was racist, sexist, and not very funny. I was surprised at how much it bugged me, seeing that I really liked The Breakfast Club.

For all their shared themes, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club are really very different films. It's not surprising that people might like one and not the other. Personally, I preferred Candles: true, Gedde Watanabe's character is right up there with Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's (although at least Hughes hired an Asian actor for the role), but the teen and family archetypes felt more true -- probably because they were suspended within an actual plot, and not shoehorned into a 100-minute actor's exercise. (Also, I hate Judd Nelson.)

Oh, I forgot, that was one thing I did like about the movie. Sam's family was funny, especially her meddling grandparents and jerky younger brother.

Yes. Also Jake Ryan.

Between Jake Ryan and Lloyd Dobbler, it's no wonder I had unreasonable expectations, heh. I think this article sums it up best.

I love both Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, but I think Pretty in Pink is my favorite. (OT, but we saw Andrew McCarthy in a play years ago, and my friend bet me $100 that I wouldn't yell "what about prom, Blaine?!?!" at him during the curtain call. Sadly, I was surrounded by donors and board members, and I just couldn't do it.)

Back on-topic, I watched Trust the Man. It was mediocre at best, but the end had me all teary-eyed. I'm such a dork.

Jake Ryan's incredibly handsome, but his whole "Feel free to borrow my girlfriend and take advantage of her in her drunken state, because she's a bitch so it's okay" scene didn't really do it for me.

-A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. Great acting from most of the cast, but I felt like more could have been done with the story. I didn't realize it was based on a book until I watched the end credits (there wasn't any reference to the book on the DVD package).

-Girl With a Pearl Earring. Quicker than the book and nice to look at, but I wasn't too crazy with the changes made to the ending. It seemed like in the movie she stays home with her parents, whereas in the book she marries the butcher's son. Apart from that and the near-lack of Griet's family, it's a fairly faithful adaptation.

-Hannibal Rising. The movie's only saving grace? It's beautifully filmed. That's really the only positive remark I can make about this movie.