Sunday, August 14, 2005

All Star Wars, All the Time? Dido turned four yesterday. Four is a big kid age, no longer a toddler, just beginning what I think of as childhood (as opposed to babyhood) and it probably ought to freak me out more than it does. We had a Star Wars-themed birthday party yesterday, complete with lots of kids, parents, swimming, and a Darth Vader pinata. Friends came from all over town, Gramma came from Seattle, he got more loot than Bonnie or Clyde, and tonight as a tired family, we all watched "The Princess Bride" together...which, incidentally, is one of the Top 50 Movies for Kids Under 14 according to a British Film Institute poll...with thanks to fussy for turning me on to the list. This list, and the reading meme I pilfered from Alyssa the other week, made me, in best derivative fashion, do the following (and to my mother I say, yes, I say yes, I say yes, if the other kids all jumped off the cliff, of course I'd go, too!) 1. TOTAL NUMBER OF MOVIES I'VE SEEN Ok, I'm 39. I'd guestimate that now I see close to 30 movies per year, counting the ones on DVD. Repeat viewing doesn't count, and up until high school, I probably only saw five or six per year. So...I'm guessing here, maybe 600-700 total? 2. LAST MOVIE I SAW "Spanglish", which was a whole lot better than I'd been led to believe by the kind of savage reviews I read. 3. LAST MOVIE I SAW IN THE THEATER "Herbie". I have a four year old. Shut up. 4.FIVE MOVIES THAT MEAN A LOT TO ME "The Best Years of our Lives"--William Wyler classic about veterans returning home after WWII. Totally relevant even now, incredibly modern in many ways, and always moving. The movie that made me want to make movies. "2001"--not my favorite Kubrick, by a long stretch, but the movie that the H and I discussed on our first date, so a sentimental favorite. "Paths of Glory"--my favorite Kubrick. Genius (anti)war film. "The Lost Boys"--And now for something completely different. Really. I love this film. I have seen it so many times, and the H ridicules me, and I care not. You haven't lived until you've seen Jami Gertz as "Star", and the Coreys as comic book aficionados/vampire hunters. Just to be clear, this is not an ironic choice. "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"--not the new one, the real one. It may have all been Gene Wilder's acid fantasy, but it remains my favorite movie of childhood, bar none. This is my damn meme, and I can't believe I've limited myself to five, so... 5. MOVIE THAT YOU THOUGHT OF WHEN YOU FINISHED THE ABOVE LIST AND COULDN'T BELIEVE YOU'D OMITTED It's a tie (tricky, huh?) between "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Priscilla Queen of the Desert", both of which were really important to me, in a personal, emotional way, during my twenties. 6. MOVIE THAT EVERYONE ELSE LOVED THAT YOU COULDN'T STAND Here I'd have to go with "The Unforgiven", which to this day I think of as "The Unwatchable." I know, I'm a voice in the wilderness on this one. 7. FIVE BLOGGERS I'M PASSING THIS ON TO I don't even think I know five bloggers...let's see: MiekeKristal, Alyssa, Birdie...and tho' I don't know her, I'm going to send it to Fussy, since she kind of got me started on this timesuck tonight... BTW, there are at least three other movie memes out there, this one, and this one-- which seems to have morphed into this one. I like mine better. So there. 10:21:02 PM     comment [] trackback []