I is for Indiana Jones and Interview with the Vampire

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

I’m confused as to what letter I should be on right now because I was supposed to skip Sundays which would mean my post from the 1st and the 8th and my “I” post would be for tomorrow. Oh well, everyone else is posting their Is for today so I will too. With the newest revelation that some people don’t know Titanic was a real event and not just a movie, I am compelled to keep on with my Culture Month theme.

With the I films, there were some monumental ones to choose from: Independence Day, Innerspace, IT (Which is one of my favourite movies and it really should be on this list but since there are so questionable shots, I didn’t put it as a top notch film. It was a mini series, after all.) Then, I had the task of not including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and opting for another.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: Hands down, my favourite of all Indiana Jones films. Harrison Ford is legendary as a smart, funny, action character who knows how to captivate an audience. While all the Indy films are on cable, I will only guess that some people of a younger generation have only seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull, a film that any respectable Indy fan has decided never happened. It’s awful and if audiences don’t understand the awesome origins of the relationship between Indy and Marion then they have missed out on a whole lot of better film making. You have Nazis, treasure hunting, large balls of death, monkeys, jungle natives and a lot of snakes. And, again, the movie is amazing because of how well Harrison Ford makes this character so dang cool. He’s not perfect and that’s great. You still want him to go into a large tomb of dead things to recover something those pesky Nazis want to take (one even gets his face melted off for being so awful.) If students have been to the Indiana Jones stunt show at Disney Hollywood Studios, they have to see this film to appreciate the action sequences that they’re re-creating.

Marion: You’re not the man I knew ten years ago.
Indiana: It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.

Interview with the Vampire: Here’s the obvious reason for why I’ve chosen this film – Twilight. The year that I graduated high school, Interview came out. We were all amazed. We had seen the Dracula remake two years earlier but Interview was just phenomenal. It stuck to and played with the lore of the vampire, so it gave us new ideas about the old tenants of vampirism. It is fittingly beautiful, creepy and gruesome all at once and as Anne Rice says, these vampires are really evil. They are stuck with living forever as a killer and it’s not something to be envied. The acting was spectacular with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst (yes, they did films like this less than 20 years ago so I’m sure a lot of younger fans haven’t seen this before.) The film does go overboard in convincing us what it means to be a vampire but it’s not so much that we hate the film. In fact, the way the story is executed is quite unique in Louie telling the interviewer, Christian Slater (where the heck has he been lately?) his life story. And wow, what a long story. The best story about the vampire is their epic history and that’s why this movie does so well at showing us the places Louie had been and how he became the monster he is in the present day. Seriously, since vampires are so popular these days, students should really watch one that upholds the basic vampire story. While Twilight is interesting and all, it’s not a well done film and it doesn’t show the way vampires have been thought of since, oh, forever. So this vampire fascination isn’t anything new.

Louis: That morning I was not yet a vampire, and I saw my last sunrise. I remember it completely, and yet I can’t recall any sunrise before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time as if it were the first. And then I said farewell to sunlight, and set out to become what I became.

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H is for Heathers

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

I’m narrowing the H category down to one film. It’s Easter Sunday and I’m sure most of us have more important things to do like relaxing with our families rather than reading blog posts. Besides, for the H films I came up with only a few that went in this category at all: Hackers (worth seeing for the 90s, pre-internet movie idea of computer hacking), Half Baked (Dave Chappelle is hilarious), Howard the Duck (the movie that made me want a crimping iron) and Heavenly Creatures (which is a weird, disturbing film that I do highly recommend.)

Heathers: There’s been plenty of discussion about the comparison between this film and Mean Girls. Which film is really more like high school? Three popular girls are horrible in every way and one rebel, here, Veronica, comes up with a gruesome way to solve the school’s problems. With the help of her twisted boyfriend, J.D., they start killing the preps and the jocks to make it look like a suicide. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Well, within the construct of the movie, it’s funny. The dark comedy makes you laugh when you see Veronica being tormented by the idea of how she’s killed one of the Heathers. She even goes as far as to shoot J.D. and stop him from blowing up the school. She’s a heroine but in a far-out way and by seeing how vicious and outrageous the Heathers act, you understand why Veronica and J.D. are okay with a plot to kill. Veronica does save the innocent in the end though and J.D. dies so everything is okay again. Not very funny until you actually see it and understand how it’s presented. The disturbing factor is made ridiculous and it ends up being a cult classic for all us gals who grew up with Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty (students may still think 90210 isn’t a remake.)  Again, it’s all in the way the movie is shot with over-the-top costumes, dialogue and scenery. The teens act awful and you love every minute of it because it’s so beyond reality.

Veronica Sawyer: What is your damage, Heather?

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G is for Gone with the Wind and GoodFellas

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

Narrowing these films down to two for each category is getting harder. There are a bunch of amazing G category films that must be mentioned: Goonies, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and Gremlins mainly. Plus, there’s also Girl, Interrupted and Good Will Hunting that come in as a close third for awesomeness. However, there are two that are just superb over the rest, in my humble opinion.

Gone with the Wind: I feel bad for anyone who has not at least seen this movie once because it is so dang amazing. It’s not just a girl flick either, despite the heroine being the best heroine of all time. There’s war and shooting and dudes drinking and all sorts of such things that would make men interested in this film. The context of the Civil War plus the epic story of Scarlett O’Hara and being so blindly selfish that her strength saves everyone in her family. And even though she’s too worried about getting “the wooden headed Ashley Wilkes” (I can quote that without even looking it up – I’ve seen it that many times) she can’t see that Rhett Butler is the man for her. Plus, it’s great because the end isn’t even really an end. We can speculate on what happened after Rhett left her again (I ignore any attempts to create sequels to this story) and it makes us feel like the story keep living on even though it was released in 1939. Vivien Leigh is still the most beautiful actress I’ve ever seen on screen to this day after all this time in Hollywood history. I can’t say everything I want to about how much I love this movie and how much everyone should give it a chance. It’s just amazing for the acting, dialogue, storyline, filming, colour, staging, costuming, history, production…it’s just really, really good. It’s been rating as the best film ever made, so you’re not just going on my opinion. Trust me.

Scarlett: Oh! You sir are no gentlemen.
Rhett Butler: And you Ms. are no lady.

GoodFellas: This one isn’t a chick flick at all. In fact, it’s really gruesome and violent. But that doesn’t keep this movie from being an epic story about the life of Henry Hill.  Henry becomes a gangster in his teens, lives the high life as a young adult, then has to run for his life after betraying the mob family that let him in so early on. Some people hate voiceovers in films for some reason but I really like them. I like knowing that this is Henry’s story and what he thinks and feels about every single person and event that he’s involved in throughout the whole film. I also like knowing what his wife, Karen, thinks about Henry and the life that they lead. Plus, since De Niro and Pesci (no first names necessary) are headlining with Ray Liotta, the story is wonderful because the acting is so dang good. You believe these guys are gangsters and you still like them. You still laugh at their jokes and you still don’t really blame them for killing guys like Billy Batts. In the end, you know Henry and Karen are at the end of their reign as mobster royalty and they have no choice but to turn their mob family in. It’s just one of those movies that can be rivalled perhaps only with by The Godfather (which I admit I’ve only seen parts of but if I’d seen all of it then I’d probably put it on this list as honourable mention).

Henry Hill: You know, we always called each other good fellas. Like you said to, uh, somebody, :You’re gonna like this guy. He’s all right. He’s a good fella. He’s one of us.: You understand? We were good fellas. Wiseguys.

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F is for Ferris Bueller and Fried Green Tomatoes

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

There are a handful of Fs that I can add for Culture Month, including Frasier, which isn’t a movie but it was darn good television, just as is Flight of the Conchords. Also, there’s Flight of the Navigator that goes along similar lines of E.T. with the cute kid befriending a space alien (but this alien I have seen with my own eyes at Hollywood Studios!) But I limited this, again, to the two of my ultimate favourites that should be seen by students at least once.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: I have loved this movie since I first saw it as a kid and I always will. This was released in 1986 so by that time I was around 10 years old and thinking Ferris Bueller was the hippest, coolest kid in high school. Who wouldn’t want to take the day off just to enjoy life instead of being in a childish and stupid institution like high school (Amen, Mr. Bueller.) The thing is, I doubt most students have seen this movie and if they had, they wouldn’t understand how funny it is to see Ferris wiggle his way out of running around Chicago and not getting caught by Mr. Rooney. These days we have home-schooling and complete lack of fear for administrators (not everywhere but in a lot of schools) so the situation may not be as impactful as it would in the 80s. However, the fun of it, the great dialogue, the basic story, the awesome acting of our buddy, Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Gray make this one of the best teenage films ever made. (By the way, I know this movie is full of good quotes but I have to pick just one of the goodies.)

Ferris: Oh, I’m sorry. I can’t come to the door right now. I’m afraid that in my weakened condition, I could take a nasty spill down the stairs and subject myself to further school absences. You can reach my parents at their places of business. Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your concern for my well-being. Have a nice day!

Fried Green Tomatoes: Yes, this is a chick flick and no I don’t expect everyone to love it. However, I do think that female students should see this because of the themes of friendship and family. Idgie Thredgoode is a strong female character. Granted, she’s flawed but she doesn’t let anyone tell her how to treat the ones she loves – even if it means murder! However, Ruth the sweet, female protagonist who does the right thing but is still subjected to the harshness of living in Alabama during The Depression. The reason why women love this movie so much is the dialect and the Southern setting. Even though it’s on cable a lot, and I see it every time it’s on, I doubt most students have bothered watching it. It’s too bad too, because, again, this one would make girls see how life was in the 20s-30s and if they think things are that much different than they are now. What kinds of things would they be willing to do to protect their friends and family? Plus, in the story-line with Evelyn and Ninny, there is a lot of similar issues that are brought up such as age discrimination, women’s identify, empowerment and sense of worth. The acting is superb and it’s a funny story of troubled ladies. What’s not to like?

Ruth: I can understand having a funeral for an arm, I just don’t know WHY she insists on calling him Stump.
Sipsey: Miss Idgie says everybody else will be calling him that, we might as well be the first.

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E is for E.T. and Eternal Sunshine

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

I’ll start off by saying that the number one E film is Empire Strikes Back. I know it, you know it, and the whole world knows it (except maybe for this guy.) So even though I had students say to me, “I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars films.” Or, worse yet, “I’ve only seen the Star Wars with Jar-Jar,” I decided to choose the movies that a lot of student probably haven’t seen already. Honourable mention also goes out to Explorers in the E category but it’s been ages since I’ve seen it.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: I’m going to make an educated assumption that a lost of students have not seen E.T. before. (If they didn’t know who The Smurfs were before the Katy Perry movie, and trust me, they didn’t, then I doubt some of them know who E.T. is.) Now, I see this movie on cable all the time and I know there’s a lot of trivia that goes into the making of and discussion of the movie between Lucas and Spielberg. However, the bottom line is you have a family-friendly movie about an alien who gets left behind on Earth. But what’s great about this was that is was done well so there wasn’t too many iffy effects going on so you could feel the possibility that bicycles could fly if you had an alien in the front basket. Plus, as Steve points out every time we see it, if E.T. had been made today, the kids wouldn’t be interacting with a puppet in a home, they would be talking to thin air in front of a green screen. Every aspect of the alien would be CGI and there would be a huge disconnect and feel of low budget quality if it were remade today. So, hands off of this one, guys! Plus, the kids in this are great – ah, little, screaming her head off Drew Barrymore, you were so cute as Gertie.

E.T.: E.T.! E.T.! E.T.! Be good.
Gertie: “Be good”! I taught him that too!
Elliot: You should give him his dignity. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: This is another reality life mixed with sci-fi story. Joel and Clementine had a relationship despite their being completely different people. But they can’t remember one another. Due to the efforts at Lacuna, the brain can be erased of certain memories that are particularly troubling and painful. Hello! Brilliant concept! So aside from the story being weird and unique, the way the movie is shot is spectacular. There is a lot of colour and odd sequences where the memories that Joel tries to hold on to fall apart in his mind. I appreciate this movie so much because Jim Carrey does a great job at being a dramatic actor. Plus, Kate Winslet is one of my all-time favourite actresses so seeing her as a bright hair coloured, hip American girl working at a bookstore is very cool.

Clementine: Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine.
Joel: I don’t know what that means.
Clementine: Are you NUTS?
Joel: It’s been suggested.

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