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.
Great write-up! You did the right letter. We were supposed to post "A" on April 1, even though it was a Sunday, and then skip Sundays after that. There's a schedule somewhere; I think it's over at the A to Z Challenge blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. I'll go look at the schedule. I got so confused after that 4 day Easter holiday.
DeleteHi Suzanne. I know you from Twitter and then saw you are doing the A-Z. I think everybody is on "I" .... So, you're good. There's a lot of great movies you've mentioned. I think Christian Slater has done some television. There was a series last season that may have been canceled.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the last Indiana Jones movie. It wasn't as awesome of the previous ones, but I was entertained enough to be satisfied.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the movie got a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes so a lot of people enjoyed it. It just felt like a cheap imitation of what Indy use to be. :-/
DeleteThank you. I'm glad to know I've caught up.
ReplyDeletePoor cancelled Christian Slater. I remembered that incident where he was groping random women on the street. Hope he's gotten over that habit. Haha.
Hi Suzanne!
ReplyDeleteFollowed you here from Twitter for the A to Z challenge!
Great movie choices and two of my favorites. Those quotes make me want to watch them all over again. Is it embarassing I used to have a HUGE crush on Christian Slater?
Thanks so much for following me here. I'm sure you weren't the only one who had a thing for Christian Slater - he had a lot of star power back then.
DeleteWow, these are two of my favorite movies/series of all time. Especially Indy. In fact, almost every movie you've mentioned is on my list of favorites (Eternal Sunshine...oh so good). You have awesome taste. Definite new follower.
ReplyDeleteAww, thank you so much. I appreciate your following so much. :-)
DeleteOh yes, I love Indiana...but had to explain to my 18-year-old daughter why, as the latest movie just didn't do it! The earlier movies hit the right spot, so we've shown them to the kids!
ReplyDeleteYes, we were definitely privileged to see the first movies years ago. So glad you showed your kids Indy in his prime. :-)
DeleteIndiana Jones and Last Crusade was one of the bast films ever made. Too bad about kingdom of the crystal skull though, I was so hoping that movie would be just as epic. instead it tanked, big time. Oh, well I always think of Indy as a Nazi fighting professor :)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I was so excited to see a new Indy and it just didn't satisfy. We'll remember him as he was. Haha.
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