Friday, December 20, 2013

Twelve Movies of Christmas....

  On the FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...
                                       
                                      

The best Christmas special ever! A classic T.V. special first aired in 1966. Best Christmas dog ever, Max, tipping forward when the Grinch ties the antlers on his head. Still make me giggle internally!

On the  SECOND  DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...


a really foul but kind of funny movie. The cat, the tree....the squirrel,  it worth all the "undertones."

On the THIRD DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...

a very appropriate movie for the whole family...."Sisters, Sisters, their were never such devoted sisters..."

On the FORTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...


with many, many English Christmas scenes including Colin Firth in a reindeer sweater. 

On the  FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...


any HARRY POTTER movie with Hogwarts covered in snow and festive in lights and evergreen. 

On the SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...


a shoot 'em up , blow 'em up caroling, Ho Ho Holiday offering.

On the SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...


gave me another one.

On the EIGHT DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...



What is it about England and Christmas and Beverly Hills, a peek into a world so different then Christmas in the West.

On the NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...


a family filled festive holiday offering.

On the TENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...
a sappy through the season, great New Years, running through the streets of a snowy New York ending.

On the ELEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...


The first, 1938 and probably the best of all the versions.

And On the TWELFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS my true love gave to me...


And we end on a one legged lamp in a snow window and a BB gun.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Pick Our Version, thank you very much...




Hold on to your seats, this post starts with two "hunks" you probably know and ends with one, you will thank me for introducing you to.
In rapid ascension two movies came out about....pretty much, no actually almost entirely the same story line- a not so likely bodyguard saving the president, the country and well, blowing up the White House in the process.


OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, ( March 2013) the first to be released and the more serious of the two has Gerard Butler, as bottom of the totem pole, doesn't follow orders very well Secret Service agent, who as the last man standing saves the day.


WHITE HOUSE DOWN, released in the same year (June 2013) is a mix of action and comedy, since Jamie Foxx plays the president and is the story of how Channing Tatum, not even good enough for the Secret Service, defeats the bad guys and saves the day and like in OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, pretty much blows up the White House.
Now... one has to wonder when the makers of each movie found out the other had a similar idea brewing, why one did not pull the plug? Chalk it up to another headscratcher question coming out of Hollywood.
And they are not the first repeat offering Hollywood has dished up.
Here are two more and guess what, yup, back to Washington D.C, but they are not stories about a Secret Service agent trying to save the president, no... this time the Secret Service agent is keeping his daughter safe.


FIRST DAUGHTER, (September 2004), has Katie Holmes as the only dear daughter of the President who desperately wants her freedom and thinks she gets it going to college, way, way across the country. Problem is, the guy... the hot guy she thinks she meets by chance, well, he actually is a Secret Service agent.

And here is a side track-
Director of FIRST DAUGHTER, Forest Whitaker must really like the inner workings of the White House, last year he starred in a little film about this time...


But back to "First Daughters", 2004 saw another movie about well, a first daughter wanting some freedom and this time trying to get it on the back of a motorcycle, "backpacking" through Europe...


Yup and again that "guy" is a Secret Service agent, there to protect her, while she thinks she is having the grand adventure.
CHASING LIBERTY stars Mandy Moore, and yes the similarities still do not stop...


because Mandy Moore is the voice of Rapunzel in Disney's TANGLED and no, the story is not about the only beloved daughter of  a president but this time- the King and Queen- who desires adventure and goes on a journey with a "hot guy", who isn't a Secret Service agent by name, but pretty much gets the girl back to her parents, who happen to be the leaders of the world, so kind of a like a President.

Now we are almost full circle, remember the promise of intro of a new "hot guy", well that would not be...


Flynn, though I think Zachary Levi is pretty great, see post here

Nope, go back to Mandy Moore's non- animated movie of her running through Europe with her secret service agent, played by Matthew Goode...


And he is oh so  good, well he is actually English, so he has that, he just has to talk, but he also has that cool cumber thing going that is, well kind of English and he can do the "Irish" thing pretty well too...


Where Goode is "the guy" who takes the girl, this time Amy Adams across Ireland, to help her on a quest that in the beginning, he isn't the reason for, but by the end, so IS the reason.

And a little "coda" for the end of this rambling post, Matthew Goode will be starring in another  new version of a very old story, actually, more of a second chapter.
THE BBC ONE is airing the holiday offering of DEATH COME TO PEMBERLEY...


from the mash up novel by J.D. James...


It has all the old characters, including Mr.Wickham, played by Matthew Goode. Ahhh, such a nasty guy played by a well really "hot" guy- will have to see how that all works out when DEATH COMES TO PEMBEREY airs over there on December 26th. Info here . When it gets to the US or is available to download, I will let you know. Just hope I can come to like Mr. Wickham in it, cause I so like Matthew Goode.