Plan 9 from Outer Space

What a long strange trip it's been...

It has been almost two weeks since I've blogged. Some notable things have happened during that time. Let's see. Sickness swept through the house. My folks showed up just in time to help with taking care of us. The fridge died and we got a new one. Edison turned fourteen. And got some cool birthday presents. I found and purchased Van Morrison's A Night in San Francisco double CD on ebay. And am falling in love with it. Caroline has some new books. And she loves them. Angie and I went and saw the movie Fireproof. And I love her. I filled up the van's gas tank for $1.709 per gallon. The first snow of the season fell. And through all of the busyness of this time, I am reminded of Paul's writings about about our Father...

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!

Ephesians 3:20

Favorite Films - War

Not wanting to debate the concept of "should we be glorifying war on film", I present my five favorite war movies (in no particular order).

• The Great Escape
• Braveheart
• Glory
• Saving Private Ryan
• Gettysburg

I thought about tossing in Kelly's Heroes, but that might fall in another category.

Next set of favorite films

And the categories are: Musicals and Christmas

Hmmm.... There could be some crossover here.

Let's do the musicals first. No, wait, the Christmas ones.

• A Christmas Story
• Christmas Vacation
• White Christmas
• Elf
• It's a Wonderful Life

And now the Musicals.

• West Side Story
• The Blues Brothers
• Holiday Inn
• South Pacific
• Singin' in the Rain

You might already be thinking, "What? No Peanuts Christmas?" Although one of my favorites, I don't consider it a film. It is an animated TV special. One half hour of goodness, but not a film.

You also might be thinking that The Blues Brothers doesn't equal a musical. My list, my choice. That's what the comments section of this blog is for. Make your own list.

Favorite Films - Sports

Time for another short list. The topic is Mark's favorite films. The category is Sports. In no particular order:

• Chariots of Fire
• Field of Dreams
• The Rookie
• Eight Men Out
• A League of Their Own

Now, most of those deal with baseball. Hmm. I bet you didn't see that one coming. I guess I could have included Rocky, Hoosiers or 61*. But I didn't.

Favorite Films

I've been thinking about movies lately. A few years ago, I compiled a list of my favorite 100 films. So, I thought I'd revise that and give you my top 5 from a variety of genres. What's a genre? Well, a film type. You know... Chick-Flick. Guy-Flick. That about covers them. Actually, imdb.com (Internet Movie DataBase) has a listing of genres. Here are some of them...

• Action
• Adventure
• Animation
• Biography
• Comedy
• Crime
• Documentary
• Drama
• Family
• Fantasy
• Film-Noir
• History
• Horror
• Musical
• Mystery
• Romance
• Sci-Fi
• Short
• Sport
• Thriller
• War
• Western

Okay, that's way too many. But it will give me something to start with. I can pick one of their genres, pull out 5 films and you'll never be the wiser whether I actually think that they're good or not. Well, I'll try to do you right. And no, I can't explain Film-Noir.

These are not ranked in any order and I reserve the right to change my mind. I also reserve the right to ignore your comments saying that a film that I place in one genre should actually be in another genre. I reserve the right to not use all genres listed above. I'll have to have actually seen the film to include it in my list.

Here's a go at one of the genres. "Alex, I'll take Romance for 400."

• Four Weddings and Funeral
• Notting Hill
• The Princess Bride
• The Abyss
• Return To Me

One more film for dads and their boys

Angie is out with her girlfriends, so I had fun with the kids tonight. We ate dinner and then Caroline and I played a bit. Then a bath for her. Edison suggested that we watch another Hitchcock film. Not wanting to sit through 80 minutes of a silent film like The Lodger, I suggested that we watch To Catch A Thief. I tossed him the DVD cover and he seemed generally interested. I reminded him that this wasn't going to be full of high tension, killers and suspense, but more of a light, romantic story, with a bit of humored writing. He showered, read his Bible and then joined me for the viewing. He started off the movie with the question of: "Now, you'll point out Hitchcock when he appears on screen, won't you?" and ended up with "What was the significance of the black cat on the roof at the beginning?" and "So, how did she know that he was the burglar when they had the picnic?" All fair questions. Hitchcock's appearance was obvious. I'll let you watch the movie and answer the others.

It moved a bit slow, but he stayed with it. I think that some of the subtleties might have been lost on him, but he did enjoy it. Some of the dialogue was cute.

Grace Kelly's character, to Cary Grant's, after he was talking to a young French woman: Are you sure you were talking about water skis? From where I sat it looked as though you were conjugating some irregular verbs.

And in another scene, Cary Grant's character, to Grace Kelly's character: Not only did I enjoy that kiss last night, I was awed by its efficiency.

There were more quips. I think that the film was mostly just a vehicle for the two leading stars, although the screen writer, John Michael Hayes, had written other movies for Hitchcock. This one was adapted from a David Dodge novel. Will watching this again make me want to go read the novel? Nope.

I was disappointed that there was no card inside the DVD case showing the chapter titles or interesting facts, but I was greatly surprised that the DVD had the trailer, a 'making of' short, a photo and poster gallery and a few other tidbits.

Overall, a good film and a good time.

Required links: IMDB and an interesting technical page, comparing two different editions of the DVD.

Another film for boys and their dads

Angie went to her overnight crop. Caroline had taken a bath and was in bed. It was just a night for Edison and I. We were planning to watch a DVD together, but hadn't settled on one particular movie. He suggested Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Or Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Both were vetoed. I asked a co-worker to bring in some Bruce Lee films. What could be better for male bonding than Kung Fu? Well, the co-worker forgot. I had just picked up a 20 movie set of Hitchcock Films from Wal-Mart for $5. Surely there had to be something on there. Edison wasn't so sure. I suggested an Indiana Jones film. Not so much. Then, O Brother, Where Art Thou? came to my mind. A quick race through my memories of that film revealed some minor language, some violence but passable and memorable. How else am I going to get him to learn about The Odyssey? That's right, I'm not.

We dimmed the lights, got out blankets and settled in for some Dapper Dan and old timey music. The Coen brothers struck a high note on this one. Different than Fargo or Barton Fink, this is one that I'd watch again. Edison liked it.

IMDB link

Films for boys and their dads

Last night, while Angie was watching NASCAR stuff on TV and working on the computer, I watched a wonderful Alfred Hitchcock film with Edison.

The 39 Steps is a delightful mystery / romantic comedy. It, I think, is my favorite movie of all time. There are others that are good (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Blues Brothers, The Mission, Raising Arizona, etc), but I do enjoy this one very much.

We watched a public domain copy of it. The sound was a bit uneven and the print a bit faded here and there. A friend of mine is borrowing my Criterion Collection copy.

I won't try to review the movie or even give a plot synopsis. More info can be found at this DVD review, or at the IMDB entry.

Edison liked it. It must be good.

I'd recommend to go and rent or buy a copy, settle back for a time and enjoy.

p.s. - the title of this post doesn't quite make sense, in that it implies that there is more than one film that I'd recommend for "boys and their dads." Let's call this a start to a (very) short series of posts.