Sunday, June 29, 2008

It Only Takes A Moment

I've just gotten through a jam-packed weekend. I spent most of the time at a musical theatre conference, but after it was over earlier this evening, I managed to catch a later showing of the new Pixar movie, Wall-E. Luckily, this movie-going experience proved to be much more successful than the last time I tried to watch a Pixar movie.

Strangely enough, the movie ended up being relevant to musical theatre as well. I'm pretty sure millions of people headed to the movie theater, unwittingly subjected to Jerry Herman's Hello Dolly. It's always very cool to catch show tune references in movies...but I'm still waiting for the next great animated movie musical a la The Little Mermaid. In theory, Disney's Christmas 2009 release of The Princess and the Frog promises to return to that format. Here's hoping!

But...back to our new lovable Disney character, Wall-E...

The CGI flick proved to be another top-notch release from Pixar, but I was surprised with all of the social messages attached. It shows what can happen when you don't take care of the planet...and what happens when you choose to live in the virtual world versus the real world. I try my best to recycle and telecommute...but it seems like we're being overly bombarded with talk of "being green" lately. I'm surprised they didn't just go ahead and release this movie on Earth Day. ;)

But I digress...go out see Wall-E...as well as every other Pixar movie you have yet to see. =)

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Ah Morning...The Best Time To Sleep In

Well...it's been some time since a posted a random quiz...so I guess I'm due.

I saw this quiz on another blog that I frequent and thought it was cute that the blogger was classified as "breakfasty". I wanted to know if it would set me as 2:00 AM...but instead, it resulted in an ideal time for me:
Ah yes...to stay up late and be able to sleep in...hey...at least it still constitutes waking up in the morning! ;)

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Assessing AFI

A friend of mine blogged
about AFI's newest list...
the 10 Top 10.

He also posted percentages of the movies he's watched. I thought it was a pretty spiffy idea and so here I am following suit...


Animation: (Percentage Seen: 80%)
I say 80% because I don't recall ever sitting down and watching Pinocchio or Bambi...but I did have read-along record books (that's right...records) for both of these movies.

Romantic Comedies: (Percentage Seen: 40%)
I really like romantic comedies, so it surprised me that my percentage was so low. Maybe I just don't see the "good" romantic comedies.

Westerns: (Percentage Seen: 10%)
Yep...I've only seen one of the top ten westerns...and my memory of watching Shane is pretty vague. I just remember the little kid yelling after Shane and having to watch the movie in 7th grade. I can't even remember the curriculum that caused me to watch the movie in the first place. Is there a book to Shane that has fallen out of my memory as well? =P

Sports: (Percentage Seen: 30%)
I don't know if I'd really call Jerry Maguire a sports movie, but that was one of the three that I've seen in this genre...and I didn't even like the movie...so why did it make it onto a top ten list? I'm sure Rudy feels shafted.

Mystery: (Percentage Seen: 0%)
There's no reason this percentage should be so low...I guess I just haven't had a chance to see too many movies in this genre. I'm not exactly what you call a movie buff...but I'll try to watch some of these films eventually.

Fantasy: (Percentage Seen: 80%)
I don't know if I consider half of these movies "fantasies"...the whole AFI classification of genres just seemed off for a lot of these 10 lists. I do have to say...even though I adore musicals, I would still have bumped Lord of the Rings up to #1 over The Wizard of Oz.

Sci-Fi: (Percentage Seen: 50%)
I'd say any list over 50% is still pretty good for me...and the only reason I have such a high score here is because I watched T2 when I had nothing else to do on a family trip to Alaska. I didn't even see Star Wars Episode IV until after watching Episode I in the theatres. I was planning to see the movies in order, but some woman blabbed the ending of Episode IV in the ladies restroom after my viewing of Episode I. I figured I should watch the older movies before they were spoiled for me.

Gangster: (Percentage Seen: 20%)
I'm not the gangster movie watching type. I don't remember why I saw Pulp Fiction, but I do remember watching Goodfellas because it was the only thing on television one weekend afternoon. =P

Courtroom Drama: (Percentage Seen: 30%)
At least two of the three movies I've seen in this genre top the list. I do have to say, 12 Angry Men is probably on my own top ten list of non-musical movies. A Few Good Men? Not so much...

Epic: (Percentage Seen: 60%)
I think "epic" is just the nice way of saying it was an over-budget, over-the-top movie that appeals to the masses...so it not surprising for me that I've seen a majority of these films. Half of the films I didn't think lived up to the hype...but they managed to take my money anyway. ;)