Sunday, June 24, 2012

A Punch in the Soul

I just saw Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World last night and it was, in short, amazing.

Photo from here.
Steve Carrell's and Kiera Knightley's characters are neighbors in an apartment building that never interacted until they find out that an asteroid is heading to destroy the planet in three weeks. Three weeks until the end of the world... what would you do? I thought it was done very well, I could see events unfolding much like they were depicted. It has that indie/quirky feel to it where subtle things matter a lot, so if you don't like that in your movies you might want to avoid this one. And it's much more serious than it seemed from the previews. The movie is quite like a punch in the soul. I'm talking weeping here, at least on my end. There are funny parts, for sure, but if you're having a vulnerable day it's going to affect you, and that's probably a good thing. It's one of those perspective-giving stories, motivating you to say and do the Important Things now and stop putting them off. And for goodness' sake, do not go and see this movie alone. I'm all for going to the movies solo, not a problem with that in general, but not for this one. You'll want someone there to talk about it with, just someone by your side. In my opinion, any movie that makes me feel so much earns the description of fantastic, and this one is. It's intense, but definitely fantastic. It also features a couple of nice crocheted and knitted blankets.

Crocheted blanket.
 I can't find a photo of the knitted one but it looked something like a log cabin blanket. It made me really want to make a knitted blanket myself, which is (of course) perfect for the middle of the summer! (Not so much.)

I'm a bit of a movie junkie, before I knitted my biggest hobby-related-expense was my collection of DVDs. Here's my list of top 15 could-watch-over-and-over-forever movies:

1. Finding Neverland: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Peter Pan, brilliant scenes, imagination, cute kids? Made for me.
2. Dead Poets Society: Robin Williams + poetry + touching story = awesome.
3. The Fall: Lee Pace is amazing, the story is inventive, and the cinematography is stunning.
4. Dogma: Kevin Smith and company totally rule.
5. A Knight's Tale: I have such a thing for Chaucer (Paul Bettany) in this movie.
6. Hook: Robin Williams (again) and Peter Pan (again) and Julia Roberts!
7. Little Miss Sunshine: Such a feel-good story.
8. Notting Hill: Julia Roberts (again) and Hugh Grant and quirky British-ness. Love.
9. I Love You, Man: I love Jason Segel and Paul Rudd too much not to include this one.
10. Beauty and the Beast: Representing Disney animated films in this line-up because it wouldn't be complete without one.
11. Pride & Prejudice: That moment at the end when Darcy strides across the field? Yeah.
12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Serious Jim Carrey really works sometimes. I also love Kate Winslet.
13. Stranger Than Fiction: I'm down with Serious Will Ferrel, too. And Emma Thompson is great.
14. Benny & Joon: Sweet little movie featuring Johnny Depp at perhaps his most adorable.
15. Pirates of the Caribbean: Johnny Depp at his most swashbuckling (duh).

I really had to try hard to stop myself at 15. It was just going to be a list of 3, then 5, then 10... There are definitely some recurring themes, the same actors and actresses tend to pop up. They really make or break a movie for me. Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World might end up on this list someday, I'll have to watch it a couple more times first, to be sure. What are your favorite movies, the ones that make your desert island list?

9 comments:

  1. Which Pride and Prejudice? Colin Firth or Kiera Knightly?
    1) I think P&P would probably be both on my top movies and books list. Let's see:
    2) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (it was my first American movie that I understood and also he's a cutie in it).
    3) Everything is Illuminated (movie and book) - saw this twice in Ithaca - sobbed like a baby both times during a certain part.
    4) Lord of the Rings Triology- LOVE. Haven't read the books yet and not sure I ever will, but luh me some LOTR.
    5) American History X - sob-tacular/ haunted me for weeks. Fight Club used to be the winner of this list obut now might not make it to the island with me: sads.
    6) Ten Things I Hate About You - always and forever my favorite teenage-dom movie.
    7) A dance movie of some sort. This one's tough. I'm a junkie of bad/amazing dance movies. Step Up or Stomp the Yard.
    8) Terribly amazing action movie. Again, a toughie. Typically anything featuring Jason Statham - Transporter, Transporter III (Transporter II purposefully omitted), Crank, Italian Job. Maybe a little Marvel action - a little Thor, a little Iron Man? Or take it back and go a bit old school - Die Hard? The recent A Team remake was a delightfully thoughtless and fun viewing adventure as well.
    Actually, Mean Machine takes this one - random little movie about soccer in prison that no one knows featuring BOTH Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones...
    9) This leads me to Snatch. Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones, Brad Pitt. British mobsters and an ex-Soviet-Uzbek-KGB bad guy (Boris "the Blade"). Brilliant. If Snatch is unavailable, I would settle for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Guess who's in this one?!?! Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham. British mobsters, cockney. Brilliant. I think the last 4 entries have summarized my entire high school experience.
    10) Legends of the Fall - Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, romance, tears. One of my all time favorites.
    11) Pulp Fiction.
    12) Mean Girls - just such a good movie. Doesn't get old. So quotable. Remember when Lindsay Lohan was sane?
    13) Role Models. Paul Rudd - oh so good. Narrowly and surprisingly beat out Old School and Anchorman for this spot. Be proud, Paul Rudd: my fond memories of you from Clueless are what secured you the lead.
    14) Forces of Nature - my favorite of my collection of Sandra Bullock movies. <3
    15) The Blindside - my most recent Sandra Bullock fave. Mostly because I couldn't think of another #15.

    ALSO, in recent news - I finished the wurm for the Afghans thing! Love the way it came out! Will post pictures soon!

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    1. Yay! Can't wait to see your hat!

      Though I like both versions, it's the P&P with Kiera that I love. I have kind of a girl-crush on Kiera.

      I loved The Blindside and Sandra Bullock, too. I don't know if I've seen Forces of Nature, I may have. I'm really unfamiliar with #s 5, 8, 9, and 11.

      I actually still have to see all of LOTR. I got mad at the first one for like stopping right when stuff started to get good after 2.5 hours of watching not much happen, haha.

      I think I've read Everything is Illuminated but haven't seen the film.

      My favorite dance movie is still Dirty Dancing Havana Nights. Love that Diego Luna!

      And I thoroughly approve of #13. :) It was a contender with I Love You, Man on my list.

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    2. Dirty Dancing Havana Nights! LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEE that movie. Totally forgot about it.

      Kiera is a pretty awesome Elizabeth, I'll have to agree. And in Pirates. And in Love, Actually.

      Oh man, this makes me wanna watch a movie.

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  2. I may have written too much. I really don't wanna write this paper I'm working on.

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  3. That movie looks so sweet, I'm going to have to give it a watch, especially because we have a lot of overlap in our lists : )

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  4. Great post! I've been wanting to see that movie, too, and I'm glad to hear it's a good one. :)

    And wow, reading through your desert-island movie list was like checking off titles from my own DVDs! Hook ranks up there in my top 5 movies ever: it never, ever gets old, and in the winter, I could watch it every single night. Oh, and I agree: Mr. Darcy is incredibly swoon-worthy in the field scene in P&P. :)

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    1. Writing that list made me want to watch ALL of those movies over again, especially Hook!

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