The Princess Bride

Ergh. The past few films have been letdowns for me. I’ve read about them or heard others talk about them and I watch them and I just feel like “huh… I don’t see what’s so special.” Unfortunately, The Princess Bride is another. Its funny in places but I didn’t think it was hilarious. My only notes were about the scary eels, the scary rats and quotes. It’s a nice little film that I’d probably watch again on an afternoon where I have nothing else to do and it’s the only descent thing on TV.

Inigo Montoya: [looking down cliff, waiting to kill Man in Black] Hello there. Slow going?
Man in Black: [climbing up cliff] Look, I don’t mean to be rude but this is not as easy as it looks, so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t distract me.
Inigo Montoya: [apologetic] Sorry.
Man in Black: Thank you.

Vizzini: Finish him. Finish him, your way.
Fezzik: Oh good, my way. Thank you Vizzini… what’s my way?
Vizzini: Pick up one of those rocks, get behind a boulder, in a few minutes the man in black will come running around the bend, the minute his head is in view, hit it with the rock.
Fezzik: My way’s not very sportsman-like.

As you wish.

123/212

Kate
xoxo

When Harry Met Sally…

To be honest, I don’t see the big deal of this movie. Its alright and stuff but I’ve seen waaaaay better rom-coms. I like that it kept cutting to the old couples and their stories of love at first sight, comparing it to the long time it takes Harry & Sally. Liked the fake-orgasm scene. The Christmas scenes made me wish it were December. Meg Ryan looks gorgeous. And that’s about it.

122/212

Kate
xoxo

Monsters Inc.

I love myself a bit of Pixar. I don’t think they can go wrong at all. I’ve either completely fallen in love with their movies or at least thoroughly enjoyed them. And Monsters Inc. is not exception. I loved it the first time I saw it then I saw it again in history class [ it was our last day, Mr Carter couldn’t be bothered either] and I hated it! Now, I’ve watched it again and I have no idea why I left that history lesson hating the movie!

The first thing we hear is jazzy music which is always a good sign for me as I love the sound of jazz! I couldn’t tell you anyone in jazz except Glen Miller so I couldn’t say I’m a humongous fan. The opening sequence reminds me of old comedies, very similar to the beginnings of Charade and Seven Year Itch. It made me smile a bit smugly as I know where they inspiration had some from.

This whole movie is basically that the monsters are more scared of the children than the children are of them which is such a brilliant idea! “There’s nothing more deadly than a child, one touch could kill you.“ The monster’s reactions are a mixture of taking the piss out of ‘official’ people who overreact to small, stupid things with exploding socks and people being scared of little things. Actually, some of the people’s reactions to it feel a bit like I was reading the Daily Mail [English people will understand ^_-]. I found myself laughing a little at Sully and Mike’s reactions to the child, Boo, as they’re the same reactions I do when I see a spider! Though I don’t chase it around my room with spray with gloves on my hands and those flipper shoes on my feet. I have a spider catcher now.

The monster city runs on screams which is another fantastic idea. So that’s the reason why there are monsters in the closet and under the bed.
The two main characters are brilliant. We have the guy who’s the big, scary guy on the outside but the warmest, kindest guy on the inside with fabulous coloured fur; Sully [John Goodman a.k.a. Fred Flintstone]. Then we have the tiny green monster with one eye who pretends to be the brains of the pair but he’s just self-centered and our main source of comedy; Mike [Billy Crystal]. They make a great comedy duo. Not a very original comedy duo but its still a great one.

The CGI in this movie is stunning. The part that always makes me go “wow” is Sully’s fur. The detail they go into and you don’t really see if unless you’re up close to the screen! So much time and effort to create these individual strands of hair! Its just so impressive and amazing. Especially when he’s in the snow and you see the snow on the individual stands of fur. Amazing.

Boo is the cutest thing on the planet! She’s the star. Her voice is so sweet and her appearance and movement is so adorable. Its so cute that she keeps calling Sully ‘Kitty’, she doesn’t see a scary monster, she sees a big, cuddly cat which is what Sully really is. I loved it when she was in the restaurant filled with monsters and she shouts ‘boo!’ and the monsters scream for their lives. Its so funny when its opposite. Anyways, Boo is so cute and I love that she can’t really string words together except in song. She can also say ‘boo’ [obviously], ‘kitty’ and ‘Mike Wazowski’. Three [four, I guess, seeing as the name is two] words that every 3 year old should know. What’s great about Boo is that she’s not only cute but she soon becomes fearless of monsters! She grabs her monster by the… erm… don’t know what they actually are but they’re like antennas or something… and rides the monster around her room and whacks him with a baseball bat! She may be 3 but I found myself going “WOOO! YOU GO GIRL!” Oo, might interest you to know that one my mum’s friend’s is nicknamed Boo. Don’t know why though…

We get a few references to other Pixar movies which is fantastic! When Boo shows Sully her bedroom, she hands him her Jessie doll from Toy Story 2 and I’m proud to say I have a Jessie doll too. Wonder where it is… did I pack it when we moved to USA? I hope so! Anyways, Boo also shows him a Finding Nemo fish which must have been Pixar’s little teaser as Finding Nemo wasn’t released until 2 years after Monsters Inc. I also read that the trailer at the end is the same trailer from Bug’s Life and the pizza car is the same from Toy Story! I love it when films reference other films [especially when its in the family]. I remember once in Skins [which is was a great British TV show till season 3 where it totally fell to shit mainly because I auditioned and they gave me false hope then gave the guy I hate the most in this world a second audition. Bastards.] where Anwar [the dude who’s now more famous for Slumdog Millionaire] is having sex and is listing all of Hugh Grant’s movies and talking about ‘About A Boy’ which starred Nicholas Hoult who played Tony in Skins. Sorry. Totally off topic now. Oops!

One of the things I love about Pixar is their ‘outtakes’ at the end of the movie and I think every movie should do this. Even the hard hitting ones should do this. I know people will say “but it ruins the whole thing”. I like a laugh after seeing something serious or depressing so I say bring it on! Like, Lord of the Rings, at the end of those or at least the last one, they should’ve had a gag reel instead of those drawings of the characters. That would’ve been awesome.

I was a bit wary about typing up this note but, to be honest, it won’t ruin the movie and everyone’s seen it anyways. I loved that in this movie, they showed that laughter is [10x] more powerful that screams. For me, there is no greater feeling than laughter so I agree with the writers 100% and I think its so cool that the city would now run on laughter. Its such a wonderful thought.

“We scare because we care.”

37/212

Kate
Xoxo

PS: People are saying they know of my blog thanks to my McDean videos on YouTube. I can’t believe there are still McDean fans out there! Its still going strong?! Its mental, in a good way of course. I keep getting emails from YouTube saying people are still commenting on my videos and people are still leaving comments on my profile! Its been 2 years now, hasn’t it?! Mental. Those who don’t know what McDean is, don’t worry, I can’t even be bothered to go into it lol.

Howl’s Moving Castle

Quick note: If there are words that are missing ‘e’ or has too many its because the ‘e’ on my keyboard is stiff and keeps sticking and its just plain annoying! It’s a new keyboard and all!

I grew up with the likes of Pokemon, Digimon and Cardcaptors so watching this made me feel young again. However, I had to keep reminding myself not to look for Pokemon and to stop stereotyping. After while, though, you start to forget about the fact its like many TV shows and start to see it as a totally independent film.

Howl’s Moving Castle is the perfect example of how Japanese animation can borderline being art. The scenery is breathtaking and looks like if you screencapped it, you could sell it for a few hundred! The people/machines/blob-men and some of the sets look very cartoony but the rest is so beautiful. I believe that its beauty you can’t really get in real life…if that makes sense! Anyway, the Japanese film makers sure like to make the sounds sound as real as possible. You can really tell the difference between the Japanese animation’s take on sound and how normally Hollywood [a la Pixar and Dreamworks] go about it. Every sound that could possibly be made in that scene is heard and it doesn’t sound like some people in a room banging things together; it sounds like they actually followed someone around and recorded all the sounds from their natural environment. I may be wrong but that’s what I get from watching/hearing this film. I don’t know, I guess them taking so much time and effort in the sound makes me really appreciate the filmmakers and what they went through.

This movie is quite weird but in a way that works. Witches, wizards and normal people [Muggles to us Harry Potter fans!] live in total harmony, there are these weird, freaky oil people and very detailed wrinkles and rolls of fat. Oh, and a really cool talking fire. I loved that there were no characters in this movie that annoyed me! I adored each of them, especially the boy, Markl who reminds me so much of the boy a baby-sit next door who is just adorable but in a funny way. Markl is so smart and independent, much like the boy next door. I enjoy comparing characters to people I know, makes me enjoy the movie that little bit more. I’d recommend that you try to relate some of the characters to the people in your life. Actually, do this for any film you watch. I find it makes the film a little more personal too.

One thing that made me laugh… well, maybe not laugh but made me go “oh my God of course it’s him!!!” was the fact that Christian Bale is the voice of the leading man, Howl! You can see where he got his Batman voice from too. I thought I wouldn’t know any of the voices [one of them did sound like Helen Mirren but after some research, it wasn’t her] but hearing Bale… I don’t know, it just lifted me up slightly and I’m not even that big a fan of Bale’s. If anything, he kind of pisses me off!

I didn’t actually write any more notes. Maybe I was just so engrossed in the film or that I have nothing left to say. Or maybe there is nothing more I can say. It’s a truly beautiful film and you should watch it. There’s romance for the girls and a war with bombing for the boys! Hurrah!

6/212

Kate
xoxo