Snippets

I’ve been reminded recently that taking care of a kitten is a shit ton of work.  There is an extra mouth to feed (which has to happen separately because Cosmo will eat ALL the things) and then there is the dedicated time to wearing out the kitten each night.  Layer that with giving Cosmo tons of extra attention and being ever vigilant on where the kitten is and what he’s getting into.

Seriously, it’s like a full time job.  On top of my super busy full time job.

All that to say that again my movie viewing has been sporadic at best.

Beth recently posted something on FB about what movies folks will always stop on when channel surfing.  What will you pick up at any point and watch?  This was a great post; it’s so interesting to see what people have watched enough times to make it a “keeper".

Well, that has pretty much been my life for the last couple weeks…although the films I watched needed to also have the added criteria of being dispensable at any moment.

So I thought for this post, I’d take you through some of the films that I will almost always stop on and the snippets I got to see.

National Treasure - released in 2004

This movie is on all the fucking time.  Seriously. Almost every hour of every day you can find this movie on some channel or another.  And I’m not saying this because I mind.  I enjoy this movie completely.  I just find it astonishing.

I think this film has such staying power because it’s really fun and because you can drop in, watch a bit, then blink out pretty easily.  Nicholas Cage is charming and he and Justin Bartha (Riley) have great chemistry.  Honestly, I can take or leave Diane Kruger.  She leaves me kind of cold.

This time I popped in on National Treasure when they were at the dad’s house with the Declaration of Independence.  They had just stolen it and were looking to check the back of it for secret messages using lemon juice and a blow dryer (like you do).  Jon Voight plays the dad…I’m never sure what to think about him and sadly that’s largely due to his daughter.  She acts circles around him, without a doubt, but what kind of dad are you to raise such a wing nut in the first place? (We can all pretend Angelina is this benevolent, artistic activist but we can’t forget that she practically MADE OUT with her brother at an awards show. Blick.)  I popped back out when the authorities started to chase them.  Honestly, I probably would have hung in longer, because I can get totally sucked into this movie, but I’m pretty sure Finn had knocked something over that I had to deal with (this will become a theme in today’s post).

(My drink pairing for this movie is always a Sam Adams. Because, come on!)

Enchanted - released in 2007

I love this movie.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched it.  It’s got all the elements I enjoy - Cinderella-esque, musical numbers, animation. Trifecta of good.

When I worked on Madagascar (the first) we were working with this world-renowned animator, James Baxter.  He had worked at Disney for years (on the biggies: Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Lion King) and all our animators revered him.  He’s like an animation celebrity.  I don’t think he was having the best time working on our film (he wasn’t a huge fan of working on computer animation at the time) and left DW to start his own company, doing hand animation, toward the end of production.  The first film his company worked on:  Enchanted.

Enchanted uses both 2D and 3D animation.  James’ company worked on the 2D stuff.  The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, so naturally the design is pure Disney and beautiful.  The 3d is also lovely and charming.  

I picked up this movie toward the end…Giselle is a 2D girl come to life in the real world.  She is engaged to a prince in the 2D world but meets someone (Patrick Dempsey) in the real world and falls in love.  My snippet comes when her 2D prince has followed her to the real world, takes her on a “date” (which never happens in the animated world - they just meet and get married the next day), then they go to a ball, where Patrick is.  There is a super romantic dance scene, then the Wicked Witch (Susan Sarandon, who is always awesome) turns into a computer animated Dragon and creates havoc.  This is where I had to leave it, because Finn knocked something over and I had to deal with it (See? A theme.).

(My drink pairing for this is a Pina Colada or something equally sweet and fruity.  The kind of drink that you suck down then realize you are hammered.)

The Mummy - released in1999

This is another movie I love.  Again, it has so many elements I require in multiple viewings - a re-vamp of a classic monster movie, funny, special effects.

This was maybe the last time I think poor Brendan Fraser looked good in a film.  He was already starting to deteriorate in The Mummy Returns, poor guy.  Plus, I think he just hasn’t chosen good roles for himself since this film.  Rachel Weisz has done much better, obviously, and I include her marriages in this.  She clearly married Darren Aronofsky to prove she is a deep thinker and possibly a bit bleak…like his films.  Then she married Daniel Craig because she had enough of deep thinking and wanted a hot body.  I can’t blame her.

I dropped in on this film right after they fight the Mummy the first time.  They are back in Cairo and Fraser is trying to get Weisz to go back to England.  She doesn’t want to be treated like a weak woman, so she’s fighting him every step of the way.  The Mummy comes to call on her, but a cat confronts him and makes him dissolve into a whirlwind of sand.  Nice effect, especially for the time.  I will admit, this film is ALL about the particle animation, though.  They use it a BUNCH.  I’m not judging…just saying.

The moment I watched had the added bonus of one of the American archeologists being sucked dry from the inside out by the Mummy.  Excellent!  Then…Finn knocked something over and I had to deal with it.

(My drink pairing for this film is a Pimm’s Cup. It’s British, which this film sometimes pretends to be.  Perfect.)

My takeaways:

#1 - I’d love to hear what movies you guys pop in and out of when they’re on TV.   Leave me comments!

#2 - This photo depicts what my life is like right now.  Surprisingly, this did not result in a “knocked over” situation!

xoxo...hashtagSueslife