Movies, Mom & Me

• Who's watched:  M & G, many times
• Mentions:  *1*
• 
  Commentary:  Okay, I don't know whether to be ashamed or not to say that I not only love this movie, I am in love with it. It has the ability to both soothe and encourage me. So, we watch it a lot. I know my mother enjoys it and sticks with it every time. I don't know if she has the same kind of gut reactions to it that I do. Fairly recently, toward the end of the holiday season, I watched this movie on dvd in the evening with Mom then turned right around and watched the entire movie again on cable. My mother did not stay up for the cable viewing.
    Again, another post, written on 2/7/2005, that I managed to delete on 5/7/2020, found the hidden original, and have reposted it.
  Update 5/8/22:  This is a reposting of a previous post dated 2/7/2005 that I managed to recover.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Alan Rickman	Harry	Emma Thompson	Karen	Hugh Grant	David	Martine McCutcheon	Natalie
  Colin Firth	Jamie	Lúcia Moniz	Aurélia	Liam Neeson	Daniel	Thomas Sangster	Sam
  Bill Nighy	Billy Mack	Gregor Fisher	Joe	Chiwetel Ejiofor	Peter	Keira Knightley	Juliet
  Andrew Lincoln	Mark	Laura Linney	Rodrigo Santoro	Kris Marshall	Colin	Abdul Salis	Tony
  Billy Bob Thornton	U. S. President	Rowan Atkinson	Rufus	Heike Makatsch	Mia	Olivia Olson	Joanna

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 2003
    Directed by Richard Curtis.

Labels: alan-rickman, Christmas, colin-firth, comedy2, emma-thompson, laura-linney, me-favorite4, popcorn-and-soda6, romance3

# posted by gail @ 17:00    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Yep, yep, yep, I bought this movie on a whim when I saw it at Costco (which, by the way, almost never carries movies anymore, unless the movies are theater blockbusters), without consideration, even though my initial reaction to the first Mary Poppins was disappointment (which I wrote about in the review for that movie).
    Not disappointed, this time. First of all, I adore Emily Blunt's work and was excited to see her as Mary Poppins. She is, yes, Mary Poppins' (Julie Andrews') improved-edition daughter. Second, I knew that even if I was ambivalent about this one, I would watch it with much nostalgia and would want to buy it. So I didn't bother to check it out of the library (which the length of the hold list promised wouldn't be available to me for at least a couple of months) before purchasing it. Third, I don't know, something about Mom and her enjoyment of the first Mary Poppins movie, something about my sisters and me as kids in Honolulu that summer when we saw the first Mary Poppins, blah, blah, blah ... well, Mary Poppins Returns more than met my expectations. Emily Blunt kills it! The script is, well, it's a "Mary Poppins" script, but it's interesting and the historical timing works with the story. The songs are fun and catchy and, frankly, in my opinion, the musical accompaniment is better, more musically magical, than in the first Mary Poppins movie. I like Jack better in this movie than Bert in the last, but I think that's because it was impossible, in the first, to think of Bert as not-Dick-Van-Dyke. In this movie Jack is just Jack for me. I find it interesting, though, that Bert, who was a jack-of-all-trades (primarily a chimney sweep), is transformed into "Jack" in this sequel. Also, I seem to remember that Bert was more integral to the story than is Jack, but that's one of the reasons I'm planning on watching the 1964 movie again before rewatching this one. Oh, yeah, and the star cameos! Yikes! It seems that everyone wanted to get into this one, including some of the cast for the original Mary Poppins! Hello, Bert ...
    I have yet to watch this new one a second time, but I want to watch the original before watching this one again. Just for some comparison fun.
    You know, I'd like to see Mary Poppins updated for the 1960's ... can you imagine that? With the music and fashion revolutions that were going on, especially in England, but in the U.S., as well, and, how about an update for the 2000's ... and, say, for every thirty-five to forty years, for every generation, as MCN would say, "Wouldn't that be fun?" I wonder if anyone (with greedy pockets, of course), is considering that ...
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Emily Blunt	Mary Poppins	Lin-Manuel Miranda	Jack	Ben Whishaw	Michael Banks	Emily Mortimer	Jane Banks
  Julie Walters	Housekeeper Ellen	Pixie Davies	Annabel Banks	Nathanael Saleh	John Banks	Joel Dawson	Georgie Banks
  Colin Firth	William Wilkins	Meryl Streep	Topsy	David Warner	Admiral Boom	Jim Norton	Mr. Binnacle
  Jeremy Swift	Hamilton Gooding	Kobna Holdbrook-Smith	Templeton Frye	Angela Lansbury	Balloon Lady	Dick Van Dyke	Mr. Dawes Jr.

  
    Just in case, here's the Wikipedia write-up for the movie.
    Release Date: 2018
    Directed by Rob Marshall.

Labels: angela-lansbury, colin-firth, emily-blunt, emily-mortimer, kids, meryl-streep, musical1, period1, popcorn-and-soda2

# posted by gail @ 16:27    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G
• Mentions:  None
• 
  Commentary:  This is one of my favorites. I think we originally watched it on television without Closed Captioning. Mom isn't as familiar with Shakespeare and 17th century English as I am but I think she'll like this story, once she can read the lines. I love it. To me it's an overview of much of the best of Shakespeare.
    Turns out, I was right. She did enjoy it when she could read the lines, even though she's not a Shakespeare buff. The thing about this movie is that it's colorful, there's lots of action that underlines the plot, and the acting is often, on purpose, so close to the top that it's in danger of spilling over, but, that's so much the better for the kind of movie this is.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Joseph Fiennes	William Shakespeare	Gwyneth Paltrow	Viola de Lesseps	Geoffrey Rush	Philip Henslowe	Colin Firth	Lord Wessex
  Ben Affleck	Ned Alleyn	Judi Dench	Queen Elizabeth I	Simon Callow	Edmund Tilney	Imelda Staunton	Nurse
  Tom Wilkinson	Hugh Fennyman	Daniel Brocklebank	Sam Gosse	Rupert Everett	Christopher Marlowe	John Inman	Lady Capulet actor

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1998
    Directed by John Madden.

Labels: ben-affleck, colin-firth, dramedy2, fantasy3, historical3, imelda-staunton, judi-dench, me-favorite4, romance3, shakespeare, tom-wilkinson

# posted by gail @ 02:28    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G
• Mentions:  *1*
• 
  Commentary:  I've seen this three times; Mom's seen it twice. The first time we weren't using Closed Captioning and she found the English accents irritating. The second time around she thoroughly enjoyed it and we watched the entire series, six hours, I think, in one afternoon-evening marathon. This is my favorite video recreation of this story.
  Update 8/16/21:  I'm surprised I neglected to mention that this series was recommended to us by Mom's hairdressser, way back when, who enthused about it so much it was impossible for me not to acquire it, since the hairdresser finally gave Mom a copy of the series. I have never been sorry that she did!
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Jennifer Ehle	Elizabeth Bennet	Colin Firth	Fitzwilliam Darcy	Adrian Lukis	George Wickham	Alison Steadman	Mrs. Bennet
  Benjamin Whitrow	Mr. Bennet	David Bamber	William Collins	Susannah Harker	Jane Bennet	Julia Sawalha	Lydia Bennet
  Lucy Briers	Mary Bennet	Polly Maberly	Catherine Bennet	Lucy Briers	Mary Bennet	Emilia Fox	Georgiana Darcy

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1995
    Directed by Simon Langton.

Labels: colin-firth, period5, popcorn-and-soda5, romance3, shared-favorite

# posted by gail @ 02:26    0 comments    email......this post