I must say, I wasn’t really that aware of how many films I watched until I started keeping track. Oiy. Anyway, here are a few highlights from last month:
Annie Hall is the third Woody Allen film I’ve watched all the way through. While I enjoyed it, my husband had to explain some of the finer aspects of the film, which made me realize how dreadfully ignorant I am when it comes to the world that is New York (but I’ll bet my friend Lauren—who knows that city like the back of her own hand—got every single nuance, heh). (Image: copyrighted by United Artists, via Wikipedia)
Oh, how I rejoice that Jane Austen lived, breathed and wrote her stories. The PBS Masterpiece Theatre presentations have been a real joy. It’s wonderful to settle into a world of wit and masterful story where you know the good of heart find love, integrity wins out, repentance is rewarded and those persistent towards darkness reap the consequences of their choices. I’ve seen Northanger Abby and Mansfield Park so far (Persuasion is still on my DVR), and thought MP the better. Both take liberties with the novels and the “modernizations” are a bit perplexing, but they still make for fine evenings. (Image: PBS)
I finally watched The Day the Earth Stood Still for the first time (in anticipation of the remake currently being filmed in Peter Chattaway’s hometown). I was so caught up in wondering how they were going to adapt the plot elements to a post 9-11 world that I felt quite embarrassed when, during the scene in which Klaatu is resurrected, my husband commented wryly, “Not going heavy on the Jesus symbolism, are they.” Ack. To think I completely missed it. Wikipedia has a good summary on the religious elements in the film, which makes me very curious as to how the remake will play out. (By the way, for all you Army of Darkness fans, Ash could have taken some pointers from Helen in annunciation. Heh.) (Image: copyrighted by 20th Century Fox, via Wikipedia)
The biggest disappointment was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix—I’m a huge HP fan, but this film just didn’t cut it for us. I get how hard it is to summarize those massive tales into a couple of hours on the big screen, but I had a difficult time caring for the characters—and that left me fairly emotionless when Harry faced one of the biggest losses of his short but tragedy-filled life (one that brought me to tears in the novel). (Image: copyrighted by Warner Bros, via Wikipedia)
I saw 15 other films (six of which I’ve seen before) in January—you can see the list (and my “ratings”) here.
Annie Hall is the third Woody Allen film I’ve watched all the way through. While I enjoyed it, my husband had to explain some of the finer aspects of the film, which made me realize how dreadfully ignorant I am when it comes to the world that is New York (but I’ll bet my friend Lauren—who knows that city like the back of her own hand—got every single nuance, heh). (Image: copyrighted by United Artists, via Wikipedia)
Oh, how I rejoice that Jane Austen lived, breathed and wrote her stories. The PBS Masterpiece Theatre presentations have been a real joy. It’s wonderful to settle into a world of wit and masterful story where you know the good of heart find love, integrity wins out, repentance is rewarded and those persistent towards darkness reap the consequences of their choices. I’ve seen Northanger Abby and Mansfield Park so far (Persuasion is still on my DVR), and thought MP the better. Both take liberties with the novels and the “modernizations” are a bit perplexing, but they still make for fine evenings. (Image: PBS) 
I finally watched The Day the Earth Stood Still for the first time (in anticipation of the remake currently being filmed in Peter Chattaway’s hometown). I was so caught up in wondering how they were going to adapt the plot elements to a post 9-11 world that I felt quite embarrassed when, during the scene in which Klaatu is resurrected, my husband commented wryly, “Not going heavy on the Jesus symbolism, are they.” Ack. To think I completely missed it. Wikipedia has a good summary on the religious elements in the film, which makes me very curious as to how the remake will play out. (By the way, for all you Army of Darkness fans, Ash could have taken some pointers from Helen in annunciation. Heh.) (Image: copyrighted by 20th Century Fox, via Wikipedia)
The biggest disappointment was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix—I’m a huge HP fan, but this film just didn’t cut it for us. I get how hard it is to summarize those massive tales into a couple of hours on the big screen, but I had a difficult time caring for the characters—and that left me fairly emotionless when Harry faced one of the biggest losses of his short but tragedy-filled life (one that brought me to tears in the novel). (Image: copyrighted by Warner Bros, via Wikipedia)
I saw 15 other films (six of which I’ve seen before) in January—you can see the list (and my “ratings”) here.