Alphabetical Movie – Lady Jane
I have to wonder why anyone in England would have wanted to be born royalty. Seems to me that anyone who was Royalty in the 16th and 17th centuries came out of the womb with a dotted line across their necks to make it easier for the headsman to do his job.
Certainly a movie about the era is not complete without at least once character getting their head chopped off. Usually it’s the main character but at times, five or six secondary characters also get similar treatment.
They’re sort of collateral damage.
Alphabetical Movie – Lady and the Tramp
Please note: I didn’t know the man so what I’m saying is complete speculation
I don’t think Walt Disney was a cat person.
What Lady and the Tramp teaches us, among other things, that dogs are capable of caring for human babies and cats will make every effort to destroy them. While the film stops short of having the cats try to steal the babies’ breath, it sure doesn’t make cats look like loving creatures that could bring warmth and happiness to any home.
It isn’t really fair to judge Disney by one movie, though. Looking at the “classic” Disney films (the ones made before his death), let’s see how cats make out, shall we?
Well..there’s 101 Dalmatians. That movie has..a whole lot of dogs…and…um…one cat. He’s a nice cat so that’s something, I suppose. Of course he is involved in a strange military hierarchy where he is out ranked by a dog and a horse. A horse? Had these people met a cat before? There is not a cat on this planet that would take orders from a horse.
From a cat perspective, the fact horses allow themselves to be saddled and ridden is the source of ridicule and contempt. At least it would be if cats could bring themselves to give a shit about horses.
Alphabetical Movie – Labyrinth
I’m putting it right out front – I don’t want to hate on David Bowie, OK? I love David Bowie.
I love his music. I had Changesoneboowie on vinyl! When he appeared on the Bing Crosby Christmas special to sing that messed up version of Little Drummer boy, I was excited about it because David Bowie was singing with some old pipe smoking dude with an annoying voice!
Alphabetical Movie – L.A. Story
I’ve been to a lot of places on vacation and almost every single one of them is a place I’d love to see again.
L.A. isn’t one of those places. For a city filled with movie stars, it just didn’t really feel all that interesting to me. Maybe I went to the wrong parts.
Actually, we were mostly there to spend time at Disneyland. I liked Disneyland. But Disneyland is in Anaheim. Actually, it isn’t really in Anaheim. It is in “magical Disney place” and has nothing to do with Anaheim, L.A. or the real world. While there, though, we took the time to drive into L.A for a day.
Alphabetical Movie – L.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential is the perfect film to open the L section of the Alphabetical movie project because I have to admit, I’d been rushing to get to the L’s for a while.
I like most of the movies I own. I mean, I wouldn’t own them if I didn’t. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I like some more than others. That means there are some letters that get me more excited than others as well.
Take the letter D, for instance. Man was I looking forward to the letter D. I started out with movies like Dark City and The Day the Earth Stood Still and near the end I got to watch Dr. No and Dr. Strangelove. It was a great letter.
Right off the bat, though, you can see the potential in the letter L. L.A. Confidential is an amazing film. Just knowing I got to start the next batch of movies with such a great one got me really excited.
Alphabetical Movie – Kung-Fu Panda I & II
One night, my youngest was in the mood to watch Kung-fu Panda. It was a Friday night and the entire family was hanging out and enjoying unstructured time. We told him that he could watch whatever he wanted and he said he wanted to watch Kung-fu Panda.
He was telling a lie. it wasn’t a big lie. But it was a lie that had consequences. And not to him.
Alphabetical Movie – Kung Fu Hustle
Imagine this. With Kung-fu.
I enjoy Kung-Fu Hustle a lot but I’ve always faced a bit of a dilemma about the film because it wasn’t quite the film that I wanted it to be.
The film itself is a Kung-Fu film set in a world that could best be described as the Warner Brothers cartoon version of a Kung Fu movie. There is even a chase scene that would appear to be straight out of a Road Runner cartoon.
Yet the name of the film and the opening scene made it seem like what was about to be shown was a King Fu musical. Thing about that for a minute. A kung-fu musical. By Stephen Chow. If the concept doesn’t make you salivate, you need to educate yourself on Stephen Chow. Go and watch Shaolin Soccer.
Alphabetical Movie – Knight & Day
I know a few people who really hate Tom Cruise.
Not Tom Cruise as an actor in a movie, mind you. They just fucking hate Tom Cruise.
They hate him so much that they don’t ever want to watch a movie starring him, featuring him or possibly even associated with him. I think that they would avoid movies with the word “cruise” in them. That’s cool, I guess. Everyone has their own opinions.
Alphabetical Movie – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
By strange coincidence, I am writing about this movie just as I’ve been thinking about movies I call “gift movies”. By that I mean movies that I like to “give” to people.
If you are a movie fan to any degree, you have movies that fall into that category. You love it too much to keep it to yourself. The Dish has always been a film that falls into that category for me. I’m always eager to give that movie to another person.
I don’t mean “give” in the physical sense. Rather I mean giving the opportunity to share the experience of watching that film with as many people as possible.
Alphabetical Movie – King Kong (1933) and King Kong (2005)
The first time I saw King Kong was at Butt-Numb-a-Thon 3 in 2001. I know, I’m a movie geek and it is ridicoulous I’d never seen the film. As I’m fond of saying, there are way more films that I haven’t seen than films that I have.
Now, if you are going to have a first experience watching King Kong, seeing a newly struck print of the film projected on the big screen is pretty much the best way to go. I was in love with the movie from the moment the title hit the screen. I knew that new print of King Kong was out there and eventually would be available on DVD. When that DVD finally hit the market, I bought it the same day.
The first time I saw Peter Jackson’s re-make of King Kong was at Butt-Numb-a-Thon 7 in 2005. I liked it a lot. But as I mentioned in my blog about Kick-Ass, when you watch a movie at Butt-Numb-a-Thon, it can be difficult to determine how good or bad it is outside the context of Butt-Numb-a-Thon.
Grail Diary 