Monday Movie Meme: The Year You Were Born

(*the creators of the Monday Movie Meme, The Bumbles, are no longer blogging, so I took it upon myself to go through their archives and start at the beginning)

This week's movie topic is all about the year YOU were born...

• What year were you born? 1969
• What movie won the Oscar for Best Picture that year? Midnight Cowboy
• If you have seen this film, what did you think of it? I've never seen Midnight Cowboy, but I do like Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin' " from the soundtrack.
• What is YOUR favorite movie from the year YOU were born?*  A Boy Named Charlie Brown is the only film I've seen in its entirety.
• Any movies that you have discovered in researching this that you now want to see? Cactus Flower (love Goldie Hawn); The Wrecking Crew (one of Sharon Tate's last roles); Hello, Dolly!; and Easy Rider.

*the link that the Bumbles listed is no longer working, so I went to Wikipedia and did my search there.

Monday Movie Meme: Favorite Film To Date

This week's topic is all about favorites. Share on your blog your favorite YTD movie - not necessarily one released this year, just a new-to-you film viewed this year. You can play along here.

No disrespect to The King's Speech, The Fighter, or Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, but my favorite movie thus far in 2011 is the hilarious Bridesmaids. Bridesmaids is the story of Annie (Kristen Wiig), a maid of honor whose life unravels as she leads her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), and a group of colorful bridesmaids (including Rose Byrne as "Helen" and Melissa McCarthy as "Megan") on a wild ride down the road to matrimony. A wild ride that includes an unfortunate case of food poisoning at an upscale bridal salon, a ruined bachelorette trip to Las Vegas, and an intense competition between Annie and Helen, not only for control of the festivities, but also for the title of Lillian's "best friend".

I know that Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph are the "stars" of the film, but as funny as they both are, they tend to be overshadowed any time they have to share screen time with the fantastic Melissa McCarthy. She was an absolute laugh riot! Loved her. Also great is Irish actor Chris O'Dowd, who plays Wiig's love interest. When he first appeared, I knew I had seen him somewhere before, but just couldn't place him. After wracking my brain for half the movie, it finally hit me: he was Simple Simon in "Pirate Radio" and Gen. Edward Edwardian in "Gulliver's Travels".

Monday Movie Meme: We're Having A Heat Wave

This week's movie topic is all about Heat. Share on your blog movies containing a heat wave or extreme summer heat that was present in but not necessarily the focus of the film.

The War (1994)- Set in Juliette, Mississippi during the summer of 1970, The War is the story of a shell shocked Vietnam War vet, Stephen Simmons (Kevin Costner), dealing with personal and employment issues while his children, Stu and Lidia (the wonderful Elijah Wood and Lexi Randall), fight a war of a different kind against a family of bullies (the Lipnickis). Putting your anger aside ("Sometimes all it takes is a split second to do something you regret the whole rest of your life") , forgiving those who wrong you, compromising for the benefit of the community, and moving forward with the struggle for hope with joy in your heart are just a few of the life lessons offered in this wonderfully moving film.

Just a word of caution: if you decide to watch TheWar, don't forget the Kleenex. Elijah Wood and the littlest Lipnicki boy will make you cry. Guaranteed.

Monday Movie Meme

This week's movie topic is all about Epic Battle Scenes. Share on your blog those battle scenes that are so epic, they make you stop everything to watch.

• Gettysburg (1993)- Charge of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment: George Pickett's ill fated infantry assault on Cemetery Ridge is the most famous and most often discussed maneuver of the Gettysburg campaign, but the heroic actions of Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine on Little Round Top prevented the entire Union line from being flanked.
  

• Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (2007)- Dumbledore Vs. Voldemort: Wizard smack down!

• Lord Of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)-Battle of Pelennor Fields: The Rohirrim kick some Orc butt.
  

Charge of the Rohirrim at Pelennor Fields by Indiratur

Monday Movie Meme

This week's topic is all about movies that leave you thoroughly depressed after viewing.

I can think of 2 movies that left me emotionally scarred and wanting to swallow a bottle of Zoloft . The first, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, is the story of the friendship between the 8 year old son of a concentration camp commandant and a Jewish boy on the other side of the fence. My nephew Garett, 9 years old at the time, had wanted to order this movie on pay-per-view (he's interested in all things World War 2), but I told him that I wanted to watch it first to make sure it was age appropriate. Of course, I knew that any movie featuring Nazis and concentration camps wasn't going to be fun, games, and happy endings, but the final minutes of Pajamas damn near made me physically ill. It made my heart ache on so many levels. As you can probably guess, Garett didn't get to watch it.

Keeping with the Nazi and concentration camp theme, another movie I never want to see again is Schindler's List. The brutality and utter disregard for human life is mankind at its' very worst.

Monday Movie Meme

This week's movie topic is all about Flight...

Flight is something humans have been fascinated with for a long time. The movies are filled with flying dreams and realities. Share on your blog films focused on flight, things that fly or become airborne.

My favorite flight themed movie? Airport '77. Art thieves hijack a 747, hit fog and crash into the ocean, trapping them and the passengers under 100 feet of water. Can they make it out in time?

I watched this movie religiously whenever it was on Cinevue (our late 70's predecessor to HBO) The special effects during the crash and rescue sequences are top notch (for that time, any way), and the acting is superb. How can you go wrong with Jack Lemmon, Olivia deHavilland , James Stewart, Christopher Lee, George Kennedy, Lee Grant, and Darren McGavin all in the same movie? To this day, I'm still traumatized by the scene where Christopher Lee dies during a rescue attempt and then floats, open-eyed, past the passengers watching out of the windows.

Monday Movie Meme

This week's movie topic is all about Facial Hair...

Boston is an Original Six hockey town. And right now the Bruins are caught up in a thrilling series with those hated Montreal Canadiens. Playoff hockey leads its players to grow playoff beards for good luck. Share on your blog characters in film with memorable beards and or mustaches, linking back here so that others can find you.

One of my all-time favorite movies, Gettysburg (1993), is a beard/mustache/goatee lover's dream. Check out the beards on Lt. Gen. James Longstreet (Tom Berenger) and Gen. Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen) above left, and the mustaches on Brig. Gen. John Buford (Sam Elliot) and Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) above right. You know, I've never understood why Civil War soldiers would want to deal with beards at all, given the frequent lice outbreaks and the scratchy wool uniforms. Scratchy wool uniforms + itchy facial hair= a special level of hell, especially during humid summer battles.
The award for worst facial hair in Gettysburg goes to Lt. Thomas Chamberlain (C. Thomas Howell). It's so thick I bet it could stop a bullet.

Monday Movie Meme

This week's movie topic is all about Running...

Monday marks the 115th running of the Boston Marathon - the oldest annually contested marathon in the world. Lots of movies feature runners, running scenes and foot races. Share on your blog those movies that make your feet tired just watching and link back here.

My favorite "running" movie is Run, Fatboy, Run (2007). Five years after jilting his pregnant fiancée on their wedding day, out-of-shape security guard Dennis (the hilarious Simon Pegg) decides to compete in London's Nike River-Run to win her back.