For fans of "Chicago" and Disney: The Spell Block Tango
October 29, 2013
I love this video!
[Hat tip to Everything's Coming Up Broadway and The Mary Sue]
I love this video!
[Hat tip to Everything's Coming Up Broadway and The Mary Sue]
I never got around to writing the post I came up with on how women are portrayed in Star Trek Into Darkness. This Honest Trailer sums it up pretty well in less than half a minute (1:48 to 2:13).
[Obviously, spoiler alert]
I don't like the preview photo so click here to watch.
The Jurassic Park one is good too - I love the 70's R&B music during "Re-witness... The Goldblum" - for a scene we've always considered to be pointless.
...either that or he's a really good sport.
On The Mary Sue this evening, I ran across this video with Cookie Monster:
... which reminded me of this Comic Con 2013 video of Tom Hiddleston hamming it up as Loki...
... which reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from The Avengers:
RA. One is an Indian, science fiction, superhero movie. What more could you want?
Our Zumba teacher posted her playlist today so I've had lots of fun looking up the videos for the songs. I love the video for Chammak Challo, a song I've enjoyed in Zumba classes for about two years, but hadn't known the name of.
It's obvious from the end of the video that more is going on here so I went and looked the movie up on Wikipedia:
The film follows Shekhar Subramanium (Khan), a game designer who creates a motion sensor-based game in which the antagonist (Ra.One) is more powerful than the protagonist (G.One). The former escapes from the game's virtual world and enters the real world; his aim is to kill Lucifer, the game ID of Shekhar's son and the only player to have challenged Ra.One's power. Relentlessly pursued, the family is forced to bring out G.One from the virtual world to defeat Ra.One and protect them.
We've been wanting to watch a Bollywood movie for a while, and this goes with our recent superhero trend.* It's now at the top of our Netflix list. Here's the trailer:
* We've only been watching movies with PG-13 violence in them with younger son for about the last year so we've been watching a lot of action movies. We also watched the 1979 Superman because he hadn't seen it yet.
Yes. For you Princess Bride fans,* that is the actual name of Poe's poem.
We were discussing the Seven Deadly Sins this evening, and we ended up at the Wikipedia article when Dear Husband couldn't remember all of the Latin names. We wandered a bit further through the Wikipedia while looking up similar concepts in other faiths: Arishadvarga in Hindu theology, and Kleshas in Buddhism. Eventually, after donating to the Wikipedia because we use it so often, we ended up at the main Wikipedia page which featured an article on being hanged, drawn, and quartered (I wouldn't recommend reading it). Dear husband asked who painted the illustration with the article (I don't recommend looking at it either).
The illustration was from a manuscript of Froissart, a medieval, French, chronicle writer. We couldn't easily find the artist who painted the illustration, but the Froissart article mentioned that one of his manuscripts was illustrated by Brugeois artists of the day - from the Flemish city of Bruges. I will show the Wikimedia photo for Bruges (below), which makes me really want to go back to Europe some day.
Getting back to the Seven Deadly Sins, while I was looking for the Latin names, we ended up at the post about sloth, at The Starry Cave. The post goes into depth on sloth (socordia):
These are the movies that you probably couldn't avoid if you grew up in our house (the ones that are italicized are the ones younger son hasn't seen yet):
And I've added Treasure Planet to the post on animated movies ("Spider psycho, spider psycho, spider psycho!")
Last weekend, we were talking about some of the movies we refer to the most - plot, quotes, characters, etc. These are the movies that you probably couldn't avoid if you grew up in our house (the ones that are italicized are the ones younger son hasn't seen yet):
Animated:
There have been many pictures of Peter Falk as the grandfather in The Princess Bride floating around online the last few days. However, as much as I love The Princess Bride and Columbo, my favorite Peter Falk role is in the 1979 movie, The In-Laws, with Alan Arkin. Nobody else delivers a line quite the same way as Peter Falk did:
He also did figure drawings, which you can see at PeterFalk.com, and which include some of himself playing Columbo.
There are so many reviews of The King's Speech out there that I don't need to write one. However, we loved the movie, which we finally saw today, and we talked about it all evening after getting home from the matinee.
Some random thoughts:
Back in January, when we first decided to see it, we were trying to find someone for younger son to stay with. I got sick, then younger son, and older son got sick... then younger son got sick again...then dear husband and I both got sick... then (for the last 2 weeks) dear husband had the not-covered-by-the-flu-shot flu. This weekend was cold and rainy, we were all finally well, and older son didn't have a heavy college workload for the weekend. We were going to make sure to see it!
When it first came out, daughter saw it with friends. She said that the plot wasn't the slightest bit R-rated and that the rating was pretty much due to that one word. It's taken me about a month to get used to the idea of taking a 12 yo to a movie rated R, and, given the difficult time I had typing the first part of this sentence, I'm still not used to it.
I wasn't sure what younger son thought of the movie while we were watching, except that he thought the parts with the language were hilarious. It had long, slow, quiet parts. Was he finding it boring? After the credits finished (we always watch the credits), he turned to me with a smile and said that he loved it. It's one of his favorite movies!
I was determined that my kids wouldn't have that experience. Daughter loves history and has a mind like a steel trap for it. Older son enjoys it, although he doesn't have his sister's recall. What's surprised me is that younger son, who is fascinated by engineering and technology, also loves history... well, except that history is a series of whys and causation, which is right up his alley. I'm happy that they all enjoy it!
- Albert was born on the same date that his great-grandfather died. In order to make this less sad for his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, he was named after her late husband.
- We wondered what happened to Lionel Logue's sons during the war. I didn't find that out, but they did all survive.
- The Wikipedia quotes George V, Albert's father, as saying this about his older sons: "I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet (Elizabeth II) and the throne."
- Edward was respected for his role in the military during WWI. However, during WWII, as the Wikipedia reports, during his 1937 visit to Germany, he appeared to support Fascism, and Hitler and Speer both thought that Anglo-German relations would have been much closer had he not abdicated.
- The Wikipedia was very useful: George V was first cousin to both Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
- The article on the queen consort (more recenly known as the Queen Mum) was one of my favorites. Some quotes:
- "Unexpectedly, Elizabeth laid her bouquet at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior on her way into the Abbey; a gesture which every royal bride since has copied, though subsequent brides have chosen to do this on the way back from the altar rather than to it."
- "She charmed the public in Fiji when shaking hands with a long line of official guests, as a stray dog walked in on the ceremony and she shook its paw as well."
- "During the war, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. In recognition of her role as a propaganda tool, Adolf Hitler described her as 'the most dangerous woman in Europe'."
- "When Buckingham Palace itself took several hits during the height of the bombing, Elizabeth was able to say, 'I'm glad we've been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.'"
- "Sir Hugh Casson said she was like 'a wave breaking on a rock, because although she is sweet and pretty and charming, she also has a basic streak of toughness and tenacity. ... when a wave breaks on a rock, it showers and sparkles with a brilliant play of foam and droplets in the sun, yet beneath is really hard, tough rock, fused, in her case, from strong principles, physical courage and a sense of duty.'"
- The author, David Seidler suffered from a stammer as a child. Having heard George VI's wartime speech as a child, he (later in his adult life) had written to the Queen Mother asking for permission to use the King's story to create a film. The Queen Mother asked him not to during her lifetime, citing that the memories were too painful. Seidler respected her request. (IMDB)
- Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms and the daughter of King George VI, who as a small girl is portrayed in the film, was sent two copies of the film before Christmas 2010. The Sun newspaper reported she had watched the film in a private screening at Sandringham House. A "palace source" described her reaction as "touched by a moving portrayal of her father". Seidler called the reports "the highest honour" the film could receive. (Wikipedia)
- Ten Secrets Behind the Making of The King's Speech.
At the climax of the movie, the background music is one of my favorite pieces of Beethovens' - the Second Movement (Allegretto) of the Seventh Symphony. Here is the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez:
* There was a time travel one that looked interesting, though the preview was still too loud and violent.