a stolen movie survey

Well, stolen survey about movies, not survey about stolen movies. This one is making the rounds, so hey, why not? Although I have to say we have not been watching movies lately. We’ve had so many TV shows lined up that we never seem to have time for a movie anymore, which is sad. I LOVE movies.

1. Name a movie you have seen more than ten times.
TEN TIMES???? Well, there are a lot of movies I have seen over and over and over, but more than ten times?? Oh, wait…..I’m sure I saw Star Wars at least ten times. It came out the summer I turned 16 and I saw it seven times just that summer alone. Yeah, kind of obsessed. Actually I just kept going with different friends/family members. And I was a little obsessed. I liked The Empire Strikes Back, but only saw it a couple of times. Return of the Jedi didn’t come out till six years later and by then I all grown up and over Star Wars. I never have seen those next three, which are supposedly the FIRST three, which I find very confusing when trying to see what year things came out and Episode I was not what I think of as the first Star Wars.

There are plenty of movies that I’ve seen multiple times, though, even though it may be less than 10:
The Full Monty
Secrets and Lies
Raising Arizona
The Big Chill
The Royal Tennenbaums
The Darjeeling Limited
Gone With The Wind
Eraserhead
Lone Star
Smoke
Smoke Signals
Inland Empire

2. Name a movie you have seen multiple times in the cinema.
Star Wars. The REAL first one. See above. Oh, The Big Chill – I saw it several times in the theatre when it came out. OH, and I saw The English Patient three times in a row, and by the third time I was sick of it and never saw it again. I haven’t seen anything in the theatre- or cinema – even once in years, let alone multiple times.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film.
You know, I thought that would be really easy, but I’m finding it a lot easier to name a director whose movies I will always watch. Because there are lots of actors I love, but they they’re usually not the total selling point. I may love them in certain movies, but not others. For example, Nicholas Cage. I will always adore Nicholas Cage because of Raising Arizona. I think he was BORN to play H.I. Sadly, I can’t think of another movie I’ve really liked with him in it. I love Emma Thompson, but won’t watch a movie just because she’s in it. Same with Anthony Hopkins. They’ve done too many bad American movies. I like Johnny Depp, but haven’t even seen Pirates of the Caribbean. Not even the FIRST one. I LOVE Owen Wilson in Wes Anderson movies, but the other stuff he’s in usually doesn’t sound like something I’d like at all. (Helllo, Wedding Crashers! You Me and Dupree! Etc etc etc)

Okay, I was just looking up Nicholas Cage to see what he HAS been in other than action/car crash/chase/thriller/blah blah blah movies, and DUH!! He was in Red Rock West. I LOVED Red Rock West. It also stared Laura Flynn Boyle and Dennis Hopper. It was great — scary and disturbing and funny all at once. And has the most difficult and awkward title to say out loud ever, which is probably why nobody has ever heard of it. He was also in Wild At Heart, a bizarre disturbing David Lynch movie. Which we saw not too long ago and could have SWORN we’d never watched it – very surprising since we love David Lynch (my theory was that since Laura Dern was smacking gum very loudly, Baker B hadn’t been able to take it and we’d turned it off) then nearly at the end of the movie there was a scene I totally remembered. And realized yeah, we saw it.

I need to add a question — "Name a movie you’ve seen, then totally forgot you saw and watched again."

SO how about a subset to Question #3 since I can’t answer it properly, even after going on for ten minutes about it:

3A. Name a director whose movies you always have to see:
David Lynch. Wes Anderson. The Coen Brothers. Jim Jarmusch. John Sayles (wow, he’s done a BUNCH of movies I haven’t seen. But I loved Lone Star, Sunshine State, and Casa De Los Babys, liked Limbo and Matewan… omg, he did Brother From Another Planet???? I need to watch that again) Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Life Is Sweet, Vera Drake, Naked especially – I’ll always watch his movies but am not always thrilled by them– helllllo, Happy Go Lucky!) , Hayao Miyazaki (Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Ponyo esp) .

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.
Tom Cruise. Nichole Kidman. Especially together. Yes, I’m talking to YOU, Eyes Wide Shut. Which I have no doubt is what killed Stanley Kubrick. However, I admit I did like Minority Report, and I LOVED The Hours. Nichole Kidman played Virginia Wolfe, so all she had to do was stand around looking annoyed and moody. Otherwise I’ve never seen much evidence that she can act.

Once it would have been Bill Murray- who until recent years I’ve always thought of as that silly guy on SNL 30 years ago. But he’s been in a bunch of Wes Anderson movies, and I LOVE him in them.

5. Name a film that you can and do quote from.
There are plenty of those! Baker B and I quote from stuff all the time. Our favorite quotable film is probably 12 Oz. Mouse. There’s an obscure movie for you! Which is technically a TV show, I guess, but Baker B bought the DVD and it’s like a movie – no breaks. So I’m counting it as a movie.

Refresh the page if this video isn’t showing. I don’t know why they keep doing that. 

I tried writing down some quotes but they make so little sense they aren’t even funny. "It’s already done. I did it in front of your face". Oh well!

I don’t generally quote from Gone With The Wind, but I could. I went to see it at the Art Museum in Raleigh years ago, and something happened to the sound. I realized I knew the lines so well that I really should have been shouting them out for everyone else until they got the sound straightened out. Same with the Big Chill. I hadn’t seen it in years and years, then happened across it on TV one night. I still knew every line.

6. Name a musical that you know all the songs and lyrics to.
I don’t know if I know ALL the songs and lyrics to any of them. But Sound of Music would be a contender. As would Wizard of Oz. And My Fair Lady. On a side note, like I don’t already have enough of those, I loved My Fair Lady as a kid. Then I saw it again a few years ago, and couldn’t believe how SLOW it was. The longer it went on, the more they insisted on breaking into song, and I just kept thinking, for GODSAKE, could you GET ON WITH THE MOVIE PLEASE?!?!? Honestly, I will confess that I’m not a huge fan of musicals.

7. Name a film you would recommend everyone see.
All the ones I’ve listed above. All of them. Now.

8. Ever walked out on a film?
Years ago we went to see Trainspotting. I was DYING to see it — I’d already seen Shallow Grave and thought it was fantastic – very dark, very funny. And Robert Carlyle is actually one of those actors I’m very inclined to watch movies when he’s in them. Baker B wasn’t that eager to go see it, and I kind of drug him there, which is never a good idea with Baker B. I could FEEL him giving off "I HATE THIS MOVIE THIS IS HORRIBLE I WANT TO LEAVE NOW" vibes, which was distracting and keeping me from really paying attention to the movie, and when I looked at my watch after what seemed like hours and saw it had been, oh, twenty minutes, I told him I was okay with leaving if he wanted to. And he practically knocked me down getting out. It was a very disturbing, depressing and gross movie. I watched it again alone much later, and .. well, I wouldn’t say I liked it, but I’m glad I saw it.

I STILL haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire. Or Millions, which he also did.

9. Name a film that made you cry.
Oh, that could take awhile. I tend to be a weeper. I remember going to see Little Women when we were living in Durham and I was lonely and depressed and missing my family and friends, and I cried so much my shirt was wet by the time the movie was over and I had to sneak out the side door. I have also been known to start crying with the opening credits of Gone With The Wind.

10. Popcorn?
Yes, thanks! No butter.

11. How often do you go to the cinema?
Pretty much never these days. We rent everything we watch. Going to the cinema used to be fun. Back when everyone wasn’t yakking on their phones and you didn’t have to refinance the house to buy a ticket. I can’t think of the last movie we went to see in the theatre. Probably one of the Harry Potters when my nephew was younger (he is 21 now) and we’d take him at Thanksgiving to the latest one.

12. What’s your favorite film genre?
Dark and funny. And complicated. I like meandering dark complex funny movies. Inland Empire. Darjeeling Limited.

13. What’s the first film you remember seeing at the cinema?
Dumbo. My aunt took me to see it.

14. What film do you wish you had never seen?
Either Porkys, which my ex husband took me to when we were dating, and I was EXPECTING to see On Golden Pond, or Pale Rider, which the same ex-husband took me to because he had free tickets. Worst.Movie.EVER.

15. If you could be any character portrayed in a movie who would it be?
I’m going to have to go with Scarlett O’Hara. Fiddledeedee!

16. Total number of films you own on DVD?
Not a lot. We don’t often buy movies, unless Baker B wants them to use in his Great Synching Projects. We did buy Darjeeling Limited not long ago, which is one of my all-time favorites (it was cheap) and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I’ve got The Full Monty and ….what else?? Oh, we’ve got The Station Agent, another great movie. In America, which is excellent and I found for really cheap in the grocery store of all things.

17. Last film you bought?
Baker B just bought Sphere for Synching Purposes. For like $5.

18. Last film you watched.
Friday before last, Baker B went down to his mom’s and stayed the night, and I watched Sometimes A Great Notion on my laptop. I’d been thrilled to see you can stream it, because it’s one of those favorite films from my childhood- I saw it on TV when I was maybe 14 or 15. (Oddly I remember it being called Never Give An Inch, which is apparently the title of the British release.) I also LOVE the book, which is by Ken Kesey, who is much better known for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Sometimes A Great Notion is one of my favorite books — I haven’t read it in years but it is ragged from previous readings. Anyhow, I was excited to see the movie again, which stars Paul Newman and Henry Fonda, and is about a family of loggers in the Pacific Northwest, who are continuing to work while the union has gone on strike. The younger hippyish son of Henry Fonda and half-brother of Paul Newman has come back from the east coast, for the first time since he was 10. Anyhow, the movie was not as glowingly wonderful as I remember it being. It was kind of slow and VERY 70s and much less complex than the book. It wasn’t bad, just didn’t live up to my fond memories.

19. Five films that mean a lot to you.
Since I’ve answered that multiple times throughout this survey, I am changing it to:
What movies do you have lined up to watch soon?
WELL, I’ve got Another Year on its way to me right this minute via Netflix – it’s Mike Leigh’s latest, and I predict it will live up to my previous favorite of his, Secrets and Lies. Also coming up in the queue are True Grit, The King’s Speech, Me And You And Everyone We Know (which I may watch on the laptop Friday if Baker B goes to his mom’s), and Bridget Jones’s Diary which I want to see because I recently read the book and was surprised at how much I liked it.

Wow. That was long enough for several entries. Good way to kill some time.