Tuesday, October 30, 2007

After the party it's the hotel lobby


The "Fiesta, Fiesta" keeps on popping off over here. After the Aquarium you know we had to make it over to Zoo Atlanta. It was a blast.


Here's a couple of shots of the fun but really you can look at all the pics of the events I've been telling you about over on my Flickr. Links Links Links!


Anyhoo, Michelle? Jerry? You both can see I covered up the boys just for you in my green dress. I wasn't too happy that I couldn't cover up that stomach bulge but skip that for a minute...doesn't my skin look freaking amazing? Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. When I was checking out the pictures I couldn't help but sweat myself- j/k but I'm not to on the self hate tip to pay myself a compliment,"Go skin, go skin- it's your birthday..."

Anyway, let's not even get started on how many movies I've seen over the months and haven't told you all about. I have been keep in a list. There's about 90 on the list and I've written about 50 of them on here so far. I have to catch up before the year ends- I must. I've seen some good ones lately but I'm dipping back to tell you about some from a ways back.
"Just gotta git it out- just gotta git it right out of meeeeah"

No Vegetable Juice this week- Rent them all!

51. House of Flying Daggers- Another beautiful martial arts film. I loved the story and the fight scenes were incredible AND visual masterpieces however not more so than Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Actually if we’re talking visually nothing has topped Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, or even Hero for me yet. Visually, they were just incredible. They really show Asia in a glorious way; with simplicity but still with great life incredible beauty. The love story actually ended up being beautiful and the choreography of some of the fight scenes…Wow.
52. Life is Beautiful- What an incredibly optimistic view of the Holocaust. I was not expecting this movie. Of course I had heard so much about it and yes, I saw the Oscars that year but it’s one you have to see in order to appreciate it. I recommend this film to everyone. It’s so sad (how could it not be) yet the movie convinces you that everything’s going to be ok, that things are not as bad as they seem; that surely there will be a happy ending somehow. It really does an extraordinary job of keeping you hopeful yet haunting you with painfully truthful reality. Even so, the way the movie ends it’s so…hopeful-light even. This is so not the word I’m looking for. It’s like this; Just like the title reads, “Life is Beautiful” as is the movie and it’s message. Undoubtedly, I came away with an understanding. “This is all terrible, this is all true and horrible BUT life is too beautiful to let the terrible consume all the beauty it contains.” To me and I hope to most that is the moral of the story. To me that was the goal of the Father for his son. It really was much more than looking at the glass half full, it was sacrifice…
53. Easy to Wed- Oh my goodness, what a hoot of a movie. Lucille Ball was in this one as a supporting actress. Dude, she is sooo freaking funny. Effortless. It’s funny the whole plot is something that could happen today (we haven’t changed much at all) A high society woman is rumored to be a “playgirl” and a tabloid paper produces a story about her that’s false so she & her rich Father call up and claim to sue the company for $2M. Well the tabloid hires a notorious “playboy” to rope her into a real version of the fabricated story and it all plays out from there. I tell you there is just something about these old movies. You can hold an expectation to them that today’s movies just never hit you with. Geez, I really am having a sorry time trying to explain what I mean today. Maybe I should try using my words another day! It’s just that the delivery, the humor, the feeling of these movies- it’s all something so 100% different from todays movies. It has to do with the way movies are shot now as oppose to then or something. Maybe it’s a difference in film, in sets, in actors, in wardrobe, humor, delivery. It’s something greater than what happens these days for some reason.
54. Neptunes Daughter- Another good one with Esther Williams (she was in Easy to Wed too) and Ricardo Montalban (who I had no idea was that hot in his younger years). I love how easy it is to fall in love (I mean madly/wildly/truly/desperately in love where the man is all up front and gushy about it) and get married in these movies. Anyway, this movie is mainly a case of mistaken identity. I wonder if this musical is absolutely where the song “Baby, it’s cold outside” came from? Interesting. I always thought it was a blues classic. Anyway, what I actually like best about this movie was all the Latin/South American music scenes. I got a little irritated with the obnoxious Mexican stable hand stereotypes and Esther’s sister had a black handmade (who looked pretty glamorous to be cleaning house in a movie from the 40's-hmm) well, at least her script didn’t include anything like “yes’m I’s gittin to it” or anything like that; I suppose that was a step up from the norm- anyway there was a pretty good amount of good un-stereotypical but celebratory Latin influence in the movie which I enjoyed. Also, the swimsuits in the movie where incredible; I love those old suits.
55. On the Town- Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra (who I had no idea was so incredibly scrawny until you see him next to little brawny Gene Kelly). This movie was very entertaining. Good music numbers and dancing (which you could always expect) but this is not my favorite musical from Gene Kelly. It’s not even in the top 5. Nevertheless, you won’t be sorry if you rent it. The whole premise is that three sailors have a days leave off the boat in NYC. They want to see the sights and see some women all in one day before they have to get back on board. Anyway, Mr. Kelly gets on the subway and sees a poster for Mrs. Turnstiles and he must have her- so he and his buddies spend a good part of the movie in hilarious pursuit of “Ms. High Society”. These freaking movies just make grin. Love it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ah, the atl experience! it's been a minute since i've been there, but i love that place! i'm so made this post didn't show up in my google reader until today!!!

i'm loving the movie reviews. i don't think i've seen any of the ones that you've reviewed *adds some movies to her blockbuster queue*.

Anonymous said...

Hi! Just so you know, that's Frank Sinatra who appears with Kelly in On the Town, not Fred Astaire.

Gene and Fred did dance together in "Ziegfeld Follies of 1946," though.

Ninabeena said...

Oh! Mr./Mrs. Anonymous! I do stand corrected. I had to edit that right away. Thanks a million. I appreciate it. I got myself mixed up apparently.

Ninabeena said...

PS. Anonymous, I do like Ziegfeld Follies, I know the big deal to everyone is all the other names in the movie but I love that Lena Horne is it which made it kind of a big deal to me. Love Lena (black icon).