Well, not all of them. Just It's a Wonderful Life, apparently. Somehow I managed to not see it again, and I couldn't renew it, so back the movie went to the library. I blame TV Tropes. (No, seriously. I spent hours upon hours site hopping and chatting about tropes with my siblings. I need a life.)
But I didn't fail at watching the other movies, at least.
Waitress (2007): It's not much more than a solid, fun romantic comedy (not that this is a bad thing), although I greatly appreciate two things about the ending. 1) It doesn't turn Dr. Pomatter's wife into an utter shrew, which would have been the dumbest thing in the history of the universe. 2) It doesn't force Jenna and Dr. Pomatter into a relationship. The ending is actually surprisingly low-key and realistic (well, as realistic as a romantic-comedy could ever aspire to be, anyway). And for the benefit of Sommael Guy, Esq.: Nathan Fillion is fun to watch as a stammering dork. :P
North by Northwest (1959): Been so long since I've seen this that I wanted to watch it again. What struck me most is that it's a hell of a lot funnier than I remembered. You just can't beat the comedy of a drunken Cary Grant trying to drive away from kidnappers. The flirting back and forth between Grant and Eva Marie Saint is also amusing. Still love all the twists and turns of the plot, although anyone remotely familiar with spy stories could probably call them all today. (That is more of a testament to how much North by Northwest has been ripped off than it is a weakness in the writing, though, haha.) I want to see more movies with James Mason now, too, especially ones featuring him as a villain. He's such a smarmy, slimy jerk in North by Northwest. It's great.
Monkey Business (1952): Probably one of the last in the original breed of screwball comedies. I don't like it quite as much as, say, It Happened One Night or Bringing Up Baby, but it's still funny enough on its own. The basic premise is that Cary Grant is a chemist who is trying to perfect a formula that will make people feel younger. Of course, he does not do this; instead, the formula is created by accident when one of the experimental monkeys the lab keeps messes around with some chemicals. Hilarity ensues. Cary Grant is as great and hilarious as ever in this. (I love that he is willing to make such an utter goofball of himself. The difference between this character and the character he plays in North by Northwest is amazing.) I think the movie stretches the premise a bit long, but that's a minor complaint.
Princess Mononoke (1997): You know, a lot of what I heard about this related to how violent it is compared to most Miyazaki movies, but I actually like how the violence is used here. It emphasizes the ferocity of the demon influence Ashitaka fights within himself, and it really isn't gratuitous at all. Most of it is just flashes of violence, actually, and it basically lingers long enough for the viewer to go, "Holy shit!!" before moving on. The rest of the movie is, of course, good. It's Miyazaki, so I probably don't have to point out that the movie looks stunning. I like the complexity of the conflicts, as well. Every side has its good and bad points -- Lady Eboshi has helped a lot of people society has abandoned, but she's kind of a dick in her pursuit to destroy the forest. The wolves and boars hate humans, but you can understand where they're coming from, because it's not as if the humans have treated them with kindness and care. Similar to Waitress (I cannot believe this comparison can actually be made), I like how San and Ashitaka are not forced to be together at the end. They've both become quite fond of each other, but each has his or her own role in the world, and both understand they cannot abandon it to be with each other.
On the queue for this week: My Neighbor Totoro (1988), The Brave One (2007) and 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Total movies: Total Movies: 54 (Gaslight, The Last King of Scotland, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Darjeeling Limited, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Diary of the Dead, Bullets Over Broadway, Interiors, Husbands and Wives, The Professional: Golgo 13, Lars and the Real Girl, Lolita, Quills, Hamlet, Iris, Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Savages, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Stranger, Love and Death, Harold and Maude, Spartacus, Scarlet Street, Sabrina, Zelig, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Stardust Memories, Barry Lyndon, Be Kind Rewind, Radio Days, Deconstructing Harry, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Creating Rem Lazar, Undefeatable, Ninja Terminator, Ninja Dragon, Rumble Fish, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, In Bruges, The Bank Dick, Marathon Man, Clannad, Air, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, MirrorMask, Slither, It's a Gift, Splendor in the Grass, Waitress, North by Northwest, Monkey Business, Princess Mononoke)
