Movie Monday - the musicals edition

Okay, so we've talked about my favourite soundtracks and my favourite scores already. So now let's finish the trilogy by talking about my favourite musicals! Typically in a musical, the songs advance the story in some way, sharing the inner feelings of the characters. A few of these don't quite fit that bill, but I'm counting them as musicals anyway because most of the music is sung by the characters. So...yeah.

Pitch Perfect

Come on, like you can pass up that big final number. I'm sure I'm not the only one counting the days until the sequel comes out.

Les Miserables

Sure, the movie version had its problems (*cough* Russell Crowe *cough*). And Bring Him Home is ALWAYS awful because it's way too high for anyone but Colm Wilkinson. But Do You Hear The People Sing? Was absolutely phenomenal.

Singin' in the Rain

If you don't love this movie and its amazingly ridiculous dance routines, I'm not sure we can be friends any more. Also, if someone could find me a pair of the shoes Debbie Reynolds is wearing in that video, that'd be great.

Mamma Mia

Okay, so Pierce Brosnan's singing should be banned for the sake of humanity. But this movie is just SO MUCH FUN. And Meryl Streep recorded the vocals for this in ONE TAKE. Which is pretty damned amazing.

Phantom of the Opera

One of these days, I'll get around to covering this one properly. But for now? It's a pretty spectacular adaptation of the stage show. And Gerard Butler is surprisingly great as the Phantom.

Rock of Ages

This movie falls firmly into so-bad-it's-secretly-good territory. It's utterly ridiculous, and I love it.

Hairspray

Fabulousness from start to finish, with amazing costumes to boot. (Please excuse the weird Portuguese voiceover at certain points during that video. It was the best I could find...)

Moulin Rouge

Sure, it ends in major ugly crying. But it's so stinking good OMG.

Grease

Okay, the flying car thing at the end is utterly ridiculous. As is the change-your-entire-personality-for-a-guy theme that it has going on. But damn, it's great.

High Society

I have an irrational soft spot for this musical version of The Philadelphia Story. I mean, how can you pass up Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly being ridiculous?!

What are your favourite musicals?

K xx

Movie Monday: The Breakfast Club

For some reason, I made it until last year without having seen this movie. I know, I know, it's a total travesty. And yet, the fact remains. Obviously, I immediately fell in love with it, as is the case with most John Hughes movies.

Source

Reasons why The Breakfast Club is awesome:
1. Molly Ringwald. She's just fabulous.
2. The soundtrack.
3. Dance parties.

Source

4. Emilio Estevez. Brilliant from start to finish.
5. Claire's lipstick trick.
6. Judd Nelson. Apparently he was kind of an asshat on the set, but he's still incredible.
7. Handraising in unison.

Source

8. Whistling the Colonel Bogey March.
9. Anthony Michael Hall. He looks about twelve years old, but he's fantastic.
10. The explanations of why they're all in detention. Especially considering a lot of it was ad libbed.
11. Ally Sheedy. AMAZING.
12. Allison's lunch. I mean, a sandwich of Pixie Stix and Cap'n Crunch? Come on.

Source

13. Bender falling through the ceiling.
14. Paul Gleason. As with Ferris Bueller's Day Off, sometimes a douchey teacher makes a John Hughes movie complete.
15. It's directed by John Hughes
16. Trying to get back to the library without running into Mr. Vernon.

Source

17. Carl the janitor. He's brilliant.
18. Sushi for lunch. In 1985.
19. Trying to prop the door open with a chair.
20. Makeovers.
21. The ending. Especially now that it adds reminders of Pitch Perfect.

Source

Plus, the following quotes:
- "Any questions?" "Yeah, I got a question. Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"
- "Sweets, you couldn't ignore me if you tried."
- "What's that?" "Sushi." "Sushi?" "Rice, raw fish, and seaweed." "You won't accept a guy's tongue in your mouth, and you're going to eat that?"
- "Being bad feels pretty good, huh?"
- "We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all."
- "Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did *was* wrong. But we think you're crazy to make an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us... In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain..." "...and an athlete..." "...and a basket case..." "...a princess..." "...and a criminal..." "Does that answer your question?... Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club."
- "If you say you haven't, you're a prude. If you say you have you're a slut. It's a trap."
- "What do you need a fake I.D. for?" "So I can vote."
- "Well, in physics we...we talk about physics, properties of physics." "So it's sorta social. Demented and sad, but social. Right?"
- "Are you gonna be, like, a shopping bag lady?"
- "I don't have to runaway and live in the street. I can runaway and I can go to the ocean, I can go to the country, I can go to the mountains. I could go to Israel, Africa, Afghanistan."
- "Remember how you said your parents use you to get back at each other? Wouldn't I be OUTSTANDING in that capacity?"

So. What do you think?

K xx

Currently...

Given that I've been rather absent in the past ten days, I figured that I should let you all know that I'm not dead. You know, in case you were wondering. But considering I've used all of my brain power and cleverness on VEDA, I couldn't come up with anything particularly interesting to say.

So instead of thinking up a blog post, I figured I'd use the opportunity to catch you all up on what's been happening recently through a handy dandy meme thingy!

Watching:
I'm very late to the party on this one, but I've been watching a LOT of Veronica Mars recently. It's absolutely phenomenal, and I'm insanely excited about the movie coming out next year. Other than that, there's the usual Buffy and Angel for Snark Squad, and an AWFUL lot of Youtube videos, courtesy of VEDA.

Listening to:
The Pitch Perfect soundtrack is on high rotation at the moment. Also Titanium, because it's freaking awesome. The new Scouting for Girls single, Millionaire. And a lot of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes for reasons that will be discussed below!

Planning:
Tomorrow's VEDA video. Sunday's VEDA video. SO MANY VEDA VIDEOS. Super secret things that may or may not end up happening. We shall see...

Thinking about:
The fact that I upped my squat weight and my lunge weight at Body Pump today (15kg and 12.5kg respectively), and nailed it. How many VEDA videos I still have to watch. What to watch for Movie Monday. How many episodes of Veronica Mars I can watch tonight.

Looking forward to:
VEDA being over so I don't feel stressed out about not having time to watch All the Videos. Eventually having a job. October, because it's going to feature Must Be Thrifty and Cheap Geek's wedding, Kat visiting Melbourne, AND seeing Me First and the Gimme Gimmes live in concert. SQUEEEEE!!!!

Reading:
'Legend' by Maria Lu. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it - it feels a lot like every other dystopian YA I've read in the past couple of years. You know, girl meets boy, they don't get along, the government is evil, boy and girl fall for each other despite everything. I'm about two thirds of the way through, so maybe something dramatically different will happen between now and the end of the book to make me absolutely fall in love with it, but at this point? It's enjoyable but nothing out of the ordinary.

Making me happy:
The fact that I applied for graduation yesterday, and will be graduating with distinction. Making it through the entire shoulder track at Pump this morning without needing to change my weights. VEDA. Veronica Mars. Chocolate. You know, the usual.

So. What's new with you guys?

K xx