Z is for ZOMBIELAND and The Mask of ZORRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is it Z! Thanks to all who have been so kind to visit and share here and in Defining ways. So for Z I am choosing two and cheating with one....   Zombieland is a huge movie in our home. Our teen son loves it and so little by little we got used to Zombies and Zombie violence, even watching some Walking Dead when he got into it (thank goodness that was short lived)  but ZORRO... that was the last movie I saw in 1998 with my huge pregnant belly about 48 hours before I gave birth to my one and only child.

 

The theme is after all movies that have impacted me for better or worse, I had a few contractions during the film itself, I guess they are like pre labor warnings. It is of course a film that will always put a huge smile on my face and remind me of the love and anticipation I felt in the summer of 1998.

Do you have kids? Is there a movie you identify with for such an unconnected reason?

 

 

 

 

 

Y is for Are YOU HERE.....

 

I must admit Y was the hardest letter and I almost chose You, Me and Dupree as one of the absolute worse movies I ever got dragged out to see.  As I looked through lists of movies with the letter Y I feel I may have missed something, but if anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them!

I ended up choosing a movie I watched recently on HBO  and cheated a bit. but as so many of the films I chose began with THE and I took a liberty there to use the second word I am going to do that with Y .

This movie has some very strong bonds and friendships, it explores certain things with outrageous humor and others with depth, I though the ending as much as it was not uplifting, it certainly was realistic.

ARE YOU HERE is not great BUT it was certainly better than  any other choice I found, and the characters grow, change and develop, while I did find some very entertaining moments,  I would not have given it the paltry two stars every review has given it, but unless you can see it at no cost to you, I would not spend my money either.  

 

 

 

 

X is for X-MEN FILM SERIES

 

 

 

 

 

I love action movies and I love science fiction so the entire X-MEN series is fantastic and a family favorite. Sometimes my teen son will pause to make an observation that blows my mind whether about the interaction or the potential science behind it all... LOVE movies that lead to interesting discussions.

I don't have a favorite, although the 2014 DAYS OF FUTURE PAST was fantastic  and oh joy there is apparently a new one to be released in 2016!

Do you have an X-MEN FAVE?

 

 

 

 

 

W is for WAG THE DOG

 

Movies that have impacted me,  I am very keen on American politics and try to keep myself aware informed and conscious , I could have probably chosen political films and documentaries as a theme as well! WAG THE DOG is from 1997 right before the Monica Lewinsky  sex scandal in  1998.  This movie creates a fictional war with ALBANIA ( Note Robert De Niro is a proud Albanian in real life), As much as it is very passé and with todays technology it would not fly, it is well worth watching.  

 

 

Gazillion Movies Review : Less than two weeks before the elections the president of the United States is accused of sexual misbehavior. The white house summons the aid of consultant Brean (Robert De Niro), a brilliant intriguer and image-builder. Brean thinks up the ultimate scenario: he creates an even larger and better story and put on an imminent war between America and Albania, the fictitious enemy of service. To make this improbable story more credible, Brean goes to the flamboyant Hollywood-producer Motts (Dustin Hoffman) and his entourage to win some advises. Together they orchestrate a never seen global conflict.

 

 

V is for VERTICAL LIMIT

 

 

VERTICAL LIMIT is one of those edge of your seat films that I am so glad I saw at the cinema, with the panoramic views . The theme is a rescue mission in the worst possible conditions. In Pakistan, trying to climb K-2in inclement weather .

 

Looking for the trailer to share with you I found that the entire film is available on YouTube..so feel free to ENJOY!  My husband and I love to stay for all the credits, see where movies were made, who is acknowledged and why... in this film in the credits to cast there is a credit to a woman who simply appears as a frozen corpse!

How far would you go to save a loved one?

 

 

U is for UNBROKEN

 

I am a WW II buff and an old airplane buff so this movie was one I really looked forward to. The story behind the movie is also very enticing, and the book most worthwhile.

Watching the interviews of the amazing bond Angelina Jolie and Louis Zamperini  forged piqued my curiosity. I was pleasantly surprised that as violent as the story is , she conveyed it with far less blood and gore than other movies do instead of the usual violence we see so often in films today.  She takes advantage of great actors to portray the pain and fear  

 

UNBROKEN  is an epic drama that follows the incredible life of Olympian and war hero Louis "Louie" Zamperini who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII-only to be caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.

 

 

 

T is for Titanic

 

I spent 18 years researching The Bridge of Deaths, it made me wonder so much about my grandparents , the perseverance and  searching for the Titanic would in and of itself make it the obvious choice of something I identified with.

Titanic is however much more to me, it was the first film I saw after finding out I was going to become a mother, which is always exciting news, but at 38 for the first and one and only time in my life it was like walking on clouds.

 

 

 

S is for Sleepless in Seattle

 

Ultimate second chance romance? who can resist?

I love New York and Seattle is also a pretty cool town. I really enjoy the old black and white films many of them and one of my favorites is of course An Affair to Remember ... so this pic that made me laugh, hope and cry is a must as a film that impacted me beginning with the letter S.

 

I have to say that I was surprised how many of my contemporaries had never seen an affair to remember ! Feels like every time I saw this one (Yes romantic sucker watched it several times) I had to also watch an affair to remember ! 

 

 

R is for REAR WINDOW

 

 

I had to give B to BEACHES but I was very tempted to choose The Birds which was the very first Hitchcock Film I ever saw. Rear Window is not my favorite but when Disturbia  was released in 2007  I think it made every Hitchcock fan watch rear window again.

Truly curiosity and neighbor voyeurism must be very common, I know I have often heard stories about people's neighbors.

WHICH was your first Hitchcock movie? And your favorite?  

 

 

Q is for The Quiet Ameican

 

Q as far as movie titles are concerned does offer slim pickings but as a Bond fan I could have gone Quantum of Solace, and there is no denying that Helen Mirren was beyond comparison in The Queen.

But the Vietnam War impacted me growing up, it started ONTHE YEAR I was born and ended when I was 16 years old. It was the war of my childhood and teens so I needed to include it. 

I am also a huge fan of Graham Greene's books and as such the choice was very fitting. 

 

The Quiet American (February 6/03)

Based on the novel by Graham Greene, The Quiet American - which follows a British reporter (Michael Caine) as he attempts to navigate the murky waters of 1952-era Vietnam - is surprisingly involving, and although it deals heavily with the politics of the time, the film is clear enough that even a viewer with the most minimal knowledge of the conflict will be able to follow along. Director Phillip Noyce does an astounding job of bringing us this dank and dirty world; Fowler's apartment alone is a masterpiece of set design...
READ MORE @ REEL FILM  REVIEWS

 

End of 3rd Week #BloggingAtoZchallenge2015

www.a-to-zchallenge.com

 

 

As the third week ends, I had my big OOOPS! with posting two letters on the 16th, but just skipped the 17th and forged on.

I have discovered some wonderful blogs and I hope to keep in touch with some of the bloggers I have connected with.

My favorite thing is when the same word/theme is chosen by several blogs I visit but presented in such different ways, confirming that we all have such different voices when we write and perspectives of what we see.

Thanks for all the visits and comments.....

 

A to Z

#Blogging from A-Z 2015 this year I have two themes.

 Movies that have impacted me for better or worse @ 

4covert2overt ~ A PLACE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

And what's in a name ? @

DEFINING WAYS

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P is for POLTERGEIST

I am a huge fan or Steven Spielberg and could have added many of his films. Of  The Poltergeist Trilogy the first film impacted me, to be honest I was not particularly fond of the sequel  and never bothered to see the third film.

As a child in Mexico I was raised with my share of ghost stories and these included the mischief of the  espiritus chocarreros the Spanish for Poltergeists.

The movie was one of those that had me looking under my bed and wondering what lay beneath the ground wherever I lived.

I saw this one in Malmö, Sweden  and I was surrounded by so much history and wondered how many graves and graveyards have been disturbed through the ages.

My theme Movies that have impacted me for better or worse, well this one sure scared me !

 

 

 

O is for ORDINARY PEOPLE

 

OH NO... is one day early ! Posted N and O on the same day... new post for P on Saturday

In 1980 when Ordinary People won the Oscar for best picture I was curious to see it because I was a huge fan of Robert Redford as an actor. I had been reluctant to see the film as I knew it revolved around a tragic young death and the heavy reactions by the grieving family.

Today with magnificent films credited to Mr. Redford  such as LEGENDS of the FALL  it seems silly to have even wondered if ORDINARY PEOPLE  an Oscar winning film would be lacking in any way. The film is at times slow, but so is sadness and grief.

The film made me think a lot about the different ways in which we all grieve and  to look for warning signs of depression.

 

 

 

 

N is for No Way Out

 

Back to the 1980's to a movie that surprised me as much as The Sixth Sense,  the wow I did not see that coming factor was brilliant, and the acting was great! Of course today technology being what it is could well bore some, but the storyline is clever, a great thriller.

A wild and violent lover's triangle that leads to murder and political intrigue. 

 

 

NO WAY OUT

M is for The Mummy and all MUMMY sequels!

 

All the MUMMY movie Franchises have played a really fun part in our lives, the action blended with the Egyptology is great fun and everyone of these movies brings warm and fuzzy mommy (or for those in the UK mummy) feelings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our  son was born with life threatening food allergies to dairy, eggs and some tree nuts. He is still allergic and carries an epi-pen everywhere, but gets better every year. So being able to find Dairy free cakes (or bake them) as well as foods he could enjoy and that looked fun, was a big part of planning .

In his childhood party themes my son was certainly consistent and knew what he enjoyed as such we had several MUMMY parties and several PIRATE  parties, the only two themes he found enticing.

 

One of the venues that offered foods he could eat and allowed us to provide the Vegan cake is a local movie theater, and we were lucky to be able to have fun MUMMY  parties there. At home one year I bought wholesale toilet paper so the kids could wrap themselves as mummies, I do not recommend it for months I dusted and still found the white powder from the toilette paper everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

L is for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

My son loved the books and it was through his love and interest of the books that I saw the movie. As a parent at first I felt a bit concerned by the dark humor, but when I realised he focused more on the light, the costumes, the comparison to the books I felt that it was nice my young son had the capacity to see light and not focus on the dark. 

A few years later Cirque du Freak was a similar experience for me as parent. With that movie he was frustrated at any deviation from the books!

K is for KINKY BOOTS

 

I love KINKY BOOTS for so many reasons. For one because it is based on a true story that inspires and shows how much growth even the most conservative of places can experience.  Through economic necessity people are willing to be open minded.

Kinky Boots is a 2005 British-American comedy-drama film written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, and directed by Julian Jarrold. Based on a true story, the movie tells of a struggling British shoe factory's young, strait-laced owner, Charlie, who forms an unlikely partnership with Lola, a drag queen, to save the business. Charlie develops a plan to produce custom footwear for drag queens, rather than the men's dress shoes that his firm is known for, and in the process, he and Lola discover that they are not so different after all.

I also love it because we discovered it per chance one evening in 2005. Our son was about 6 years old, and we were very strict with bedtimes, so our dates were in-house.

Tom and I made nice dinners, split a bottle of wine and picked a good film. We are anglophiles and  we chose Kinky Boots just because it was British otherwise it was a film we knew nothing about, so it is also the memory of a fun surprise.

It is such a good film and the storyline is matched by lovely cinematography.

 

 

 

 

SECOND WEEK of A-Z

 

 

In this second week of blogging from A-Z I had a hard time choosing just one movie for many of the letters. I wanted to be fair and diverse and I realized that often the first films that came to mind were Science Fiction, I love drama, comedy, romance and children's films, documentaries.

I was surprised that Science Fiction dominated and decided to bypass my immediate reaction of I,ROBOT for I  and then I almost ventured into the controversial I Love You Philip Morris  but realized that as a mother I had to include one of the many children's films that have had a huge impact and crated memories.

 

 E.T. like INDIANA JONES are movies that have surely impacted and influenced globally, and this theme was after all meant to be a personal one. Scroll down to visit these weeks, stops and feel free to comment about my choices and which yours would be. 

 

J is for JULIA (1977)

I was 18 years old when I saw this film, I was a student in Lyon France and I think that was one of the movies that made me so intrigued by all personal stories in  WW II that led to my research and writing of The Bridge of Deaths

Julia is a 1977 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann, from a screenplay by Alvin Sargent. It is based on Lillian Hellman's book Pentimento, a chapter of which purports to tell the story of her relationship with an alleged lifelong friend, "Julia," who fought against the Nazis in the years prior to World War II. The film in DeLuxe Color was produced by Richard Roth, with Julien Derode as executive producer and Tom Pevsner as associate producer.

 

 

I is for ICE AGE

As a parent and a HUGE fan of animation. I may well choose animated movies as a topic for the challenge someday.

This year I have to include movies that have impacted me as a parent and the list is vast. I chose ICE AGE, because as a family we have always looked forward to all the sequels, one of those few that my son at 16 would not say is "not cool". It is a great movie to laugh and to discuss interesting topics. Changes in the Earths atmosphere through the ages and how different species can get along, or not. The best films to watch as a parent with our child are those that open great conversations, questions and opinions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your favorite animated film? ... I personally could never choose just one!

H is for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I confess that when I was younger and friends loved the BBC one and the radio one and the book, I just did not get it or like it.  However today I am the mother of a teen ager who is a huge fan of the book and every film or show derived thereof.

As a mother I have grown to absolutely love the story, seen the movie numerous times as it helps me bond with my son and laugh , wink with an inner wisdom every time we see the number ...

 

Love the idea that we need not PANIC ...

 

Simply

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUN QUOTES from HITCHHIKER's GUIDE

G is for GREMLINS

A an aviation and WWII buff  I had to choose GREMLINS all  WWII pilots had Gremlin sabotaging airplane stories.

A Gremlin is a fantastic creature commonly depicted as mischievous and mechanically oriented, with a specific interest in aircraft. Gremlins' mischievous natures are similar to those of English folkloric imps, while their inclination to damage or dismantle machinery is more modern.

 

 

I had to choose The Exorcist for E but Steven Spielberg's  Empire of the Sun and E.T. could have also easily been the movies for the letter E. His movies have had a very strong impact on me, A could have easily been A.I. the Artificial Intelligence film... Maybe Spielberg should be my theme next year!

 

 

 

 

F is for FURY

I go to the cinema often, always have, I love movies and tend to see movies with panoramic views and special effects, I waited to se FURY at home on Demand TV. It is very violent and I am glad I did.

I think a lot of black and white movies almost sugar coated the horrors of war. Fury shows war in all its horror, violence and disgrace, characters we love we also hate for their terrible behavior. It shows how debased the best of humans become under the influence of the horrors of war. I strongly recommend it.