MOVIES

Your Top 10 of All Time

fashion4ward — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:39:17 -0700

I know it's super hard to pick just one favorite movie of all time. So how about your 10 favorites?

I'll start:
(In order of my ranking)

1. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
2. Star Wars (1977)
3. Into the Wild (2007)
4. Across the Universe (2007)
5. The Outsiders (1983)
6. American Graffiti (1973)
7. Charade (1963)
8. Bobby (2006)
9. Crash (2004)
10. Clueless (1995)

My friends always criticize me for liking only Academy Award movies, because I'm obsessed with Oscar records. By the way- of my Top 10, only 7 were nominated or won at least one Oscar.

Movie Soundtracks

pirateyzaclover — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 09:11:44 -0700

What's your favorite movie soundtrack? I love Pirates of the Caribbean, Blood Diamond, Nacho Libre, Bend it Like Beckham, Pride and Prejudice, the Holiday, and Driving Miss Daisy. We all know music makes the movie, so tell me what soundtracks you like!

Beaches

alyssa_joseph — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:46:33 -0700

Story
The film begins with singer CC Bloom (Bette Midler) receiving a note during a rehearsal for her upcoming concert, that obviously contains distressing news about a loved one. She leaves the rehearsal in a panic and tries frantically to travel to her friend's side, however, we are not told why at that point. Unable to get a flight to San Francisco because of fog, she rents a car and decides to drive overnight from Los Angeles. Upset and on edge, she starts to remember how she met Hillary, beginning with when they first met.

Rich girl Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey) and child performer Cecilia Carol "CC" Bloom (Bette Midler) meet under the boardwalk on the beach at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hillary is lost and CC is hiding from her overbearing stage mother (Lainie Kazan). They become fast friends, growing up and bonding through letters to support each other.

A grown up Hillary (Barbara Hershey) goes on to study law at Stanford Law School as is her family's tradition and becomes a human rights lawyer. In the meantime, now-adult CC's (Bette Midler) burlesque career starts to take off. They write to each other regularly and give updates on their lives.

Then one night, Hillary shows up at the dive bar where CC is performing, having travelled to New York on an impulse. She is tired of feeling trapped in her life and feels suffocated by her family's expectations of her. She soon gets a job with the ACLU, whereas CC now makes money by performing birthday singing telegrams, usually dressed in a rabbit or chicken suit. While she's staying with CC in her apartment, they become closer and even vie for the love of the same man (John Heard). But a cloud comes over Hillary's life in the form of her father becoming ill, and she is forced to return to San Francisco to look after him.

After her father passes away, Hillary marries his lawyer, Michael Essex (James Read). CC marries John, her producer, and the bond between the two women starts to decline. Hillary and Michael return to New York to see CC on Broadway, by which time she has become a popular vaudeville act. CC finds out that Hillary has quit being a lawyer. The friends have an argument in Bloomingdales department store, with CC angry that Hillary has just given up on her dreams, and Hillary responding that CC has become no more than a "pretentious, social climber" who is obsessed with her career. The two women part ways, and unbeknownst to each other, they both feel incredible sadness over the loss of their friendship. CC tries to reconnect with Hillary, but Hillary throws herself into being a dutiful, but unchallenged wife.

However, the unions for both women are anything but blissful. The relationship between CC and John eventually deteriorates when John tells CC that her self-centeredness and obsession with her career has him feeling left behind and he asks for a divorce. Upset at the thought of her marriage failing, CC turns to her mother (whom she calls by her given name "Leona") one day on the beach. Her mother tells her that she has given up a lot for her daughter and that she must live her life and take care of herself. CC hears the truth for the first time when her mother tells her the effect that her selfishness has had on those closest to her.

Meanwhile, Hillary, while believing that her marriage is strong, returns home from a trip earlier than expected. She enters the kitchen and sees her husband having breakfast with another woman, who is wearing one of her bathrobes. Michael, shocked at seeing his wife, reaches for the woman's hand, wordlessly confirming that he has been having an affair.

Later, the women reunite after Hillary divorces her husband. And they discover that they have been secretly jealous of each other for years, without realizing it. Hillary is upset that she has none of the talent or charisma that makes CC be noticed, but as CC is quick to retaliate, Hillary stands out for reasons that CC has always been deeply envious of - she is both beautiful and intelligent. The two then realize that their feud could have been avoided by honest communication, and an appreciation of each others most recognized qualities. Hillary tells CC that she is pregnant, but also that she caught Michael cheating on her, and that he wants nothing to do with the child he has fathered, planning to marry his mistress instead. Hillary admits that she has already decided to keep the baby, and raise it as a single parent, a decision that wins her much admiration from the feisty and always independent CC. CC promises she will stay and help her out. She leaves for a short time because she is promised a lead part in a new musical, but she does return for the birth and faints in the delivery room, alluding to the recurrent theme of CC stealing the attention from Hillary. Hillary has a daughter, whom she names Victoria Cecilia (Grace Johnston).

When Victoria is a young girl, Hillary finds herself easily exhausted and breathless; a state she attributes to her busy schedule as an attorney. But when she collapses at work and is rushed to hospital, she is diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, a debilitating cardiac illness, requiring a heart transplant if she is to live. As donor hearts of her tissue type are almost impossible to come by, Hillary learns more about the illness, it becomes clear that she will most likely die as a result of it, and will not live to see her daughter grow up. This plunges her into a state of depression, which she inadvertently takes out on CC, who she sees as "having energy, and who is fun", in comparison to her now debilitated state.

When CC agrees to accompany Hillary and Victoria to the beach house during some free time off after her album, she locks horns with Victoria, who sees CC as an interruption in the life of her and her mother. Gradually, both come to appreciate one another.

Eventually, Hillary moves out of the anger and depression, and begins to accept her prognosis bravely. When CC makes a comment to Hillary that she knows everything that there is to know about her, Hillary replies under her breath, that she's "counting on it".

Shortly after, Hillary collapses yet again. CC races to the hospital in San Francisco after driving all night from Los Angeles. Hillary, close to death, tells CC that her one last wish is for Victoria to not see her in that state. CC arranges to get Hillary discharged from hospital so that she can spend her last hours saying goodbye to Victoria. They return to the beach house where they spent their last summer, and CC does all she can to make the most of her best friend's final moments of life.

On the beach, CC is seen attending to Hillary, in a chaise longue with an oxygen tank at her side. It is then assumed that Hillary dies, with CC by her side. After having met on a beach, the two friends are forced to say goodbye to each other on one as well. The camera then cuts from the beach to the dark closed doors of a church, which open to waiting black limousines parked out front, alluding to Hillary's funeral.

After the funeral, CC reveals to Victoria that her mother wanted her to live with CC. CC admits that she is very selfish and has no idea what kind of a mother she will make, but she tells her, "there's nothing in the world that I want more, than to be with you". She then takes Victoria into her arms and the two console each other in their grief. Though there are other relatives who want to take Victoria (with the exception of Michael, still unwilling to accept his responsibilities as a parent), Victoria decides to go with CC.

CC returns to the Hollywood Bowl to complete the concert that she was forced to postpone because of Hillary's illness, and we learn that CC Bloom now enjoys almost iconic status as a performer. After the show, she leaves the stage with Victoria in hand, and begins reciting tales of when she first met Hillary. Just as Hillary had hoped she would. Victoria is enchanted with her new guardian's anecdotes.

"So what else did you do?" the little girl looks up to CC in curiosity.

"Whatever they told me not to!" CC beams, comfortable in her new role, as the movie ends.

The people under the stairs

alyssa_joseph — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:38:43 -0700

Plot summary
The People Under the Stairs, is the story of a young boy named Poindexter (Brandon Adams), whom everyone calls "Fool," who lives in the ghetto of a large city. At the start of the movie, Fool learns that he and his family have been evicted from their apartment; their cruel landlords, the Robesons (Everett McGill as "Dad" and Wendy Robie as "Mom"), turned the family out for being three days late on the rent. Fool's older sister, Ruby (Kelly Jo Minter), is dating a street thug named Leroy (Ving Rhames), who offers to help Fool take care of his family by planning a joint burglary of the Robesons' residence, rumored to contain a wealth of gold coins.

Fool agrees to join Leroy and his accomplice Spencer (Jeremy Roberts). He also starts hearing disturbing rumors about his former landlords. Grandfather Booker (Bill Cobbs) tells Fool that the Robesons' house used to be a funeral home, and adds that the Robeson family have been incestuously procreating for many years, becoming increasingly insane with each generation.

Eventually, the three boys decide that the best time for their burglary has arrived. Spencer goes in first, posing as a municipal worker, intending to scout the house out - but he never comes back out. After waiting for Spencer for some time, Fool and Leroy decide to go in after him (after they muster up enough courage) and break into the house together. Once inside, they are astonished at the interior: it is a mixture of inexplicably extreme security, old-fashioned décor, and sinister morbidity. The pair is pursued by a vicious dog and Fool ends up in the house's basement. Fool discovers the body of Spencer, along with "creatures" corralled along one side like animals. While exploring, the Robesons return home, catching the intruders in the act. They shoot and kill Leroy and then begin dancing around his body while Fool hides and watches in terror.

While searching for an exit, Fool meets a young girl named Alice (A.J. Langer), who is the embodiment of innocence and purity. Alice tells Fool that her "parents" (the Robesons) searched for a long time for perfect children. She tells him that the only way to survive in the Robeson's world is to "hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil." The "creatures" Fool saw in the basement are the boys, who the Robesons call the "people under the stairs," who have all had their eyes put out, their ears cut off, or their tongues torn out as punishment for breaking one of these rules and are subsequently locked away forever in the sunless basement, fed on scraps of human flesh thrown at them by "Dad." One of these boys, a mute named Roach (Sean Whalen) previously managed to find a way out of the basement and has been hiding in the wallspaces of the wall ever since, becoming Alice's only friend. The Robesons refer to him as "the one who crawls between the walls," and occasionally shoot at him with a shotgun.

Alice and Roach help Fool escape through the rafters and wallspaces of the building. Unfortunately, Alice is left behind to be punished for her role in helping Fool escape, and Roach is killed, but not before giving Fool several gold coins. Upon escaping, Fool promptly dials 9-1-1 from a public telephone and reports that child abuse is occurring at the home he has just escaped from. The police soon arrive at the Robesons' and are welcomed by an expert charade put on by the man and woman. Alice is kept hidden and the couple put forth the illusion of old-fashioned, strict, but very normal suburban living, even offering the officers coffee and cookies. The police, satisfied that no abuse is occurring, promptly leave.

Fool, having escaped, returns to the house to save Alice from her miserable existence. Anticipating Fool's return, the couple ambush him, but Fool manages to escape to the attic and frees Alice. A group of zombie-like "People Under the Stairs" manage to break loose from the stairs and attack "Mom," who meets her end by Alice's hands as she stabs her. Fool is promptly met by the shotgun-toting "Dad," who is clad in a full leather BDSM suit. Fool's plan, aided by the man's supply of explosives in the basement, eventually succeeds and he and Alice escape with a dozen children who have been kept under the stairs.

And as for the collective money belonging to the misanthropic people, it is blown out of the house through the chimneys and soon is taken by a massive horde of people who had all been cheated of their money as the People Under the Stairs flee into the night.

Cast
Brandon Adams
Everett McGill
Wendy Robie
A. J. Langer
Ving Rhames
Sean Whalen

What's your favorite Leonardo diCaprio movie?

pirateyzaclover — Sun, 25 May 2008 08:00:18 -0700

vote!Romeo + JulietTitanicThe DepartedBlood DiamondCatch me if You Can

Welcome to MOVIES!

pirateyzaclover — Sun, 25 May 2008 07:53:02 -0700

So I will be posting polls, blogs, and other movie things. Please vote in the poles and post some yourself too!