redbox

So they have this machine, called Red Box, from which you can rent DVD's for a dollar a day. You can check out their website to find the closest one near you. Wikipedia says:

Redbox rents DVDs via self-service or interactive kiosks located across the United States in locations such as McDonald's, where it started — as well as and retail, pharmacy and grocery store locations across the United States.

This is so cool! You swipe your credit card and out comes the DVD. If you don't return the DVD in 25 days, well then, you are charged 25 bucks and it is yours. I think this thing is a good idea. No more of that $5+ Blockbuster rental to watch one stinkin' movie for one night. Oh, and check Inside Red Box. These will get you redbox movies for even cheaper with a promo code...these are free!

Jane Austen

This weekend was Jane Austen weekend for me. I not only watched Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, but also had a real 18th century English teaparty. It twas delightful! Yummy blueberry tea and British jargon are the way to do teaparties, let me tell you. (No stuffed animals were invited)

As for the movies: I believe I liked the filmography much better in Pride and Prejudice. The scenes were fresh and beautiful. Also, I'm a big fan of Kiera Knightly. Oh, and Mr. Darcy.

Sense and Sensibility though, I like the story-line much better. Kudos to Jane Austen. There seems to be more twists and turns and romanticism in her later novel. That darn Mr. Willoughby!

Movies

I did a list of books. So now lets have my clearly unbiased review of a few movies:

The Illusionist: Oh so good, times 2
Les Miserables: Also, oh so good.
Six Days Seven Nights: A ridiculous waste of 1.5 hours of my life that I can never get back.
Country: ditto
Lady in the Water. Wow, a real, what on earth just happened movie? but endearing nonetheless
RV: um, I was forced to watch it against my will, but it wasn't as bad as I expected

Charlotte's Web: Sad. Great childhood reminder. And Dakota Fanning.
Underdog: Could have been worse, being at the drive ins, it was bearable
Bourne Ultimatum: Good, action packed, and Matt Damon. yeah.
Night at the Museum: Watchable, but overrated. The T-Rex did boast of some good animation.
Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End: They've ruined the series!! I don't even want to talk about it. I'm so mad.

Top 100 Movies

I was looking at movies in the new Circuit City that opened in Chambersburg and decided I should have some help with figuring out what to watch. I googled the American Film Institutes's top 100 movies of all time. Before I die I want to see all of them on the list. It's amazing how few of them I have actually seen.

Here's the list (plus a star by the ones I've already seen). Gee, I'd better get started watching now if I'm going to blaze through all of these before my death! At the rate I'm going I will have to live well into my 100's.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. Casablanca (1942)
3. The Godfather (1972)
4. Gone With The Wind (1939) *
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) *
6. The Wizard of Oz (1939) *
7. The Graduate (1967)
8. On The Waterfront (1954)
9. Schindler's List (1993) *
10. Singin' In The Rain (1952)
11. It's A Wonderful Life (1946) *
12. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
13. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
14. Some Like It Hot (1959)
15. Star Wars (1977) *
16. All About Eve (1950)
17. The African Queen (1951)
18. Psycho (1960)
19. Chinatown (1974)
20. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
23. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
24. Raging Bull (1980)
25. E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) *
26. Dr. Strangelove or: How I ... (1964)
27. Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
28. Apocalypse Now (1979)
29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
31. Annie Hall (1977)
32. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
33. High Noon (1952)
34. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
35. It Happened One Night (1934)
36. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. Double Indemnity (1944)
39. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
40. North By Northwest (1959)
41. West Side Story (1961)
42. Rear Window (1954)
43. King Kong (1933) *
44. The Birth Of A Nation (1915)
45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
46. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
47. Taxi Driver (1976)
48. Jaws (1975) *
49. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937) *
50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
51. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
52. From Here to Eternity (1953)
53. Amadeus (1984)
54. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
55. The Sound of Music (1965) *
56. M*A*S*H (1970)
57. The Third Man (1949)
58. Fantasia (1941) *
59. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) *
61. Vertigo (1958)
62. Tootsie (1982)
63. Stagecoach (1939)
64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
65. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) *
66. Network (1976)
67. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
68. An American In Paris (1951)
69. Shane (1953)
70. The French Connection (1971)
71. Forrest Gump (1994) *
72. Ben-Hur (1959)
73. Wuthering Heights (1939)
74. The Gold Rush (1925)
75. Dances With Wolves (1990) *
76. City Lights (1931)
77. American Graffiti (1973)
78. Rocky (1976) *
79. The Deer Hunter (1978)
80. The Wild Bunch (1969)
81. Modern Times (1936)
82. Giant (1956)
83. Platoon (1986)
84. Fargo (1996)
85. Duck Soup (1933)
86. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) *
87. Frankenstein (1931)
88. Easy Rider (1969)
89. Patton (1970)
90. The Jazz Singer (1927)
91. My Fair Lady (1964) *
92. A Place in the Sun (1951)
93. The Apartment (1960)
94. GoodFellas (1990)
95. Pulp Fiction (1994)
96. The Searchers (1956)
97. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
98. Unforgiven (1992)
99. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Bonus points if you know what movie the still shot is from!

And some big shockers. Fantasia was one of the worst movies ever created (if you can call it a movie), and I hear Citizen Kane sucked too. Plus I hated Forrest Gump and Lawrence of Arabia was hardly a nail-biter. Never mind, I have better things to do than watch all these movies. Please disregard this post.