Meet Me In St Louis

Judy Garland stars in the Christmas musical 'Meet Me In St Louis'. A nice big family in the American town of St. Louis living a normal life and getting by with the oldest children in their teenage/ young adult phase trying to get over who they fancy but wont go out with.
Then the dad tells them that they are going to move to New York or somewhere much bigger than where they are now so that he can continue to provide for the family which means that they all have to say goodbye to the people that they fancy but not before they have been to the last dance.

It's one of those films which reminds you of the importance of family. When your date can't get his suit cleaned or your date is unavailable you can always rely on your brother and grandfather to take you to the dance. If you really want to go to the dance and don't care about the appearance or what other people will think because you are just there to have a good time then it doesn't matter who you go with and this film shows you that much.

It is a musical, it does have a hit song 'Meet me in St. Louis' which is rather catchy but I can't remember all the words so I just have the chorus part stuck in my head all the time. A lot of old fashioned musicals only really have one hit song in them but they have a simple plot and some great moments and that is what musicals are about, the dancing, the singing and the story in itself, one part is not more important that the other parts.

Hopefully the last Christmas film 'The shop Around the Corner' will feature in a few days, after the wedding has passed and I have time to do important things like read back over my essays and watch more films.

If you are a lover of musicals then you should be watching this one as well. I have a nice collection of musicals but there aren't as many as I would like and there are always so many better than decent old musicals out there to be found.

Trading Places.

Two guys swap places as part of a bet and the result was a more than decent film.

Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd become the victim of a bet made by two brothers. Aykroyd starts off as the well paid young man who has it all- a Harvard education, a fiancee, a butler, the house, the car etc and then the two leading brothers of the firm that he works for. He stumbles in to a man who had just been picked up by the police for impersonating a blind war victim with no legs. Murphy attempts to give the brief case back to Aykroyd who claims that it is an attempted robbery and presses full charges. A bet is a bet so Murphy is released on bail by Dukes and takes the place of Aykroyd, who in turn is imprisoned, looses his fiancee, his job, his life and has to make do with a woman that picks him up.

Turning to criminal activity he ends up almost dying but not before Billy Ray Valentine discovers the bet and saves his life. So let's team up and make those guys pay. In the end they end up bankrupting the Dukes and making enough money for themselves and the others to live quite happily. The moral of the story is don't make a one dollar bet on someone's life. People's lives are worth more than money.

Eddie Murphy normally has something of a slightly irritating presence in films, trying to be funny when comedy is only funny when it is natural, not forced and no actual attempt to be funny. This film isn't as funny as it was made out to be. Don't get me wrong, the idea is a great idea, the concept is fantastic and the film is very, very good but it shouldn't be classed as a comedy- it isn't particularly funny.

Jamie Lee Curtis was probably the pick of the bunch, aiding Aykroyd as a supporting role and just helping the film to run smoothly.  Again, not necessarily a film that I would consider to be a Christmas film.

Gremlins

So first up on the Christmas film front is Gremlins. Watching it I was just trying to ask myself why it was considered a Christmas film when the wonderful Esther pointed out to me that it was set at Christmas and that even though it had very little to do with the idea that we have come to centre Christmas around all you need for a movie is for it to be set at Christmas and that makes it a Christmas film.

If anyone is familiar with the film 'The Santa Clause' then they will understand who I mean when I say that Neal is in Gremlins as once again an egotistical guy who doesn't really understand anything about Christmas. So having got that over and done with let's break down Gremlins. A man steals an animal from a Chinese man and takes it home to give to his son, the rules are simple- no water, no bright lights and don't feed it after midnight. If you spill water on one of these creatures then they multiple and if you feed them after midnight they turn into Gremlins, nasty little creatures that kill for pleasure and are always hungry. So rest assured that all of these things happen throughout the film and then running around on Christmas are hundreds of nasty little Gremlins destroying people and Christmas.

The soundtrack for this film is great, the acting not so much but it is an old film and they aren't as bad as James Stewart. The creature in this film is really cute, not the Gremlin but the actual creature is adorable. You want so much to hug it and hold it because it is also the victim. What Gremlin's doesn't do is teach you a message (except for don't steal) in the way that It's a Wonderful Life does. Often Christmas films have a meaning and a message behind them but this one, in a similar way to Die Hard doesn't have one. It's memorable and that is always good.

Next up will be trading places.

Fame

Another musical like dancing film staring Irene Cara. Fame has that one song that people learn (being the main tune) and spends time focusing on the performing arts. In many ways it is similar to Flashdance, with the focus on the performing arts school, one could even see fame as the sequel to Flashdance. Even though that doesn't entirely make sense because the character is clearly older in Flashdance, having spent the film dancing and trying to work up the courage to audition for a dancing school in Fame they actually all get in to performing arts school and spend four years there learning to dance, sing/ play music or act.

Fame highlights what can happen when you get famous, the bad things about being famous- people only wanting you to be in films if you take your clothes off or letting the pressure get to you, hurting everyone, doing things that you don't like and in the end ruining your career. It's a dated film and for the most part there aren't any standout performers in it- Irene Cara is Irene Cara-singer/dancer/performer and that's that. She wasn't the sole main character in this film so there was a lot less focus on her.

The standout scene, the scene you will remember from watching this film is the Fame scene, where the music is blaring out of the taxi and everyone is dancing. The music is good, the song is great and the dancing is great but that's mostly all that you will remember from this movie. Remember the tune and the name and just watch that scene.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (BBC production)

We watched and reviewed the newer version of this film on a previous blog so thought it would be a nice break from musicals and Christmas films to watch an old movie with some of the greats.

Alec Guinness, Richard Harris, Joss Ackland, these are the names that star in this series. It's not a film as such because it is split into three episodes but each one allows you to grasp the main idea that is within the book. These episodes do not convey all the colour that the book and the newer film do, there are things from this production which are missing but it is a lot closer to the book (which I am currently reading) than the newer film.

Alec Guinness is a fantastic George Smiley. They sold this series on his name (and the name of some others) so it seems right that he takes on the main character and that he reprises his role in 'Smiley's People', which we hope to watch later on in December and review. From the voice there is no mistaking him and this role is a lot calmer, leaving room for others to come in and help build on the atmosphere. What I like about this film is that it is almost entirely different to the film that I first watched.

I want to say a low budget film but it's not because of the cast. It is just very much an old bbc production. If you've seen a few of them then you will know what I mean by that statement.

I would recommend this to everyone who has seen the remake, it's just nice to have something to compare.

The Town

The last film officially on the blog that actually has been released this year or prior to this year. Things like Star Wars are actually going to end up being on next years blog. I have been waiting for a long time to watch this film because it has Ben Affleck in it and I didn't want too many rants about how terrible he is at playing anyone other than himself too close together.

The Town is all about a bank robbery but not your conventional one. In this town armed robbery is common but what isn't common is that they let a woman go. They threatened her but normally in a robbery if someone can recognise you or has seen too much then you wouldn't let them go. Yes, Affleck's character spends the film secretly tailing her, keeping an eye on her and getting to know her without mentioning that he is the mastermind behind the armed robbery. Typically a romance is formed, which is kind of irritating because this film stars Jeremy Renner who is a far better actor than Affleck and much more attractive.

Affleck wrote this film and directed it along with staring in it but obviously has not learnt much from his long career in film because this film is still really shocking. I tried, we tried but he just ruins films. Blake Lively in this film was not a good choice. Her character is incredibly similar to the one that made her famous (Serena- Gossip Girl) and quite a serious let down. We all want to see her do more with her career than play the seductive and somewhat slutty character that made her.

For the sake of everyone I have kept this short. I will spend more time in the cinema and I have about five Christmas films coming up so hopefully that should keep me occupied.