Siskel, Ebert, and Joneses

Toy Story

jonesamyk — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:25:59 +0000

There are many good things about Toy Story.

1. The entire movie gets better every time you see it.

2. Every other line is a funny quote.

3. The Randy Newman soundtrack

4. Aliens

Guys and Dolls vs. Guys and Dolls

jonesamyk — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:47:00 +0000

How quickly good intentions turn to naught!

Last month, B.J. indulged my desire to have a night out of the house and took me to a local theater to see a community production of Guys and Dolls. It was our first time to that theater, and after the usual stress of parking, finding bathrooms, and fighting our way through the crowd of aging thespians to get to the front of a long ticket line, we settled into our seats in the third row, on the right side of the theater.

Back in St. Louis, theater starts and ends with the Fox and the Muny. This wasn’t quite the same as an off-Broadway production, but it was heartily enjoyable none-the-less. Aside from saying that I liked both the musical and the theater, I really don’t have a basis of comparison. Netflix informed me that there was a copy of the Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando version available, so a few days later, I was sitting down to my scientific study.

Acting: While the actors in the theater version were pretty good, I don’t know that much can pass up Sinatra and Brando, especially with Vivian Blaine’s performance. She defined the era of the film for me, and I was more interested in watching her portion of the story than Jean Simmons’.

Music: The theater version wins this hands down, if only for their version of “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”. In addition, their Skye Masterson could actually sing, while Marlon Brando is speaking rhythmically at best.

Charisma: I felt the pace of the film was slowed conspicuously by the numerous love songs, mainly sung by Jean Simmons. The theater version included Marry the Man Today, which was my second favorite song. Plus (and I don’t know that this is a fair criticism), I don’t think a film can match the glitz of seeing everything for yourself.

Overall: The theater version gets my completely amateurish and biased vote.

The AFI Top 100

jonesamyk — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:40:06 +0000

I was never good at watching movies. I would have picked a trip to a bookstore over one to a theater any day. I still don’t have many movies that I would watch over and over again. As of January of 2009, I hadn’t seen hardly any of the movies that one would have expected, especially when it came to anything older than 2003.

Given that I love lists, particularly completing them, B.J. suggested that he and I watch AFI’s Top 100 movies together. He’d seen the majority of the list years prior, but was willing to experience them again with me. The following, courtesy of the American Film Institute is our reference.

There are a couple of rules. First, no movie must be watched continuously. Nobody has time for that. Second, a movie must be seen by us together to count. Third, we have to finish it, but we don’t have to be sober.

1 Citizen Kane

2 The Godfather

3 Casablanca

4 Raging Bull

5 Singin’ in the Rain

6 Gone With the Wind

7 Lawrence of Arabia

8 Schindler’s List

9 Vertigo

10 The Wizard of Oz

11 City Lights

12 The Searchers

13 Star Wars

14 Psycho

15 2001: A Space Odyssey

16 Sunset Blvd.

17 The Graduate

18 The General

19 On the Waterfront

20 It’s a Wonderful Life

21 Chinatown

22 Some Like It Hot

23 Grapes of Wrath

24 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

25 To Kill a Mockingbird

26 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

27 High Noon

28 All About Eve

29 Double Indemnity

30 Apocalypse Now

31 The Maltese Falcon

32 The Godfather Part II

33 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

34 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

35 Annie Hall

36 Bridge on the River Kwai

37 Best Years of Our Lives

38 Treasure of the Sierra Madre

39 Dr. Strangelove

40 Sound of Music

41 King Kong

42 Bonnie and Clyde

43 Midnight Cowboy

44 Philadelphia Story

45 Shane

46 It Happened One Night

47 A Streetcar Named Desire

48 Rear Window

49 Intolerance

50 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

51 West Side Story

52 Taxi Driver

53 The Deer Hunter

54 M*A*S*H

55 North By Nothwest

56 Jaws

57 Rocky

58 The Gold Rush

59 Nashville

60 Duck Soup

61 Sullivan’s Travels

62 American Graffiti

63 Cabaret

64 Network

65 The African Queen

66 Raiders of the Lost Ark

67 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

68 Unforgiven

69 Tootsie

70 Clockwork Orange

71 Saving Private Ryan

72 The Shawshank Redemption

73 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

74 Silence of the Lambs

75 In the Heat of the Night

76 Forrest Gump

77 All the President’s Men

78 Modern Times

79 The Wild Bunch

80 The Apartment

81 Spartacus

82 Sunrise

83 Titanic

84 Easy Rider

85 A Night at the Opera

86 Platoon

87 12 Angry Men

88 Bringing Up Baby

89 The Sixth Sense

90 Swing Time

91 Sophie’s Choice

92 Goodfellas

93 The French Connection

94 Pulp Fiction

95 The Last Picture Show

96 Do The Right Thing

97 Blade Runner

98 Yankee Doodle Dandy

99 Toy Story

100 Ben-Hur

Introductions

jonesamyk — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:15:07 +0000

On May 23, 2009, I married my opposite in many ways. My husband is a writer who plays with form and persona to create some of the most creative work you’ll ever see. His educational background is in theology, and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of punk, rock, and alternative music, as well as a love of classic film. I, on the other hand, am a by-the-book, lover of the quantifiable, socially awkward engineer who still has an affinity for her teenage obsessions–’N Sync and Calvin and Hobbes.

My husband and I are pretty sedate people. We’re not foodies, travelers, or sports junkies. Mostly, we enjoy coffee shops, bookstores, and watching movies. We bonded by sharing lists of our favorite books, movies, and cds. (Him: Camus, Chaplin, and the Beatles. Me: Bronte, the Princess Bride, and Coldplay.) As our original preferences were miles apart, we made a decision to embrace new avenues together.

As we watch the AFI top 100, visit art museums, attend plays, and generally enjoy the life of unattached twenty somethings, we hope that you enjoy hearing our perspectives as much as we enjoy sharing them.