Friday 5: Movies

Welcome to this week’s Friday Five. If you haven’t been here before, this is nothing more than my random rambling about something that interests me, with a list of five, in no particular order. This week’s list is Last Five Movies I Watched on TV. Hope you enjoy!

Last Five Movies I Watched on TV

Hunger Games This is one of the few movies they’ve made from a book where I like the movie as well as the book. I’m a huge fan of the books. My biggest complaint with the books was how rushed the last half of the final book felt. We’d been waiting for two-and-a-half books for the payoff, and it felt mostly skimmed over. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything here (unless you haven’t read the books and still plan to) by saying that for Katniss to finally get a grip and choose Peeta was the payoff I’d been waiting for. But then it was kinda like: I love Peeta, we got married, the end. C’mon, where was the big declaration scene? But I digress. The movie did an excellent job of following the book, and the three main characters were inspired casting. I can watch this one over and over and never tire of it.

Mission Impossible: GhostProtocol If you’ve heard the story behind this movie, apparently it was a vanity project because he couldn’t get anyone to back him on it. I went in with low expectations, but since it stars Jeremy Renner (*sigh*), I went. And I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, more than pleasantly. I really enjoyed the entire movie. Tom Cruise, who I don’t care much for as a person, was fantastic in it—as he is in almost everything he does. He might be a bit of a creeper in life, but he’s an amazing actor. The movie is exciting, fast-paced, and, oh yeah, did I mention you get to watch Jeremy Renner in it?

Red Dawn I’m talking the original version starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey pre-Dirty Dancing. Cheesy by todays standard, but still it’s emotional and taut as this group of teens deals with their world changing forever when their small town is invaded by big, bad Russians (made during the Cold War, who else would be the baddies?). Swayze and crew do a really good job of portraying teens who have no idea what they’re doing with the guns and arrows they’re suddenly forced to use, and when faced with whether or not to kill the enemy who is a human, after all. I rather like the movie as they become fierce warriors. (Full disclosure: haven’t seen the remake yet so can’t compare it.)

Up Seriously, how cute is Russell? What an absolutely adorable character. Ed Asner’s crotchety old man is pretty adorable, too. The movie begins on a sweet note that quickly turns heart wrenching as we watch Ellie and ___’s life together, including what he perceive as lost dreams and failures, only to end up alone when his beloved wife dies. His escape is to float away in their house and park it at their lifelong dream destination ____ Falls. Russell, who has his own heartbreaking story, ends up on the porch of the floating house, and we viewers are treated to a story that’s fantastic on every level (talking dogs, ___’s that I always knew were real, flying above the world with all the comforts of home, adventure, love, loyalty, and fantastic drawings by the animators).

The Secret World ofArietty I wanted to see this in the theaters, but never was able to go before it was relegated to the world of DVD’s and BluRay. Then it showed up on Netflix. Paint me happy. That it was done by the creators of Ponyo was reason enough to want to see it. I wasn’t disappointed. I thought the story of the tiny Borrower Arietty and the bad-heart (but not bad-hearted) human Shawn was sweet. The romantic in me hoped for her to suddenly become human-sized, or for him to shrink to a few inches tall, but still, it was pretty awesome.

 I created the Friday Five graphic from an original image copyrighted by: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_10806220_number-five.html'>marincas_andrei / 123RF Stock Photo</a>