Great Movie Re-Watch

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Great Movie Re-Watch

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Directors:

Gary Trousale

Kirk Wise

Writers:

Linda Woolverton

Brenda Chapman

Chris Sanders

Burny Mattison

Kevin Harkey

Brian Pimental

Bruce Woodside

Joe Ranft

Tom Ellery

Kelly Asbury

Robert Lence

Starring:

Robby Benson

Jesse Corti

Rex Everhart

Angela Lansbury

Paige O’Hara

Jerry Orbach

Bradley Pierce

David Ogden Stiers

Richard White

Blurb:

A prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young woman’s love.

Thoughts:

Beauty and the Beast is the best Disney 2D animated movie. Fight me.

It was always my favorite, but the remaster done to it is phenomenal. The colors pop, especially in the opening story. It’s visually beautiful and has some of the best songs Disney has ever produced.

Yes, Belle is a bit of a bitch. She’s all I’m better than these country folk. I want adventure. Then complains during her entire adventure and in a massive castle only wants to go to the one place she’s not supposed to. The Beast basically buys her love with the library that I judge all libraries against. I’m not aware of many women who wouldn’t love him after that gift.

Gaston and the blond triplets are a bit of a yikes too. Gaston makes an excellent villain because he wants to control Belle completely and has no concept of people having their own wants and desires. The triplets are, well, let’s be honest, they’re heaving bosoms in a kid’s movie. Personally, I enjoy looking at them, but it doesn’t teach our children anything good about women.

The ending where the Beast turns back into a human is a bit of a letdown since the man isn’t as attractive as the Beast. Why is he so smooth?? Gaston has chest hair. Why can’t the Beast???? Come on, please, he was a beast, surely in human form he’d be closer to a lumberjack than a pretty boy.

There’s lots to love about Beauty and the Beast. It’s one of my favorite movies and currently sits in the top ten of my favorite movies in the list I’ve been making through my re-watch. I should probably share that list at some point…

Father of the Bride (1991)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Father of the Bride (1991)

Director:

Charles Shyer

Writers:

Francis Goodrich

Albert Hackett

Nancy Myers

Charles Shyer

Starring:

Steve Martin

Diane Keaton

Kimberly Williams-Paisley

Blurb:

With his oldest daughter’s wedding approaching, a father finds himself reluctant to let go.

Thoughts:

I believe Father of the Bride is the first movie I’ve watched that was purchased for background watching. It’s a movie I like well enough, but it’s nothing remarkable. The best part, in my opinion, is the house. Everything else is rich people’s problems. Like seriously, spending $150k on a wedding in 1991 is stupid. This is coming from someone who had a super small wedding at a chapel in the mountains for $100 plus the cost of a license. Weddings are not my thing, but the house is that gorgeous.

As a parent of young children, I also don’t understand the whole not wanting to give his kid away. He doesn’t own his daughter, and yet that’s how he acts the entire movie. She’s his, and now he’s giving her to someone else. It’s an odd school view of things that I’ve never shared and found un-relatable. Not that I’m looking to give my kids away or anything, lol

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Director:

Steve Barron

Writers:

Todd W. Langen

Bobby Herbeck

Starring:

Judith Hoag

Elias Koteas

Josh Paris

David Forman

Brian Tochi

Leif Tilden

Corey Feldman

Michelan Sisti

Robbie Rist

Kevin Clash

James Saito

Blurb:

Four teenage mutant ninja turtles emerge from the shadows to protect New York City from a gang of criminal ninjas.

Thoughts:

If you put a pizza through a grate like that, all of the cheese would slide off, and it would suck. The only way it wouldn’t is if it’s not a fresh pizza, and maybe the turtles are used to that, but surely thirty minutes isn’t enough time for a pizza to be made and cool to that point. Also, stiffing the dude on a tip is a dick move turtles.

Next, what the fuck was going on with Casey Jones’ pants? Seriously, dude, why the fuck are they cupping your junk so tightly? I like you, I really do, but I don’t want to see that until we’ve been married years and you’re joking around. Come on, be better.

April, don’t change. Keep channeling Lois Lane and do your thing. Don’t let the man beat you down. Maybe don’t read your journal as a voice-over. It was kind of weird and out of place.

Danny’s dad was just so-so. He didn’t seem bad, but he wasn’t awesome or anything. So I’ll let the whole call me Dan now dad thing slide. It was borderline eh, though.

This was yet another one of my husband’s movies. It’s the movie he’s most watched in his lifetime, and we tried to watch it with our kids. Like young children, they asked questions the entire time, and the experience was probably not what he had in mind. Still, they’ve seen it and hopefully one day grow to appreciate it the way he would like them to.

Nineteen-ninety-one has three movies of mine, finally, so I’m happy to watch something of mine finally.

Total Recall (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Total Recall (1990)

Director:

Paul Verhoeven

Writers:

Ronald Shusett

Dan O’Bannon

Jon Povill

Gary Goldman

Starring:

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Rachel Ticotin

Sharon Stone

Ronny Cox

Michael Ironside

Blurb:

When a man goes in to have virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars implanted in his mind, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real – or is he?

Thoughts:

Out of Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers, Total Recall is the only film by Paul Verhoeven that I can watch. I’ve seen the others several times, but they’re too graphic for me to enjoy. I just do not like them. My poor husband loves them, but he’s nice enough to watch them when I’m not around. That being said, I don’t like Total Recall either. It just doesn’t bother me the same way the others do.

I have not read We Can Remember it Wholesale by Phillip K. Dick but just based on a Wikipedia read, it doesn’t sound like Total Recall followed it very closely. Maybe it would have been better if it had. The story seems to be trying too hard to make you question if it’s real or not. Specific plot points don’t make sense or are outright stupid. Personally, I prefer to think that it’s all fake and he wakes up back in his miserable life married to Sharon Stone, but there’s no way to know.

I should probably dedicate a paragraph to the two women in the movie, but I’m finding it difficult. Sharon Stone is a spy married to Arnold, who’s supposed to keep him distracted with her body, so he doesn’t remember his past life. Or is she? He’s supposed to remember his life eventually, so why is she there exactly? Then you’ve got Rachel Ticotin, who’s a member of the rebels and in love with Arnold. She is his contact with the rebels and the woman he’s really interested in. She gets jealous that he was with Sharon Stone but quickly gets over it because she loves him so much. The women don’t have much in the way of personality and are very similar. Both love Arnold, and both can fight.

The special effects in Total Recall are good for the time. Lots of eyes exploding and faces blowing up, plus a ton of bloody squibs. It was impressive and unrealistic enough not to bother me. It’s odd, I don’t mind action violence, but some movies just hit me wrong, and I can’t handle them. Certain types of hyper-violence make me physically ill.

Nineteen-ninety has been the year for movies my husband loves. I think Back to the Future Part III is the only one of my movies I’ve watched. I’ve still got one more movie of his for the year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Then I move on to a couple of mine. The nineties are an odd mixture of both of our tastes, so there will be some random whiplash to come.

Days of Thunder (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Days of Thunder (1990)

Director:

Tony Scott

Writers:

Robert Towne

Tom Cruise

Starring:

Tom Cruise

Robert Duvall

Nicole Kidman

Randy Quaid

Michael Rooker

Cary Elwes

Blurb:

A young hot-shot stock car driver gets his chance to compete at the top level.

Thoughts:

I am not a NASCAR fan. I always hated Sundays when my dad would watch it because it was so boring. I didn’t like football either, but something about cars driving around in circles was so much worse. I hated it. When I met my now husband, he was a big NASCAR fan. He loved to talk about it, and initially, because I wanted in his pants, I listened. Eventually, I listened because I loved him, and seeing him so excited about something was fun. I unwillingly learned more than I ever wanted to know about the sport. I now know it’s more than just driving in circles, along with a myriad of other facts. (In case anyone was wondering, he pays attention when I talk about topics I love and probably knows more than he’d ever want to know about romance books)

I never grew to like NASCAR, and in case it wasn’t clear, Days of Thunder is not my movie. In fact, I could have easily skipped it and felt no remorse over it, but my husband wanted to watch it, so I didn’t.

Alright, so Tom Cruise is a racer that can drive anything better than anyone ever, except he knows nothing about cars. Robert Duvall is old, even then, and he knows everything there is about making cars. Together, if they can get past their differences, they’ll be unstoppable. Enter Nicole Kidman, a super professional doctor, but after Tom Cruise puts her hand on his junk, she can’t seem to control herself. They hang out, and then seconds after she’s cleared him to drive again, they make out and become a thing. Also, Michael Rooker is the best driver until Tom Cruise comes along, and they have multiple dick-measuring contests. Oh, and Cary Elwes totally wants to fuck Tom Cruise.

That is Days of Thunder.