A-to-tha-Zizzle: G

Gee golly aren't you glad it's Friday?  I am!  It's been a GREAT day.  Plus, tomorrow is GAGA! Whoop whoop!  Here we go:


Good Morning Vietnam

 This is not a test, this is rock and roll!  Robin Williams is awesome as radio personality Adrian Cronauer during the midst of the Vietnam War.  Forrest Whitaker is a great sidekick, too. 

It gets a little serious here and there - it is Vietnam, after all - but for the most part, it's just freaking hilarious. 




Ghostbusters

Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudson, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver - pretty much an awesome cast.  Some paranormal psychologists get together and decide to fight the goblins and ghouls running amok in New York City, just in time to defeat the ultimate evil (in the form of a really ugly demon dog thing). 

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Poor army brat Janey has moved - yet again - to a new town, and this time it just so happens to be where the dance show "Dance TV" is filmed, right when they're holding a competition for new dancers.

 Janey befriends rebel Lynne who encourages her to have fun and break the rules every once in a while.  Sarah Jessica Parker before she went all sex and the city.  Helen Hunt pre-Twister.  Basically a good time all around. 

Grease

Do I really need to explain this one?  If you haven't seen it, move out from under that rock.  LOVE this film. 

My mom passed the love on to me, and I've now passed it on to my girls.  It's a never-ending circle of awesomeness, black leather and big hair. 

Ghosts of Mississippi

Whoopi Goldberg plays Myrlie Evers, wife of civil rights activist Medger Evers, who was murdered in the 60s and who's murderer still remained unpunished.  Alec Baldwin is district attorney Bobby DeLaughter, who is determined to put known assassin Byron De La Beckwith (James Woods) behind bars - for good. 

For thirty years everyone has known Beckwith committed the murder, but the original trial ended in a hung jury.  This film based on the true story is intense, heartbreaking and infuriating all at the same time.  Excellent portrayal of the events. 
 

Gone in Sixty Seconds

Retired car thief Memphis Raines (Nicholas Cage) is suddenly pulled back into the world of stealing after his baby brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) gets tied up with bad mamma jamma Kalitri.

Memphis turns to his old crew, made up of a handful of misfits including Robert Duvall as Otto and Angelina Jolie as Sway, to help him get Kip out of trouble.  A fun, fast movie. 

The Goonies

This is a favorite of pretty much everyone I've ever met - including a few professors.  A handful of outcasts go on a treasure hunt to save their homes from being sold and demolished. 

Starring Sean Astin (Mikey), Josh Brolin (Brand - how many of you had no idea that was him?), Korey Feldman (Mouth), Jeff Cohen (Chunk), Jonathan Ke Quan (Data), Kerri Green (Andy), Martha Plimpton (Stef) and John Matuszak (Sloth).  

Today's episode has been brought to you buy the letter G.

A-to-tha-Zizzle: F

Howdy, y'all!  Today is Thursday, which means the weekend is one short day away! Wohoo!!  I'm also thrilled because Saturday night I'm going to see Lady Gag! Wohoo! Can't wait. 

Anyhoo, onward with the alphabet game.  Today's magic letter is F, as in:

Ferris Bueller's Day Off


One of the best teen movies EVER made.  Matthew Broderick is fabulous as Ferris, the teen who outsmarts his parents to spend a day away from school doing nothing but having fun. 

Fast Times at Ridgemont High




Right up there with the best high school movies of all time.  I love Judge Reinhold. (Don't worry boys, Phoebe Cates is in it, too.) 

Father of the Bride


One of my favorite wedding movies.  Steve Martin plays the tightwad, frustrated father of the bride well.  Diane Keaton is great, and I think Kimberly Williams (now -Paisley) is adorable!

A Few Good Men


You can't handle the truth!  Tom Cruise before he went all Scientology-weird.  Jack Nicholson as one of the best villains ever.  Great story line.  Good stuff.

First Knight


Richard Gere (YUM) steals the lovely Guinevere (Julia Ormond) from Arthur (Sean Connery - again, YUM).  You really don't need a plot more involved than that.  Good movie, though.

Footloose

Kevin Bacon moves into a backwoods Bible belt town and teaches them that hey - it's okay to dance. 

Fried Green Tomatoes


One of the best flashback films I've ever seen.  The cast is excellent, and the storyline is wonderful.  Love love love it.  The novel is pretty good, also.






Sorry I sort of skeezed on this post, but I am pressed for time, and I really just want to chill on the couch and watch everything on my DVR (although at this point it would take roughly four days of non-stop watching to catch up) since I've been so busy with school and life that I haven't had time to watch Glee, American Idol, NCIS or any of the Kennedy specials.  Summer's almost here....summer's almost here....
Y'all have an awesome evening!

A-to-tha-Zizzle: E

What a week.  I have FOUR exams this week and a map quiz (harder than you think it is), and I'm psyched because I have one more next Wednesday, then NO MORE EXAMS UNTIL FINALS! Woop woop!  I'm so happy about that.  I can't even express it adequately. 

Anyhoo, onward with April's A-to-tha-Zizzle challenge.  Today's letter:  E.  Here we go...

Empire Records

Angsty kids spend a day working at a music store while dealing with their various personal issues, some of which are seriously deep for teenagers.  Lucas (Rory Cochrane - my fave) has lost the money from the previous day's sales, and manager Joe is trying to figure out how to handle it without sending Lucas to jail.   Corey has ivy league aspirations, but relies on speed to keep up with her straining workload.  Oh yeah, she plans to lose her virginity to pop star Rex Manning, who is visiting the record store that day.  Gina is the slut, and is honest - sometimes too honest.  A.J. is an artist who is desperately in love with Corey, and gives himself a deadline to tell her how he feels, but he keeps changing it.  There's also Debra, the suicidal angry girl, Mark the pothead/wannabe heavy metal star, and Berko, Debra's boyfriend.  Whew. 

Anyhoo, the owner of the record store tells Joe he's going to sell it to a generic music store chain.  Joe and the kids decide to do whatever it takes to save the Empire.    GREAT soundtrack.

Damn the man, save the empire!

Edward Scissorhands

Tim Burton's excellent tale about the poor boy with no hands, so his adoptive inventor guy makes him hands out of scissors.  Riiiiight. 

I can totally look past the plot on this because it's JOHNNY DEPP. 

So a lady is selling beauty products one day and finds Edward.  She takes pity on him and brings him home to live with her family.  She has a teenage daughter (a blonde Winona Ryder) who Edward falls in love with, but he's terribly shy.  The neighbors soon learn Edward has a knack for haircutting, so he begins a haircutting/pet grooming/landscaping job that takes the neighborhood by storm. 

Pretty ridiculous story, but hey, it's Burton and Depp. 

Ever After

LOVE LOVE LOVE this film.  A modern-day adaptation of Cinderella starring Drew Barrymore, Angelica Houston and Dougray Scott.  Barrymore is delightful as the mistreated Danielle, stepdaughter of the materialistic, rude and pompous Rodmilla.  While pretending to be wealthy to keep her friend from being shipped to the Americas, Danielle has a chance meeting with Prince Henry and completely infatuates him.  She uses her mother's name and title, and has to keep up the charade as Henry pursues her.  It becomes more difficult to lie to Henry as Danielle starts to fall for him, but events keep preventing her from telling him the truth. 

I love that only one of the stepsisters is evil (Megan Dodds plays awful Marguerite excellently - you just HATE her).  Melanie Lynskey portrays sweet stepsister Jacqueline, and you find yourself cheering for her as well.  Houston plays big bad stepmomma like nobody's business.  She's a great villain, which just makes it that much more fun when she finally gets her due. 

Easy A

Although a fairly new addition to my list of favorites, I just have to say Emma Stone is awesome, and I am one of her biggest fans.  She rocks my socks off.

Smart, respectful student Olive wants to shut up her best friend, so she lies and says that over the weekend she lost her virginity to a college guy.  Unfortunately the school's holy rolling Marianne overhears the conversation, and by the end of the day the whole school knows about Olive's sex life.  Later in class a discussion about the novel The Scarlett Letter gets aggressive when one of Marianne's friends refers to Olive's losing her virginity.  Olive reacts and ends up with detention.  While in detention she tells a gay friend that she made the story up, and he then asks her to pretend to have sex with him so people will leave him alone.  She agrees and they fake having sex at a party.  Suddenly Olive is the school slut, and boys are paying her to say she had sex with them.  As Olive's bad reputation grows, Olive starts to realize she doesn't like the stigma that goes along with it. 

I don't want to say anymore about it since it's sorta new and I don't want to spoil it. 

I love the supporting cast in this film, with Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Thomas Haden Church, Dan Byrd, Patricia Clarkson,  Stanley Tucci and Lisa Kudrow filling the time with excellent dialogue.  Olive's parents (Clarkson and Tucci) are hilarious. 

Encino Man

It's not on my top ten list, but I have to include it because I failed to in my Brendan Fraser post the other day, and because I love Pauly Shore.  I kind of feel obligated. 

Stoney and Dave (Shore and Sean Astin) are digging a pool when they discover a frozen caveman (in California....I know).  They thaw him out, clean him up and adopt him as their new pet/friend Link (Fraser).  The new Link is instantly popular at school, which in turn gives the guys a rise in status. 

Trying to modernize a caveman, though, is no easy feat....especially for Pauly Shore. 

It's a fun stupid movie, sort of like Bio-Dome (now THAT is one of my favorites!).

Enchanted

This is a fun family movie.  Amy Adams is adorable as the ditsy cartoon-turned-real-life-woman Giselle and Patrick Dempsey is YUMMY (as usual) as Robert, lawyer and father of the cutest kid ever.  Susan Sarandon plays the evil Queen Narissa, stepmother of Prince Edward (James Marsden).

Cartoon Prince Edward saves cartoon Giselle and they decide to get married, but Narissa doesn't want to give up her throne, so she pushes Giselle into a well that sends Giselle to New York City as a real life woman.  Robert and his daughter give her a place to stay, and Giselle begins to show Robert the beauty and fun in life, while Robert shows Giselle what life is really like. 

Prince Edward follows Giselle down the well, and is followed by Narissa's henchman Nathaniel, who is ordered to poison Giselle before Edward can find her. 

Enchanted is sweet, and makes you remember being younger and watching Disney princesses fall in love with their princes, living happily ever after.  I love it. 



Today's episode has been brought to you by the letter E.

A-to-tha-Zizzle: D

Well it's D Day. No, not that D-Day. The fun one. The one where the letter D takes over my blog. I almost feel like I should dedicate this post to my dad, since his name is Dennis, and he goes by Uncle D, Papa D, Daddy D, Big D and just plain old D. Plus, he rocks. For reals.

My dad in 1976. Looks like he just stepped out of Dazed and Confused.

Seriously, doesn't he look like he would be totally kickin' like chicken back in the day?

See? Told ya. Speaking of which, let's get down to it....the best D films:

Dazed and Confused

It's the last day of school/first day of summer in 1976. The juniors are about to begin initiating the incoming freshmen, parties are being planned and star quarterback Randall "Pink" Floyd is prepared to enjoy his summer before senior year. Unfortunately his football coaches want him to sign a pledge to refrain from using illegal substances. Yeah, right.

Along with his friends (including an awesome Rory Cochrane as Slater and Matthew McConaughey as Wooderson), Pink kicks off the summer with one thing on his mind: FUN. Fun, of course, includes paddling freshmen, pool, mailbox bashing, drinking beer, smoking pot and a massive party.

One of the most kick-A movies EVER. The soundtrack rocks, the dialogue rocks, the clothes rock, basically, it all just rocks. If you haven't seen this movie, stop reading, get in your car, drive to the store and BUY IT NOW. You'll thank me later.

Death Becomes Her

Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis star in this awesome movie. Helen (Hawn) is so happy, she's engaged to the up-and-coming plastic surgeon Ernest Melville (Willis), and she wants him to meet her lifelong BFF, "triple-threat" Madeline Ashton (Streep). They go see her awful play and Ernest is suddenly smitten kitten with Madeline. In no time flat Madeline has stolen Ernest from Helen and they get married.

After fourteen years, Helen is reunited with Madeline and Ernest in a most....unusual way. A murder plot, an accidental murder and magic potion weave a twisted web between them all, and it just gets more demented as the film progresses. Love it!

Dirty Dancing

Baby goes with her family on vacation to the upscale Kellerman's Resort in 1963. Baby is a humanitarian and daddy's girl, who has no interests in anything but saving the world. All of that changes when she meets Johnny, the bad boy dance instructor at the resort. After his dance partner is unable to perform, Johnny hesitantly goes about teaching Baby how to dance. Their constant bickering evolves into a love affair that will leave you hankering for some lovin' of your own.

The dancing is fun to watch, the music is great and Patrick Swayze - God rest his soul - is just a treat. Yum.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner!

Drop Dead Fred

Lizzie (Phoebe Cates) is a happily grownup woman, until she catches her husband having an affair. She moves back home with her controlling, bossy mother (think Mommie Dearest in pink), and is suddenly reunited with her childhood imaginary friend, Drop Dead Fred (Rick Mayall).

Fred kept Lizzie in trouble as a child, and is even worse now that she's an adult. He sabotages her everywhere - with her friends, in public, with her mother, basically 24/7. Lizzie wants to be rid of Fred, but she can't let go of the child inside of her.

I loved this movie when I was younger because I thought it would be so awesome to have an imaginary friend to blame stuff on. (I was one of those kids who never had an imaginary friend. I think I had too many siblings and cousins to need one.)


Dumb & Dumber

Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels play doofus best buds Lloyd and Harry. After Lloyd loses his job as a limo driver and Harry loses his job as a dog groomer, Lloyd convinces Harry to take a road trip to Aspen to return a briefcase to his last client, Mary (Lauren Holly), a beautiful woman he had taken to the airport.

The roadtrip is packed with ridiculousness, from roadside diner scams to drinking piss from a beer bottle to picking up hitchhikers. Once the two arrive in Aspen, they realize the briefcase is full of money. They go on a spending spree, and end up both meeting Mary and falling for her. This movie is utterly stupid, but one of my most favorites. I like it, I like it a lot!


Today's episode has been brought to you by the letter D, and the numbers 4, 2 and 0. Hehe.

A-to-tha-Zizzle: C

Ah, C.  That captivating, challenging, sometimes confusing letter of the alphabet. How do I love the?  You bring me comedy and charisma, comfort and cheer.  What a great letter you are!  Also, you give me multiple choices for today, which is so characteristic of you.  Hehe.  Okay, I've run that one into the ground.  Here we go:

C is for Can't Buy Me Love

Nerd (Patrick Dempsey pre-McDreamy) pays popular chick to "date" him so he can be popular, too.  Newfound top dog status goes to his head.  Pretty much your generic 80s love-comedy movie, a/k/a AWESOME.

C is for Clue

An excellent cast playing the film version of the whodunit game.  Hilarious.  (I previously covered this film on a Movie Delight Monday post.  You can check it out here.)

C is for Cable Guy


One of my most favorite Jim Carrey films.  Crazy guy thinks he's a cable guy and pretends to be various television characters from his childhood.  Makes friends with a customer, then stalks him and makes his life miserable. 

If you only watch this movie for the Medieval Times scene, it's worth it.

C is for Clueless


Cher Horowitz spends her time worried about fashion, shopping and being totally cool.  Her life is perfect, that is, until her friend hits on her, the guy she likes ends up gay, her pet project Thai begins to take over as queen bee and her ex-stepbrother Josh takes over her house.   As if!

C is for Cool Hand Luke


Ah, Paul Newman shirtless.  A LOT.  Luke gets arrested and put on a chain gang.  He keeps escaping, and they keep catching him.  In one scene he eats a bunch of eggs, and I mean a BUNCH.  It's an awesome scene.  This is one of those classic movies you have to love. 

Today's episode has been brought to you by the letter C. 

A-to-tha-Zizzle: Today's episode is brought to you by the letter B

[Note:  I typed this yesterday (Saturday), but got busy and forgot to post it.  So, let's just pretend I posted this yesterday, okydoky?]

Last night after posting the first of a series of 26, it occurred to me that this challenge could be tremendous fun.  I mean really, the possibilities are endless.  An entire alphabet to go through?  That's a minimum of 26 totally awesome topics.  I'm excited about this.  So here we go with today's letter:

B is for Brendan Fraser

Yummy

Seriously, I love this guy.  He's so versatile.  He's been a sweet Jewish boy, king of the jungle,  super-talented pitcher, cowboy/mummy hunter, on and on it goes.  I've never seen him play a role I didn't like.  My favorites, though, are the following:

Bedazzled

Elliot Richards (Fraser) is a doormat for everyone.  He tries so hard to fit in, but nobody likes him.  He's the guy that when he walks into a room everyone turns their back to him and hopes he didn't see them.  Yeah, that guy.   He's hopelessly in love with a coworker, Allison, who doesn't even know he exists.  After failing to strike up a conversation with her in a bar, he says he'd sell his soul to be with her.  Enter the devil (Elizabeth Hurley). 

She offers Elliot seven wishes in exchange for his soul.  Each time he makes a wish to get with Alison, the devil somehow messes it up.  The ways his wishes are screwed up are hilarious, and Fraser is great at portraying each of the different personas that go along with his wishes.  As Elliot gets more and more frustrated with the devil, he gets funnier and funnier.  Love him!

Blast from the Past

In the 1960s, inventor Calvin Weber (Christopher Walken) and his pregnant wife Helen (Sissy Spacek) are locked in their bomb shelter after a plane crashes on top of it.  Thinking there's been a war up on the ground, the Webers remain underground for thirty years.  Their son, Adam (Fraser), grows up in the shelter, being taught everything he needs to know by his dad.  On Adam's thirtieth birthday, Calvin has a heart attack.  The Webers are running low on supplies, so Adam has to go up to the surface to find some. 

When he gets to the top, he meets rude, sarcastic Eve (Alicia Silverstone) and begs for her help.  She agrees to help him, and together they start searching for the supplies needed in the bomb shelter.  Eve doesn't quite know how to take Adam, with his proper English, manners and knowledge.  Adam becomes smitten with Eve, and although she fights it, she starts falling for him, too. 

It's hilarious watching Adam try to adapt to this new and interesting world.  While in the bomb shelter Adam had never seen color television, spoken on a telephone, ridden in a car, etc.  It's all new to him, and he gets SO excited over everything.  Fraser plays this naive, honest guy perfectly, and Silverstone is just freakin' adorable.  As usual.   Walken and Spacek are funny, too.  They have great dialogue. 

This is one of my most favorite movies of all time!

The Mummy

Librarian Evy is fascinated with Egyptian history, and decides to go see the ancient city of Hamunaptra.  She enlists the help of American Rick O'Connell, who has to help her after she saved his life.  He had been to the city once before while in the service.  They have trouble from the beginning, because Evy has a key, although she doesn't know it is a key - and everybody wants it.  The key goes to the Book of the Dead, and once they get to Hamunaptra, they soon learn why you shouldn't open the book. 

A dig is going on in the city, and when a few American treasure hunters open a tomb, an evil curse descends on everyone.  It is the curse that had been placed on the priest Imhotep.  Now the evil scary mummy guy has come back to life and wants to suck the life out of everyone and take Evy to be the reincarnation of his dead lover.  Luckily for Evy, Rick's there to save the day.  It's going to take him a while, though.  After all, you can't beat a thousand-year old evil mummy in one day.  Where's the fun in that?



Today's episode has been brought to you by the letter B.