Cable Guy!!!!

Well I did it, watched a few movies this weekend...not any from the list, but some pretty good ones. I hate that I hadn't done that in a while because I shouldn't need the cable to go out for me to watch a movie or 2 or 3. So this weekend I had the pleasure of watching 3 awesome and completely different films from 3 different genres: Comedy, Drama, and Animation!!

First off, Friday night my roommate informed me that the cable guy wouldn't make it until Sunday (the day I was leaving for the holiday), so I walked right into Ralphs and rented my first 2 movies from the Redbox...it was pretty freakin awesome! I rented The Dilemma and The King's Speech. I had vaguely heard anything about The Dilemma, but it had one of my favorite actors; Vince Vaughn, so of course I had to check it out...HILARIOUS!!! He and Kevin James had me cracking up and the fact that my hubby Channing Tatum was in it...well it was already a winner in my eyes. Speaking of this comedy, I was having a discussion with my brothers this weekend about comedies back on the day, the "Jim Carrey comedies". We were watching Liar, Liar and I have to say that is one of my favorite films, I mean Jim Carrey is my all time favorite actor, but anyways I was saying that comedies are not like they used to be, now we have these "dramedies" like Funny People, Hangover or even Pineapple Express aren't straight comedies to me, they have this dramatic element where it drags on and has a lull, comedies like Liar, Liar that were an hr and a half tops, may have had a lil drama, still did it with humor. Let me know if I am losing you here, but while I think the aforementioned comedies are funny as hell, they are still not as good as the "Jim Carrey comedies" of the world. I guess its a different kind of comedy, the kind that adds sarcasm in a dry way and are still hilarious! Definitely going to add to the collection!!

Now lets get a lil bit more serious and talk about the Oscar Winning film: The King's Speech. AMAZING film!!! I clearly see how it won Best Picture, Director and Actor. I am by no means a history person, I don't memorize facts, not well versed in historical time lines or geography, but watching this film I didn't feel I needed to be. It wasn't boring or too long, just a great historic film and I loved it. I watched it in segments because I decided to pop it in the player at 11pm on a Friday after work and cooking a full meal...not smart; but waking up Saturday morning to finish it was like waking up to watch my Saturday morning cartoons...worth it!!

Lastly, after a fun pool party, I watched Despicable Me...can I just say I was pissed I had that in my possession for so long before watching it, because it was AWESOME!!! I loved every second of it. So cute and funny and a lil emotional. Those girls stole the show, esp lil Miss Agnes...too cute for words!!! I must say when this movie first came out , I told Tom I wasn't watching it until it came on TBS...that's laughable!! I love my cartoons, so I have no clue why I was so against it!! These animated films are taking on a whole new genre, they are more like cartoons for adults!!

So that was my 4th of July weekend of movies, I didn't get around to any on the list for several reasons, but I most definitely will! Probably in the next couple of days, esp because my cable and internet are up and running which means I can stream some of those movies through instant Netflix!!!

Well I highly recommend all 3 films...if u don't really like comedies...see The Dilemma. If you aren't really into history...see The King's Speech. If you weren't going to...see Despicable Me! TTFN!!!

"Nick, great moments come from great opportunities. And that's what you've earned here today. It's what you've earned here today."

-The Dilemma (2011)

"[re the stuffed unicorn] It's so fluffy, I'm gonna *die*!"

-Despicable Me (2010)

"If I'm King, where's my power? Can I form a government? Can I levy a tax, declare a war? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority. Why? Because the nation believes that when I speak, I speak for them. But I can't speak."
The King's Speech (2010)

American Classics and Traditions!!

Too bad I have already seen Born on the Fourth of July because that would have been a great film to kick off my comeback in July...so here are the 12 films I choose to watch this month and I feel very un-American that I haven't seen some of these...Godfather II, The Pride of the Yankees, Nine to Five, Blade Runner, Full Metal Jacket, The Accused, Raiders of the Lost Ark, American Me, The Way we Were, Patton, Raging Bull and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Now none of those are set in stone, but I think its a good starting point. I tried to have a nice variety, while picking some films that are related to the month of July. We got some American classics, Baseball, a Western, a love story and one with "American" in the title...So between my Netflix and owned films, let the movie watching begin!!! TTFN!!

"Now, no more shenanigans, no more tomfoolery, no more ballyhoo."
-Good Will Hunting (1997)

That's right...Markisha is back!!!!

So its official...I'M BACK!!!! I decided last night that this is something I needed to start back up, especially with the start of summer. I have had this beautiful Blu-Ray player since New Years and I am pretty sure I have only seen 25 movies since then (if that)...that is unacceptable!! Its the cable, it has taken over my life. I record everything and I am pretty much obsessed with TV shows, also last year I missed a lot of my favorite shows, so I was playing catch up, but really there is no excuse for a lover of movies like myself to be such a major slacker...

So here is my master plan: I am going to continue to watch from my original list of 272 movies. Apparently I have only watched 115 movies from this list alone...I definitely have a long way to go, but I am not putting any limitations on my movie watching this time. Why? Because that's how I previously got burnt out from watching older movies. Ideally, before I turn 30 I would like to have watched all these films, all the Oscar Winning Best Picture films, Highly rated nominated films and films on the AFI Top 100. I will start with only films before 2000 and eventually move into great films after 2000, but that's a whole separate list! While that is very ambitious, I am giving myself a 5 year plan. Silly, I know, but before I can truly call myself a "guru" or lover of movies, I must be well versed in all the "classic" films, cult classics, and films that have changed the course of history...

I am really excited to get back on the saddle and hopefully not fall off the wagon. (wagon...saddle, its all the same) Do not expect me to watch a movie everyday, I definitely have to get used to it again, but I am going to start off with 12 a month and see how that works. I mean I still got all my TV to watch and newer films, but its time to dust off my Blu-ray player, take some movies off the shelf and ride this until the wheels fall off...Wish me luck!!!! TTFN!!

***So I know this clearly came out after 2000, but I absolutely love this film. This quote below is by far one of my favorite scenes and it just resonates with me right now. ENJOY!

"So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What's it look like? If it's with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that's what you really wanted. But don't you take the easy way out."
-The Notebook (2004)

Sooooooooooo behind....

I don't know what happen to my inspiration. Don't get me wrong I am enjoying all these movies, but I haven't been motivated to just write about it, I guess cause I feel like its all repetitive and no one even gives me feedback, not that I really even care and I know I have 2 strong supporters and I love you guys for that. I guess Janet was right that its prolly a lil more exciting to read about someone's life rather than movies, but I don't have all these issues or exciting things to discuss. I am not married, have no kids, not in a relationship, so quite frankly a blog about myself would be boring as well. But anyways, enough of that...I watched 3 movies over the past week, so here ya go:

I finally, finally finished Field of Dreams! It was such a good movie, I don't know why it took me 3 different times to watch it, but when I finally did I enjoyed it. I feel like I haven't seen Kevin Costner in a new movie in so long and I just loved the little girl in the film, she was so cute and adorable. James Earl Jones is amazing and I wanna hear his voice or see him in films more often. I am a very imaginative person as well, so movies like this make me happy.
Don't ask me why I even rented it, but I also watched Surrogates the other night. Pretty freakin bad, like pretty bad. Why was that movie even made and why did I watch it? Enough said.
Lastly, I watched My Sister's Keeper over the weekend and I loved it. It made me laugh and cry, but only towards the end. I just love how it was made, going back and forth between the past and present. I thought Cameron Diaz was great as a bitch of a mother, not to her kids, but just overall like her role in Any Given Sunday. I am so glad I don't really read books, cause apparently I would have hated this movie if I did!
So I am way, super duper behind on my 20 movies for the month because as you can see I have only seen 1 qualifying movie. I have 4 at home, so hopefully I will get around to them. TTFN.

"If you Build it, He will come"
-Field of Dreams (1989)

Someday My Prince Will Come

With all this focus on movies from "The List" and reaching my goal of 20 movies this month, I seem to have forgotten a great film that was very near and dear to my heart this month and I listed as one of my favorite films, even though I didn't give it enough respect to write about it...
The Princess and The Frog was the first Disney black Princess film and it was soooo good!! On a Saturday afternoon, my mommy came down to L.A. and took me to see the film. I was 24, but I felt like I was 7 years old going to see a Disney movie with my mommy. It was such a great film and had all the right elements of a classic Disney Film. To this day I still love Little Mermaid as my all time favorite film and I cannot wait until I have a little daughter that I take to see her first and hopefully favorite Disney movie.
I also loved during the film she wasn't a frog the whole time, nor was she human; it was a little bit of both. I loved the relationship she had with her best friend, man I just loved all of it!! The music, the singing, the acting and the storyline.
I am so sorry for not writing about you sooner, but I hope you know that I truly loved this film and can't wait until my mommy buys it for me on DVD to add to my collection. TTFN!!

"Daddy never got what he wanted... but he had what he NEEDED: love! He never gave that up, and neither will I!"

-The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Happy Month...February is for Blacks and couples... I got one of those down!

Welcome February and goodbye January...you were sooooo good to me!!! I hope this month is gonna be a good one. I thought about this the other day and I am going to make this month strictly comedies, romance and any other Black or minority driven films that I have yet to see. So before I get started on Feb, lemme breakdown January.
Well, I did sooooooooooo good last month!! I saw 19 films off "The List." I have to say that is the most and I was only one short of 20...agghhh!!! Its OK though, because it actually wasn't that hard, but then again I picked some darn good films. I think there were only 3 or 4 that I didn't care for, but 15 others that I really enjoyed and its going to be really hard to pick my favorite film of the month and even harder to top that next month. I know I have many more films on "The List" that will be amazing, but I just don't know if I may have picked all the best ones in this one month...probably not!!
So here is a list of all the films I saw this month: 12 Angry Men, The Jerk, American History X, True Romance, Star Wars, Imitation of Life, It Happened one Night, An Affair to Remember, Crimson Tide, Vertigo, Hero, Cape Fear, Valley Girl, Rocky, Witness, Heat, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Caddyshack, I Can Do Bad all by Myself, Fame, Terminator: Salvation, Its Complicated, The Lovely Bones and The Princess and the Frog. That would be 25 total films for January...pretty good!!!!
With all the constant changes or human errors, my new total is now 115/272 films...what ya got for me February? TTFN!!

Favorite list films: American History X, 12 Angry Men and An Affair to Remember
Least Favorite List films: Rocky and Vertigo
Favorite non-list film: I Can Do Bad all by Myself, It's Complicated and The Princess and the Frog
Least Favorite non-list film: Terminator: Salvation

"Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

-Heat (1995)

Last Weekned of January and I Came up Short...

So this was the last weekend I had in January to watch a total of 20 films for the month and I was one short...I had Field of Dreams in my possession, had already started it another day, could have easily watched it Saturday or Sunday morning, but decided on Taken (which I love) instead! I am a lil disappointed in myself, but hey I saw 19 older films...that is one hell of an accomplishment. To round out the last, here ya go...
I saw True Romance Friday night and that film was pretty awesome. I read the summary and was like, oh this is going be good. You really can't go wrong with Tarantino and an all-star cast like Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Brad Pitt, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini, Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore and a few other actors that I really like. First off, I had no clue all those people were in it, but when I saw them on the credits, I was pretty excited and interested in the roles they were going to play. I was especially surprised by Brad Pitt as a pothead. He was sooooo funny and very believable.
I wasn't offended by any means, but this film raised my curiosity about Tarantino and his obsession with the word "Nigger" because I noticed he refers to it in several films. I read a lil about it on Google and then didn't really think about it too much. He is so great though and what I loved about this film, that it was violent, but not all the violence was shown and it had a happy ending for the "bad guys" and my boy Michael Rapaport didn't die..I love him!
On Saturday, the day I was supposed to watch my last two films I watched Hero. I really liked that one too! I thought Dustin Hoffman was great, but you couldn't help but feel sorry for him, especially after he was the true hero and no one would even fathom that idea. I loved Geena Davis and I wish I could see her in more films. I feel like after her TV show bombed she just disappeared and that makes me sad, cause she is a great actress. Hero, which is another film I saw a little of when I was younger was truly a great film. It had comedic elements, but also a lot more drama which I really enjoyed!
So that was the end of January. I did pretty good and saw soooooooooooooo many amazing films. I will discuss and lay out my February plan in the next posting. TTFN!!

"Hi. How are you? My name's Elliot, and I'm with the Cub Scouts of America. We're... we're selling uncut cocaine to get to the jamboree."

-True Romance (1993)