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Thursday, June 24, 2021

My Ten Favorite Hugh Jackman Movies

I've been wanting to do lists of my favorite movies starring more of my favorite actors and favorite actresses for a while now, but I kind of kept forgetting about it, too.  Well, Eva posted her top 10 favorite Hugh Jackman movies at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness a couple days ago, and that reminded me that I've been wanting to do more "ten favorites" posts revolving around my favorites, so I'm starting that with Hugh Jackman.

Yes, yes, fully half of these are X-Men movies where he's playing Wolverine.  This should not surprise anyone, considering that Wolvie is my favorite superhero, and also one of my 5 favorite fictional characters ever, the end, full stop.

1. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) travels to the past to save the future. My absolute favorite X-Men movie. Words truly can't describe how deeply I love it.

2. X2: X-Men United (2003)

Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), and their followers join forces to keep William Stryker (Brian Cox) from destroying all mutants. Practically perfect in every way.

3. The Greatest Showman (2017)

P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) dreams and schemes his way through life, searching for a way to be important and successful. Also, there's lots of singing and dancing and fun circus stuff.

4. X-Men (2000)

The X-men help wandering mutant Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) rescue Rogue (Anna Paquin) from Impending Doom. And to think that I refused to see this at first because I thought Hugh Jackman was all wrong for Wolverine! What kind of fool am I?

5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Wolverine squares off against his half-brother Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) and a younger Stryker (Danny Huston this time), and gains his adamantium skeleton in the process. This is the origin story I've always wanted for him, blending my favorite elements of several backstories for him from the comic books.

6. Australia (2008)

A determined Englishwoman (Nicole Kidman) and a drifting Drover (Hugh Jackman) struggle to save each other and an orphaned Aboriginal child (Brandon Walters) in Australia's Outback during World War Two.  This is the only movie that has ever given me cowboys and WWII soldiers in the same story.

7. Someone Like You (2001)

A jilted woman (Ashley Judd) writes an opinion piece that brings her national fame but jeopardizes her almost-relationship with a crass-yet-cuddlesome coworker (Hugh Jackman).

8. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

It's the X-Men versus Magneto's bunch again, with a back-from-the-dead friend turned into a foe. Actually a better movie than X-Men, but I don't love it as much.

9. Les Miserables (2012)

Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) raises his adopted daughter (Amanda Seyfried) while hiding from an obsessed policeman (Russell Crowe) during yet another French revolution.  To be honest, I still wish that Crowe had played Valjean and Jackman had played Javert... but I like it this way pretty well too.

10. Oklahoma! (1999)

A cowboy (Hugh Jackman) tries to win the heart of a girl (Josefina Gabrielle) who claims she hates him. Yes, you read that correctly: Hugh Jackman. This is the London stage version, not the famous Hollywood one, but I prefer it because, well, Hugh Jackman!  He lends a really interesting edge of danger to Curly that I quite dig.

26 comments:

  1. Goodness, Liev Schreiber keeps popping up unexpectedly wherever I turn! First in Kate & Leopold (which I started watching, but decided wasn't my thing :P) and then The Manchurian Candidate, and now you mentioned him here! X-Men Origins: Wolverine sounds good--I should watch it. :) And also the HJ version of Oklahoma 'cause you're the second person who's recommended it now.

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    1. Eva, haha! Well, Liev Schreiber is a wonderful person to have popping up all over. I am so fond of him, I wrote him as the romantic lead of my 5th novel, many years ago :-) If you can get it on VidAngel, I totally recommend his WWII movie Defiance. True story about Polish Jews hiding and resisting. He's also lovely in The Sum of All Fears. AND he's my favorite Laertes EVER, in the Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet. My goodness, he's so wonderful in that. Oddly enough, I still haven't seen his Manchurian Candidate, though. I have it, just kinda waiting for the right time to watch it. He's such a marvelously solid, enjoyable actor!

      The Jackman version of Oklahoma! is a lot of fun :-D

      DKoren and I are about the only people who really love X-Men Origins: Wolverine, afaik. It doesn't get the fan love it deserves, and I really don't know why because it is a smart, enjoyable movie. Dominic Monaghan has a small part in it too...

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    2. I put XO:W on hold at the library, so I'll let you know if I enjoy it or not! And I did see Defiance once upon a time (on VidAngel), and I remember it being good. Wouldn't mind seeing it again at some point.

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    3. Eva, oh boy! If nothing else, you'll dig the wartime montage :-D

      Glad you've seen Defiance. So good.

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  2. Australia is so much fun!

    I really must see Les Mis one of these days. (Speaking of Russell Crowe, I just revisited Master and Commander and it was even better than I remembered. I can totally see Crowe making a good Valjean and Jackman a good Javert.)

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    1. Miss Morgan, yes, Australia is an epically good time.

      Jack Aubrey is still my favorite Russell Crowe role, and probably always will be. Even though I love several of his characters a whole lot. He's just so perfect as Lucky Jack. In the book, Valjean can do these mighty feats of strength and is just kind of this mighty barrel of a man, and Crowe would have fit him so perfectly that way! And Jackman can summon a more subtle form of menace that I think would have fitted Javert so well. Plus, honestly, their voice ranges would have been better suited to those roles, rather than the ones they got. Sigh. If they'd made it 10 years earlier, when Crowe was riding high and Jackman was still on the upswing, I think they would've cast it that way instead. But it's still good the way it is :-)

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  3. Hah! You know Origins and X2 would be at the top of my own list! And his Oklahoma is a fantastic version. Australia would make me list too. :-D So much fun!

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    1. DKoren, I always feel like his Curly *might* have made sure the knife was where it was in the finale, whereas Gordon MacRae is such a frolicky puppy that you just know it was an accident. It makes the whole story more weighty, for me.

      I konw you probably would've swapped Kate & Leopold out on here somewhere too.

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  4. Speaking of the name HUGH there was HUGH REILLY who played the dad PAUL MARTIN on the LASSIE series(with JON PROVOST as TIMMY). Hugh's passing was in 1998 at the age of 82. Today is the birthday of JUNE LOCKHART who played the wife to Hugh on LASSIE. Her name was RUTH MARTIN. MISS LOCKHART is 96. Her daughter is actress ANNE LOCKHART. Sadly, Anne is a widow from her marriage to ADAM TAYLOR, the son of BUCK TAYLOR who played NEWLY O'BRIEN on GUNSMOKE. Do you know the LASSIE show? When I was a kid I saw the "JEFF" reruns and then I saw the "TIMMY" ones when I was in my twenties. June had a very warm presense on TV. CLASSIC TV FAN

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    1. Classic TV Fan, I've only seen a few eps of Lassie, and they were the Jeff versions. Maybe one day I can see some of the ones with Timmy!

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  5. I knew that I shouldn't have changed that word. I had it right the first time-it is presence. Also BUCK TAYLOR's dad was character actor DUB TAYLOR. He guest starred on GUNSMOKE, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE and THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. He was also in NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS with ANDY GRIFFITH. CLASSIC TV FAN

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    1. I had no idea Dub Taylor, Buck Taylor, and Adam Taylor were all related! Huh! Learn something new every day.

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  6. He's such a good actor! I've actually seen most of these. He's so good as Wolverine, but his voice needs to be heard too.

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    1. Skye, he definitely is. It's been wonderful watching him stretch and grow over the past twenty years <3

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  7. I think my Hugh Jackman film count is 19, even though most of them are from the X-Men franchise. I was so hoping I would have seen every movie on your list, but I don't think I've ever heard of Someone Like You. Oklahoma! and Australia are some his bests! Aside from playing Logan of course.

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    1. Ivy Miranda, I've seen 20, so we're very close there! Someone Like You is a quirky rom-com and I'm very fond of it :-)

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  8. Mine is The Greatest Showman. Beyond that, I like him in the original X-Men trilogy, and Kate & Leopold... which after I saw him in Snowy River: The McGregor Saga as a kid (his first role, maybe?), was the first time I saw him in an American film. I do remember enjoying Australia. :)

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    1. Charity, The Greatest Showman is my 9-yr-old's favorite movie. Every time it's her turn to pick music in the van, she picks its soundtrack. She completely adores it :-D

      I STILL haven't managed to see Snowy River: The McGregor Saga. Bucket list. Not his first screen role, but very early for him.

      Australia manages somehow to be sweeping and intensely personal at the same time... and not cheesy. Very tricky stuff. Very well done.

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  9. I think I've seen Hugh Jackman in "Oklahoma"? I remember watching him sing "Surrey With the Fringe On Top," at any rate. Fun stuff.

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    1. Katie, he really just nails the whole rangy, sweet, impatient cowboy vibe so well :-D

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  10. I want to mention that STUART DAMON passed away on June 20 at the age of 84. He is best known for his 30 years on GENERAL HOSPITAL as DR. ALAN QUARTERMAINE (from 1977 to 2007). He played the PRINCE in the 1965 TV-adaptation of CINDERELLA with LESLEY ANN WARREN(and GINGER ROGERS). He also was in the last PERRY MASON TV-MOVIE, THE CASE OF THE KILLER KISS which had soap stars playing soap stars. Two were GENIE FRANCIS(also of GH) and LINDA DANO(ANOTHER WORLD) as the wife to Stuart. Stuart and his wife DEIRDRE were married since 1961. That's 60 years!!

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    1. Interesting! I see that, alas, Richard Donner just passed away too.

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  11. Hugh Jackman really is such a good actor! I remember before I watched Les Mis I didn't know that he sang and actually really likes singing. I was used to him in his Wolverine role and a couple other roles which he was also fantastic in.
    I still can't believe The Greatest Showman was in the works for 7 years. He really wanted it to happen and I'm grateful.

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    1. Elizabeth, he is! He's so versatile. And I agree, I'm so glad he kept working on getting The Greatest Showman made. It's my youngest daughter's favorite movie!

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  12. Great list.. Love you to join... https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/2021/07/06/blogathon-announcing-the-no-true-scotsman-blogathon/

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    1. Thanks, Gill! And thanks for the invite. I'll check it out :-)

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