Day 02 - Most underrated film

I'm going to go with Assassins (1995).  It's probably not the most underrated film ever, but it's one I like that a lot of people dismiss as lame.  Unlike many of Sly's mid-90s movies, it's not particularly cheesy or clunky -- instead, it's a slick, character-driven action movie.  It's no Bourne Identity, true, but it's fun in a non-deep way.

Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone)

Assassins stars Sylvester Stallone, Julianne Moore, and Antonio Banderas.  I'm fond of all three of those actors, so the cast alone pretty well ensures I'd enjoy the movie.  Throw in some guns, a hint of romance, and some nice cat-and-mouse action, and I'm hooked.  The plot revolves around Robert Rath (Stallone), the best assassin-for-hire in the business.  Another assassin, Miguel Bain (Banderas), wants to take down Rath and assume his spot at the top of the list.  He's trying to kill Electra (Moore), a prettier-than-most computer geek who does freelance surveillance work and loves her cat.  Rath stops Bain from killing Electra, and the two of them go on the run as he tries to figure out how to take down Bain.

Electra (Julianne Moore)

Sure, the character names are dorky.  Sure, it's a little hard to worry that Stallone could ever be bested at anything, even by the scenery-chewing Banderas.  Assassins is a fun ride -- you can see all three stars are enjoying themselves, and it's hard not to enjoy things right along with them.

Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas)

I think what I like best about this movie is how it manages to dodge so many cliches.  Bain and Rath spar with words and wits, not fists.  Rath is a nice assassin... to a point.  Electra creepily keeps tabs on all the other people in her apartment building... and takes a motherly interest in their mundane lives.  Bain isn't just a kooky guy trying to take down the top dog... he's actually good at being an assassin, arguably as good as Rath.  And Rath and Electra don't end up in bed together -- in fact, one of my favorite scenes involves the two of them sharing a hotel room; Rath gallantly goes to sleep on the floor without a fuss. 

So, while Assassins isn't cinematic genius, it's also not a clunker.  Anyway, I enjoy it.

Happy New Year!

Day 01 - Favorite foreign film

 
Well, if we're not counting British movies, but only movies in a foreign language, then it's Life is Beautiful (1997).

In case you've never heard of this film, it's about a Jewish Italian who uses his wit and quirky humor to woo the love of his life ("Buon giorno, Principessa!"), then uses those same resources to help his son survive life in a Nazi concentration camp.  It's an amazing story, one that never fails to move me to both laughter and tears.

Nicoletta Braschi, Roberto Benigni, Giorgio Cantarini

I first saw Life is Beautiful while on tour with my college choir in May of 2000.  The various choir members were being housed by members of the congregation where we'd done a concert.  My friend Pebbles and I stayed with a young single mom and her two little boys, who were maybe seven and nine.  Certainly under ten.  The mom stopped on the way to her home to rent the video, and we watched it with her and her kids during supper.  Although the movie was in Italian with English subtitles, those two little boys were enthralled -- their mom said they had seen it several times and reacted the same way every time.  They were as wonderful to watch as the movie.

I can't watch Life is Beautiful very often -- it's too poignant.  Like a rich fudge or port wine, it's better as a once-in-a-great-while treat.

Movie Meme Lineup

As usual, when I finish NaNoWriMo (yes, I won; no, my novel's not finished), I have taken a small break from the computer.  Okay, a two-week break.  But I'm getting back into my usual routines, and I think I'm ready to begin on my next blog meme.  Which is all about movies.  Yippee!  Here's the lineup of topics:

Day 01 - Favorite foreign film
Day 02 - Most underrated film
Day 03 - A film that makes you happy
Day 04 - A film that makes you sad
Day 05 - Favorite love story in a film
Day 06 - Favorite actor/actress
Day 07 - The best plot twist/ending
Day 08 - The best opening/closing credits
Day 09 - The best soundtrack/score to a film
Day 10 - Favorite classic film
Day 11 - A film that you hate
Day 12 - A film that changed your opinion about something
Day 13 - A guilty pleasure
Day 14 - A film that you used to love but now hate
Day 15 - Favorite film sequel
Day 16 - Film character you relate to the most
Day 17 - Favorite film quote
Day 18 - A film that you wish more people had seen
Day 19 - The most hilarious film you've seen
Day 20 - A film you wish someone would make
Day 21 - Favorite film from your favorite actor/actress
Day 22 - Favorite documentary
Day 23 - Favorite animated film
Day 24 - Favorite film based on a book/comic/etc.
Day 25 - Favorite film villain
Day 26 - A film that you love but everyone else hates
Day 27 - A film you wish you had seen in theaters
Day 28 - Favorite film from your favorite director
Day 29 - Favorite film from your childhood
Day 30 - Your favorite film of all time

Yes, DKoren did this on Sidewalk Crossings.  Her answers are here :-)

Day 30 - Saddest character death

As in, the one that makes me saddest?  Hmm.  Probably Grady Long.

This is the part where most of you say, "Who?"  And justifiably so, because he's not a regular on any show.  I don't even know who played him, because his only appearance is so brief, it's uncredited.

Grady Long is the soldier who dies at the beginning of "Far From the Brave," one of my favorite episodes of (you guessed it) Combat!  Grady Long was never in any previous episodes, and he's only in about three minutes of that one.  We never see his face clearly.  He has no lines.  All he does is walk up a hill, firing a B.A.R. at an enemy machine gun nest, and get killed in the process.

But the rest of the episode revolves around him, around his squadmates processing his death, which has sent Saunders -- yes, Saunders! -- reeling.  Saunders, who has emotional armor six inches thick, is so affected by Grady Long's death that he withdraws within himself so deeply it seems for a while he may never come out again.  And, in a sense, he doesn't.  In the eps following "Far From the Brave," Saunders is a different character from the one before.  He's more serious, he's more focused, and he's more empathetic than he was previously.  I don't know if this was intentional on the part of the writers and directors, if it was a conscious choice Vic Morrow made, or if it happened organically, but the difference is there whatever the reason.

Fans disagree a lot about Grady Long.  How long he and Saunders had known each other, what sort of man he was -- it's all very debatable because none of that is established canonically.  I myself have written and co-written several stories involving him, and I'm currently revising a story that's my take on how he and Saunders met.

But why is Grady's death the one that makes me saddest?  Because of how sad it makes my beloved Saunders, of course.

Sgt. Saunders (Vic Morrow) and Lt. Hanley (Rick Jason)

 Here ends the TV meme.  Next up:  movies!

And doggone if this post hasn't made me want to finish revising that fanfic story!

Day 29 - Current TV show obsession

I'm actually kind of between obsessions right now.  True obsessions, I mean.  I was obsessed with Lost for over a year, but now that I've seen all six seasons, my obsession is kind of waning.  I'm still watching my current TV shows, Bones and NCIS, but neither of them is an obsession.  And I've been dedicated to Combat! long enough that it's not really an obsession anymore either, at least, not all the time ;-)

Day 28 - First TV show obsession

Without a doubt, classic Star Trek.  My brother and I discovered the show when I was about 13 and he was 8 or 9, and I'm not sure "obsession" is a strong enough word to describe our relationship with the show.  We had plastic figures of the major characters, and we went through phases where we played with nothing else for weeks on end.  We would have plot lines that lasted for days, we created a host of original characters that periodically joined them for adventures, and we created fantastic sets of the bridge, sickbay, the transporter room, and more.  Sometimes setting up to play Star Trek took up almost our whole pre-lunch half-hour of playtime, and then we'd have to wait until we'd finished doing our schoolwork to get any real adventuring in.

Yes, I played with action figures at the age of 14.  With my younger brother.  Matter of fact, we played with them until I went to college, and when I'd come home on breaks, we'd play with them some more.  Not just Star Trek, but Star Wars, X-Men, Batman, GI Joes, and several other worlds.  Sometimes we did cross-overs between different universes.  It was awesome.

Anyway, we got into Star Trek when my dad ran across one of the movies on TV or something, and my brother saw a slice of it and pretty much fell under Spock's spell.  I'm not sure if it was Spock's intelligence or logic or what, but Johnnycake decided then and there that Spock was the coolest guy ever.  Kind of instant hero-worship, as I recall.  Me, I was less interested (I'm still not a big fan of the movies).  But Johnnycake found this set of action figures and wanted to get them, only he didn't have the cash to buy the whole set.

So he convinced me to go halvsies by agreeing to let me be the captain (who, to my perpetual embarrassment, I initially thought was named Captain Curt) if he could be Spock.  Ever power-hungry, I agreed.  We bought the figures, then set about learning about their universe.  Our library had six episodes of the show on VHS, all from season 3, and those were the basis of our understanding of the Star Trek world for several years.  Well, those, plus a handful of episodes we taped off cable while at our grandparents' house, and a couple more I bought on VHS.  Later, the same TV channel that introduced us to Combat! began showing Star Trek, and we got to know the show much better.

We ended up with Star Trek calendars, toy phasers and communicators, oodles of action figures, books about the show... it was probably the biggest obsession of my teen years.  Yes, I loved it much more than Combat! at the time, though over the years my interest has waned somewhat.  But I still enjoy the show and watch an ep every now and then.  And I still have my action figures.

Captain Kirk is hands-down my favorite character.  Dear, ingenious, rash, skirt-chasing, swashbuckling Jim Kirk.

If you want to know what I thought of the recent movie reboot of the series, here's my blog post on that topic.

Day 27 - Best pilot episode

I have been stuck on this prompt for weeks.  The pilots of so many of the my favorite shows rock, but at the same time, most of them aren't nearly as good as later episodes, so they're not particularly dear to my heart. 

I guess I'm gonna have to go with "Pilot," the Lost pilot.  It's mesmerizing and memorable, a plane wreck you can't look away from.  And it includes that show-defining quote from Charlie:  "Guys, where are we?"

In fact, as soon as Nanowrimo ends, I'm planning to rewatch the pilot while it's still available for free here on hulu.com.