ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Fran]

The "Year of Getting to Know Us" features Sharon Stone, who starred in "Casino" with Robert DeNiro, who starred in "Marvin's Room" with Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in "Titanic."

From IMDb: Christopher Rocket (Jimmy Fallon) is a man devoted to his work but unable to commit to his girlfriend Anne (Lucy Liu) or anything else in his personal life. He returns to his hometown after his estranged father Tom Rocket (Tom Arnold) suffers a stroke. Jane Rocket (Sharon Stone), his mother, is a central figure in his dysfunctional past.

[oilgun]

James Cameron directed both TITANIC and this film.



Plot:   Avatar is the story of a wounded ex-marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival.

[southendmd]

In honor of our esteemed Moderators whose birthdays are NOW, let's have an ABCs Birthday Round! 

Please post a film with a birthday or party theme.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  An upper-middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce.

=aside= Paul
Thank you!

[southendmd]

Plot:  "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."- Mother Theresa. It's not easy celebrating your birthday alone; especially in a brothel.

[memento]

Plot: The patriarch and grandfather Helge is having his 60th birthday. His children, two sons and a daughter arrives to celebrate with him. A second daughter has recently commited suicide and the son Christian holds a speech that clears the cobwebs from all the lies the family members have told each other for many years. The celebration becomes a weekend that none will ever forget.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  The dramatization of a motorcycle road trip Che Guevara went on in his youth that showed him his life's calling.

Synopsis:  In 1952, a semester before Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara is due to complete his medical degree, he and his older friend Alberto, a biochemist, leave Buenos Aires in order to travel across the South American continent in search of fun and adventures. While there is a goal at the end of their journey - they intend to work in a leper colony in Peru - the main purpose is tourism. They want to see as much of Latin America as they can, more than 8,000 miles in just a few months, and also bed as many Latin American women as will fall for their pick-up lines. Their initial method of transport is Alberto's ancient and leaky but functional Norton 500 motorcycle christened La Poderosa ("The Mighty One").

Their route is ambitious. They head south, aim to cross the Andes, travel along the coast of Chile, across the Atacama Desert and into the Peruvian Amazon and reach Venezuela just in time for Alberto's 30th birthday....

Speaking of birthdays...

Happy Birthday, Sandy!

*<:-)

[southendmd]

Plot:  In this animated comedy from the folks at Disney, the vain and cocky Emperor Kuzco is a very busy man. Besides maintaining his "groove", and firing his suspicious administrator, Yzma; he's also planning to build a new waterpark just for himself for his birthday. However, this means destroying one of the villages in his kingdom. Meanwhile, Yzma is hatching a plan to get revenge and usurp the throne. But, in a botched assassination courtesy of Yzma's right-hand man, Kronk, Kuzco is magically transformed into a llama. Now, Kuzco finds himself the property of Pacha, a lowly llama herder whose home is ground zero for the water park. Upon discovering the llama's true self, Pacha offers to help resolve the Emperor's problem and regain his throne, only if he promises to move his water park.

=Happy Birthday!= Sandy
Hope you get your groove back real soon!

[memento]

Plot: William (D-FENS) just wants to get home to see his daughter on her birthday. Unfortunately, nothing seems to be going right for him. First there's the traffic jam, then the unhelpful Korean shopkeeper who "doesn't give change". D-FENS begins to crack and starts to fight back against the every day "injustices" he encounters on his journey home. The film has a story running in parallel about a desk-bound cop who is about to retire. He's retiring for his wife's sake, and obviously isn't happy about it. The cop tracks down D-FENS and in the final scene.....

=aside= Fran and Paul
Thanks for the milkshake and the groove.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  Despite my reservations, I'm glad this film will finally be released next month in US theaters, as I already saw it on a United Airlines flight in November. There is much that is worthwhile about director Mike Barker's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic play of manners, "Lady Windermere's Fan." With his trademark cleverness and sophisticated characters, Wilde wrote a shrewdly observant and trenchantly funny story of jealousy, hypocrisy, and social acceptance in Victorian London. First-time screenwriter Howard Himelstein updates the story to the 1930's, placing most of the action on the glamorous Amalfi Coast in Italy, and it certainly makes for a great excuse for a beautiful setting and period-authentic fashions.

The film sticks with the basic outline of Wilde's play, as the plot focuses on Mrs. Stella Erlynne, a scandalous socialite who has been run out of New York for using wealthy, married men to allow her to live the high life to which she has become accustomed. In Italy, she latches onto young Robert Windermere, a successful American businessman who is still a blissful newlywed with his demure wife Meg in tow. About to celebrate her 21st birthday, Meg herself attracts the not entirely unwanted attentions of notorious playboy Lord Darlington, who discovers that Robert has been paying Mrs. Erlynne a generous allowance. Complications ensue until a surprise ending (at least a surprise for anyone who doesn't know the play) uncovers the true facts behind the payments. The brittle wit of Wilde's words remains intact, but the zestful spirit seems missing given the lack of an appropriate emotional context for Wilde's shrewd observations to resonate. Ultimately it all feels very civilized but too tepid to make the story relevant to a modern viewer.