The Five - Movies

READER BEWARE: Opinions Are Expressed Below

You now know MY top five favorite books. So what becomes of a good book? It becomes a movie! So now it's time for MY top five favorite movies. The synopsis for each movie was provided by the Netflix website. For some of the movies, I provided my own insight as well.


1.

Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman

***In this Oscar-winning classic, American expat Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) plays host to gamblers, thieves and refugees at his Moroccan nightclub during World War II ... but he never expected Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) - the woman who broke his heart -- to walk through that door. Ilsa hopes that with Rick's help, she and her fugitive husband (Paul Henreid) can escape to America. But the spark that brought the lovers together still burns brightly.***

My Take: I hate movies about romance, but I couldn't help but love Casablanca. Here's a little factoid for you...the writers changed the script so much during production that Bogart, Bergman and the rest of the cast had no clue who the character Isla was going to choose to love and leave at the end of the movie. Another factoid is that the movie's most famous line at the very end of the movie was not originally there. It was dubbed in later.

2.
Sunset Bulevard starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden

***Running from debt collectors, screenwriter Joe (William Holden) stumbles upon the crumbling mansion of former silent-film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). As he begins working for Norma, writing a comeback screenplay, their professional relationship evolves into something more. A provocative look inside Hollywood show business, Billy Wilder's classic noir won Academy Awards for Art Direction, Music and Screenplay.***

My Take: This movie is funny, dark and disturbing. It has been said that Swanson was playing herself (which she really was). However, she didn't go off the deep end.

3.
All About Eve starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter

***Writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's sharp script anchors this story about New York City theater life, with Bette Davis playing an aging Broadway diva who employs a starstruck fan (Anne Baxter) as her assistant, only to learn the woman is a conniving upstart. The now-classic All About Eve won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Mankiewicz), Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (George Sanders).***

My Take: This movie has the most Oscar nominations in film history (14)...what else needs to be said? And I might add, this was a time when Oscars really did go to the best movies.

4.
Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig and Eva Greene

***Martin Campbell (GoldenEye) directs the 21st film adaptation of the 007 franchise, which marks Daniel Craig's debut as James Bond and plays him against a corrupt financier (Mads Mikkelsen) in a showdown of Texas Hold 'Em. Eva Green stars as Vesper Lynd, and the sublime Judi Dench reprises her role as M. Because the action is based on Ian Fleming's first novel, you'll also learn critical facts about Bond's back story.***

My Take: Gasp! I chose this movie above all the other classic Bond films? Yes, I did and I'm not ashamed. Why? Because Daniel Craig breathed new life into the aging Bond character, and the whole scenario was very believable.

5.
Batman Returns starring Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito

***Trouble returns to Gotham in director Tim Burton's sequel as Batman (Michael Keaton) battles three new villains plotting to take over the city, including corrupt businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), the hideous Penguin (Danny DeVito) and the mysterious Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). This comic book brought to life drew two Oscar nods for its visuals, but its dark themes and violence led Warner Bros. in a lighter direction for Batman Forever.***

My Take: I was going to put Inception here, but I couldn't shake away a movie that I have known about practically since I was born (exaggeration). I'm not even going to attempt to hide the reason why I love this movie...Michelle Pfeiffer's amazing performance as the deeply troubled, leather clad seductress Catwoman.



WORST MOVIE EVER...


Napoleon Dynamite starring Jon Heder

***This Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee follows Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), a quirky, ninja-loving teenager growing up in the far reaches of Idaho, whose life gets complicated when his shady Uncle Rico (John Gries) shows up with a scheme to sell plastic serveware. While a shy girl (Tina Majorino) starts showing Napoleon some attention, his new best friend (Efren Ramirez) decides to run for school president.***

My Take: Don't even get me started on this complete waste of film...and my life.

Photos provided by Google

The Five - Books

READER BEWARE: Opinions Are Expressed Below

I love to read, but I have managed to compile this list of books that I consider to be MY top five favorite reads. The synopsis for each book was provided by the Barnes and Noble website. For some of the books, I provided my own insight as well.

1.
The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

***The novel chronicles the relationship of Anthony Patch, a Harvard-educated, aspiring writer, and his beautiful young wife, Gloria. While they wait for Anthony’s grandfather to die and pass his millions on to them, the young couple enjoys an endless string of parties, traveling, and extravagance. Beginning with the pop and fizz of life itself, The Beautiful and the Damned quickly evolves into a scathing chronicle of a dying marriage and a hedonistic society in which beauty is all too fleeting. A fierce parable about the illusory quality of dreams, the intractable nature of reality, and the ruin wrought by time, The Beautiful and the Damned eerily anticipates the dissipation and decline that would come to the Fitzgeralds themselves before the decade had run its course.***

My Take: Even though The Great Gatsby is a close contender, I view this book as Fitzgerald's greatest work. It's engaging (and heartbreaking) to witness the deterioration of the two beautiful leading characters.

2.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

***Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace. A great bestseller for over twenty years, it is one of the most starkly moving parables ever written of the dark forces that brood over the tortured world of adolescence.***

My Take: The obsessive and paranoid darkness that consumes the main character is all too shocking. And the question is, were they more than just friends?

3.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

***Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires... The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning ... along with the houses in which they were hidden. Guy Montag enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames... never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then he met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think... and Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do!***

4.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

***In the story of a seemingly utopian city in a futuristic world, Jonas is singled out to receive special training from The Giver--who alone holds memories of pain and pleasure in life.***

5.
Gone by Michael Grant

***In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE. Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no Internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day. It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...***

My Take: This book shows the terrifying adolescent struggle of humans versus human nature. The author seems to draw inspiration from Lord of the Flies and the Left Behind series.



WORST BOOK EVER...

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

***The Sound and the Fury is made up of undifferentiated streams of consciousness that ultimately turn out to be the inner voices of a family's siblings. Its construction is so masterful that the last sentence refers the reader back to the first one, as any perfect work of art might do. Sound has the earmarks of a modern psychological study, although the book was published in 1929. It is a dramatic and harrowing tale of the Compson family's pathology—primarily in the form of incest and incestuous thoughts.***

My Take: The entire first section, told through the mentally disabled mind of Benjy, gives the reader a bitter taste of what is to be expected...absolute crap.

Photos provided by Google