It's a Wonderful Life

I skipped two days of movie watching in the name of sleep and endless homework...a dangerous habit to get into if I want to finish by the end of the year, but I keep telling myself that I'll have plenty time to catch up in the summer. Let's hope so.

Sunday night I fit Up(2009) in during those ungodly hours after midnight. I didn't expect much from an animated children's film, especially since those of my friends who told me it was "sooo good" are the ones who also think Twilight and The Last Song are bound to be classics. However, in this one special case, they turned out to be right. Who knew a computer-generated little man could be so endearing? I wanted to leap through the screen and give Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Edward Asner from the Mary Tyler Moore Show) a hug throughout the movie, but unfortunately, I could only watch his heartbreaking story of love and loss unfold from my seat on the sofa. Sure, a few silly parts get thrown in there to make the film kid-friendly, but all in all it's a poignant parable to remind us how precious our loved ones truly are. Kudos, Pixar.

Tonight I tuned in to something a little more grown up. I watched Moonstruck(1987) when I should have been studying for my environmental science test, but who really needs to know about the environment anyway? Definitely not me. I actually really liked this one, even though nobody actually talks like they do in the movie and Cher's sex noises sound like a geriatric having a heart attack. It was nice to see some old-fashioned Italian sterotyping that didn't include prolific obscenity, since all we get to see today of pigeon-holed Italians are the muscle-bound, fake-tanned likes of Jersey Shore and such, although I'm not convinced that the Situation didn't steal his boisterous tattooed style from Ronny Cammareri. I barely even recognized Nicholas Cage, and even though he sounded like he was drunk the whole time, it was pretty cool to see him in a serious role when my generation knows him as the guy from National Treasure. Moonstruck had a ton of stuff I like in it: predictable yet still exciting love story, strong female lead, big 80's hair, thick Italian accents, slapping (one of the most famous movie slaps at that), fake appendages, old people love, cheeseball lines, and of course, my very favorite, a happy ending.

After watching these two bubbly little movies, I am reminded that it's a wonderful life we get to live. I'm also reminded that trying to finish this list in the remaining eleven months is probably going to cause me to become a crack addict, because there aren't many other ways to go whole weeks without sleeping, and that's exactly what I'll need to do if I want to finish.