Top 5... Funniest Musical Moments

It's Rhimenocerous extraordinaire Bret McKenzie's 36th birthday today, so in honour of him and his Flight of the Conchords cohort Jermaine Clement, let's have a look at the Top 5 Funniest Musical Moments in film.

Sophie's Choice

The unfortunately named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) moves from his southern home to be a writer in New York. He rents a room in a house, and so finds himself firm friends with a neighbouring couple, Sophie and Nathan (Meryl Streep & Kevin Kline). Sophie and Nathan have a tumultuous relationship, as she has a tragic past and he has issues of his own, and slowly Stingo learns of their history, and the hardships Sophie has had to endure.

Troy

Regardless of whether you know the story of Homer's Iliad, it's a certainty that you know of the expressions Helen of Troy, Achilles' Heel and The Trojan Horse. These plot points have become more than the legend of which they are a part, and have entered the modern lexicon as sayings and day-to-day phrases. They aren't anything new, you know what is means and have heard them a million times before, and the same can be said for every aspect of this film.

Sense and Sensibility

 Lord Dashwood (Tom Wilkinson) passes away and, unable to split his vast estate between his two families, his wife and three daughters are ousted from their palatial mansion by their half-brother John (James Fleet) and his vile wife Fanny (Harriet Walter), and are forced to considerably downsize their opulent lifestyles. Hope, it seems, arrives in the forms of Fanny's reserved brother Edward (Hugh Grant) and the dashing Mr. Willoughby (Greg Wise), who each take a shining to two of the Dashwood sisters (Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet).

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

One of the most unusual romantic stories I've ever heard, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's film sees the widowed Mrs. Lucy Muir (the achingly beautiful Gene Tierney) fleeing her haughty, oppressive in-laws and moving to the seaside with her daughter Anna (a young Natalie Wood) and their maid, Martha (Edna Best). Upon arriving at Whitecliff-by-the-Sea, Lucy seeks the assistance of estate agent Mr. Coombe (Robert Coote) in finding a suitable property. She is immediately taken by Gull Cottage, despite the disapproval of Coombe and the warning that no other resident has managed to stay there for even a night. This probably has something to do with Captain Gregg (Rex Harrison), the former owner who passed away there some time ago, and whose spirit still haunts the house. In spite of all this Lucy moves in, and she and the ghost of Gregg form an unusual bond.

Top 5... Worst Cinematic Experiences

I was inspired to write this list after listening to a similarly themed podcast from The Film Vault a few months ago, plus it was a post I could write without having to do any research whilst on holiday in a technology-less cabin in Clydach. Now, this isn’t a list of the best and worst films I’ve seen at the cinema (Best: Toy Story trilogy, Lord of the Rings, Cabin in the Woods etc, Worst: Speed Racer, The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), instead it’s when certain elements – be they oversights from the cinema themselves or my fellow cinema-goers – have come together to ruin what should have been something wonderful.

A Night to Remember

You're probably wondering how long it's going to take me, in this review, to mention a certain other film from 1997, directed by James Cameron, that follows a similar plot to this film, and I'll tell you that it'll take exactly 48 words for me to mention Titanic. If you've never seen A Night to Remember, but are a fan of Titanic (as indeed you should be, for it is a much better film than it's cool to admit), then you need to start paying more credit towards Night's director Roy Ward Baker, for it is from his 1958 picture that Cameron stole most of his film.

The Ides of March

Ryan Gosling is Stephen Meyers, assistant campaign manager to Governor Morris (George Clooney, who also directed and co-wrote), who is currently locked in a battle with opposing democratic candidate Senator Pullman to win the Ohio Democratic Primary and eventually win the nomination as the next potential president. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti are their campaign managers, Marisa Tomei the Times reporter out for inside information, Evan Rachel Wood a young intern with her eye on Gosling's big man on campus, and Jeffrey Wright is the senator both sides are eager to please.

Once Upon A Time In China

It’s probably not a good thing that the only Jet Li movies I’d seen prior to this film are his most American ones – Lethal Weapon 4, Unleashed, The Mummy 3 and The Expendables, so his notoriety as a master of martial arts has been more than a little lost on me, as though he gets to show his stuff in most of these films, they aren’t built around him and he is far from the star. There are several other Li films on the List, including Hero and Enter the Dragon, and I hope that they aren’t as much of a mess as this one.

Holiday Apologies

Apologies for the lack of posts this past week, I’ve been on holiday in Wales and the cottage we were staying in had considerably less Internet than we were expecting. The Unlisted and Top 5 posts were hastily scrambled together the night before we left home, just in case. Fortunately the typically Welsh weather allowed me to watch a few more films than I thought I would (still only five from the List though) but a lack of researching ability meant few posts could be written unpublished. Ah well, I’ll try and get back on track in the coming week.

Top 5... Rainy Scenes

I'm on holiday in Wales at the moment, and whilst I'd like to do my Top 5 Welsh movies or Movies Set In Wales, I'm afraid I couldn't come up with very many for either category. Instead I thought I'd try and be funny and do my Top 5 Movie Whales, but I've only seen four films with whales in (4. Pinocchio, 3. Finding Nemo, 2. Free Willy, 1. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy) and I haven't seen any others (including Moby Dick, Whale Rider, Big Miracle and Star Trek VI: The Voyage Home). So instead I've decided to focus on Wales' biggest export, rain, and I'm celebrating those scenes made all the better because of a downpour. I've chosen not to include any John Cusack films on the list purely because he gets caught in the rain in every damn one of them, so if I ever get stuck for a list in the future, Top 5 John Cusack In The Rain Scenes may well crop up.

Scream 4

I wrote in one of my first posts aaaaaaaaaaages ago that I was really looking forward to this film, as I loved Scream and Scream 2, and enjoyed Scream 3 enough to justify owning it, but when the reviews came out and Scream 4 was deemed something of a failure I became lukewarm to the idea, and have put off watching it until recently. I went in with fairly low expectations, which is probably the best approach to take if you want to enjoy this film.