"A Grand Adventure"

Greetings, friends out there in Blog-world!  Typically, we try to watch all Christmas movies during the month of December, but Peter Jackson has thrown a kink into that this year (and will do again next year).  This week and next….it’s all about a little hobbit….

Movie:  The Hobbit (2012, Peter Jackson, with Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, et al)

The Hobbit is the prequel to The Lord of the Rings.  In this story/movie, the focus is on a younger Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and his invitation from Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to “join in a grand adventure”.  (cue swelling, dramatic music here…)  He is met with a band of burly and rather uncouth dwarves, led by their very handsome—and better-mannered—prince, Thorin (Richard Armitage).  They make a long and treacherous journey, meeting elves, evil and menacing orcs, goblins, and other wizards along the way.  This movie is all about the visual.  It is a magnificent piece of cinematography.  You are just swept away from all you know and into a vast and beautiful land.  It is the classic good vs evil, the fight for the security and restoration of a homeland and its people, and the personal struggle to face your fears and pursue something bigger than that of yourself, that most fantasies are based around. 

**If you have not seen Lord of the Rings or read Tolkien’s work, all of this may be a bit “Greek” to you.  Although, trust us.  You want to go on a grand adventure.  Grab a blanket; grab a bucket of popcorn. Watch the movie.  Set aside about 3 hours though... Jackson believes in the lengthy epic.

What we loved:  1)  The visual effects of this movie.  It is simply stunning and breathtaking.  2) The score.  A lot of people don’t pay attention to the music that is the backdrop to a movie, but this one, composed by Howard Shore, is beautiful and dark and haunting.  3) I can’t speak for Jason and Kathy, but I absolutely love Richard Armitage’s voice (Prince Thorin).  I knew him from his stint as the character Guy Gisbon in BBC’s series Robin Hood (excellent series…highly recommend), and I loved him and his deep, dramatic, broodingly British voice then.  He carries it with him to this character of the dwarf prince, and he can completely mesmerize you with just a few words.  I’d go up against the deadly dragon by myself as long as he talked to me the entire way there.  ;-)  Mercy!

Ratings:  Solid 4.5’s all the way around.

Next Tuesday, we’ll be “celebrating our Christmas” by meeting for dinner followed by a viewing of The Hobbit:  Desolation of Smaug at our local theater.  We are all geekily excited! (Is “geekily” a word…. Hmmm… it is now…)

Rain, Death, and Christmas!

Friends,  the weeks are flying by at warp speed.  I’ve been caught up in NaNoWriMo, turkeys, pies, Doctor Who 50^th Anniversaries, work, disappointing football, and family.  We have seen 4 great movies, though, and I need to share them with you.  We’re doing a “double-feature” posting today.

Movie #1:  Singin’ in the Rain (1952, with Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Conner)

This musical has some of the most famous songs ever in it.  It is full of exceptional and intricate dancing, lively tunes, and lots of funny wit.  Most of the characters are based on real people, and the plot centers around a pair of silent-film actors who must make the transition to “talkies”, and the disasters that follow.  Lots of physical comedy as well as wit make up the bulk of this movie.  There’s also the inevitable boy-meets-girl, makes an idiot of himself, then spends an hour trying to make restitution.   All of this plays against a backdrop of absolutely magical musical performances.  It’s a feel-good movie that is considered one of the top 10 best movies of all time.  If you have never seen it… you must.

Trivia:  1) Debbie Reynolds had to be carried to her dressing room after the “Good Morning” number as she had burst several blood vessels in her feet from the demanding choreography.  She later stated in an interview that making this movie and giving birth were the two hardest things she’d ever done in her whole life.  2)  Donald O’Connor smoked 4 packs of cigarettes daily while making this movie.  (Watch his performance, and then ask yourself…how the heck did he do it?!)  3) Cyd Charisse performs a fantastically sexy number in this film with a slinky costume.  Production had to be stopped for a few hours to correct a “wardrobe malfunction”.  When it was finally fixed, the costume designer, Walter Plunkett, alerted the crew, “It’s OK, guys.  We’ve finally got Cyd’s crotch licked.”  4) The television premiere on NBC was originally scheduled for the evening of November 23, 1963. It was postponed for several weeks due to the assassination of President Kennedy.

Ratings:  Jason—4; Kathy—5;  Me—4    (This is one of Kathy’s all-time favorites)

Movie #2:  Death Becomes Her (1992, with Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Bruce Willis)

This is certainly a wide departure from the genre of peppy musicals!  We wanted something a bit campy…as we usually do.  Although released in 1992, it still had a very ‘80s feel.  This is a black comedy about revenge, greed, and everlasting youth.  It’s a bit bizarre.  It’s a bit hokey.  And it’s entirely entertaining.  Bruce Willis is fabulous in the role of Ernest—shy, unassuming, nerdy, and a bit of a wuss. It’s a far cry from hard-edged action favorite that we’re all familiar with, and that is so refreshing to see and a bit endearing.  Overly dramatic and full of slapstick and satire, this is a fun watch when you’re bored, nothing’s on tv, and you long for the shoulder pads and jacked-up –to –Jesus hair of the 80s and early 90s.   But watch out for those shovels!  Meryl Streep actually scarred Goldie Hawn with one in their fight scene, by accident….or was it?

Ratings:  Jason—3.5;  Kathy—3;  Me—3   

Movie #3:  Meet Me in Saint Louis (1944, Vincente Minnelli, with Judy Garland, Tom Drake)

This is an ensemble cast musical with a lot of talented folks that you’re very familiar with:  Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Leon Ames, Margaret O’Brien, Marjorie Main (Ma Kettle), June Lockhart (later to be the mom in Lassie), Harry Davenport (Dr. Meade from Gone with the Wind).  It is a sweet and sappy postcard from the turn of the 20th century, leading up to the World’s Fair of 1904—the “Louisiana Purchase Exposition”.  Full of lively music, perhaps the most famous song from this movie is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, followed by “The Trolley Song”  (you know…. “Clang, clang, clang went the trolley….”).   The story revolves around a well-off family in St. Louis and their life over the course of a year.  This is one of my favorite musicals, and if you’re looking for a family-friendly movie to watch together all huddled up on the couch with bowls full of hot popcorn, this is a good one.  It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s nostalgic, and it has a happy ending. 

This movie is where Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli met.  They married shortly after wrapping, and Judy Garland always maintained later in her career that although when presented with the role of Esther, she’d balked at playing another teenager as a 21-year-old woman, the role of Esther became one of her favorites and that it was in this movie that she’d felt the most beautiful. 

**Note—no one, and I mean NO ONE, sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” like Judy Garland, although too many have tried.

Ratings:  Jason—3; Kathy—3.5;  Me—4.25

Movie #4—White Christmas (1954, with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen)

We watched Meet Me in Saint Louis and White Christmas last week, the first week of December.  We wanted a little Christmas cheer, as we always do this time of year.  This particular movie is one of my sister’s all-time favorite holiday movies.  Again, one of the most popular songs of the Christmas season comes from this movie—Bing Crosby’s version of Irving Berlin’s hit White Christmas.  (And just like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas forever belongs to Judy Garland, White Christmas is only White Christmas when Bing sings it.  Forever and ever, amen.)   This musical follows two entertainment acts—a pair of sisters and a pair of WWII vets that do the show-biz bit. One side note quickly here to get it out of the way—Vera Ellen is extremely skinny, and Jason and I find it a bit of a distraction in the dance sequences.  It makes my bones ache sometimes watching her.  Her legs are like pretzel-sticks.  BUT BESIDE THAT—You  have Christmas in Vermont, acts of kindness for a war hero, mistaken intentions, and folks falling in love.    You have gorgeous costumes, lots of wonderful holiday music, and an ending that will make even the Grinchiest-Grinch tear up a bit.  The chemistry of this cast is fantastic, and Crosby and Kaye make a great comedic team.  There’s even one scene where Bing gets so tickled by Danny Kaye that he breaks character and just bursts out laughing.  He tries to turn his face away a bit, but you can still see him cracking up, and it is just too funny.

Trivia:  1) Many of Bob Wallace’s (Crosby) unusual turns of phrase and speech patterns were taken directly from Bing’s actual style of talking. 2) The “sisters” parody act done by Crosby and Kaye was not in the original script.  The two guys were clowning around on set, and the director loved it so much it was written in.  3) Rosemary Clooney took the role just so she could perform with Bing Crosby and said that Danny Kaye kept everyone laughing on set so much that retakes were constant during production.  4)  Odd tidbit for my nerd friends out there—Bing Crosby’s granddaughter, Denise, and Rosemary Clooney’s son, Miguel, appeared in the Star Trek series—1987 and 1984, respectively.  5) Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney all died at the same age of 74.

So Count Your Blessings, instead of sheep when you can’t sleep, and always keep an eye out for that Snow!  Snow!  Snow!  so that we can all have a White Christmas instead of just dreaming about it.  J

Mothers and Daughters

Friends, we had to skip movie night this week as two folks had other commitments and rescheduling was just not an option this time.  However…as we have seen a number of movies that have not been reviewed, but are on the watch list, I chose to select two for this week’s post.  Enjoy!

Movie #1:  Mommie Dearest (1981, with Faye Dunaway and Diana Scarwid)

A WIRE HANGER?  A WIRE HANGER!  (if you know this scene, then you know sh** just got real!)

If you are a parent and have children with behavioral problems…this movie will put the fear of God in them.  This film has become such an icon in pop culture that almost everyone knows it, saw it, can quote it.  Based on the memoirs of Joan Crawford’s adopted daughter, Christine, we are taken on a journey into the life of Hollywood’s most arrogant and demanding diva, and subsequently, the tortured and sad lives of her adopted children.  Faye Dunaway IS Joan Crawford in this movie.  I don’t think they could’ve picked a better person to portray her.  The movie is a dichotomy.  On one hand, you’re seeing this glamorous life…huge mansions, gorgeous clothes and jewels, fancy cars, handsome men, and Joan being the toast of the town.  Then…there’s the other side of the coin… a viciously demanding mother who abuses and neglects her children, yet expects them to be grateful and loving. 

Let me just say… it is a HOT MESS!  For one thing, how on earth the woman never got locked up for the stunts she pulled with those kids is baffling.  You just want the little girl to haul off and hit HER with a wire hanger… or feed her raw steak.

What we liked:  The sheer, over-the-top, melodrama!

The effects of watching this movie:  Kathy says when she left messages or to do lists for her young, teenage kids after they all saw this, she’d sign it with a little wire hanger. She still does this now with her daughter. And their closets were all completely converted to plastic hangers, which has continued to this day.

Movie #2:  The Bad Seed (1956, with Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack)

Don’t be fooled by a sweet little girl in a dress and pigtails.  Evil lurks there just under the surface.  Evil, I say!

If there was ever a movie about how appearances are deceiving, this is it!  Sweet little Rhoda…with her floral dress, and her braided pigtails.  She’s the epitome of the perfect little girl—or is she?  She lies.  She cheats.  She….murders? She has the outward appearance of the perfect child, which often in these types of films comes across as sinister… a little…TOO perfect?  There’s family history of homicide…mental breaks…  does Rhoda follow this pattern?  Is she to blame for all the horrible things happening around her?  Only the neighborhood handyman, LeRoy, seems to understand the evil she’s hiding. It is only in the end that LeRoy’s fears are addressed by Fate in a shocking climax. 

We know it’s old and in black and white, but trust us friends… it is a must-see.

What we liked:  Patty McCormack’s performance as Rhoda.  She completely nailed this part, and she certainly had you creeped out by her portrayal of a child sociopath.

Little known trivia:  1)  The original Broadway cast was used for this film version.  2) Warner Bros. reported that three endings were shot in production.  The end of the film was kept secret, and the last five pages of the script were not distributed until ready to shoot.  3)  Alfred Hitchcock (one of our favorites) had the chance to direct, but turned it down.  4)  The Bad Seed was nominated for 4 Oscars: Best Lead Actress (Nancy Kelly), Best Supporting Actress (Patty McCormack), Best Supporting Actress (Eileen Heckart), and Best Cinematography.   

Guilty or Innocent?

We watched a fantastic movie this week.  Now, unfortunately, we had to stop with just one.  The reason---IT WAS SLEETING!  In Greenville!  Before Thanksgiving!  Crazy, right?  I delayed my post a bit, but you’ll have to forgive me, friends.  I’m in the middle of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and all my writing energies are focused on completing 50,000 words in 30 days.  Again, crazy—right?  You may think so, and I’m okay with that.  But back to our movie, friends….

Movie #1:  Witness for the Prosecution (1957, with Tyrone Power, Marlena Dietrich)

This was originally a story by Agatha Christie.  So it’s already got that going for it!  It’s shot in black and white, and we all thought that it had a definite feel of Hitchcock about it with the camera shots, the wit, and of course the multiple twists (which I will not divulge here).  Beyond just the technical aspects, you have the hilarious Charles Laughton as the old barrister (Sir Wilfred Robarts) who is NOT “go[ing] gently into that dark [retirement]”.    Just being released from the hospital, our portly old barrister is in constant battle with his disciplinarian nurse and finds ingenious methods of sneaking in his cigars and brandy.  The bickering between these two is just phenomenal. 

We’re taken through the court trial for the murder of a lonely, wealthy widow.  As with Agatha Christie’s stories, not all is as it appears, and the revelations of such are completely explosive.  We think some of the best scenes of the film are the cross-examinations between Sir Wilfred and Marlena Dietrich’s character.  The chemistry between those two antagonists was absolutely powerful.

What we liked:  1.  The “old married couple” type of relationship between Sir Wilfred and his nurse.  2.  The actors playing Sir Wilfred and the nurse were actually “an old married couple”.   3.  The ending!  That’s all I can say.  This is a no spoilers blog.

Ratings:  4.5s all around!  Watch this movie.

Dear friends,  we have now reached over 1,058 blog hits!!!!  That is just completely awesome to us since I just started this to document all these great movies that we were watching.  It really is just a lark and sometimes life gets in the way of keeping this updated at times, but it's wonderful to know that you guys are enjoying it right along with us.  The only thing I do to share this is put it on Facebook, so if you know of folks who enjoy movies, share us with them if you like.  We love the company!!  Here's to another 190 movies and another 1,000 page hits!  Keep the popcorn warm, and we'll keep bringing you more great (and a few terrible) cinematic gems.  Many, many thanks from the Tuesday Night Movie Nuts!  That's a wrap.... for this week!

Trick Or Treat!!!!!

Don’t you just love this time of year…. Leaves changing color and falling, creating a blanket of crunch under your feet.  Mums and pansies on porches in the tones of the earth—deep purples, rusty orange, and golden yellow.  Crisp bite in the air that meets you in the mornings and the evenings, and the sunlight during the fall seems to take on a more golden hue than usual.  Of course, then there’s pumpkins.  Pumpkin jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin lattes, cookies and cakes and brownies spiked with pumpkin and cinnamon.  It’s fantastic. And in and amongst all this glorious autumnal splendor, there’s the excitement of dressing up as someone completely different from who you are and going forth into the darkness to wield that identity for one evening, not knowing what you’ll encounter on your journey.

I hope you don’t mind my musings, but I just have to pay homage to one of our favorite seasons.  I’ll bring us back now to the subject at hand.  My fellow children of the night… we approach that most feared of all evenings…Halloween!!!  Halloween is one  of our favorite holidays, and as with most holidays, we have developed some standing traditions for the Tuesday Night Movie Nuts.  We always watch a variety of scary movies throughout the entire month of October—hauntings, slashers, psychopaths, demented personalities…  However, we always set aside one week to watch our all-time favorite Halloween movies.  This year, we held off and saved the best for last, watching these two cult classics right before Halloween.  As I reviewed these movies last year, I’m just going to give you all the link to that post so you can see what we love to watch every year to scare ourselves just a little.  It’s become a welcome tradition.  Check it out…..if you dare that is….

 http://tuesdaynightmovienuts.blogspot.com/2012/10/pumpkins-and-slashers.html

Conjure the Dummy!

We continue our Halloween fun this week with two very different movies.  One is a brand-new release and another is a flick from the ‘70s.  They’re definitely worlds apart…in every sense.  (By the way, I've been told the font is kind of small on here, so I've up the size.  You're welcome.)

Movie #1:  The Conjuring (2013, with Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor)

See!!  "Tim Burton Death Tree"!!!

Jason and Kathy both saw this in the theater; I missed it.  As it released on iTunes this week, we decided to scrap one movie we’d already decided on and watch this instead.  I’m so glad we did.  This is the story of an evil witch, a centuries-old farmhouse, the typical American family, and a couple of demonologists.  Everyone’s heard of Ed and Lorraine Warren—famous paranormal investigators who have had a very public and fairly controversial career.  This is one of their cases.  This is a ghost story. This is a haunted house story.  This is also a story about demonic possession.  Think—Amityville Horror with more kids and switch out the crazed dad for the mother.  It starts out as innocently as these things always do… clocks all stopping at the same time, things going bump in the night, unexplained bruises you don’t remember getting, shadows you may or may not have seen.  Then, it escalates rather quickly—and violently.  Here enters Ed and Lorraine.  The mystery of this odd house is uncovered, the power of faith is called upon, and good battles evil.  It follows the “formula” for these types of movies, and overall it’s fairly well done.

What we liked:  1. That they showed the pictures of the actual Perron family and the Warrens during the credits, along with newspaper clippings about the case and others investigated by the Warrens.  2.  Although Ed died in 2006, Lorraine Warren, now 86, was a consultant on the movie.  3.  Setting—the movie did a great job with the old farmhouse and the grounds around it.  Very creepy.

Ratings:  Jason—3.5; Kathy—4; Me—4.  (Now, Kathy and I are really into ghost stories and hauntings for our horror movies.  Jason’s more of the slice and dice crowd, and he did say that influenced his score just a bit.)

Moral of the story:  When you are out buying a house people…do NOT pick the house that is several hundred years old and has been abandoned for over 40 years because all the owners suffered mysterious breakdowns and/or death.  Also—do NOT pick the house that is worth a lot but is actually within your puny budget and sucks up your life savings.  Also—do NOT pick the house that has the creepy, black, “Tim Burton death tree” in the yard!  You just KNOW something evil went down there!  Friends… how many times do we have to tell you.  Learn from these cheesy movies!  DON’T BUY THE HOUSE.

Movie #2:  Magic (1978, with Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith)

A young, fairly handsome Anthony Hopkins.  Beautiful Ann-Margret.  This movie should prove good, right?  Wrong.  Oh lord.  This movie was the most painfully slow and tedious descent into madness one could watch.  The premise itself isn’t bad… and it wasn’t because the acting sucked.  I mean, come on!  Anthony Hopkins!  The acting/casting was really good.  We actually felt sorry for the cast in the end.  It’s just the pacing of this movie was slower than pouring frozen molasses into a freezer while standing on the frozen tundra of the Arctic.  No lie, people.  It took FOR—EV—ER.   The plot points were spaced so far apart, and the pacing was so slow that you could feel the moments of your life drifting away into the ether as you sat through this just WAITING for something to finally happen!  You wanna know the story?  Okay—here’s my one-sentence synopsis:  Fearful, socially awkward ventriloquist runs away from success to a Catskills cabin, hooks up briefly with his high-school crush, kills his agent, his lover’s husband, and then himself because he is driven to madness by his wooden dummy.  He’s completely insane and believes his dummy talks to him and through him… as if he were real.  (Read here—“I’m a REAL boy!”)  Kathy thinks what might have slightly redeemed this movie is if Fats (the dummy) actually came to life in the end—kinda like Chucky in Child’s Play.  Me—If Anthony Hopkins can’t save a movie, then it just can’t be saved.  ‘Nuff said.

What we liked:  1. The packs of Smarties I ate out of Jason’s bowl of Halloween candy.  I can’t speak for the others…  Man, this was just bad.

Ratings:  Jason—2.5; Kathy—2.5; Me—2.  **Please note—this movie was going to get scores equal to The Swarm (our absolute worst movie to date).  However, we couldn’t do that to the actors, simply because they did do a great job with what they had.  So we bumped up the scores half a star simply on the effort of the actors.

Ghostly Hauntings...

Well, friends, we continue our foray into the macabre with a pair of hauntings.  The first—another Vincent Price classic.  The second—a phenomenal piece of modern haunted cinema.

Movie #1:  House on Haunted Hill (1959, with Vincent Price, Richard Long)

A dashing villain, Vincent Price lures a number of strangers to a “murder house” up on a secluded hill to spend the night.  The incentive to stay--$10,000.  IF—you make it through the night alive.  (insert maniacal laugh here)  Classic black and white movie, the best features are the shadows and play of light against dark.  Because of a number of shots in the movie, we believe that this may have shown in theaters as 3D.  There is a mixed cast of characters ranging from a drunk to a psychologist, to a teacher, to an over-the-hill journalist with a gambling problem, among others.  There is a suicide, an acid vat, malevolent ghosts lingering in secret passageways, loaded revolvers, miniature caskets, and severed heads in suitcases!  But remember….with Vincent Price, not everything is as it seems.  

What we liked:  1. The play of light and shadow which is so particular to black & white movies.  2.  Gothic atmosphere.

Ratings:  Jason—3; Kathy—3; Me—3.  Good, entertaining movie for its time.

Movie #2:  The Others (2001, with Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flannagan)

This movie is now over a decade old, but it is one of the best movies about a haunting that has ever been done.  It is a beautifully shot movie.  It is a visual masterpiece, and the casting is spot on.  We all agreed that Nicole Kidman should’ve won an Oscar for THIS performance rather than for Virginia Wolff in The Hours. There is so much to talk about with this movie, but it is definitely one of those where plot cannot be discussed.  For anyone who HASN’T seen the movie, keeping the plot “unspoiled” is absolutely crucial!  What I can discuss-- if you are looking for a movie with atmosphere, then this is it.  We start with an isolated English manor house on the shores of Jersey at the end of WWII.  There is the impenetrable British fog covering the grounds and the house.  The servants have all suddenly vanished.  Because of constant German attack during the war, there is no electricity in the house, so everything is dim with candle-light and oil lamps.  Unexplained noises… curtains that open and close by themselves…whispered voices in the halls…drifting shadows…and mysterious strangers that show up—as if from thin air.  

If you haven’t seen this movie—do yourself a favor and watch it.  It’s suspenseful rather than “horror” if that helps those of you that are not fans of “horror flicks”.  There’s no slicing/dicing, no blood and guts.  It’s simply a powerfully thrilling ghost story.

What we liked:  EVERYTHING.  

Ratings:  Jason—4.5; Kathy—5 ;  Me—4.75

Which do YOU like? Shaving or Waxing????

We kicked our month of frightful Halloween fun off with two movies from opposite ends of the spectrum… Our advice… don’t let them take your friend to the morgue alone and watch out for razors!

Movie #1:  Sweeney Todd (2007, Tim Burton, with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter)

My Johnny finally earned a Golden Globe for this performance and impressed me with his singing.  There are classic Tim Burton touches all throughout this movie—the bits of vibrant color amongst a faded sepia-toned background. Odd characters that, if at all possible, Burton made even odder.  This was originally a London “urban legend” that became a popular Penny Dreadful (for you non-literature majors out there, that’s popular Victorian stories, mainly salacious horror, published weekly for a penny), then a theatre production ending up on Broadway starring Angela Lansbury in the Mrs. Lovett part.   Short version—average barber and his family… barber is wrongfully imprisoned, festers a need for vengeance for decades, then becomes a psychotic homicidal maniac slicing throats.  To add a bit more lusciousness to this macabre story… his neighbor uses the corpses to provide meat filling for her famous pies.  There is a tragic twist at the end that I shall refrain from detailing for anyone who may want to see this for the first time.  This is a musical, so while the story itself is just deliciously (pardon the pun, but actually it’s pretty good…) horrific, the music does help lighten that.   (However after seeing this in the theater release, my friend was able to scare the living daylights of his wife for a solid two weeks by sneaking up behind her with a butter knife!)

What we liked:  1. The chemistry between Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett (Johnny and Helena)—they really were good together.  2. The “cannibalism song”…. You’ll know it when you hear it!  3.  That Mrs. Lovett's hairdo is actually Helena Bonham Carter's normal, everyday hairstyle.  4. Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall.... those two actors can really pull off creepy villains.

Sponsors:    The Tuesday Night Movie Nuts would like to acknowledge and thank Karo Syrup for the production of this movie.  Without their support, the gallons of spurting blood released by Sweeney’s hand would not be possible.  Karo Syrup… good for everything from pancakes to candy brittle to fake blood. (This is a fact… Tim Burton used corn syrup dyed with orange food coloring for all the blood.)

Little Known Facts: I was Mrs. Lovett for Halloween 2008, complete with Victorian dress (made myself), crazy hair, and rolling pin!

Ratings:  Jason 4, Kathy 3, Me…3.5

Movie #2:  House of Wax (1953, with Vincent Price)

Oh my!  This is a classic.  Of course, after watching Sweeney Todd,  this was a bit…. Tame.  Although, we are adamant not to judge all movies alike because they aren’t.  You, my friends, know this.  So therefore, in the spirit of seeing a film for what it was at the time it was created, we look at House of Wax.  We begin with a brilliant and eccentric artist.  His sculptures are exquisite, yet his partner just wants a return on his investment.  There’s arson, insurance fraud, wretched deformity, lost masterpieces… AND THEN—bodies start disappearing from morgues.  A new wax museum opens.  Well, you see where this is going, right?  I think that this is more of a suspense movie than actual “horror”.  It’s also very reminiscent of Phantom of the Opera, if you’re familiar with that story.  Jason was a little disappointed because the biggest “thrill” was more towards the first half of the movie, and based on all the previews and things for this movie, it looks like there’s more “horror” involved than is actually presented, although for the time this was probably fairly shocking given the inferno scene at the beginning and the potential waxing of a live, naked woman at the end (nakedness implied not actually shown).

What we liked:  1. This is classic Vincent Price, and he’s elegantly creepy as always. 2. The fire scene.

Ratings:  Jason 3, Kathy  4, Me …3

**Note... I'm doing this a week after we saw these, and I think I have Jason's ratings right.  Any misquoted ratings are my faulty memory.