437. The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music
1965
Directed by Robert Wise

Moving right along from the highly disturbing Battle of Algiers, we now have to deal with a sickeningly sweet musical.  Gotta love the chronological system!

I think everyone has either voluntarily seen this movie, been forced to watch it against their will, or been haunted by sleepless nights when they can't get "My Favorite Things" out of their heads.  I belong to the first category and well I can't say I hated it, I can certainly see why this movie could get on people's nerves.

Julie Andrews plays the impossible optimist Maria, who is sent to be the governess of the Von Trapp family.  She teaches them to sing and be a general annoyance to dinner party guests.  Eventually, she falls in love with the strict father Georg Von Trapp.  Nazi hilarity ensues.

I generally love musicals and have to admit that I have several of these songs memorized.  However, the story is barely plausible, the Maria character is a bit hard to swallow without gagging, and the children's actions are unusual at best.  Still, a must see movie; it has been parodied a thousand times.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Anyone seen the recent Carrie Underwood version?  Is it as bad as everybody says?

Just looked this film up on Wikipedia.  Hint: any time a character is described as "free spirited" it probably means they are annoying as hell.

Christopher Plummer refers to this movie as "S&M" or "Sound of Mucus".

Charmian Carr and Christopher Plummer would often flirt with each other on set.

In reality, if the Von Trapps had traveled through the mountains to escape, they would have ended up near Hitler's mountain retreat.

Make sure there isn't any glass around for this number:

412. The Haunting

The Haunting
1963
Directed by Robert Wise

Yay! A horror film!

I want to start by saying that this film did not scare me even a little bit.  The writer for this entry of The Book advised not watching it alone.  I am sorry, SJS, but you kind of sound like a wimp.  Although I suppose we all have films that scare the living daylights out of us but other people are completely immune to (this is particularly embarrassing when everyone leaves a friend's house to go to the cars after watching The Blair Witch Project but you won't leave the house without an armed escort).

However, I think a horror film can still be enjoyable even if it is not scary.  This film kind of follows the usual formula that we have now for found footage films, although, of course, this movie invented the cliche.  Dr. Markway wants to investigate the haunted Hill House and brings a lesbian psychic, the heir to the house, and, for some reason, a girl who looks like she would wet herself if she talked to a stranger.  Strange stuff goes down and Meek McGaspy begins to lose her shit.

We have had quite a few films that hail from Dullsville lately so I was really grateful to watch such an entertaining movie that had great pacing.  Now, the acting wasn't great; the exception being Russ Tamblyn, who I love.  But I still think it is worth a watch for anyone who loves horror films.  If you don't, better skip it.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Remade in 1999 with Catherine Zeta Jones, Owen Wilson, and Liam Nesson.  Yikes.

Robert Wise has said that this film is a tribute to his mentor Val Lewton.

Trailer:

381. West Side Story

West Side Story
1961
Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins

This is one of my favorite films and I have seen it an embarrassing amount of times.  Rarely have I seen a musical where I adore every single song, where the actors have this much charisma, and the story moves along so nicely.  I even forced my guy friend to watch it, but he couldn't get over how all the straight men were dancing so gaily.  Ironically, he turned out to be gay.  Huh.

This movie is pretty much Romeo and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet Take New York.  If you don't know the story of Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story, we have nothing more to say to each other.

A lot of people complain about the performances of Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer.  Granted, Wood isn't exactly a convincing Puerto Rican.  However, I enjoyed their musical numbers were some of my favorites in the film.  Judge for yourself:

Of course, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris steal the show, but that doesn't mean that the lead performances were terrible.

I really don't have a single negative thing to say about it.  Besides being a wonderful musical, it is also an enlightening comment on immigrant life in New York.  Definitely a must see.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Marni Nixon dubbed Natalie Wood's singing.

The rival gangs were encouraged to play pranks on each other behind the scenes in order to keep the rivalry real.

Won 10 Academy Awards.

My favorite sequence:

241. The Day The Earth Stood Still

The Day The Earth Stood Still
1951
Directed by Robert Wise

I brought this to a movie night with a few friends awhile ago and they all laughed at me for my horrible taste in films.  They put in Thor instead.  But this is truly a classic, even if people have not heard a lot about it.  It is actually considered to be one of the first Sci Fi films.  So Thor might not even have existed if it wasn't for this movie.  So there.

It is very easy to laugh at the special effects of earlier movies.  However, the influence of this movie is pretty much prevalent in all the major sic fi films.  In fact, the landing of the aliens is so similar to Close Encounters of the Third Kind that I declare that I declare Spielberg a copycat!

An alien comes to Earth to deliver a message of peace to the humans.  Naturally, everyone completely freaks out and does not listen right away.  Damn humans.

This is actually a pretty good film, unless you are one of those jerks that will only focus on how bad the special effects look compared to today's.  My brother was doing that when I had Buffy The Vampire Slayer on during Thanksgiving and I nearly kicked him in the face.  But I digress.  Check it out!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Patricia Neal had a hard time keeping a straight face during filming because she figured this would just be another stupid B movie.

As a homage, George Lucas named three of his bounty hunters Klaatu, Nikto, and Barada.

Lock Martin was 7'7''.  Holy crap.