Red Roses For My Lady
As promised, here are ten more romantic movies in celebration of February, American Heart month and Valentine’s Day. What did you get for Valentine’s Day? I got a single long-stemmed red rose! It’s beautiful.
- Dirty Dancing (1987) – Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, (omg he was beautiful), had the best time of their lives in this low-budget sleeper film which went on to gross more than $200M worldwide.
- The Princess Bride (1987) – Adapted from William Goldman’s book, it’s a tale of “boy meets girl”, boy is lost at sea, girl reluctantly agrees to marry evil prince but she gets kidnapped; The whole thing is complicated however since it‘s a fairy tale…”and they all lived happily ever after”.
- Say Anything (1989) – John Cusack, the under-achieving student serenades the class valedictorian with a boom box. Entertainment Weekly called this the greatest modern movie romance.
- When Harry Met Sally (1989) – Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan have an on-again, off-again romance over a 12-year period. Harry is based on Rob Reiner and Sally on writer, Nora Ephron and well…”I’ll have what she’s having”.
- Ghost (1990) – A romantic fantasy where romance transcends death. Patrick Swayze (he’s dead) and Demi Moore (still living) re-connect through a phony medium, Whoopi Goldberg, who won an Oscar for her performance.
- Sleepless in Seattle (1993) – A romance where the lovers never meet until the end and based on An Affair to Remember. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks finally meet at the top of the Empire State building, oooh so romantic.
- True Romance (1993) – Romance Quentin Tarantino style! A call-girl and a comic book nerd who kills her pimp and takes off with a suitcase full of cocaine. Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater play the not-so-heroic lovers.
- Titanic (1997) – Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Wynslet are the young lovers who picked the wrong boat. This was the highest grossing film and held the title for 12 years until Avatar surpassed it. Personally (and it is MY blog) I think it was a dumbed down version with bad casting and an unnecessary re-make.
- You’ve Got Mail (1998) – Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in YET another re-make; original ideas anyone??? The movie title is a take-off from Yahoo’s email arrival announcement and the original movie was titled The Shop Around the Corner and starred Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan.
- The Wedding Singer (1998) – Poor Adam Sandler, left at the altar by his fiance and a wannabe rock singer ends up singing at weddings, serenading other couples. BUT Drew Barrymore comes into his life and all is good. A super 80’s soundtrack, the movie grossed $123M.
Related Articles
- Patrick Swayze Passes Away at 57 (popsugar.com)
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
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The Wolf Of Wall Street-The 3 Shortest Hours I’ve Ever Spent
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged Belfort, DiCaprio, Film, Jonah Hill, Jordan Belfort, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, NC-17, Rob Reiner, Spike Jones, Wolf of Wall Street on December 4, 2013| 3 Comments »
Leonardo DiCaprio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
WOW – 2 hours and 55 minutes and it just flew by! This movie is so fast-paced and never lags is clearly one of the reasons you don’t realize just how long it is. Fact: It took 7 years to make!
Based on a true story, it sheds some light on why the economy tanked. DiCaprio spent months working with Belfort in an effort to bring the author’s experiences which led him from “pond scum” to the Wolf of Wall Street, to life on the screen. The film is all about sex, drugs and greed and barely missed receiving a NC-17 rating. Scorcese frantically cut some of the more salacious scenes and just squeaked by not having the movie rated NC-17. One might wonder why such a fuss might be made about sex and naked people when these very people committed despicable acts and ruined other people’s lives, like that wasn’t offensive enough?
The Wolf of Wall Street is a funny movie, the audience at the SAG screening I attended laughed all the way though it. Yes, it was funny, because the dialogue is witty, clever and oh so natural, enhanced by superlative performances by all especially DiCaprio and Hill. However, now a couple of hours later as I mull over this post, I think the movie probably glamorizes extra-marital and unsafe sex, STDs, excessive substance abuse as well as dishonesty and greed. Yes, there is a comeuppance at the end of the film, but perhaps not as much in comparison to havoc the players wrecked on the lives of others during that 5 year run.
Scorcese, at age 71, is at the top of his directorial powers, seemingly invigorated by the energy of the material and the fact that his ultimate financiers, Red Granite, gave him the green light to go all out and push the envelope with no holds barred. And that’s exactly what he and his actors did which just might be why given the freedom to go all out, the acting and dialogue is absolutely believable. And as I type that line, I want to add in parenthesis, disgusting and despicable as it was!
I have never been a huge DiCaprio fan, however, I’m happy to say he was AMAZING! What an exhausting and physical role! His looks are maturing and again let me say, his role as Jordan Belfort is surely going to put him in the final 5 for Best Actor.
As a final observation, I thought his wardrobe was impeccable, particularly loved his ties and definitely did not like the dye job on his hair, a very unnatural black.
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