Showing posts with label Tom Hanks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Hanks. Show all posts

Friday, January 16, 2009

Month O' Musicals: That Thing You Do!


Vital Stats:
Year: 1996
Director: Tom Hanks
Stars: Tom Hanks, Tom Everett Scott, Johnathon Schaech, Liv Tyler, Steve Zahn, Charlize Theron, Ethan Embry, Giovanni Ribisi
Writer: Tom Hanks

(While not a film musical in the classical sense, there's so much music in it that I'm including it in my Month o' Musicals.)

Summary:
One-hit band The Wonders journey from obscurity to fame and back again with fun nods to the various musical styles of the 60s along the way.

Memorable Moments:
The catchy title song is played so repeatedly it's bound to get stuck in your head for a while after watching.

The first time the band members hear their song on the radio captures the excitement perfectly.

What I love about it:
Exclamation point in the title. Glimpses of Chris Isaak, Rita Wilson and Peter Scolari. But most of all, Steve Zahn. Who is Steve Zahn?


"Are you crazy? A man in a really nice camper wants to put our song on the radio! Give me a pen, I'm signing, you're signing, we're all signing!"

Saturday, December 13, 2008

My answer to the 20 Actresses Meme: I like Actors better

There's a 20 favorite actresses meme going around. It started at The Film Experience blog. I've had a terrible time trying to come up with a list of my own. Not because there are so many actresses out there, but because I've realized that there aren't a lot of actresses I think are really great. How can this be? I don't know. Maybe I am jealous watching someone else get the leading man of my dreams. Maybe I am jealous of really beautiful women. Maybe as a girl, I've just learned to be catty to other girls. Isn't that sad? Whatever the case, I have come up with a list of 20 actresses that don't (usually) annoy me:


That's Leslie, Lee, Marilyn, Cate, Grace; Katharine, pre-botox Meg, Ingrid, Tina, Judy; Meryl, Natalie, Ginger, Mary, Amy; Hayley, Gwyneth, Judy, Agnes & Lauren.

Cate Blanchett has the distinction of being the only one on this list whose movies I don't own. I just think she is a good actress (and she doesn't irritate me).

My favorites on here are Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman & Ginger Rogers.

As I was making this list, I decided it would be much more fun to make a list of favorite actors. I thought, surely someone is bound to answer back the top 20 actresses list with their top 20 actors, right? It might as well be me. And so I made this list, and it was such a breeze! Here come the men:

That's Clark, Henry, Gene, Joseph, George C., Spencer, Humphrey, Dana, William, Jack; Cary, Paul, Jimmy, Ray, Orson; Marlon, Kirk, Sidney, George & Alec.

You'll see this list was made with only classic movie actors. So as a bonus, here's another five new(er) actors I happen to like:

Jude, Harrison, Ewan, Leo & Tom.

If I tried to narrow this list down to top favorites, it would probably be Spencer Tracy, Jack Lemmon, Humphrey Bogart, Dana Andrews, Cary Grant, Ray Milland, Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart, Paul Newman & Tom Hanks. See how much more generous I am to the males?

If you want to make your own list, feel free to choose actresses or actors or both. If you do actors, please link or comment here with your lists. I'd like to see some more testosterone about. Let the 20 Actors meme begin!