Wiendish Fitch

I knew A Place in the Sun was based on An American Tragedy. What irks me is how people choose to frame A Place in the Sun: a beautiful love story, that Shelley Winters is an unattractive killjoy messing up Monty Clift's good time, that no one would miss her if she died, and that Clift's character is worthy of our sympathy and that everything would have been better if Winters hadn't been a millstone around his neck. Never mind that he's responsible for all the crap that goes down, that Winters is the victim, not the villain, and that Elizabeth Taylor is better off without him. Still, harrie and Julia, thanks for having my back! I was afraid I was alone in not liking this ugly, overrated "classic"!

Another classic movie UO: I loathe A Place in the Sun. I find the "love story" sickening and about as romantic as measles. I don't think George was a "tortured soul", I think he was murderous, gold-digging parasite who would have surely killed Angela somewhere down the line. What's even worse is that we're supposed to think that George is justified in wanting to kill Alice. Why? Because she becomes annoying and desperate… oh, why the hell am I mincing words? The movie wants us to root for her death because she's not as pretty as Angela (as if any woman alive could compete with 19-year-old Elizabeth Taylor). Let's get a few things straight: 1. George broke company rules by dating his co-worker Alice and getting her pregnant. I don't care if he was lonely, he screwed up by screwing her. Don't shit where you eat, buddy. 2. Alice became "whiny, annoying, clingy"? Well, what do you expect? She's a single woman who's pregnant and who is being cruelly lead on by George. She's ruining his fun? Good! He ruined her life, it's only right she return the favor! 3. George only likes Angela because she's young, rich, and beautiful. If they'd married, 10 or 20 years down the line, George would have met someone younger, prettier and richer, and would have found ways to rid himself of his inconvenient wife. I mean, we (rightfully) hate Montgomery Clift's Morris Townsend for ditching Catherine in The Heiress, why are we so forgiving towards George in A Place in the Sun?

I completely agree. This is also why I never got Warren Beatty's appeal. There was always something so dim about him. The vacant-eyed, slightly slack-jawed look isn't the least bit attractive. He was good at playing dummies, but when he had to play intelligent people, he was totally unconvincing. I think the most attractive men are the ones who seem like they read for pleasure. Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Eddie Redmayne are a few who give off this vibe to me.

Jimmy Stewart is great, but my UO is that I thought he was better at playing assholes than nice guys*. I absolutely loved him in Vertigo and The Naked Spur, way more than, say, The Philadelphia Story or It's a Wonderful Life. *Please don't misunderstand, I'm not implying that he was bad at playing nice guys (I adore The Shop Around the Corner), he was just more compelling (and, strangely, more at home) as jerks.

42nd Street is one of my favorite musicals ever, but I agree on this gaping logic-hole. Any director worth his folding chair would hire Ginger Rogers over Ruby Keeler, and never take no for an answer. I do think Keeler is cute and charming, though, despite being, as Pauline Kael put it, "awesomely untalented". Unfortunately, typecasting got the better for her, and by the time Dames rolled around, her sweet and innocent persona really had worn thin with me (I was so rooting for Joan Blondell in Dames). Poor Bebe Daniels, being toted as the "aging star", despite being only 31 or 32. Yeah, not a kid anymore, and I guess considered older then, but look at her! She has plenty of good years passing as "29" left! I got to see the stage production of 42nd Street at the Fabulous Fox in 2009, and it was wonderful, but they had an opposite problem in casting Dorothy Brock; while Daniels was way too young, Loretta Swit was way too old. I'm sorry, but the poor woman didn't walk or dance so much as lurch, and she wasn't even a fair singer. Forgive me if I sound ageist or mean, but isn't Brock supposed to be a triple-threat Broadway pro? I didn't get that from Swit at all (plus, the age difference between her and Pat Denning was hard to ignore, considering he's supposed to have "shown her the ropes").

Well said, dusang! Although, that hypothetical quote would have made for heck of a memorable acceptance speech...

I also like Anne Hathaway. Mind you, people are entitled to dislike her, I don't care, but the volume of hatred aimed towards her is alarming and pathetic. Seriously, what the hell did she do to deserve such vitriol? Did she run over someone's dog? Sacrifice someone's first born? Become blood sisters with Gwyneth Paltrow? Re: Jennifer Lawrence I love Jennifer Lawrence, but I hope she isn't proving the naysayers right by tripping on purpose. I would hate to think she's pulling cheap little stunts to maintain her "cute and relatable" persona. Which brings me to another UO: "Relatable" doesn't mean all that much to me, whether in regards to real people or fictional characters. For real people, I like knowing that people who famous and acclaimed are superior to me. I'm a thoroughly unimpressive human being, I wouldn't want someone like me to make it in show business, and neither would any of you. Likewise, I like characters who remind me of myself, but I vastly prefer characters who are either a lot better or a lot worse than I am, because they're a hell of a lot more interesting. I could never hope to be as kickass as Ellen Ripley or Marion Ravenwood, unflappably classy as Nora Charles, or as spirited as Belle (I could never look as good in yellow, either), and that's why I love them. I hate it when writers go out of their way to make a character who's relatable to everyone. You know, someone with no extraordinary gifts, no notable virtues, no compelling flaws that they either need to overcome or will be destroyed by, just an every-person in every way whose greatest achievement is that they're so darn nice and so darn loving and blah, blah, blah... Sorry, but characters like that grate my nerves.

Yeah, The Great Lie is overwrought and hokey, even for the time. Isn't hilarious though, how Mary Astor is forbidden from eating pickles and onions while pregnant, but smoking is A-OK? Ah, the 1940s...

Ronald Colman is one of my faves. And, I agree, and I never understood what Sydney ever saw in that little idiot Lucie. Dude, look in the mirror, listen to your own voice, you'll find someone more worthy! Trust me on this!

So many loathsome characters on Boardwalk Empire, but the Commodore and Nucky Thompson top my list. The Commodore for being a pedophile and all-around monster, and Nucky for being a murderous, conniving, backstabbing, hypocritical, morally bankrupt piece of crap who enabled the Commodore in his disgusting appetites. I don't care how much Nucky loved his wife, I don't care how much he helps Margaret and her kids, when you hand over an innocent 12-year-old girl to a pervert, irrevocably warping her psyche and destroying her life, you are no longer a "complex character", you are just filth.

I love Wait Until Dark, because I think it's Audrey Hepburn's finest performance, and she doesn't have to rely on Givenchy to make her look fabulous…er. Heck, she even looks close to dowdy at times (though Hepburn could never look bad). Still, I admit I really have to ignore my aversion to Idiot Plot contrivances, because, hoo boy, is Wait Until Dark guilty of them. Namely, that Suzy's problems could have been avoided if she had just locked the damned door and called the police!

Superman: proving there's no shame in being a mama's boy since 1938! My "Hell yeah!" moments: Beauty and the Beast: Belle giving the Gaston the humiliating rejection he so richly deserves. Oh, and standing up to the Beast ("Well, you should learn to control your temper!"). And let's not forget rushing off to save the Beast during the climax and breaking down the palace door on horseback. I went through a phase where I wanted Beauty and the Beast's alternate title to be Hell Yeah!: The Movie. Mulan: the fan fake-out. Too badass for words. LotR: The Return of the King: "I am no man!!" Eowyn is awesome, and I won't tolerate anyone saying otherwise. The Wizard of Oz: It's a minor one, but when the Wizard tries to screw over Dorothy and her friends by making them come back the next day, they're understandably pissed and stand up to him (even the Cowardly Lion!). "Small and meek" Dorothy stands her ground by saying something I wish more movie characters would say: "If you were really great and powerful, you'd keep your promises!" This scene, by the way, is just one of many reasons why Oz: The Great and Powerful was a stupid idea for a movie… I can't figure out why we would be expected to root for a miserable charlatan who has no compunction of sending an innocent kid and her pals to their possible doom. High Noon: Then there's the ending.

Don't get me started on Colleen McCullough's obit, it pissed me off to no end. Had she been a man, I doubt her looks would have been mentioned.

Classic film actor I don't get the appeal of is Joel McCrea. I've seen almost a dozen of his films, and I think he's dull as a stone, but critics seem to adore him. What am I missing?

I couldn't care less how tall they make Jean (I'm no purist when it comes to comic book adaptations), I just hope she isn't the crushingly uninteresting drip she's portrayed as in both the films and the old animated series. Plus, Sophie Turner is a wicked good young actress, so I approve wholeheartedly. I had wished Lupita N'yongo could have been cast as Storm, but if this is set in their early days, then I guess, at 31-32, she's too old. Pity. No more Wolverine? Do I dare hope?!!

It's actually Betty Noyes singing for Debbie Reynolds, not Jean Hagen.

Ah, yes, I Am Sam, the movie that taught us that to raise a kid, "all you need is love". Even if you're developmentally unable to navigate the adult world on your own, don't listen to those mean ol' social worker poopheads, good intentions are all you need to rear a human being into maturity! There have been cases of mentally challenged people who are somehow able to parent children. It's not easy, and they need a lot of help, but they do it, but not in the way it's depicted in I Am Sam. As someone who has known and worked with adults with mental disabilities, Penn's portrayal of a mentally handicapped man absolutely disgusted me. He reduced these people, who deserve to be treated with the same amount of respect granted anyone else, into a pitiable and cartoonish caricature. I Am Sam is an insult to people with mental retardation, an insult to parenting, an insult to everyone's intelligence. I hate Sean Penn, can you tell?

Never mind, ispansy beat me to it.

Kelly's great (though I'm an Astaire girl through and through), but I agree, he very often comes off as douche-y in his films, most notably in An American in Paris (dude, Lise told you to leave her alone, don't harass her at her job!) and For Me and My Gal (but he does learn his lesson at the end). He's at his most likable in Singin' in the Rain, and his tendency toward jerkiness is put to good use in Inherent the Wind.

Darn it, Shannon L., you beat me to the punch! The Lego Movie was…. okay at best, and I don't think it was "snubbed" in any way. I thought it was occasionally amusing but nothing special, and I was bothered by its feeble attempt at a moral (is everyone special or not? Make up your damn minds!), and I didn't like the archaic, sexist undertones of the ending Really, all The Lego Movie did was remind me how much I adore The Incredibles.

Actually, it is! I Married a Witch was released on Criterion DVD (and I think blu-ray) a year or two ago! The restoration looks glorious. I think it's unfair Veronica Lake doesn't get her due as an actress. Her acting style was startlingly modern, and she had that wonderful, husky voice and such a strong presence… hard to believe she was only 21 when she made I Married a Witch!

Where the heck is David Oyelowo's Best Actor nomination? I'm going to be fuming about this all day...

The Thor movies are fun and all (Chris Hemsworth is always a treat, as is Tom Hiddleston), but I agree on Thor and Jane. I'm biased, though, because of my deep-seated loathing of Natalie Portman. I wish they could have someone tougher and more womanly as Jane. In other words, I wish they'd cast Jaimie Alexander or Kat Dennings (but they're stuck as Sif and Darcy respectively, so there you are). I mean, Thor is a god, he's not going to fall in love with just anyone!

I'm not sure if it was molestation in the strictest sense (she was just a little kid, after all), but I'm just baffled as to why she'd want to share that information with the world. I did a ton of embarrassing, shameful things as a kid, and I hope to take those events to my grave. And holy shit, those are some damn permissive parents Dunham has! I kind of enjoyed Girls in the beginning, but now I've grown weary with it. I just can't keep watching these whiny losers keep making the same mistakes over and over. Plus, I preferred merely speculating that Jessa was a sociopath (at least, that's how she came off to me the last time I watched the show).

I'm finally going to quit being a wuss and admit a UO that will surely get me flayed alive by my fellow Classic Hollywood fans. I'm sorry, but I can't keep this to myself any longer. [Deep breath] I think Ronald Colman was handsomer and sexier than Cary Grant! I can't help it! That voice, those eyes, that easy charm, it's all too much! I was rooting for Colman over Grant in The Talk of the Town (God, I hate that movie), and there are only a few Grant films I could love as much as Random Harvest! Let the derision and scorn commence, I'm ready for it.