Rule 32: Enjoy the Little Things

[Shannon L.]

3 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Diana's reaction to Steve's death in Wonder Woman was very well done.  Gal Gadot managed to make the "Noooo!" gutwrenching without coming off as corny, and her sobbing as she twists and finally breaks free of the restrains and screaming in rage as she decimates all those soldiers.  And another nice was how big her eyes bug out in pure fury when Ares taunts her about Steve, right before she starts pummeling him.

On a more humorous note, I love Steve's reaction to Diana stating that the books' conclusion was that "men were essential for procreation, but for pleasure, unnecessary".   That plaintive little noise he makes just punctuates the humor of the whole scene, imo.

[Spartan Girl]

3 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

On a more humorous note, I love Steve's reaction to Diana stating that the books' conclusion was that "men were essential for procreation, but for pleasure, unnecessary".   That plaintive little noise he makes just punctuates the humor of the whole scene, imo.

And I love how Patty Jemkins subverted the expectation that Diana wouldn't know about sex just because she was naive about plenty of things about the world outside the island.

[Ravenya003]

In "The Fellowship of the Ring" when the group is climbing the mountain and Frodo accidentally drops the Ring right in front of Boromir, and there's an awkward moment when Boromir picks it up, is instantly hypnotized by it, and then hears Aragorn say: "give the Ring to Frodo." Boromir tries to laugh it off... but then we cut to Aragorn's hand... which was on the hilt of his sword the whole time.

I loved that moment, it still gives me chills every time I see it.

[Spartan Girl]

I watched the Back to the Future trilogy this weekend, and the little thing I love about Marty McFly? He's so protective of the women in his life. Like him not hesitating to defend Lorraine when she was being harassed by Biff, or how in the last two movies he kept worrying about Jennifer being left behind in the alternate 1985 and Doc kept having to tell him a bunch of times even after they fixed the past that she'd be fine.

 

[Wiendish Fitch]

In the Heat of the Night:

Early in the film after Virgil is arrested by the bumbling, unethical, incompetent bozo redneck Sparta cops and is given the go ahead to leave, he takes his cash that they earlier had confiscated and begins counting it out. Chief Gillespie snarks, "It's all there!".

Virgil pauses, gives him an icy look (no one could give an icy look quite like Sidney Poitier), then resumes counting.

Good for him! I love that because

1. Virgil isn't an idiot (if in doubt, always count out your cash), and

2. He doesn't owe these racist morons anything, least of all blind trust. I mean, come on, if the roles were reversed, do you think for one second Gillespie would just take Virgil at his word? 

Edited January 21, 2020 by Wiendish Fitch

[Spartan Girl]

Get Smart: Agent 99 and Max attend the ball at a bad guy's mansion, 99 dances with said bad guy and Max goes over to a bunch of mean girls, and we're led to think he's asking one of them to dance only to be turned down. But as it turns out, he's NOT asking them -- he is asking this overweight girl in a pretty blue Cinderella gown sitting all by herself, and they do a dance-off with 99 and the bad guy. And it turns out that this girl is a pretty good dancer. I love this scene because the filmmakers could have turned it into a horrible cruel fat joke, but it thankfully it wasn't. It was cute, and Max was a perfectly charming gentleman to her.

And at the end of the dance, she flips off the mean girls that were laughing at him. Good for her.

[Annber03]

I love that scene from the Get Smart movie, too :). 

[Shannon L.]

Captain America:  The First Avenger was my least favorite Marvel movie, but as I was watching a little bit of it the other day, I realized that I didn't fully appreciate the production design.  They really did create a movie that looked like what a 1940s sci-fi movie would have looked like. 

[Spartan Girl]

Christopher Reeve's smile. Any movie. Pick one.

Oh, you want more? 

Okay, in all of the Superman movies, he always struck the right balance between stern heroic authority and compassion. One minute he's giving Otis the stink-eye when Lex tells him to take his cape, the next he's kindly patting Miss Tessmacher on the cheek after she saves his life and laments how she can never get it on with any of the good guys. He tells off Richard Pryor for joining up with the bad guys, and later he's giving him a lift and trying to get hm a legitimate job. He even tries to give Lex Luthor's dumbass nephew a fresh start. No matter how much any of those sequels sucked -- and believe me, they sucked -- Christopher Reeve was never a slouch. He always brought his A game to the show, delivering those cornball lines with such sincerity that we didn't care that they were corny.

I miss him so damn much.

Edited February 5, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[Mabinogia]

8 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

He always brought his A game to the show, delivering those cornball lines with such sincerity that we didn't care that they were corny.

He somehow made all that corny cheesiness charming. He just had this charm about him. I agree about that smile. He is one of those "light up a room" types for me. He will always be my Superman and my adorably dorky Clark Kent. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

Christopher Reeve was Superman, no ifs, ands, or buts.

 

[Spartan Girl]

15 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Christopher Reeve was Superman, no ifs, ands, or buts.

 

Damn skippy.

I also kind of liked how Miss Tessmacher fixes her hair when Lex Luthor calls her out when Superman arrives.  I can't say I wouldn't do the same if I walked into a room where Superman/Christopher Reeve is in 😉

[VCRTracking]

He is really incredible in this scene:

 

[VCRTracking]

The way James Mason says "Rapid City, South Dakota." in North by Northwest.

[methodwriter85]

Gretchen can finally wear hoops at the end of Mean Girls because she's serving another queen bee and lives by different rules.

[Spartan Girl]

I rewatched the Bedazzled on my HBO free weekend -- yes, it's a remake, but it's a GOOD remake, and I'm about to tell you why. Brendan Fraser's Elliot comes dangerously close to being a Nice Guy, obsessing about Alison, who barely knows he exists, and the whole selling his soul to The Devil in order to wish himself into being the kind of person he thinks she wants. But he really comes through in the end:

First, he uses his final wish to wish that Alison has a happy life, which inadvertantly breaks the deal with the Devil and gets his soul back. Then he finally gets up the courage to do what he should have done in the first place: introduce himself to Alison and tell her he'd like to get to know her better. She's flattered...but kindly tells him she's seeing someone.

And you know what? He's disappointed, but not heartbroken. He simply wishes her well, stands up to his mean coworkers, and moves on with his life finally being happy with who he is. That shot of him cheerfully riding his bike up a hill is just great.

It's an ending I really appreciate more these days. The writers didn't need to add the part where he meets another girl who looks like Alison but I'll let that pass.

[Mabinogia]

I appreciate any movie that goes against the breaking the will of the person you love until they love you back storyline and shows that just because you "love" someone it doesn't mean they are obligated to love you back. I'd never actually seen Bedazzled but now I might have to give it a shot. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

In the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice, I really love the brief montage after Jane accepts Bingley's proposal that not only shows Mr. and Mrs. Bennett sweetly chatting in bed (awww, it's not such a bad marriage, after all!), but we see Mary reading to Kitty, and Kitty actually appears to be listening. I like the idea of Mary and Kitty bonding, because they're both quintessential middle siblings, and they'd be good influences on each other: Kitty could teach Mary to lighten up and have a little fun, and Mary could teach Kitty to use her head once in a while.

[Spartan Girl]

Whatever you can say about the new Aladdin Carpet was once again one of the best parts of the movie. He/it was so still expressive despite never having a face. I loved him playing the maracas during "Friend Like Me" and building the Disney sandcastle.

I also loved Genie using Aladdin as a marionette during "Friend Like Me". I don't know if it was real choreography or CGI but it still fun to watch -- though nothing can beat Robin/Cartoon Genie doing the hand puppets in the original.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[Ms Blue Jay]

I can't get over the way Harvey Keitel says "Beaut-ee-fool work" in Sister Act.  He just has funny pronunciation and I love it.

Also, the weirdest line delivery is Teri Garr saying "What do you SAAAAAAY?" in Dumb and Dumber when she tries to get Harry to go skiing with them.  We always make fun of it.

 

[Spartan Girl]

My friend and I watched Sense and Sensibility -- it was her first time, and she loved it -- and there are just so many little moments to appreciate in Alan Rickman's performance as Colonel Brandon:

• The look on his face when he first sees Marianne at the piano. You knew he was a goner
• The way he defended Marianne to Elinor for her (thoughtless) passion for life, despite her being rude to him in clear preference of Willoughby 
• Him wishing Marianne happiness with Willoughby, even though at this point (as we find out later), he KNOWS Willoughby is a scumbag. You can tell how much it's paining him, but he maintains his stoic resolve not to say anything because the scandal would ruin Marianne.
• His desperation to help Marianne when she's sick, and the quiet emotion on his face when she recovers and thanks him for getting her mother
• And finally that last shot him happily tossing the coins to the kids as his and Marianne's wedding.

 

[Shannon L.]

Back to Wonder Woman.  I love that Patty Jenkins put in the line from Etta:  "Spectacles?  Like now she's suddenly not the most beautiful woman you've ever seen?"  It's a comment on the absurdity of the nerdy girl in glasses with her hair up becoming suddenly beautiful when she takes the glasses off and lets her hair down trope. 

[Spartan Girl]

The part in Arthur where Hobson tells that snotty executive (Paul Gleeson) that insults Arthur to go screw himself was such a great little moment for so many reasons:

1) It shows how much Hobson really cares for Arthur.

2) It's such a relatable moment. We all have people that annoy us, but if someone else shits on them, it's personal. 

3) Yes, Hobson called Arthur on his crap and even called him a spoiled brat (among other things)on numerous occasions, but there was no real malice in it. And when he did it, he would at least do it to his face and not behind his back.

Hobson was so awesome.

[Browncoat]

4 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Hobson was so awesome.

Agreed!  John Gielgud -- there was a master of dry wit.  "I'll alert the media."

[Spartan Girl]

Inglourious Basterds: Donnie shooting into Hitler's corpse. Especially the look on Eli Roth's face: killing him once wasn't satisfying enough, he wants to blast him into nothing. We are all with him in that moment and it's grotesquely glorious.

[VCRTracking]

When I saw the movie as a kid I was really surprised because I only knew the Turtles from the cartoon. I didn't know it was based on a comic book parodying the gritty Frank Miller Daredevil comics of the late 70s and early 80s and he was depicting the very scary New York City of that era. I like that they didn't kiddie the movie down but man it was a shock!

 

[Spartan Girl]

So this is going to sound really dumb, but the end of Continental Divide with John Belushi waving goodbye to Blair Brown always gets me welling up. It's supposed to be a happy ending, but hindsight about how John died months after this movie came out and knowing the making of this movie was the one of the last times he was happy and healthy...it's not even the last movie he ever made and yet watching hm leave on the train feels he's waving goodbye to all of us.

Watch the clip and you'll see what I mean:

 

[Spartan Girl]

So a little detail I noticed in Carrie is how throughout most of the prom she keeps her wrap tightly around her shoulders, then gradually lowers it slightly as she relaxes and starts to have fun. It's only when she's crowned Prom Queen that she drops it completely to her waist, no longer self conscious about wearing such a "mature" dress. But after the pigs blood prank and the resulting massacre, she retreats into a little girl nightgown.

[VCRTracking]

i never noticed it in the movie and now I'm never going to NOT notice it!

 

[Spartan Girl]

So some little things I want to talk about Shang in Mulan:

You know how Mulan plays Ping the way she's led to believe (mostly by Mushu): arrogant, ultra macho, crude? Well, Shang kind of puts on an act too. The first time we see him with his dad he's boyishly eager to prove himself yet clearly nervous about having to lead the army. And clearly under immense pressure by the Emperor's chancellor to show that he's competent. So when he sees the soldiers all fighting with each other he instantly hardens himself as the tough strict army captain in order to make them follow and respect him.

And no offense to everyone that interprets otherwise, but I never got the feeling that Shang was interested in "Ping" that way, because he clearly could not stand him at least in the beginning because to him "Ping" is the army asshole he has to deal with. True he's impressed when Ping/Mulan gets better at training, but when she tries to cheer him up with the bad "I hold and you punch" joke, his body language is all "Ugh, this asshole." He only softens when Mulan's true qualities starts emerge, telling him he's a great captain and expressing genuine sympathy about his dad's death, etc. And saving his life, of course.

Yeah, he's pissed when he finds out she's a woman, but that's mostly because any muck ups in the army is a direct reflection on him, and his whole motivation was to prove himself as a commander, not because he felt deceived by Ping romantically. 

It's only at the end when Mulan shows her true self as a brave, resourceful, strong, compassionate woman that Shang finds himself attracted to her, and that shows in how he suddenly is back to being that eager yet awkward guy we saw at the beginning of the movie. He clearly doesn't know how deal with or express those feelings. Even when he goes to her house at the end, despite the whole speech he probably had practiced for her dad, the second he sees her again, he gets all tongue-tied again "You forgot your helmet...oh its really your dad's helmet." We never saw him act that way around Ping. 

[Shannon L.]

In Titanic, Jack didn't know much about Rose's wealthy lifestyle.  We saw him observing other people while waiting for Rose at dinner time so he knew how to behave when she approached, and when she did, he also took her hand and kissed it, then offered his arm, whispering "I saw that in a Nickelodeon once".  He also knew that she was a bit of a rebel and wasn't too impressed with all that fancy stuff.  Yet, when they are entering the parlor on the night she asked him to draw her picture, she's saying "It's quite proper, I assure you", meaning that he was aware of certain rules of decorum that men and women, especially wealthy ones, tended to follow and he was respectful of that.  It was a nice touch, imo.

[Shannon L.]

In Deadpool, when Wade meets Vanessa for the first time, there was a moment when they were talking about how bad their childhoods were where she laughed and the look on his face changes from one of just messing around to the face of a man who, at that precise moment, fell in love.  It gets me every time. 

[Spartan Girl]

I always love that scene in George of the Jungle where Ursula and her friends are all staring at George as he's playing with the horses in the stable, and all the other guys just chalk it up to "What is it with chicks and horses?"

And it's not just because he looks Harlequin romance-level hot in that scene, it's that sweet innocence. He's completely oblivious to the fancy party and the ladies all eye-banging him, he just wants to race the horses because he's more at home when he's around animals.

[AimingforYoko]

15 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I always love that scene in George of the Jungle where Ursula and her friends are all staring at George as he's playing with the horses in the stable, and all the other guys just chalk it up to "What is it with chicks and horses?"

And it's not just because he looks Harlequin romance-level hot in that scene, it's that sweet innocence. He's completely oblivious to the fancy party and the ladies all eye-banging him, he just wants to race the horses because he's more at home when he's around animals.

If you had told me that the one live-action Jay Ward adaptation success story would be George of the Jungle, I'd have asked you what medication were you on.

[Shannon L.]

17 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I always love that scene in George of the Jungle where Ursula and her friends are all staring at George as he's playing with the horses in the stable, and all the other guys just chalk it up to "What is it with chicks and horses?"

And it's not just because he looks Harlequin romance-level hot in that scene, it's that sweet innocence. He's completely oblivious to the fancy party and the ladies all eye-banging him, he just wants to race the horses because he's more at home when he's around animals.

That was great moment.  Where Ursula is concerned, imo, it's the moment in the beginning when she's talking to the camera about the tree she was standing in front of.  I don't know the exact lines because it's been years since I've seen it, but at one point, her guide tells her it's a Banyon tree and she looks at the camera with excitement and says "Banyon tree".  You could tell how happy she was to be there and to experience and learn new things. 

[VCRTracking]

Elizabeth Shue replaced Claudia Wells as Marty McFly's girlfriend Jennifer in Back to the Future Part II and III(Wells couldn't return because she was caring for her sick mom). While Jennifer as played by Wells was like the one normal character Shue must have looked at the first movie and was like "Everyone else is broad and OTT and I only have 20 minutes of screentime in two movies, half of which I'm unconscious, I'm going to be broad too!" I love it:

Edited November 11, 2020 by VCRTracking

[Spartan Girl]

I loved both Jennifers, Claudia and Liz.

So Olivia Hussey’s Juliet in Romeo and Juliet had a lot of little details to love that helped her be portrayed as a living breathing teenage girl and more relatable to watch. How light and at ease she acts around the Nurse where with her mother she’s stiff, formal, and eager to play the part of the obedient daughter. And where Romeo grabs her hand at the masquerade she’s startled yet kind of into being touched like that, and how when he kisses her hand she turns around to tell him off but one look at his face and she’s a goner (dark pun intended).

Edited November 11, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[Blergh]

16 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I loved both Jennifers, Claudia and Liz.

So Olivia Hussey’s Juliet in Romeo and Juliet had a lot of little details to love that helped her be portrayed as a living breathing teenage girl and more relatable to watch. How light and at ease she acts around the Nurse where with her mother she’s stiff, formal, and eager to play the part of the obedient daughter. And where Romeo grabs her hand at the masquerade she’s startled yet kind of into being touched like that, and how when he kisses her hand she turns around to tell him off but one look at his face and she’s a goner (dark pun intended).

I cosign everything you say about Miss Hussey's portrayal. Her Juliet was decided not only a breath of fresh air compared to the earlier older and, frankly, stagier cinematic performers of the part- but let's not forget that when the character was first performed in Shakespeare's day, Juliet was played by teen boys!

[Ambrosefolly]

On 11/11/2020 at 5:19 PM, Spartan Girl said:

I loved both Jennifers, Claudia and Liz.

So Olivia Hussey’s Juliet in Romeo and Juliet had a lot of little details to love that helped her be portrayed as a living breathing teenage girl and more relatable to watch. How light and at ease she acts around the Nurse where with her mother she’s stiff, formal, and eager to play the part of the obedient daughter. And where Romeo grabs her hand at the masquerade she’s startled yet kind of into being touched like that, and how when he kisses her hand she turns around to tell him off but one look at his face and she’s a goner (dark pun intended).

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were just so beautiful. I am still so captivated on a completely shallow note by that. I think they both captured that teenage exuberance and purity of young love, probably because they were very young themselves. Despite them dying days later, in a world of After and 50 Shades, it nice to see the guy not playing mind games with the girl he loves. 

[VCRTracking]

On 11/15/2020 at 2:54 PM, Ambrosefolly said:

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were just so beautiful. I am still so captivated on a completely shallow note by that. I think they both captured that teenage exuberance and purity of young love, probably because they were very young themselves. Despite them dying days later, in a world of After and 50 Shades, it nice to see the guy not playing mind games with the girl he loves. 

Here they are reunited at a 2018 BFI Q&A after screening the movie:

 

 

[Shannon L.]

I hate to put this here because it was a bitch move from the character, but it was done so well I had to mention it:  I was watching Sense and Sensibility last night for the umpteenth time and the scene where Marianne is confronted by the fact that Willoughby is now with someone else gets me every time for one reason--the look the new girlfriend gives Marianne and Elinor.  That moment, where she slowly sweeps her eyes down, then back up again, then turns away, the whole time with a disgusted look in her face is so dead on that even I feel it every single time. 

[Spartan Girl]

20 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I hate to put this here because it was a bitch move from the character, but it was done so well I had to mention it:  I was watching Sense and Sensibility last night for the umpteenth time and the scene where Marianne is confronted by the fact that Willoughby is now with someone else gets me every time for one reason--the look the new girlfriend gives Marianne and Elinor.  That moment, where she slowly sweeps her eyes down, then back up again, then turns away, the whole time with a disgusted look in her face is so dead on that even I feel it every single time. 

Ooh yeah that WAS such a bitch move.

[VCRTracking]

I love that Amazons in the DCEU have to imitate Gal Gadot's real accent.

 

[Spartan Girl]

Rocket and Nebula holding hands in shared grief in Avengers Endgame. Two characters that didn’t even LIKE each other, I might add. I also love how neither one of said a word: one look at each other and they KNEW that the other Guardians were gone.

[festivus]

I forgot to post about this moment from my favorite Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation. We watch it every year on Christmas day and I never fail to tear up at the part where when Clark's lights don't come on, Audrey stops being a sullen teenager for a moment to tell her grandma that he worked really hard on them. Then she tells Clark that they look really pretty even if they aren't lit. That movie is full of nonstop goodness but it's that little moment that gets me everytime.

[Spartan Girl]

Avengers Endgame: After WandaVision revealed what happened to Maria and Monica Rambeau during The Snap, I have new appreciation for the murderous look Carol — The One True Captain — gives Thanos after he tries to headbutt her.

[VCRTracking]

On 1/30/2021 at 5:25 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Avengers Endgame: After WandaVision revealed what happened to Maria and Monica Rambeau during The Snap, I have new appreciation for the murderous look Carol — The One True Captain — gives Thanos after he tries to headbutt her.

Someone online said Carol got her hair cut like Maria after she died and I like that idea.

So I always liked the Karate Kid movies but Cobra Kai made me appreciate them even more especially Part 2. They had to recreate a whole Okinawan village in Hawaii and then create a typhoon sequence. There are some sequels that are noticably cheaper productions than the first movie. I love when they spend money to make it bigger.

 

 

[Wiendish Fitch]

Captain Marvel:

Spoiler

Monica playing Uno with the little Skrull child. So sweet.

 

[Spartan Girl]

For some reason, this is the one quote of Promising Young Woman I can’t get enough of, because Carey Mulligan’s delivery was perfect:

“Aww, don’t cry...seriously, don’t fucking cry, tell me what you did!”

[VCRTracking]

AMERICAN GRAFFITI made in 1973 is set in 1962 just 11 years before. Its like if a movie in 2021 was nostalgic about 2010!