Tanya does movies in march

March was a big movie watching month, with a viewing of some recent flicks, and also some first-time watching of absolute classics.

The Last Airbender (2010)

Last month I got totally addicted to ATLA and wanted to watch this movie for the purposes of comparison.  I'd seen it before but didn't find it memorable.  That's the same feeling I got this time around.  Plus, it's even worse now that I'm an ATLA fan, as compared to the show, the movie is just crapiola.  You just don't care about the characters, and they don't have as much personality.  So, yeah, don't bother.  But do bother with ATLA. 

Life of Pi (2012)

WOOOOWWW.  This was spectacular.  I had avoided seeing it at first because I wasn't totally enamoured with the book, but on screen it really works and is beautiful and fantastic.  Definitely will watch again. 

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Classic classic movie.  Awesome music, performances, sets and comedy.  Love it now and forever.  We watched the director's cut which has a totally different ending - check it out.  I always forget how awesome Steve Martin is, but every time I see him I'm just like, "That Steve Martin, he's pretty awesome".  Love him in this especially. 

Troll Hunter (2010)
So, a movie about a guy that hunts trolls.  Couldn't be particularly interesting right?  WRONG, bitches!  Shot doco style, these dudes follow a real live troll hunter around as he goes about his business of hunting trolls.  They turn to stone in daylight y'all.  They hang around under bridges.  The effects were actually quite convincing, and the movie was super engaging. 

The Lion King (1994)
Not my favourite Disney movie by a long shot, but bought the DVD a while ago so thought it was about time to watch it.  It's passable, but there aren't enough princesses.  How anyone can like this over The Little Mermaid is beyond me.

The Road to El Dorado (2000)
Tulio and Miguel, mighty and powerful gods!  Love this movie, it's super funny and sweet at the same time.  Great music too.  Have you seen animated Elton?  I don't have anything else to say.  I really miss good animated movies.  Why isn't anyone doing this anymore?  

Oz : The Great and Powerful  (2013)
I expected so much from this movie, which is possibly why I was disappointed.  I can't pinpoint what was wrong with it.  Look, I liked it well enough but I didn't love it.  And it's not fair, as I love James Franko, Mila Kunis and Sam Raimi.  But this just didn't work for me.  It felt rushed.  Bruce Campbell's cameo was memorable though.  V happy with that. 

This is 40 (2012)
This was a spin-off of the hilarious Knocked Up.  I thought it would be funnier, and it has some amusing bits, but at the end of the day I found it really depressing.  I dunno, I can't really put my finger on it.  Movies where people are doing dumb dishonest things in their relationships piss me off.  And I think we watched the director's cut because it was toooo long.  I won't watch this again, and I usually love Paul Rudd.  Boo.

My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Studio Ghibli, oh how I love you.  I love how there is kind of no point to your movies, or how there's no clear story, but stuff just happens and that's just fine.  This was a really sweet movie, and I teared up at the end. I need to knit myself a Totoro now.

Hitchcock (2012)
Anthony Hopkins did a fine job.  I'm not sure how much of this was actually based on real stuff, I think it's supposed to be all true?  I found it interesting enough.  Luckily the only Hitchcock movie I'd seen is Psycho.  Relevant.

Gone With the Wind (1985)
Guys.  GUYS.  I had never seen this movie before.  WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?? I'll tell you what, the ability to commit to a 4 hour movie that's what!  So, you need to watch this movie at least once in your life.  It's super rad.  It's loooonnnnggg but there are enough good bits in it for that not to matter so much.  It's very weird, all the scenes are very short and spaced out.  Oh now we're in a different state a few years later?   OK.  There's so many memorable scenes in this, the costumes and sets are fantastic, the music is great.  Scarlett is a total biatch, but so is Rhett, so that's awesome.  I can see why it's a classic.  Scarlett and Rhett for lyfe!

Return to Oz (1998)
My favourite movie.  Ever.  I watch it all the time.  I watch it when I don't know what else to watch.  I've made my own Tik Tok themed ringtone and text message tone.

Goddess (2013)
I didn't even realise this was an Australian movie before I went in and saw 'Film Tasmania' on it.  Uh oh, Aussie cinema.. you need to be wary.  I think you would either love or hate this.  I really enjoyed it.  The music was really good, Ronan Keating was super cute.  It had a few cringe moments but overall it was nice and soppy.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
We watched this to prepare ourselves for the new movie (see below).  I really like this one.  Tommy.. err Joseph Gordon Levitt is a fave of mine, and it's a fun popcorn movie.  Snake eyes is also super bad-ass.  And it has the Doctor in it, so you can't really complain too much.  You really can't when a movie gets it's roots from action figures.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
I didn't enjoy this as much as the first, I felt there wasn't enough character development, or there were too many characters or too much going on.  But I'm a Ray Stevenson, and his character was rockin', even though I didn't really know what the frick accent he was trying to do.  The Rock's guns were about to pop too.  They're out of control.

The Goonies (1985)
Again, HOW HAD I NOT SEEN THIS BEFORE?  What a rad frickin' movie.  Really really enjoyable.  The whole time watching this I was just lamenting the fact that they will never make movies like this anymore.  So much of this would be CGI these days.  And no kid would ever say 'shit' in a PG movie! I found it funny because half the time the kids were just arguing and you had no idea what they were saying.  OMG Sean Astin was a cutie!

And the pick of March?  The Goonies!  It was highly enjoyable and one I know I will watch again and again.  (I didn't pick Gone with the Wind because it's too epic, and RtO is my fave, so I don't count it in the running because it's not fair on the other movies!)

Watch anything good last month?  Any recommendations?

~Tan