We went to the library today and got Body of Lies, Sarah’s Choice, and Fort Apache. We got Fort Apache to watch with the younger kids, so we will probably watch it tomorrow night for our weekly movie night. I got Body of Lies to watch with my big brother this weekend, but he doesn't want to watch it until next week. Oh well, I guess I can wait until then. As for Sarah's Choice, I'm not sure when we will watch it, maybe tonight. We haven't seen it before, so I think just us big girls and Mom will watch it.

I found two versions of Mansfield Park (1999 and 2007) at the library, but since my big sister hasn’t read the book, we didn’t get either one. For those of you who have seen them, do you recommend either of them?

SnowAngel

*sticks head in*

SnowAngel, in regards to the 1999 film version of Mansfield Park, you might want to forgo that one. I have not seen it, but ostensibly they who made it added in enough inappropriate and mature content to give it a PG-13 rating. The 2007 one was better in the sense of content, although not entirely a faithful adaptation to be sure. I would recommend the 1980s BBC mini-series version, which was rather faithful, but I do not think there are altogether too many people who would enjoy it now a days, as it does rather have the feel of being filmed for television in the 1980s (which is, I think, vastly unlike actual films done during that time). I enjoyed it, however.

*departs*

Wow, I don't remember that at all. I wonder if I saw a TV version? Or maybe my poor brain has just blocked it out. It's too bad they had to stick it in there and ruin the movie for other people cause I really liked it.

Yeah, it was weird. She likes the Vogue photographer, can't remember his name, but she's still in love with David.So he asks her out for a drink and stuff, but he eventually has to tell her that she still has this problem (with dreaming about David) and he can't help her with that, she has to fix it herself.

And yeah, it was a shame, that a few other things, 'cause it was a pretty good film. It had more depth to it than the original.

I've never seen Wait Until Dark but my mom has and she loves it.

O good! I'm going to suggest you watch it sometime, you might like it. And Charade, defiantly watch Charade, if you like mystery and yet comedy. It's as close to being a Hitchock without actually being a Hitchock.

I had a 'blast from the past' moment last night. My husband and I watched Fern Gully. Between the heavy early 90s feel and the overbearing propaganda, it was highly entertaining but for the wrong reasons.

Fern Gully! Wow. I liked it though, it was cute, despite the propaganda. I like the bat best.

[quote= FK=I've never seen Charade and I don't like My Fair Lady.

*hovers over the "un-friend" button on FB....*

Ferngully, eh? I've never seen that one, but I have seen a hilarious (though highly inappropriate for most forum members) review of it on YT. It looks like a movie I'd watch with my cousins simply to do a Rifftrax on it.

Ferngullly...I have to admit I haven't seen this one. I remember the commercials for it on TV back in the day, but anyone with even a small modicum of grey cells knew what to expect going in.

Out of curiosity does it involve a multitude of rain forest creatures bemoaning the latest intrusion by an evil land developer? Is there a bulldozer scene? Do Sean Connery and Lorraine Braco find the cure for cancer up in a tree? And are there little pygmy people with blowguns that accost Indiana Jones when he exits the temple with the golden idol?

I must know!

Shadow the answers are: Yes, yes, no (Curses!) and nadda.

Of note, Ferngully was done by the same man that gave us Secret of NIMH. An American Tail and The Land Before Time in the 80's. To paraphrase a Pixar film: "The 90's weren't good to you, were they Mr. Bluth?"

ROFL Cor, that's hilarious. Yeah, I like all three of those movies that you mentioned.

Actually SL, what it REALLY reminded me of was Avatar. Very much so. In fact I was wondering if James Cameron watched a few times before writing the script (... and read John Carter and watched Dances with Wolves).

Of note, Ferngully was done by the same man that gave us Secret of NIMH. An American Tail and The Land Before Time in the 80's. To paraphrase a Pixar film: "The 90's weren't good to you, were they Mr. Bluth?"

I haven't seen Ferngully or NIMH, but I've seen an American Tale and Land Before Time. It's been so long since I've seen them, I barely remember them at all. But I was quite fond of them as a child.

~Riella

haven't seen Ferngully or NIMH, but I've seen an American Tale and Land Before Time.

Of all the feature-length cartoons ever made, Secret of NIMH is by far my favorite. Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings (1978) is in a distant second . You owe it to yourself to watch what I consider to probably be Don Bluth's finest work. The film is just magical with a great score, great plot, and wonderful voice acting, including a really young Wil Wheaton (which will please Princess Anna ).

I Ditto the above by Shadow, though I will throw in that the finale of NIMH is rather... unexplained. I think it might have needed some of Goldsmith's music for a few key moments to add a bit more dramatic emphasis on two certain scenes.

Also, the mystical angle of the film is never even explained!!. Granted, I don't want a long, technical explanation of what's going on, but at least a brief "How do you DO that?" *kindly chuckle from Nicodemus* "There are some things in this world that one cannot simply explain, my dear." or something along those lines would have been much appreciated.

Besides that minor/major quable, I really enjoyed Secret of NIMH. Great animation, solid characters, great atmosphere and a wonderful (as usual) score by the late, great Jerry Goldsmith.

Yeah, I agree about the magical aspect of it, PC. It kind of shows up out of nowhere and isn't referenced in the book at all. The source material says you're dealing with super-intelligent rats, not Harry Potter rats. It's also kind of dark for a kid's movie, but the 80's were great like that. No messing around, let's just dive right into dark and scary, shall we? Man up, kid! And that Goldsmith soundtrack is great, isn't it?

Seriously though, a lot of "children's" movies back then were unusually dark by today's standards of Nickolodeon fare. I had fond memories of The Neverending Story, for instance, so when we watched it again recently we were surprised at how disheartening the setting for much of the fantasy plot portion of the film was, especially that part with Artax in the swamp. I seem to recall that The Last Unicorn was kind of dark like that too. I miss the 80's.

I have to confess that I never made it through The Neverending Story, BECAUSE of that scene in the swamp. I think I watched most of it for the first time around 2nd grade? I was admittedly a wimpy little kid when it came to movies (I mean The Little Mermaid gave me nightmares), but even so, it was soooo depressing. Maybe one of these days I'll give it another shot since I'm not quite as bothered now as I was back then.

Shadow the answers are: Yes, yes, no (Curses!) and nadda.

Of note, Ferngully was done by the same man that gave us Secret of NIMH. An American Tail and The Land Before Time in the 80's. To paraphrase a Pixar film: "The 90's weren't good to you, were they Mr. Bluth?"

Actually I had thought that Ferngully is one of these Disney or Disneylike cartoon films that my youngest daughter loved so much when she was about 8 or 10. The sort of film we got her to get her interested in something else besides Dot and the Kangaroo and its endless spin-off sequels. To tell the truth we have had a video cassette of Ferngully all these years, and I still haven't got that round tuit to watch it.

Another two movies she absolutely adored, and which we did see quite a few times were 'The Dark Crystal' and 'The Last Unicorn'. These weren't too bad. I still like the skeleton on the clock in the Last Unicorn, not to mention Splendrick the Magician who couldn't control the magic he did.

The Never Ending Story was another such movie we saw a lot of but I don't think I could sit through it now. It was, well, never-ending. Along with the Land before Time, and of course when the little plastic toys came out at MacDonalds my youngest daughter loved to get them.

If these were all Disney films, then I much preferred 'Beauty and the Beast' which became a quite a spectacular stage show in Sydney. I have also seen it produced as a stage play by our local Musical society, along with Oliver and some other famous musicals like 'My Fair Lady' and 'The Sound of Music'. For singing quality, for the pronunciation, as well as sheer elegance, I don't think you could better Audrey Hepburn, though Julie Andrews did very well with the Sound of Music.

Oops.... Ferngully was Disney. Still, my joke about the 90's not being a good time for Mr. Bluth fits.

O.K, to clear things up for you Wagga, here is a list of the films you mentioned and what studio did them.

The Dark Crystal= Universal studios (A Jim Henson production)
The Last Unicorn= Rankin/Bass
The Never Ending story= Warner Brothers
Land Before Time= Universal
Ferngully= 20th Century Fox (Edited per Warriors observation)

Considering what Disney was putting out in the 1980's, most the above films were GREAT by comparison.

Oh yeah, not sure if you know this, but in the film My Fair Lady Audrey Hepburn was dubbed over for the singing parts by Marni Nixon.

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I've never read the source material, so my gripe with the magical element in NIMH is purely from a "story as presented to me in the film" perspective. But yeah, the 80's laid on the dark atmospherics pretty heavily for the kids movies. Probably a good thing the parents kept me away from some of them when I was growing up in the 90's, though now they are a blast to watch since I'm older. Funny how that works out.

Indeed it is! I keep hoping that one of the specialty labels will re-release Goldsmith's Secret of NIMH soon. The original album is good, but it's missing some pieces and is terribly expensive on the secondary market.

*sticks head in*

SnowAngel, in regards to the 1999 film version of Mansfield Park, you might want to forgo that one. I have not seen it, but ostensibly they who made it added in enough inappropriate and mature content to give it a PG-13 rating. The 2007 one was better in the sense of content, although not entirely a faithful adaptation to be sure. I would recommend the 1980s BBC mini-series version, which was rather faithful, but I do not think there are altogether too many people who would enjoy it now a days, as it does rather have the feel of being filmed for television in the 1980s (which is, I think, vastly unlike actual films done during that time). I enjoyed it, however.

*departs*

Thanks, ForeverFan! I was really hoping one of them would be good, but we will steer clear of them. I almost got the 1980s one of our old library before we move, now I wish I had since our new one doesn't have it. Oh well.

We girls watched Sarah's Choice last night. It wasn't perfect, but it was really good. I highly recommend watching it at least once.

Got to run.
SnowAngel