Last Friday, Chris and I did a double-feature night. The theme was movies from the 1930s. We each picked a movie and watched them together. Our drink choice for the night was the classic Gin and Tonic. Chris makes a very tasty, very refreshing G&T.

The movie I picked was I'm No Angel, starring Mae West and directed by Wesley Ruggles. Released in 1933, it was West's 3rd movie. Cary Grant was in it as well, but Mae West had top billing...barely even saw Grant's name in the opening credits. West was credited with Story, Screenplay, and Dialogue.

Let's get the pros and cons out of the way.

Pros:

• Fast paced dialogue - always fun in the classics
• Mae West - very entertaining!
• Cary Grant - the quintessential leading man.
• Love the strong role for women in this movie

Cons:

• Plot is not that original: boy meets girl, boy misconstrues a moment between girl and another boy, boy and girl break up leaving the girl broken-hearted and angry, finally a big event reveals that the love never went away and brings boy and girl back together.
• Grant is not given much screen time.
• Age difference between West and Grant (West was 10+ years older than Grant) was far too obvious to me to make the on-screen romance believable.

This was the first Mae West movie I've seen. I can see why she was so popular in her hey-day. But what I was wondering about through the whole movie was the discord between the strong female character on-screen and how women were really like back then. West's character was confident and made her own way in life. Were women given this much leeway in reality in the 1930s? Somehow I doubt it...

My rating:

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The movie that Chris picked was 1934's The Thin Man, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, directed by W. S. Van Dyke. This movie was just plain fun to watch! Nick and Nora Charles (played by Powell and Loy) are a husband and wife team that just egg each other on and banter like there's no tomorrow. Always a drink in one of their hands, the action and dialogue are, as per the times, quick and witty and hilarious.

Pros:

• I love this team! Powell and Loy play off each other like they were really married. They would tease each other, lightly insult each other, but there was some real chemistry. There were plenty of times when I actually LOL'd.
• Nora Charles is a strong female character. Even Nick Charles knows this when he describes her: "Lanky brunettes with wicked jaws."
• Nick Charles is charming, even if he is drunk half the film.

Cons:

• The actual mystery plot is somewhat weak and not very compelling. I was more interested in the interactions between the characters, especially when Nick or Nora or both were in the scene.

I really liked this movie! We're going to have to watch the rest of the movies in the Thin Man series soon.

My rating:

Theme Ideas

Screwball comedies
Musicals
New Wave
New Hollywood
Film Noir
Con movies
War movies
Black comedies
Sci fi classics
By decade
Suspense
Actor/Actress
Directors (Allen, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, etc)
Documentaries
Guilty Pleasures
So Bad It's Good
Remakes
"I'm ashamed I never saw it"

Slumdog Millionaire

Pros:

• Did not give into the cliche of how kids live in this kind of world and still have a fun childhood.
• Did not give into either the "hero gets everything" or "hero gets nothing" typical endings. It was realistic with the ending being mixed for the main character.
• The mechanic of telling the hero's life story through the game show questions was very interesting and original.

Cons:

• I didn't want to think about the abject poverty in India. While not necessarily a "con" for me, it seems to be an overdone theme to movies about India.
• The tilting of the camera at certain points, usually when showing still scenes (like the shot of the Taj Mahal that every movie ever made about India has to have), bothered me. It didn't seem to flow well.
• It didn't explain clearly why the game show host was such an ass. Why was he trying to feed the wrong answer to the hero?
  

These aren't huge cons in my opinion. Over all, it was a very enjoyable movie, mainly because of the way it told the hero's life story.

I give it 4 drinks. Cheers!

First post

Lots to do:

• Settle on a layout
• Figure out all the options
• Invite Priya

Oh yeah, and watch some movies!