Friday, May 27, 2011

The Monkey And Katie At The Beach

Katie-Bar-The-Door and I are back from the beach—that's Katie on the right.

Except for a couple of moments on a borrowed computer to answer a couple of comments, I didn't do any blogging at all—the last four entries were prepared in advance—and I'm way behind on both my movie watching and blog reading. I'll try to catch up over the weekend.

I did see that we picked up some new followers here at the Monkey—welcome!. I've added them to the blogroll, so you'll see a couple new sites when you scroll down the page. And I see that Movie Nut 14, our favorite trivia answering machine, tagged me with fifteen questions on her blog, Defiant Success.

1. Movie you love with a passion.
2. Movie you vow to never watch.
3. Movie that literally left you speechless.
4. Movie you always recommend.
5. Actor/actress you always watch, no matter how crappy the movie.
6. Actor/actress you don't get the appeal for.
7. Actor/actress, living or dead, you'd love to meet.
8. Sexiest actor/actress you've seen. (Picture required!)
9. Dream cast.
10. Favorite actor pairing.
11. Favorite movie setting.
12. Favorite decade for movies.
13. Chick flick or action movie?
14. Hero, villain or anti-hero?
15. Black and white or color?

I encourage fellow bloggers such as Who Am Us, Thingy, Zoe and Mister Muleboy—and anyone else so inclined—to cut and past the questions into their blog, or into the comments section below, and answer them. No penalties if you don't though. We pitch a guilt-free tent here at the Monkey.

My answers, by the way:

1. Passion about? Whichever movie I'm currently researching, in this case the comedies Chaplin made for Mutual in 1916 and 1917.
2. Vow not to see? None, as long as it's reasonably affordable.
3. Left me literally speechless? Schindler's List.
4. Recommended movie? On the right side of the page, click on the Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards and The Silent Oscars.
5. Watch them in anything? Many, such as Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne, and just lately, Charlie Chaplin.
6. Don't get? Angelina Jolie.
7. Want to meet? Buster Keaton.
8. Sexiest? For Katie, it's Cary Grant. For me, Diana Rigg.
9. Dream cast? That would be Casablanca. Flawless cast.
10. Actor pairing? William Powell and Myrna Loy.
11. Movie setting? Around whichever musical instrument is appearing in whichever Howard Hawks movie I'm watching—for example, the piano in Only Angels Have Wings or To Have and Have Not, the guitar in Rio Bravo.
12. Favorite movie decade? 1940s. I think.
13. Chick flick or action movie? Put on Charade, which is both.
14. Hero, villain or anti-hero? Whatever Bogart is. Reluctant hero, I guess.
15. Black and white, or color? Yes, definitely.

9 comments:

Maggie said...

Good questions. This will be something to ponder.

My answer to #10 and #12 are the same as yours.

Nice trunks, monkey man.

Erik Beck said...

1. Movie you love with a passion.

Star Wars would be the top of this list.

2. Movie you vow to never watch.

Because of my awards obsession, it's hard to say. But I didn't have to watch the second Twilight and will thus avoid it forever.

3. Movie that literally left you speechless.

Well, I couldn't speak after Phantom of the Opera (2004), but I screamed a lot. Then I cursed a lot at Lloyd Webber for allowing Schumacher to fuck it up.


4. Movie you always recommend.

Children of Paradise


5. Actor/actress you always watch, no matter how crappy the movie.

Ralph Fiennes - for classic films it's Lon Chaney - he has a full day coming up in August on TCM - don't miss it!

6. Actor/actress you don't get the appeal for.

Classic - Robert Taylor and Victor Mature. Neither could act, neither had charisma (like Tyrone Power, who couldn't act, but had charisma) and neither was good enough looking to overcome those flaws. Hell, Mature was awful to look at.

For today, it's Shia LaBeouf.

7. Actor/actress, living or dead, you'd love to meet.

Orson Welles, hands down.

8. Sexiest actor/actress you've seen. (Picture required!)

I have no picture, but Gwyneth Paltrow at a benefit concert in Seattle in 2001 played by Pearl Jam and R.E.M.


9. Dream cast.

Ralph Fiennes - Arthur
Rachel Weisz - Guinevere
Daniel Day-Lewis - Launcelot
Ian McKellen - Merlin

10. Favorite actor pairing.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee

11. Favorite movie setting.

New Zealand as Middle-Earth

12. Favorite decade for movies.

the 50's

13. Chick flick or action movie?

action, but only if well done - I'll take the good film

14. Hero, villain or anti-hero?

anti-hero

15. Black and white or color?

black and white when it should be (Sunset Blvd, Maltese Falcon) - though certain films I wish had been made in color (Yankee Doodle Dandy)

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

#8 = Dame Diane!! I could not agree more ... :-)

Mythical Monkey said...

#8 = Dame Diane!! I could not agree more ... :-)

Brains, beauty, a wicked sense of humor, fun. And as Katie-Bar-The-Door mentioned to me the other day, she's aged extraordinarily well -- she was great in a series that was on in Britain while we were living there, The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries.

Humina humina humina ...

mkenobi said...

well, here we go:

1# "Blade Runner" - I saw a thousand of times
2# "Twilight", no one of them
3# "Antichrist", was a hard shock
4# "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain"
5# Johnny Depp/Juliette Binoche
6# Colin Farrel/Keira Knightley
7# James Stewart/Marilyn Monroe, of course
8# Monica Bellucci, in "Malena" (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_94wGm5Prdv0/S7ohF09s1QI/AAAAAAAAG_0/l2iE6RZ9xIk/s1600/2283-Monica_Bellucci+Malena+2.jpg)
9# "The Maltese Falcon", as so good as "Casablanca"
10# Jim carrey and Kate Winslet, in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
11# an object: The Bible in "The Shawshank Redemption": "freedom is found within".
12# 1940
13# "North by Northwest"
14# Anti-hero, no one better than Han Solo in the original "Star Wars" (Greedo dosn't shoot first, Mr. Lucas!)
15# Black and white

Anonymous said...

oh I didn't see this. Now I have something to do...

1. The Apartment. love everything about this movie.

2. Never: I guess the twilight saga, after watching the first one. I will never watch the ones that followed. Terrible.

3. Bonnie and Clyde every time.

4. buster keaton's movies

5. jack lemmon and bette davis

6. george clooney and the same as you, ange.. I just don't understand the fascination.

7. I would like to have Buster Keaton round for tea! and if he's caught up hanging out with you I would like to have Joe Strummer round for a camp fire lol. He did act in film to. so it counts!

8. Gary Cooper* dreamboat.

9. Dream Cast: The cast from Hush Hush sweet Charlotte is awesome.

10. Pairing: Same as you again: Powell and Loy. so many great films and you can't beat their chemistry. I doubt the actors in the remake will top them.

11. Movie Setting: San Francisco for a city. And New England for suburbia. And right now the south for the south.

12. Decade: This is a hard one. 60s maybe. or the 30s.

13. Chick Flick: Now, Voyager.

14.Bette Davis can be all of those characters without fail.

15. B&w or Colour either or.

Mythical Monkey said...

Joe Strummer! That's brilliant. Go to the head of the class!

And as for The Apartment, I love that movie so much that as a writing exercise, way back in the day, I transcribed the last four scenes or so, from where Jack Lemmon tells Fred MacMurray where to get off, through to the end of the movie. Just to give my sub-conscious the experience of having written something so good.

Anonymous said...

LOL I think its Billy Wilder/diamonds best, I look forward to your essay on the apartment in the near future then.... well since your doing the year 1916 I'm guessing it'll be more like the distant future.
I changed my header to jack and Shirley! don't know y I didn't earlier, it being my favourite movie and all!

Mythical Monkey said...

I changed my header to jack and Shirley! don't know y I didn't earlier, it being my favourite movie and all!

Oh, I like the new header! Great picture of Jack and Shirley!