I never went to a normal college, never lived in a proper dorm or experienced fraternity hazing or even rush week from an inside viewpoint. I went to an urban art school and then a commuter school. And though I grew up in a college town and later worked on the campus of another college I didn’t attend, I feel like I don’t have the proper perspective with which to judge most college movies and college kid characters as being true to life. This probably explains why I enjoy so many bad movies set in colleges and/or involving college students. I bet I could even check out a double feature of The House Bunnyand College and have a good time at the movies.
Of course, I do have some semblance of good taste, and I also recognize that none of the following movies are anywhere near the quality of my favorite college movies (including Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman, the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathersand the Frat Pack’s Old School), or even the beloved Animal House, which I regrettably find to be highly overrated (no, that doesn’t mean I dislike it or think it’s bad or unfunny). The ten movies on today’s list are merely guilty pleasures that I can’t stop appreciating no matter how hard I try or how old I get.
Mick LaSalle asked us last week what movie we would like to be inside (instead of Beowulf, which we can sort of feel like we’re in). Personally, I think being inside The Wizard of Ozwould be awful. I might even prefer The Wiz, and I’d hate to be in The Wiz. I’d even prefer to hang out with Fred Savage in The Wizard, and I don’t play video games. My answers: anything Capra (well, almost anything — no Why We Fight docs); anything Marx Brothers; anything Muppets; anything Miyazaki; Amelie; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Goonies (why not?); and What Dreams May Come (the movie was bad; the setting was beautiful).
In honor of me writing more about Enchantedthan Karina ever would dream of, I present Rob’s review from his I don’t like Renee Zellweger blog, to show I’m not the only blogger addressing such mainstream fare. Like me, Rob found the movie to be “uninspired,” though he was apparently “disappointed” (I had a low expectation to begin with) and even notes that Amy Adams might have another chance at an Oscar (she’s cute, but ultimately annoying — though differently than she was in Junebug). Anyway, shockingly, the movie currently has a 100% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. We’ll see if that lasts. If only more of us bloggers were writing about it …
Apparently if you have a video clip of yourself negatively reviewing a 20th Century Fox release, the studio will have it removed, despite it being neither illegal nor their place to do so.
Are long movie titles bad for box office? Only when they’re abbreviated as diseases. “Cholera” = bad. “Pirates”; “Narnia”; “Harry Potter” = good.
iTunes seems to have screwed up its exclusive release of Ed Burns’ Purple Violets. It seems available now, though, so I can’t verify the blunder. Scott at CinemaTech shares his experience, at least.
I love t-shirts, and I love this design, but weren’t there movie adaptations before 1920?