"The BFG", "Big Fish", "Bio-Dome" & "The Birds"

Queen's Birthday weekend was cold, wet and miserable. Over the three days I left the house once - on Sunday morning to do some shopping. It was the perfect weekend to watch lots of movies.

After "The Bee Movie" we moved on to " The BFG".  This one is the third in JP's DVD set that also contains "The Bear" and "Watership Down".

I loved Roald Dahl stories when I was a kid, but I don't remember reading "The BFG". I remember hearing about it but not reading it. And, I don't remember watching a made-for-TV cartoon movie based on the story either.

I love animation movies, but this is a cartoon, and I'm not so enthralled. The quality is different and the feel is different. Plus it's purely aimed at children, as opposed to more recent animations that have lots of adult references and jokes worked in for all those adults that have to take their children to see it at the movies.

"The BFG" is about a wee girl Sophie that is in an orphange. One night she sees a giant in her village and he whisks her away with him to the land of giants. He is the only friendly giant around and he and Sophie quickly form a strong friendship. He collects dreams and then gives them to children in the night. He and Sophie discover that the other giants are planning to eat the children in the village, so they concoct a dream to show the Queen of England so that she'll help them. Which she does.

I'd imagine that the truth of "the book is always better" rings true here too. There wasn't much to hold my attention other than it being a very famous book and my dedication to the project ot see it through. It's sweet and I wouldn't have a problem showing this to my kids if I needed too.

Not much else to say about this one I don't think. I wouldn't recommend it - there's no point to it. Read the book instead.

Next was "Big Fish". "Big Fish" is a beautiful, quirky movie. But it can also be rather sad.

The story is about a man that returns home to say goodbye to his dying father. He's been estranged from his father for several years because he's sick of a lifetime of his fathers over exagerated stories of his life. These stories are told over the course of the movie and they seem all very huge and unbelievable; like the time he drives underwater and when works for the circus and comes across a town covered in grass and no shoes, or when he parachutes in Vietnam during the war and convinces the siamese twins he finds to join the circus in the US.

JP's told me that I give away alot of good spoilers, so not this time. But I think it's fairly obvious where it leads in the end.

It can be a very sad tale, and I hope JP doesn't mind me saying that he finds this a difficult movie to watch due to the nature of the story and his own personal experiences. Knowing this, it makes me really consider how wonderful my father is and how much I need to make the most of family while I have the opportunity. Depending on my mood, it can make me sad too and thats why I don't often watch this movie, even tho it's a brilliant movie.

I also adore Ewan MacGregor. I've said before and I'll probably say it every review for every movie he's in. But I just love him. He's brilliant and he's supported by other brilliant actors - Albert Finney, Helena Bonham Carter and a host of others that are equally brilliant. It has Billy Crudup as the son, and neither JP or I can think of another movie that he's done.

Another very good reason that this movie is brilliant is that it's a Tim Burton movie, and Tim Burton movies are always quirky and fun. Think "Edward Scissorhands" or "The Corpse Bride". They are often dark and quirky and I like that. I like the movies that are different and quirky. I know I've used the word "quirky" alot, but I really think it's the perfect word to sum up this movie!

So to sum up - Ewan MacGregor + Tim Burton = Brilliant, quirky, fun movies that are well worth seeing, no matter your age or imagination. Just watch it. You'll be pleased you did.

Next up was "Bio-Dome". When I was a teenager I watched this movie over and over and over again. I loved it. Even then I knew it was a piece of fluff, nothing close to award winning and at times just cringe worthy, even crude. But it made me laugh and that's what counts. Since I was a teenager I haven't watched it much, I've kinda moved on in my movie watching. But I bought this on DVD for nestalgic's sake.

Meanwhile JP hates it. About 25 minutes in he asked if we could stop watching and in return he'd sit, smile, sing a long and not make snarky comments to the entire 'Glee' DVD collection. Tempting, but not a chance buddy. "Bio-Dome" is in the project, like it or not.

The story is about two junior college boys that are crude and disgusting and boys. On Earth Day their girlfriends trick them into leaving their house to make an effort. They stop off for a toilet stop and what they assume is a Mall opening. They go inside to pee and get trapped inside what is actually a Bio-Dome that is sealing 5 scientists inside for a year. Oh dear! Of course they resist and set about causing as much havoc as possible. About a month in they find a key to a lock that opens a window in the desert section and they invite all their hundreds of college friends to the biggest party of all time, all but destroying the Bio-Dome. After a large telling off by their girlfriends they realise the error of their ways and recruit 4 of the 5 scientists into helping them restore the Bio-Dome to 100% . The fifth scientest has mysteriously disappeared and reappears the night before the opening of the doors only to cause havoc and potential disaster to the Bio-Dome.

It stars Pauly Shore, Stephen Baldwin (probably the lesser known of the four Baldwin brothers) and Kylie Minogue. JP said it - probably Kylie's lowest career point. I don't think there are any performances of note in this movie. Except perhaps from the voice of the Bio-Dome Homeostatis computer. He really makes me feeeel that he's the computer.

I don't have much else to say about this movie, other than if you need a laugh and don't want to think at all, this is a good one to watch. It's crude and rude and almost "typical" of American humour. Oh and I will just say that watching JP watch this knowing how much he hates it was more fun that watching this movie again. hehe.

I think the only thing that saw JP through "Bio-Dome" was knowing that Alfred Hitchcocks "The Birds" was next.

"The Birds" is classed as a horror movie, but JP wasn't able to really explain why it was. Oddly, I've seen this before and I didn't find it that scary, or scary at all in fact. Birds don't bother me in the slightest. Now, if it had been called "The Spiders" and had hordes of spiders attacking people and houses and not birds, I wouldn't be able to be in the same house, let alone actually watch the movie.

So the story is starts in a Pet store in San Francisco. Melanie is ordering birds and is mistaken to be a staff member by a handsome man (whose name escapes me right now). He tells her that he wants lovebirds for his little sisters birthday and then he leaves. She works out who he is and takes a pair of lovebirds to his families home in Bodega Bay (can anyone say stalker?!). The man notices her leaving across the bay by boat and raises to meet her at the dock where she is swooped at by a seagull. She makes up some phoney story about visiting the local school teacher for the weekend and agrees to stay for the sisters birthday party the next day. At the party the children are attacked by a flock of birds, so she stays a bit longer. Over the next few days (in which she only ever wears the one outfit - euw) the bird attacks get bigger, involve more birds (namely crows and seagulls) and deadlier. It all comes to a head when Melanie is bunkered down in the house with the family and it's attacked by a huge flock of birds and I mean huge!

While watching this I couldn't help but think that she was such a stalker for tracking down the guy from the store and then going to his house in a far off seaside town, sneaks into his house and leaves birds for crying out loud. But somehow the man finds this endearing and by the end of the movie (only three days later) he's hugging and kissing her and acting like an old married couple with her.

This movie is definetly a cult classic and how could it not be considering it's an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I'm proud to be able to say that I've seen it, but I wasn't that impressed by it really. Mainly because it didn't scare me at all and isn't that the main point of it. Of course I'm not looking forward to "Psycho", also done by Alfred Hitchcock, but after watching "The Birds" and not being scared, I feel ever so slightly optimistic about "Psycho".

Spoiler alert here people; What I did like is that you never find out why the birds start forming and attacking the town and people. That is the creepiest part. Not knowing the reason, makes it seem like it could happen anywhere, any time. Creepy right?!

Would I recommend you watch this? Hmmm. If you have any kind of dislike to birds, then no, definetly not, don't even dream of it. Otherwise, sure why not. If you're not scared by it then you'll at least appreciate the fact that it's a classic.

And that was the long weekend of movie watching. Next up is "The Black Dahlia" and coming up are "Bladerunner", "Blast from the Past" and "The Blue Lagoon". And there is still more "B's" to come.

We've been doing this project since 18th April and only half way through the "B's". I'm not sure if this shows great progress or just shows how long it's really going to take us to do this. I'm guessing it'll take at least a year, but probably more. Fun!