Saturday Nights with TCM

2009-09-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

I work overnights on Saturdays with a lovely old woman who enjoys watching television. I've been her weekend health care companion for almost a year now, and for a long time the Food Network channel was her constant evening entertainment. A month and a half ago she was urged to switch to a different network (I won't go into the details, but the poor woman has some rather opinionated and nasty relatives who threaten to send her into a full time nursing home and out of her beloved retirement community condo). She chose Turner Classic Movie channel, and whatever the reason behind it, I was pleasantly happy to discover that I really do like old movies.

I had my suspicions, mind you, for awhile. The week, almost 17 years ago, in my sophomore year of high school where we missed the entire 5 days of school due to snow and I watched my rented copy of Gone With The Wind over and over again. That was my first real clue. Of course I had loved Meet Me In St. Louis as a child, but that was undoubtedly my parents influence.

Then as I grew to adulthood going to the movie theater became a passion of mine. I love the experience, I don't even mind the inflated prices... much. Then a friend of mine became enamored of Katherine Hepburn films. The first time I watched The Philadelphia Story I was blown away by the humor. I had gone to college in Indiana, PA- hometown of Jimmy Stewart, but the only movies I knew him from were It's A Wonderful Life and a movie called The Spirit Of St. Louis- a Lindbergh biopic that featured Jimmy talking to himself and sweating throughout most of the movie. Which is something pre-teen me did not enjoy.

Philadelphia Story

But liking Philadelphia Story wasn't enough to sell me completely on old movies. I liked Katherine Hepburn, even watched a few more of her films, but I thought the likely draw of PS was the handsome Cary Grant. Which led me to Arsenic and Old Lace- now one of my favorite films of all time. I was beginning to see that maybe it didn't matter how old a film was, good acting is good acting. And I always meant to catch films on TCM, and I did manage a few, but still it's hard to make myself watch much tv that doesn't feature the attractive casts of Gossip Girl and Chuck, and most nights I spend on the computer.

So discovering that my client had decided to have TCM on all the time was happy news. Finally I could catch older films without feeling like I was sacrificing time. Since then we've happily watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Asphalt Jungle, You Can't Take It With You, The Guns Of Navaronne, The Long Hot Summer, Lolita, Gaslight, The Three Faces of Eve and many more. From now on, Sundays will bring reviews of whatever film we watched Saturday night. This week it looks like we'll be watching Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. I can't wait!

Paul Newman in The Long Hot Summer... Nums!

Sorority Row

2009-09-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

The hubs and I recently went and saw Sorority Row at Movieland in downtown Richmond. First let me say that I love this theater! I love it's Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight screenings with live cast, and it's weekend Movies and Mimosa's. What a lovely idea! Plus the theater has a wine bar and a cool vibe to it.

Movieland used to be a 53,000 square foot former locomotive assembly plant, and while the theater has all the cool new technologies, there's still reminders of what it used to be all around.

I basically had to drag my husband to the go see Sorority Row, as unlike me he doesn't love the best and worse the horror movies have to offer. But it was Tuesday, and we get tickets for $6 bucks on Tuesdays- we have special card.

The movie doesn't feature many big names, Carrie Fisher puts in a showing as the house mom of a rather wild and bitchy sorority house that sees more parties than the Kennedy compound and the Playboy mansion combined. And it has Rumor Willis, the offspring of Demi Moore and her ex, Bruce Willis. So my expectations weren't set high as we purchased our tickets with seconds to spare (hubs thought the movie started at 12:25, not 12:05).

Sorority Row

Normally we are not late movie watchers, in fact I have a pet peeve about people who come while the previews are showing and expect that they have the right to squeeze next to you or ask you to move over, when you've been there for an hour trying not to lose IQ points with the repeat movie trivia slide show, and there's still seats available near the front. You deserve crappy seats if you come late.

Luckily I was not the victim of my own pet peeve. The previews were already starting, but there was just a single person in the theater, so the hubs and I got great seats and didn't disturb anyone. Plus we made it just in time to catch the preview for New Moon. The fangirl in my squeed with delight! I just hope the directing is better int he second Twilight film.

Yummy!

Sorority Row is basically a movie about sorority sisters and their bond. Okay, not so much. It's a movie about stereotypes. You've got the mean bitch blond sister, Jessica. The mousy but smart scholarship sister, played by Rumor Willis- she's a pretty girl but was blessed with just a bit too much jaw for her face. You have the goes along with anything sister, the slutty sorority sister, and you have the heroine. Yeah, she's in the sorority too, but she's not mean spirited and she combines all the best qualities of horror movie scream queens.

Warning, if you don't wish to be spoiled then stop after the next sentence. Sorority Row, while it does have its typical nudity and gore, is also surprisingly funny.

Now onto the spoilers! That chick from the hills with no upper lip- Audrina Patridge, plays yet another sorority sister named Megan. In an attempt to trick the slutty sorority sister's (her name is Chugs) dumb ass brother Garrett, the girls conspire to make him think that he's slipped ex girlfriend Megan a date rape drug, from which she "dies" from. Of course, nice sister, Cassidy, and bookish sister Ellie (Rumor) only find out about the plan after it's set in motion. Somehow the girls get Megan and Chugs's brother into Jessica's Escalade without any problems, and they allegedly start off towards the hospital.

All the girls are playing there part, having a bit of fun at Garrett thinking he has killed Megan. They stop at some old abandoned mine with a lake of some kind. Here's where the horror story really begins. The girls convince Garrett that they need to dispose of Megan's "body" by tossing her into the water. Then they take it one step too far by announcing that they need to look for sharp rocks in order to puncture Megan's chest to get the air out... so she doesn't float to the surface. All the characters scatter off to search for suitable rocks, while Megan begin filming with her cell phone. Then Garrett decides to improvise with a tire iron, and rams it through Megan's chest without alerting the others. Of course since Megan wasn't actually dead, she start's spewing blood and causing panic amongst the girls.

Here's where the movie goes all I Know What You Did Last Summer-ish. Cassidy and Garrett are all for going to the police, but Jessica is unwilling to sacrifice her future for an accident. She gets the others to gang up on Cassidy, first with reminders of the vows of sisterhood, and then with threats of laying the blame on her. Cassidy feels forced to go along with the cover up, especially when they use her coat to wrap up Megan before tossing her down a old abandoned well.

Months go by, Cassidy has separated herself as much as possible from her sorority sisters, and is living with her valedictorian boyfriend. It's graduation day, so of course she has to swing by the sorority house for one last event. Jessica's still bitchy, Chugs is still a drunk whore, and Cassidy is still filled with guilt. This is made worse when the girls think they see Megan in the audience, only it turns out to be her little sister Maggie, played by actress Caroline D'Amore. She looks so much like Winnie Cooper that for awhile I think Danica McKellar is a female Dorian Gray. That creeped me out more than any supposed resemblance to Audrina Patridge.

The Walk of Shame to End All Walks of Shames...

Texts from Megan's phone leads the girls to bond again, and also to plenty of red herring suspects. It's suicidal Garret! No, it's Megan, she's not dead! It's her look alike baby sister! But in the end the killer was someone I only briefly held in suspicion. Which is good. I try not to over-analyze horror movie plots, I like to be surprised. And while it was a big shock, which is good- I hate when the killer is someone don't ever get to meet until the end (Scream 2 murdering moms, I'm talking about you!) or just some complete shark jump. Everything was tied up nicely. Those who should have survived did, those who should have died did. And along the way there were plenty of laughs. Horror movies should always either be funny or scary, or both. Sometimes they're only funny cause they suck so bad, but others are so bad that not even I can put up with them, *ahem* Room 6 *ahem*

Movie Hussy

Saturday Nights with TCM

Sorority Row