2007 Movie Archive

Total Films Watched in 2007: (67)

New (43) [noted with *]
vs.
Rewatched (24)

[Navigation Note: Each title here will take you to my blog post where the film was mentioned. Within the blog post, the film's title is linked to the imdb entry for that particular film.]

[FYI: this list goes from the end of the year 2007 (at the top) to the beginning of the year (at the bottom)]

United 93 (2006) *
Match Point (2005) *
The Jungle Book (1967)
The Good Shepherd (2006) *
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Dreamgirls (2006) *
300 (2006) *
3 Godfathers (1948) *
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) *
Brief Encounter (1945)
The Departed (2006) *
Double Indemnity (1944)
The Fog (1980) *
For Your Consideration (2006) *
Heat (1995)
A History of Violence (2005) *
Hollywoodland (2006) *
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) *
Little Miss Sunshine (2006) *
The Miracle Worker (1962) *
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Pleasantville (1998)
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
The Red Violin (1998)
Mrs. Miniver (1942) *
The Pride of the Yankees (1942) *
So Dear to My Heart (1948) *
Flightplan (2005) *
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Children of Men (2006) *
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) *
Open Range (2003)
Collateral (2004)
Deja Vu (2006) *
Life in the Undergrowth (2005) *
The Life of Mammals (2002) *
Marnie (1964) *
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) *
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) *
Cellular (2004) *
Star Wars (1977)
Cape Fear (1962) *
In The Heat of the Night (1967) *
Inside Man (2006) *
An Inconvenient Truth (2006) *
Sliding Doors (1998) *
Before Sunrise (1995) *
Before Sunset (2004) *
Curious George (2006) *
Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) *
Infernal Affairs (2002) *
The Notebook (2004)
Over The Hedge (2006) *
Peter Pan (1953)
The Seven Year Itch (1955) *
Shark Tale (2004) *
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Capote (2005) *
Copycat (1995) *
Léon (1994)
Charlotte's Web (2006)
Aladdin (1992)
Superman Returns (2006)

Merry Christmas!!

Photo Friday - 'Best of 2007'

I've kind of been waiting for a theme to post this one, and it hasn't come along, so I'll just do it for this one. Definitely one of my favorites of this year.



This picture has also been recently published for a release in January. More on that later.

First Snow

A couple of weeks ago we had our first significant snowfall of the year. A couple days after that, we had freezing fog, similar to what we had in February of this year.

Here are a few favorites from the recent freezing fog:
(click on any of these to be taken to larger versions)






Over this past weekend, despite ridiculous, alarmist predictions of seventeen inches of snow for our area of which only around seven actually fell, we had little problem getting out of the house both Saturday and Sunday.

Photo Friday -- 'Sunrise'

lamp________________tree

The Force Was With Them

...for a few seconds, at least.

If I had seven grand to burn (so to speak), I'd probably order a brand new D3 and some decent glass to go with it (and then go crazy waiting 4-6 months for it all to arrive).

These guys chose a slightly different path. They decided to build a life-size X-wing, launch it and hope for the best.

Now, why didn't I think of that?

Because I'm not a GENIUS like these guys!


Is that a beautiful sight, or what?

Here's the video

Here's the story

Here's 'what REALLY happened'

Photo Friday -- 'Dead of Night'

Gotten out of the Photo Friday habit recently. Partly because of being busy, partly due to uninspiring themes, but I've missed some good ones too:

Real Life
The City
Silence
Strength
Dangerous
Travel
Two

Acutally, looking at them all together, most of those aren't uninspiring at all. I guess I've just been lazy.

Anyway -- what I'm posting this week for the 'Dead of Night' might look familiar to those of you who follow my Self Portrait Challenge entries because I posted this back in May for the SPC theme, 'On The Street.'



'Shopping Cart' (below) was taken the same night in a parking lot across the street from 'Awning' (above). I ended up using 'awning' for SPC because the theme was 'On The Street' and not 'In A Parking Lot' but also, I think I got too attached to the location in 'awning.' I had found the door and awning along with the graffiti, corrugated tin siding, and downspout would make a cool setting at some point for a photo. I was 'done' with my photoshoot and walking back to my car when I saw the shopping cart just how you see it here and thought it might make a compelling image. So the tripod, camera, etc. all come back out for this shot. Now, separated by a few months from both, I think I actually like 'shopping cart' better.

SPC - 'What I Wear' #3

I wear my camera bag just about everywhere -- just in case.

See what others are wearing here.

A New Favorite

SPC - 'What I Wear' #2

I Wear Chucks

See what others wear this month at Self Portrait Challenge.

Fall Update

We've been keeping busy with all the beautiful fall weather we've had this year.

Here are a few recent pictures of the kids:

Anderson University Homecoming
It had been a few years since we'd been. We were able to catch up with several good friends -- some that we see often, others we hadn't seen in 10 or 11 years. Hannah got her face painted, I got this picture:


I was a chaperon for Hannah's first school field trip to Grandmas and Grandpas Pumpkin (and gourd) Patch. They went on a hayride; played some games; picked a small pumpkin and a gourd to take home; learned about how pumpkins are grown; and walked through a corn maze:

Hannah's Class (Hannah is third from the left):


We went to Tuttle Orchard with Christy's brother and his family on a mild, but windy day in late October this year. We had all been there together before (except for Harrison, of course) just over four years ago.

Here's a picture of Hannah on the play tractor there from our first trip there:

...and more recently, with both Hannah and Katherine:

Love this one:

Swinging:


I showed Hannah how to tie her shoes like twice and she started doing it herself! Then, she insisted on wearing these shoes which are too big for her, but they're the only ones she had with laces.

...and finally, a few of The Boy:



He enjoyed playing in the sandbox and gnawing on an apple he got a hold of.

We also fit in a trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum on a Saturday when the weather wasn't quite so nice.



For Halloween, Hannah decided that she wanted to be a cat again.
Harrison was supposed to be a floppy-eared dog, but he was either a grumpy floppy-eared dog or a completely headless dog because he would scream whenever we put the hood of his costume up and pull it back down off his head. This battle did not create many great photo opportunities. Here's about the best of the lot:








Films Recently Watched:

Akeelah and the Bee (2006) dir. by Doug Atchison
Better than expected.

Brief Encounter (1945) dir. by David Lean

The Departed (2006) dir. by Martin Scorsese
I liked this better than the original, 'Infernal Affairs' -- Glad that Scorsese got his Oscar for it.

Double Indemnity (1944) dir. by Billy Wilder

The Fog (1980) dir. by John Carpenter
For Halloween this year.

For Your Consideration (2006) dir. by Christopher Guest
Not as good as others I've seen from Guest.

Heat (1995) dir. by Michael Mann

A History of Violence (2005) dir. by David Cronenberg

Hollywoodland (2006) dir. by Allen Coulter

Kingdom of Heaven (2005) dir. by Ridley Scott
Finally got around to watching the extended cut of this one. Big improvement over the theatrical cut.

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) dir. by Clint Eastwood
I was prepared to be wowed by Eastwood again, and was disappointed. I'll keep my eyes open for the counterpart, 'Flags of Our Fathers' at the library.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) dir. by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

The Miracle Worker (1962) dir. by Arthur Penn

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) dir. by Henry Selick

Pleasantville (1998) dir. by Gary Ross

A Prairie Home Companion (2006) dir. by Robert Altman

The Red Violin (1998) dir. by Francois Girard

SPC - 'What I Wear' #1

November's theme over at SPC is:

'What I Wear'

One of the first items that came to mind was something I wear that I almost never take off -- my wedding ring.

These are the words that we shared on our Wedding Day:
I give you this ring, as a sign of my love, knowing that love is precious and fragile, yet strong. I give you this sign of our love, an ever-present symbol, of the vows we have made this day. With this ring I marry you, joining my life with yours.



It has a few scratches here and there and it may have some of it's hard edges rounded over a bit, but as a symbol, it is as true now as it has ever been.

See what others are wearing here.

SPC - 'Food and Me' #3

I picked up juggling back in Jr/Sr High School. It took a LOT of practice to get where I wasn't constantly chasing after them, but I finally got there. I don't do it much anymore, but it's fun to show kids and such.

I loved all of Rachel's choices of apple shots last week. Here's my take:



See how others are playing with their food here.

Farmer Boy?

A couple of new favorites of the Boy:

SPC - 'Food and Me' #2

The Flip

I don't consider myself a master in the kitchen, but I can do a mean flip/toss using a skillet when I need to.

Here I am frying 2 eggs for an amazing egg sandwich.
Yeah, that's right -- AMAZING.


[Note -- it takes considerably more coordination to do the flip and press a camera remote at the same time]

See others playing with their food here.

Photo Friday - 'Wholesome'

Also:

Photo Friday - 'Comfort'

This was from back in March -- thus the shamrock pj's.

He just fell asleep in the middle of the floor like this.

SPC - 'Food and Me' #1

Happy October everyone -- we're looking forward to cooler temperatures, fall parties and autumn colors.

The new theme at Self Portrait Challenge is -- 'Food and Me.'

Doesn't everyones' tastes change as the seasons change? I know around this time of year, I look forward to chili (the way my mom makes it, which my wife is kind enough to make for me) -- pumpkin pie -- apple cider -- hot chocolate.

But first, you have to put the grill away which we haven't done yet. We've had some beautiful days here recently and we couldn't resist getting the grill out one more time (at least).



See what others are doing with food here.

SPC - September - #2

Well, I got a late start on the September theme and I'm glad this is the last week for 'Bathroom.'

But you know what they say: When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

Anyway.

As most of you probably already know, my oldest child started Kindergarten a few weeks ago. Apparently, school-sponsored roller skating parties are a big deal around these parts, so I did my civil duty and took my daughter roller-skating.

She had never had skates of any kind on her feet and it had been about 10 years for me. She did about as well as could be expected. I held her hand the entire time and managed not to fall down myself or on top of her. She only had one bad fall, but recovered nicely. All things considered, I thought we did OK. As you can see, I even managed to work up the nerve to get a shot of the both of us while skating.


And for the SPC theme:

It's difficult enough to go to the bathroom wearing skates, let alone setting up a camera for a timed self-portrait in there.

See what other are doing in the bathroom here.

Photo Friday - 'The Beach'

It be September 19th...

...an' ye know what that means.

As I mentioned late in th' day last year, Septembree 19th be Talk Like A Pirate Day.

You be havin' most o' th' tide ahead o' ye this voyage, so get at 't.

SPC - September - #1

The theme for September is 'Bathrooms.' Yeah, that's right -- bathrooms.

That's the reason why this is the third week of the challenge and I'm just now posting my first attempt.



Don't know that I'll get one up for next week either. Just not inspired by the theme. Others are doing wonderful things with the theme -- go check them out here.

Photo Friday - 'Purple'

Took a small break from Photo Friday during their recent themes:

"Unfinished" -- I started to take a picture for this theme -- hmmm, I'm not sure what happened.

"Insignificant" -- I simply couldn't be bothered for this theme -- I had much more important things to do.

This week is 'Purple' so I'm submitting this sunset picture of the steeple of Park Place Church of God near the Anderson University campus:

A few things...

In recent headlines:

Plain soap just as effective as antibacterial soap

(I've always been suspicious)

************************************************

Since you got to see plenty of Hannah last week with her pictures from her first day of school, here are a couple of recent photos of the Boy:


************************************************

Films Recently Watched:

Mrs. Miniver (1942) dir. by William Wyler
Still working through an 18-movie DVD set of 'Best Picture' Oscar-winners that I've had for well over a year now. One more checked off the list. I did enjoy the film. It has to be one of the most 'British' of the Best Picture winners. I did notice that, as chance would have it, this is one of three movies that I've watched recently that stars an actress previously unknown to me: Teresa Wright, the others being Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt and the other:

The Pride of the Yankees (1942) dir. by Sam Wood
Remember when there were professional athletes worthy of respect and admiration?

So Dear to My Heart (1948) dir. by Harold D. Schuster & Hamilton Luske
Classic Disney live-action. Sweet. Great for all ages.

Flightplan (2005) dir. by Robert Schwentke
I really like both Jodie Foster and Peter Sarsgaard. Implausible, but a fun ride.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) dir. by Sergio Leone
This gets better and better every time I watch it.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) dir. by Sergio Leone
Leone was a master with his take on the American West. Not as good as Once Upon a Time in the West, but excellent, nonetheless.

Children of Men (2006) dir. by Alfonso Cuarón
Not my favorite.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) dir. by Steven Spielberg
Always great.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) dir. by Kevin Reynolds
The extended cut of this really suffers from the additional scenes

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) dir. by Adam McKay
You know something's gone terribly wrong when you find yourself wanting to quote from a Will Ferrell movie during dinnertime prayers!

Open Range (2003) dir. by Kevin Costner

Collateral (2004) dir. by Michael Mann

Deja Vu (2006) dir. by Tony Scott

These were both mentioned previously, but I finished them in the meantime:
Life in the Undergrowth
Life of Mammals
Both highly recommended.