The Sound of Music Reunion

Well I do love The Sound of Music so I was very excited to discover that the cast reunion on Oprah is now on Youtube.

It's not a Time Traveler, People

It's clearly an alien.

I'm not sure why we're so desperate to have time travelers show up in old movies. There are lots of reasons this person could be doing what they're doing:

1. The actual feasible explanation of the hearing aid.

2. Itchy ear

3. Insanity

4. Hiding

5. Alien

Also, for the record, I think it's a man dressed as a woman. Or an alien dressed as a man dressed as a woman.

Follow That Blog!

I started a Twitter for this blog because sometimes there are comments I want to make that just don't warrant an entire blog post. You can find me here.

Trifecta

In the midst of all this contemplation of Sabrina and remade movies I realized, to my horror, that I've never written about the ultimate remake series: The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You've Got Mail. A trifecta of hatred, romance, and comedy. A couple months ago a group of very dedicated friends sat down and watched all three movies with me, for a marathon of awesomeness.

The Shop Around the Corner started it all in 1940 with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. It's a nice little movie, based in Hungary (??), our main characters work together in a gift shop and quickly grow to hate each other, all the while unknowingly writing love letters back and forth. It's funny and sweet, but I don't especially love it. The problem is, it has an unfair advantage considering that I loved the two later movies long before I even saw this one.

In the Good Old Summertime was the first of these three that I saw, during my childhood Judy Garland obsession. I believe that my loyalty to Judy and the sentimental value it holds for me make it my favorite of the three. It continues our themes of love blooming from extreme hatred, with our two main characters working together in a music shop. It's entertaining and fun, however, Judy is extra mean in it and many of the songs are forgettable.

So that brings us to You've Got Mail. Basically the same story, lead characters hate each other in real life, but love each other on paper ... or email as it were. Look, I love this movie. It's funny and romantic and basically lovely. I can't bring myself to say that I like it more than Summertime, but I don't like it less. And I can't really think of anything bad to say about it.

So is this another case of a superior remake (or two)? I'd say yes, though I know there are many people that love the original. I would highly recommend watching all three of them together if you're into that sort of thing. There are quotes and gags and characters that survived all three films, and they're all quality movies.

Sabrina vs. Sabrina

The other night I made my husband watch the 1995 version of Sabrina. I picked this film because I really wanted to watch a girly, romantic movie that my husband can also enjoy. And since Harrison Ford is in some of my husband's favorite movies, I figured this would be a good option. It's basically the same as Indiana Jones, really.

So a lot of people (by "a lot" I mean just a few) argue passionately (by which I mean, discuss briefly) which version of Sabrina is superior: 1995 or 1954. Despite my loyalties to films made before 1970, I have to say I think I prefer the new Sabrina, and here's why:

1. Harrison Ford. Look, Humphry Bogart could never even come close to comparing to the loveliness, manliness, and general awesomeness of Harrison Ford. He is dreamy. Humphry? Old. Kinda ugly. No comparison.

2. The mom. Holy smokes, the mom in the new Sabrina is a riot!

3. Sabrina doesn't try to kill herself. It always very much bothers me when Audrey Hepburn tries to kill herself over David in the old one. It's very extreme and kind of disturbing.

4. Harrison Ford. Yeah, he's that important.

Now I'm not saying I don't love the old Sabrina because I do. And I am an Audrey Hepburn fan, she may be better than the new girl. It's just that, the whole point of a romantic comedy is to feel warm fuzzy at the end. To get us so sucked into the love story that we lose touch with reality and are incapable of having normal relationships in real life on account of the inflated expectations of love and romance that these films provide. The old one just doesn't do that for me.