Ellipsis Movie Of The Week... Working Girl

 

"Sometimes I sing and dance around in my underwear,

 doesn't make me Madonna... never will."

~Cyn (Joan Cusack)

Working Girl

"Let the river run, let all the dreamers wake the nation,

come the new Jerusalem."

The opening credits to, Working Girl, was filmed on a clear morning, in the city of Manhattan, as the sun rose above the Statue of Liberty, and the World Trade Center. Carly Simon sings it's theme, Let The River Run, and we see all those folks arriving to work in lower Manhattan. Wall Street, The World Trade Center stick in my mind, and give me chills when I think about how that must have been like on 9/11. Folks arriving at work to face another day of challenges. It's a strangely beautiful opening, but there is that bit of surreal that definitely reminds you about how life can change in the blink of an eye.

That aside, Working Girl, is a terrific movie, that reminds you that hard work, being able to adapt and take chances can pay off. Whether you are one of those folks who gets up early, heads to work at the crack of dawn, or an old lady like me, who is still finding ways to face every day, that lesson still applies. Hard work pays. Going out on that limb pays. I love Tess McGill's tenacity. I love her wit. And I love that she can stand up for herself, and that when she sets boundaries, she means it! Tess paid her dues, she endures one "sleazoid" boss after another, and being looked down on as a secretary, as she works her way up the ladder in the world of corporations and finance. 

Sigourney Weaver is delightfully nasty as, Katherine Parker, and Harrison Ford is the too good to be true, Jack Trainer. Joan Cusack is fantastic as Cyn, Tess's best friend, who gives Tess the best advice she'll ever get, and Alec Baldwin is perfect as Tess's one thought boyfriend, Mick. This is another  movie with a superior cast including, Olympia Dukakis, Oliver Platt, Nora Dunn, and Kevin Spacey as a sleazoid friend of her sleazoid boss, Lutz, and yet another potentially new sleazoid boss, which is perfect casting because, you know, doing sleazoid is what Spacey does best! If you look close, during Tess's birthday party scenes, you will spot David Duchovny in his first movie!

This film came out in 1988, so I can't believe you haven't seen it, but if you haven't I don't want to give to much of the story away. Watch it. You'll enjoy it. 

May The 4th Be With You... A Star Wars Memory

 

"Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, flyboy."

~Princess Leia Organa

Star Wars

No, this isn't my, Ellipsis Movie Of The Week, recommendation, it's, well, a memory. You see, while my sister and I were never particularly close, we did share a love of movies. But as we found over the summer of 1977, Star Wars wasn't just a movie, it was a kid's blockbuster! When I say kid, I mean tweens and teens, like me. The movie was released on May 25th, 1977, and took off with light speed! By the time my birthday came around, a month later, it was a genuine hit! I didn't really have a big desire to see it, but my mother insisted I did, so off I was sent with my sister and her brand new fiancé to see it, at a matinee. The line was around the building, and down the block, and in that it was at the end of June, it was HOT, but folks were already on their 8th or 9th time seeing it! I have never loved the summer, and I have especially never loved that my birthday was in the summer, but it was fun to watch the energy of those around me in line. The movie was so-so. There was just something about it that had me wondering what the big deal was. My sister and her fiancé were a little too into each other for me to discuss the finer points of what I found lame, so there was that. As the summer wore on, and I discussed the movie with my friends, most of them decided I was nuts. They were either in love with Han Solo, or Luke Skywalker, which I completely understood, but that had very little to do with what was nagging at me about a perfectly fine movie! My guy friends simply insisted it was the best movie ever made, period, end of discussion! Then, I finally got my answer when I met my future husband.

You see, dear hubby is the brother of sister's husband. Yes, we married brothers. Alan and I met somewhere between the film's release and my birthday, Memorial Day, to be of exact. We didn't talk much that day. He can be a bit standoffish. Which is fine, the whole, families getting to know each other, thing was lame, but there was no avoiding it, so I figured that perhaps we could be... yikes... cordial. Um... nope. He barely acknowledged my existence. Shrug. Okay. It wasn't until years later I learned why he not only would not want to talk all things Star Wars, but why he had his nose out of joint that day, but that story is for another time. Eventually, he and I met again at the wedding, the following November, so here was my chance, I really wanted his opinion, and it was a safe ice-breaker. Why was the movie that ate the summer, so mediocre to me? I explained my impression to him, that the film seemed to be oddly off about something, and he said, it wasn't lacking anything, and then he asked me if I liked westerns? I had to think about it, but finally I told him, no, I didn't. I grew up in a time when there was a different western on every night of the week, I exaggerate, but take a look at the tv in the 50s 60s and 70s! Bonanza, The Big Valley, Alias Smith and Jones, The Wild Wild West, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Riflemen, Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick, The Virginian, ugh, you see what I'm saying! I thought about it, Star Wars takes place in a Galaxy, far, far away, which was different than most sci-fi I grew up with! Suddenly it all came together! Star Was was a space western for our parents, and a glitzy sci-fi movie for we kids. The special effects for the time was truly amazing! Of course it couldn't fail! Well done, George Lucas!

So, all these years later, I am married to the love of my life, and we have this whole day planned around watching as many Star Wars movies that we can fit into one day! And I am thinking of my sister. She passed away, several years ago, without she and I ever really becoming close as sisters, and I am in truth, missing her most days, but I have grown to really like the memory of going to see, Star Wars, with her and WhatsHisName. Looking back, it was a good day! Space Westerns Rule!

 And I still have a crush on Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford!

May The 4th Be With You!

 

Ellipsis Movie Of The Week... Six Days, Seven Nights

 

Robin, Speaking to Quinn: I've flown with you twice,

 and you've crashed half the time."

~ Six Days, Seven Nights

Imagine six days and seven nights on a fabulous tropical island, sounds like a dream come true, doesn't it? Although I would probably rather spend my vacation birding in Central Park, or shopping in London, I could see how it would be an amazing idea, especially if you're vacationing in winter, but good ideas can go horribly wrong. That's what this film is all about. Good ideas, bad ideas, and the love and strength to survive your choices along the way. You never know when fate will line things up, there are so many random moments in life, the worst idea can turn out to be just what you needed, and the perfect moments can sometimes fall spectacularly flat. Anne Heche and Harrison Ford are terrific, and they bring the adventure and romance!

Watch it! It's a pretty good time! It's a rom com worth curling up with!

The Calypsonians 

By

Taj Mahal and the Hula Blues

Halloween Countdown Film #12... What Lies Beneath

 

"You're not yourself today are you?"

 

~Dr. Norman Spencer

 What Lies Beneath 

 

Alan Silvestri  

 

Is there a ghostly face at the end of the movie? Do you see a ghostly face? Ooops, I guess I gave the movie away a bit, but whether or not there is a ghostly face at the end of the movie is a point of contention among a few of my friends, from back when this movie was made. Was it really released in 2000? Yep. Wow that was a long time ago! But even today, it captures my attention. Such great casting. Harrison Ford without his shirt on, playing a dangerous cad! Miranda Otto and James Remar as the creepy neighbors, Warren and Mary Feur, and Beautiful Amber Valletta as Madison Elizabeth Frank, the young woman who just might be haunting, Norman and Claire. Or is she?

 

 

Whew! That Was A Close One Harrison Ford!

"Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have

 when they wake up from a nightmare."

~Alfred Hitchcock

Yesterday, Thursday afternoon, CNN broke into it's usual afternoon programing of  generally horrifying events, to bring it's viewers BREAKING NEWS of a specific horrifying event... "HARRISON FORD INJURED IN A PLANE CRASH!" My first thought after seeing the pictures of the downed plane was no, no, nope NO! Harrison Ford does not get to die on me. NO! Like it was his choice to, or within my power to prevent. I can't seem to keep a favorite show on the air, let alone keep all my favorite actors in perfect mental and physical health. But see, I am still smarting over the death of Robin Williams. Now I know, it's completely different. It is. I know that. But here is the thing, life is difficult. Sometimes, really difficult, and when it is, I like to escape into a movie, or a TV show and just get lost in the script. Does that make sense? Of course it does. Who doesn't love a good movie? And when it comes to the movies, who does it better than Harrison Ford? 

Just A Few Of My Favorites...

The Conversation

 (Go See It On Netflix NOW)

American Graffiti

Star Wars

The Empire Strikes Back

Return Of The Jedi

Working Girl

Blade Runner

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

And My Very Favorite

What Lies Beneath

I know, the reviews for the movie were mixed, but in general, I like to make up my own mind. There, I said it. Sometimes I think they over analyze a movie to the point that it isn't possible for them to find a movie they would actually like, let alone recommend one to us. Why do folks want to take the fun out of films by over thinking them? Go to the theater. Buy yourself some wonderfully unhealthy bucket of almost-butter buttered popcorn, and a hot dog, and a large unhealthy drink, sit back, and get lost for a couple hours. Let go. Stop nitpicking. Forget you are the smartest person in the theater, and clap at the end of the movie, like I did, at the end of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. When Indiana Jones said to Marion... "Don't look" as the Nazi's opened the Arc Of The Covenant, I didn't look. I heard it being opened. I could tell something BAD was happening, but damn it, Indiana/Harrison told me "DON'T LOOK!" And when Indiana Jones tells you not to do something, YOU DON'T! And I didn't for years after! Then one day, I accidentally saw that part of the movie, when it was used as a clip on At The Movies With Siskle and Ebert. 

Sigh.

I was kinda pissed at Siskel and Ebert for a while after that!

Just kidding. Kinda.

Anyway, I got a little taste today of what it might be like to lose another great like Harrison Ford. It will make whatever day that is, the worst day since... well... in a long time I am sure. I know I will never be ready to let go of those people who made my life better, just by sharing their talents of acting or singing or writing or painting. The arts, and the artists, make life bearable. There is no replacing the uniqueness of it. Sitting here, right now, I can't think of who would have played a better cad in the Robert Zemeckis's film, What Lies Beneath than Harrison Ford. No one could have at once been the right kind of sexy intellectual charmer, loving husband and father, devoted friend, or dedicated researcher, quite like him, and when all that amazing virtue, turned into the selfish, egotistical, maniacal, jackass of a husband, I think only Harrison Ford could put that little extra chill in the performing the character.

That's why I have it on VHS, DVD, and GOOGLE PLAY, so, it can be seen all my devices. It's my favorite escape movie. I have a story about why it's my favorite movie, but I will share that a different time. But briefly, it was released in 2000, not long before something devastating happened in my life, and that movie, and the brief escape it gave me during that awful time, helped immensely. It will always be my favorite Harrison Ford movie, at least until I see him in the new Star Wars film coming out later this year! LOL. Who knows? It my change my mind, Han Solo was always quite the cutie manly man. Shrug. 

You never know about these things, I don't wanna over think it.

Feel Better Soon Harrison Ford!

Mood: Thinking About Stuff, But Good.

~Me :)

Happy Valentine's Day

I love you.

 I hate you. 

I like you.

 I hate you.

 I think you're stupid. 

I think you're a loser.

 I think you're wonderful.

 I want to be with you.

 I don't want to be with you. 

I would never date you.

 I hate you. 

    I love you... 

I think the madness started the moment we met and you shook my hand. 

Did you have a disease or something?

~Shannon L. Adler

Oh my God, have I ever felt like this before! I have fallen in love at first sight. I once took 12 years to fully fall in love, and it was totally worth the wait! I feel in love many times with the wrong person, and just once with the right one. I have fallen in love with stars so high in the sky, that I will never be able to touch, only admire from here on earth. Which is terrific, because that light will always be there. You know the light... right? The light of perfection. The light that lives in the part of the sky where the picnic is always perfect, and where there is always a cool breeze moves gently past your face that always smells a bit like lavender, and where his eyes hold your eyes for a million years. You know this is fantasy love, and it has it's place. It's important. And one of the best parts about being alive. It's all part of a dream life, that is just as relevant as the real thing. Just ask any one of my celebrity crushes, because chances are, they have also felt that way about someone, at some point in their life. The crush... is there anything else like it? No, not quite. The crush takes no work, and it lives as long as you want it to. The crush lives forever, up in the tiny lights in the sky. 

My Celebrity Crushes

  (In no particular order)

David Duchovny

Micky Dolenz

Hubert Humphrey

Richard Thomas (John-Boy Walton)

Anson Williams

David Cassidy

Steve Wozniak

Harry Connick Jr.

Dylan McDermott

Keith Olbermann

Mark Harmon

Bruce Willis (David Addison)

David Hedison

Judge Reinhold

Steven King (the author)

Bruce Boxleitner

Paul McCartney

Dr. Robert Reich

Harrison Ford

Pierce Brosnan

::::Sigh::::

Dreamy, and as unreachable as the stars. Thank goodness!

:)

"I want to touch with my mouth. His mouth, with my mouth. Maybe his neck too. But first things first: Make him aware I exist. 

It's possible that he already aware, if only in a

 'don't step on the small girl' kind of way."

~Laini Taylor

Night Of Cake And Puppets

Real love is the best love. But crush love has it's place too. 

If only to remind one how wonderful it is here on earth!

Love every single day, as much as you can!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mood: HAPPY

~Me :)