Ultra's Fic (and Other Stuff)

I love fairytales! I'm not usually overly-girly about things (love of pink aside) and I believe in girls being able to kick ass just as well as boys can, but there's nothing wrong with being saved once in a while, and certainly nothing wrong with being swept off your feet by a Prince!

Sleeping Beauty is a classic and a beautiful story about a princess who's identity is hidden so that a wicked fairy's curse may never harm her. When that plan fails, its up to the Prince to save her, and of course he does in the end, but not without a bit of drama in between. I think my favourite part is that the prince fell in love with Princess Aurora when she was Briar Rose, the poor girl version of herself, and she had no idea he was a Prince either. I watch this and end up singing 'Once Upon A Dream' for days - I love that song and the scene it plays in :)

In Tangled, the girl is a little more kick-ass than the guy, but he has his moments too. Voiced by the wonderful Mandy Moore and awesome Zachary Levi (of Chuck fame), Rapunzel escapes her tower with a little help and also some hindrance from thief Flynn Ryder. They have quite the adventure in their escape and subsequently fall in love, despite their differences, and the fact Flynn isn't quite as cool as he seems! There are some great songs and beautiful moments in this movie and once again we get a happy ending eventually, complete with a sacrifice to make the magic happen - I swear, I cried, but they were happy tears! :)

And thats it!
100 DVDs have been shared in my LJ over the last 40+ days.
Hope you all enjoyed it! :)

Yes, more Christmas movies, even though its June, lol. They're just too good not to mention!

Santa Claus: The Movie is a childood favourite and I must have watched it 100 times. It tells the story of how Santa came to be, and shows his workshop and many helpful elves, including the ever-imaginative Patch played by cuddly Dudley Moore. The magic of the North Pole meets the harsh reality of our world when Santa and Patch get mixed up with a greedy businessman, his niece, and her street-wise friend. Its a fun famiy movie with just enough drama to make it interesting and lots of festive fun and magic for the Christmas season :)

Miracle on 34th Street is another take on the Santa story. This Santa doesn't live at the North Pole but walks amongst us as Kris Kringle (Richard Attenborough) and ends up playing himself for the department store Coles. Before long, a rival store tells the world that Kris is actually a danger to the children as he must be crazy if he really believes he's Santa! Its up to one little girl, her non-believing mother, and soon-to-be step-father Brian (who is also a lawyer) to prove that there is a Santa Claus and Kris is him. Parts of the story are heart-breaking but in the end all turns out well, and I end up with tears of joy in my eyes instead of sadness.

These two movies got paired on my list because they both feature a guy that all the girls are crazy about... at least in the beginning!

All the girls love John Tucker, and apparently they're all dating John Tucker... behind each others backs! Meanwhile, Tad Hamilton is a superstar that all the fangirls want to win a date with, but when one girl named Rosalee Futch gets her chance to know him, she realises that all that glitters is not gold.

I love the sassiness of the girls in John Tucker. They want their revenge on the cheating man-whore and they're gonna get it, regardless the consequences. Of course, a good man gets hurt in the process, the very cute Penn Badgeley as John's brother Scott.  Heartbreak also seems to be in order for Topher Grace's Pete when Rosalee seems to have chosen Tad Hamilton over him, but in the end true love conquers all.

Two good movies with plenty of comedy and fun. It doesn't hurt that Jesse Metcalfe (John Tucker) and Josh Duhamel (Tad Hamilton) are quite the hotties too!

Jane Austen is my favourite writer of 'period drama' type fiction, but Elizabeth Gaskell comes a close second thanks to these two adaptations!

Wives and Daughters is a classic rich vs poor tale, with confusing mixed up love affairs and family ties that are enough to break your heart at times. Molly Gibson is but a lowly Doctor's daughter and falls in love with the rich but down to Earth Roger Hamley, whilst Roger's heir-to-the-estate brother, Osborne, is secretly married to a poor French country girl and has fathered a child over there! Meanwhile, Dr Gibson has remarried the well-to-do Claire who comes complete with naughty daughter who can't keep straight who she want to marry, but at one point sets her sights on Roger too! In the end, Molly gets her man and all is right with the world, but not without many a bump along the way.

North and South sees poor and fatherless Margaret moving from the frivolity of London to a poor area in the north where she meets Mr Thornton (played magnificently by the gorgeous Richard Armitage). He owns a mill and looks down his nose at the lowly workers and the lowly Margaret. Of course, in time he comes to admire her spirit and the supposed hate between them turns to love, as is so often the case. Again, its a bumpy ride to a happy ending, and there's plenty of tragedy along the way as Margaret's brother is on the run, and her mill worker friends suffer illness and death from their jobs.

Both very dramatic tales, but wonderfully acted and produced. I love both of these and say well done to the good old BBC for making them! ;)

I really don't think there's much I can say about Friends that hasn't already been said. I'm pretty sure everyone watched it at some time or other, and I had all the VHS tapes before going on to the DVD boxsets. Six 20-somethings living in New York, navigating life, love, jobs, etc. Its the original young adults sitcom, as far as I know, and I still enjoy rewatching it even now when I can recite a lot of the lines, especially from the early episodes (first 4 or 5 seasons).

To be honest, I wasn't crazy about the later seasons when everyone started growing up, getting married, and having babies, but its still good, just not AS good to me.

As for Caroline in the City, it started just after Friends, and even had a couple of small crossovers. It tells the story of a cartoonist named Caroline Duffy, her assistant/colourist Richard Karinsky, her neighbour Annie, and her on-and-off boyfriend / boss Del. The friendships and couples go through quite a bit of evolution in the four seasons, especially the awkward romance between Caroline & Richard.

The ending was a cliffhanger and that kinda sucked, but thanks to fanfic a few fans have put forward ideas as to whether Caroline married her ex, Randy, or ended up with Richard and the son he had with his former wife. I guess we'll never know for sure what was supposed to happen. At least Friends ended properly, even if that last episode did make me cry!

Even if you loved the first seasons on a TV show, the second year sometimes disappoints by not measuring up - not with these two shows! I have already talked about Leverage and Chuck seperately on previous posts, specifically their 1st and 3rd Seasons, so lets look at the Sophomore year for both shows here.

For me, Season 2 of Leverage built perfectly onto Season 1, and coped really well with the fact one of the main cast (Sophie - Gina Bellman) had to leave mid-day through to have a baby. Her temporary replacement was Jeri Ryan as Tara, and honestly, I thought she would bug me, but I grew to like her a lot as yet another awesome thief for the band.

Several of my very favourite episodes are in Season 2 of Leverage, namely The Ice Man Job, The Runway Job, The Bottle Job, The Zanzibar Marketplace Job, and The Three Days of the Hunter Job.

Then there is Chuck. After one short Season, the writers had by no means used up all their good ideas and Season 2 did not disappoint me in the least. More laughs and hijinks, more drama and wacky stunts, as Chuck & Sarah continue to dance around each other, things get more serious with the evil agency that is Fulcrum, Chuck's sister Ellie plans her Awesome wedding, and their father (played by the wonderful Scott Bakula) arrives back in town.

Once again, some of my favourite episodes are included - Chuck vs the Fat Lady, Chuck vs the Sensei, Chuck vs the Third Dimension, Chuck vs the Colonel, and Chuck vs the Ring.

Ah, the 80s. It had some dumb and yet awesome movies, and here are two examples!

There is no way a journalist goes to Australia, meets a seemingly crazy bushman, brings him back to the US, and marries him. Equally as nutty is a rich woman falling off a boat and getting amnesia, only to be taken in by her carpenter, looking for revenge on the rich bitch, only for the two of them to fall in love, regardless of her memory coming back!

The truth is that it really doesn't matter of the plotlines are stretched beyond the limits of reality, these movies are hilarious and sweet and brilliant in their own ways. Whether its Paul Hogan as Mick Dundee scaring the life out of Linda Kozlowski's Sue, or Kurt Russell as Dean Profitt making Goldie Hawn's fancy Joanna Staton believe she's his down-trodden wife, its all just wonderfully done, and sooo funny, even though it probably shouldn't be! lol

Two 80s staples - you gotta love 'em! :)

The first two PotC movies are my favourites. I know Dead Man's Chest is usually considered the least favourite of many fans, but to me it is just excellent. It probably helps that I really like the idea of Sparrabeth (Jack & Elizabeth) - this movie has their big kiss moment, and his calling her a Pirate too. That whole scene is the best for me out of all three movies in the trilogy.

Of course, Dead Man's Chest really doesn't work so well unless you then go on to watch At Worlds End, and though that last movie in the trilogy is necessary, I find it a bit overly long and kinda boring. I just wish they would've got on with it and not stretched it out to be so very long, because there are parts I really like, they just come in between long stretches of yawnfest!

As it stands alone, Curse of the Black Pearl probably works best for casual viewing. The introduction of Jack Sparrow is just wonderful and he entertains throughout. Elizabeth is a fun heroine that certainly shows more back-bone than most women of her time. I don't care much for Will Turner, not in the first movie, he's just too nice for my liking here.

I was never into Pirate movies previously, but Johnny Depp got me into this series, and I thoroughly enjoy them, especially the first two... and we won't even mention the direness of On Stranger Tides, I threw that dvd away a while back!

I first saw Ever After way back when I was having a Drew Barrymore movie phase. This was when I was collecting VHS and have since had to replace with DVD. Ever After is a retelling of the Cinderella tale and a very charming one too. I love that this version has a Cinderella (or Danielle, as her name is here) is a strong young woman who won't take crap from anyone, and yet, she still gets her Prince in the end. Angelica Houston is positively evil as the wicked Step-Mother and I love to hate her in this movie, whilst Dougray Scott is a dashing Prince that could sweep me off my feet any day he liked!

Enchanted is a fairytale in a different sense, or rather a mixture of many thrown into a modern world. Amy Adams looks just like a Disney princess should as Gisell who falls down a well from the animated fairytale world and appears through a drain cover in modern-day New York. Patrick Dempsey doesn't exactly seem like the Prince Charming Giselle is looking for at first, but his daughter ensures that he and everyone else around believes in the fairytale world and helps lead to a happily ever after ending. Plus the songs in this movie are just wonderful :)

I love a good fairytale, and these are wonderful interpretations, with fun and laughter and a happy ending for all, which is as it should be.

Amanda Bynes is a great actress and I really don't think she's starred in a movie that I haven't liked. The first I saw her in was What A Girl Wants in which she discovers her long lost father is in fact the upper crust gent that is Colin Firth. Mayhem ensues when this downtown girl comes to join the ranks of the upper class British folks, and its just a good time, feel good movie.

In Sydney White, Amanda is the title character, a spin on Snow White who moves in with seven dorks on a college campus and tries to navigate the Greek world within. As with all good fairytale based stories, she gets her Prince in the end, but the journey to that point is both fun and dramatic in turn.

The supporting casts in both movies are wonderful - its lovely to have such great ensembles.