Thursday Movie Picks: Museums
1) Bringing Up Baby
The main plot here is David (Cary Grant) securing a donation for a museum while meeting a very peculiar Susan (Katharine Hepburn) This was one of my Blind Spots, and I liked it enough, though it's not very memorable for me.
2) House of Wax
I will defend the 2005 remake of this film to my grave. It's just fun and gory. And to be honest, I had a better time watching this then I did seeing an actual wax museum in Las Vegas.
3) The Squid and the Whale
While this film isn't technically about a museum, one of the most memorable scenes takes place in one when Jesse Eisenberg's character goes back to the Museum of Natural History to confront the big Squid and the Whale display. Of my three picks, this is my favorite though it has some extremely uncomfortable scenes.
Yes, someone else who likes the '05 House of Wax! I had a ball with that one. It's a tad long, but still very fun. I need to see The Squid and the Whale. Bringing Up Baby might be showing up on my blog sometime in the very near future, but shhhh, you didn't hear that from me.
ReplyDeleteI know! it's such a fun film. Squid and the Whale is very good, but it's pretty weird.
DeleteOMG Bringing Up Baby is one of my all-time favorite films. SO funny. It's one of my go-tos when I'm sick because it makes me feel so good.
ReplyDeleteI can't even with that gif of House of Wax, so... NO. (Although I do like the original with Vincent Price)
I'm ashamed that I still haven't seen The Squid and the Whale.
Come on, House of Wax is so fun. Watch it! lol
DeleteOh I love Bringing Up Baby! Poor Cary Grant's pursuit of the intercostal clavicle while enduring that the light-headed Hepburn's equally dogged pursuit of him is daffy but charming.
ReplyDeleteI've always meant to see The Squid and the Whale but just never quite got around to it.
We have a match in a roundabout sort of way, my first choice is the basis for all the remakes of House of Wax that followed. I haven't seen your particular version but the Vincent Price one is lots of fun.
I love museums too! The Louvre wasn't quite the giant I expected either though it was plenty big enough, I was just glad someone had advised me to get there before opening and find the Mona Lisa first thing! We got a good look at it but within 20 minutes you couldn't get near it. I love all the Smithsonians too though I lean more towards the American History one myself.
With that love of museums I ended up with four picks this week.
Mysteries of the Wax Museum (1933)-Sculptor Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) and his partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), run a famous wax museum in London. Joe burns down the place down for the insurance money leaving Igor trapped inside. Though terribly burned he survives. Decades pass and Ivan surfaces in New York as the curator of a new wax museum, boasting incredibly lifelike statues. When model Joan Gale (Monica Bannister) goes missing reporter Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell) follows the clues to Igor's museum, where she discovers a terrible secret. Remade with Vincent Price as House of Wax.
One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975)-Lord Southmere (Derek Nimmo) is being chased by a ring of Chinese spies pursuing him to gain possession of a secret microfilm he holding which reveals the formula for the mysterious Lotus X. While being chased through London’s Natural History Museum, Southmere hides the film in the bones of a Brontosaurus skeleton. When he’s captured it's up to his old nanny Hettie (Helen Hayes) and her hardy band of fellow nannies to find the film and keep it from the clutches of the evil Hnup Wan (Peter Ustinov). Pleasant Disney fare.
The Hot Rock (1972)-Fresh out of the slammer John Dortmunder (Robert Redford) is approached by his brother-in-law Andy Kelp (George Segal) to steal a priceless diamond from the Brooklyn Museum and return it to the African nation it was originally taken from. Helped by an expert getaway man and an explosives wizard, they steal the gem with a little assistance from bombs, a faked car crash and dressing up as uniformed guards and doctors. However, almost as soon as they get their hands on the loot and prepare to transfer it to an African diplomat, they lose it. Breezy caper film with a light touch.
How to Steal a Million (1966)-Cat burglar Simon Dermott (Peter O'Toole) is hired by the chic Nicole Bonnet (Audrey Hepburn) to steal the reproduction of a priceless sculpture made by her father Charles (Hugh Griffith) a master forger from to the Kléber-Lafayette Museum in Paris before it is examined and found to be a fake and ruins père Bonnet’s reputation. Comic complications and romance ensue.
With the Lourve, when I got there my friends and I made a bee line for Mona because I'd seen so many picture of massive crowds of people standing around it, and mind you we were there at like 3:00pm on a Wednesday...walked right up to it. There were a bunch of people in there but I just stood off to the side and got a great picture. Nothing like I was expecting. lol
DeleteHow to Steal A Million is popular today. I haven't seen any of your picks though.
I like House of Wax remake too! Very fun and it actually had really creepy atmosphere
ReplyDeleteIt did, and watching Chad Michael Murray try to act is always amusing.
DeleteGood call on The Squid and the Whale! Now I feel like rewatching it
ReplyDeleteThank you! :)
DeleteI didn't go with any picks as I just couldn't think of any and I over-analyze with the subject. Oh well. Good pick on The Squid & the Whale while the remake of House of Wax was alright though I'm sure we can all agree of what was the best scene in that film. :)
ReplyDeletePoor Paris. lol
DeleteThis is so great.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of these, but I had to laugh when I saw House of Wax. Even before I read your words, I knew you were going to defend your love for it...which I'm all about. I should track that one down at some point.
Same goes for The Squid and the Whale. Don't know how I've missed that one all these years...
House of Wax is so much fun, you need to see it lol Squid and the Whale too, though that one gets uncomfortable.
DeleteOnly seen the first of your picks. Which is indeed a classic. House of Wax sounds like something I would enjoy if in a dumb kinda way haha
ReplyDeleteThat's the best way to enjoy House of Wax!
DeleteI haven’t seen Squid and the Whale and not sure I will since there are very very very few films I like with that insufferable snot Jesse Eisenberg. Yahoo to matching with Bringing Up Baby although I love this movie. We kind of match with House of Wax although I chose the Vincent Price movie
ReplyDeletelol I love Jesse Eisenberg, but I know I'm in the minority there.
DeleteI have only seen your bottom two picks. Can't say I like either of them though.
ReplyDeleteI suppose they're not for everyone. Especially Squid.
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