10 Favorite Movie Characters

A couple of days ago, I whined and manipulated until I got was graciously given a tag to do the Top 10 Favorite Movie Characters meme that's been burning up the interweb of late. The resulting list wasn't as hard to come up with as I originally feared but, to be honest, all I did was go through my DVD collection and just picked 25 characters that jumped out at me and narrowed it down from there. Not much agonizing over here. What I was most fascinated about by my final list was how it was a fairly nice round-up of my two favorite characters: the larger-than-life female and the damaged boy. Hmm....

Let's get started with this before we analyze that to death.

Apologies to the Runners-Up (in no particular order for a solid 25): The Tramp (City Lights), William Canfield, Jr. (Steamboat Bill, Jr.), Lina Lamont (Singin' in the Rain), Effie White (Dreamgirls), Maggie "The Cat" (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Erin Brockovich (Erin Brockovich), Go-Go (Kill Bill Volume 1), Sharpay Evans (High School Musical 2), Miriam Aarons (The Women), Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde), Norman Bates (Psycho), Mr. Aoki (Shall We Dansu?), Grandma with Crazy Pink Hair (Castle in the Sky), Regina George (Mean Girls)

Susan Vance in Bringing Up Baby
Quite possibly the greatest concoction ever to emerge from a screwball comedy. And you have to admire the lengths she goes to get the man she loves; that's what I call dedication.

Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind
She's a survivor, yo. I really wish I had her determination and drive to get everything she wants out of life, even if she has to lie, steal, cheat or kill to get it.

Margo Channing in All About Eve
This is going to be me in 20 years: the grand, aging diva always ready for every party with a martini in one hand and an arsenal of bitchy one-liners for unsuspecting guests.

Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard
She is big, and that's the way I love her.

Antoine Doinel in Stolen Kisses
Most people would pick Antoine Doinel in his teenage years in The 400 Blows, but I like to imagine my Antoine as the happy-go-lucky young adult in Stolen Kisses. It probably doesn't hurt that his character in this film is roughly the same age I am now and can relate to him on a whole new level than before.

Barbara Jean in Nashville
One of the saddest characters I have ever seen in any film. After all of her scenes, I just feel so bad for her I find it hard to concentrate on any other character with the same amount of attention.

Conrad Jarret in Ordinary People
Every time I watch this movie, and it's probably more often than any sane person needs to, I just want to reach out and comfort this poor guy.

Posh Spice in Spice World
Not only do her line readings ring with hilarity, but this character is quite obviously the starting off point for the "Victoria Beckham" character we all love so dearly (or at least I do).

Velma Kelly in Chicago
Fierce, monstrously talented and, in fact, can do it alone- what's not to love?

Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Strangely relatable and, yet again, another character I feel infinitely sad for everytime they appear on screen and feel this uncontrollable urge to just give them a hug.

Marry, Boff, Kill

J.D. had this fun little meme of sorts on his blog last night and I decided (perhaps foolishly) to take part in it. Here are the rules:

1) Comment to this and I will give you 3 people.
2) Post this meme with your answers.
3) Provide pictures and the names of 3 people.
4) Label which you would marry, shag, and throw off a cliff.

I thought for sure that J.D. would be totally evil and either pick three men I absolutely adore or three men I completely abhor just so I would have to make the ultimate Sophie's choice. Fortunately, he decided to be somewhat nice and picked Kris Allen, Dev Patel and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet. Let's get started, shall we?

MARRY
Kris Allen
I'm pretty sure I made this perfectly clear yesterday.

BOFF
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet
Because he's adorable, legitimately do-able and, if I married him, someone might be a little pissed at me.

On a completely random side note: While I was looking for photos of Grégoire for this post, I ran across this photo of him and some guy named Esteban Carvajal Alegria. I immediately rushed over to IMDb, hoping to find out something about this mystery man and I was a little stunned by my discovery. He only has about 10 film and TV credits, but he shares at least 8 of them with Grégoire! Isn't that odd? Any thoughts out there?

KILL
Dev Patel
In all honesty, I was holding out hope for a three-way with Dev and Zac Efron (since Zac is clearly in love with Dev and they're going to announce their relationship anyday now). But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I would rather have Zac all to myself. Sorry Dev, those are the breaks.

That was fun. Anyone up for this on their own blog?

20 Favorite Actresses Meme

When I saw this over at The Film Experience a couple of days ago, I immediately decided that I was going to do it whether or not I was actually tagged by someone. I have been super busy the past couple of days and couldn't take the amount of time necessary to give this the attention it deserves. Well, now I do have the time and it just so happens that I was tagged not only once, but twice! Thanks guys and without further ado, here are my 20 favorite actresses, in no particular order.

Katherine, Greta, Bette, Meryl, Marie
Glenn, Marilyn, Thelma, Joan, Greer
Mary, Babs, Elizabeth, Dame Judi, Vivien
Norma, Judy, Nicole, Olivia, Faye

My apologies to the also-rans: Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Joan Allen, Susan Hayward, Eleanor Parker, Jean Harlow, Diane Keaton

My tastes actually skew more toward the older, but that's mostly because I lived and breathed TCM during high school and fell in love with many of the lovely, beautiful and talented ladies. If anything, I'm actually much weaker when it comes to the 80's, 90's and early 2000's. But, of course, that just means there's always great actresses to discover and possibly change this list in the future.

EDIT: I just realized that I forgot to tag some people so I choose Marcy @ Because I Saw the Film, Kayleigh @ Shiny Happy Blog, Michael @ My Stuff and Cr*p and Vera @ Vera's Big Gay Blog.

The Four Things Meme

I saw this over at Stale Popcorn and I thought it would be a quick and fun meme to complete.

FOUR JOBS YOU'VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE
I'm not going to lie...I've only had two different jobs in my life: Sales Floor Team Member and Teacher Assistant

FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN
Gone With the Wind, Singin' in the Rain, Mommie Dearest and Spice World

FOUR PLACES YOU'VE LIVED
Chesterfield (up through elementary school), Yale (through junior high and high school), Kalamazoo (college) and that's it.

FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH
I really could expand this to 10 easily, but I'll stick with The Golden Girls, 30 Rock, American Idol, Desperate Housewives

FOUR PLACES YOU'VE BEEN ON VACATION
Minneapolis (for the Mall of America), Atlanta (for the Gone With the Wind tourist attractions), Mackinac Island (for the fudge), Six Flags in Ohio somewhere (for the rides and such)

FOUR WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY
Facebook (add me as a friend if we aren't already!), The Superficial, Stale Popcorn, Valley Dreamin'

FOUR OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS
Chinese Food (I can't narrow it down more than that), Donuts, Chocolate, Bagels with Cream Cheese

FOUR PLACES YOU'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW
1. In bed with Zac Efron
2. At the 2008 Oscars, witnessing La Tisdale winning a much deserved Oscar for High School Musical 3: Senior Year
3. On a deserted tropical island, far away from responsibilities and annoying people
4. At a screening of a film such as Rachel Getting Married, Happy-Go-Lucky or I've Loved You So Long, that, despite having been in release for as long as two months in some cases, still haven't come anywhere close to a movie theater in my area.

FOUR BLOGGERS YOU'RE TAGGING
J.D. at Valley Dreamin', mB at A Blog Next Door, Vance at Tapeworthy, Michael at My Stuff and Cr*p