Musicals!
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Saturday Night Fever: John Travolta.

I really had high expectations for the coolness level of this movie, and boy, was I disappointed. It's BORING. Disco isn't boring. What's wrong with this movie???? Anyway, if you feel like you have to see it just as a cultural reference, fast-forward to the dancing parts and try to follow along at home. We watched this at one of our disco parties, but we couldn't figure out how to move our hips as fast as Travolta. (Carly)

An American in Paris: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron (1951 Oscar for Best Picture)

This could be a production of the Paris tourist bureau. Kelly is a struggling artist who falls in love with Caron, a shopgirl in a perfume store. Both of them have other "special friends" to start with. Some of the most beautiful parts are when the two of them are walking along the Seine at night. Every time I see this I think that Paris must be the most beautiful place in the world, and Gene Kelly must be the loveliest man. (Carly)

Swing Time: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers.

The plot of this movie is weird--Astaire is a dancer whose co-workers conspire to keep him from getting married. He's also a gambling addict. To win his girl back, he has to make $25,000. He gets a job dancing, but by this time he's met another girl. The dancing sequences are OK, but nothing special. This movie lacks the charm of some of Astaire's others. (Carly)

Easter Parade: Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford.

I'm really only giving this a thumbs-up because I'm a sucker for musicals with tap dancing. Compared to other Fred Astaire movies, though, Easter Parade is mediocre. Judy Garland is a chorus girl in a bar recruited by Astaire to take the place of his famous partner who left to do another show. He considers himself the Henry Higgins of dance, saying that he can make any girl a great dancer. He does, but he also ignores her feelings. In the meantime, they have both fallen in love with each other without letting the other know, and Peter Lawford has also fallen in love with Garland. Despite the fact that he's taller, cuter, British, and nicer to her, Garland still likes Astaire better and pours out her tale of unrequited love to Lawford. She spends most of the movie looking sad or confused. I still liked the dancing and the songs, though, and it kept me entertained and reasonably happy. (Carly)

Kid Galahad: Elvis.

This is a movie you can watch while doing something else, but it's entertaining nonetheless. Elvis has just gotten out of the army, and he returns to his hometown. His goal is to be a mechanic, but he takes a job as a sparring partner at the local boxing training center to get some cash. It turns out that he can get hit in the head about fifty times and then deliver a knockout punch, so he goes on the boxing circuit for a while to help the owner of the training center. He falls in love with the owner's daughter, retires from boxing, and becomes a partner in the town's auto repair shop. Of course, he breaks into song at random moments. You can't hate this film, even for all its cheesiness. If you sit down to watch an Elvis movie, you know it's coming. (Carly)

My Fair Lady: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison (1964 Oscar for Best Picture).

I expected much more from such a famous movie. I'd already read Pygmalion, so I pretty much knew the plot. Maybe this is why I didn't feel glued to my seat for the whole (long) thing. On the upside, some of the music's great, and it improves over the length of the film. (Carly)

South Pacific

South Pacific is a great musical in the tradition of all the other Rodgers and Hammerstein movies. I only have one complaint: when the characters go off into their "dreamland," they use a yellow filter on the camera, and it's distracting. But the little kids are really cute. There's two main plots. It takes place in WWII, and Lt. Cable falls in love with this Polynesian girl, but he has trouble coming to terms with it because it's an interracial relationship. Nellie the nurse falls in love with an older Frenchman, but she has trouble accepting that because she finds out he's killed a man before and because he has two Polynesian children from his first wife. The best two parts are the Thanksgiving show and the opening scene where all the military guys are dancing and singing on the beach. They sing "There's Nothing Like a Dame." Stewpot is my favorite character because he has a funny name and a deep voice. (Christina)

West Side Story: Natalie Wood (1961 Oscar for Best Picture).

This is an excellent movie. It makes me cry every single time. In case you didn't know, it's Romeo and Juliet in the fifties. In case you're worried, Natalie Wood does not do the singing. My favorite song is "One Hand, One Heart," the wedding song. I want them to play it at my wedding. Anybodys is my favorite character. She's a tomboy who tries the whole movie to gain acceptance into the gang, and she finally does at the end. My favorite line is when Baby John is crying, and he asks for a handkerchief, and the other guy says, "What's wrong with your sleeve?" (Christina)

The King and I: Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr.

I refuse to see the animated version of this movie. Remaking this is defiling holy ground. Yul Brynner is the King of Siam. A few parts have the standard movie-musical contrived feeling, and I'm not crazy about the scene where the servants do the Uncle Tom's Cabin play, but on the whole this is a quality musical. The music is great and singable without being jingle-catchy. The acting is good, and the plot, well, first of all, there IS a plot, as opposed to most musicals, and, it's a meaningful one. Kerr plays Anna, a British widow who's come to Siam with her young son to teach the (many) children of the King. She experiences culture shock, as does the King. She teaches him many valuable lessons, and they come to respect and love each other. A side benefit to this movie is that watching the Shall We Dance? scene is a great way to learn to polka. (Carly)

Singin' in the Rain: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor.

Another great movie. While I always fast-forward through the strange middle section with Cyd Charisse that has no apparent relevance to the rest of the movie, I could watch this over and over. Gene Kelly is charming and Donald O'Connor is funny, especially with his physical comedy and tricks, mimicked in The Full Monty. The plot is relatively predictable, but that shouldn't interfere with the enjoyment of the film. The music is first-rate -- the title song, All I Do is Dream of You, Would You? , and Good Morning are especially good. The ending is fabulous -- Lina Lamont gets what's coming to her. (Carly)

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds.

Very funny. We liked making fun of the Aggies. Dolly Parton is perfect for her part. It's about this whorehouse (betcha didn't guess that) in Texas (or that) that's been there forever, and so the local law enforcement (Burt Reynolds) allows it to stay open. Then this weird TV guy from Houston makes a big deal about it because it's illegal. The best part is the singing and dancing Aggie football team. (Christina and Carly)

Royal Wedding: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers.

This one has the famous scene with Astaire dancing on the ceiling. I haven't figured out quite how that was done yet -- every time I watch the movie I look for some trick, but I haven't found it. The music isn't memorable, but the dancing is. Besides dancing on the ceiling, Astaire dances with gym equipment -- definitely something to see. It has a nice happy ending! (Carly)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

We can't see this enough. It's one of the silliest movies I've ever seen. The songs are campy, the plot's campy, everything's campy. It's not what I would call quality film, but it's definitely worth watching. Race your movie-watching buddies for dibs on the one or two good-looking brothers, and then see if you can identify him through the whole movie. The brothers each wear the same outfit, except their shirts are different colors, which is reason enough to see this.(Carly)

The Sound of Music: Julie Andrews (1965 Oscar for Best Picture).

It's one of the best movies of all time, a movie for all ages. I've watched it since I was the age of the youngest Von Trapp child. Now I'm older then the oldest child (and probably closer to the age of Maria, Julie Andrews). The music is the bomb. Some favorite songs are So Long, Farewell, My Favorite Things, and Edelweiss. The scenes with Maria and the Captain in the gazebo used to be really boring for me, but now I think it's not that bad. In fact it's tres romantique. However, the scene where Maria goes back to the abbey and the Reverend Mother sings to her is still the most boring scene. There are so many parts of the movie that're good that I can't describe it all. Here are some that I like the most. Maria first meets the children and they are dressed in the ridiculous outfits and then complain about Maria's outfit, during the thunderstorm where they all go to Maria's room, and of course, the puppet show. If you don't see this movie in your lifetime you are missing out. (Cindy)

Oklahoma!

Why is it that almost every musical feels compelled to have some artsy interlude that has nothing to do with the plot? In this otherwise wonderful movie, there's the famous ballet scene. Not that musicals have ever placed great importance on reality, what with people breaking into orchestra-accompanied song at odd moments, but this really disturbs the flow. The characters dance around on what is obviously a stage--the only prop is a ladder. The music, by Copland, is great, though. The title song is Oklahoma's state song, which I find a bit funny. (Carly)

THUMBS UP/THUMBS DOWN

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Holiday Inn

Mary Poppins

Show Boat

Grease

Shall We Dance?

Fantasia

The Wizard of Oz
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