10 of my favourite musical moments in non-musical movies

I haven't made a list in a half a century! Or in other words, five months! Gee! It's about time to make another one. I know I usually specialize in Top Fives, but again, five turned out to be nearly not enough. Ten is not enough either, put I wisely drew the line there. I will now present to you ten of my favourite musical moments in non-musical movies. 'Musical moment' in thise case can mean either singing or dancing. Or lip-syncing.

Enjoy, if you please!

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10. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You in Ten Things I Hate About You (1999)

 This first one is kind of a black sheep... The others are strictly my own personal favourites, and while I think 10 Things I Hate About You is an okay movie, it's not one of those I watch again and againa and whose lines I know by heart. However, I HAD to include this, even if only for number ten, because this particular scene is just wonderful. Thanks to Heath Ledger and his disarming awesomeness.




9. Thriller in 13 Going on 30 (2004)

(The option here was Jingle Bell Rock from Mean Girls. Yeah. And I do feel kind of saddened for having to let it go. Seriously!) 13 Going on 30 has been one of my favourite romcoms for a long time. Sure, I haven't felt like watching it for a looooong time, but I know one of these days I'll pick it up once again. Jennifer Garner's Jenna and Mark Ruffalo's Matt dance the Thriller to spice up a company party, and it's pretty catchy, isn't it? The highlight is of course when Gollum aka Andy Serkis steps up to show some of his sweet moves.






8. You Make My Dreams in (500) Days of Summer (2009)

In a film that in many ways likes to bend the traditional ways of storytelling, it makes more than enough sense for a character, in the height of falling in love, to suddenly break into a gleeful, Disney-ish dance number, joined by the by-passers and even an animated little bird. And Han Solo.

7. Pop! Goes My Heart in Music and Lyrics (2007)

Hugh Grant is hilarious, and he has some awesome hips, that man. I've gotten so many laughs out of this clip, I can't even begin to tell you. The best part is when they once or twice almost lose their poker face. And who can blame them! That's one pretty ridiculous music video.




6. I Need A Hero in Shrek 2 (2004)

The second Shrek is my favourite of the bunch (though the first one is good, too), not least because of its awesome music. This is a fun, catchy scene, where Shrek tries to outrun time to save Fiona from Prince Charming.




5. Hoist the Colors in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

The guaranteed goosebumps in the opening sequence of the third PotC movie guarantee Hoist the Colors the middle spot on the list.




4. Jump in Love Actually (2003)

More Hugh Grant's hips! Sorry! This is legendary. The shortest moment of the bunch, but maybe, just maybe, the most viewed one (by me). It never gets old.

 (No embedding available, click here.)


3. Titina in Modern Times (1936)

This marks the occasion when we hear the Tramp talk for the first time. Or not talk, to be exact. Sing. In gibberish. Yet the point and the story come across, because he acts it out simutaniously. It's one more proof of the genius of Charlie Chaplin. As if we needed any more of those.




2. Super Freak in Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

The brilliant awkwardness of the scene, Abigail Breslin's dance moves, the general context and how well it fits in the whole movie make this moment almost worthy the top spot. It's really quite an anti-climactic climax, but that's the awesome thing about it. The film keeps it real at all times, always avoiding melodrama and cliches, and yet this sequence ends up being quite rousing. And awesome. Just awesome.






1. Twist And Shout in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

My newest favourite of all of these ended up snatching the number one spot. Why? Because this is actually the scene that inspired me to make this list in the first place. Because in the film, this is when Ferris finally won me over, too. Because - don't argue - this embodies everyone's ultimate fantasy. Because everyone deserves a rockstar moment.

(The Twist and Shout part begins at about 2:00.)

I'm eagerly waiting for your comments, protests and additions!

A Christmas Tradition vol. 1: Love Actually

Yesterday the holiday season really kicked in for my part, as me and my friends held the annual (you can call it annual after the second time, right?) Love Actually night. It's funny how we all love the film so much and basically know it by heart, so we're just going "ooooh, I love this scene and the scene after this" and reciting the lines together with the characters. Must've been a blast for a friend's boyfriend who watched it with us... (Well, he also watched Titanic with us a while back, so he knew what he signed up for.)

Love Actually is not only one of my most important Christmas traditions, it's also my number one favourite romantic comedy of all time. Not many romcom's are actually both so romantic that your faith in love is restored every time you see them and so funny that you laugh aloud even on the thousandth rewatch. Love Actually is so very charming, sweet, hilarious and witty, and never cheesy or corny. And sometimes so damn sad, too! It's full of wonderful British actors, like Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Rowan Atkinson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley... Not everyone gets a happy ending, but oh how we wish they would! I think the most painful scene to watch is the one with Emma Thompson, and the Joni Mitchell song in the background. Oh dear... Luckily, there are many happy endings, too.

Instead of some more verbal praise, I'll link you some of my favourite scenes and then list my favourite quotes.

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you find that love actually is all around." 

"Oh! Fuck wank bugger shitting arse head and hole!"

 

"Tell me, exactly, how long it is that you've been working here?"
"Two years, seven months, three days and, I suppose, what... two hours?"
"And how long have you been in love with Karl, our enigmatic chief designer?"

"Ahm, two years, seven months, three days and, I suppose, an hour and thirty minutes."

"Aren't you a bit young to be in love?"
"No."
"Oh, well, okay... right. Well, I mean, I'm a little relieved."
"Why?"
"Well, because I thought it would be something worse."
"Worse than the total agony of being in love?"
"Oh. No, you're right. Yeah, total agony."

"Hello, David. I mean 'sir'. Shit, I can't believe I've just said that. And now I've gone and said 'shit' - twice. I'm so sorry, sir."
"It's fine, it's fine. You could've said 'fuck,' and then we'd have been in real trouble."
"Thank you, sir. I did have an awful premonition that I was gonna fuck up on the first day. Oh, piss it!"

 "Billy, I understand you've got a prize for our competition winners."
"Yes I have, Ant or Dec."

"Golden oldie for a golden oldie." 
 
"Hiya kids. Here is an important message from your Uncle Bill. Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star, and they give you them for free!"

"I am Colin. God of Sex. I'm just on the wrong continent, that's all."

"We may be a small country, but we're a great one, too. The country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter. David Beckham's right foot. David Beckham's left foot, come to that."

"Would you like it... gift-wrapped?"

"Ask me anything you like, I'll tell you the truth."
"Uh, best shag you've ever had?"
"Britney Spears."

"Wow!"
"No, only kidding. She was rubbish."

"Grandi, uh... grande familio. Grande traditsione- The Christmas presents... Stupido."

 

"Enough. Enough now."

"Let's go get the shit kicked out of us by love."

"All I want for Christmas is you."

It's sucks a bit that Love Actually is a Christmas film. That means it's appropriate to watch it only in the certain time of the year. (Of course, that hasn't stopped me from watching it in the middle of the summer.) Anyway, the first one of my various Christmas traditions is now done! So many to go, so little time! Aaaaaah panic panic panic! Isn't it wonderfully healthy that I'm more stressed about my Christmas traditions than the millions of exams and deadlines?

Valentine's Day (2010) - a lot like love, actually

directed by Garry Marshall / starring Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Shirley MacLaine, Jamie Foxx, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, etc

Once again the power of low expectations has been proven great. Somehow I ended up enjoying the poor man's Love Actually.

Valentine's Day takes place in Los Angeles, descriping the lives of a bunch of people during one day. The day is, surprisingly, Valentine's day. People all over the city struggle to meet the expectations of the holiday. Love is in the air and no one can escape it.

 Everyone from Queen Latifah and Jessica Alba to Taylor Lautner and Doctors McDreamy & McSteamy is in this film. It's both funny and a bit pathetic how shamelessly Valentine's Day relies on its all-star cast. And people take their bait, of course. Guilty as charged, I only wached this because of all those famous faces. In addition to feeding on people's irrational fascination towards celebrities, Valentine's Day is just as shamelessly trying to do to Valentine's day what Love Actually did to Christmas. It has too many characters and too many little storylines, thus the characters lack depth, and the storylines don't have time to evolve into something original and truly touching. Sure, many of them are kind of connected to each other, but mostly just in boring ways. This won't become an annual tradition, like Love Actually is, for me.

And yet, as I mentioned, I actually enjoyed the movie. It was a fitting choice for my s l o o o o o w Sunday morning (although it wasn't techinically morning, I just woke up a bit, um, late. That Buzz Lightyear straw (and whatever I was drinking through it) sure took me a bit beyond infinity...). It didn't take much brain to follow the story, which was fine, and I even kind of liked some of the shallow, one-dimensional characters and their storylines, like Anne Hathaway's adult phone entertainer (cool euphemism) and Topher Grace and their budding relationship, Shirley MacLaine's marriage crisis, the cute little boy and his bouquet mission, and  Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts in an airplane. (According to IMDb, Julia Roberts was paid 12 000 dollars for every 251 word she spoke in the film. Rocks to be a pretty woman.) Yeah, and Queen Latifah just is the queen, the end.

On the other hand, I could've happily left out some of the "love" stories, to make room for the better ones. The Taylor/Taylor horridness was almost painful to watch at times. Lautner was stiff and awkward and Swift plain annoying. (Though the only line in the movie that made me laugh out loud was in their story. See the quote at the end of the post.) Also the other high school romance story was quite boring, the whole oh-I-want-the-first-time-to-be-oh-so-special scenario is just kind of ancient history as a storyline. I didn't really feel the love in the Jessica Biel/Jamie Foxx thing, though there's nothing like a good old I Will Survive singalong. Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner were supposed to be the central characters in the mess of love stories, but I didn't feel for them much.

So. Valentine's Day was a lot like Love Actually, but still clearly a poor man's version. And yet, some parts felt, for me, a lot like love, actually, and I have to admid I even shed one tiny teeny weeny tear at the end of the Julia Roberts story. (That was the only ending I didn't see coming. That, and the Bradley Cooper one. That was aww.) Also, it made me feel a bit love sick. Damn, they got me, those sneaky bastards! I feel a romcom phase coming on... Sigh.

"I don't feel comfortable taking my shirt off in public."