Dude, Where’s My Photos, Videos and Related Media? #movies #amblogging

Welcome to the latest edition of the Monday Movie Meme, hosted by yours truly. Last week, Dale at Smurfin the Web had us discussing movies that won an Oscar for Best Picture during his time to host, which was a fun way to take notice of the 2012 awards season that is upon us.

I’m not going to lie, this week is starting off on a pretty sour note for me, as I just lost everything....I mean, EVERYTHING including media and notes with work for my job and upcoming blog posts that I planned on publishing, including four guest posts for a fellow blogger. After being on the phone with Apple for longer than expecting and being told that I’m at a loss and there is no way to get my content and media back, I have no energy nor patience to write another extensive post like the one on Rupert Grint's $50 socks that I did over the weekend. Needless to say, the topic for this week’s meme is: Lost and Found.

Share on your blog movies about people trying to retrieve something or someone that they once had. Remember to visit fellow Monday Movie Meme participants and leave a comment with your thoughts on the films covered in this topic. Here are my selections for the Lost and Found films. All of them may not represent the best in cinema but hey, the titles are what I can come up with in a short amount of time, among movies that may not have already been mentioned in a previous Monday Movie Meme week.

Overnight Delivery
Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd star in this romantic comedy about a guy who sends a breakup letter -- complete with a used condom and half-naked photos of him and another woman to his girlfriend when he suspects her of cheating. After learning that his suspicions were false, the guy goes on a road trip to try to stop the letter from arriving in his girlfriend’s mail but encounters some shady people and wild antics along the way. I watched this movie when it came on television many years ago and while I thought it had some humorous scenes, I’m not surprised that it was a direct-to-video release.

Blood Diamond
After being captured to work in a mining field for diamonds, man loses son to a group of rebels manned by child soldiers. He then makes a deal with a gun smuggler, risking his life to try to find and save his son from being caught up in the Sierra Leone Civil War. I watched “Blood Diamond” at my Grandmother’s house and was moved enough to add it to my DVD collection, despite the fact that she totally ruined that first-time viewing experience for me by mentioning the fate of one of the main characters, as soon as the movie started playing.

All About the Benjamins
Comedian Mike Epps, rapper Ice Cube and actress Eva Mendes star in this comedy about a bounty hunter who pairs up with a con artist to capture a group of diamond thieves. The con man is only concerned about finding a winning lottery ticket that he lost, to redeem it and get back in the good graces of his girlfriend. The only problem is -- the con artist skipped bail, so the bounty hunter is supposed to arrest him as well. These two men have to learn to work together to get the people and items that they are after.

and lastly....

Dude Where's My Car?
Two stoners named Jesse and Chester wake up with a hangover and cannot remember what they did in the hours leading up to them being at Jesse's house. After realizing that Jesse's car is missing along with their girlfriends' anniversary gifts, the two friends start retrace their steps to figure out where they parked the car.

Yes, I am fully aware that this movie is no Best Picture Oscar contender but to be fair, I was a fan of "That 70's Show" on Fox, back in the day and figured that Ashton Kutcher would be just as funny in "Dude Where's My Car" as he is on the show -- so I bought the DVD. Yes, I have it in my movie collection. No, I don't watch it and haven't played it in years, but I have a cousin who finds this movie to be quite hilarious -- and he's like 35 years of age or something like that.

So that’s it. What are some Lost and Found style movies that come to YOUR mind?

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How I Learned about Ron Weasley’s $49.39 pair of Socks Providing Sea Safety #harrypotter #volunteering #disasterrelief

Harry Potter movie fans would probably not be as attracted to the Ron Weasley character as we are today, if it were not for the talents of actor Rupert Grint, who plays Weasley in the Harry Potter film series. So, join me in dedicating this last Ron Weasley themed King Dong post of January 2012 to Grint, whose charitable work in the United Kingdom (UK) seem just as fun as the magical adventures that he bestowed upon us as Harry Potter’s right-hand man over the last several years.

While reading up on Rupert Grint, I found out that he has participated in the Wacky Rally, an annual event where teams of two or more obtain cheap cars costing around $300 Pounds and then dress them up to race across Europe and complete challenges along the way. From what I've read, it sounds a little like NASCAR meets "The Amazing Race" on CBS.

Grint joined forces with actors Oliver and James Phelps, who play his sibling’s in the Harry Potter movies, once in a race to Barcelona in 2010 and then to Prague, last year. While Wacky Rally teams can join the event just for mere fun and prizes, Rupert Grint and the rest of his Harry Potter trio race to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

Now, I’m no sailor and have been lucky to reside in an area that does not experience the effects of disasters at sea or on beaches, but RNLI looks like a worthy cause to support. The all-volunteer organization provides 24-hour search and rescue services for floods and emergencies along the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland. RNLI also provides lifeguard services to beaches in England and Wales, while teaching beach, sea and fishing safety to adults and youth.

I don’t fish but my Uncle does and while I’m not in the UK, I can certainly understand the importance of being safe at sea. To date, RNLI has saved over 130,000 lives, thanks to their rescue missions -- If Rupert Grint aka Mr. Ron Weasley himself can do something to help them continue their exceptional service, so can I -- or so, I thought. I browsed the RNLI store to find something to buy and came across a nice pair of socks for only 3.95 Pounds ($5.21 for those of us in the United States). After considering buying them for myself, I decided to give them out as a prize to one of you lovely readers.

My shopping plans came to a halt when I reviewed their shipping information and found out that the delivery charges for U.S. orders are 33.45 Pounds, which comes out to $44.17 -- yikes! Forty-four dollars for one pair of socks? I love me some Ron Weasley and understand the importance of safety on water and all but in moments like this, a Geminio Spell like the one Hermione used in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would come in handy -- cause that’s the only way I’m forking over that much cash for a pair of socks. That way, I could multiply the $5.21 for these socks, into at least $40 toward that expensive RNLI store shipping fee.

Since RNLI is said to use 100% of profits from online sales toward their lifeboat crews and related services, it is a shame that, kind of like health care, saving a lives comes down to a matter of dollars and cents -- at least where my reaction to the sock order is concerned. Still, I’m holding off on the socks for now, with plans to order them when I can also buy a few additional items from RNLI to give out as prizes on this blog -- so the group of items can at least make up for that astronomical delivery charge.

In the meantime, I did some further reading after the RNLI service had me wondering why there isn’t an organization like that or an RNLI affiliated branch here in the U.S. and then I realized....”Oh! I guess that’s what the Coast Guard is for, right?” That goes to show you how much (read: little) I know about our military.

In matters of life and death where the scope of available rescue service is in your hands, would you rather....

A. Spend almost $50 on one pair of socks to contribute at least a little something to make sure rescue volunteers have the tools they need to be heroes at sea.

or

B. Pimp your ride to look like a lifeboat and then drive across the country in an old 1992 Vauxhall Carlton, Toyota Camry or equivalent vehicle in a race for a chance to win around $1,300?

Also,

Check out what Grint had to say about his experience in the Wacky Rally:

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My Favorite Oscar Winners for Best Picture #movies #academyawards #amblogging

It’s about that time for another dose of the Monday Movie Meme. Dale at Smurfin the Web is serving up some Oscar love for his turn to host this week, which I am grateful for because it makes the task of choosing movies to fit the current meme, pretty easy. The best part about the Smurfdok’s topic of choice is also that we get an opportunity to take a moment and think about those golden statue front runners from way back then, on up to now.

Dale asks “Which are your favourite winners of the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards?” so, my selections include but are not limited to the films that I have the pleasure of listing here.

Disclaimer: This post contains some vulgar language....I’m THAT amped about these films. Actually now that I think about it, I think I’m starting to understand what Craig Downing meant when he said that he would defend and get in a fight for any of the movies he programs at his film festival.

Million Dollar Baby

I've said it once...a few times actually and I’ll say it again, "Million Dollar Baby" is one of the Best movies ever made. If any movie deserved the Academy Award for Best Picture, in 2005, it was and still is this film. I remember watching it in one of the local (formerly) independently owned theaters in Philadelphia at the time and being moved by the relationships between the characters, their own personal struggles and one woman’s determination to make her dreams a reality, even when faced with adversity on many different levels.

Hilary Swank played the hell out of what looks like a physically and emotionally demanding role and "Million Dollar Baby" was probably the first time in my life that I actually paid close attention to Clint Eastwood’s on-screen performances and his work as a director. I mean, I knew who he was. Who wouldn’t? He’s Clint Eastwood, after all. Still, I never really watched his movies. I was drawn to this particular film for many different reasons both personal and professional; it will always be dear to me.

Oh, and do I even need to mention that killer ass dress that Hilary Swank wore to the Oscars? The dress would be forever remembered, as she accepted her golden statue for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role wearing this form fitting black-less gown that had even one of my older Aunts talking about the Oscars for days following the initial Academy Awards broadcast!

No Country for Old Men

Up against “Juno” that year...are you kidding me? No contest. It’s No Country’ all the way! While it took me a few years to finally watch this movie (shout out to Netflix!), I now understand what all the fuss was about. “No Country for Old Men” is a badass movie! Enough said.

Woody Harrelson’s appearance was a nice surprise; Winning the 2007 Academy Award for Best Picture was well deserved for “No Country for Old Men” because if for anything, it introduced me to Javier Bardem...and maybe he was in one of the movies that I saw before No Country' came out but if so, I surely didn’t notice him. Now, I want to see “Biutiful,” a movie that I would likely have no interest in had Bardem not been the star player. While watching “Eat, Pray, Love,” I said to myself “Oooh! Is that the dude from No Country’?”...all because of one film.

I do wish, however, that I didn’t used to call this movie “Old Country.” Now, that’s just plain silly.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Did you really even have to ask? I mean, really? LOTR all day, baby! This movie defines epic shit! That is why it won a whopping 11 Oscars in 2004, including the Academy Award for Best Picture, and no one should be surprised that it did.

In all of my praise for this movie, however, it is bittersweet because "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" was up against Sean Penn’s “Mystic River” that year and I loved “Mystic River” too. Both films hold a special place among the titles in my DVD collection but only one can take home the gold, where the Oscars are concerned. How does it go?...One ring to rule them all and one statue to rub it in, I suppose!

A Beautiful Mind

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this fucking movie! By the way, did I say I love this fucking movie?!! Yes, “A Beautiful Mind” feels like it has a running time that is long as hell when you are watching it but Russell Crowe gave a stellar performance as a mathematical genius battling schizophrenia. The film is touching, both in a sad way and in an inspiring way. It is hard to imagine being in the shoes of a human being who has a great gift and a huge impact on the economics of the world but at the same time, an illness causes this person to question reality.

“A Beautiful Mind” won the 2001 Academy Award for Best Picture and Crowe was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role but he lost this Oscar to Denzel, who took home the golden statue for “Training Day.” As much as I love Crowe’s performance in “A Beautiful Mind,” and as an actor in general, it wouldn’t be far fetched to say that he had some pretty stiff competition in the Best Actor category that year....Sean Penn for “I Am Sam,” Will Smith for “Ali” and Tom Wilkinson for “In the Bedroom,” so it would have still been a tough call for voters to make, even if Denzel didn’t win.

That’s what happens when you’re in the company of great men who just happened to bring their A-game in the same year, I suppose, which isn’t a bad thing.

I could go on *ahem* “Titanic” and on *ahem* “The Deer Hunter” but that will take all day and I know you all have more blogs to visit, more posts to read and other stuff to do, so until next time....it’s been fun!

What are some of YOUR favorite Best Picture Oscar winners?

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