Ultimate 90’s Blogathon: Sleepless in Seattle (1993) by Life of this City Girl

We are wrapping week 2 of Ultimate 90’s Blogathon with an entry by Natasha from Life of this City Girl. She’s here with a review of Sleepless in Seattle, a great follow-up with another Meg Ryan movie from last year’s When Harry Met Sally. If you haven’t been to Life of this City Girl, she does book, movies and TV series reviews. Remember to head over to give her some love after you’re done here!

Movie Review: Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Hey everyone! Natasha here from Life of This City Girl. I’m so excited today to share with you a review I did for two of my favorite bloggers’ 90’s marathon. Thanks Kim and Drew for letting me take part! (and also making me watch this again)

I chose Sleepless in Seattle because 1) it meets the criteria and 2) I’ve really always been meaning to watch this film again. I’m not even going to pretend that I’m one of those girls who don’t love a good romantic comedy – I love them and I’m not afraid to admit it. The older ones are undeniably better than the newer ones, both in dialogue and acting, so it is always a real pleasure getting to them.

Sleepless in Seattle is really dialogue heavy. I like a film where the characters talk and there is sense to the chatter so for me to end up being frustrated with the amount of conversation going on, it must be quite intense. Some of the comedic timing seemed off and misplaced, and the parts I’m sure was created as jokes weren’t funny at all. It could have been the whole me-being-born-in-the-wrong-decade thing, and I simply don’t get the way they made jokes back then.

I also feel like I have to mention the amount of stereotypes the film bludgeoned into its’ watchers that I was none too pleased with. It was a given that these females were desperately looking for a husband – not someone to share a life with, just a title to change your name and status and follow the neat path the world set out for you. It is also downright insulting to all the wonderful single fathers out there that there is this constant insinuation that if you are a man, you need a woman with you to properly raise a kid. We all know it is not true! The director used a sledgehammer laced with zero subtlety informing us that women cry for romantic movies and men like action movies. I retched. Metaphorically, but I retched.

Apart from that, I found the film quite fun. Sleepless in Seattle is innocent and sweet. No kissy time even. The kid is adorable and I generally prefer movies without children. Rosie O’Donnell is one of those amazing women who emits sarcasm with perfectly pleasant facial expressions. It is a great attribute and gave me some good laughs during the film.

Sleepless in Seattle is not my favorite nineties film by far, but I can see why it is considered a classic. I also always have a good laugh about the fashion back then. I’m glad to report that everyone had better hair in the nineties than they did in the eighties, because that was bad, and although the clothes weren’t completely yet where we needed them to be, everyone was looking so much better. I am still really glad I didn’t have to wear all those bulky suits they forced women to wear when we started entering the workplace in earnest.

The ending was naturally very cute and I enjoyed it, but sheesh, I wish we lived in a world where you’d be alive after meeting a random stranger in New York and immediately take his hand and go frolicking into the sunset. If he also looked like young Tom Hanks, I’d be so on board!

To sum this up I enjoyed this film more than just a bit. I wouldn’t rate it as first on a 90’s list or as a romantic comedy, but it is fun and sweet.

Thanks again guys!

Thanks to Natasha for a great review on Sleepless in Seattle! 🙂
Be sure to head over to Drew’s Movie Reviews on Monday for the next entry!

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

When I tell people that I haven’t seen Sleepless in Seattle, they usually give me a surprised look.  One reason is that I am a huge fan of Meg Ryan and two its because this one is relatively popular.  I get it, I really do but I had TV restrictions when I was a kid and this hit right in that time frame of my life where I was in elementary school and it wasn’t really my dad’s sort of movie, so no, I never saw it until now.  Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks was a good pair in You’ve Got Mail and I’d really like to see how they did in this one.

Before I move on with the review, I’d like to direct your attention to MovieRob who has his Monthly Genre Grandeur with April’s genre being romantic comedies. Maybe you have seen a romantic comedy or you love the genre, you should send him a review and join in! I will be sending one over to him soon once I decide which to watch.  For more info, you should head HERE!

Okay? We’re good to go? Did you follow him so you can at least read up his awesome reviews?

Awesome! Lets carry on with this review 🙂

Director: Nora Ephron

Cast: Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Ross Malinger, Bill Pullman, Rosie O’Donnell

After the passing of his wife, Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) and his son, Jonah (Ross Malinger) decide to move to the West Coast to try to have new beginnings and move on.  However, having moved for over a year, Jonah sees that his father hasn’t moved on and doesn’t sleep so on Christmas Eve, he decides to call the local radio station and ask for the help of Dr. Marcia Fieldstone.  Reluctantly, Sam is dragged into this and as he pours his heart out about his marriage, women who are listening to this fall in love with him and he is nicknamed Sleepless in Seattle.  One of these women is the engaged Annie (Meg Ryan) who lives in Baltimore.  Although she is happy with her fiance Walter (Bill Pullman), she feels drawn to Sam and tries to get to know him better despite their distance. She writes him a letter in hopes that they could meet on top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day.

I have no idea what Sleepless in Seattle  was about but see that reaction up there? That is how I kind of looked like when I was watching it and Tom Hanks gets the name of Sleepless in Seattle.  Plus, it had an extensive relating to An Affair to Remember which I only watched afterwards to understand better what they were trying to talk about.

All joking aside, Sleepless in Seattle was a good romantic comedy.  I can’t quite decide if I like You’ve Got Mail or this one more when I finshed but I have a feeling that I may like this one a tad more even though some parts didn’t quite make much sense (like the scene up there) but then rom-coms are really about making sense, its about the feel-good factor. Agree? Thought you would 😉 This flick is really the essence of defining love because its about magic, fate, destiny and all that stuff.  Whether you believe it or not, I do and I eat that stuff up.

Sleepless in Seattle has a charismatic cast. You already know that part, right? Tom Hanks is a phenomenal actor and even though him and Meg Ryan don’t really have many scenes together per se, they both carry each side so well.  Its pretty entertaining to watch them both carry themselves through this flick.  Meg Ryan’s Annie struggling between wanting and resisting the urge to know Sam more while Tom Hanks’s Sam tries to move on with a lady that laughs in a creepy way.  Plus, the little kid was just so hilarious. And how can I forget Rosie O’Donnell! She’s been poking through all of these movies I’ve been watching and she is just the most awesome part of the movie because she brings this energy and wit.

As a fan of romantic comedy, I have to give a round of applause to Nora Ephron for writing and directing a lot of them.  She knows how to put together a fun, heartfelt and especially romantic love story.  Sure, there is nothing epic about her stories but it always leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy and thats what feel-good movies should do 🙂

Another Meg movie scratched off the list, Paul S! Which next?

 Which do you prefer for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan pairing: You’ve Got Mail or Sleepless in Seattle? What did you think of this?

 

The Best Feeling In the World…

This past week was busy and crazy at work but it also went by really fast.

Maybe it had to do with having Monday off to do the official transfer to our new place and then simply looking forward to seeing friends on Friday and then the actual key exchange on Saturday morning.  Even standing in the empty house after all the movers had gone seemed a bit surreal.  Is this really happening? I have to happen its a pretty wow moment.

Before I ramble on with that, Friday with two of my really good friends was really fun.  It feels like I haven’t had many friends of late as I polish through keeping the people matter in my life.  At the same time, its been just a whirlwind of crazy at work that I work 9-1o hours every day and then some days, I’ll even go in to work on the weekend. Either way, work is work.  I managed to luckily get through my urgent deadline on Friday and met up with them.

We started our evening with dinner at Casey’s in Quartier Dix30.

It started with a pitcher of a Mont-Tremblant Sangria which was fully loaded with all sorts of hard liquor and was served in an original way 🙂

Mont-Tremblant Sangria!

Then our main courses!

A rack of ribs with Jack Daniels sauce

Burger

Flank Steak

And for dessert, we shared a Cinnamon Sugar Nachos.

Sweet Nachos

Ice cream and Whipped cream

The ice cream and whipped cream should be on top of the sweet nachos but we had it on the side due my lactose intolerance.  This sweet nachos was super good.

Raspberry Mojito

I even added a little raspberry mojito.

After that we headed over to Indigo to just hang out for a little bit. We had wanted to catch a movie but decided to just go over to my place to watch Zombieland.  If you missed my review, its HERE! I love that movie to bits.  The cast, the dialogue, the story, Bill Murray cameo: just so fun and awesome!

Saturday came along the next day and after popping in to work for an hour to wrap up some urgent stuff that my boss needed for a client over the weekend, I got back right in time for my boyfriend to pick me up and head over to get the keys.  After a little while of the previous owners (since we’re the new ones), they took us for a detailed trip around the house for the things they left behind and what is outside and what they could only pick up after the ice/snow melted (hopefully) next week.

Changing locks

We proceeded to buy some stuff and then my boyfriend and his dad changed the locks and after we took a little break where I had a late lunch and he took his parents back home, we went back later on to do clean up, which lasted pretty much the weekend.

I used this time to look through my room and moved one of my best friend’s long time gifts and shifted some of the contents to use the garbage can she gave me with a bunch of stuff inside.  Yes, I  know its weird but she wanted to be creative and give me something useful.  This is what I sent her to show her how I found a use for it 5 years later.

The message after went something like her garbage can was not only useful but the first item that is being moved from my room to my new place. I’d say thats pretty awesome.  Now I just need to figure out how to use all those cranes 🙂

Today was pretty much more cleaning and I’d say its about 70% done. I’ll just have to drop by one more evening and wrap up probably so that we can start painting next weekend.  Aside from that, we also went to the most badly organized advanced polling station ever and had to stay in line so much longer to vote. I’ll fill you in more next week on how the house is going. I’m actually thinking of maybe adding a segment because there’s just so much work to do.  I’ll be getting all crafty and learning a whole bunch of home renovation knowledge on the way.

In a nutshell, this quote is how I feel!

 

Enough about the week, lets move on to some fun stuff!

Other than recommendations, I had a few Netflix movies expiring in April so I figured that I’d watch as much as I can, now I have a huge amount of reviews to write up for next week.  Nothing was bad at the very least and no, I’m not going to do the lazy 3 quick reviews format. I need to get back on track with doing full on posts.  My schedule has been way off. Some to expect would be Contagion and Sleepless in Seattle among others.

Also, I started watching another series, Psych! There’s seems to be a good 6 seasons so I’m taking that slow.

This is dragging out a bit long of what seems like nothing so I’m just going to go do some baking, because I haven’t done it in a while.  Before I head off, here’s some music that I’ve particularly enjoyed!

And an additional little sound effects video that I found was pretty cool with basketball dribbling and Buick.

Just in case, the music doesn’t work for you, how about a cute picture of my cat this morning?

Hope you enjoyed the videos and the post! 🙂

How was your weekend? All rested up for the next week?

An Affair to Remember (1957)

Last night I was in the mood for a classic.  I almost had started another movie and then decided to swap to An Affair To Remember instead.  It works well because this is actually a recommendation from fellow blogger, Marilyn at MKG-Memories-Keepsakes-Gifts and I had just watched Sleepless in Seattle the night before (which I will review next week when things get back to normal). Plus, last August’s recommendation month, I had taken her suggestion to check out Dirty Dancing (review HERE) and I absolutely loved it! 🙂

Before we move along, if you haven’t checked out Marilyn’s blog you have to do it right away. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  Her blog has writing, cute gifs, lovely family events, recipes, home decorations.  Marilyn is crafty and designs a lot of stuff in her house.  Its always a happy adventure whenever I’m at her blog. 🙂

An Affair to Remember is way older but so far, I’ve loved all of the movies from this era that I’ve seen. I still have a lot of catching up though.

Lets check this out! 🙂

Director: Leo McCarey

Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson

Handsome Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant) and talented singer Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) meet on a cruise to New York where they meet their engaged partners.  However, they end up falling in love and agree that they will meet in six months on top of the Empire State Building to be together.  A lot could happen in six months, will they both be there?

I’m sure the majority of you has seen An Affair to Remember.  I’m slowly learning about all these classics so this is my first viewing of An Affair to Remember.  Just in case you don’t know anything about it, I’m keeping the plot simple so that there isn’t any spoilers or whatnot.

 

An Affair to Remember is a romance through and through.  From beginning to end, we can see the love that Terry and Nickie have and develop deeper.  Its a story telling us that when love happens, it just does and there’s really no stopping it.  Nickie is a playboy and has seemingly a whole lot of girlfriends, unknown to his fiance of course.  However, once his eyes set for Terry, it changed him.  As for Terry, she tries to keep her love for her fiancee but simply cannot resist Nickie.  Nothing can stop the magic and magnetic pull of love, right? 😉

I can’t say that I love An Affair to Remember. Maybe its because Sleepless in Seattle made me have much higher expectations but there are a lot of enjoyable parts in it.  I liked it quite a bit though.  Whats lovely about these classics is their class.  The characters all portray class and elegance in their roles.  They pull you in to enjoy nothing about sex but just pure emotions and feelings and that helps bond with the characters. An Affair to Remember does hit some sappy parts but it also has a few pretty cute and funny parts that works very well.

The thing I adore the most in this one has to be the music though.  There’s quite a bit of singing in the second half and the background music is beautiful throughout the whole movie.

There is a lot to love about An Affair to Remember.  While the first half was funny and romantic at times, the second half helped me connect with the characters more.  The music and Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr are fantastic and their story may be sappy but still quite entertaining to watch. I don’t love it quite as much as other classic love stories as I’ve seen, for example Roman Holiday, but then you can’t compare them because that one is romantic comedy compared to this romantic drama.  Maybe I’m just more of a rom-com person (who am I kidding, right?).  Still, if you haven’t seen this, I can totally see how this is a must-see!

A huge thanks to Marilyn for mentioning this movie to me ages ago.  I had a lot of fun with this one.  Remember to check out her awesome blog 🙂

Have you seen An Affair to Remember? What classic love story is your favorite?