Amazing Grace

I may have already posted about this but I decided to watch it again after a friend returned it when I lent it to her. I LOVE this movie on so many levels. Please rent it and watch it. You can thank me later.

Besides having a great subject and being very inspirational (and a mostly true story) I love many of the actors in the movie, especially Ioan Gruffudd, who was also in the Horatio Hornblower series, which I also love.

Here is a link to the movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Cv5P9H9qU

My Summer Reading List

As you might have seen in my other blog, here is a list of the books that have been recommended to me. These books are competing to be on my list of 10 books that I want to read during the summer. (Can't recommend them myself since I haven't read these yet!)

Hunger Games
The Westing Game
The Secret Garden (this is a re-read. This is my favorite book from childhood.)
Chasing Fireflies
When Crickets Cry
The Help
A Girl of the Limberlost
More of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency books
Ten Minutes from Normal
The Graveyard Book
The Darcy Connection
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind: A Novel
A Month of Summer
The Sweetness at the bottom of the pie
The Book Thief

The Young Victoria comes to the U.S.

I already posted about this movie but now it has been released in the U.S. so I want to plug it again. A group of us went the day after Christmas and we all loved it. From what I have read, it is a fairly accurate tale of the early reign of Queen Victoria. If you love period dramas, you will love this. You can bet I will be purchasing the DVD when it becomes available.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-YPoBU7_aQ

http://www.theyoungvictoriamovie.com/

2 movies I recommend "except for one little scene"

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8jM0Ef5NvA

Dear Frankie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGJFMoTxZ5M

These are two movies that are not widely known but that I dearly love. This blog is for movies, etc. that are of good report or praiseworthy and I think these are. But I must caution because they both each have a scene that might be considered objectionable. In Mrs. Palfrey, there is a love scene. I fast forwarded through that and the rest of the movie is wonderful and very touching.

There is a bad swear word in Dear Frankie. Just know that when she is talking to her husband when he is in the hospital and he starts yelling, he uses the f word.

I love both of these movies and recommend them both with the reservations that I have listed above. After you watch them, I would love to know what you thought of them. Here are the trailers from youtube. I have to say that they are both better than the trailers make them look.

Emma 2009 from BBC

I didn't think anything from the Gwyneth Paltrow/Jeremy Northam version could be improved upon, but I loved this new adaptation. I had to admit that when I heard the main character would be played by Romola Garai, I was a bit skeptical. It's not because I don't think she is a good actor- I actually think she is brilliant. I couldn't envision her as Emma. I was wrong. She did a great job. There were a lot of things I didn't like about this adaptation, but there were also many things I loved about it. It really throws new light on different aspects of the story that I hadn't thought of before. This is scheduled to for Masterpiece on PBS in 2010 (I believe January 24,2010). It is definitely worth a look!

Here is the trailer for it. I think even the trailer is fun to watch:


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/classic/index.html

Cranford continues....

I loved the Cranford series when it came out. I own the DVD and everyone knows that I love the author Elizabeth Gaskell, so you can imagine that I am happy to hear that there will be more Cranford coming. It is scheduled for Sun. December 27th at 8 p.m. KUED channel 7. I already know that there is an extremely high likelihood that I will love it!

The Young Victoria

This has already been out in the UK for some time but will have a limited US release December 18, 2009. I hopes it comes here. I would love to see it on the big screen. I know for certain that I will be purchasing this DVD. I thought it was a lovely story and the two main characters were perfection, especially Rupert Friend as Prince Albert. I loved this movie! The music is beautiful, too. I already have the music on my iPod.