vday09 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

So it's a couple days before Valentine's Day, and you HAVE to get your movie-loving significant other/friend/family member/offspring something because that's what the TV commercials told you to do -- and so we've come along with five last-minute ideas that aren't necessarily V-Day specific, but should satisfy nonetheless.

1. A Copy of Jerry Maguire and U Complete Me Pillow Cases

2. The Film Snob's Dictionary
Are you a film snob dating someone who doesn't understand half the silly references that spew out of your mouth each and every single day? Then how about you pick up a copy of the Film Snob's Dictionary for that special someone and help exploit the movie geek inside all of us.

3. A Copy of High Fidelity and the USB Mixtape Memory Stick
High Fidelity, because it's an awesome movie, and then show your Me Generation partner that mix tapes are still all the rage by picking up this very cool USB Mixtape Memory Stick, which holds 60 minutes worth of music and comes in the form of an old school cassette tape - complete with liner notes so you can scrawl out your track list and make it personal.

4. Romantic Movies
Because it's the perfect time to cozy up next to that special someone and throw a little romance into your DVD player. Amazon has some great deals on romance DVDs (through February 16), with up to 48% off on Art-House Romance, up to 50% off on the Nicholas Sparks collection, 50% off on movies for lovers and 50% off on movies for haters.

(With Valentine's Day arriving this week, we thought we'd dig up some of our old romantic favorites and mix them in with some new stuff. Enjoy.)

By: Monika Bartyzel

Warning: Even though this isn't about sex, it's about sexiness, so some content might not be suitable for work, or for young/impressionable/anti-sexual readers.

There's a vast sea of in-your-face sex on film -- close-up penile shots from the likes of Brown Bunny, real sex in Shortbus, porn penis in Romance -- and those are just the moments that capture the real deal. There's also all the simulated sex from the infamous prosthetic in Boogie Nights to the sexual addiction of A Dirty Shame.

Yet in this barrage of real and almost-real sex, there's tons of sexy scenes that do just as well without the actual act of copulation. And I'm not talking about a scene like Mulholland Drive, where the camera fades out before the heat begins to sear. This sexiness could be orchid tickling by a young man who gave up sex for Lent, Mark Hunter dancing with a fan to "Why Can't I Fall in Love?, " or even two people working on some clay. And that's just the beginning. In honor of Valentine's Day (which is Saturday), what follows are some of sexiest moments cinema has captured without the sex. Read on, and then weigh in with your favorites.

Career Opportunities | View It!

This is one of those scenes that went well beyond the movie, which is impressive since this flick is pretty damn low on the John Hughes totem pole. Jennifer Connelly's Josie McClellan is a rich, dissatisfied young woman stuck in Target. When some lame criminals interfere with her evening locked in with Jim (Frank Whaley), she gets creative. While the boys sit down for a bite to eat, she throws a long leg over a stationary horse, and calmly, seductively rides it while taunting the thieves with every mechanical bounce, and her statement: "I think I might need more than just a quarter."

We've all been there, that incredibly awkward, deeply painful moment when your beloved looks into your eyes and says: "We need to talk." That translates into: "It's over." / "I've found somebody else." / "I love you, but I'm not in love with you." / "I'm getting married. No, not to you." / "Actually, I'm straight."

No one likes to be spurned, and with Valentine's Day arriving this year the day after the new Friday the 13th will be released, the deadly combo of horror and romance made me think about movies in which someone goes nutty after being dropped or dismissed, or is left feeling unloved. Should we count our blessings that Jason Voorhees never got dumped by his girlfriend?

1. Fatal Attraction

"I'm not going to be ignored, Dan!" The movie that was single-handedly responsible for scaring all married men away from cheating on their wives in 1987 features my top pick for a spurned psycho. Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) looks like a perfectly responsible, attractively mature lady, but she has a naughty side that flares up when Dan (Michael Douglas) dares to treat their one-night stand as, well, a one-night stand. Rabbit, anyone?

2. Carrie

Poor Carrie (Sissy Spacek). She might have been fine if everyone had just left her alone. But, no, her mother berates her and the kids at school tease and ridicule her. Then Tommy (William Katt) insists on taking her to the prom and even kisses her! Maybe everything will be OK! Nope. When she's bathed in blood and everyone laughs, she knows she's been set up -- Tommy must be in on it too! -- and takes care of business as only a spurned telekinetic psycho can do.

Dear Mom & Dad,
Things are great in L.A.! My career is taking off already! Just this week I got hired for something called Extreme Movie, and all I had to do was stand around in my underwear next to a sheep!
Love,
Your daughter

Things can get pretty desperate when your hastily-assembled spoof movie skips its theatrical release and goes straight to DVD, so we understand where the folks at The Weinstein Company's Extreme Movie are coming from. The movie is a collection of sketches centering around teen sex, with Jamie Kennedy, Frankie Muniz, and Michael Cera among the actors and several SNL guys among the writers. It's being unloaded on DVD on Feb. 24, and to promote it, the marketing department is offering STD e-cards.

The idea is that perhaps you've inadvertently put one of your casual sex partners at risk for an STD, and these cheerful e-cards are a way of informing him or her. It's a joke, of course, but it's useful because it reminds you that Extreme Movie is really extreme! It's totally edgy, you guys! STD e-cards??! What kind of shenanigans will those jokers pull next!?

If this doesn't make people want to buy or rent Extreme Movie on Feb. 24, I don't know what will. Short of giving it a better title and concept and execution, I mean.

With Valentine's Day approaching, one can't help but recall their most embarrassing romantic moments -- if only as a reminder to relax, take a chill pill and just ... "be yourself." And when I think over my most favorite embarrassing romantic moments in movies, right at the top of the list is this scene from Swingers. Growing up, I didn't know the proper way to pick up a girl, and the one or two times my idiot shtick actually worked -- well, let's just say I still get shivers whenever I leave a message on an answering machine.

It's almost impossible to promote just one scene from this film when there are so many memorable moments, but this one just hits you where it hurts -- and hopefully some of you will watch this and remember to wait two days ... or is it three?

Two fun facts about Swingers (via IMDB)

• The movie is loosely based on the experiences writer Jon Favreau had when he first moved to LA. He had just broken up with a long term girlfriend and counted on his friends Vince Vaughn and Ron Livingston to cheer him up. The characters they play in the film are based on themselves.
• The exterior and interior of Mike Peter's apartment was the actual building and room that Jon Favreau lived in at the time the film was filmed. Favreau's downstairs neighbor was actor Adam Scott.

Foul language warning



Bonus scene after the jump ...

(With Valentine's Day arriving this week, we though we'd dig up some of our old romantic favorites and mix them in with some new stuff. Enjoy.)

By: Christopher Campbell

If you've ever had a bad first date -- and in the age of internet match-ups, it's all the more likely you've had at least a disappointing one -- you're not alone. Thanks to the awkwardness of getting to know somebody, and the nervousness that comes with that, it's a wonder any of us ever have good first dates. But as much as we end up fixating on the failure of a single bad date, we must remember that it's a part of life and has been since the dawn of man, when Adam had to deal with Eve ordering the forbidden item on the menu. Also, we must realize that it's all relative and there's always a worse date out there than the worst we've ever had. Often (and especially because it's Valentine's Day this Saturday), it's a good idea to look to the movies, and compare our worst first date to the worst first dates in cinema:


License to Drive (1988)

Imagine you're all set to get your driver's license, and the hottest girl in school has agreed to go out with you the night you pass the exam. But you don't pass the exam. Then you steal your grandpa's car. Then your date drinks too much and passes out for the rest of the night. Oh, and it only gets worse from there. License to Drive is just one of many films that shows us that a first date can be a crazy mix of Murphy's Law and the snowball effect. Also, like many comedies, it teaches us that an automobile can be destroyed many times over, and that it might be best if our first time driving, as well as our first time dating, be with a car that has little value.

Usually the scenes we love are the ones that make us happy, or blissfully mesmerized. But sometimes they're those gut-wrenching moments that are painful to watch -- the ones created so perfectly that you can't help but appreciate them (like, say, the entirety of Requiem for a Dream).

But this is about Roger Avary's The Rules of Attraction. In a film rife with disaffected turmoil and dysfunction is this one scene where pretension has no play. The sad and rolling love song, the last pain-filled note, the carefully placed rings on the tub -- it all kills me each and every time I see it. The fact that it's the result of a girl liking exactly the wrong guy just makes it all the more sick, twisted and cringe-worthy.

Creepy Fact:

According to IMDb, the "End of the World" party was filmed on September 11, 2001.

And lady lovers can go here for a photographer's topless spin on Lauren's discovery of the body.

Warning: This is a dead girl in a tub, nude ... and there's blood.