Welcome to Flick Freak

As you may notice by the title of the blog I am a bit off. But don't let it scare you aware just yet. For the longest time I have wanted to share some of my favorite movies with all the movie buffs and the not so well versed. I love all movies from the glory days of Hollywood up to the new movies playing now ; though I am starting to grow weary of the millions of crappy remakes being churned out due to the laziness of Hollywood now. Classic seems to have no meaning anymore ; I look for Citizen Kane or Casablanca to be remade soon. There has even been talk of remaking Metropolis . Why? Just so they can spruce it up with fake looking CGI while completely ignoring the story! Yes people the story ; shiny things are nice but I like my movies to have a little meat which is why I can look the other way on the not so well shot films. A great story can help make any pig of a film look like a beauty queen in my book.



Alas I do not want to rant about modern Hollywood just yet. I am here to celebrate and educate you fine people on great films. I will discuss the good. I will discuss the bad ; and I do mean bad. So to kick things off I will start with my favorite film of all-time starring my favorite actress of all-time ; the one and only Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. You may be asking why someone my age would choose such an old movie ; a romantic comedy at that. Once again it's all about the story. But Roman Holiday didn't just have a great story , oh no, mix a great story with great actors Audrey Hepburn ; Gregory Peck and a young Eddie Albert , and on top of that a legendary director in William Wyler and my friends you have the greatest movie every made . In my humble opinion.



Roman Holiday starts out like a typical movie of the age but the ending is what makes it so special and I will not ruin it for any of you poor , poor people yet to see this great film. We begin with Audrey as Ann a princess on a press tour of Euorpean capitals , one of those obviously being Rome. After feeling the strain of the constant meet and greets and endless ceremonies Ann finally has a breakdown. After having a mini fit they send the good royal doctor in to "relax her" by shooting her full of an unknown drug. Got to love royalty. As she nods off from the effects of the drug we cut to a poker game were we are introduced to reporter Joe Bradley played by Gregory Peck. As usual he isn't doing too well at the game and decides to leave after losing yet another hand to the likes of his photographer friend Irving played by Eddie Albert. As he is leaving we discover Ann has seemingly recovered from whatever drug the good doctor gave her. She decides she wants to leave the embassy and go out into the city. She successfully gets away by sneaking into the back of a delivery vehicle.





Once she is well clear of the embassy she hops out and finds she is not quite as recovered as she thought. She begins to get woozy so she takes a seat on a bench and promptyly falls asleep. Joe comes upon her as he is waiting to hail a taxi home. At first he wants nothing to do with her ; thinking she has had too much to drink. He decides he should help her home but when they get into the taxi she insists she lives at The Coliseum so Joe tries to pass her off to the cabby but once the cabby suggests he'll take her to the police Joe decides to take her to his apartment. The next day after showing up late for work ; Joe discovers from his angry boss that the princess has fallen ill and will not be seeing any press. After his boss shows Joe a picture of Ann he understands that he has a major scoop on his hands. He makes a bet with his boss that he will get him the most in depth royal interview ever. He rushes from the office and enlists the aid of Irving to show just what a princess does when she is free from royal restraints.

When he returns to his apartmet Ann now recovered from the sedative tells him her name is Anya and she is a student on holiday. Joe goes along with it and offers to show her the sites. She declines at first so Joe simply follows her around at first then "bumps" into her later. From there the movie takes us all over Rome as Ann , Joe , and Irving see the sites. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is at the "Mouth of Truth" , again I won't spoil it but Peck ad libs his scene and the result is hilarious. I won't go into much more detail about the story from here out because you just need to watch it for yourself. But you will not be dissapointed.

Amazingly this was Audrey's first film role but you wouldn't think so. Gregory Peck had a clause in his contract that gave him top billing in his films. He was so impressed by her he insisted she got equal billing ; unheard of in those days. She went on to win an Oscar for her role which would end up being her only one though she recieved more nominations.

So what are you waiting for don't rent this ; buy it! Hands down the best movie ever. In my next post I will discuss the complete opposite of this movie Troll 2.