Need a Good Date Movie?

Believe it or not, I have seen movies since last year in December. It's just that I haven't gotten around to updating this blog. Well, I guess that's obvious, isn't it. Anyway, I'm back now and promise to try and keep this blog better updated.

Last weekend my husband and I went to see Stardust, which I believe is a based on Neil Gaiman's book of the same title. It was a pretty good movie with the perfect combination of romance, fantasy, adventure, and mystery. The plotline was slightly predictable, but the movie still enjoyable. Definitely a good date movie.

I loved the music. It had a great score. The acting was good as well, though there were a couple of scenes I could have done without. All in all, I give this one a two thumbs up. Now I'm going to have to read the book.

I'm coming to you from the library today and my time's almost up. So, I'm signing off for now. Stay tuned though for future posts about the movies I took in this past summer.

See you next time. Until then...

Happy movieing.

A Night at the Movies

A bit ago, my family and I returned from Ben Stiller's new movie Night at the Museum. Oh my goodness, what an hilarious movie. It's definitely one of the most creative plot ideas I've seen in a long time. I actually liked Ben Stiller for once. He was funny, and yet not annoying at all. The movie also featured other great stars like Robin Williams, Dick van Dyke, and Mickey Rooney (whom I could have sworn died about five years ago). I saw a recent interview with van Dyke who called this the best family movie to come along in years. You know what? He was right.

As I said, the plot line was very original. It had great character growth and all the right touchy, feely moments a good family flick should have. It was funny without being crass and even featured a budding romance between Teddy Roosevelt and Sacajawea. Who would have thunk. Oh, the music was great too. Even found a song to download to iTunes and add to my driving music repetoire.

So, if you're looking for a good family flick to see before ringing in the New Year, check out Night at the Museum. You won't be sorry.

Happy Movieing!!

Looking for non-stop laughs?

Well then, get Flushed Away with this great movie, which opened this weekend. It features the voice talents of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, and Andy Serkis (one of my all time favorites) among others. Also, this movie featured the creative talents of creators of the Wallace and Gromit movies, so you know it was going to be good. And, it was. I can't remember the last time I laughed almost non-stop from beginning to end. The movie also had a great score, with music ranging from instrumentals to 70s classics. Both my husband and I gave this one a two thumbs up.

I noticed that it hit number three at the box office this weekend, so it should be around awhile. Don't miss your chance to get Flushed Away in this hilarious, yet romantic movie.

Spending time with Husband - Mission Possible

Yesterday my husband and I went on a spontaneous walk down the street to our local Cold Stone Creamery. After enjoying a Starbucks Mocha Frappaccino (me) and some delicious Cold Stone ice cream (husband), we decided to catch a movie at the theatre in the same complex, since it was simply too hot to walk back home. The only one playing within a decent amount of time was Mission Impossible. It wasn't my first choice of movies to see simply because I don't want to knowingly put my hard earned movie-going money into the hands of the Church of Scientology, but husband wanted to see it and I'm usually up for a good action movie. So, Mission Impossible it was.

I have to say, it was a lot better than I expected it to be. The one thing I really liked about it was that Ethan actually married the girl before the sex scene rather than just "one last fling" before going off into mortal danger. Good morals there, so yay! There was lots of action and cool gadgets, which made my husband happy. He likes cool gadgets. I have to say, I really enjoyed this movie overall, which rather surprises me.

Loved the musical score and thought the actress playing Julia did a good job with the role. The twist at the end was also great. Looks like the summer movie season is off to a promising start. We're looking forward to next weekend with Da Vinci Code and Over the Hedge coming out. Now we just have to decide which one to see on Friday and which to see on Saturday. Any thoughts from you bloggers out there?

'Til next time, happy movie-going :)

I'm Having One of Those Days

You know, the kind of day when you just have to watch a certain movie and you need to watch it right now? Yes, I'm having one of those days. I really want a good conspiracy movie. To be specific, I want to watch National Treasure. It's a great movie with lots of action, adventure, a good plot, and little to no swearing. Alas, it's also a movie we don't yet own, so I'm having to settle for something else. Just don't know what yet. When you want to watch a certain movie, right now nothing else in your movie library will quite fit the bill. So what do you do when you have to watch a movie right now and you can't get your hands on it (i.e., it's not in your collection, it's not in at your library or the video store)? Vote in my poll off to the right. Now, on to the real reason for this post.

This weekend I watched a movie I'd not yet seen, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I'm not quite sure what I'd been expecting from this movie, but it was far better than I thought it would be. Liam Aiken (Klaus) and Emily Browning (Violet) were both really good in their performances. Both have upcoming projects, according to Internet Movie Database, which I'd really like to see. They seem like up and coming talents. Oh, and the little girls they got to play Sunny were so cute. Though, my vision of Sunny from the books didn't really match the look she had on the screen. Can't quite put my finger on why, though.

Then there was Jim Carey. In my opinion, he really brought Count Olaf to life. Jim Carey started to grow on me after I saw Liar Liar and The Majestic and I think I pretty much like anything he's been in lately. However, I digress. Carey's Count Olaf was silky, sly, and slimy. He also did a brilliant job with Stefano and Captain Sham. I think Carey's performance was my favorite, although, as I said, the kids were really good in their roles.

I was a bit creeped out by Olaf's acting troupe, as one was supposed to be. The camera shots were very well done. My favorite was the one where Olaf was reading a "Variety" type magazine in the general store. It had Lon Chaney's as the Phantom of the Opera on the cover and there was this really cool shot of Lon Chaney's picture just below Count Olaf's head as a he lowers the paper. That was an absolutely cool shot.

As this movie came out a couple of years ago, I was of course watching this on DVD. As far as DVDs go, it had your typical fare: Coming Attractions, commentaries, deleted scenes, and outtakes. There were also some of the screen tests they did for the kids and some footage of how Jim Carey created all those characters. The outtakes and deleted scenes were weird and I'm not sure they could have got the rating they did if they those scenes in. I only watched a bit of the first commentary with the director, Brad Silberling, and he had some interesting things to say about the film. Today I'll probably watch the commentary with Silberling and Daniel Handler, author of the Series of Unfortunate Events books. If I do I'll post my thoughts about it later. For now though, I'm going to sit down in my favorite reading spot with a tall glass of water and see if I can finish the book I started a couple of days ago.

Happy movieing, everyone!

Score!!

I know I've been scarce here since before Christmas. Blame it on the movie companies. No good new movies=no new blog postings. Hopefully that will all change very soon. My husband and I scored big time on the DVD front this Christmas. Of course that was followed by his birthday and then mine (yesterday). We got even more movies. So, now we have enough DVDs to carry us through the upcoming dearth of good movies.

I have to say I have *the best* sister-in-law anyone could have. She sent me the t.v. show Nowhere Man, which is now out on DVD. I loved, loved, LOVED that show when it was on and can't believe it didn't generate enough fan interest to keep it on the air more than a season or two. However, now I have the DVD so I can enjoy all nineteen hours of it plus commentaries, deleted scenes, outtakes, and all that good stuff. Do you have any idea how hard it was to come to work today?

Of course it wasn't just the t.v. show that created such good memories of college for me. It was the fact that it was one of the nights my friends and I would crowd around the t.v. and have a fun night socializing and munching on snacks. Oh and then there was the analyzing the show afterwards. Then there were all the online friends I made when I subscribed to the listserv for the show. Even met one or two of them in real life when they stopped in the shop I was working in at Disneyland.

You know, I think there's still a Yahoo group dedicated to the show, at least I was part of one a year or so ago and some of the listserv members were on that. Perhaps now that I have the DVDs, I have to go back and see if the group is still going strong.

Sigh, now I'm all nostalgic and I have to wait until Saturday to pop in the DVD (if I want to watch it uninterrupted, that is). Ah well. A big shout out and thank you to my sister-in-law. Three days until Saturday!!

Happy DVD-ing everyone :)

Lots to blog about

I see it's been since mid-November since I updated this blog and even longer for some of my others. That's what happens when you have family birthdays, Christmas, and move across county to a new apartment all within the space of two months. Things are finally settling down now and I can finally blog about all those movies I've seen lately. Now if I could just remember what all of them are. Hmmm...well, let's just jump right in, shall we?

Topping the list is Rent, which I saw with a couple of friends from work. Now, this was two months ago that I saw it, so some of the details have gone fuzzy, but I did think it was really good. For some reason I had it in my mind that everyone dies in the end rather than just one person, so it didn't end like I thought it would. Ah well, as I said, fuzzy details. This one I'm looking forward to coming out on DVD and hope it has good special features.

The next one I saw was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. My husband and I have seen this one about five times now and it gets better every time we see it. The acting was so much better and there were some great lighthearted scenes. My favorite scene has to be when they are discussing getting dates for the Yule Ball during the study hall session. I laugh so hard everytime I watch that scene. Toward the beginning there are, of course, the obligatory cheesy lines, which seem to appear in every Potter film. At least they are gotten out of the way early in the film and I can sit back and enjoy the rest of the movie. A couple of down sides to the movie, though. First is that the opening Quidditch World Cup scenes are too short. I realize that time is of the essence when making a movie, but it would have been nice to have a few more minutes with the World Cup. I also thought there should be more Death Eaters apparating in during the graveyard scene at the end. For some reason I always pictured more people in that scene than they put in the movie. On the whole though, this one is a definite two thumbs up and my husband and I can't wait unti March 7th when it's released on DVD.

December brought around The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which I went to see with my dad. He read that book to me when I was little, so it was special to go see the movie with him. Like a lot of people, I thought the beginning of the movie was a bit slow. Once the children got to the Professor's house, though, the movie picked up. The whole production team did a great job of bringing Narnia to life. The kids were good in their roles and I especially thought James McAvoy did a great job as Mr. Tumnus. He was one of my favorite characters from the book, so I admit to being a bit partial to the way McAvoy portrayed him. It seemed like they tried a bit too hard in the battle scenes at the end to make it a grand epic movie on the scale of Lord of the Rings. Some of the camera shots seemed a bit cliche and it didn't really draw me in the way some battle scenes do. Overall, though, I really liked the movie and will probably buy it when the DVD hits the store.

Just this past Sunday my husband and I caught Cassanova starring Heath Ledger. Now, I am not well read on the stories/legends of Cassanova, nor on the life in and culture of Italy in the 1700s. So, I don't know how historically/literaturely accurate this movie is and I'm not sure I care in this case. I do know Heath Ledger pulled off another terrific acting job and the movie made me laugh. That made it worth the cost of a full price ticket to me. Two thumbs up and another DVD to add to my list.

This brings me to today. A couple hours ago I got home from finally getting to watch Peter Jackson's King Kong and I have to say, oh my gosh, what a phenomenal movie. If you read my blog from about a year ago, you'll remember I didn't think much of the original King Kong. Horrible acting and all that. This version blew me away. I swear it did not seem like three hours had gone by. Jackson had some great camera shots and between him and Andy Serkis, they really gave Kong lots of emotion and really made you feel for him. Brilliant acting as well, especially Jack Black and Naomi Watts. What with all the other movies out there that I'm hoping to see, I'm not sure I'll make back to see this one on the big screen again, but, you guessed it, I'm going to buy the DVD.

That's about it for this update. It was a much better holiday movie season than the summer movie season was. Here's hoping next summer will be better. My husband is traveling at the moment, so I don't know that I'll be posting an update relating to any current movies. However, I did get a number of movies for Christmas, so perhaps I can finally get around to watching some of those and I'll have another update soon.

Until then, happy movieing!