Weekend Viewing

Saturday we "chilled" with family animation:
Happy Feet (2006) - it's a musical!!!
Ice Age (2002) - reminded me of Jungle Book
Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) - environmental awareness

Serious Sunday: The Song of Bernadette (1943)
similar to The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)

Movies This Weekend

Friday -

Patton (1970) starring George C. Scott
It is indeed a war drama biography.
It was somewhat bearable since not much blood.
It was more about his insane thoughts and cruel ways.

Hotel Rwanda (2004) starring Don Cheadle
I would consider it a historical drama about war.
It's the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager.
He helps keep his family and others alive during genocide.

300 (2006) starring no one I know
It's a action drama about a historical war.
It takes place back in 480 BC during the rule of Xerxes.
The Spartans attack by sending 300 of their finest warriors.

Saturday -

Jumanji (1995) and Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)
Jumanji stars Robin Williams and Bonnie Hunt.
Zathura stars some kids with Tim Robbins as father.
These movies are family fantasy. I preferred the latter.

Movies This Week

Thought I would update the blog with the movies watched thus far.

Monday and Tuesday we watched the first five Harry Potters.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
I had never seen them before and Randy was anxious for me to.
They were okay although I am not much into magic and witchcraft.
I preferred the element of friendship and just being a kid.

Wednesday we did crime drama thrillers:
Panic Room (2002) with Jodie Foster
Flightplan (2005) with Jodie Foster
Don't Say a Word (2001) with Michael Douglas
I liked the intelligent and mystery elements of these.

Thursday was a hodge podge - mostly quirky:
The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999)
Dark Star (1974) - I fell asleep - a student film project
People Will Talk (1951) - nice romantic comedy with Cary Grant

Family Fantasy Explored

The first two movies we watched Monday.
And the latter two were viewed Tuesday.
The first three are Irish for St Patty's Day.
They all have accents to varying degrees.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)
Darby explores the land of the little people.
He believes in leprechauns and banshees.
A relatively young (29) Sean Connery is in it.

The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
Two children explore the island of their forefathers.
They hear many tales of events that happened there.
They come to believe in mermaids which is part of their family tree.
And they spot a lost sibling once thought to have been drowned.
But instead his seal relatives of the sea have taken care of him.
These young people also rebuild the family's abandoned homes.
It's amazing what they can do and what they know how to do.
I totally recommend this family fantasy to all.

Finian's Rainbow (1968)
Finian explores the best use of his fortunes in Rainbow Valley.
Rainbow - Irish - yes, there is a leprechaun in this adventure.
I remember watching this musical when I was a young adult.
I like the storyline about people of all colors living in harmony.
It was directed by a 29 year old (hippie) Francis Ford Coppola.
It stars Fred Astaire as Finian and his daughter is Petula Clark.

Five Children and It (2004)
The five children explore their uncle's home.
They find a doorway to a mystical land with an "IT".
The sand fairy grants them wishes to teach them lessons.
As with leprechauns it usually does not work out.

Disney Sunday

Back when we were young Sunday night was Disney.
We decided to watch three movies with Kurt Russell.
He played the same character in all of them - Dexter Reilly.

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972)
The Strongest Man in the World (1975)

Being Disney they were all wholesome.
Some great actors are in them.
Worth checking out.

Martian Child

Randy went to one of the local video stores
and picked up a new release: Martian Child.
To watch a bit of it check out the trailer.

I liked the movie. Interesting thoughts.
A recently widowed guy ponders whether to adopt.
It had been his wife's desire since she had been adopted.

He says something like "I know the argument
about not bringing a child into this world.
But what about loving one that is already here?"

The star is John Cusack which I like.
And his sister Joan plays his sister in the movie.
I always enjoy watching either of them.

Things Change

Yesterday the upstairs neighbor called and canceled lunch.
She decided to keep her children home from school.
The weather was bad and she thinks they are sick.
We tentatively rescheduled for next week.

Since we had some time before lunch I made a proposal.
I told Randy I would try the second Lord of the Rings ...
but only if we watch half before lunch and the other half after.
I have a hard time sitting for 3 to 4 hours at one time.

So I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
I had read it was the best of the three. Not sure why.
What bothers me is there is NO END to each movie.
They really should have simply called it a miniseries.

I am not into action movies which is what I consider these.
The story itself has not caught my interest but ...
I may end up watching the last just to say I have.
Now I know who people are when other's talk about it.

I tried LOTR

I had read The Hobbit about 30 years ago.
And believe I even watched The Hobbit (1977).

I told Randy I would watch Lord of the Rings.
Or at least I would try to watch the trilogy.
So yesterday afternoon I sat down and watched
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

It was okay but just not my cup of tea.
I am not into action and it was too slow paced.
Told Randy I would not be watching other.

In the evening we watched the comedy RV.
It starred Robin Williams which explains the rating ...
"Rated PG for crude humor, innuendo and language.".
I feel asleep part of the way thru it and that's okay by me.

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday we decided to watch movies with "changes".
This was prompted by Leap Day (the day before).

In the morning we watched The Skeleton Key.
It's a horror flick which ended with a soul tranformation "change".
Seems we picked a lot of odd and weird movies lately.
Randy was sick most of the day and slept.

In the evening we watched A Saintly Switch.
It's a family movie about a husband and wife having problems.
Their children wish theier parents understood each other better.
And sure enough they switch bodies to walk in each other's shoes.

Sunday we watched movies with titles that had special meaning to us.
Most of the movies were pretty weird regardless of the cool titles.

It's All About Love stars Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes and Sean Penn.
The love story takes place in 2021 in a world on the brink of disaster:
In summer it snows in New York City and people are flying in Africa.
A weird part is the multiple versions of Claire's character.

Funny Valentine stars Anthony Michael Hall and Marlo Marron.
A truly nice guy has a hard time finding romance in the big city.
His friends place a personal ad for him and screen the respondents.
In the meantime he finally falls for and starts dating a single mom.

Happy Endings stars a lot of well known actors like Lisa Kudrow,
Jason Ritter, Tom Arnold, David Sutcliffe and Laura Dern.
A lot of weird relationships with weird pregnancies and births.

Yes stars Shirley Henderson as the cleaner.
I admit I fell asleep towards the beginning.
Even at that point I could tell it was weird.

Monday and Tuesday

Randy was busy these days doing data entry.
He brought over his tv series on DVD from storage.
So mostly I watched these myself except last of the day.

Monday :
The Devil Wears Prada - it was a rewatch
Are We There Yet? - excellent family movie
Are We Done Yet? - did not live up to original
Cats & Dogs - great fun!!!!
"Firefly" pilot

Tuesday :
Explorers - it was just okay
The Adventures of Pluto Nash - this was fun!!!!
The Butterfly Effect 2 - easier to follow than original

Avenging Appleseed

More movie animation picks today.

Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers II
They were okay but not something we would sit thru again.
Interesting the initial characters were all black ...
That included the head military and the astronauts.
Then again the overthrow of planet earth ...
was happening in an African country.

Appurushîdo - American title Appleseed
This was much better.
Although at times still hard to follow.
In this movie women had strong and powerful positions.
It took awhile to understand the title of Appleseed.
I would watch again to better understand all the action.

Marine Life

Aquamarine (2006)
I had heard it was a good movie and totally concur.
At first I was thinking it was going to be animated.
When I think mermaid I think The Little Mermaid.
Another great mermaid flick is The Thirteenth Year.

Lady in the Water (2006)
This one was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
He started it at Disney but due to creative differences left.
It's listed at imdb under genres: fantasy, mystery, thriller
The mystery element kept my interest. I really liked it.

We had planned to watch Splash but ran out of time.
We had both seen it before so it was not a big deal.
Personally I love both Tom Hanks and John Candy.

Disney movies

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
In college I worked in a Christian bookstore and heard about books.
I was a leary about combining fantasy with Christianity.
I finally sat down and watched it and liked it.

The Incredibles (2004) - animated
I liked this the best of the three animated we watched today.
It's about a family of super heroes. They learn to work together.
Some of the voices are Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) - animated
It was okay but I never got much into story.
Michael J Fox was the voice of the main character.

Meet the Robinsons (2007) - animated
A little too confusing for me especially so late.
Some voices were Angela Bassett and Laurie Metcalf.

Family Animal Movies

Today we picked Family Movies about animals.
The titles are just one word long referring to animal.
A couple are old stories retold and a couple are original.
We plan to watch more Family Movies the next two days.

Hoot (2006) - about endangered owls
Big business is trying to build in area where owls burrow.
A small group of children learn of this and try to save them.
Great segments of wildlife shots and children caring for others.

Flicka (2006) - about mustang horse
A young girl finds a wild mustang.
She sets about to capture him and train him.
Against the odds and her father's wishes she does so.

Duma (2005) - about orphaned cheetah
An orphaned cheetah is saved and raised by a family.
The plan was always to return it to the wild.
The adventure is finding the cheetah's homeland.

Lassie (2005) - about beloved collie dog
I grew up watching Lassie the series.
In this tale the family has to sell the dog.
But Lassie always returns to his original home.

More Sci Fi

Randy was not feeling so well today.
He was dealing with an earache and headache.
So we decided to make it a sci fi movie day.
We watched the following four movies:

4: Rise of the Silver Surfer -It was the followup to the Fantastic Four movie we watched yesterday. Mr Fantastic (stretch guy) and the Invisible Woman (Jessice Alba) are trying to wed. Of course world events once again stop the wedding from actually happening. The other members of the team are The Torch and The Thing (Michael Chiklis). Bad guy Dr. Doom is played by Julian McMahon who played pure evil on Charmed. And the voice of the "Silver Surfer" is Lawrence Fishburne.

NEXT with Nicholas Cage as a guy that can see two minutes into the future. His "eventual" girlfriend is played by Jessica Biel of 7th Heaven fame. When he is with her his ability to see the future is expanded. Government agent played by Julianne Moore wants him to help prevent a nuclear terrorist attack.

The Butterfly Effect - I was pleasantly surprised of this movie. It starred Ashton Kutcher who I know best as Demi Moore's husband. He has been keeping a journal through his life due to strange blackouts and memory issues. He finds out he can go back in time and change the outcome of events - better known as the ripple effect. His young self is played by Logan Lerman who played Mel Gibson's young self in What Woman Want.

Interstate 60 - It was pretty good. A young man goes on an adventure on a highway that doesn't exist or does it? He learns some of life's lessons thru experience. He is played by James Marsden known for appearing on X-men. A couple of "characters" he keeps meeting along the way are played by Gary Oldman and Christopher Lloyd. Lloyd I remember from the Back to the Future movies and was the voice in tv's animated series by the same name. Also making guest appearance were Michael J Fox, Kurt Russell and Ann-Margret.

Sci Fi flicks

Last night we watched two sci fi movies ...

The Philadelphia Experiment - sci fi action
I had heard about it before so wanted to see it.
I liked it enough that I stayed awake throughout.
The navy denies experiments on invisibility or teleportation.
There are those that believe it happened and the skeptics.

Fantastic Four was second on the watch list.
I liked what I saw but did fall asleep due to lateness.
I will rewatch the rest of it later today during daylight.
One of the "FOUR" is played by Michael Chiklis.
I loved him in The Commish as Anthony 'Tony' J. Scali.

Yours Mine and Ours

Today I watched both the old and new version.
It was my first viewing of the newer Dennis Quaid 2005 version.
I was not impressed especially since I love the older version.
The original 1968 version starred Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball.

They had changed so much in the newer version even the reason why the movie had "ours" in it. In the original the newly married couple gets pregnant with their 19th child. So many elements of the original were missing in the updated version. I can watch the Lucille Ball version repeatedly. So many great one liners! When I watched it with Randy I laughed in anticipation of the humor coming. But even beyond the humor there was great commentary about living and loving.

Zoom and Bells of St Mary

This morning we watched Zoom.
It is classic slapstick with Tim Allen and Chevy Chase.
As well as Courtney Cox and the young super heroes.

We just finished watching Bells of St. Mary.
It's a true classic starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman.
It's one of my favorites especially this time of year.

Movies and Ice Cream

This morning we watched The Polar Express (2004).
That was the last of the Christmas movies.
This evening we watched Going My Way (1944) with Bing Crosby.
Midway thru the movie we stoppped for an ice cream break.
Okay it was for make it yourself sundaes.
Vanilla ice cream, caramel and chocolate toppings,
whipped cream and cherries and crushed honey nut cheerios.

Unaccompanied Scrooge

Four Christmas movies this time ...
Unaccompanied Minors (2006) - I was pleasantly surprised at this one. Thumbs UP!!!
Chasing Christmas (2005 tv) - I was NOT impressed at all. The daughter is the only good thing.
The Night They Saved Christmas (1984 tv) - On the unbelievable side with some family charm.
Scrooged (1988) - Bill Murray plays the scrooge character which is a cynically selfish tv executive. This one I like. I have seen it before.