Movies
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The Namesake (A Joint Review, with Py and J)
The Namesake Saturday morning found Maya selling Girl Scout cookies…and, like always, a Girl Scout event for Maya means free babysitting for us! So, we took advantage of the opportunity to go see a film that Ted has been wanting to see, The Namesake. The Namesake is based on a book by Jhumpa Lahiri. I’ve read some of her short stories before, but I have not yet read the novel, so I came into the film not really knowing what to expect. We’ve decided it might be fun to put together a dual post, with a sort of, He Said, She Said quality to it, so you can read both…
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid…
Friday night, we watched “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid“. This is a classic in American Film, everyone loves it, best movie ever, blah blah blah. Want my review? Snore. The writing was excellent, actually, and hints at the genius that is William Goldman, he of “The Princess Bride” fame. The acting was great, the actors were all great to look at. Should have been good. But really, what I got from it was that these guys are thieves, who have no problem shooting everything and everyone up to get what they want, which is money. They’re criminals, and we’re supposed to sympathize with them because they are handsome and…
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Thursday Quiz
OK, because I am driving on a fieldtrip today, and don’t have much time, here you go…. a quiz… What, in your opinion, is the dumbest movie EVER, and I’m mostly hoping for detailed answers to WHY, in option D. A. Cocktail – my reasoning, because any film with a justification for infidelity like “when a man dares you, you can’t say no” (or whatever the actual quote is) is a DUMB film. B. Showgirls – I’ve never actually SEEN this one, but I’ve heard it’s TERRIBLE…almost, “So bad, it’s good”. C. Boxing Helena – Julian Sands was actually pretty groovy in “A Room With A View”, but in this film…
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Notes on a Scandal
Saturday, Maya went to a sleepover birthday party at her best friend Jackie’s house. Ted and I took the opportunity (free babysitting! Is it called that when your baby is almost 11?) to go see a rated ‘R’ film, with dialogue, sex, and intrigue. Specifically, we saw “Notes on a Scandal“, with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. I’ve got one word for you…Oscar. (Both are nominated, Dench for leading roll, Cate for supporting) Judi Dench gives a chilling performance as a British schoolteacher (Barbara), who befriends the new art teacher, Sheba (played by Blanchett), and becomes obsessed with her.  Barbara witnesses a tryst between Sheba and a 15 year old pupil, and they…
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Little Children
Yesterday, Maya went back to school after two weeks off for winter break. I took one last day of vacation, and Ted had the day off as well, so we decided to go see an adult film (no, not THAT kind of movie!), meaning one with adult themes, an actual dialog, some sex and some very disturbing issues. We went to see Little Children, which is based on the novel by Tom Perotta, who also wrote the novel on which the wicked Election was based. Little Children is mainly the story of two characters, Sarah and Brad. Sarah (Kate Winslet) is the mother of a young girl, Lucy, and is…
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A Meme About the Movies…
I was sort of tagged for this meme by MsMama. Looked like fun, though I’ll admit it took more time than I expected it to take. 1. Popcorn or candy? Popcorn, but either no butter or just a little. Too greasy on my fingers. I used to dip it in my coke as a child, because I figured it made it soft enough to not damage my braces. Kinda gross, but I got used to it, and now I like it. 2. Name a movie you’ve been meaning to see forever. Sorry, can’t think of any. With Netflix, I can pretty much see anything I want. 🙂 Someone said I…
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DVD Weekend…
I’m slowly renouncing my claim to her, and all that I had hoped for in the world. ~ Jules and Jim. There’s nothing like a good French film to give you poignant little tidbits like that, huh? But I’m getting ahead of myself. Friday, after going to Stockton to see my Grandma, and after the presentation I had to give on Thursday (which was really no big deal, but that didn’t stop me from getting very tense about it), I was ready to relax on the sofa and watch a good romantic comedy. Something frothy and light and sweet. Unfortunately, we watched “Must Love Dogs” instead. This film can best…
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Weekend…
I wish all weekends could be three day weekends. More specifically, I wish this had been a three day weekend. No worries, though, because we had a lovely time, and got in some touristy stuff, some shopping, and some loafing. 🙂 We started out with Friday night…Ted and LaLuna made a lovely hamburger dinner, which we enjoyed at S’s house, while we watched Battlestar Galactica. Lovely. We had a nice time, and S opened a wonderful bottle of red wine for us to enjoy. After we got home, Maya went to bed, and Ted and I watched Lost, which we had taped on Wednesday. Saturday, I woke up with a…
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Book Meme
I’ve been tagged by Lotus Reads for an interesting meme about books. The hard thing is that I tend to read a lot. Not nearly as much as I would like to, or as much as I used to, but a lot. At the same time, I have a pretty crappy memory, so I might answer these questions one way today, and if you asked me again in a year, or a week, you might get all different answers. 🙂 1. One book that changed your life? “The Blood of Others“, by Simone de Beauvoir. I read this my senior year in college, and I remember the feeling that I…
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Movie Time
We have watched several DVDs over the last few days…I watched “Last Holiday“, which was cute, but I didn’t laugh even once. It’s a remake, and the premise, if you don’t know, is that a quiet, mousy woman is told that she’s going to die in a couple of weeks…which motivates her to take the bull by the horns and finally live life. She goes to Europe and spends a week or so living with such gusto, such abandon, that everyone around her is enthralled and falls under her spell of forthright talking and joie de vivre. Like I said, cute. No more. We TRIED to watch “Super Troopers“, but…
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DVD Wrap-Up
We watched a few DVDs over Labor Day weekend…OK, just two. We watched disc one, season one, of “Weeds“, and an indie film titled “Duma“. I’m sure some of you fancy-pants folks have cable systems that allow you to have Showtime and HBO for less than $100 a month, or you have a dish, which we can’t get because of our tree situation, so you have been watching Weeds since it came out. I’m also sure that there are those amongst you who didn’t pretty much have it confused in your head with Deadwood, so you were ahead of me there, too. Being not into the whole western genre, I’ve…
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Our Weekend So Far
Yesterday, Maya had a pretty cool art class, where they got to learn some cartooning skills from a Pixar animator. She really liked it. Ted and I took the opportunity to go see Scoop, which is the newest Woody Allen movie. Ted LOVES Woody Allen. I like him OK, but not like Ted does. That’s ok, I’m game for a good movie now and again. 😉 At one point during the film, however, I discovered that my husband has become an old man. I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but the evidence came forward when Woody Allen was asked what his religion was…he said “”I was born into the…
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Escaping Ennui
Ted and I went to escape the heat as well as taking advantage of Maya’s going to her best friend’s house on Saturday (free babysitting!), and we drove into Berkeley to see “A Scanner Darkly.” It’s a complicated tale, and one wonders how and why the main character (played by Keanu Reeves….whoa….) got to be where he is. In one flashback that may or may not be real, we see him in his home, with a lovely wife and two children. The wife and kids are playing a board game, and he is reading the newspaper. He gets up to make some popcorn, bonks his head on an open cupboard…
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Movie Update
We watched “To Kill a Mockingbird” the other night…it was pretty true to the book, very good, very sad. Too bad they took out the part about Scout and Dill being ‘engaged’…I always thought that was sweet and funny, but they only had 2 hours, so I guess it was best to stick to the main points as much as possible. Also no sight of the rich white man with the black family. Missed him too. I do understand, however, the difficulty involved with taking a book and all of the nuances involved in that medium, and putting it into a coherant narative for people to view and understand on…
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Want to Make Me Cry?
I was reminded recently of the all time number one tear jerker movie in my life…The Miracle Worker. (I do remember SOBBING uncontrollably to Amistad, but somehow the movie didn’t STICK with me the same way…Spielberg is too manipulative, so he can get the tears flowing, but it’s not deep…at least, not for me.) ANYWAY…I have two stories of crying to this film. The first time I sobbed at The Miracle Worker, I was living in San Francisco, and home alone in the afternoon. I had a friend who was attending USF, which was right down the street from my lovely flat, and she had to stop by and do…