A Meh Movie Weekend

I tried to see Shrek yesterday but it was sold out.  I was there a half hour early but it's a small theater so I wasn't too surprised.  I'm going to try again today after work.  I'm hearing it's not great but I bet I'll still get some good laughs.The same can't be said for the "romantic comedy" I watched Friday night.  Wow, did I dislike Valentine's Day.  That was not a good movie.  I usually enjoy Garry Marshall movies (don't tell any cinephiles I said that) but this was definitely not his best. Yes, it was an all-star cast but there were just too many people and too many stories.  I think there were 3 or 4 times I laughed and only once was it audible. I also watched Invictus which was very good but not incredible.  I think my suggestion for Mr. Eastwood is to stay away from sports movies. He tried to make the sports part of it too dramatic.  Luckily there was no dialog so I was able to fast-forward through the long shots of scrums, passing and running.

Also, is it mean that I'm thrilled MacGruber didn't even break the top 5 this past weekend?

Memory is the first to go right?

Or is it hearing?  I can't remember.

I think today is the birthday of a friend of mine but I can't remember for sure.  I thought I had this stuff written down in my calendar but alas it is not there.  I missed Annemiah's anniversary the other day.  Getting old sucks.

Why can't I get a job where I just watch movies all the time?

Robin Hood was fun. I enjoyed it and am not sure why so many critics are being cranky about it.  The acting was solid, the costumes and locations were great and overall it seemed to be pretty accurate of the time period.  My only issue was Crowe's accent and I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't heard about some dumb interviewer who asked him why he was doing an Irish accent.  Once in a while he'd slip in a bit of an Irish lilt but it wasn't as if he was doing full on pikey.  I was glad I saw it at the pricier theater with the big screen and the good sound.

Letters to Juliet was so great.  Ok, it was incredibly predictable but it was really well done.  The writing was sweet and funny.  The characters were great and I really cared about them.  And...IT WAS FILMED IN ITALY!!!  Watching shots of Verona, Siena and the Tuscan countryside does not suck.  Plus the man that Vanessa Redgrave is searching for happens to be her real-life love.  They've been together since the late 60s.  So sweet!  I went to the cheap theater for this one and would have paid much more for it.

Rentals this weekend were quite disappointing.  I watched Leap Year Sunday night and I might have liked it more if I hadn't just seen Letters to Juliet earlier that day.  Leap Year was sweet and fine but there was just something better about Juliet.  Oh and I saw Nine.  I really didn't care for it.  Some of the song and dance numbers were good but I fast-forwarded through most of the actual story.  I really liked Chicago so I had hope that Rob Marshall would hit it again with Nine.  He didn't.  If I were his manager I'd suggest he do an episode of Glee to get back some of what he had after Chicago. I could totally see him doing a big ol' Broadway episode. 

I'm going to try and see Queen Latifah's movie, Just Wright, on Thursday. That's been getting good reviews so I might check it out at the cheap theater.  I will be seeing Shrek 4 and not MacGruber.  Even though my old school-mate is in it I just can't pay to sit through that much scatological/vulgar humor.  That said, I've heard it's hilarious so I will watch it when it shows up on cable.

Why I love movies...

"It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death."

I saw How To Train Your Dragon last night.  I freaking loved it.  Such great writing and we even saw it in 3D which was totally worth it. The flying around and stuff was perfect in 3D.  I had read that the 3D thing worked better with HTTYD than Avatar.  Whoever said that was right.  It was so well done.  The voice acting was spot-on and the story was a nice one.  They didn't try to hit you over the head with some agenda.  I just sat back and enjoyed every minute of it.

This weekend is Robin Hood and Letters to Juliet.  My expectations for the former are quite low because I've not been reading the best things about it.  Letters to Juliet is supposed to be uber-romantic which makes me want to hurl but then it's in Italy and who wouldn't want to spend some time watching Italy on the big screen?  Robin Hood will likely be viewed at the more expensive theater where I'll have to pay $7.50 for a matinee (as long as it's before 3pm-after 3 it goes up quite a bit).  Letters to Juliet will be at the cheap theater.  I'm wondering if I should switch that because Entertainment Weekly gave Robin a C- and Juliet a B+.  Hmmm...

Summer movie season - Yay!

One of the best things to do in the heat of summer (especially in the south) is to head right into an air conditioned movie theater.  In fact I think summer movies are really the only thing I like about summer.

When a movie comes out I do a little research on it, check its rating on Rotten Tomatoes, read a few reviews and let myself succumb to the hype.  I then place the movie into one of four categories. The categories determine the air conditioned venue in which I'll be seeing said movie:

1) Worth seeing on a big screen with big sound and thusly big ticket price.  My local Regal theater and the IMAX theaters fit into this category.  The more excited I am about a movie, the more money I'm willing to shell out for it.  In fact I've seen almost all the Harry Potter movies on an IMAX screen. Not cheap but totally worth it.
2) Worth seeing on a smaller screen with average sound and a cheap ticket price.  My $3 theater (aka my home away from home) fits this category.  It smells a little funny, the floors are super sticky and the seats, though new, are not stadium so you have to make sure no one tall is in front of you.  Recently I saw The Losers this way.  It was the right choice.  Fun movie but not worth more than $3.
3) Worth waiting for the DVD.  Let's face it, the span between the theater and Netflix/Blockbuster/redbox is getting smaller and smaller.  TVs are nicer, your bathroom is close and typically MUCH cleaner and it's way more economical.  This category also works for the art-housey/indie movies that don't make it to small town USA. 
4) Worth waiting for cable.  I keep thinking that I could get rid of the movie channels we subscribe to but then movies keep popping up that I never got around to renting.  I'm still unsure of the monetary value of it though.

There have been times where a movie is airing on TNT, USA, TBS, or the like and I've realized I never caught it on a movie channel.  But then I don't want to sit through commercials to watch an 'edited for television' movie so these just slip right through the cracks.  Then there are the movies that I own on DVD (like the extended versions of Lord of the Rings) and will still watch when it airs over a long weekend on the aforementioned cable channels like TNT, USA, TBS or the like.  This bridges nicely to...

'Glue movies!' This was an unfamiliar term to me but I related to the description immediately.  Glue movies are those movies that no matter what you're doing, what time of day or what channel it's on...you watch it.  I have a huge list of those that start with the cheesy 70s and 80s sci fi / fantasy movies like Clash of the Titans, Flash Gordon, The Last Starfighter (which was just on the other day) and so many more.  Then there are the more recent ones that fit into the guilty pleasure dance category like Center Stage, Save the Last Dance, Step Up, and a few others.  I don't know if anyone besides Ashley reads this blog anymore but if you do, what are your glue movies?

Oh and I will be doing the movie a weekend thing again but posting short reviews on here. I deleted the other blog.

My summer depression starts now

We've had a spring and I've enjoyed almost every minute of it.  I'm pretty sure if I check my blog from a year ago I said the same thing because I seem to remember having a bit of a spring last year too.  However, yesterday marked the beginning of a long and muggy summer.  It was 90 and humid.  This morning at 6am it was already 75 degrees.  I realized that with the heat and humidity mixed with the constant bug bites that keep me from doing anything outside...I HATE SUMMER IN THE SOUTH.  If I had it my way I'd spend May through August (September?) in Canada on a lake.  In fact I know just the lake and I happen to know a house with a huge finished basement that would suit me just fine.  I wonder if my friend Betty Ann's parents would let me move in with them every summer.

Thankfully I had these pics to put me in a better mood this morning.