This is the forum for the Wright family and relatives where we share our tastes of movies, music, books, and tv. You can write a review, complain, or tell the family you have just experienced a MUST SEE/READ!
Sorry I didn't post this last night. By the time I remembered it was like midnight. Anyway, Elf! My favorite Christmas movie. I am so glad this movie was made, and I am so glad Will Ferrell played Buddy. I cannot imagine anyone else doing as good a job as he did. Matt was the first to guess, then Cat, then Em, then Dad (dad guessed Alph, I'm assuming he meant Elf! Best misspelling ever dad, and I'm pretty sure you did it on purpose). And B guessed last. Way to go Matt!
I finished "The Host" Saturday. I liked it a lot. Very much, and I don't read science fiction much. But it was interesting to me and well written and after you figured out who was who and who was talking to who and all that, it made sense and I was compelled to like the Wanderer. I was on the couch by the tree reading the ending (before the postlude) Saturday afternoon, and I was chokeing up and a few tears were rolling and mom came in and said, "are you crying?" of course I said no and went on with reading with my head turned away. Can you believe that? I'm such a boob. Have you guys heard the story of the sister in our Sacrament Fast & testimony meeting that was bareing her testimony and chokeing and crying and at the end she said, " I'm such a big boob! At the end of the meeting the conducting bishopric member got up to close the meeting and said, "We like big boobs in our ward" Silence, then a spattering of laughter and then more and more as the statement sunk in. hehehehe... One of the better humor meetings attended.
Merry Chrtmas ebau! Love to all of you from Mom and Pops. We just got to the Phisters house and they are all asleep so I thought I would start this blog entry. Had a good time last night here and ate a wonderful prime rib dinner and lots of laughs afterward. Matt will have to post some pictures they tooks. Weathers good and all is well.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Four Stars. Loved it, loved it. I wish I knew how to make the image bigger. ( a little help, Em?) This is a movie called "A Prairie Home Companion". It is based on a radio show I am devoted to. It's like an old-time radio variety show like the kind they did 50+ years ago. It's hosted (for 30 years, I think?) by this guy named Garrison Keillor. He has just the best voice for radio ever. Every week they do this show before a live audience. Mostly from their studio in St. Paul, but they do hit the road and travel to various venues. They've come to Salt Lake a few times, but I have never gone to see it live. The movie is about the show's very last performance. Only some of the players know this. And there is like this death figure on the prowl. And that's pretty much it. It is very Robert Altman-ish (he directed the film, but died before it was released). But I think I had a ginormous grin on my face throughout the entire thing. Kevin Kline is hilarious as Guy Noir (a hapless Private Investigator). Dusty and Lefty (from this cowboy bit they do on the show that is hilarious) are played by Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly, repectively and are just so funny I had tears down my face during their bit, it was so funny. Lily Tomlin (Altman is to Lily Tomlin as Allen is to Dianne Keaton) and Meryl Streep were wonderful (especially hearing their attempts to do Mid-western accents!) I so wish I was from Minnesota. As far as continental US accents go, that is my favorite. A close second is metro-Boston. A former employee at Motion Control and good friend of mine nick-named me wicked smaht. Love it. Anyhoo, I don't know if you have to be a fan of the show to enjoy the movie, or if you might just take a chance on watching it and join me in what Booker calls "The Grandma Hour". This is the block of time I reserve to listening to my favorite radio shows.
Liar Liar! Cam and I watched this last weekend on cable and I forgot how funny this movie is. I think that was the first time I watched the entire movie. So Matt was the first to guess, then Haley, then Dad, then Em, then B. Cat had the best wrong guess in the world! Her first guess was The Muppet Show! (She meant Muppet Movie) It made me laugh so hard I had to tell someone, so I told Matt. I couldn't imagine what episode of the Muppet Show she thought it was. She knew it was wrong after the second quote and she guessed School of Rock. A much better guess, but still wrong.
This week's quote is from a movie:
I'm sorry I ruined your life and crammed 11 cookies into the VCR.
Fun Fact #7 - Neil Leslie Diamond is his real name. Other names such as Eice Chary and Noah Kaminsky were considered as stage names at the start of his career. When asked right before Solitary Man was released which name he wanted to go with by the record co., he thought of his grandmother who had just died and told Bang Records, ".....go with Neil Diamond and I'll figure it out later."
Noah Kaminsky??!! Fun Fact #8 - Neil was the first ever winner of a Razzie Award for his role in The Jazz Singer. Yet was also nominated for a Golden Globe for the same role. Fun Fact #9 - Neil's 2008 tour has been his most successful of any of his previous tours since 1966. A few months ago, (end of August) he performed at Ohio State with layrengitis. He felt bad about how it went and awarded the entire audience refunds.
Most of us who read and contribute to this blog were there, but for those who weren't there, here is the long awaited review! And for those of us who were there, let this serve as a great reminder of the fantastic night we had last night.
Most of us Wrights saw Neil Diamond at the Energy Solutions Arena last night. 9 of us went to the concert. 4 Utah peeps (Sue, Cat, Em and Rob), and 5 Wyoming peeps (Mom, Dad, Amy, Matt and Bronwyn). I would like to thank you Wyoming people for coming all the way out here so we could see Neil as a family. And a special shout out to Haley and Marcus, (more WY peeps), for coming out to watch Scout so Em and Rob could go!
We bought the tickets at the beginning of October, and anxiously waited for the concert. I believe there are 3 or 4 postings on this blog that have to deal with the upcoming concert. We have had conversations about what Neil would open with, what he would wear, would he do any Christmas songs? etc. So, how was the concert? FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!
Let me just take a minute to describe where, in the arena, our tickets were. They were directly BEHIND the stage! I bought all the tickets online within 5 minutes of them going on sale. But they actually ended up being pretty good seats! We were very close to Neil! After a couple of songs he turned around and said "what did they tell you people to get you to buy those seats!" But you know what? Besides maybe the first 3 rows of the floor, we were the closest to Neil! Yeah we mostly saw his backside (which isn't a bad thing), but they had a couple of jumbotron screens right in front of us, so it was great! And, he made it a point a few times during the concert to pay special attention to us! His band did too. His band was great about turning around and waving and playing just for us.
So, onto the concert itself. First, what Neil wore. I believe the picture below shows the exact shirt he wore.
We were happy with what he wore, but I think the picture below shows what we all really hoped he would wear. But thats okay Neil! We love you!
Second, what Neil sang. Thanks to the Body Worlds people, I now carry around the little notebook they gave me to write down my observations. So I wrote down the set list in it.
Neil's opening song was, Holly Holy! (Neil, you are a true genius! We all knew you would open with something to let us know you were there, but none of us guessed Holly Holy! It was awesome!) Then he sang:
Beautiful Noise Love on the Rocks (oh yeah, a Wright classic!) Play Me (he turned around and sang the entire song to those of us who had seats behind the stage. It was great. He was a few feet away from us!) Cherry Cherry
Then, because he has a new album out, he had to do a few songs from it. Amy owns it and says it is a good album, and from hearing the songs he sung from it, I would have to agree. So the next 3 songs came from his Home Before Dark album:
Home Before Dark Don't Go There Pretty Amazing Grace (I'm just guessing that is the name of the song.)
Then he sang, Done Too Soon-which Amy and Emily remember Catherine singing a lot when she was little and had a crush on Neil Diamond!
Then he sang, Brooklyn Roads-and the jumbotrons showed actual footage of old home movies of Neil and his family when he was a kid. It was really cool.
Then:
I Am, I Said-Amy's favorite song, and he did a great version of it! Shilo Forever in Blue Jeans-heck yeah! We were all dancing for that one! Sweet Caroline- he got the entire audience going on that one (so good, so good!), when the song was over, everyone clapped and cheered for so long, he did the chorus a couple more times! You Don't Bring Me Flowers-the best part of that song, (besides Neil's beautiful voice) was that the back up singer he sung it with, messed it up! When it came time for her to sing she sang "you don't sing me flowers, you don't sing me love songs". And you could tell that she knew she messed it up! I'm a Believer- yes, the song the Monkee's made popular, but Neil wrote it! Man of God Hell Yeah-I wasn't familiar with this song, so I wrote down some of the lyrics and googled them. It says the name of the song is Hell Yeah!
Suddenly the concert was over! And it was time for the encore. He came right back out with:
Cracklin' Rosie America- he did such a great job at that song, I felt like I was in the audience of that last scene of The Jazz Singer. To me, this song is the essential Neil Diamond! Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show-such a great song! Catherine's favorite Neil songs are Holly Holy and Brother Love's. So he started and ended with her two favorite songs!
So, as you can see, Neil did a great set. He looked and sounded good. He has a great band, and it was just a great, fun night all around! A few people in our group were hoping he would do some of his Christmas songs, which would have been okay, but personally, I'm kind of glad he didn't. I love his Christmas stuff, but I was there to hear Neil do his classics, and he did not disappoint! Although, I have to say, there are a few songs I would have loved to hear. And they are:
Song Sung Blue Hello Longfellow Serenade September Morn Solitary Man Turn on Your Heartlight-(hee hee, just kidding)
But that's okay Neil! I love you anyway, and last night was so great! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I loved being there with my family. And thank you Mom and Dad for passing on your love for Neil Diamond to all of us! You guys played a lot of music while we were growing up, and I think Neil is the only one we all collectively love. I do love Johnny Cash, but I think Kenny Rogers, Helen Reddy, Vicki Carr and Lynn Anderson are pretty much lost on us. But Neil will live on forever!
Matt, the below picture is for you. I'm so glad you love Neil. And I know you love his dramatic, arm extension, endings.
The below picture is for all of us. Our favorite movie ever! Do you guys realize this movie came out 3 years before Matt was born?
I want to take another moment here to record some observations I had during the concert. I didn't just write down the set list, I recorded some other stuff. Like this:
--The backup singer on the far right was awesome. Her dancing was great! --Some dumb guy wore a Santa suit to the concert, and he seems to think he is really cool. --Neil wiped away a fake tear after Brooklyn Roads. It was so cheesy! But that is a part of what we love about you Neil! You can be pretty cheesy! --The old man behind me is pretty grumpy. --When Neil was introducing his band and he got to one of the guitar players and said "he's good". It made me and Matt laugh pretty hard. --The girl in front of me really likes Neil Diamond! --I'm really glad there is a jumbotron.
And finally, there was a part of the concert that got me and Matt laughing so hard. Neil started talking about his band, and he was going on about how they've all been touring for 10 years or so and they were a family. He said that when he gets down they bring him up, and when that isn't good enough they bring him upper! It reminded us of a Saturday Night Live skit where Will Ferrell plays Neil Diamond in a VH1 Storytellers episode. I tried to find the skit on youtube, but I couldn't. If you can find it Matt, please add it.
I meant to add this when I first posted the review. But I believe we can all agree that Neil Diamond is way better than the Neil Diamond impersonater we saw last summer!
Here is a playlist of what we heard last night. I did it in order of the concert. One or two songs are missing, but you'll get the gist of what we heard last night.
Here is my contribution---- This is the best thing ever.
Hey, you all! Tiny Elvis is dead and buried. I had to put her to sleep this morning and then buried her up here at the airport where she can watch the planes land and take off. It's so sad, as she was a good cat and lived a long, good life. I just could not have her ruin our house any more. Mom is not adjusted to it and didn't want me to do it, but I took a stand and now it is done. I hope mom will speak to me tonight! I felt like Rubin of Rubin and Ed, going around the airport perimeter fence looking for the Wright place to inter poor ol Tiny. I am in near tears writing this. Love you guys, see you tomorrow. Dad
Ok, so my mom bought the Michael Crawford(Phantom) Christmas Album last Christmas and we turned it on and we all thought it would be really good. Matt was there and loves the original phantom so he was really excited. Well, I guess he is really stuck in his role as the phantom, or that's the only way he knows how to sing because we all laughed our heads off. It is worth listening to just for the first word! So for your audio pleasure...I present the Phantom singing "Mary, Did You Know."
(I couldn't find it for a playlist, but I found it on youtube. Please listen to it, it is so funny. We have exaggerated it a bit, of course. Hehe. You should hear Matt sing it!)
A little Christmas cheer, random drunkenness, and an interesting difference between men and women.
Fun Fact #3 - The song "Jingle Bells" was originally written and sung for Thanksgiving, but as it often goes, Christmas stole it's thunder. Fun Fact #4 - Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in just 6 weeks (in 1843).
Fun Fact #5 - Men process women's voices using the musical parts of their brain, and women process men's voices using the mathematical part of their brain. Something to think about...... we really do hear each other differently. Fun Fact #6 - (This is my all time favorite Radiohead fun fact I have come across, I had to share it) While trying to record "Planet Telex" (of The Bends), they decided to take a break and go to a pub. After mass amounts of wine, they went back to the studio. Thom was "a little tipsy" and had a hard time standing, so he pulled up a cot and did the vocals lying down, and it must have worked, cause it's that recording we hear on the album. -While not my favorite track of the album, I can't help smiling every time I hear it to picture him singing it.
Entertainment news: They have picked a new directer for New Moon (YAY!!!!!!!!!), and it is Chris Weitz who directed (and wrote the Screenplay) for one of my favorites, "About A Boy". So needless to say, I am thrilled with the news. Weitz kind of specializes in turning books into movies, so I think he is up to the task.
Ah yes, The Jerk. One of the funniest movies ever. Reading through the quotes got me laughing so hard, I'm going to have to buy this one. The picture is from the very funny "he hates those cans" scene. Matt got it first! He wasn't sure it was from the jerk, but felt the first quote was "hillbilly" sounding. Way to use deductive logic Rarnee! Cat guessed second then Emily. And that was it! I'm trying not to make these too hard!
Here is this weeks quote from a movie:
Person 1: My teacher says real beauty's on the inside.
Since we were talking about how much Sarah and Sandra Bullock look alike, I thought we could play a little game and guess which one is in this picture! Just write your answer on the comments.
P's, T's and A's! Can I just say I am very disappointed that Dad and Amy didn't get it. I am going to chalk it up as they have just been too busy or something this last week and a half to give Sunday's With Sue much thought. So, who is the winner? It is B! And she has never even seen the movie! She only knew what it was because apparently Matt quotes the hint quote to her all the time! That is hilarious! We've all seen this movie dozens of times, and the one person in our family who hasn't seen the move, guessed it first! I love it! Em guessed second, then Matt then Cat.
Here is this week's quote from a movie:
Mama always knew how to treat me right. For my 18th birthday, she prepared my favorite meal…tuna fish on white bread with mayonnaise, a Tab, and a couple of Twinkies.
I was surfing the channels this afternoon and I saw that Midnight Run was on and ending. I watch that movie a lot and love the ending. DeNiro getting Charles Grodin to Los Angeles and then letting him go and Grodin talking off his money belt and giving it to DeNiro. Just love it! Probabally not that special to many others, but to me, it works and gets to me. Thus, the idea of this posting: Movies that have special endings for you and work for you. When they come on cable you will watch the ending just to see it again... All of you won't agree and that is okay...This one is a personal thing..... For your consideration:
a. Midnight Run. For the above reason.
b. Dances with Wolves. The winter scene, saying good by to the tribe and exchanging gifts. The Kicking Bird or what ever he was called....up on his horse, waving his spear and yelling across the valley with all his might..."you are my brother" you are my brother. "I will never forget you" To me, powerful stuff.
c. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The supprise of her showing up with the boat of people and that exchange and then taken them by the arm and saying, "Let's go get em, boys!" Classic!
d. High Noon. Gary Cooper throwing his badge on the ground in front of the city people and riding off with Grace Kelly.
e. Notting Hill. Roberts and Hugh Grant on the park bench. She's pregnant and they are reading. Just nice!
There are a ton more that you will think of and I will later. Of course, we could do the same for bad endings of movies....starting with "Pretty Woman" Sooo Chezzey!
So, in light of my recent title "The Source", I have decided to make my own little section of the blog. I don't think I will rope myself into a day of the week (or even know if I will do it every week), but these will just show up at random. I find when I am forced into a time frame, my creative juices run dry and things become a chore. I am a natural researcher and seeker of interesting facts. This comes in handy once in a while when playing trivia games and the like. If I like something, I tend to seek out everything I can about the subject. With all of this in mind, I will share my little nuggets I find of interest (and try and keep the subject within what I feel most of you will be interested in).
Here we go.
Fun Fact #1 -
Twilight is now, the number #1 box office Vampire movie. The top 3 as of today's date are as follows:
1 - Twilight $138,552,000 2 - Van Helsing $120,177,084 3 - Interview With The Vampire $105,264,608
(Twilight is ranked #12 in money makers for 2008. Sadly, Kingdom of the Chrystal Skulls is #3)
Fun Fact #2 -
Authors, John Irving (The Cider House Rules and The World According to Garp) and Stephen King (I think you are all familiar with him) made a public plea to JK Rowling not to kill Harry Potter in the 7th book, before the book was released.
Entertainment News -
Stephenie Meyer has said in a recent interview that she will probably pick up and finish Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward's point of view) in 2 years or so (She says after everyone has forgotten about it -yeah right). She thinks her next project will be a book about mermaids (although, she refers to them as Sirens, like the Ancient Greeks).
Matt (and dad) I had a dream last night I recommended this movie to you guys. I have no idea why, I don't know if you guys have even seen it or not. I haven't thought of this movie in years, so I have no idea where it came from except that a few weeks ago me Cat and Sue were talking about how much we like Adrien Brody (but we didn't mention this movie). When I recommended it in my dream, Matt- you were really excited to see it and dad said and I quote, "yeah, I'd see a movie with Joaquin Phoenix and Adrien Brody".
So there you go, just doing my duty. (Since it is about an 19th century village, I am wondering if Mose planted it in my head, trying to spread his beliefs. I am trying to appease Mose as much as possible.....). So if you haven't seen it YOU WATCH IT and report back so I might make an offering to my Amish ghost.
Whoohooo!!! I'm so excited! It is going to be so fun to see Neil with everyone! I've had the tickets forever and now it is finally close! And this is the best picture ever. Highlights are: the messy hair, the zip-up work out thing he is wearing which has to be velour, the turned up collar, and the puppies running around on his chest.
I love to laugh and I'm so glad I come from a family that loves to laugh. It makes me so happy that we can all sit around a living room or kitchen table and just giggle for hours. I can't imagine what it would be like to come from one of those quiet, boring families. I thought I would share with everyone 5 random things that can get me laughing pretty hard everytime. A couple of them are photos, a couple are memories and one is simply a word! And these aren't in any special order.
5- The picture of me that Amy took at La Jolla beach when the birds attacked me, Cat and Matt. When I first saw the picture, I don't know if I've ever laughed that hard. Thank you Amy for turning around and snapping that photo. It was about a year later that I noticed mom in the far left corner just happily watching her kids get attacked by birds.
4- Cat's Frankenstein cookie. I guess I should have added a picture, but it's here somewhere on the blog. It makes me laugh so hard whenever I think of it. I don't know what makes me laugh harder, the cookie itself or the memory of Em laughing so hard she couldn't even tell us what was so funny.
3- This is really random, but Scott's dream child named Grover. Em and Cat are probably the only ones who know what I'm talking about. But when Amy and Scott were still dating, Scott used to talk about his future kids and what type of kids he wanted. The best one was named Grover and he fit in Scott's hand, I think he was just a head. Just remembering Scott talking about him and how hard it used to make us laugh cracks me up to no end.
2- This picture of a little girl who looks like Chris Farley that Cat emailed me a couple of years ago. I think it speaks for itself.
1- The last name Higgenbotham. First, it is just one of those silly last names. Second it reminds me of one of the funniest days I had at my last job. My friend Kristen (my puppet partner), and I were working. She spoke with someone who's last name was Higgenbotham and it cracked her up. A couple of hours later I spoke with someone who's last name was Wigglesworth, and it cracked me up. We spent the rest of the day laughing about these last names. We imagined how funny it would be if people with those last names started a law office. We imagined the receptionist answering the phone "law office of Higgenbotham and Wigglesworth, how may I help you?". Then the phone being transferred to Wigglesworth and him answering "Wigglesworth here". I know it is totally stupid and juvenile, but it made me laugh so hard! This was probably 5 years ago, and to this day just remembering that day can get me laughing so hard tears run down my face.
There are lots of other things that can make me laugh hard by just thinking about them. These are the first 5 that came to mind when I thought of doing this post. I could probably do a top 5 memories of Matt that make me laugh.
3 and a half stars.Because it's worth seeing for sure, and I loved it, but "loved it loved it"??...
Pops and I watched this yesterday and both dug it. He bought it. I don't know if it was one somebody recommended to him or what. I have always liked movies that have anything to do with anti-racism, and that was pretty much the main point of the movie, that we are all equals. I think the easiest way for me to do a review of this is to do the Pro's and Con's thing.
PROS
1. Great cast! (except for con#1 and #2) Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, and Chris Cooper were so great!!
2. A memorable line for me was "Gotta love the Lord for making things like that" Oliver Platt says it right after Sandra Bullock leaves the room. SO FUNNY when you know the characters. "things" haha!!
2. Court room movies are sweet.
3. Good story. I had those weird stomach muscle spasms that happen right before you cry...but didn't cry. So that was nice.
CONS
1. I can't stand Matthew McConaug-hud. I hate his face, his voice, his attitude. And he is the leading role. Bummer.
2. Sandra Bullock can hardly act, and I felt this movie proved that. I really didn't like her. Although she does look almost exactly like Sarah in this! SO WEIRD!!
3. Ok, this movie felt very "rushed" to me for some reason. I like a fast paced movie and all, but this was different. It felt like they went nuts in the editing and just cut parts of the dialog out for time. It also seemed to cut too fast from scene to scene. I don't know, just didn't like the editing.
4. Did I mention Matthew McConaughey?? He took away a star.
I finished "Breaking Dawn" today and Mom and I saw "Twilight" the movie last night. First, I loved the movie so much by seeing it a second time. I just got more out of it and heard the dialog better and appreciated the acting and story much better. Mom liked it also a lot and is starting to read again the book. I am totally with the casting. Even Jacob I like. The Volvo I don't have any problem with and I never did have problems with the hair color of Victoria. Bella and Edward are just the best....I really got into the last two books and B. Dawn just kinda blew me away. Very creative writing and storytelling I must say. The solution to the love triangle was brillant and novel. Imprinting!!! Jacob will be so awesome in the next movies as a wolf as I am sure they will do a good job in the special effects area. Anyway, I am sorry the saga ends and I have read all the books. I hate to go back to reading Mickey Spillane novels. I wish I knew how to import pictures to the blog. Maybe the Foos will show me again how to do it and find a source. I haven't heard much from them except that they are having fun and that is the objective. Hiss to Aro!
Sorry guys!!! We got home so late Sunday night I didn't even think of Sunday's with Sue, and I forgot about it yesterday too. Anyway, last week's was the Wright Family Classic Dirty Rotten Scoundrels! I had to pick a picture from our favorite scene. Cat was first to guess, but she guessed wrong. Sorry Cat! It wasn't European Vacation. Em was first to guess it right, then Matt. No one else guessed!
Since the Phisters and Matt and B are in CA, and I'm late posting, I'm going to let this new one go until next Sunday. Here is the quote from a movie:
Mom agreed today that it would be better, (wiser? smarter?) not to take the quick trip to Utah for Thanksgiving dinner. Just too much car riding for such little time with you. You know how much she likes holidays, birthdays and gettogethers and this is going to be very hard on her. I would go if she insisted. She tears us thinking about she and I alone on Thursday. We are both so happy that the Phisters and Matt & B are on their trip and will see SoCal and stuff. We will just miss them for the week. I had all worked out in my mind how I would pretty much fix a small turdkey dinner and thought we could make it a fun day etc. Before I could tell her of my plans she asked if we could go to the Holliday Inn for their buffet. I said yes, although I think going out to eat would be sadder than eating at home together with music and our livestock. But, supprise, I told her that Justin Hays (a guy I work with) invited us to their house to join their big family dinner and mom brightened up and smiled and said that would be great. There will be about 20 of us at his house and he is roasting and deep frying turkeys and all we need to do is bring pickles and cool whip. So that will be a new experience for us. I guess I will have to pass on the Coronas. (standing joke with me and Justin) We'll see Twilight Wednesday night or Thursday and maybe another movie also. Soo, we will be okay. It would be nice if you think to give mom a call on the phone. Looking forward to Neil in December.
FYI for anyone reading this that may not know-- I (Emily), Sue and Cath drove out to Wyoming for the sole purpose of watching this movie on opening weekend with our other sister Amy, her daughters, my mom and dad (mom was sick, so didn't end up going) and our brother (Matt) and his wife (B). We thought it would be a lot of fun to be able to see it together. Plus, we like any excuse to spend the weekend with the fam, that is always a good time.
I thought it only wright that someone did a review of this movie, since most of us saw it together. I'm going to try to do a collective review, that includes what we all thought. I can do this since we spent so much time talking about it afterwords (hee hee). As a whole, we all liked it. I don't think we have ever all agreed with each other so much! Here are the thoughts we all had on some particular points of the movie:
Pattinson: We all loved him!! Upon first hearing he was cast, I was on board 100%. I was familiar with him from his role in Harry Potter (Cedric Diggory) and it just clicked with me. We agreed that he has a very intense face and it worked well with Edward. Some had a slight problem with his eyebrows, but he was forgiven (not me! Loved the eyebrows). We all very much liked his hair. Very much. The only execption to our love of Pattinson was Sarah, she has been against him from the start, he was nowhere near her interpretation of Edward, not that any of us know what that is exactly, as she is unable to explain it properly. After seeing it, she admitted that he did a good job, but still.....
Stewart: She totally nailed the look of Bella we thought. There were a couple of times for me, where she seemed a little awkward (and not in a Bella way, just awkward), but I didn't hold it against her too much. I saw her on Letterman a few days before, and that is how she talked in real life, so I guess that is just her. It wasn't detrimental though, so no big thing.
The rest of the Cullens: We LOVED Jasper and found him so funny! We thought Emmette and Rosalie were perfect (we were skeptical of Rosalie before we saw it, but were won over quickly upon seeing the picture). Esme was great (very small part), Alice, I wasn't totally in love with, but I'll live. Our biggest problem was Carlise. I think we all agreed that he nailed the part, but he looked wierd. I really like Peter Facinelli, I just thought the blond hair was strange looking and compromised his look quite a bit. I am now thinking that's really shallow of me since I thought he played the part very well, so I have decided to let go the problem I had, and just say that I was happy with him.
The Quiluetes: I thought Billy was perfect. Jacob too, our only concern is how many power shakes are they going to have to force down that kid to prep him for New Moon?
Charley: That actor did a great job. I thought he portrayed him perfectly, yet he wasn't at all what I pictured, but I adjusted nicely. I seemed to have the most trouble with him.
Edward's diamond skin: We (excepting Kelly) were really happy about how they did that. How Edward acted before and after was a little -eh-, but the effect itself was better then I expected. Let me just say, that the moment I heard they were doing a movie, this was my first thought - How cheesey it will be to see the diamond skin. I thought that no matter how they did it, it would look terrible and just weird visually. But they made me eat my words. I thought they did it very subtle and was impressed that it wasn't over the top. So bravo!
The baseball scene: We enjoyed this scene very much, we did think they could have spent more time showing it, it was a little short. We all seemed to like the song (supermassive black hole - Muse) and thought it went great with the scene. We also really liked Alice's pitching.
Spider monkey: Yeah, we really liked that line.
Edward's Volvo: Most found it too wimpy looking. We expected a more sporty looking Volvo. Sue called it "hatch-backy" and that sums it up pretty well.
Overall: We thought they did a great job of adapting this book into a movie. It is hard to make everyone happy (impossible I should say) but I think they made wise decisions on what to leave out and what to add. I cringed a few times, but it seemed to be more with the directing then specific actors. I think a different director might be a good thing, but I can live with this one I suppose. Two members of the family attended that hadn't read the books: Matt and Scott. Scott has heard a lot about them from his wife and daughters, and Matt probably a little from his wife (and sisters). Both of them really enjoyed it! Matt is even planning to read Twilight when he is done with Les Mis whenever that might be. He thought the story was really interesting and cool. While watching it, I didn't think anyone that hadn't read the books could possibly like it, but I was very happy to hear that they did. I guess I was wrong. It's good to be wrong sometimes.
I am sure I have left some stuff out, but I pretty much wrote this so we had a place to continue discussing the movie if we'd like (comments). So no worries, whatever I missed, I am sure we will discuss it fully below.
I am so glad we took the time to go out there so we could all see it together! That was a great idea I had. Yes, I'm smart. I had a lot of fun seeing everyone! Hope the Phisters and Co are having fun at Disneyland this week. Ride Splash Mountain for me.
Well, I did it, I watched it last night. I thought it would be best, and I could avoid some awkward questions this weekend if I watched it before I left and had to face you all in person. The movie was very good. The story was excellent, the first 45 minutes however, I was like, "who is making me watch such a depressing movie!?" Cold, sick, starving kids make me sweat a little. But it all worked out. For how much I don't enjoy watching sports at all, I sure love me a good sport's movie (even boxing!) With that being said, no one told me I would get to see Russell Crowe taking punches for two hours! I knocked an entire star off my rating for having it star Crowe, but added a half of a star because I got to watch him get punched. I like Paul Giamatti, and thought he did an excellent job in this, as did Renee Zelweger. I think I handled my first Russell Crowe movie pretty good, a little better then I had anticipated. Sometimes I had to just distance myself from him and concentrate hard on the character he was portraying, sometimes I was just plain ok with him. And sometimes, his little Old Time New York Accent needed to be smacked out of him (and then it would be). I don't like him any better then I did yesterday, but I now feel like maybe I can watch another movie he is in if it's REALLY GOOD. I know you lot are all in love with every Russell Crowe movie ever made, so we will have to see.
Some examples of some looks I would like to see smacked off his face:
5. The squeaky sound (and feeling) of wet shoes on thin car carpet.
4. Touching pottery or other rough things like maybe cinder blocks after my hands are all raisiny from being wet for a long time.
3. Finger nails on car paint. I think it is worse on older cars that have spots of rust on them.
2. The soap scum build up on drinking glasses. If I so much as think about the feeling of my fingernails touching that, I have to bundle up and get in front of a heater. (I just zipped up my hoodie)
1. This one is a little hard to explain, but it's bad. When your eating an apple, I swear the juice does something weird to your lips... It's like even though they are wet, they feel dry when your lips touch something! Do you know that feeling? If your lip touches your teeth, tongue, or other lip it feels so gross! It gives me the chills so bad that I even think twice about eating an apple, or I just eat it like a gorilla with my lips all puckered so they stay out of the way.
If your going to do one of your own, I suggest getting somewhere warm! This post sucked to do! I shuddered so much I almost got whip-lash!
Sorry I didn't post this last night. By the time I remembered it was like midnight. Anyway, Elf! My favorite Christmas movie. I am so glad this movie was made, and I am so glad Will Ferrell played Buddy. I cannot imagine anyone else doing as good a job as he did. Matt was the first to guess, then Cat, then Em, then Dad (dad guessed Alph, I'm assuming he meant Elf! Best misspelling ever dad, and I'm pretty sure you did it on purpose). And B guessed last. Way to go Matt! 
