Hero. 4 stars!

So Matt's good friend Lee loaned us 4 movies to watch, which included this one, Memoirs of a Geisha, and 2 anime films that he told Matt to try. I'd been feeling under the weather and watching Pride and Prejudice all day, so I was ready for a drastic change. We saw that it was presented by Quentin Tarantino, meaning he saw it and loved it and brought it to the states. We figured if Quentin liked it, it'd be pretty dang good. And no surprise, it was AMAZING!! It's all in subtitles, which I enjoy and Matt hates, but didn't mind this time. The imagery alone is worth watching this movie. The use of colors is incredible, the scenes in the palace courtyard are just epic, the storyline is SO interesting to follow, the ending is surprising and heroic (for lack of a better adjective), and the action scenes are a little unrealistic, but still fun. I won't spoil anything, but I really really like the ending, which will probably surprise anyone who sees this. I'll just leave it at that. Anyways, see this if you're in the mood for a good action film (with hardly any blood), stunning imagery, a little history/crash course in Chinese dialect, and a powerful message, see this.

WTB Movie

I had some great quotes from the "Jerk" all worked up and then rememberd Dan's list of movies used on facebook and looked and saw that the Jerk had been used. There will be a time when we will have to doubleup. That time is not yet for here is the movie of the Week. WTB?

1st person: "Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within....y-you came this close. It would kill some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they'd consider it a tragedy."

2nd person: "Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes....now that would have been a tragedy."

Have a great week you all.

WEDNESDAY QUOTE/CLUE:

Person 1: I'm going to beat you with a crowbar until you leave.

Person 2: You can't do that.

Person 1. There are no rules here? No, there are no rules here.

Person 2: YOU'RE A PACIFIST!

Person 1: Shit.

Bonus clue: Female: Hey, what if a voice calls while your're gone?

male: Take a message.

I just got back from Casper doing my annual burn certification for my aircraft firefighters licence. Fun stuff. I work this weekend and I just learned the governor is flying to Riverton tomorrow morning at 7 am and meeting with some officials and getting in a Blackhawk and touring the flood rivers in our area. I get to be at the meetings and set itup. I need to shave and wear a clean shirt.

Friday give away quotes:

1. The Voice: "If you build it, he will come."

2. Annie: "At least he is not a book burner, you Nazi cow."

3. Is this heaven? No It's Iowa.

The blog has sure been quiet this week. Are you all wore out from lagoon or just busy, or lost interest?

500 Days of Summer

Watch this movie peeps! I watched it last night and loved it. I had heard a lot of good things about it and decided I should give it a try. You know me, I don't like romantic comedies, but this one is different. It is fun to watch because the story jumps all over the place. It basically tells the story of a relationship Joseph Gordon-Levitt has with a girl named Summer. It spans 500 days of their relationship and jumps from like day 40 to day 380, then back to day 8. But it is done very well and has a good flow, it doesn't feel choppy. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great. He is becoming one of my favorite young actors. He picks pretty interesting films, a lot of independent stuff. If you haven't seen The Lookout or Brick, you should check them out. Yeah, he was Cobra in GI Joe, but he probably needs a big paycheck once in a while, so he can continue doing lower budget stuff. So, I'll forgive him. Zooey Deschanel plays Summer. I like her too, she is the girl in Elf, what was her name in that? Doby? Anyway, it's a good movie, has a good sound track, well directed and well acted. And, it's not a totally gooey and unbelievable plot like "I heard this guy on the radio and I'm going to meet him on Valentines Day at the Empire State Building" kind of crap. Sorry, no offense, I just find those kind of movies boring.

Oh yeah, it's PG-13, so it's safe for everyone.

Where the Wild Things Are

Four Stars!!!! So Travis and Booker and I have been on a movie streak since we moved to P.G. You would too if on Sunday evenings you are the only ones in the entire theatre! Anyway, this movie is so, so good. I absolutely loved it. Don't go expecting a nice little children's movie though. It is quite dark and deals with some pretty serious issues. But it is amazing what the writers did to turn a 30 page children's book into a feature-length film. A little advise: don't go to imdb.com and read the entire synopsis. Whoever wrote that is...let's say challenged. But I fully recommend seeing this movie. I will now give a bonus HUD SAUCE review of 'Year One'. Stay away. Don't be tempted by Jack Black and Michael Cera into thinking this is worth watching. It's not. It is the most worthless movie I've ever attempted to see (twice). I ended up just turning it off (twice), it was that bad.

Four Stars! Booker, Travis and I saw this movie last night and just loved it. It is so funny especially for Bill Hader fans. The animation is amazing and it's just a great film. It's about about a hapless inventor who comes up with a machine that turns water into food. So of course it's wonderful at first, then backfires and so he has to eventually destroy it. I would recommend it to all (the monkey is the best).

WATCHMEN...PHOOY, PHOOY HUD SAUCE

Just about the worst two and a half hours I have ever spent watching a movie.  Boring, dumb, incomprehensible and stupid.  The Rorschach character had a few moments and his mask was interesting but that was all.  The lead guy (Dr. Manhatten) was so bad I almost puked and I have a very strong stomach.    Leave this one alone, peeps.  If anyone has seen it and liked it even a little, I would like to hear what you liked.

UNDER THE RADAR "21" the movie 3 stars

Pretty good PG13 movie, based on a true story of MIT students counting cards in Vegas and winning at blackjack.  Kevin Spacey is good as always and all in all a worthy movie to see.

Not a biggie, but nice.  Interesting about the life of high I.Q. students.

New Moon

I thought this might belong on the family blog....... The first New Moon trailer is out!


And on a related note, my friend Ami sent me this video that is worth watching:


Tee hee.

Obviously, some pictures taken by a crazed fan in Italy with a telephoto lens (thank you by the way!).
More then anything with this next movie, I am dying to see how the do the Volturi stuff, I really hope it's cool, I kind of think it will be. 5 months and counting...

Catching up a little

This week Rob and I finally got around to watching a couple movies we've been meaning to see: Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon.


Here is the Rob and Emily scoop:
Slumdog - 3 stars
Frost/Nixon - 4 stars
I'd say we probably agree star rating wise, although I liked Slumdog better then Rob did. People I think just talked it up too much and it didn't quite deliver to the point we expected. We were expecting absolute magic I guess. Instead, what we got was a movie that was quite predictable although it was entertaining. It's a story about two brothers and a little girl from yes, the slums in India. They get separated a few times for various reasons and the main character goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and knows all the answers and is accused of cheating. He reveals to the police how he knows every answer he was asked. This is done through a series of flashbacks throughout his life of when he learns the answer to each question. Showing you it was kind of like his destiny to win his whole life. Cool concept (Rob didn't care for), CUTE little Indian kids, as you can imagine, some of the slums images were tough to see and you get a glimpse of life in a third world country which is always disturbing. I thought the movie didn't go too overboard on that though and kept it lighter then some movies might, basically, I slept that night and wasn't too affected (that's saying a lot for me). Anyway, like I said, it was predicable and offered no surprises which kind of sucks, but overall, it was good. If someone has seen this, what is up with the credits???????? It had to have been some kind of nod to Bollywood-- it was SO CRAZY!! If you haven't seen it, uh, the very end is weird. I kept laughing in surprise but Rob took it as the final insult to a movie that disappointed him a few too many times. He said he liked it right when it was done, but the more time that passed since seeing it, it has worsened with each passing day. So, I will say he thought it was worth seeing while watching, but now might call it lame sauce. I liked it, but can't give it a hardy loved it, but find it worth seeing.


We were both really impressed with this one. The acting, the writing and the symbolism, and the parallels we each found in other presidents (which spawned some good conversations between us), and the cinematography and lighting was all really really good. I think everyone knows what this movie is about, so I'm not going to waste my time on a synopsis. Frank Langella (Nixon) did a great job with Nixon, very believeable. Micheal Sheen did a great job too. I have no idea what David Frost is like, but he was good none the less. There were a few moments where we thought Austin Powers might as well played his part (we independantly both thought this wordlessly and brought it up after the movie). We also thought he look a lot like a 70's era Jack Nicholson. An R rating is pretty surprising, all I remember is the F word a few times which the few times it is uttered is very weird and surprising to hear it coming from a president of the US, so had an impact. I would certainly recommend this to anyone who likes history and politics. I would fully recommend it to people that actually experienced this crazy piece of history for themselves. I was less then a year old during Nixon's resignation, so I have had to learn about the Watergate scandel from other sources, but I can imagine this movie would be even more interesting and effective to a generation ahead of me that followed the news stories as they happened, and more importantly, remember Nixon as he was and what Frost was able to accomplish. It really concentrates on Nixon's attitude and nature and the amazing thing Frost brought out in him. I understood the impact somewhat, but not fully. I just think a greater knowledge of Nixon would generate a greater impact from the movie if that makes sense.
I have a story about an amusing mix up of Richard Nixon the President of the United States and Richard Nixon the Stake President of my childhood involving dad and I, but alas I have to get ready for work, I may add it later.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING ****

Since all of my Wyoming family are up in Rexburg playing with Allison and having fun, I am here alone working and eating good food at least.  Porterhouse steaks the last two nights and would you believe I am going to roast me a leg of lamb tomorrow for Easter.  Duncan and I and Tiggy will eat well.  I don't know how to make a cream sauce so I can't make new potatoes and peas.  I'll have some peas and pass on the spuds.  I don't care much for Jolie, but wow, this is a good movie.  Clint Eastwood directed and produced and did the music.  It is a period piece about police corruption in L.A.  A very compelling story and and the R rating is for the f word said twice, as far as I could tell.  Give it a look, peeps, you should like it.

UNDER THE RADAR "CONRACK"

I caught part of this old (1974) movie on cable the other night and remembered how good I thought it was and that many of you peeps might like it.  It is autobiographical of the early life of Pat Conroy one of my favorite authors.  For two years he teaches a class of black students on one of the outer islands of South Carolina in the 50s.  Pretty good stuff and I thought Jon Voight was teriffic.  Conroy wrote "The Lords of Discipline", "Beach Music" "The Prince of Tides" and of course "The Great Santini"  (Any one remember that Christmas morning?)  The Prince of Tides is one of my top ten books ever!  Not withstanding the hud sauce movie that got made with Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte,  So bad and a waste of a great book.  So now that you are most over the Pot Pot, Twilight series and the underground Hobbits, and are looking for something to read, try Conroy and Tides...you will enjoy some really good storytelling.

Everyone should be a bit more like Dee Dee Ramone

Matt and I watched this documentary last night and LOVED IT!!! Oh my goodness, so bittersweet. This followed the Ramones from their formation until their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Let me just say, they are one of those bands that never got the success and recognition that they deserved (New York Dolls style). Maybe I'm just excited because I'm lame, and don't know that much about any band, but WOW!! They weren't musical geniuses; Tommy Ramone had never played the drums before, Dee Dee hadn't played the bass, and Joey hadn't sang, but put that together with short, fast songs and there is just a unique sound that I LOVE!!! Something Matt and I found out is that they aren't British. HAHAHA!!! We both thought they were!!! Even though Joey sings by only pronouncing 45% of the words, they are all from New York. Here's a rundown of some of their awesomeness:

Joey Ramone: Matt is going to be this tall, skinny punkrocker for Halloween. He was OCD his whole life, painfully shy, and never let go of a grudge, but he really loved what he did. Died in 2001, but even 4 days before he died of cancer, he wasn't letting himself be fed through tubes so that he wouldn't hurt his vocal cords.

Johnny Ramone: Kind of a jerk, but is one of the main reasons the band stayed together as long as they did. Really looked after all the business sides of the band, and their image. Was the only one who had actually played his instrument before the band formed. Died in 2005. Inspired to Joey to write "The KKK took my baby away", after he married Joey's former girlfriend.

Dee Dee Ramone: I LOVE this guy. Oh my gosh. SO cute in his younger years. Always very innocent and fun loving, but blunt and real at the same time. Struggled with drug use his whole life, and finally died of a heroin overdose 2 months after the Hall of Fame induction. At the ceremony, he said "I'd like to thank myself. Without me, none of this would have happened. Give myself a pat on the back." Funniest thing ever. While he was kind of flaky, he really was good friends with every one of the members, and stayed away from most of the drama. He did leave the Ramones and have an atrociously bad rap career, but nobody's perfect.

Tommy Ramone was the original drummer, but then became their producer. Marky Ramone followed, and was their drummer for a long time. Then they had Richie and Elvis as drummers, and C.J. Ramone replaced Dee Dee as bass player for a while.

Anyways, you should all watch the movie. It rocks!! I give it 4 stars, because I'm not sure how much everyone else loves the Ramones. Gabba Gabba Yeah!!

Twilight

4 stars

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.

Cinderella Man

3 1/2 - Stars

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:

Sue's Picks

3 Stars!!

Cam and I saw the first one and pretty much thought it was hud sauce. We like Rob's doppelganger, Eric Bana, but it wasn't enough to make the first Hulk any good. We totally hated it. We decided to give the second one a try only because we are both huge Ed Norton fans. He is one of those very rare actors that I will see a movie just because he is in it. In fact, Hulk 2 has 3 actors that I like a lot in it. Ed Norton, Tim Roth and William Hurt. I didn't know Roth and Hurt were in it until I started watching it and I was a very happy Sue.

The story is pretty good, the nerdy scientist guy "Mr. Blue" is great, William Hurt was really good as the general, Tim Roth does a great job as always, and Ed Norton, what can I say? I love him. We liked the design of the Hulk a lot better than the first one, and there were some great scenes. Our favorite scene is when Tim Roth says to Hulk "Is that all you got?" and Hulk kicks him really hard and he smashes into a tree. We watched that scene 3 or 4 times. And of course Stan Lee makes his cameo as always.

So, if you hated the first one and weren't even going to give this one a chance, well I recommend you do give it a chance.

The Bucket List

I saw the Bucket List the other night and liked it quite well. Better than I thought it would be and it had some good lessons on life and death and relations along with humor. The story line developed well and Nickelson and Freeman were as always, good. Not a bad little flick for a cold night in Wyoming. Here's to baby steps toward a better life......

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Palace

HUD SAUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I honestly think this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. This movie makes Plan 9 From Outer Space seem like a great movie. The story line, dialogue, acting and special effects were just awful. Cam and I saw this last week and I had to wait until now to do the post because I didn't want to think about the movie. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg should be ashamed of themselves. Seeing the movie makes a recent Southpark episode make more sense.

I'm not going to get into the storyline, it is just too bad to repeat. Harrison Ford is so bad in the movie I'm embarrassed for him. I started thinking during the movie "Is Harrison Ford a good actor? Or is he one of those that people think is a good actor just because he's good looking?" I started thinking of the movies I've seen with him in it, and realized I haven't seen too many of his movies. I've seen the Star Wars movies, The Fugitive, Witness, Mosquito Coast and Working Girl. I like Han Solo, but I don't think Ford's acting really stands out. Tommy Lee Jones is what made the Fugitive so good. The creepy amish kid is what made Witness good. And River Phoenix was the best part of Mosquito Coast, besides the story itself. And I really don't remember much about Working Girl except Joan Cusak has great 80's hair. Anyway, I don't mean to bag so much on Harrison Ford. The dialogue they gave him was so bad I don't know if anyone could have pulled it off.

The movie went from bad to worse, and by the time the ending came around Cam was seriously angry. He likes the Indiana Jones movies and was looking forward to this one. So watch it if you feel you need to punish yourself. If you have already seen it and liked it, it would be best if you didn't tell me. I would loose a bit of respect for you.

North and South

3 1/2 stars

This was a BBC Miniseries done a few years ago, and was just recommended to me by my friend Ami. She saw it and liked it, and figured I would like it (she knows me very well). It was written by Elizabeth Gaskell, excuse my ignorance, but I didn't know who that was. I looked her up and she was a British author in the 1800's and was friends with Charlotte Bronte and wrote a biography of her life. Anyway, this is a Austin-esque story, but besides a romantic entanglement, has added things Austin didn't deal with. The story is about a young women that moves from Southern England with her parents to the more industrial North. She meets a Cotton Mill owner and dislikes him right away, thinks he is cruel to his workers. He likes her right away, but they are at odds because they don't understand each other. We see the driving force behind his actions and see him to be an extremely good man, while she doesn't, she just sees the cruelty. There is a worker's strike in the movie that goes badly, the history of those labor unions and stuff and the quandry everyone finds themselves in while striking was very interesting to me.
The love story is very Elizabeth/Mr. Darcy like, he proposes mid way through, she totally dislikes and misunderstands him so turns him down rudely, then finally does like him and understands him better, but gets herself into a misunderstanding, you know the story. Good stuff. Wonderful ending in a train station, worth all 4 hours.
So, lovers of period pieces and Jane Austin, this movie is totally worth your time! Now, the reason it didn't get 4 solid stars, is yes, there is a little cheesiness, I had to knock half a star for that. A few cringe worthy moments (some horrible dream sequence/flashback things) that were so cheesy! Also, John's sister (the main dude) plays her part a little over the top, sometimes I laughed, but sometimes I cringed a little. Here is the deal with that. I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes, in the name of a good story, you have to block out a few moments where the cheese is high. You must forgive and move on. This movie is worth that. I liked how it wasn't just high society, it delved into old industrial England and problems of the lower class. Anyway, the lead actors were good, he especially, I thought his performance was totally flawless. Rob and Matt will definitely skip this one (I don't know about dad's stand on this particular genre, but gut says, he will make fun of it.) However, Amy and Haley, this is right up your alley! I am sure you will love it. Mom too, but I don't know how much of this info she gets, tell her about it. In fact, I haven't read the book, but imagine it would be very good book club material, with all the added parts of the story to talk about. Totally check it out.
I watched it in 3 nights. Again, it's on Netflix instant (I am beginning to wonder what I ever did without that), and divided up in 4 one hour installments, so I watched one a night, and then last night, just had to watch the last two! Miniseries are good that way, you can break them up into do-able segments, instead of like a 3 hour movie, I like that.

Nightmare Girls

So, I've been wanting to see this movie forever. Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar, and it was nominated for 46 awards and won 41 of them, according to IMDB.com. So I Netflixed it, and Matt and I finally had a free night, and sat down to watch it together. Matt hated it in the first 10 minutes, but I gave it a good 45 minutes. I cannot believe it won so many awards. I thought it would just be a fun flick with good costumes. It had good costumes, and great hair, except for Eddie Murphys. And it had an awesome cast! Dannie Glover, one of my childhood heros (I watched Lethal Weapon as much as watched Beauty and the Beast), Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, and a lot of other black people. So why did it suck so much? BECAUSE it tried to cram every single aspect of african american/showbiz/political life in!! Seriously, at one point there's a riot outside the recording studio, and Effie (Hudsons character) walks outside, where people are shooting at everything, and buildings are on fire, and her boyfriend walks out to comfort her, and then the scene changes, and that never gets addressed. Effie also has a neverending scene where the Oscar win probably comes from (best supporting acctress), that Matt and I couldn't wait to be over. It's half really stupid musical, and the rest of it is just bad confusing storyline. Seriously, there was a jump of like 9 years in 2 seconds, and I had no idea what happened. You've got mothers on welfare, family feuds, Eddie Murphy smokes Heroin, Martin Luther King Jr's speech, one hit wonders, a Jackson 5 look-alike band, lawsuits, comebacks, affairs, temper tantrums out of nowhere, you name it. It was waaaay too confusing, and a very poor adaptation of a Broadway play, that I should have loved. It was right up my alley, but sadly, sucked.

The redeeming moments were when Beyonce realized that she was getting screwed, and needed to get out of her situation, Eddie Murphy when he wasn't on drugs, the costumes, and before the girls got too involved in stardom. So besides the costumes, it did have 20 good minutes. I was happy to get out of my homework vortex, and I'm pretty sure none of you would ever watch this on your own free will, but in case you are ever tempted, don't give in unless you're paid to.

Lars and the Real Girl

4 - Stars
No one I know is involved in this film

This movie was recommended to me by Sue (before this blog) and it was the first time I had ever heard of it. That is not odd as I never watch TV anymore and when I do, I never ever see commercials, so movies can pass me by easily. Anyway Sue, I LOVED it!
It is about a guy that is kind of afraid of people, and orders a ahem..... sex doll from the internet, and falls in love with her. Now stay with me here, this is a remarkably clean film (pg 13), but I had to check and make sure it was even that as there is very little allusions to the sex doll aspect, they certainly could have gone that way and didn't (cheap jokes). Instead it is a very heart warming story. There wasn't any language either. Kinda nice.
Anyway he totally believes that this doll is a real person and talks to her and hears her talk to him back. The reactions of his brother and sister in law are priceless and so is the way the whole town rallies around him and "Bianca". They totally support him and invite Bianca to functions (without Lars even). The town actually grows to care for her for real, and of course there is also a gawky "real" girl that is in love with him and that actress does a fantastic job with that character (they all do, but she just reminded me of girls I have known before and I found her very believable).
So, if you are in the mood for a fairly quirky movie, with (I hate to use this term, but---) heart, (someone please give me a better term for that, it's late) check this one out. I think you will like it.