Many Movies

In the last two weeks I've seen a lot of movies--both at the theaters and on Netflix. Here's a rundown:

• X-Men: Days of Future Past: Despite the time travel aspect, I enjoyed the movie. Of course seeing Hugh Jackman naked was a plus.
• Raid 2: It was no Raid, but it was good. I was really confused at the start of the movie, and a woman in the theater shushed us and glared at us the whole time. That took away from the experience. Still, it was a good movie.
• Captain America 2: Ross really liked this one. I liked it too, but it lacked the eye candy that X-Men so graciously provided. And it is so annoying when the good guys catch a bad guy and they don't shoot him so he gets away or does something bad. Or, when they knock a bad guy down and he later gets back up and does more bad guy stuff. Hello---immobilize/double tap bad guys!!!
• Divergent: This movie is okay---it gets me thinking again about creating a book/movie/merchandizing franchise. I liked the movie, and so did Ross, but he over-analyzed it and got annoyed.
• Non-stop: Typical Liam Neeson movie--"There's no time!" I really liked this action-packed movie. It was fun, if I didn't think too much about it or analyze it too much. 
• Dragon/Wu Xia: Great fight scenes and a story reminiscent of History of Violence. I watched this one without Ross, but made him watch the opening fight scene and then the blow by blow of the fight scene given by the story's detective.
• The Eagle: I have a soft spot for any movie with Romans, Knights, Dragons, that sort of thing. This movie is about Romans in Britain. I thought it was going to be a cheesy B rate, but it featured Tatum Channing and well written story. I don't know why I have trouble imagining Britons as tribes. I guess I just think of them either as knights or as tea-drinking colonialists.
• Ravenous: this 1999 film set during the Mexican-American war is an odd one. I'm still unsure if this was supposed to be a comedy or a horror film, but I had fun with it. I enjoyed the performances by Neal McDonough and Jeremy Davis, who are both in Justified.
• Operation Condor 2: Armour of the Gods: This Jackie Chan movie was actually filmed before Operation Condor, which we also recently watched. Armour of the Gods sucked. It was fun to see Jackie Chan so young, and with a really short hair cut, but that's it. This movie isn't really worth the time to watch it---just skip to the outtakes, they really are the best part of the film.
• Operation Condor on the other hand was a good movie. It had a Nazi story line. I seem to also be attracted to any stories, movies, books, etc. about Jews and/or Nazis. Ross and I enjoyed it. I just wish it had been subtitled instead of dubbed.
• Curse of the Dragon Slayer: Here is my predilection for bad dragon movies getting the better of me. It wasn't a very good movie. It was better than Scorpion King 3, which we couldn't even finish. I think we turned that off after 10 minutes. It was horrible.
• Dragon Crusaders: This Asylum film was bad, but exactly what I was looking for--a cheesy B rate about dragons and crusaders. Just the thing to watch on a Sunday afternoon.
• Juan of the Dead: This is an awesomely funny zombie movie set in Cuba. This film is only available on Netflix DVD.
• Warm Bodies: I had forgotten about this movie, and my friend Charlie had recommended Juan and this one as good zombie movies--I told him about Dead Snow. Warm Bodies is a sweet zombie movie, also only available on Netflix DVD.

Star Trek: Into Darkness: IMAX 3D

So Ross and I finally saw Star Trek.  Ainsmar said it was worth seeing in IMAX 3D, so yesterday we got out of bed at a decent hour to be able to see it for matinee prices.  There were only 4 other people in the theater.  Nice.  I wish all the movies I went to felt like a private screening like that.  I liked the giant IMAX screen, and the 3D was good.  I can't remember the last time I saw a movie in 3D.  I just don't feel like it adds that much/is worth it.  Only a few scenes made me uncomfortable, and those scenes would have bothered me in 2D--I don't like fast panning scenes.

The casting in the new Star Trek movies is really spot on and the actors do such a great job.  This is the best movie I've seen in a while.  There weren't a whole bunch of times where I felt like I had to suspend my disbelief--just mainly the beginning scene with Spock in the volcano.

The one thing I noticed about this movie was the tears.  Lots of tears and tear-streaked faces.  What's up with that?  I think it is a bit out of character for James Tiberius Kirk to cry.  Teary-eyed maybe, but cry?

I'm not sure who my favorite character is, but I love Simon Pegg as Scotty.  And Benedict Cumberbatch?  Just saying his name makes me giggle.  He's a wonderful actor.

I had fun watching this movie, and I agree with Ainsmar that the IMAX 3D was worth it.

Drive In: Bourne Legacy and The Expendables 2

I was excited about going to the drive in on Friday night. No kids movie. Just Bourne Legacy and The Expendables 2. The weather was great. The sky was pretty clear--with the blue moon washing out the screen just a little.

Bourne Legacy was good. Not great. The climax seemed anti-climactic, and overall it seemed like 3/4 of a movie. I was surprised that it was over. I did like that it didn't change the Jason Bourne story.  It was concurrent. And I don't think there was kissing. That's a plus.

Now The Expendables 2 was awful. It seemed like they just came up with a bunch of one-liners and threw scenes around them, then threw the scenes together. At one point I really felt like it was an episode of  The A-Team. Twice I almost fell asleep--and I didn't care. I could hear gunfire, but it wasn't exciting. It seemed like just constant machine gun spray. Lots of action stars with no plot, bad writing, lots of weapons, implausible timelines, and lots of gunfire.  It seems like a spoof that wasn't actually meant to be a spoof.

Puss in Boots

I decided yesterday that I wanted to go to the movies. That's pretty rare for me. I wanted to see Puss in Boots. It was playing at the drive-in, but I didn't think I had the stamina to sit through more than one movie, and it was cold out last night. So we went to see Puss in Boots at the regular theater. I'd seen a couple of trailers. I was worried that the theater would be packed with little kids, but the theater wasn't packed at all. Why? We went to see it in 2-D. There was only one overly-enthusiastic child was shouting and hooting and hollering through the first part of the movie.

Ross and I were happy that they hadn't shown the whole movie in the previews. In fact, we had no idea what the plot was or what other characters were in the movie. It wasn't the best movie ever, but we laughed our butts off a couple of times. There was a great dance scene and I think Ross and I were laughing harder than anyone else in the theater. There were also a couple of adult jokes that cracked us up.

I'm glad we went. It was good to get out of the house and have a good laugh. Now we're wondering if they are going to have a Donkey movie.

Drive In: Triple Play

We went to the Drive in on Friday and saw three movies. First on the line up was the final Harry Potter movie. The movie was dark. I don't mean somber or twisted, I mean there was a lack of lighting. I didn't see the last movie, but I don't feel like I missed much. It was a typical Harry Potter movie. I find the Harry Potter characters all rather annoying. I'm neither sad nor glad to see them go.

Captain America was the second movie of the night. Ross and I really enjoyed this one. The fighting was awesome, and like Nicole, I really liked how he beat up his enemies with the shield. He had a lot of strength, and a lot of heart, but no real supernatural powers. This was a fun movie. Ross really liked Red Skull.

The third movie of the night was Crazy Stupid Love. I'm glad we were able to stay awake for this one. Steve Carell didn't get on my nerves with a bunch of Michael Scott-like manerisms. I kept expecting Julianne Moore to have a Boston accent because of her stint on 30 Rock. We both liked the movie.


Of the three movies Harry Potter was the worst. Captain America was much better than Thor, but not as good as X Men First Class. Crazy Stupid Love, hmm. I think I might have liked it the best of the three. I found a theme linking all three movies--shirtless guys. Ryan Gosling was sexy, and Chris Evans looked fake--it was a little too much. Ross says that this was our sixth trip to the drive in this year!

OSS 117

We watched OSS 117 Cairo, Nest of Spies some time ago. This past weekend we watched OSS 117 Lost in Rio. These French films are Bond spoofs and I thought they were both funny. I was laughing really hard during a couple of the scenes. de la Bath is a suave yet bumbling, sexist, racist, and antisemitic secret agent. He is the stereotypical character that believes all the stereotypes. He thinks he's great, but really he's not. The second film is set in 1967, but it was filmed in 2009. They did a really good job of making look like a 1960s movie. The movies are both much closer to actual Bond films than Austin Powers movies. I'd recommend them if you're looking for a silly laugh.

Double Feature at the Drive-In

The drive-in theater opened last week, and we missed it. Ross really wanted to go this week, so we did. I was a little worried that we'd get cold, but it was fine. I wore a couple layers of cashmere, my snow boots, and had a blanket for my legs. We took my car, which is definitely the better car for the drive in. I have heated seats for the cold and the top goes down for the summer. We managed to fog up the windows something severe--especially Ross.

The home made chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich was a totally different experience this time. The concessions area wasn't 120 degrees and the ice cream was still solid when we got back to the car. The place wasn't very crowded at all, and the lines weren't long for snacks or the bathrooms. The drive-in is definitely different in the Spring.

Rango was fun. I was worried that it was going to turn all green-preachy, but it didn't. Ross was bothered that the female lead had hair because lizards don't have hair.

I wasn't excited about seeing The Adjustment Bureau. I thought it was going to be like one of the the Bourne movies where he is being chased the whole time. It wasn't. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it. I found Matt Damon very attractive in this movie. The acting was good, even if the story was a bit predictable.

Recent Movies

We watched Sherlock Holmes on DVD over the weekend. It was fun. Not great, but not bad. Holmes was very observant. Like Patrick Jane. Oh, and he could fight. That made him really cool. I wish I was cool. Alas, I am neither observant or capable of fighting.

We watched Cronos on Netflix instant watch. Cronos was Guiellermo del Toro's first movie. I thought it was weird. Ross says it was just bad. The acting was terrible. Really terrible. The little girl in the movie was creepy with her non-reaction to everything. It wasn't a bad idea, just a badly made movie.

Last night we watched Resident Evil Afterlife on DVD. I enjoyed the last couple of Resident Evil movies. This one wasn't as good. Something was missing. Milla Jovovich looks a little older, but she is still strong and sexy. The zombies were different--they had squid like things that they projected out of their mouths. Odd. The bad guy was awful. The terrible writing, his awful acting, the matrix-y special effects (too much), all added up to a very painful scene. The end was left wide open for another film. I hope they do a better job next time.

Other Things About the Drive In

There were a couple of things that I totally forgot to mention about the drive in. First, our neighbors: They left their car running for the first 30 minutes of the movie. I don't get it. There are signs and constant announcements about carbon monoxide. I guess they think A/C is more important. We could hear a car running, but didn't realize it was theirs or I would have asked them to shut it off. Security eventually took care of it. They talked loudly throughout the films. It wasn't just the children. Then in the middle of the second movie one of the kids opened the door--wham right into the side of my car. I had to hold myself down. Of course their car is white, and mine is black. Luckily there wasn't any damage. Yesterday I looked and just saw small hand prints dragged across both sides of my car! One passerby (child) grabbed my side view mirror and tried to take it with him! Again, I had to hold myself back. He then proceeded to wipe his hands all down the side of my car. Nice.

The neighbor on the other side parked, got out, and left. Security was looking for him. I have no idea why. Between movies he took his time leaving--while security and the cops watched. Odd.

Now on to the other thing: Spanish. I just want to say that the Spanish in Toy Story 3 was great. It was miles above and beyond the Spanish in The Expendables. The writing, accent, and acting were all better in Toy Story 3. The general in The Expendables made we want to crack up. His Spanish wasn't wrong or anything, it was just bad writing and bad acting. Buzz Lightyear in Spanish mode rocked.

Double Feature at the Drive In

I'd heard that Toy Story 3 was a really good movie. It is at the drive-in and the weather has cooled off a bit, so I was really excited to go see it. Let me tell you, this experience was 100 times better than the last drive in experience. It was cooler, and much less humid. We also took my car. To boot, the movie started earlier than last time, so we weren't as sleepy for the second movie. We both liked Toy Story 3. Ross was pleasantly surprised.

The second movie was The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Nicolas Cage didn't annoy me--but man, Jay Baruchel was beyond annoying. His voice! The movie was dumb. The acting wasn't so bad, it was the plot and the writing. Typical if you believe in yourself you can do it, even though you have no training story. I'd say it is a kid's movie, and what a terrible message it sends. Not as bad as Kung Fu Panda, but still, we keep telling kids that they don't have to work hard, just believe. Ugh.

We didn't stay for The Switch. I'm really not a Jennifer Aniston fan. We had a great time though. We had french fries and a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. We rode home with the top down. I'm so glad we went.

Movie Night

Last night we finally made it to the Drive In Theater. The triple play line up was Despicable Me, Inception, and Adults. Despite the heat and very high humidity I really had fun. I didn't make it through all three movies. After Inception, which ended around 1:30, we came home. I wasn't really impressed by Despicable Me. Inception, on the other hand, was really good. I really, really liked it. There were some things that just didn't make sense, but I guess that happens in every movie. At least it wasn't totally predictable. We will definitely be going back to the drive in. I hope next time the weather is a little cooler and the movies are just as good.

On Netflix

I've become a complete Netflix (instant watch) junkie over the last week. I've been immersing myself in lots of BBC period pieces. North and South was good. I watched The Way We Live Now, but part of episode 3 was missing so I was totally bewildered when I started watching episode 4 (I'm going to complain to Netflix.) I also watched Our Mutual Friend. That was good. None of them were as good as Bleak House.

As far as movies go Ross and I watched Guess Who's Coming to Dinner last week. What a superbly written movie! I watched Onegin, another period piece, it was just okay. Revanche was tortuously slow. I wouldn't recommend it. Tonight I watched Arranged. It was really good. Two beautiful women brought together as friends partly because they are both going through the marriage arrangement process. A nice uplifting movie, I highly recommend it.

Indian Movies

Last night we watched Dil Chahta Hai. It was a modern Indian movie about three best friends. We enjoyed it. Like most Indian movies, it is long. The song and dance scenes cracked us up. There were some unnecessary scenes of one of the guys walking and walking and sitting here and sitting there, but it was a good story.

A while back we saw Parineeta. It was a great soap opera type story. Parineeta ran just over 2 hours.
The costumes were beautiful. I recommend both movies. I love me some foreign films, and both of these movies gave me a good fix.

District 9

We went and saw District 9 today. It was a little different and a lot better than I expected. I'm glad I didn't know exactly what the movie was about. Wow. Awesome movie. It was shown partly as a mockumentary. I liked that. I recommend it. I'd say more, but I really don't want to give anything away.

Recent Movies

We've seen quite a few movies recently.  The best one was Das Leben der Anderen (Lives of Others).  I don't think I can put into words how deeply this movie touched me. I guess it tapped into my darkest fears. 

We saw Wolverine and we were both a little disappointed.  Not enough action.  Too much cheese.

When Tejal was here we couldn't decide which movie to watch.  We ended up watching Happy Feet. It was terrible!  When that was over Ross started Zohan. Holy crap. When he caught a fish in his bare ass we just turned it off. I don't think we lasted 5 minutes.

On Monday we went and saw Terminator.  We really liked it.  Lots of action.  Blood and guts. Good fun.

Ross might go with Troy this weekend to see the Star Trek movie.

If you haven't seen Lives of Others, it is definitely worth the rental.

Dinner and a Movie

The movie was first. We went and saw The Watchmen yesterday. Ross and I both really liked it. It had all four elements of a good movie. We had both read the book (graphic novel), and we both thought they did a really good job making it into a movie.

After the movie we headed to Germantown to see Valerie, Troy, Evelyn, and Julia. I'm so thankful that she invited us over. It was nice to have a home cooked meal after a couple weeks of sandwiches and eating out. Tomorrow I'm going to unpack the kitchen so we can have our own home cooked meals. Anyway, we had a great meal (and cocktails) with Valerie and the gang. Ross played with Evelyn a whole bunch and I read her a couple of books.

It got late and Troy put Evelyn to bed. To save Val a trip up the stairs (she's 2 weeks out from foot surgery) I put Julia to bed. Easy breezy. I've never seen a baby go down that easy. I just laid her down, rubbed her belly, then sat in the glider for a couple of minutes to she make sure she was okay. I once put Evelyn down for a nap, and it was also super easy (but she tried to stall and Julia isn't old enough for that). I had to confess my love for Valerie when she calmly explained to Evelyn that she couldn't have a snack because we were about to eat dinner. Evelyn got over it, and ate dinner when it was ready. Ah, reasonable people. We had a great time with them.

Today we just relaxed. I'll start unpacking tomorrow. It will be strange trying to find a new place for everything. The carpet is strange. I already miss our wood floors.

Tomorrow is Ross's first day of work. I'm hoping that tomorrow our moving units are taken away. They are taking up three parking spaces. We are going to have to get into a new routine (not that we had a really good one the last few months).

Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise

We have seen a lot of movies in the last couple of weeks (thanks mostly to the Roku). I put a Japanese anime film in the queue, and that turned out to be just plain messed-up. I watched Thunderbolt--a great old Jackie Chan film--with my parents, but unfortunately it was dubbed. I watched Caramel with my mom. It was a Lebanese movie about a group of women that work in a hair salon. It was very much like the French film Venus Beaute (institut). Ross watched an animated Hellboy movie on Monday. We have seen two movies at the dollar theater. Burn After Reading was strange. We didn't really like it. This week we saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. We didn't really like that one either. We can't complain though--going to the dollar theater is cheaper than renting a movie.

The best movie we've seen lately was Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. We both really enjoyed it. It inspired me to start reading again. I'm not kidding when I say that I read children's books. I haven't read a grown up fiction book in a long time (years). I checked the library catalog online and one of the branches has a book of Balzac's short novels. I went ahead and asked for it to be sent to my branch so I can check it out and read it. I still haven't finished the B.K.S. Iyengar book I checked out forever ago. Oh well, maybe I can finish chapter two (of four) and then give it a rest. If I finish the Balzac book maybe I'll feel like reading other books that they read in the movie. Maybe I'll turn back into the little reading machine that I used to be.

Oh Roku, I Want You!

So over the Thanksgiving weekend I tried out my dad's Roku box. My dad subscribes to NetFlix and my parents have been dowloading movies through them and watching them on the computer for a while now. The Roku box allows them to download the movie and watch it on their TV. It was so easy! I added a few movies to the queue online, then turned on the TV and selected which movie to watch. After 3 or 4 minutes of buffering the movie started. No problem. I couldn't tell it was downloading. We watched several movies over the weekend. Now I want a Roku box. First we'd have to get faster internet, and NetFlix, and a new TV (why not). Maybe we'll have all that by my birthday. Oh, Roku!

Updates

Yesterday Ross took Ethan to see Wall-E. They both liked it. After dinner Tiffany and I went to the gym and worked out. The class had too much jumping. We won't do that one again. While we were working out the boys were playing Mariokart. We joined them after we got back from the gym (and had some chocolate and wine). Ethan was in a great mood and was having a ton of fun. He kept laying on Ross's outstretched legs and saying "Comfy!" I wish I'd gotten a photo. He also came and sat next to me and said "How about you tickle me?" It was the funniest thing. I said no, because I didn't know where he was ticklish so he was kind of confused. Then I tickled him all over testing to see where he was ticklish. He tickled me back and we had a go round of "juicy leg!" I grab his leg and say "Juicy leg, juicy leg, juicy leg!" then he does it back to me, then he went around and did it to everyone else. He was so excited that we were visiting.
I've been really good about working out. I think I have 380 minutes so far this week. We will go to the lift class tomorrow. My muscles are sore, but I suppose I'll get used to it. I was too beat from last night's class to go to this mornings weights/cardio class, so I only went to yoga. Robert has me totally flipped out about the teacher touching people and now I notice it and it creeps me out. I did all right. It was good to stretch out a little. Shelby did a beautiful king pigeon pose and the teacher helped her practice scorpion! I did a couple of headstands during our rest periods. My weight was almost down to my low yesterday am, but I had soy sauce last night... so I'm back up today. We are having sushi with friends tonight, so I'm going to drink lots of green tea and try to avoid the soy sauce. I am so tired....
My piercing doesn't fit anymore. I'm going to see Justin tomorrow to see what we can do about that....I can't wait! I have so much to do today and tomorrow, but I feel like being lazy. I suppose I should make a to do list and see what all I have to tackle.

Afternoon Off

We didn't make to the fair yesterday. It was raining, so we ran some errands and then went to the dollar theaters. We saw Babylon AD. It was terrible! It was a cheap, crappy rip off of Children of Men (which was an AWESOME movie). We were so confused! After the movie we went and had dinner with Robert, Tiffany, and Ethan. We had a lot of fun with Ethan. He got a hotweels set that everyone had fun playing with. We also read a Halloween book together. He is so excited that we are going to carve pumpkins. Yesterday was a great day. I have new bling bling sunglasses and Mona was able to straighten out my bling bling glasses. They are wearable, but she isn't sure how long they will last.