Movie Binge

Matt and I have been on a movie binge the last couple of weeks. Chalk it up to the weather, being completely bored, and completely tired of going out and spending money. We have watched:

(500) Days of Summer
Paranormal Activity
It Might Get Loud
Dexter Season 1 (about half way through)
March of the Penguins
Pan's Labyrinth


I would recommend all of the above, except maybe Paranormal Activity. It's a great movie if you love being so creeped out by your house that you force your husband to stand outside the bathroom door while you pee. But if that's not your style, I would suggest skipping it.

(500) Days of Summer is definitely one of my new favorite movies. Can we talk for a minute about how adorable Zooey Deschanel is? She is my style crush. Her wardrobes are worth committing crimes for. The blue coat she wore in Yes Man was ahhhhmazing.

This girl found a picture of it. She knows what I'm talking about. There's a really close one from Calvin Klein at Dillard's. Swap out the buttons with something flashier and you too could have a Zooey coat.

I wish I could have a focused sense of style like that. Jen and I were discussing the topic a couple of weeks ago. Most days I struggle to make it out of the house on time and I don't think about what I'm wearing. I also work in the basement of an office building with 40 IT guys, so I don't think any effort I make would be noticed. (Some chick from upstairs did call me "The Girl With The Cute Hair" one day so that made me feel good especially considering I'm seven weeks out from my last hair cut and dye job.)

But back to the movies... after looking at coats, everyone should go look up It Might Get Loud. Great movie. Technically, it's a documentary. But please, don't let that scare you.

Year of Goals - #4

Goal #4 - Unsubscribe to all the crap emails I get.

I think I have successfully given the old heave-ho to about 90% of my junk email. I used to wake up with 20 new emails every morning but lately I've only been getting about two.

I obviously started with the easiest goal on the list, but hey. Still counts. I have to work my way up to some of the bigger ones.

Today was my first workday of 2010 and it did not start off on a good note. My car wouldn't start. Then there was a flipped truck blocking the on-ramp to the express way. I was 30 minutes late. Matt was 45. I'm convinced that I somehow pulled a muscle in my sternum while shoveling. Either that or I'm dying of extreme heartburn.

Oh ya, the snow. Let's not forget to mention the most recent snow fall. I'm seriously running out of space to pile up the snow. It's about four feet deep all the way around the driveway and lining the sidewalks. I thought I was just being a pussy complaining about all the snow but it turns out that we're currently buried under more snow than we've had in 60 years. Way to go, Nebraska. Every morning Matt and I wake up, take a look outside, turn to each other and say, "Why are we still living here?" I am greatly looking forward to an upcoming trip to California. I am going to hug the ground when I see it. I haven't seen mine in 6 weeks.

And just so you don't think this is a complete Negative Nelly post, I did rock my weekend by watching Lord of the Rings parts one and two. Best seven hours of my Sunday. Part three is waiting for me on the DVR. I am so in love with those movies. And as if that wasn't enough, I also watched the newest Harry Potter on bluray bitches! It was pretty great. I swear.

I'm Just Not That Into It

I watched He's Just Not That Into You last weekend. If this movie were a man and we were out on a date, I would have faked going to the bathroom and snuck out the front door after fifteen minutes. But since I was home watching it on a Friday night, in bed, with two beers, and the remote was broken, I ended up watching the whole movie. Reluctantly.

I could go on and on for pages about how bad I think this movie really is. But for the sake of time and the sake of your waning interest at this point, I will just focus on two major points of hatred.

Point One: Ginnifer Goodwin's Character

I can't remember the character's name and the fact that I don't even want to bother hitting up IMDB for the answer should tell you how awful she was. Not Ginnifer. Oh God no. I feel terrible for that poor woman. It's her character that I couldn't stand. Whatever her name was. I found her to be one of the least likable non-villain movie character EVAR! She whined and fussed and crazied her way into a relationship with a man who found her completely obtuse and unattractive for the first 120 minutes of a 128 minute movie. I would really like for someone to explain to me how that happens. I thought the point of the movie was to explain to women why they shouldn't cling, stalk, OMGwhyisnthecalling and daydream about dudes who have no interest in you. And then, at the end, she does all those things and the guy falls in love with her.

WTF???

Point Two: WTF??? (Serious plot spoilers - like you should really care.)

Seriously? What the hell? I thought this movie was supposed to be a lesson to women about men and dating. The first 3/4 of it was very cram-it-down-your-throat lessony about the obvious signs when a man isn't interested. But in the end, everyone threw the lessons out the window and just did whatever they felt like doing.

-Jennifer Aniston finally gave up on the man who wouldn't marry her for completely BS reasons and then he asked her to marry him.

-Old Blue Eyes pretended to be a nice guy, cheated on his wife, told her, was forgiven and still acted like an ungrateful bastard.

-Eric From Entourage took advice from the gays and it turned out wrong BUT EXCUSE ME the gays are NEVER wrong.

-Ginnifer McCrazypants freaked the fuck out on the Mac guy and then he fell in love with her. Doesn't that completely dispel every one of the points that were being made in the movie and book? A dude treating you like crap equals a dude who isn't interested unless of course you get all psycho on him and pretend you're his live-in girlfriend at a cocktail party, cock block him, yell at him, and then try to forget about him. For some reason that's the winning combination to his heart, then and only then will he show up at your door with an apology and a cheesy romantic gesture. The end.

Point Three: I Lied About Only Two Points

Scarlett Johansson still sucks at acting. I understand that she's hot and all, but they could cast a cardboard cutout of her in movies and I doubt anyone would notice.

Slumdog Millionaire

Matt and I finally caught up with the rest of the country last night and watched Slumdog Millionaire. Neither of us knew anything about the movie going in except for OMG it's the best movie of 2008.

I really liked it and it was very moving and touching at certain parts... but... I don't know. I wasn't blown away by it. It was visually stunning and the way the story was told was very unique. I like stories that aren't linear. It makes it harder to see what's coming next. There's nothing more irritating to me than a predictable ending. But the movie left me thinking, "That was good," not, "That was amazing." It's still definitely a movie that I would buy. I really want to see it again in Blue Ray.

I think my problem is that the movie was so hyped up. I already had expectations for it going in. Hype can kill a movie experience. The Dark Knight? Crash? Death by hype. I think the worst example I've ever seen for a hyped up movie being not worth it was Life Is Beautiful. I seriously hated that movie when I saw it. Maybe I would feel different if I watched it again... but I doubt it. Roberto Benini annoys the crap out of me.

Vicki Christina Nebraska

I am so sick of winter. The windchill this morning was -9°. That is outrageous for March. I'm looking at our Florida trip in May as a break from the winter, because it seriously feels like this is never going to end!

We stayed in bed last night and watched Vicki Christina Barcelona. I don't want to say that it was a terrible movie but... it was a terrible movie. The character of Vicki is clearly Woody Allen and they're both clearly in love with Scarlett Johansson. ScarJo on the other hand tops my list of Hollywood's Most Overrated. I swear the only reason she keeps getting work is because she's hot when she pouts.

Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem's scenes carried the movie. I could have watched an entire ninety minutes of them screaming at each other in Spanish. They're both such great performers they make you forget that you're watching another annoyingly neurotic Woody Allen movie. And yes, I understand that "annoyingly neurotic" is his schtick but enough already.

From now on whenever he releases a new movie I'm just going to skip it and watch Annie Hall. Annie Hall is one of my all time top five favorite movies. That's why it makes me so mad that Woody Allen circa everything-after-1977 sucks. It's also why I'm incapable of not watching his movies when they come out.

Movies

Tonight we continued our Oscar 2009 tour by watching Changeling. We both liked it. The first ten minutes or so kind of sucked. It felt like Clint Eastwood was taking a cat nap in the director's chair and no one wanted to wake him so they just filmed the first few scenes without him. Angelina Jolie just sort of held her hand over her face and pursed her lips a lot until he woke up and started telling her what to do. Then the movie got good. And it stayed good for the next six hours or so. The movie is not short if you catch my drift. It clocks in at 142 minutes.

Last week we watched Burn After Reading and Man on Wire. (I signed us up for Blockbuster by mail thing as you might have guessed.) Man on Wire was awesome! It was such an inspirational movie. I'm also a huge sucker for documentaries so it had that going for it. Burn After Reading was also good. But again, I'm a huge sucker for the Coen brothers. It was another one of their "everyones' problems are solved by the death of someone else" movies. The cast was great in it. Highly recommended.

Not much else has been happening this weekend. It snowed again, so that sucked. I did make a meal tonight that is probably one of the weirdest things I've ever made. Peanut butter chicken stir-fry. It was good.

Clint Eastwood Movies = Emotional Cutting

I saw two movies this weekend.

Or is it watched?

"Saw" implies that I went to the movies. "Watched" implies that I stayed home.

I guess I saw a movie and watched a movie this weekend then.

On Friday, I watched In the Valley of Elah. The acting in it was fantastic. Even the small roles were filled with big name actors. It was a fantastic movie, but overall it was horribly depressing. And gut-wrenching. And made me want to hug Tommy Lee Jones.

For whatever reason, I followed that up by seeing Gran Torino. Wow. Seriously Clint? Just, wow. You know a movie is good when watching it completely changes your mood.

Clint Eastwood was pretty much the only good actor in the film, but it didn't matter. He single handedly made that movie. Directed, produced, starred, sang. He probably built the sets with his bare hands.

As anyone who has seen a movie directed by Clint Eastwood knows, he isn't known for making feel-goods. His movies are so bittersweet. And this one is just that. Think "Million Dollar Baby" bittersweet. You can see it coming a mile away but there's nothing you can do to stop it. You just have to watch it and take it and process it on the ride home. (Or eight hours later sitting at the computer wondering if you're going to be able to stop thinking about it long enough to fall asleep.) It was really a good one.

Movie Night, Every Night

I think I'm going to make a pact with myself to watch more movies this year. I just read an article on cnn.com about Sundance and it was full of all these movies that I have never seen but have always wanted to.

And yes, on this the 20th of January, 2008, there are articles on cnn.com that do not include the words, "Barak Obama." Although, I read all those too.

I'm considering rejoining one of those by mail DVD rental programs. I had one a few years ago and I really loved it at first. But then movie watching conflicted with me going out and getting wasted every night, so I cancelled the service and spent that extra $19 a month on beer. Since I am now older, wiser and a lot more boring, I think it would be fun to have a new good movie to watch every night.

Since Matt's been gone I've watched at least eight movies. I've exhausted my HBO InDemand options. Last night I actually watched Charlie's Angels.

Weekend Recap - Not a Whole Lot to Tell

How was everyone's weekend? For me, Saturday was punctuated with small moments of domestic accomplishment. Sunday was spent in bed. Not all day, but a good 80% of it.

On Saturday I went downtown and picked up our poor ottoman that we ordered about three months ago. It was supposed to be a set when we bought the orange chair but they were out of stock. I grabbed the ottoman, went to the hardware store, maybe went and bought myself something purdy to wear to the gay bar that night, then went home and started my January to-do list. I fixed a missing piece of down spout (Note to self: Check the pile of junk in the garage next time before going to the hardware store. You probably already have what you're looking for.) and patched a crap ton of nail holes in the living room. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to painting over the patches. The can of paint was frozen from sitting in the garage, so I was going to paint on Sunday. But instead I just sat in bed all day watching movies and reading magazines.

I watched Music and Lyrics and Because I Said So yesterday. Music and Lyrics is an alright movie. It's nothing special but Drew Barrymore is adorable so I will forgive the movie for being predictable. Because I Said So though had no redeeming qualities. None. Not even for a minute. The dialog sucked, the characters didn't make any sense, the boyfriends were tools, that hot old guy from 7th Heaven was boring. Poor, poor Diane Keaton was a complete joke in that movie. What was she thinking? I wanted to turn it off and watch Something's Got to Give to wash my brain of the memory. I couldn't even watch the whole thing. I only made it through 45 minutes. It made it's way onto my "Worst Movies Ever" list. It's in good company with Across the Universe and Norbit.

Merry Day After Christmas!

Matt and I woke up pretty early today and went post-Christmas present shopping. We agreed to get each other a PS3 for Christmas and waited until after the big day so we could hopefully cash in with some gift cards. This year the big winner was Target with $105 in gift cards so we went there and spent it all at once. Plus some.



I also got Matt a couple of video games he wanted and he got me some nerd movies on Blue Ray. Clockwork Orange, Pan's Labyrinth, Planet Earth and March of the Penguins.

Total. Nerd.

Don't think I didn't want the Lord of the Rings trilogy too. It's not out yet though.

Blue Ray will blow your mind. That business is outrageous. The Planet Earth series alone is worth investing in the system.

I have been antsy and bored all day today - despite the PS3. It was beautiful outside for the first time in a couple of weeks. An astonishing 57°!!! I think it gave me a little spring fever - not a good thing to have in December.

Things I'm Excited About Today

01. Oscar Watch! - It's here! The time of year when all the good stuff comes out. The Oscar ceremony in itself is boring and anticlimactic for the most part. It's the tidal wave of great movies being released that I love. Critical reviews are also really strong this time of year, so it's usually pretty easy to narrow down the really great movies worth seeing in the theaters. There's nothing I hate more than paying $10 to see a bad movie. On my list so far:

• Flash Of Genius
• Rachel Getting Married
• The Wrestler
• Appaloosa

And although they likely aren't going to be Oscar favorites, I also really want to see Religulous and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

02. Junking! - Junking is basically antiquing for crappy stuff. You go around looking for crap you can fix up, then you haggle on the price and tell everyone later on what a great deal you got. (After it's all fixed up and pretty of course.) Nebraska photographer, Becky Novacek, is a marvelous junker. Just look at her house! Check out all that great stuff she's got!

03. Project Runway! - It's down to the last four on Project Runway and it's getting intense. The preview for tonight's show featured everyone crying. I love it. People crying on reality TV is wildly entertaining. Jeff and I are going to gather tonight to watch it together just like the good old days. (FYI! Be careful if you go over to the shows page on Bravo's website. They have spoiler pics up of the runway show from fashion week. MY EYES! OH MY EYES! I saw something I should not have over there...)

04. Feta's! - Going there for lunch. I plan on gorging myself with hummus and pita bread.

Hilarity Ensues

I am an avid fan of snotty movie genres: French and Spanish films, indies, black comedies, the occasional British period piece. But give me a raunchy comedy marketed towards boys 18-24 and I'm pleased as punch. In my opinion, the best movie of 2008 so far has been Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Matt and I are definitely buying it after work. That movie is ridiculous. Turns out that male full-frontal nudity is hilarious. Also, I would pay any amount of money to see a vampire puppet musical. Interestingly enough though, Jonah Hill is my least favorite part of that movie. I'm tired of his schtick.

I never used to like these suspended-adolescence type movies, but some time during my adult life I found the humor in them. There's something very relatable about these adult characters who don't want to grow up and be forced out into the real world. I wonder why... It's like, I never used to like them because I thought the characters were immature and they should just grow the hell up already. But now that I'm reluctantly an adult, I sympathize. I want them to be stupid and lazy. I want them to smoke pot and drink all day. Who cares if you live in your parent's basement. Screw the establishment!

Beerfest, Grandma's Boy, 40 Year Old Virgin, Old School, Knocked Up, Superbad. Yes, please.

And for the record I also love Bridget Jones's Diary (but not the sequel), Sex and the City, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Notting Hill. I do certainly have a soft spot for girly movies too, but my tolerance for them is far less. I'm a little more picky with these. I really love romantic comedies throughout all the comedic scenes, but then when they start to get extra crazy sappy I kinda lose interest. The one newlywed movie... what's it called, Just Married (duh!) with Ashton Kutcher is a good example. The scenes where him and his wife hated each other were hilarious. But then he started crying and it became unbearable to watch.

So in essence, I love snotty movies, I love boy movies, and I love almost all romantic comedies until about the last fifteen minutes when everyone starts crying. Oh, and I really love zombie movies. A lot. More on that later.

Everything is New Again!

Labor Day has come and gone which means that all the quality movies, TV shows and music are coming out for the fall. I already love and/or cannot wait any longer for:

01. Burn After Reading - I am a manic Coen fan. Blame it on my high school BF. He dragged me to O Brother senior year and I was smitten with Joel and Ethan. I even forgave them for Clooney's awful lip synching scene. My love of O Brother also parlayed into a love for Gillian Welch but that's another blog. I am antsy with anticipation for Burn After Reading. Frances McDormand? John Malkovich? Tilda Swinton? Yes, please!!!

(On a side note, if anyone wants to discuss the ending to No Country For Old Men let me know. I almost completely understood the ending and I think it's genius. Kind of a "we're smarter than you'll ever be" middle finger from the bros to all of us viewers.)

02. Entourage - I joined this series at the end of what I think is the third season and I didn't really get it at first. Ya, ok. Boobs, LA, hugging it out. Nice. But then after a few episodes I got hooked on it. The writing is great, the characters are awesome. It's Sex and the City but with boys. And that leads us to...

03. True Blood - I watched this after Entourage and took it with a huge grain of salt... but still enjoyed it greatly. When did vampires become unscary? They're really just sort of gay. But still, this show was pretty cool. I really love horror movies of the monster genre so this was a treat. I only read about the show last week so I didn't have any expectations about it. But, it's from the badasses who created Six Feet Under so it didn't disappoint.

04. Kings Of Leon - Oh. My. God. I really don't know what else to say. Their new album, Only By The Night, doesn't actually come out for another couple of weeks but I got a copy of it from a secret source. Don't give me that look. I'm buying it on vinyl when it comes out. I just listened to it this morning and I was completely blown away by it. It's epic. Like, Queen epic. And it rocks so hard. It feels legendary listening to it. I hope this is the album that does it for them. It's so incredible. Definitely my favorite release of 2008.

Buy it. Listen to it. Love it.