The night after I arrived home we rented a couple movies. The one we watched as a family was called Once. Some may call it a chick flick. There are two kinds of chick flicks: Comedies which I generally enjoy if Whitney Houston isn't starring in them and Dramas which I generally do not. This probably falls into the latter category but, you know what? I liked this movie very much. Part of the reason is that generally enjoy music movies, like School of Rock and Sister Act if not musical theater. The stars of this movie actually wrote the music they're singing and it's good!
The next day, I finally got to see Eragaon. This was about a year in the making as I was scheduled to see this movie with JRRyan in the theater when my father broke his wrist ice skating that very night. Anyway, overall, this was a fun time waster of a movie. What I found fascinating, though, was 16 year old Christopher Paolini didn't get all his inspiration from fantasy novels. He got it from Star Wars. Farmboy learns of his destiny, to stop a Dragon Rider/Jedi consumed with power, when he comes across a dragon/droid sent by a princess for help and then is mentored by a Jedi Knight/Dragon Rider. He then comes across outcast of sorts who leads him to the rebel base but not before he goes to rescue the princess on the Death Star. Princess Arya will turn out to be his sister and King Galbatorix will be his father in the second one. I'm sure of it. The movie is worth seeing just for the parallels.
At some point, we also saw the movie Love Actually for the third time. I love this movie's soundtrack and has a great cast giving great dialogue. Maybe you're all against romantic comedies but if you like the BritCom, The Vicar of Dibley, you'll love this movie.
On TV, we saw Holiday Affair with Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh where we decided Jaimie Lee gets her looks from her father. If you like classic movies, I recommend this one. We also saw The Bishop's Wife and the original Christmas in Connecticut, both for the second time. Honestly, I enjoyed these two more this time than I did the first time. Again, I recommend these two if you like like old movies.
For Christmas I received a documentary, The Other Side of the Mirror which documents Bob Dylan's three appearances at the Newport Folk Festival including 1965 where he went electric. As you know, I love Dylan so this rocked!
The day after Christmas, we went to the big city to see my aunt and go to the movies. It took awhile but we finally convinced my father that we should see The Water Horse. It was a family film of Narnia-quality though maybe it didn't have the grand adventure which is fine with me. If you couldn't figure it out from the commercials, the movie tells the story of the infamous Loch Ness Monster. Very well done indeed. I feel I should mention though that I was pleased it turned out to have a happy ending. There was a a bit of time where I wondered about that.
Friday, we went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I'm still deciding if it's better than the first one but it certainly is just as good. My one complaint is the use of the "broken-up with the love interest so we can get them back together" plot device but that's much better than the alternative "actress didn't want to do the second film so they replaced her" scenario. What I liked best about it was them giving Jon Voight and Helen Mirren things to do. People complain it's a rip of Indiana Jones and Allen Quartermain. No, it isn't! The National Treasure films have a distinctly "American Pride" quality to them that the other two don't have; not to mention modern technology. I agree with my mother that Nic Cage is well-suited for these movies.
That night, I was supposed to get a rental to watch while my parents where out but there wasn't time so I ended up watching Girl Interrupted on TV. I know it was edited for TV but I thought it was pretty good. I appologize for this comment in advance but I wanted, um, more of Susanna and Lisa's, um, relationship... The amount of smoking Winona does in this moving made me think of this article I read recently and made me laugh.
Tune in for the next installment.
The next day, I finally got to see Eragaon. This was about a year in the making as I was scheduled to see this movie with JRRyan in the theater when my father broke his wrist ice skating that very night. Anyway, overall, this was a fun time waster of a movie. What I found fascinating, though, was 16 year old Christopher Paolini didn't get all his inspiration from fantasy novels. He got it from Star Wars. Farmboy learns of his destiny, to stop a Dragon Rider/Jedi consumed with power, when he comes across a dragon/droid sent by a princess for help and then is mentored by a Jedi Knight/Dragon Rider. He then comes across outcast of sorts who leads him to the rebel base but not before he goes to rescue the princess on the Death Star. Princess Arya will turn out to be his sister and King Galbatorix will be his father in the second one. I'm sure of it. The movie is worth seeing just for the parallels.
At some point, we also saw the movie Love Actually for the third time. I love this movie's soundtrack and has a great cast giving great dialogue. Maybe you're all against romantic comedies but if you like the BritCom, The Vicar of Dibley, you'll love this movie.
On TV, we saw Holiday Affair with Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh where we decided Jaimie Lee gets her looks from her father. If you like classic movies, I recommend this one. We also saw The Bishop's Wife and the original Christmas in Connecticut, both for the second time. Honestly, I enjoyed these two more this time than I did the first time. Again, I recommend these two if you like like old movies.
For Christmas I received a documentary, The Other Side of the Mirror which documents Bob Dylan's three appearances at the Newport Folk Festival including 1965 where he went electric. As you know, I love Dylan so this rocked!
The day after Christmas, we went to the big city to see my aunt and go to the movies. It took awhile but we finally convinced my father that we should see The Water Horse. It was a family film of Narnia-quality though maybe it didn't have the grand adventure which is fine with me. If you couldn't figure it out from the commercials, the movie tells the story of the infamous Loch Ness Monster. Very well done indeed. I feel I should mention though that I was pleased it turned out to have a happy ending. There was a a bit of time where I wondered about that.
Friday, we went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I'm still deciding if it's better than the first one but it certainly is just as good. My one complaint is the use of the "broken-up with the love interest so we can get them back together" plot device but that's much better than the alternative "actress didn't want to do the second film so they replaced her" scenario. What I liked best about it was them giving Jon Voight and Helen Mirren things to do. People complain it's a rip of Indiana Jones and Allen Quartermain. No, it isn't! The National Treasure films have a distinctly "American Pride" quality to them that the other two don't have; not to mention modern technology. I agree with my mother that Nic Cage is well-suited for these movies.
That night, I was supposed to get a rental to watch while my parents where out but there wasn't time so I ended up watching Girl Interrupted on TV. I know it was edited for TV but I thought it was pretty good. I appologize for this comment in advance but I wanted, um, more of Susanna and Lisa's, um, relationship... The amount of smoking Winona does in this moving made me think of this article I read recently and made me laugh.
Tune in for the next installment.
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