Monday’s watch it or watch it: The Dark Knight
Ooh! Ooh! A guest poster! From one of my most favorite people in the whole, wide world, The Husband! He, and my dad, went on a boys night this evening. Apparently they were the last two men in the country who had not seen The Dark Knight, and The Husband got sick of waiting around on his brother to be able to go, so off he and Dad went for some male bonding. I only wanted to see it to pay tribute to Heath, and that can wait for Netflix. This is The Husband’s very first post, so everybody be nice! Take it away sweetness.
Well, tonight I went to see The Dark Knight. Yes, I really waited this long to go see it, and I was truly rewarded. The theater was virtually empty, so it was nice and cool, and totally silent.
If you are wanting to see this movie simply because Heath Ledger is in it, I urge you to think hard about that decision. Yes, he is in it….BUT you cannot tell it is him beneath the makeup and he is a totally insane, evil, crazy, twisted individual in this movie. A premovie bathroom break is highly recommended, this movie is long and there is NO lull in the action.
I always hate reading movie reviews because they might give away the plot. I’ll try not to do that, although at this point I have to be one of the few people left that hadn’t already seen it before tonight.
Ok, so basically, The Joker tricks the criminals of Gotham City into becoming what they think to be allies with him. He betrays them…all. He has no rhyme or reason behind what he does, he simply does it to see how people will react. If he has a goal, it’s quite simply to try and reduce normal people to his level and make them do things they would never think of doing.
Batman plays a hero that is at times despised by the citizens of the city, but he continues to do what is right. He bends the rules when he has to, but always restores things back to the right.
In the end, good triumphs over evil at the cost of Batman’s image. He takes the blame for some things so that Gotham can have a hero with a face.
Hopefully that’s not too much of a spoiler for you, if it is, oh well. I warned you.
Filed under The Husband, Watch it or Whine | Comments (4)Watch it or Whine: Wall-E
The first movie we ever took The Son to go see was Horton Hears a Who. He liked it okay, but was going through a phase where every time he saw a bird he crowed like a rooster. Horton had a large vulture that had loads of screen time, which meant that The Son spent much of the movie crowing. We gave it six months and tried again. On Saturday my dad, Gabs, The Husband and I went to go see a movie starring a futuristic tree-hugging robot with an extremely limited vocabulary. Caution: spoilers are below. Well, as much as can be spoiled by a movie with a pre-school target audience.
Earth has been abandoned because it is covered in trash, pushed over the edge by the evil mega corporation B&L. Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is a trash compacter living (existing?) on earth all alone. He has been busy working, hoarding, and watching Hello Dolly. One day a shiny giiiirl robot lands. Eve (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) They hook up robot style. She finds a plant and goes into lock down. Eve is then zapped up by a spaceship and is followed by Wall-E. They are taken to a cruise ship that contains all of the ancestors of the humans that abandoned earth. They have all gotten so fat they can’t walk, and live in front of mobile TVs. Skip forward an hour’s worth of hiding and chase scenes, They go back to Earth and recolonize based on the finding of that one teeny weeny weed. Wall-E and Eve hold hands and robot kiss.
The Son stayed still through most of it, he seemed to like it alright. My Dad really liked it, (I guess he just chose to ignore the liberal agenda behind it?) and Gabs, The Husband, and I were moderately entertained. If I could do it over, I would say Netflix this one, and save it for the pre-school left wing set. Oh, and their Grandpas.
2 and a half starry thumbs up or whatever. Not a Watch, or a Whine, but an Eh.
Filed under Watch it or Whine | Comments (6)Watch it or Whine: Get Smart
The Husband and I went on a DATE this weekend. I ate dinner without a single person throwing food on me. I had a lovely conversation that was not interrupted by “Do you need to Go Potty?” once. Oh, and I missed my baby SO BAD! When we picked him up on Sunday he said “Hey Mama!” and his face lit up and he had dimples so deep I contemplated growing geraniums in them. I scooped him out of his Pappaw’s arms and took him to their guest room where I proceeded to surgically reattach his umbilical cord. Hah! That is the last time he gets away from me.
To distract myself from the fact that I would have to fill the gas tank to get to my baby, The Husband and I went to go see Get Smart. Have I ever told you about how I feel about Steve Carell? I ADORE HIM. I could watch The Office as a non-stop marathon. Every week. I think he is just so cute, and smart, and lovable, and ahhh *swoon* geeky guys are so my thing. (Have I ever mentioned that The Husband is a computer geek? Lucky me!) *Reeling it back in over here* When I was about thirteen, JHJ and I would walk home from school, make milkshakes and turn on Get Smart. We must have watched every episode at least three times, and it was one of the few shows that we would agree on. As soon as I heard about the Get Smart movie I knew that Steve Carell + 1960’s Camp = A Happy Hey You. Caution: THE FOLLOWING MAY (WILL) CONTAIN SPOILERS! If you don’t want to know then just be assured that I liked it and go see it yourself.
Maxwell Smart apparently used to be a fatty. He drops a ton of weight and aces the test to be a field agent, through a series of events he winds up on a dangerous mission with the ever winsome Agent 99. Anne Hathaway did an admirable job, although I did miss 99’s slinky, low, and sugared “Oh, Max”. She also was much too young, but ya know cougars and all that. They had much better chemistry than I expected, and both had great comic timing (like Stevie Baby could have anything but). There is one scene where they are doing a tango with other partners that will be a classic forever, the rest of the movie be damned. My favorite parts were the ones where they re-visted the classic gags, and this is not the most realistic action movie I have seen, but it was not trying to be Bond or Bourne, it was a loving tribute to the original. It was light, breezy, and fast paced. Alan Arkin is another favorite of mine because of his role in Little Miss Sunshine, and he nailed The Chief. I did not like the portrayal of the president, and did not care for Dwayne Wrestler Boy Johnson, but his character was for bulk, and he was admirably large.
I give it four thumbs up out of five. Or stars, or whatever. I liked it, so go WATCH IT.
Filed under Watch it or Whine | Comments (4)Watch it or Whine: Sex and the City
Everybody say Hi to our super special guest reviewer, Dr. Ang! **waves furiously so she can see me all the way in Nebraska** I just got back from seeing it too, so I will give my take on it later in the comments section ((pretty much the same as Ang though)) Okay here she goes!:
Saw the movie on Saturday afternoon (while my husband watched Iron Man), and I loved it!! While I didn’t get into the series until the 5th season, I fell in love with it quite quickly, and it’s one of those shows that I can watch any time (even when they cut out the good parts for the syndicated version on TBS). I’ve been waiting for this movie since the series ended in 2004. There may be spoilers in this review, so if you don’t want to know what happened, stop reading right now.
Four years after the series finale, we have finally been given another glimpse into the lives of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte. It is three years later, and the seemingly happy endings are not quite so happy. Samantha has moved to L.A. but runs off to New York every chance she gets (“only for the A-list events”). Miranda and Steve are having a dry spell and he cheats on her. I found this to be a little unbelievable, and I think the writers may have needed to bring some other drama to the story to off-set the Carrie/Big situation (which I will get to). Charlotte and Harry are happy with their adopted daughter, Lily, and (amazingly?) Charlotte gets pregnant. Ok, so this is the only story line that has no real drama. These folks are genuinely happy. Which brings me to Carrie and Big, whose real name we finally learn, but he will always be known as Big. They decide to buy an apartment, then they decide to get married, then Big can’t go through with it…well, for Sex & the City fans this will come as no surprise, given Big’s history.
The clothing, shoes, and accessories were incredible (they even mentioned the Bag, Borrow, or Steal website). The story line was predictable, but still enjoyable. There was a happy ending. The only downside was that it was long, over two hours. I don’t mind watching Sex & the City at home all day long, but I don’t find theater seats that comfortable (at least in the theater that I went to). All in all, I liked the movie a lot. It was nice to be able to re-visit the characters and find out what happened after the series ended. I wouldn’t count on a sequel though.
**applauding** Yay! Thank you! You know any of you other “regulars” are welcome to do reviews anytime you want as well, in fact please do.
Filed under Watch it or Whine | Comment (1)Friday’s Watch it or Whine: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Alternate Title: I should have taken my suspension of disbelief booster shot before we went.
Warning: if you have not seen it, and you don’t like spoilers then move to the next post!
Seriously, keep reading and you will find out why I was disappointed.
Okay, you can’t say I didn’t warn you!
I have always loved Indy, I love everything about all three of the other movies, especially his whip yielding. Has it really been 19 years since I saw The Last Crusade with my parents? I tried to find a picture of myself as Indiana Jones for Halloween when I was eleven but no such luck. I was super jazzed to go see Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, even if the title did sound like a J.K. Rowling reject. It started out good, I rolled my eyes at him surviving a nuclear blast, I giggled at the smashed up box of the Ark of the Covenant ( a good foreshadow of the return of Marian), I instantly loved Cate Blanchett as an evil communist. I found Shia Labeouf labeoutiful, even if he is seven years my junior. The setting in Peru was stunning, I thought the whole concept with the Mayans, and the skulls, and natives and everything were spot on. I loved the return of Marian and the whole family aspect of the movie (An adventuring family? Rock on Incredible style.) So I am only pointing out good things right? I liked the movie right? Wrong.
Why not? ALIENS!! Not like from across the border, but from like outer-space. I do not like Sci Fi! I have tried it with a mouse, in a house, with a goat, on a boat, and I STILL DO NOT LIKE ALIEN MOVIES Sam I Am. And this movie was chock full of them. They even had a space ship. Gah! Me no likey. Stupid George Lucas, doesn’t Star Wars have enough Aliens for you? Could you not have left my Indy alone? Anyway, it had good points, but it is definitely my fourth favorite Indiana Jones movie.
Filed under Time Suckers, Watch it or Whine | Comments (7)Friday’s Watch it or Whine: Baby Mama
Guess what I did today? With my mom? And no one else? And no one interrupted me, and the baby crying was not mine? I went to go see Baby Mama, (if you had not guessed that by the title, this may not be the blog for you. Try someone else).
Anyway, I thought we would switch up the Read it or Rant a little this week because the only thing I have read either involved talking animals on cardboard pages, or is a glossy magazine full of clothes I can’t afford, and would not fit even if I could. ( We get lots of magazines here, and do not pay for any of them. The MMIL gives us hers when she is done, and I get Marie Claire and Cookie for free because we steal other people’s coke points.)
We went to a matinee ( How do you spell that?!? Every way I try still has a red line under it!) and while it was a cute movie, I was glad that we did not pay $7.50 a ticket for it. It is about this Type A lady (Tina Fey, whom I loooove) who has focused on her career and now has acute baby fever. She can’t get knocked up, so she hires this totally white trash chick (Amy Poehler, one of the very few shining stars from SNL lately) to be her surrogate. The girl gets pregnant and moves in with Ms. Type A. Hilarity ensues. Steve Martin, Greg Kinnear, and Sigourney Weaver were all hilarious. Without giving away plot points, it has some fairly predictable twists; Mom and I both had the ending pegged pretty early on. I think that this cast actually outshone the writing, but with anyone else, this movie would have bombed. To sum up–definitely add to your Netflicks queue, or go see a matinee with your Mom or Girlfriends, but save the big bucks for this one. I will try to actually read something this week.
Filed under Time Suckers, Watch it or Whine | Comments (4)