Movie Monday 4/20

I have been neglecting this blog! I didn't have any time last week for any writing at all, so it's not just the blog - things have just been busy, plus I wasn't feeling well last week (my one week out of 15 when I get my period). I am doing better now and hoping to finally catch up on some posts this week that I have been meaning to write for ages!

First, my weekly Movie Monday post...We saw two movies last week, one a recent Oscar contender and the other an extremely obscure movie from the 1950's!

Friday night, we rented The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, the brilliant but socially awkward man who helped win WWII by decrypting the famed German Enigma code. Keira Knightley co-stars as the only woman working on Alan's team. We both enjoyed this historical drama very much. Neither of us knew much of the story before we watched the movie. The film moves back and forth in time between Alan's childhood being bullied at boarding school and his reliance on his one beloved friend there, his work on Enigma during the war, and a point after the war, in the 1950's when a local police officer decides to investigate Turing, thinking he might be a spy. In this way, you get insight into Turing's personality and his life, as well as the behind-the-scenes story of his top-secret work that changed the fate of the world. Cumberbatch did a marvelous job as Turing, and Knightley's character gave me insight into what it might have been like to be a very intelligent woman at a time when women had few choices in life. Overall, an engrossing and entertaining movie.

Saturday night, we watched a really bizarre movie from 1952 called The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T with some good friends. Our friend remembered watching this movie on TV when he was a kid, so when it aired last week on TCM, he recorded it. As you can probably tell just from the title, this is one weird movie! It was written and developed by Dr. Seuss, which tells you most of what you need to know. It's the story of a boy named Bart who takes piano lessons from Dr. Terwilliker. Bart dreams that he is trapped in a crazy castle, held captive by the evil Dr. Terwilliker, who wants to capture 500 boys to all play on his giant piano. Yeah, as evil plots go, this is a strange one! The whole movie is surreal but lots of fun. Oh, and did I mention it's a musical? So, picture a bunch of Dr. Seuss books all combined together, with lots of singing and dancing, along with doses of Alice in Wonderland, Willie Wonka, and Wizard of Oz. The whole thing is very Seussian - the sets, the colorful costumes, the song lyrics - so this is perfect for Seuss fans. It's strange, but I enjoyed it - lots of fun! I think our sons would have liked it when they were little.

Have you seen any good movies lately?