Movie Monday 2/22

I'm feeling a little better today, emotionally. Thanks for listening and helping me through my black mood this weekend. Your compassion and understanding soothed me. It still amazes me that I can just blurt out how I'm feeling here, and there are so many people who "get it."

Today was a little better for me, but Jamie was still home sick. He got up early this morning, showered and dressed for school, but was exhausted by the time he finished breakfast. Still, today was a bit of an improvement for him. He was able to sit up for a little while this morning and do a little homework.

I'm feeling awful right now because my afternoon nap was interrupted - I rely on that to get me through the second half of the day! I postponed my nap because Jamie and I were watching a lunchtime movie, and I was just dozing 0ff when the doorbell rang. It was a visiting nurse here to take samples of Jamie's blood for the UIC CFIDS study. With him home today, I had completely forgotten that it was scheduled for 3 pm today.

Anyway, with all this downtime, we watched a lot of movies last week:

• We watched Timeline with the kids Saturday night, adapted from one of my favorite Michael Crichton books. It's about some archeology students who get sent back in time to the castle in the Middle Ages that they've been working on in the present. Only problem is that they end up in the middle of the Hundred Years War. It's an exciting and suspenseful movie, not quite as good as the book (they never are!), but we enjoyed it.
• Last night, we watched King Kong - the original 1933 movie - with the kids. They were reluctant to watch a black and white movie, but they enjoyed it once we got into it. When Kong fist appeared, Jamie laughed, "Look at those graphics!" Ken and I explained that there was no such thing as graphics back then, that it was all filmed using models. Really, the special effects are pretty amazing for the time. We'll finish this movie tonight - the kids were ready for bed at 7:30 last night!
• Ken and I watched The Soloist Friday night. The book has been in my want-to-read stack for months now. The movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, was excellent. It's the true story of an LA columnist who discovers a homeless man playing the violin with surprising talent. He befriends the man and tries to help him with mixed success, but the relationship ends up benefitting both men. I thought it was very well-done, and I still want to read the book.
• Saturday night, Ken and I watched Imaginary Heroes, another dysfunctional family movie! This one begins with tragedy, as a 20-year old swimmer headed for the Olympic trials commits suicide. The movie follows his parents (mom is played by Sigourney Weaver and dad is Jeff Daniels) and brother as each of them tries to cope (in varying but all very unhealthy ways) with the death. As each of their lives spins out of control, family secrets are revealed and eventually they realize that they need each other. Believe it or not, parts of this movie are very funny, in a dark humor sort of way. I really liked the movie, though Ken thought it might not have been the best choice given how I was feeling this weekend!
  
• This morning, Jamie and I watched Invincible on TV. We've enjoyed the 70's soundtrack of this movie for years (I did a review of movie soundtracks a few years ago for Family Fun). It's based on a true story of a poor, downtrodden guy from Philadelphia (played by Mark Wahlberg) who tries out for the Eagles football team (their new coach is played by Greg Kinnear), against all odds (pro football mostly recruits from colleges). It was an inspiring movie with great music, and Jamie really enjoyed it.
• We turned the TV off so that Jamie could do some homework and I could do some writing, but we taped Radio, another football movie, to watch during lunchtime (it must have been football movie day on FX today). This movie is also based on a true story, about a mentally handicapped young man, played by Cuba Gooding Jr., in a small 1960's South Carolina town. The high school football coach nicknames him Radio (he loves radios) and takes him under his wing, involving him in the football team and the school. The community is slow to accept Radio - Jamie was appalled by how cruel some of the kids were to him - but the coach stands by him. The only problem is that our tape ran out before the end of the movie!! Now we have no idea how it ends, and the library is closed until tomorrow. Anyway, up until that point, it was very good.

So, a good week for movies (and books - Jamie read 5 books last week!), though a rough week otherwise. We were also very excited that another new season of Amazing Race started last week! We love that show and tape it every week.

Have you seen any good movies lately?