Movie Monday 8/16

Yes, it is Movie Monday, but more importantly....it's Jamie's 16th birthday!!!  Sixteen years ago today, I was lying in the hospital shivering uncontrollably after a c-section preceded by 26 hours of labor!  Good times...ha ha

Seriously, I have 16 years of wonderful memories.  Jamie is a joy - sweet, caring, funny, and lots of fun to be around.  I just can't believe how quickly the time has gone by.

Now, onto the movies!  We made up for lost time this week and watched a LOT of movies...

• First, I forgot one last week...we watched Enchanted with the kids and all enjoyed it very much.  It starts out as a sort of parody of every Disney animated movie, with a handsome prince, a beautiful girl he falls in love with, and the evil stepmother Queen who wants to keep them apart.  The Queen banishes the girl to the real world - she pops out of a manhole in Manhattan! - and the other characters follow.  At that point, the movie switches to live-action.  It's all very clever and lots of fun.  Patrick Dempsey stars as the very practical single Dad who helps the princess-to-be.
• While Ken was out of town, the boys and I watched The Terminal, an excellent Tom Hanks movie about a foreigner who gets caught in a customs catch-22 and ends up living at the JFK airport.  Ken and I has seen it when it first came out in the theater.  The boys loved it.  It's fun sharing some old favorites with them now that they're older.
• We also watched Monsters vs. Aliens, a cute animated movie featuring the voice of Reese Witherspoon as a young woman who gets turned into a giant and ends up battling aliens to try to save the earth.  It was actually better than I expected.
• With Ken away, I indulged in a girly movie (aka chick flick), Made of Honor, again starring Patrick Dempsey (are you seeing a theme here?).  It was a sweet and funny romantic comedy, fairly predictable but enjoyable.  A fun bit of fluff!
• Friday night during Jamie's party, Ken and I watched Dreamland, an independent film that won awards at Sundance and other film festivals.  It's the story of an 18-year old girl caught in a web of obligations, to her grief-stricken father who hasn't left their trailer in two years and to her best friend who has MS.  They all live in a trailer park in the New Mexican desert called Dreamland (which, as you can imagine, is anything but). It's a unique story with excellent acting, and we both enjoyed it very much.
• Saturday night, Ken and I watched The Painted Veil, starring Naomi Watts and Ed Norton.  It's set in the 1920's when the two meet and get married rather quickly and then depart for China where he, a British virologist, is assigned.  Bored and disillusioned, his wife has an affair.  As punishment, he forces her to accompany him deep into the Chinese countryside to a small town experiencing a cholera outbreak.  The experience changes them and their relationship.  I have long heard great things about this book, and the movie was excellent.
• We watched The Pacifier starring Vin Diesel with the kids, during our post-party recovery weekend.  They had seen it a long time ago at a friend's house.  It's about a Navy Seal assigned to protect a family of 5 kids while their mother is away.  I was expecting a lot of silly slapstick featuring kids hitting his crotch repeatedly, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It's actually a pretty good movie, with more depth than I expected and a lot of heart.  We all enjoyed it.
• Finally, we watched Marley and Me with the kids last night. Another pleasant surprise!  Based on a true story, it's a very sweet story starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson as a couple with an unruly but lovable dog.  The movie follows them through new jobs, moves, and children.  It's funny but also moving and sometimes sad.  Overall, a very good movie.

Whew!  I told you we watched a lot of movies!  That's the fun of summer, with no homework or soccer practice or school events in the evenings.

Have you seen any good movies lately?