Movie Monday 8/2

Whew, what a weekend! As you know, Ken and I enjoyed a nice, relaxing week alone together while the kids enjoyed their time with my mom and her husband, but things really went downhill starting Thursday night!

Since it's relevant to movies, I'll give you a quick recap.  On Thursday, after dinner, we decided to splurge on a Redbox rental (ooh, aren't we wild and crazy?), so we drove to the local pharmacy that has a Redbox kiosk - if you haven't seen these yet, you have to try them!  We were walking back to the car, with a prescription (there's always one ready to be picked up, it seems), some ice cream, and a DVD, when Ken suddenly stopped cold and said, "uh-oh."  Some of his eye symptoms had returned, the ones associated with the torn retina he had at Christmas-time.  He was seeing big floaters in that same eye, so bad that he thought a balloon string was hanging in front of his face!  We rushed back to the house and called the on-call eye doctor who told us to come over immediately.  So we stuck the ice cream in the freezer and drove the hour-long drive up to Philadelphia.  Ken spent the next 2 hours being poked in the eyes and examined by two different on-call residents.  They finally concluded there was no new tear, but they couldn't explain why these symptoms had suddenly begun again.  I had to drive home, since his eyes were dilated, and I was so sick by the time we got home at 11 pm, I could barely manage to speak (sorry I was so cranky, honey!).  We're going back up tomorrow morning for a follow-up with his regular eye doctor.

Saturday was spent in bumber-to-bumper beach traffic on the NJ Turnpike while we drove up and back to pick up the kids.  And yesterday, our dishwasher sounded like it was going to explode - of course, no repairman is available until Wednesday.  The air conditioner repairman has been at our house 4 times in the past two weeks, so we're thankful that's at least functioning again!

Ok, enough whining (or whinging as my UK friends say, right?) - you came to hear about movies, right?  We saw some good ones this weekend

• The one we rented Thursday and finally got to watch on Friday was Unthinkable.  The title says it all, and this is not a movie for the faint of heart.  A terrorist, a US citizen, announces he has planted 3 bombs - nuclear bombs - in 3 American cities, and they will go off if his demands are not met.  He is captured fairly quickly, but won't say where the bombs are, so a specialist is brought in, basically a top-secret torture specialist played by Samuel L. Jackson.  The agent in charge of the investigation is appalled, but the military have taken over.  You may think you have a clear stand on torture when you start this movie (I certainly did), but it brings out many impossible-to-answer nuanced questions that the characters in the movie often flip-flopped on.  How far is too far to go when millions of lives are at stake?  The twists and turns are unpredictable and often appalling.  It is a very violent, disturbing movie, but these are issues that are really important to consider.
• Since the kids were away, and it was still early, Ken and I decided we needed to watch something lighter before attempting to go to sleep that night, so we next watched (500) Days of Summer, a much lighter romantic comedy with a bit of  a twist.  It was a welcome bit of escapism, populated with adorable main characters played by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, showing the beginning and demise of their relationship.  Very entertaining - thanks, Lori, for the recommendation!
• Sunday night, since the kids were pretty wiped out from their week, we watched an early movie with them, Dead Poet's Society, something of a classic by now but new to them.  I'd forgotten how sad part of the movie is, but it's also heartwarming and inspiring, too.  For once, the kids didn't tease me about crying during a movie. We all agreed we'd love to have Robin Williams' character as a teacher!
• During the week, Ken and I have been watching Season 1 of Mad Men on DVD.  It's sort of growing on us, though we still have trouble relating to any of the characters.  The men all lie, cheat, and treat women like morons; the women are either mean and nasty or act like morons.  I think we're staying with it just to root for Peggy (and maybe Helen), though it is also very well-done.  Ken laughs at how the men spend their days at the office sitting with their feet on their desks, smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey and occasionally attending 5-minute long meetings - if only!

Have you seen any good movies lately?