We did make time for some DVDs this weekend (you'll see I browsed the W section at the library), and Jamie was home sick today, so he and I caught a couple of movies on TV. And, are you ready for this? (drumroll, please)...We went to see a movie in the theater! Can you believe it? We manage that about once a year, so it's a big deal. So, lots to report today:
- We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the theater on Saturday. Ken, Jamie, and I had all read the book (but a while ago). All four of us loved the movie - it was excellent, as they all have been. This is the movie series we leave the house for! And a side benefit of waiting to see it until it's been out a month is that we pretty much had a private screening with about 10 other people in the theater. Now we have to wait for next summer for the final movie. I'd like to re-read the book before then.
- Ken and I watched Winter Passing on DVD Friday night. About a half hour into it, Ken pronounced it "quirky"! It was a little odd, but we both enjoyed it. Zooey Deschanel (who is so adorable) plays Reese, a struggling actress with famous writer parents who heads home to Michigan to retrieve some love letters from her parents that her mother left to her in her will. A publisher has made her a big offer for the letters. When Reese arrives home, however, she finds her father in a sorry state, being cared for by two strangers, Shelly, a writing student of his, and Corbit, an odd sort of handyman-bodyguard (played by Will Ferrell). Secrets come to light slowly as we learn the backstory of Reese's parents and her unbringing. It was very good.
- On Saturday night, we watched What Just Happened, starring Robert DeNiro as a Hollywood producer whose life is falling apart, both personally and professionally. It's filled with stars and will appeal most to those who enjoy Hollywood insider stories. The box proclaimed review blurbs like, "Outright hilarious!" and "Priceless laugh-out-loud lines!" We didn't think it was all that funny, though it did have its moments that were mildly amusing (like the Bruce Willis scene).
- Today, Jamie felt awful and drowned his sorrows in back-to-back movies on TV. I had my laptop out but watched with him. First we saw Arlington Road, a good thriller with an excellent cast. Jeff Bridges plays a college professor teaching a class on terrorism whose FBI wife was killed by an extremist group. He begins to suspect that his new neighbors, played by Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack, aren't who they appear to be and starts to investigate their backgrounds. His new girlfriend and his wife's old FBI colleague think he's being paranoid because of what happened to his wife. So, the question is...is he paranoid or is something sinister really going on? It's a good suspense flick, though we didn't like the ending.
- During lunch, we watched Instinct, an interesting movie about an anthropologist, played by Anthony Hopkins (who always plays creepy guys!), who spent years living with gorillas in Rwanda and is now in prison after murdering two men in Africa. Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays the therapist assigned to conduct a psychological evaluation of the prisoner, who won't speak at all at first. As the movie progresses, the two men get to know each other better and both affect the other prisoners, and we gradually learn more about what really happened in Africa. It was pretty good.
1 comment:
HP was fantastic, wasn't it? Well worth the little post-outing flare, for me. Hope you are taking care of yourself as the holiday season starts amping up.
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