Movie Monday 8/1

I am determined to post Monday's post on Monday instead of Tuesday this week! (cutting it close, though).

Well, life has returned to normal here - there are currently 4 teen boys in our living room, playing video games and yelling, and I just fed all of them (did it smart and ordered pizza tonight!).  The house looks like a tornado came though it (like I said, back to normal).

Ours boys had a fabulous time on their grandparents' sailboat, as they do every summer - that's a photo Jamie took near Block Island, Rhode Island.  I did enjoy my quiet time, but it's good to have them back.  I watched quite a few movies last week - let's see if you can figure out at which point Ken came back home by the movie selection!

• I watched Bonneville on Monday, even though it was a bit late for a movie (I stayed up too late every night last week!).  I loved this movie about three old friends who go on a cross-country road trip together to scatter the ashes of one woman's husband, starring Kathy Bates, Jessica Lange, and Joan Allen.  It was warm and funny and highly recommended.  Besides, it's a road trip movie!  You know how I love my road trips.  Watching this got me feeling so nostalgic, I got out our old photo albums from some of our first road trips with the kids (to some of the same places visited in the movie).
• On Wednesday when I stayed in to just rest and recover from a busy week, I watched Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts, about a woman who embarks on a year-long journey to Italy, India, and Bali to try to find the balance she is missing in her life.  I had read the memoir and enjoyed it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie adaptation as well.  Perfect viewing for a night when I was trying to remember that sometimes I just need to take care of myself.
• Thursday evening, we watched Buffalo Soldiers starring Joaquin Phoenix as a bored American soldier stationed in West Germany before the Wall fell and Ed Harris as his kind but oblivious commanding officer.   In their boredom, Joaquin and the rest of the soldiers have set up a thriving business with the German black market, selling anything they can get their hands on, but they get in over their heads when they try to sell weapons to a mafia leader.  The DVD box kept saying how hilarious the movie is...and it does have its funny moments, but it's a very dark kind of comedy.  I don't know if I'd call any movie hilarious where just about every single character is dead by the end (I'm not saying which ones survive!).  So, it was definitely dark but also funny and interesting - we enjoyed it overall.
• Redbox gave me a free rental for my birthday this month (how nice!), so we celebrated our last quiet night alone together Friday with Unknown, starring Liam Neeson.  It was excellent, an exciting thriller about a man who travels to Germany (yes, odd that we watched two movies in a row set in Germany) with his wife to attend a conference.  He gets in an accident in a taxi and when he wakes in the hospital after a few days, he discovers that someone else has taken his identity and his place.  It's an intriguing premise, and neither of us saw the twist coming (and Ken always guesses this stuff!).  I almost felt guilty for watching it without the kids because Jamie would have loved this one! 

Oh, and once the kids came home Saturday night, we spent the rest of the weekend in a Glee marathon, trying to get through the entire first season set of DVDs before they are due back at the library - love that show!!

Have you seen any good movies lately?

(If you are interested in what we are reading this week, check out the Monday post on my book blog.)