Movie Monday 10/1

Still struggling here.  I am feeling better, but our son is still in bad shape from his knee surgery last week.  He felt better on Saturday - enough to manage without the prescription pain killers - so we let him go out with friends, but it seems that was too much, too soon for him.  He is now in intense pain again, needing the heavy-duty pain meds and groggy from them.  So, he is still not in school.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.  He certainly has his appetite back!

So, with last week's Monday surgery, I am two weeks behind on movie reviews - we watched a few these last two weeks to help Craig through his recovery:

I found Wild Target at the library and picked it up because Craig likes comedies, and it stars one of his favorite actors from the Harry Potter movies, Rupert Grint (who played Ron Weasley).  It turned out to be a great sleeper - Ken said it was the first "quirky" movie I've brought home that was really good (high praise!).  It is pure fun!  Victor, played by Bill Nighy, is a top British assassin who has been hired to kill Rose, played by Emily Blunt, who has just pulled off an art forgery.  Blunt is at her cutest, quirkiest best in this movie.  Unaware that Victor has been hired to kill her, she bonds with him when he saves her from another assassin sent to kill her.  Grint plays a young man in the wrong place at the wrong time who gets caught up with the two of them when they escape the scene and ends up becoming Victor's protege.  The whole thing is very silly and very clever with lots of action...but also surprisingly warm.  All three of us loved this movie, and Craig watched it again with his brother after his surgery.

Next, we watched We Bought a Zoo with Craig - he was reluctant to watch it at first (thought it would be too childish), but we all really enjoyed it.  It is based on a true story, with Matt Damon starring as a dad of two kids who recently lost his wife.  In an effort to hold his family together, he moves them out to the country to an old house that comes with a zoo attached!  Scarlett Johansson plays the head zookeeper.  Plenty of funny moments, as you would expect, with all those animals and an adorable little girl, but this is also a very heart-warming movie.

During one of Craig's exhausted, groggy days, he and I watched the new The Three Stooges movie.  It was about as goofy and stupid as you would expect - mildly funny and perfect when you're on pain meds and can't concentrate much.  Though Craig didn't remember seeing the original Three Stooges when he was little, I enjoyed seeing how well they recreated the silly threesome - Will Sasso was especially good as Curly.  You know if The Three Stooges are your kind of thing or not!

This weekend, Ken and I watched Toast, an independent film based on a memoir by Nigel Slater, who is apparently a famous UK chef and television personality.  Freddie Highmore (who played Charlie in the more recent version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) plays the young Nigel.  Though his mother cooks only canned foods (and toast!), Nigel is fascinated by cooking and pores over gourmet cookbooks in his bed at night with a flashlight.  Nigel's life is far from easy, but along the way, little by little, he learns more about cooking and uses food as a way to pull himself out of his dismal life.  It's a wonderful movie, filled with gentle humor and warmth.

Have you seen any good movies lately?