Movie Monday 6/2

Yup, it's Tuesday again already - I seem to be perpetually behind with everything!

I didn't want to skip Movie Monday entirely, though, because we saw two good movies this weekend:

Our sons went to the movies (to see Maleficent which they both said was very good) and then had friends to the house Friday night, so my husband and I watched Dallas Buyer's Club which is based on a true story. Wow, what a compelling, emotionally powerful movie. Matthew McConaughey is amazing as Ron Woodruff, a macho Texas electrician who is stricken with AIDS in 1986 and told he has only one month to live. Abandoned by all of his "friends," Ron sets out to defy his death sentence. He heads to Mexico to buy a drug that is not yet available in the U.S., but he discovers the drug is highly toxic and instead, he is nursed back to relative health by an alternative practitioner who shares the latest research with him and treats him with a variety of supplements to rebuild his health and his ravaged immune system. Ron takes a trunkload of the supplements back to the U.S. and sets up a buyer's club to resell them to other HIV-positive patients. His illegal dealings and circumventing of the mainstream medical system make him a target for the government and both local and national medical establishment. The story is captivating from beginning to end, and we found ourselves rooting for the spunky, unconventional Woodruff and his new friends. So many parallels between the AIDS story and the path of ME/CFS makes this movie extra-powerful for ME/CFS patients. A must-see.

Sunday night, our college son proclaimed he was in the mood for a movie, so he and I searched through the offerings at Redbox and settled on City of Bones, a movie based on one of his all-time favorite book series, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. We had a full range of experience with this story: my husband read just the first book (City of Bones), I haven't read any of them yet, and my son has read the entire series at least 2 or 3 times and is eagerly awaiting book 6! We all enjoyed the movie, though my son and my husband said a lot had changed from the book. It's a paranormal fantasy about a group of people called Shadow Hunters who can see demons among us that regular humans can't see. It's fast-paced and exciting, with lots of action and a bit of romance, as you might expect from a YA book adaptation.

Have you seen any good movies lately?