Movies

The Producers – Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. As did Kayleigh. She wanted something cute and lighthearted, and this delivered. I’d never seen The Producers so I wanted to get schooled on my Broadway plays. Within the first ten minutes I was laughing a good, hearty belly laugh. Matthew Broderick is hysterical and Will Ferrell is PERFECT as the crazy German playwright. We had a ton of fun imagining which Twelfth Nighter would play each part.

Warning – must love musicals.




Batman Forever – Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman

Todd had warned me that this movie was ridiculous. I loved the first two Tim Burton films, but then Joel Schumacher got a hold of this one (and the next one – Batman & Robin) and just glammed it up. The big joke is that Joel put nipples on the batsuit. Oh come on!

I wanted to like it, but I went into it more for research purposes. If I’m going to be a geek wife and mother, I need to see the good and the bad. And this was bad. After the opening scene, I asked Todd, “You’ve seen this right? Can we just turn it off?” He said no. So we suffered through the whole thing, and there were a couple of cute, laughable parts, but Nicole was just a whore for flying vermin and Val had no personality whatsoever and Jim Carrey was just as over the top and annoying as always.

So that’s done.



Watchmen - Jackie Earl Haley, Billy Crudup

I'm getting into superheroes, but I still haven't really gotten into the Watchmen characters yet.  This movie was all the rage because of Dr. Manhattan's glowing blue penis.

You'll just have to watch the movie.

The plot was a little above me - nuclear war, someone is behind killing off the masked avengers, blah blah blah.  But I liked it.  I liked Iron Man and The Hulk better, but I'm glad I got to see this one.




Black Death - Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne

This was a German production with, apparently, a limited release in the US.  And aside from the over shaky camera at times, it was a really good movie.  It's about the first wave of the Bubonic plague that hit England in the 1300s.  It feels like a period piece, but then there's this element of witchcraft and horror.  And lots of hacking people up.

But in an artsy way.






Black Widow - Debra Winger, Theresa Russell

Despite being made in 1987, this movie is pretty timeless.  I wouldn't call it a thriller, because the title really takes the surprise out of the story, but it's exciting, all the same.  You almost feel sorry for Catharine.  Kind of.  The only thing I really could mock in this movie were the shoulder pads.  Because, come on.  Shoulder pads!







True Grit (2010) - Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon

This movie has made me angry.  And I really, really wanted to see this.  I love westerns, I love Jeff Bridges.  But something about it - be it the lack of contractions, the shooting of the horses or the flat out running of the horse to death AND THEN shooting it - just freakin' pissed me off.

Also, it was very Cohen brothers.  Very proper, wordy dialogue, which was weird even though Todd said that's how they spoke in the 19th century.  It's still just off putting.  Cowboys said "ain't".  They don't say "I do not know how to do that."  See?  Very Cohen brothers.

We watched the original True Grit, with John Wayne, but I was bored and blogging, so I can't really compare.  Although Todd said there was some shots that were identical.  I liked the story.  I loved the cinematography, I loved the acting (Barry Pepper and Josh Brolin are almost unidentifiable) and I loved the idea.  But again, watching this just pissed me off.

We're watching a pallet cleanser now - Austin Powers



Leaves of Grass - Edward Norton, Tim Blake Nelson

Very nice.  The main reason I wanted to watch this was because Edward Norton plays twin brothers.  Fantastic.  One is Ivy league, one is Oklahoma redneck.  Todd kept saying the country brother sounded like my Uncle Paul.

There's hillbillies, pot, murder and love.  It's a bit slow moving and you're waiting for the story to really kick in, but once it does, another story kicks in, and then another.  Bam bam bam!

And Steve Earl is in it.  Of course.



Machete -  Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Robert DeNiro

This movie was actually just a fake trailer on Robert Rodriguez's movie Grindhouse and Planet Terror (Robert is the one who did Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.  He's simply amazing.)  The trailer was so good, Robert went ahead and actually made the movie.  And holy crap, it's actually a great movie.  Yes, it's Rodriguez and it's over the top gory, but it's comically gory.  And to have Robert DeNiro, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson, Steven Seagal and, I kid you not, Lindsey Lohan, in the same movie - wow. 

We will be purchasing this one to add to our Rodriguez collection.



The Town - Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm

Wow.  Just...wow.  The previews looked great, and surprisingly, the movie held up, and sticks with you.  Ben is awesome as a recovering badass Boston dude.  You get sucked in, and are disappointed when it's over.  Definitely worth the two hours.

And, holy crap, when did Ben get ripped?