Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - A

So when I checked Netflix to see what movies were shipping they asked me if I wanted to buy Enron because we rated it so high. I had heard about the Enron scandel and Kenneth Lay, etc but don't think I fully understood the rhelm of what happened until after I saw this film. It is a documentary with interviews of past employees, current employees, reporters, and then old interview clips with the major players. I was glued to the TV. Well edited, informative, put together so an idiot like me could understand and it cleared up a lot. Definately worth the watch!

Finally Done with TV - A

Grey's Anatomy Season 2 DONE! I am done with the TV shows and up for some good movie watching. No movies lately ladies...what did you guys get a life or something and how come I didn't know about it?! I will just take a guess that the blog will get hopping once the rain sets in. I have X-Men III and Inside Man coming so will keep you posted.
I know you are all dying to see X-Men III, I promise not to give it away ;)

Our own movie (R)

I think I have an idea for a movie! I think we should write it!

Grey's Anatomy Season 2 -A

I am hooked! Holy crap I am WAY too into this show. I got the first 2 discs from Netflix and blew through them in 2 days. Was watching last night and thank goodness that disc 2 was over because I would have stayed up and heck, called in sick to work so that I could keep watching. Does that make me a bad person? I don't know what I love so much about this show. OK, total lie -- Dr. McDreamy!!! They had him walk out of the rain in one scene and with the wet locks and those features, ROAR! I guess I am a sucker for the love triangle story line too. I will DVR the show tonight and watch when I am all caught up. Patrick Dempsey = Le Sigh

Come on, people!

Watch a movie already!

A night of noir for us with Woody Allen's Match Point (Robin)

Game. Set. Match. Great! This movie had intrigue, suspense and passion. There were moments near the end (well, it turned out not to be the end, but only the last third) when it dragged, but when the end came, boy did it come!

Allen did a great job of coming full circle with the lucky/good analogy. Chris's quote (below) in the beginning of the film stayed with me throughout and I kept waiting for its reappearance as end punctuation. It struck with an exclamation point at the very end and I wanted to clap and say, "Well done!"

Scarlett Johanssen was a bit uneven at times, as was Rhys Meyers. But their uneven-ness almost made them even more endearing, even more believable. (Funny thing, this movie's ending would have been slightly more expected were it set in the U.S. with all American characters. Don't you think?)

4.5 large zucchinis (25.5 cups of grated zucchini each) out of 5 for Match Point!

"The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a litte luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose." --Chris Wilton

In Her Shoes -A

Have you read the book by Jennifer Weiner? Fun chicklette read. The movie had Toni Collette and I really like her, followed her career since Muriel's Wedding. Also stars Shirley Maclaine, a legend. Then there is Cameron Diaz, does anyone else think she is weird looking? Total Monet, beautiful from a distance but close up it doesn't make sense. But back to the movie. I didn't hate it and didn't love it. I was in the mood for a chickflik and it fulfilled that for sure. I have a very difficult time liking any film that I have read the book so I give this a 2 out of 5 future zuchinni breads from Jamie.

Mind Hunters (Jamie)

Finally a movie I liked! My arm muscles were sore I was so tense. The chick from Cold Case, Christen Slater, LL Cool J, Val Kilmer are all in this (and I think DB Sweeney but I could be wrong). A pretty original (as original as movies can be these days) "who done it" that kept me guessing and then I would figure it out and then I would change my mind and on and on. Turns out I was wrong until it was so obvious even the characters started to get it, but I'm usually kinda slow on these.

FBI agents in training to become profilers are sent to an island by themselves for training. Then it becomes obvious that the simulation is now real and everyone is dying, rather creatively, one by one.

I give it 4 gigantic zucchinis up (not a metaphor, well, I mean it is, of course, but not what you think... get yer mind out of the gutter!)

It's about so much more than pot (Robin)

I just finished the first half of the first season of Weeds and oh my god. It's good. It's funny and snappy and smart and well-written. It pushes envelopes (or baggies?). There are a few annoyances -- like the What About Bob character, as I like to call it; the guy who is dopey and annoying and always this-close to ruining things for people who don't deserve it and is somehow buoyed along in spite of the fact that he's BAD -- but overall it's good. It started out about pot and is about pot, no doubt; but moreso it's about keeping a family afloat and dealing with grief and fitting into a community and growing up and watching your children grow up and realizing there's a whole big world outside of the teeny-tiny world you happily inhabited for so long.

Favorite quotations:

"If I could tap into my higher power my fingers wouldn't be numb." --Nancy (after she couldn't find any batteries for her vibrator)

"I'm the suburban baroness of bud, Nancy." --Nancy

The Flight That Fought Back (Jamie)

This was a movie that was on the Discovery Channel on 9/11 about United 93. The movie was mostly a documentary put together with actual phone calls, flight recordings, testimony from family/friends and then acted out with narration by Keifer Sutherland. I do not know why I watch this stuff. So very, very sad. Very tasteful and informative. Not sensational. I actually found myself thinking that there would be some way that they would get out of it. I was surprised to realize that so many people on that flight were really not supposed to be there. Either they were late and had to take the flight or were "lucky" enough to get the earlier flight or had switched schedules with someone so they could be home for an occasion. It just makes you realize how temporary things could be. It gave me that panicked pity-filled (almost a survivors guilt) feeling that I felt right after the attacks. I also recorded both the 9/11 specials from Sunday night. I'm not sure if I will be able to watch them. And if I can, should I? Such a sad thing.

Apparently on an Aniston kick (Robin)

Seriously sitting down with snacks and hubby to watch "Rumor Has It ..."? No way.

Watching "Rumor Has It ..." while sweating on the elliptical, not caring if half of the dialogue is missed because of the noise? Welcome to my Monday night.

Whoever thought of this story line is smoking something in his/her crack pipe.

I love how one of the IMDB reviewers says Kevin Costner has all of the sexual magnetism of a flounder!

Coming soon to this blog... (J)

The Wild is being release tomorrow or today (just looked at the time, GAWD! Go to BED!). I will be purchasing our copy tomorrow while Grace is in school. No, I do not know if it is good or not but now we just buy everything that is spit out by Disney and the like on DVD. Yes, we own Doogle and Hoodwinked (the shame!).

Friends with Money (Robin)

I went into this movie mostly curious about how the ex-Mrs. Pitt would fare alongside a much more talented cast but came out of it with a reminder of the kind of closeness I want in my marriage. It may be silly, I know, to relate a former-Friends-castmate movie to my real life, but don't we always interpret a thing -- whether that thing is a movie, a book, a picture, even an event in real life -- through the lens of personal experience?

Aniston doesn't shine in this; she doesn't even sparkle. What really came through was the spectrum of closeness possible in a marriage. Three cinematic marriages showed us close-close with Joan Cusack and that guy from Ally McBeal (I always think about him dating Dianne Cannon and his obsession with her neck skin), close-not-so-close with midlife-angsted Francis McDormond and her oh-so-gay British husband, and not-close-not-close with the very sad and rapidly deteriorating marriage between Catherine Keener and her hunky unknown husband. The marriages were highlighted much more and much more effectively than the "friends" found in the movie's title.

I want to have the close-close of Joan and her husband. I want to learn to shrug when my husband has bad breath and lie in bed talking at the end of the day -- every day. On the other hand, the close-not-so-close of Francis and her gay English husband was nice, too. Even her bitterness and sarcasm couldn't squelch their obvious connection. He loved her in spite of her midlife angst and ultimately helped pull her out of it. (The split-second scene at the ALS benefit dinner when he touched her styled hair was two seconds of pure sweetness.)

The Aniston story lines were uneven. Her career shift from teacher to maid wasn't portrayed smoothly. Her willingness to have Mr. Loser Blind Date accompany her on maid jobs -- and even have sex in a client's bed -- didn't make sense. And even her possible fairytale ending -- with the odd, disheveled but oh-look!-he's-rich! guy -- was handled roughly. Was it bad acting or bad writing? Perhaps some of both.

I enjoyed the movie. My favorite parts were (1) the intimate, gossipy moments between husband-and-wife couples after dinners, events, etc.; (2) the sweetness of "You were the most beautiful one there" compliments from husbands to wives post-events; (3) the beautiful colors of the sets -- reds, yellows, oranges -- inspire me to decorate. Best of all, seeing the spectrum of connection in marriage reminded me to reconnect with the brit. We'd started the movie after I'd had an unpleasant confrontation with someone else and I was in need of some space to process; by the end of the movie we were pretzel'ed together and I was ready to process with him.

I give it 3 peach walls up!

No Movies -A

No movies over the weekend, believe it or not! I have been catching up on DH and then I have to watch Season 2 of Grey's Anatomy so not sure when the next movie will be. The hubby did watch Underworld:Evolution, one of those sci-fi, vampire, werewolf movies. I went up stairs to pullout my fingers nails one by one, it just sounded like more fun.

Didja know?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498353/

Crazy thought

Why am I craving a viewing of Top Gun?? Jayzus, I might have to run down the street and rent it.

Is it all the TomKat in the news lately (always)? Or just me needin' a dose o' the lovin' feelin' bar scene?

Dunno. But roar!

Silent Hill (Jamie)

I should have known better considering we saw the trailer for this on Hostel. This one didn't make me want to puke but it didn't make me want to do much of anything.

First the description of the movie is all wrong on Netflix. I'm not sure what movie the writer saw but it wasn't this one. Then when the movie is over we watched a couple of the special features to try to figure out what the hell the ending meant and we find out it is a movie based on a PS2 game. A freakin' game people!

I think the director knew his movie wasn't making much sense because toward the end of the movie he gives the viewer a cliff notes section. The script actually reads, "Good job, you have earned the right to know the truth." Then they explain what the fuck they have been talking about for the past 2 hours. Even after all of that, I'm still not sure what the ending means. I like my horrors/thillers to have a Scooby Doo ending. Wrap it up nicely and let me know if I'm supposed to be left pondering. Don't leave me pondering the pondering. That is just annoying.

But, I am going to have to give it 2.5 paws because I was pretty tense through the whole movie, if it hadn't been for that nagging, "What the hell does that mean?" constantly tapping me on the shoulder, I would have given it more.

Annie - September 4,2006 (Little Miss Sunshine)

The husband and I got all the household chores completed so off to the theater we go. This one gets 4 out of 5 paws. LOVED IT! Acting was great, plot was original, great laughs, had more of an indy feel (maybe it is an indy?). I don't want to talk about it too much because you both will have to go see or rent this one.

September 4, Annie (History of Violence)

First we review the rental, History of Violence, stars Viggo Mortensen. This stinker is getting a very generous 1 of 5 paws. How to describe the film??? hhhmmmm, think........painful comes to mind! Just like the sex the two main characters have on the staircase. No, not sexy or erotic. All I kept thinking was, "man, that is gonna leave a mark!" Next, William Hurt as a big time mobster....uh NO. Sad to say that is 1 hour 45 min I will never get back.

No new movies here either! (Robin)

Our Labor Day weekend has been filled with house projects, errands and lots of relaxing! I sat in the pool today with the warm sun on my face knowing I couldn't have had a better day.

G's been watching episodes of Invastion on DVD. I find it odd I've never heard of it. Even though we don't watch TV I usually hear about shows on blogs, from friends, etc. The bits of Invasion I've watched have been good enough, I suppose. I think one could describe it as the poor man's Lost?

We're sightseeing tomorrow as G's cousin Sean comes from the UK tonight to visit. I wish our three-day weekend lasted all month!

What've you been watching, Annie? How's the parents' visit going, James?

Annie

Going into Labor Day weekend, plenty o' time for films! With the hubby back in school and the temperate hitting 90+ I will have to hole up the basement with the DVR. I have History of Violence and I have to catch up on Desperate Housewives Season 2 before the next one starts.