Monster House (J)

Fun movie but a little scary for a kids movie (or so I thought). We have watched it over and over and over again and the kids never get tired of it. There are some funny jokes for adults and quick witted children but they are not dirty jokes. My favorite line is, "That ball cost me $28. I had to rake 10 lawns and ask my mom for a dollar 26 times!" Filmed in the computer animation format, like The Polar Express. All the actors wear suits filled with computer thingys and technical stuff happens and we have a movie. Some big names and lots of fun. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. Fun and now in our permanent collection. 4 $28 basketballs out of 5.

Sleepy Hollow-Tim Burton Flavored (J)

Ever since Corpse Bride (own it, love it) we have been on a Tim Burton kick. Had to watch this one for the holiday and Ed Wood is on the shelf. Johnny Depp is fantastic (of course) as a quirky little cop from the big city. Science v. Spooky... Spooky wins. From 1999 and everyone looks young. Good but not a Tim Burton I will own. (sidebar: would Tim Burton have a career without Johnny Depp?) 3 flaming pumpkins out of 5.

The Omen (6-6-06 version) (R)

Annie's posts have gotten me in the mood for a little Halloween scare so I sent the brit over to pick up The Omen -- 2006 vintage. It was scary, indeed. The poor brit was falling asleep a few times and suddenly awoke to his wife jumping on him and digging her fingernails into his arm. It wasn't as scary as I remember the original being (when I was a child) or as scary as I remember other movies being when I was young, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to watch this alone.

Oh, and you know how I feel about Leiv Schriebner.

2.6 sixes out of three.

Venom -A

Now this little beauty was one of the free Premium channel Halloween movies. No one famous in it. Takes place in deep Lousiana because it is all about voodoo, but not a single person has an accent! I guess better to not make them fake it then to listen to horrible cajun accents for an hour and a half. Yes folks we are into voodoo and the undead. Loved the premise of the movie and why Ray is undead and what posseses him. Ray (the evil guy) physically looks evil and decaying and the make up was great for him. The other main characters are all teens so no one is getting nominated for anything but it was not horrible acting (for example Paris Hilton in House of Wax). Near the end I did wonder if you could 'kill' this guy and about 1 minute later they answered my question. Do not regret watching but don't run out to rent it. 3 snakes out of 5

Just Friends -A

I remember when this was in the theaters and knew I would not see it. I guessed wrong, that happens when you are on bedrest and have already read your book, and taken a nap, and cannot play another hand of solitaire. Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart. Best friends growing up, he was fat, she was pretty. He moves away, gets skinny and becomes uber sucessful in the music business. I missed the first half an hour searching for anything else to watch. Missing that did not slow me down at all! Ummmm, so not really funny. The lead guy's little brother pretty much steals all the scenes. Boy tried too hard, messes up, comes off as total a-hole, has a huge self realization and they live happily ever after. I just saved you about 2 hours of your life better spent watching grass grow. 1 Ryan Reynolds still looked hot though out of 5

Slither -A

Another horror film for the Halloween season. I had heard good things about this. We were expecting campy and man did we get it. It does not try to take itself as a serious film, thankfully. It was original, funny at times, and I have to look up where I know the lead actress from, definately B actress but can't place her. I like it, not sure Sean did, probably safe to say he tolerated it. Slither is a good description for the film, small town, middle America, forces from outside our universe are involved and lots of dead people. 3 slimey slug like things out of 5

Omen III - A

Glad this trilogy is over. I had a hard time imagining Sam Neil as Damian. They did a good job of making him look the part but there were scenes that almost forced him to over act and that would kill the mood for me. Damian had now become the most powerful CEO in the world, and then ambassador for the US to England (just like dear old earthly dad) but to be the son of satan and bring about the end of man kind as we know it? That is a lot to have to manage. Can you guess how it ends? Let's just say we still celebrate Christmas and Easter and not Armagedeon Day. 2 pitchforks out of 5.

The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania -A

Documentary. Small town PA. Beauty Pagent. It is the 50th anniversary of the pagent and they have invited all the past queens back. You also get to meet all the current contestants. They refer to Philly as the 'big city' and all their friends that move there always move back so why go in the first place? All the contestants mind you are ready to pack up and move after graduation. The town the pagent takes place in is 556 people strong and is a coal mining town. It was good because it was something not over done. The main past queen you follow is Sarah Rush, an actress from LA. I recognized her when I saw her but could not name a movie she has been in, that's what IMDB.com is for. At one point I thought any mockumentary on pagents probably watched this one. 3 crowns out of 5

Damien: Omen II - A

Damien is in prep school and now lives in Chicago. The kid they got to play him is really good. Twist at the end that took me by surprise!! The first was better only because the sequel is never as good as the first. The Final Conflict: Omen III will be reviewed shortly. Thank goodness there were only three. 2.5 ravens out of 5

United 93 (J)

Powerful, sad, moving, voyeuristic, hard to watch but something I needed to do. Not fluffy or full of over dramatized crap. Very real. Filmed in real time, there is really no dialogue to follow, you really feel like you are just looking in on what really happened or what they can figure out happened to the best of their knowledge. There were a few times that I thought, "There is no way anyone could know if that happened" but I can forgive a little artistic license. I think the most important and informative part of the DVD is the bonus feature where they talk to the families and some of the actors go to meet the family members. Really touching and amazing. I was distracted once during the movie when I realized that one of the actors was not an "unknown" as they were all supposed to be but more of a "forgotten". In one of the seats being terrorized was the old lady from the comedy show "Wings". That was a little jarring. The guy that played the head Air Traffic guy was played by himself, very well. Tasteful and important. See it when you are able. We have had this one our shelf for about a month and Josh finally said that he was not able to watch it and I should do it by myself. I wonder how I would have viewed this movie and others like it before I had kids.

Now that your here, in Xanadu! (J)

That's right baby. Xanadu! It was free on On Demand and dear Gawd, we watched the whole thing. Why didn't this film get more recognition? Can you say Oscar? It was Roller-rific. Kira, played by "soft focus" Olivia Newtown John, is a muse sent to earth to help Gene Kelly (Danny) and Michael Beck (Sonny) open the most wonderful club in the world, Xanadu. Sonny is a struggling artist with snug crotch jeans and he comes across Danny who is playing clarinet on the beach (of course, where else) and offers him some popcorn and they become fast friends. Add some gratuitous song breaks for ONJ to pimp her new album and ELO (I forget to love them but I do oh so much)to pimp their contribution to the Xanadu soundtrack and a song break that turns both ONJ and Hot Pants into cartoon characters and then we are at the big finish. Kira loves Sonny and Sonny love Kira so he jumps through a mural to Ancient Greece to tell Zeus that he loves his muse daughter and wants to either stay with her in the groovy disco lights that is Mt. "Whatever" or take her with him back through the brick wall on the blvd forever. Zeus kicks camel toes out of the disco and ONJ sings, in soft focus, how she loves him. Zeus relents under the pressure of naggy Mrs. Zeus and lets Kira go back for a "moment or forever, I forget which is which" (because the most powerful Greek god EVER is a retard) and she goes back through the wall just in time for the grand opening of Xanadu. HUGE music number where ONJ sings and sings and sings and then winks and turns into a light beam and is gone. Or is she? **spoiler alert** The cocktail waitress brings moose knuckles a drink and when she turns around, it is.... you guessed it, ONJ (soft focus)! Somehow ONJ gets it into the contract on both Grease and Xanadu that she must always be shot with a soft focus but she couldn't get out of the roller skating portion of Xanadu? That woman was going to break a wrist, I was convinced. Even old Gene Kelly was better on the roller skates (oh yes, they did) than ONJ. I am convinced that the story board for that movie came from a drug induced sleepover where everyone put a piece of paper into a hat on which they wrote a piece of pop culture that was "groovy" right then. That hat was brought to drug induced writers and the instructions were, "If you get all these ideas into the movie, there is a dime bag waiting for each of you in the lobby." So, 4 hours later, we have the cinema gold that is Xanadu and the snack machine on the 3rd floor was emptied (by the writers because they each got their bag, you see). This could only have been worse had I been forced to watch it with my eyelids pulled back ala "A Clockwork Orange" (which doesn't suck and is penis-rific).

The Omen - A

Scarey, Scarey. I love the fact that a movie could ruin a name! Ever meet a Damian? Think you ever will? We are getting into the Halloween spirit and The Omen was On Demand so why not. I had never seen it in it's entirety (?) It was good, old but good. Man that kid is evil. There is an Omen II and Omen III but not sure if I will watch those.

The scariest movie I have EVER seen is The Exorcist!! Holy crap, scarred my 6th grade brain for years, no lie! I swear that I could feel my bed moving at night!

Wolf Creek - A

1 hr and 38 minutes. How do I feel about that time I invested in this movie? Disappointed. I was not expecting greatness mind you. Based on a true story, takes place in Australia. At the end they give you an update on the characters and you realize that the whole movie had to be fabricated because the only eye witness was actually not eye witnessing anything. 2 kangaroos out of 5.

Sin City (J)

UGH! I didn't even finish it. The whole Noir thing pissed me off in about 5 minutes and none of the movie was coming together for me. Some cool cinematography but not enough to keep me on the couch. Josh said it came together in the end so I started listening from the kitchen. "Eh, who cares?" is what I thought when the last piece to the puzzle was placed.

Man, I am really that hard to please with movies??

40YOV (R)

I don't know what I was thinking. I went in the movie store, started to look at the new releases, and then did that little choke thing where you swallow a little bit of your own spit, nearly aspirate and die, and have to cough a lot to start breathing again. You know that super cool thing that always happens at the worst time like on the third phone conversation with the really neat guy or in the middle of a calculus class? I did that in the movie store. So I grabbed whatever I saw (look for my review of X-Men III later this week -- sigh) and hustled out. Oh, but not before my nose started bleeding and I accidentally wiped it on my sleeve right in front of the cashier.

I shouldn't leave the house is what I'm saying.

The good news is ... well, there's no good news. Actually, wait. The good news is that I can warn you not to get the "uncut/unrated" version of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and suffer through 2+ hours of not-quite-funny. Steve Carrell is great -- consistent and funny and spot-on (as he was in Little Miss Sunshine); I'd even rank him above Will Farrell in terms of comic genius -- but otherwise the movie is Ho Hum.

Oh, but one more shining star: Paula the store owner (or manager or whatever). Her couple of scenes (but don't know if they're in the cut/rated version) were BRILLIANT. I love her!

Little Miss Sunshine, indeed! (R)

We made it to the movies tonight and I alternately cringed and guffawed through this movie. It was great!

Roar!

"Please, God, let them find semen in my dead grandmother's vagina!" (R)

Sarah Silverman's Jesus is Magic is funny. It's not earth shattering but a few lines had my sister and I laughing our assess off. We suggest y'all do the same.

X-Men III - A

I have seen X Men I and II and now have completed what I hope is only going to be a trilogy. Somehow after seeing the ending of III the movie industry will probably do another. That will be a movie I will NOT see. I thought the first was good, the second was entertaining and then the third was blah. Same story of good vs evil, but when it is always the same people, setting, time, man come up with something original. They really did not develop any new characters as the trailers made you believe they would. The effects were good. Hallie Berry needs a new profession. You knew how it would turn out. 2 Blahs out of 5 - A

No time for movies but always time for crushes! (R)

Life is going 80 miles a minute and I haven't watched a movie in at least week or two. Last night I hit the sack at 9:30 and it was lovely (including some quality time with the brit) so I'm not sure when I'd have time for a DVD! Maybe this weekend ... I've been wanting to go to the theater.

In spite of the lack of movie time, I thought I'd share a little Hollywood crush. Isn't Liev Schreiber hot? To be honest, I haven't seen much of anything he's been in, but he strikes me as smart, understated and, well, hot. I think I'm into that geeky kind of hot.

Who's your crush?