 Movie Weekend |
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I watched five movies this weekend. I will now discuss them in order from worst to best. If you haven't seen these movies, read at your own risk. Four Brothers Oh, sweet child of mine. The previews for this movie actually made it look sort of good. But really, truly. It was not. Mark Wahlburg was good, but I think he's sort of always good. It's always nice to see Chiwetel Ejiofor, but even he was sort of a cartoon in this. It's violent and strangely soapy and it makes Detroit look like a strange place where chaos, gunfights, throwing people out of windows, and insane car chases rule the day with no neighborly or law enforcement interference. Oh, and where people drive their SUVs out on frozen lakes in caravans of mutiny and throw people in holes chainsawed into the ice. It's just bad. Bad. I will forevermore love Josh Charles because he gave me Knox Overstreet and Dan Rydell, but he is so unbelievable as a dirty cop in this that it is laughable. Poor Josh Charles. Poor everyone involved in this mess. The Break-Up I'm not sure why I wanted to see this. I guess it was part of my neverending attempt to see why the world so loves Jennifer Aniston. And Vince Vaughn is still coasting on his Wedding Crashers hilarity for me, so I thought it might be enjoyable. But . . . no. First of all, Jennifer Aniston sports a revolting fake tan that seems completely out of place. This movie is set in urban Chicago, not the beaches of the Caribbean. She's orange, and it's not pretty. She has also obviously embraced that strange form of exercise that makes you painfully thin and insanely muscular at the same time, sort of how Renee Zelwegger looked in Chicago. She actually has bulging triceps muscles. Whose triceps bulge? Men's, that's whose. I want to like her. I really do. She wore really pretty clothes in this movie. But she's just got the horsy man look going on, much like Sarah Jessica Parker does, but I like SJP a lot more. Other than my personal criticisms of her, the movie just did not ring true for me. Why did these people even want to be together? Beats me. There was no warmth, no physical intimacy, nothing in common. Nothing. The only good characters in this movie were her brother and her receptionist. When her brother started singing at dinner, I did laugh like a mofo. But. I am sorry. I cannot recommend it for anything but the brother's two scenes. (I love that actor. "Rhapsody has two mommies." LOVE HIM.) Something New I basically rented this because of Donald Faison (whom I will always love because of "WOMAN!" and "I'm keepin' it real!" and "It's the bomb!" from Clueless) and the guy from The Guardian, a show that I used to really like. This is a cute romantic comedy. Alfre Woodard is great as the mom whose snootiness borders on hysteria. Proof A lot of people seem to hate Gwyneth Paltrow, but I've never been able to bring myself to do so. I first saw her in Moonlight and Valentino, and I loved her performance as Lucy. She was fantastic in that movie. Now she is just sort of on my permanent affection list because of Shakespeare in Love. I didn't know much about this movie going into it except that it was based on the play and that Mary Louise Parker originated the lead role. The whole cast of the movie did a good job. My main complaint is that Jake Gyllenhaal's character is a bit too perfect. I mean, he's a math genius. He's a drummer in a band. He's a youth hockey coach. He's cute. He's ridiculously well-rounded and nice. Sure, he doubts her abilities at first, but who wouldn't? I would have liked to see a little more complexity or shading in his character. But overall, I liked it. I recommend it. Transamerica Finally! I've been wanting to see this forever, and it was worth the wait. I expected Felicity Hoffman to be awesome (she was), but I didn't expect it to be so funny. I laughed and laughed through the entire thing. Parts of it were pretty dark and disturbing, but that's just because teenage prostitution is disturbing to me. The mother from Four Brothers gives a good performance in this, as does Uncle Paulie. Bree's sister is played by someone I knew I'd seen before but couldn't place her until I realized she was one of the "say a little pray for you" sisters in My Best Friend's Wedding. She was great, too, as was Graham Greene. Right down to the littlest details, this movie just works. Highly enjoyable from start to finish. Highly recommended. In other news, I finished week 7. Super. Fantastic. Great. Wonderful. I also seemed to have gained five pounds since I started this damn program if listening to the scale as of this morning. And don't try to tell me that it's five pounds of muscle because that is ludicrous. My legs don't even seem more muscular. It is causing me woe. It could just be monthly bloat. I'm still glad I'm doing it, and I still love the chance to listen to some great music every time I go running. I am still nowhere near 3.1 miles. I'm hoping the adrenaline of race day will just sort of move my legs along. I'm optimistic about week 8 . . . if I can run for 25 minutes, I suppose I can run for 28. Ho hum. Ho. Hum. I don't get how all of these people are on the race boards are like, "I've dropped four dress sizes since starting this program!" "I am now a bikini model!" "My calves resemble shapely wonders so magnificent that they look like they were sculpted by Michaelangelo!" Whatever. I'm like, "I look exactly the same and possibly might even be chubbier and my feet hurt! Glorious!" Also, if you can find a boyfriend who, when you drop two of your grandmother's ancient Scrabble tiles through the slats in a wooden deck at a coffee shop, will not give up but rather will disassemble said deck to retrieve them, then you are lucky, especially when said daring rescue fittingly takes place the weekend your grandmother would have turned 100 years old.
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