Not just another movie

I have the next movie you have to watch. Have. To. Watch. It will leave you speechless. It is thought provoking and utterly compelling. From the first moment you press ‘play’ you will be riveted in your seat, unable to tear any part of your consciousness away from this story. It takes hold of your very person, body and mind.

Don’t read any reviews. Don’t read about the preface. This is the perfect ‘blank slate’ kind of movie. Don’t learn anything about it. Just watch it. Just do it. Spence saw this on the plane and ordered it within hours of when he landed. It came in the mail today and I outrageously proposed that I could just watch it the next day; I just wasn’t “in the mood” for an unknown entity. He started it and said that we’d just watch a little and then I could turn it off if I wanted to. 92 minutes later, the movie is over and I am left feeling like Rip Van Winkle. You know when a movie ends, you blink and look around. You feel like you are reconnecting to ‘real life’; left in amazement that life has still gone on, time kept moving.

This movie will leave a physical impression on you. This is a gem. What movie is it? It is called ‘Another Earth’. Don’t go read about it on IMBD (no I will not link to the site!) or plug it into Google or Wikipedia. Go pick it up at the video store or move it to the top of your Netflicks cue. You can thank me in the form of chocolates and eternal praise.

Movie Review Monday

Don't know if this'll be a pattern, but I have to review a good NEW movie when I see one.

2012

Starring: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, many others and most memorably, Woody Harrelson


I had heard rumors of the movie floating around, but I wasn't really interested. Oh great, another end of the world humans ruined the environment movie. No thanks. But then I looked at the line-up of actors and I was enticed. And there was nothing else worth seeing at the theater and I had a kid-free evening!

Warning, it may put some people off, it's a long movie. 2 hours and 48 minutes. But I didn't glance at my watch out of boredom once. (I only looked because I really had to go to the bathroom, but didn't want to miss anything. I still had an hour left. Awesome.) I like long movies, if they're good. I love getting involved in the movie, then, worrying that it's almost over, I look at my watch and breathe a sigh of relief, "Whew, still another hour and a half." That was me watching LOTR: Return of the King.

I have to say, I like John Cusack. It probably all began with the movie, "The Journey of Natty Gann". His character Harry was a bit like a protective big brother. He wasn't my first movie crush (that place will always be held by Jim Craig, THE Man from Snowy River) but one of the first. John Cusack has great screen presence, in my opinion. Always completely in character, and an underlying command of cool-ness. Another Cusack great? Grace is Gone. Definitely slipped through the cracks. Or maybe not, I think it came out while I was in Egypt.

Next in line for kudos in this show? Woody Harrelson. He plays this crazy mountain man that has his own AM radio station broadcasting his "predictions" on the end of the world. And penchant for pickles. He plays crazy very believably, without going overboard. But is he crazy?

This isn't an environmental movie. Alham-dulah-freakin'-Ia. I was completely wrong about any preconceptions. I thought it was going to be loooong and boring. Wrong and wrong. The special effects? Truly amazing. Realistic. All in all, I think the movie did a good job at keeping the line of believability and plausibility at bay. It was only crossed once or twice. But even then, flying into a burning, gaping maw that used to be Pasadena? Priceless.

I'm not going to lay the movie out for you. For most of my favorite movies, I was completely clueless as to what it was about and ended up in love. One of my notorious 'hated' movies? The Italian Job. Spencer kept trying to convince me that we should buy tickets, he'd read about it (this was all going down in the theater lobby). I told him I didn't want to see some Mafia shoot-em up Godfather wanna-be show. Boy, was I wrong. I'm sorry I ever doubted you Marky-Mark. Another wonderful sleeper? Knowing with Nicholas Cage. **

So, this may not be a conventional movie review, more of a friendly suggestion, really. I love to share new, good things with my friends. I don't want to shove this down your throat, but you HAVE to see this movie. Love love loved it, see it when you can.



**Will post hilarious story about when we went to the theater to see 'Knowing' next week. I can only promise that because it's NaBloPoMo.**

Aquarium Antics

If I could use one word to describe the National Aquarium at Baltimore, it would be: awesomeness. And a quick piece of advice, if you do go, and are in the area for long enough, just buy a membership. Because of our family's sheer numbers, we have a membership paid for in 2 visits. And, members get to show their card and walk right in. Those that just buy tickets sometimes have a 2-4 hour wait for entrance. Your ticket is stamped with an entrance time and there is no going in until that time. Also, we get to go to the dolphin show for free whenever we go. Yeah, the dolphin show. It was quite the experience. Between the sting rays, sharks, jellies and tropical fish, we were adequately overwhelmed.

We also decided to see the 4D show. What? 4D? Aren't we 3D beings? Well, with my curiosity piqued, we snagged tickets and got in line. There was this warning at the cashier and the door saying that if you or your children are startled easily or have back problems, you should not go to the movie. Wha . . ? Are we going to be doing spontaneous yoga or something? So we sat down and I noted that the upholstery of the seats was interesting, just one black button a little off center and in the lower back area. Hmmm. A foreboding of things to come? We were handed the little red 3D glasses and then the show began. 3D is very awesome. This film (about 20 minutes long) was titled "Planet Earth". And they weren't kidding when it says, "The film encompasses all of the senses." You feel the thunder roll (and the lightning strike), the wind blowing and the scent of fresh ocean. You also get sprayed in the face when a humpback whale surfaces, get poked in the back when an eel shoots out of the coral, get the backs of your legs tickled by scuttling starfish and bubbles filling the theater from a shoal of mackerel swimming at you. Plenty of screaming, squealing, laughing and "Wow, can we do that again, Mommy?" was heard. Yes, yes we can kids.

A Night at the Movies

I'm still catching up on posts from when we were in D.C. We've been in Idaho for the last week and it has been just craziness! Before we entered our current state, (hah! state) we went to the movies as a family. I would have considered this useless before, but little Jacqui has reached the point of understanding. Never would I have thought about taking 4 children to the movies. But Spence was there with me and we figured it would be a team effort.

We went to see Monsters VS Aliens in 3D. It was awesome!! Things flying out at you, narrowly missing us, it was very real. When this spaceship landed, the dirt flew out and Mairyn proclaimed,

"I got dirt on me, Mommy!!"

I don't know if I'll do one again. You still have to wear the glasses so of course Jacqui would not. Just because she's contrary like that. The special effects were awesome, but felt dark. Yes, I know that a movie is supposed to be in the dark. But with the 3D glasses on, I felt like the screen needed to be brighter. Anyway, we enjoyed it mucho.

And there was a strange coincidence in the movie. (I'm not giving away any of the plot) The mother-in-law to Susan the 50 story tall woman has a stub thumb. I'm not kidding. Susan spies this minutes before the wedding and gasps. Mother-in-law says,

"Oh yeah, don't worry, honey. Derek doesn't have this. It skips a generation. So your kids will have it!"


Yeah, wonderful, encouraging words, Mom. But that's not the end of the stub thumb's appearance. When they are escaping the church, MIL is first to the door but can't open it because her thumb is too short to reach the latch. I know they are exaggerating things here, so ha-ha, very funny. But they really made her thumb look disgusting. But I am not ashamed of my Stumpy, I wear him with pride. Although, not that I have a choice!

One flew over the Cuckoo's nest

I thought I'd branch out a bit and do a movie review. This movie, though, isn't going to be around, in the form that we own, for much longer. There are quite a few variations of CleanFlicks around. We even went through this Canadian video editing company. All of them do a great job. Unfortunately, they are going out of business. ALL of them. We've amassed our collection due to their going-out-of-business sales. And really, at $6.97 a DVD, that's cheaper than renting it twice (which happens frequently b/c Mommy didn't finish) We received a new batch just after the New Year and so began our sojourn into "new movie" nights.

So far, we've only managed to see 3 in the last month. We watched "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" on Tuesday night. The main character is Jack Nicholson circa 1975 so he looks like a baby. Although, if we're going to start calling names, the rest of his groupies in the mental institution (Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd and Vincent Schiavelli to name a few) looked like newborn babes compared to him. I liked the story; it took a little figuring out though, which I kind of like. Is Jack Nicholson really crazy or is he pretending? Spence & I made bets early on whether or not he is or isn't. The premise is that R.P. McMurphy (Nicholson) is brought to the mental institution to be evaluated for mental instability. Up until 10 minutes earlier, he had been incarcerated.

I thought the whole movie was a hoot. Was it supposed to be a comedy? I don't think so. I don't know, there could have been A LOT more character development. It was easy enough to follow. I'm sure it wasn't intended as a complete comedy, but really, every time Danny DeVito walked into the scene, he only comes up to everyone elbows! This was definitely before he became a big ticket movie star and the camera was banned from doing full body shots. Oh my, and his character was this squinty eyed guy with the mental capacity of a 3 year old. If he wasn't slapping the monopoly hotels down wherever he wanted; he was shoving the dice in his mouth faster than Lifesavers.

(playing BlackJack)
Danny: "Hit me!"
Jack: "You don't need a card, you've got 20."
Danny: "Hit me! Hit me!"

My other favorite character was a huge bear of a guy that Nicholson called "Chief". Supposedly, he was a deaf/mute Indian. Jack treated him otherwise; teaching him how to play basketball, including him in "group activities", etc. Chief plays dumb, but I called it, he really can hear and talk. I still don't completely know why he was in there. Probably because I was too busy giggling at Christopher Lloyd egging on the paranoid, neurotic playing Monopoly with a drooling Danny DeVito! Chief is a loyal friend to Nicholson, staying by him through wild parties and double lobotomies. In the end, he does R.P. McMurphy a favor and puts him out of his misery. I'm sure the unedited version has much more language and filth; but from what I saw, it was an enjoyable, albeit at times, odd movie evening. Stay tuned for future reviews!