What I've Been Watching...

Ok, so I don't really have a life yet here so all I've been doing is watching movies and tv shows, but I've also been really lame and not writing about them... (oh and by the way, I now have 2 friends! So maybe a little less movie watching will be happening...) So anyways, I decided to just give short little reviews of what I have seen. Here it goes:

Grumpy Old Men: LOVED it! Old people are so cute! (especially Jack Lemmon, what a good lookin old man he was!) This movie made me think of home and winter, I loved it! A


L.A. Confidential: This is one of my all time favorite movies. I hadn't seen it in a long time so I was worried that it wouldn't hold up, but it surely did. It's about dirty cops, prostitutes, heroin and gangs. It's set in the 50s and the cast is FANTASTIC. Definitely still a favorite. Go rent it if you haven't seen it yet. A+

Smallville Season 1: I totally got sucked into this show (thanks Bobby)... Season 1 is really good. It reminded me of the X-Files except with teenagers. It is a little too teenagery at some parts and the effects are super cheesy, but whatever...B+

Smallville Season 2: I didn't like this season as much as season 1. They started focusing more on the characters and not on the mystery as much. Plus Clark started to get on my nerves with his self righteousness and his need to butt into everyone else's business. C

Smallville Season 3: This season was better than season 2. It found a good balance between the character story lines and the mysteries they solve. Clark is probably my least favorite character at this point because he's just really annoying, but the plot is definitely thickening and season 3 definitely goes out with a bang. B

Duplicity: I can't remember if I've already reviewed this movie on here or not... This is not the perfect heist movie, but I enjoyed it. I loved Julia Roberts and Clive Owen together, they exude a perfect amount of annoyance with each other and attraction to each other. I also loved Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson as rival CEOs. B+


I can't remember what else I've watched at this moment... but I will definitely add more as I remember... ha ha ha...

The Great Outdoors

"Bear... bear... Big Bear... big bear chase meeeeeeee...! "

Directed by Howard Deutch

1988

Date Viewed: Sunday October 3, 2010

This was a cute movie... Not necessarily the greatest movie ever made, but it was cute and funny in a very 80s way. It's the story of Chet (John Candy) who takes his family out to a cabin in the woods to have a nice family vacation. The peaceful vacation is ruined when his annoying rich brother in law Roman (Dan Akroyd) drops in with his family. There's the usual John Candy/Dan Akroyd-esque silliness, although I was suprised that it didn't have a whole ton of bodily function jokes and only a little bit of language. (Although I did watch it a week ago and I could be mis-remembering...) It was fun, but I don't feel like I need to watch it all the time. B

Flashpoint Season 1

I've been watching a lot of TV shows lately, so I thought I'd throw in some reviews eventhough they aren't movies... Whatever, its my blog so I can do what I want :)

This show follows the Strategic Response Unit on their many cases, most of which involve hostage negotiations (they also have snipers...it's exciting). This show has an AWESOME cast led by Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars' dad...). My favorite thing about this show is that it follows the "bad guy" and shows how they can go from being a normal person to just snapping and doing something crazy. The "bad guys" are never nameless generic thugs, they each have a story behind their breaking point. The one thing I didn't like about this show was that each episode starts at the climax and gets really intense and then all of a sudden rewinds to the few hours leading up to that moment. I liked it at first, but then got annoyed and bored with every episode starting the same. I'm excited to some day watch season 2 and I hope it's just as exciting as season 1 was. B

Stand By Me

Stand By Me in less than 20 words:

Goonies like adventure with less fantasy but more adult themes. A classic coming of age movie. A

The Town

Directed by Ben Affleck

2010

Viewed September 2010

I love LOVE Ben Affleck as a director. His directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, is one of my favorites. The Town is his second directorial effort and I definitely loved it as well. Ben Affleck as an actor gets better with age. I'm not usually a fan, but I did like him in this as a conflicted bank robber. Basically this group of guys robs a bank (as they have many times before) and one of the dudes takes a teller as a hostage in case they need leverage when the police show up. They let her go, but took her driver's license and threatened her life if she talked to the FBI. Ben Affleck's character goes to check on her and they end up falling in love (she doesn't know who he really is since everyone had been wearing masks). There are some awesome car chases and a huge shoot out as well. Jon Hamm from Mad Men plays the FBI agent who is after the robbers and his performance definitely made me want to check out his TV show. I also loved Jeremy Renner (as I always do) who plays a total slime bag. This movie reminded me of The Departed, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was better than The Departed. A

Confessions of a Shopaholic

"You know that thing when you see someone cute and he smiles and your heart kind of goes like warm butter sliding down hot toast? Well that's what it's like when I see a store. Only it's better."

Directed by PJ Hogan

2009

Viewed Sepetember 2010

Isla Fisher is adorable and this movie is super cute as well. It's about Rebecca Bloomwood (aka Bex) who LOVES to shop and use her many credit cards to buy many many beautiful things. She realizes that she is up to her eyeballs in debt right as the magazine she's writing for folds and she finds herself without a job. She ends up taking a job at a money management magazine where she takes on the persona as "The Girl in the Green Scarf" and she gives out amazing financial advice that she herself doesn't follow. As always in this type of movie, things blow up in her face and she's labeled as a fraud and she's forced to stop ignoring her debt and start facing it head on. This is a super silly and cute girlie flick!!!A

Over The Hedge

"That, my friend, is a magical combination of corn flour, dehydrated cheese solids, BHA, BHT, and good old MSG; a.k.a., the chip, nacho cheese flavor."

Directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick

2006

Viewed September 2010

This is a seriously cleer movie about a group of animals whose home is being destroyed by a growing suburban community. There are many little jabs at how much we live in excess, especially when it comes to food. The voices are perfectly matched up with the characters. My favorite is Steve Carell as a hyperactive squirrel named Hammy. Over The Hedge has a little bit of something for everybody. There's humor, adventure, action, romance and a running theme of what makes a family. A