Merry Christmas From the Family

The Family Stone

Director: Thomas Bezucha

Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson, Dermot Mulroney, Claire Dane, Craig T. Nelson, Elizabeth Reaser

Released: December 16, 2005

Viewed in theaters: December 21, 2005

This film, set at Christmas, is about a woman meeting her boyfriend's family for the first time. Now I had seen this before, but hadn't seen it since I saw it in theaters so I didn't remember too much about it. When the opening credits start, Claire Danes is the first name to appear and I was thinking, I don't remember Claire Danes being the main character. Well, she's not. As soon as the next two names popped up, I realized that the names were appearing in alphabetical order which makes sense since it's an ensemble film. If anything, Claire Danes' character is probably the one person you could take out of the movie and she doesn't even appear until later (although her hair looks absolutely fantastic). 

Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) both have successful business jobs in Manhattan and met last summer in Hong Kong and have been dating ever since. Everett is taking her to his folks' home in some idyllic, charming, snowy town in Massachusetts for Christmas so she can meet his family for the first time. Now if it were just his parents, Sybil and Kelly (Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson), that would be one thing, but no, she'll be meeting his entire family which will consists of eight people. Meeting my significant other's extended family for the the first time on Christmas would be my absolute nightmare and I do feel for Meredith because she's not exactly the kind of person who makes friends easily and has everyone fall in love with her. I am a little surprised she agreed to meet his entire family for Christmas. Besides his parents, here is who else she will be meeting: 

-Amy (Rachel McAdams), Everett's youngest sibling. There are five Stone siblings and Everett is the oldest. Even though she will come around in the end, Amy does some things that make her quiet unlikeable. I was listening to a podcast about this movie and one of the hosts joked that Rachel McAdams wanted to play a character even more despicable than Regina George.

-Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser; this was before she had her arc on Grey's Anatomy and was in the Twilight movies) is the middle child of the Stone siblings. She's probably the only one who doesn't cause any drama and just seems to be there. She is pregnant and has a daughter. Her husband won't show up until late on Christmas, so not until the very end of the movie. I can't remember if they even tell us why he's showing up so late, but I'm guessing they didn't want to add another character with so many already. I just don't know the reason within the confines of the movie. According to Wikipedia, Susannah lives in Chicago, but I also don't remember that being mentioned.

-Elizabeth, Susannah's daughter and the only kid at this family Christmas. I guess they wanted to throw in at least one kid! She's probably eight or nine.

-Thaddeus, or Thad as his family calls him, is the second youngest Stone. He is deaf and his family communicates with him through sign language, but he can also read lips and it seems like he can hear a little bit. 

-Patrick, Thad's partner. Yep, Thad is also gay. And Patrick is black, so they put all the diversity into these two characters. These two might be the smartest in the movie because they're the only ones staying at an inn. This family is kind of a lot so that might explain why Susannah's husband doesn't show up until the last minute and I don't know how long Thad and Patrick have been together, but Patrick probably was the one who told Thad they would be staying at an inn whenever they visited. Smart move. 

-Ben (Luke Wilson) is the second oldest Stone. He's the last to arrive (not counting Susannah's husband and I just realized I don't even know his name) and he's very chill. Let's just say he lives up to his surname. He lives in San Francisco where he works as a film editor. 

Everyone is at the house (besides Ben) before Everett and Meredith arrive. Amy is the only one who's already met Meredith and she tells her family she hates her and how "phony" and "uptight" she is. Apparently she took her out to dinner at a fancy restaurant and talked the entire time. She tells them about how when she's nervous she has this nervous tic where she clears her throat several times. Before this scene, while in the car on the way to the house, Meredith had been clearing her throat.

While I don't think she's a bad person, Meredith comes off as cold and aloof. Look, I know not everybody has a bubbly personality and doesn't always make the best first impression; I count myself as one of those people, but Meredith is not impressing any of her boyfriend's family members as they're all watching from the window as Kelly goes out to greet them. Everett gets out of the car first and Meredith waits for him to go around the car and open the door for her. Good Lord, you're a successful businesswoman, open your own damn door! But I think this is the first moment showing that Meredith is a bit on the old-fashioned side. Then, as if that's not awkward enough, Kelly tries to embrace both of them, she ducks out of the hug and shakes his hand instead. I can kind of side her with this; I don't like hugging people I just met either, but the way she gets out of the hug just makes it worse.

When she and Everett are unpacking in one of the bedrooms, she tells him she doesn't want to be sleeping in the same bed as him in his parents' house. Obviously they don't care since they're the ones who gave them that bedroom. It would be one thing if there were plenty of bedrooms, but with all those people in the house, all the bedrooms are taken. She is given the bedroom in the attic which was supposed to be Amy's room and now she (Amy) will have to sleep on the couch. She's not very happy and I don't blame her; I would be pretty ticked off too, especially since Meredith already had a perfectly fine bedroom to sleep in. I think when you're meeting your boyfriend's family for the first time, it's just best to go with the flow and not make any waves. 

Her sister calls her and she talks to her in private, telling her that everyone hates her and how she's "being herself." Heh, I'm guessing her sister knows everyone hates her because she was "being herself". 

Elizabeth, the young girl, had commented on how much she liked Meredith's shoes earlier and before Meredith's sister called, she, Sybil, and Amy had been helping Meredith get her room ready, but left when Meredith took the call. Elizabeth had taken a pair of shoes and when Meredith goes down to the kitchen, she sees she had broken off one of the heels. Now this is when Susannah (who had Elizabeth in her lap, so she clearly saw what happened) should have offered to replace them (actually, she should have told her daughter not to touch them in the first place!), but instead she just says they can glue the heel back on, but Meredith just takes the shoes and goes to take them back upstairs. By this time Ben has arrived and tells her not to "diddy-daddle" because they're "all going to be down here talking about you." Even though he's joking, this makes her super uncomfortable and self-conscious. 

After dinner, while Sybil is doing dishes Everett comes into the kitchen and tells her he wants to ask her something. She knows what he wants to ask her and tells him "now is not the time." 

They play charades and it's quite clear nobody in this group has ever played charades before because they're not doing it right! No, I get that the only reason they play it like this is for the plot of the movie. So when you normally play charades, you divide up into teams (usually two or more, depending on how many people) and the person who's "it", takes a card, looks at it and acts out whatever is on the card. Nobody knows what the card says except whoever's acting it out. At least that's the way I've always known how it's supposed to be played! Here, there don't seem to be any teams, which, okay, fine, they're all trying to guess. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that Amy is giving people cards to act out. When it's Meredith's turn (and she doesn't want to play, but they insist), Amy shuffles through the card and gives her one to act. THIS IS NOT HOW YOU PLAY CHARADES! What's the fun of that, anyway? She can't even play! She does try to "guess", but someone points out she can't participate because she already knows the answer. These people are perfectly capable of picking out their own cards and acting out what it says on them so EVERYBODY can participate! It's just so contrived and it irritates me so much! They only have it this way because it needs to be part of the plot that Amy purposely gives Meredith the card she chose for her. So here's what happens: after shuffling through the cards (instead of just taking the one on top), she gives Meredith the card she (Amy) wants her to act out. The card is a movie title, "The Bride Wore Black" (which I've never heard of; it's from 1969). Meredith is able to get "bride" from the audience, but is having more difficulty with the other two words (I'm not counting "the"). At the fourth word, black, she looks frustrated (how would you act out a color?) and Patrick tells her "it's okay" and tries to be supportive and Meredith subtly points at him by acknowledging what he's saying. May I remind you that Patrick is the black boyfriend of Thad. Well, Amy sees this and immediately jumps on Meredith, telling her, "I can't believe you're pointing at him." This is the reason why they needed Amy to know what the clue was. To accuse her of pointing at the black guy in the room when the clue has the word "black" in it; otherwise, she probably would have just thought she was poinitng at Thad for what he was telling Meredith. If I were Thad, I'd be pretty ticked with Amy for even choosing that clue and he is once they find out what the clue was (after Meredith gets upset and runs out of the room). 

Later, when Sybil and Kelly are getting ready for bed, we find out what Everett wanted to ask her earlier when she tells her husband that she knows Everett wants to ask for her mother's wedding ring to propose to Meredith. Get it? It's called The Family Stone because Stone is the surname of the family AND the ring is a family heirloom, hence "the family stone." 

The next morning, Meredith wakes up before Everett (bad call wanting to sleep in a separate room; at least if she were still in the same room as him she would know he wasn't up yet!) and is downstairs in the kitchen with Sybil and Amy. Sybil tells Amy that they got a card from the Stevenson. We find out they have a son named Brad who Sybil reminds her daughter "is still in town and still available." She then proceeds to tell Meredith that Amy lost her virginity to Brad. I'm not sure why she thinks that's any of Meredith's business! 

Sybil leaves the kitchen and Meredith apologizes to Amy for having to sleep on the couch and suggests they could take turns. That just seems very inconvenient. Amy just has a snide comeback for her and Meredith decides she's just going to get a room at the same inn where Thad and Patrick are staying at so Amy can have her room back. We find out she used having a bad back as an excuse, but nobody believes her. We also find out that her sister, Julie (Claire Danes), will are joining her, for moral support, I guess. 

Everett talks to his mom again about the ring and tells her, "This is the woman I'm going to marry." She clarifies, "We're talking about Meredith, right?", ha! He reminds her that she told him that when he met the woman he knew he was going to marry to come to her because she "wanted that woman to wear [Sybil's] mother's wedding ring." He wants to propose to Meredith tomorrow, which is Christmas. She simply tells him, "No" and when he tells her, "You promised," she replies, "Tough sh*t." 

Meredith has returned from checking in at the inn and is in the kitchen with Patrick when Sybil comes in and gets needlessly angry because somebody had taken the pot of coffee without making more and apparently it's a rule that whoever takes the last cup of coffee needs to make more. Well, the audience sees Meredith at the sink washing out the pot before Sybil does. Gee, Sybil, maybe not everybody knows your rule. Then Sybil gets pissed again when she sees all these ingredients are on her desk (which is in the kitchen) and Patrick tells her Meredith is making breakfast for them tomorrow. I feel like Patrick and Susannah have been the only nice ones to Meredith. I guess Kelly hasn't been too awful to her. And yes, I'm not including her own boyfriend in that list. Meredith tells her she's making strata because it's a family tradition for her and her sister. 

While Meredith and Patrick are working on the strata, Susannah comes in and asks them if they've seen her mom and Patrick tells her she's upstairs taking a nap. This is the first sign you know something might be wrong when Susannah lies next to her mother in bed and Sybil rolls over and asks her, "Who else knows?" We find out that she used to have cancer and it has come back. So now I can kind of forgive her for being little snappy towards Meredith. Ben knows about it and his dad confirms "it's not good" and that they only found out a couple weeks ago and she wanted to wait until after Christmas to tell them. It seems as though all the Stone children know about their mom except for Amy. When she sees Ben embracing their mom for a long time, she wants to know what's going on, but nobody answers her. 

Since Everett and Thad had to run errands in town, they're going to meet Julie at the bus station. It seems weird that her own sister isn't meeting her. I would understand if Julie had met Everett, but they've never met before. Again, this is done for the plot of the movie. We can't have Meredith there because Everett is going to...gasp....fall in love with Julie. The way it's framed when he first sees her, you know it's love at first sight. And this is the reason why we don't need Claire Danes in this movie. What is this, the dude version of While You Were Sleeping where he's in a relationship with one sister, but ends up falling for the other sister? 

She meets the rest of the family and they all love her, probably because she comes off natural and likable. When the sisters have a private moment, Sybil tells Kelly that Julie would be perfect for Ben. I have to feel bad for Meredith in that moment. So her sister is good enough for one of their sons, but she isn't good enough for their other son. 

They're having Christmas Eve dinner and chit-chatting. When everyone is done eating, Elizabeth asks to be excused, but the conversation continues. It's a good thing the young girl left because it's about to get ugly! Julie has found out Thad and Patrick want to adopt a baby and she asks them if they have a preference about the child's race. They tell her it doesn't matter to them; they're just excited to raise a child. Then Meredith decides to put in her two cents and asks them, "Do you believe in nature vs nurture?", telling them that studies have shown it's the environment that may be of the contributing factors that makes people gay. Kelly tells her they don't believe that, they think that people are born gay and Sybil makes a joke that she wanted all her sons to be gay so they would never leave her (which is a weird thing to say; not that she wanted them all to be gay, but that she thinks if they were, they would never leave...like, why?). Meredith says, "You didn't really hope for gay children, did you?" and it gets so quiet you can hear a pin drop. Oof, Meredith, why did you say that? I cringed so hard. She apologizes, but goes on to say, "I don't think any parent would hope for a child to be challenged like that. Yikes. She keeps putting her foot in her mouth as she keeps trying to explain herself instead of just dropping the subject until finally Kelly slams his hand on the table and yells "That's enough!" and she excuses herself. 

Julie speaks up and tries to apologize for her sister, but Sybil interrupts her and throws a fork at Thad's plate to get his attention. He's looking down dejected. She signs to him that she loves him and that he is more normal than anyone else at this table. I get she's trying to make him feel better, but it feels like she's being a bit patronizing. I just get he feeling that he's the favorite child because he's gay AND deaf and she constantly has to remind him or something. Although she does think Everett is amazing, so he could be in her running for her favorite child. 

They hear the door slam and Everett's car starts and they realize it's Meredith. She crashes into some bushes. I'm not sure if it was because of the snow or she's just so distraught. Ben goes out to check on her and she's sobbing. He tells her to move over and drives her to O'Malley's, a nearby bar. I should have included Ben in the list of people who are nice to Meredith, but I don't know if I should count him because he's the type of person who's nice to everybody (remember he's always so chill!), plus you know there's a romance a-brewin' between those two, because, why not. Actually, this romance doesn't irk me as much as the way more contrived Everett/Julie romance. 

At the bar, Meredith unleashes all her pent up frustration to Ben about his family (mainly Amy). He tells her to "stop trying" and that she must be "exhausted." After getting a few drinks in her, she loosens up and dances to her favorite song, "Right Back Where We Started From" by Maxine Nightingale. Two guys who Ben knows come in and when he introduces one of them to Meredith as Brad Stevenson, she recognizes his name as the guy Amy lost her virginity to and invites him over for Christmas breakfast tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Everett wants to go looking for Meredith and Julie tells him she' coming with him. They check the inn first, but she's not there. They walk around downtown, talking and bonding. The movie is trying to show us they seem to have bonded on this deep, emotional level, ugh. When he takes her back to the inn he pretty much asks her out on a date, asking her if she wants to get some coffee. Like, dude, what are you doing? You're still dating her sister. They're just trying too hard to make them a couple. As Regina George would say, "Stop trying to make fetch happen; it's not going to happen!" 

The next morning Meredith wakes up and discovers she's in Ben's bed. He's in the en suit shower (is there more than one bedroom with en suit showers in this house?) so she's the only one in the bed when Kelly knocks on the door. He knocks a few times, freaking Meredith out because she doesn't know what to do. She's shuffling around and grabs her shirt from the night before (she's wearing a tank top and has the bedspread covering her). When he opens the door, he sees Meredith in the bed, clutching her shirt and looking away with her eyes squeezed shut. He seems just as embarrassed as her and quickly leaves. 

Everett is in the kitchen when Sybil tells him "Merry Christmas" and gives him the ring. Then, in one of the stupidest moments of the movie, Julie enters and Everett shows her the ring and wants her to try it on because he wants to see if "it will fit" even though she tells him her hands are bigger than Meredith's and Sybil points out it's bad luck. Yes, I would think putting an engagement ring that's intended for you girlfriend on her sister instead would be very bad luck (and very poor taste as well!), but obviously he wants Julie to try it on because she's the Morton sister he truly wants to marry, but dude, maybe break up with the other sister first. He puts the ring on Julie's finger and they're both so speechless because the ring is so beautiful! Surprise, surprise, when Julie tries to take the ring off, she can't because it's stuck. 

Meanwhile, Ben has come out of the shower in a towel and Meredith slaps him and says, "How dare you!" He tries to tell her something, but she's dressed and it looks like she's going to leave, but when she walks downstairs by the front door Everett sees her and demand to know where she's been and she tells him she just arrived. 

She hears Julie crying in the bathroom (yes, she's crying because she can't get the ring off) and goes in to check on her and asks her what's going on. Julies holds up her hand with the ring on it and tells her, "It's your wedding ring." Meredith is shocked because she had no idea Everett was planning to propose. When asked why she's wearing her wedding ring, Julie tells her he wanted to see it on her and Meredith has a very good question: "Why did he wants to see it on you?" (Maybe that's a better question to ask Everett!) Julie changes the subject by asking her sister where she was last night and Meredith tells her she can't tell her and looks guilty and Julie quickly figures out what she means. 

Get ready for some more drama! The door bell rings and Amy answers it to find Brad with flowers and a gift. When asked what he's doing there, he tells her that Meredith invited her. Everyone is now gathered in the living room and Amy pointedly tells Meredith, "You know Brad" and asks her to share with everyone how she knows him and Brad tells them met at O'Malley's last night. Meredith quickly distracts everyone by handing out gifts to all the Stone siblings and Sybil and Kelly. They had all received the same framed photo of Sybil pregnant with Amy and this makes everyone start crying because they all know this will probably be Sybil's last Christmas. They're all very touched by the gift an Sybil tells Meredith, "You did good." 

Everett wants to talk to Meredith and thinking he's going to pop the question, she keeps brushing him off and when he keeps insisting to talk to her, she yells, "No, I will not marry you!" in front of everyone. She lowers her voices and tells him she can't marry him and he replies, "I didn't ask you." She then feels really stupid and tells everyone that this is what they all wanted, to see her humiliated and she goes on a tirade and ends up announcing to everyone she slept with Ben. Ben tells her they did not sleep together and she's had enough humiliation that she runs into the kitchen. Ben tells the others that he slept on the floor while Meredith slept in his bed. 

In the kitchen, Meredith has gotten the two pans of strata from the fridge when Sybil and Amy decide to check on her and when they open the swinging kitchen door it knocks into Meredith and the pans of strata (with all the milk and uncooked eggs) goes flying all over the floor. The women all start laughing and soon music from The Nutcracker starts playing as the Stone family continue to have their dysfunction family Christmas: the women are slipping and sliding on the floor as they try to clean the mess, Everett is chasing Ben around the house because he wants to know why Meredith would think she slept with him (even though Everett isn't into her anymore), and the table ends up falling over and all the food is ruined. 

The ring has finally slid off Julie's figures and she gives it to Elizabeth to give to Everett and tells her to say goodbye for her, but of course he goes running after her. 

The last scene of the movie is one year later when everyone has gathered at the house for Christmas again. This time Sybil is no longer with them, but I'm sure she's smiling down at them because now all her three single children have somebody: Ben is with Meredith, Everett with with Julie, and Amy and Brad are now together. Honestly, out of those three couples, Amy and Brad are the only ones who I think will be in it for the long haul. Ben and Meredith just don't make sense and Everett and Julie should have never happened. I feel like they just threw that in there because they didn't want Everett to be the only one without a partner, but they could have just said he met somebody and was bringing her. It's just too cute that the two sisters found love in the same family. 

An Offer You Can't Refuse

The Godfather

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, Talia Shire

Released: March 24, 1972

Oscar nominations:

Best Picture (won)

Best Director - Francis Ford Coppola (lost to Bob Fosse for Cabaret)

Best Actor - Marlon Brando (won)

Best Supporting Actor - Al Pacino (lost to Joel Grey for Cabaret)

Best Supporting Actor - Robert Duvall

Best Supporting Actor - James Caan

Best Adapted Screenplay - Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola (won)

Best Costume Design (lost to Travels With My Aunt)

Best Editing (lost to Cabaret)

Best Sound (lost to Cabaret)

*It should be mentioned that the score by Nino Rota was originally nominated, but was deemed ineligible and was replaced by the score from Sleuth. This was because Rota had already used portions of this score for a 1958 movie called Fortunella. *

The Godfather Part II

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, Talia Shire, John Cazale, Lee Strasberg

Released: December 20, 1974

Oscar nominations:

Best Picture (won)

Best Director - Francis Ford Coppola (won)

Best Actor - Al Pacino (lost to Art Carney for Harry and Tonto)

Best Supporting Actor - Robert De Niro (won)
Best Supporting Actor - Lee Strasberg

Best Supporting Actor - Michael V. Gazzo

Best Supporting Actress - Talia Shire (lost to Ingrid Bergman for Murder On the Orient Express)

Best Adapted Screenplay - Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola (won)

Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (won)

Best Costume Design (lost to The Great Gatsby)

Best Score - Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola (won)

The Godfather Part III

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Sofia Coppola

Released: December 25, 1990

Oscar nominations:

Best Picture (lost to Dances With Wolves)

Best Director - Francis Ford Coppola (lost to Kevin Costner for Dances With Wolves)

Best Supporting Actor - Andy Garcia (lost to Joe Pesci for Goodfellas)

Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (lost to Dick Tracy)

Best Cinematography (lost to Dances With Wolves)

Best Editing (lost to Dances With Wolves)

Best Original Song - "Promise Me You'll Remember" by Carmine Coppola and John Bettis (lost to "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man") by Stephen Sondheim for Dick Tracy)

***Spoiler warning for all three movies***

I'm going to say something that might anger a lot of movie aficionados: I don't care for most movies from a certain era. This "era" includes from the inception of film making to the sixties. Now I'll be the first to admit that I haven't seen many movies from these decades (you may notice that many of the movies I review are from the eighties, nineties, aughties, and whatever the heck you call this decade), so perhaps it's not fair for me to make that judgement. But every time I watch (or try to watch!) a movie from the distant past, I have such a hard time getting into it. There are a few exceptions to this. I really liked Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and 12 Angry Men (1957). And even though I'm not gaga over Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and Citizen Kane (1941), I can appreciate their places in pop culture relevancy. I actually came to appreciate Tiffany's a lot more when I tried watching My Fair Lady (1964). I couldn't even finish that one! All About Eve (1950) is another one I couldn't finish. I've seen Casablanca (1942) and eh. I wasn't impressed. Yeah, it gives us that great line, but I really didn't see the big deal. (I'm just really asking to be murdered by a cinephile, aren't I?) And there are other movies from this era that I've seen that I don't care for. Oh! How could I forget? I really don't like one of the most beloved movies of our time, The Wizard of Oz (1939). It's been more than a minute (or a decade or two!) since I've seen it, but I think my dislike for this film is inherited from my mom who hilariously hates this movie (she said she had to watch it a lot when she was a kid and in turned started to hate it) and also, I lived in Kansas when I was a kid/teenager so I have heard many of the stupid jokes about "I don't think you're in Kansas anymore."Ugh! Everyone who ever said that to me thought they were being SO CLEVER! So yeah, now I've probably pissed off a lot of people....but don't worry, you'll be getting some good news in a bit.

You're probably wondering where the '70s fits into this (actually, you're probably wondering when I'm going to start the damn review!) as I don't count it among the decades of filmmaking I don't care for and I also haven't reviewed too many movies from that decade. Well, I hope to change that soon. As much as I hate '70s fashion (bell bottoms? ugh!), '70s music (disco? It's the WORST!), and '70s decor (orange shag carpet? Whoever thought that was a good idea?), I think the '70s has some great films and to me, that's the first decade where I truly love the majority of the films (and even though I haven't seen as many movies from the '70s than from the '80s til the present, I have seen many more films from the '70s than from any before it). Obviously you have the rise of Steven Spielberg and Jaws (1975) which is considered the first blockbuster and you have Star Wars (1977) which, while I don't really care about those movies, has been one of the biggest franchises of all time, if not the biggest. Already I've just named two movies and already this decade is way more impressive in terms of filmmaking than any decade before it. Oh, and let's just add The Godfather and it's sequel (1972, 1974) and it pretty much cements the '70s as the first truly great decade in film history. That's okay if you don't agree with me, but rejoice, film aficionados and cinephiles! You don't have to kill me! I love The Godfather movies! (Well, the first two...the third was okay, but we'll get to that later). 

Seeing as all three movies are either almost three hours long or over three hours, it took me about four days to get through all of them, but it was an engrossing experience as I knew I was in the thralls of what is considered to be two of the best movies ever made in the history of film (and the third one was still pretty enjoyable for what it is). It was like finding the Holy Grail of movies. I'm not saying this is my new favorite movie, but wow! It was so good! I was just in awe watching them. I get why people love these movies and rave about them. I get why they've won so many accolades. I get why the first one is ranked #1 (or 2 or 3) on many Best Movies Of All Time lists. The only movies that ever seem to get ahead of it on these lists are Citizen Kane and/or Casablanca, and like I've mentioned before, I don't much care for those films. The American Film Institute ranked it the second greatest movie of all time behind Citizen Kane.

Yes, believe it or not I had never seen The Godfather trilogy. I admit, the length was a big factor in that. I just never had time to really sit down and watch all of them and knowing they were all around three hours just seemed like a huge chore, but I was able to find time to set aside a couple hours each day to watch them. I also wasn't sure if I would like them. I'm not the biggest fan of the mafia/mob genre. Besides Goodfellas (which I really love), I really haven't seen many films depicting it. I watched The Sopranos (and I could tell it was very influenced by The Godfather), but it was never a favorite show of mine. Hell, I still haven't seen the last season to this day! I was very aware of The Godfather in pop culture history, how could you not be? It has been parodied countless times in other movies and TV shows. (Zootopia comes to mind). I was very aware of the horse head scene and I knew "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse" (which is the second most iconic movie line after "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" from Gone With the Wind according to AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes). It also gives us the well-known mantras "It's not personal, it's business" and "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer", although I don't think they originated from the films or the 1969 novel by Mario Puza the first film is based on, but I'm sure it helped make them popular. It also helped popularize the phase, "sleeping with the fishes."

The first movie opens with Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), the head of one of the Five Families, a powerful New York mob family granting requests on this, the day of his daughter's wedding. He has a cat in his lap who is just loving the pats and scratches and belly rubs it's getting from the Godfather. We meet the Corleone family. There's oldest son, Santino, who goes by Sonny (James Caan); second oldest son, Fredo (John Cazale); youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino); and youngest, his daughter, Connie (Talia Shire). Oh, and he's also married to a woman named Carmela, but she's pretty much a non-factor. In fact, I had to look up her name. She has a couple scenes in the movie. We also meet Vito's lawyer and adopted son, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall). I did not recognize Duvall at all...I knew he was in this movie and kept looking for him and just figured he had a small part and I just missed it, but no, he's a major character and it wasn't until after I looked him up that I realized who he was!

Michael brings his girlfriend, Kay (Diane Keaton), to the wedding. I knew Diane Keaton was in this movie, but I did not recognize her at all! Yeah, this movie came out 46 years ago, but I have seen Annie Hall and that was released a few years after this one and she looks like Diane Keaton in that. I'm used to Diane Keaton looking like...Diane Keaton and I did not recognize her at all! It wasn't until I was well into the movie and had already seen the other two women in the movie who clearly weren't her as they were both Italian and dark-haired, that I realized the young fair-haired woman we were introduced to early in the movie was indeed her! 

So I already mentioned the infamous horse head scene but I was NOT expecting it to happen so soon! Something like that, I thought for sure there would be a build-up to it, but no, it happens just a little over half an hour into this nearly three hour saga! The poor horse was killed because of some Frank Sinatra wannabe named Johnny Fontane who sings at Connie's wedding and who all the girls and older women fawn over him like he's the Beatles or Elvis or One Direction. He wants out of his recording contract and his Godfather is able to make that happen. When a movie executive refuses to put Fontane in one of his movies, he wakes up to find his beloved $600,000 racehorse's head in his bed. I had always assumed the head was on the pillow next to his, but he wakes up to find himself in a pool of blood (a LOT of blood) and follows the trail to the foot of his bed where the head is and has the reaction I think anyone in his situation would have: he screams in horror and anguish. As horrible as this scene is in the context of the movie, I think the behind-the-scenes story is almost worse. First of all, it's a real horse's head. Ugh. Now I understand why the actor screamed like that! I would need years of therapy! I did not know about this until after I saw the movie. I just figured the horse head was donated to them after a horse died of old age or natural causes, but no...it's much worse than that. It's pretty horrific, actually. Probably just as horrific as you know, decapitating a horse after you kill it. Coppola got the horse head from a dog food company. Yes, there was once upon a time when they slaughtered horses for dog food. What the f*** kind of s*** it that? Not cool, Frank. As far as I know, that no longer happens, but you can bet I marched over to my cat's cat food to read the ingredients and was relieved to see the only protein listed was chicken. There is no way in hell you could film this scene in today with a real head, even if the animal had died of old age or natural causes. So yeah, pretty disturbing.

Despite playing the titular character, Marlon Brando wasn't in the movie very much. He's only in it for less than an hour. He gets shot early on in the movie by a drug trafficker named Sollozzo after he refuses to go into business with him. He survives the assassination attempt, but spends time in the hospital. After a corrupt cop named McClusky, who's on Sollozzo's pay roll, pops Michael in the jaw, Michael decides he's going to get revenge on them, and kill them. He also knows if they're not killed first, they're going to come after his father because they know he survived the assassination attempt. There is a meeting set up under the guise of a truce because after the assassination attempt on their father, hothead oldest son Sonny had a hit put out on one of Sollozzo's allies. (There was a lot of plot to follow!) The only way to do this is find a hiding spot for his gun at the restaurant they'll be at since he'll be frisked beforehand. He's given advice from Sonny and Clemenza, his father's right-hand man, on how the hit should go down. The advice he gets includes "two shots a piece in the head as soon as you come out" [of the restroom] and for him to drop the gun and "walk fast, but don't run." Clemenza is not amused when he asks Michael, "You shot them both, what do you do?" and Michael replies, "Sit down, finish my dinner." When he's at the restaurant, he's staring intently at the wine opener the waiter is using and I really thought it was going to come into play. Either he wasn't going to find the gun in the bathroom where they decided it would be hidden in a toilet tank and have to improvise with the wine opener or he was just going to snap and grab it from the waiter and puncture the men's necks with it. But that doesn't happen. When he goes into the bathroom, he finds the hidden gun, but instead of immediately shooting the men as he was directed, he sits back down at the table and I wondered if he had changed his mind. But no, as Sollozzo is talking to him, you can see the anger raging in him and he shoots them both in the head (and the police officer also gets it in the throat) and the table flips over. The waiter is standing right next to the table and blood gets all over his uniform and he just takes a step back, with his arms behind his back. It's very odd. He doesn't scream or look scared. The other extras in this scene just sort of slip out the back door while Michael briskly walks out the door.

The men he killed were connected to one of the other Five Families (and I'm sure somewhere out there, someone has a detailed family tree of these mafia families!) and he is taken somewhere he'll be (supposedly) safe. Picture it: Sicily, 1945. (How much do you want to bet Sophia Petrillo loves The Godfather?) He's staying there under the protection of his father's friend, Don Tammasino. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Apollonia and they get married. This has to be the smallest village ever because after he sees her, he and a couple guys he was with go to an outdoor cafe and while they tell the guy who owns the cafe about the girl, we find out that she's his daughter and he's not happy they're talking about her like that! But through a translator, Michael wins him over and asks him if he can introduce him to his daughter. The marriage doesn't last very long as the bad guys have found out where Michael is and a car bomb that was intended for him, kills his first wife instead and he heads back to New York after being in Sicily for a couple of years. We never do see any fallout from her father. She could have easily been a forgotten character, but she is brought up in the third movie when Michael mentions her to his grown children. That's kind of a messed up thing to do. "Hey, kids, I was married to another woman before I married your mother, but she was killed. Otherwise, if she hadn't died, I would still be with her and you two would never exist." So yes, Michael ends up marrying Kay when returning to New York, but he doesn't approach her until he's been back for a year and they just sort of pick up where they left off, even though Kay had no idea where he was or that he was married. Their son, Anthony, is born a few years later.

Connie is married to an abusive man and Sonny beats him up. When it happens again (and there are dishes being smashed and belts being lashed and furniture being turned over), Sonny heads out to help his sister, but ends up being shot at when he tries to go through the toll, but his car is blocked and he's unable to get through as the men riddle his car (not to mention Sonny himself!) with bullets. This was all a plot by one of the heads from one of the Five Families who got Connie's husband to wile her up so she would call Sonny for help and then they could trap and kill him. Of course Connie's husband will later be killed in retribution, making Connie none too pleased with Michael, who ordered the hit.

Vito, who is now recovered, calls for an emergency meeting between the Five Families and wants a peace offering. Because of this, Michael is able to return to the United States without fear of retaliation. The film will jump forward in time a few years without telling us. (They're much better about that in the second movie). All of a sudden, Marlon Brando is in old man make-up and he's playing with his grandson in an orange grove where he will eventually keel over and die. Oranges play a pivotal role in these movies: whenever you see one, a character will die or almost get killed in that scene or maybe a few scenes later. I have to admit, I honestly didn't notice it until the second movie, but when I went back and revisited some scenes, then I definitely noticed. Just keep your eyes peeled for oranges whenever you watch any of The Godfather movies (although, I swear in the third movie, sometimes there are oranges in a scene and nothing significant happens). Because of the deaths of his father and older brother, Michael is now the head of the Corleone household.

While I don't know which scene in The Godfather is the most iconic, I would have to assume it's one of the last scenes where Michael is at the church baring witness to his sister's baby being baptized while a multitude of murders are going on. Pretty much Michael is making sure he's turning on his foes before they turn on him. While the baptism is going on, we see the other heads of the mafia families being killed. Probably the most memorable death is that of one Moe Greene, the bespectacled Las Vegas casino owner who refused to sell his shares to Michael. He is shot in the eye (through the lens of his glasses) as he's getting a massage and a lot of blood spurts out. Pretty impressive how they did that. Although I have to give major props for the guy who died on the steps and rolled down them. That got a chuckle out of me. That was some great acting there. The baby we see getting baptized is none other than future Oscar-nominated director Sofia Coppola (aka the director's daughter). She was only a couple weeks old when they filmed that scene and she was born in May of 1971, so that should give you a timeline of when the movie was filmed. I'm sure many people would agree that her performance in this movie is much better than her performance in the third movie...oh, we'll get to that in due time!

Time to move on to The Godfather Part II. Some people like the first movie the best, some people prefer the second to the first. Never is the third movie in this conversation. (Wonder if there's anyone out there who does like the third more than the first two?) While I think there are great scenes in the first movie, I think I may like the second a bit better because by this time I was more invested in the movie and I was more familiar with the characters. But then again, there are some great scenes in the first movie and you have that iconic performance by Marlon Brando. Yeah, this is tough. The second movie is the longest at three hours and twenty-two minutes. (The first one is three minutes shy of being three hours and the third one is ten minutes shy of being three hours. Dang, these are really long movies!) In a way, Part II is like watching two movies interwoven into each other: one starring Al Pacino and the other starring Robert De Niro. The movie is so long that there was actually an intermission break after two hours! Seriously, after the scene ended, this cue card came on that said "Intermission". I have never seen a movie have an intermission, not even Titanic which is the same amount of time (five minutes less!) and I saw that in the theaters three times! This movie is the first sequel to win an Oscar, something that won't happen again until 2004 when the third Lord of the Rings movie won.

It's 1958 and Michael and his family are living in a lake house near Lake Tahoe in Nevada and his children are grade school age, young Anthony just having celebrated his First Communion. Early on in the movie, an assassination attempt it made on Michael when bullets come flying through his bedroom window as he's talking to his wife, who is in bed. Nobody is hurt, but Michael will spend the rest of the movie trying to find out who put out a hit on him.

A new major character is that of Hyman Roth, a Jewish investor and business partner of Michael's. He plays into Michael's father's mentality of "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." He is played by Lee Strasberg, who, I'll admit, I didn't know who that was, but after listening to some podcasts and reading about him, discovered he was a famous acting coach who taught acting method and some of his famous clients included Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Paul Newman, and his co-star, Al Pacino. When we first meet Hyman, he's lounging on a chair with one leg draped over the arm of the seat. I have never seen anyone sit like this in the movies or in real life, but now knowing his background as a method actor, it all makes sense that he would think outside the box. Needless to say, there's some shady stuff going down with Roth. Michael thinks that Roth put the hit out on him, but when Roth tells him that he was a friend of Moe Green's and heard he had been killed, he did not worry about who put the hit out on him, and let it go, insinuating that Michael should do the same. Hyman has a hit out for Michael, but Michael's men kill him first. It turns out that Michael's only surviving brother (for now!), Fredo was the one responsible for the attempted hit on him. "I knew it was you, Fredo...you broke my heart." In Fredo's defense, he says he didn't know about that, but it's too little, too late. Michael has one of his men kill Fredo (a shot to the back of the head while they're fishing in a boat), but not until after their mother has died so she doesn't have to be alive to know about it.

Kay, who is pregnant with what Michael hopes is a son (why does he care when he already has a son?), has lost the baby in a miscarriage, but later, she will reveal to Michael something I think she should have taken to the grave: she tells him she didn't have a miscarriage, but rather an abortion because she didn't want to bring any more children into this family. Well, this makes Michael furious and he slaps Kay in an intense scene. They get divorced, not surprisingly.

There's a lot more things going on during the Michael storyline, including a Senate hearing investigating the Corleone family. Plenty of oranges and murders! While all these scenes are going on, we get some reprieves with the flashbacks to a young Vito Corleone. Yes, we get the Vito Corleone origin story. And it starts at the very beginning with him. We see him as a nine-year-old boy named Vito Andolini who lives in Corleone, Sicily. His father has been murdered by Don Ciccio (pronounced chi-chi-oh!), the main mafia leader after Antonio Andolini insulted him. (Dang, don't insult Ciccio!) Vito's older brother vowed revenge, but also ended getting killed himself. Ciccio has his men fetch Vito because he wants him killed too. His mother begs for his life, telling the crime lord that the child never talks and isn't a threat, but Ciccio doesn't care. I have to say, that he's right. Sure, right now he's a weak nine-year-old kid, but as well know, he'll grow up to be one of the most powerful men in the mafia who will build an impressive empire. And, spoiler alert, he will get his vengeance on Ciccio. Just not right now. Cuz he's only nine. Mama Andolini distracts Ciccio and tells her son to run. He complies, but she is shot. With help, Vito gets on a ship and travels to New York. Because he doesn't talk, his last name becomes Corleone, the place of his birth.

When we see Vito later, he will now be a young man and he's played by Robert De Niro. He was thirty when he filmed this and he looks so young! Even if I didn't know he was in this movie, I would have recognized him. I grew up with '90s and '00 Robert De Niro, so I'm used to him being fifty and older in his movies (think Meet the Parents or Silver Linings Playback De Niro). He does a good job of adopting Brando's mannerisms from the first movie. All the Vito scenes are subtitled in English because the characters are speaking Italian. Vito lives in Little Italy (where else?) with a family that are distant relatives of his. This is where he meets Genco, who he will eventually start an olive oil company with called Genco Pura. (Mmm, olive oil). He gets a job as a grocer at Genco's father store, but understands when he has to be fired because a man named Fanucci, who has a lot of power and is able to get his way, wants his son to have the job. We see how Vito meets Clemenza and Tessio who are both important figures in the first movie and become important allies for Vito. They start an illegal operation and Fanucci gets wind of this and demand that Vito and his men cut him in for a profit or he will go to the police. Vito will hide in a dark shadow of Fanucci's apartment and kill him with a towel. Well, a gun wrapped inside a towel. Before Fanucci will meet his demise, he will grab an orange from a market. Should've gotten an apple, Fanucci.

Speaking of people who Vito will get his revenge on, remember good old Ciccio? He's a much older man, but he's still alive (for now) when Vito goes back to Sicily twenty-two years later under the guise of selling his olive oil to him. When the hard-of-hearing Ciccio asks his name, Vito replies, "Vito Corleone" and when he asks who his father is, he has to tell him twice that it's Antonio Andolini because Ciccio didn't hear him the first time. As he leans closer to tell him, he knifes him in the stomach, cutting him diagonally as he say, "And this is for you!" Yep, Ciccio was smart in wanting to kill Vito when he was a young boy so this wouldn't happen to him!

Time to move on to The Godfather Part III which came out sixteen years after Part II and is set in 1979. I was kind of surprised to find out it was nominated for Best Picture (even though it didn't win like the first two did) because whenever The Godfather trilogy is brought up, people HATE this movie and talk about how awful it is and how it can't be counted as a perfect trilogy because this movie brings it down. I do agree it's not as good and doesn't have the same pedigree as its predecessors, but honestly, I didn't think it was that bad. Of course, I was expecting for something really awful, but it was still an enjoyable stand alone movie. I think it has my favorite Al Pacino line from any of The Godfather movies which is, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" This movie came out the same year as fellow gangster flick, Goodfellas, also nominated for Best Picture. That movie was much better than this one.

While I didn't think the movie was as bad as everyone made it out to be, I did have to agree that Sofia Coppola was awful in it. This was something I often heard in regards to this movie, and hoo boy, they weren't lying. "Sofia Coppla was really good in Godfather 3," said no one ever. I totally blame this on the director, what was he thinking putting his eighteen (nineteen?) year old daughter in this? I guess Winona Ryder was originally supposed to have the part, but she dropped out to be in Edward Scissorhands. While there were other actresses who expressed interest in playing the role, they were on a tight schedule and Sofia was the only one available...or something. I'm not quite sure about the whole story. Maybe Francis Ford Coppola had his father glasses on and his children can do no wrong in his eyes, but did he not see how awful his daughter was in this movie? Her voice and delivery are flat, she has no emotion, just everything about her acting is terrible. Well, I thought she was good in one scene, but I'll get to that later. (And you'll think I'm so mean!) I have enjoyed Sofia's movies she's directed, so she does have talent...acting just isn't it! I do feel bad for Sofia because she was so young and she got a lot of flak for this. That's gotta be hard. FFC is no stranger to casting his family in his movies. Talia Shire, who plays Connie in all three movies, is his sister.

I should probably mention that Sofia plays Michael and Kay's daughter, Mary. Yes, Diane Keaton is back too and they're still divorced, but on more friendly terms. There's this really creepy and icky subplot involving Mary where she falls for her cousin, Vincent (Andy Garcia) who is the illegitimate son of Sonny and a woman he hooked up with at his sister's wedding. They are flirting with each other and when they start making out with each other after what is supposed to be a sensual scene of him guiding her hands to make gnocchi (think Ghost with the pottery), I thought I had misunderstood the scene of them earlier where they're talking about "the old days" with their fathers and something else entirely had come out of their mouths or when they called each other "cousin" or "cuz", that was a term of endearment in Italian. I was thinking, THEY CANNOT ACTUALLY BE FIRST COUSINS AND MAKING OUT! THAT IS DISGUSTING! Seriously, I almost threw up in my mouth a little when they say, "I love you cous" and start kissing. By the way, how embarrassing would that be to have your dad direct you in a make-out scene?  I totally thought I had misunderstood this whole business of them being cousins! But, no, they ARE first cousins as her father points out (thanks for clearing that up, Al) later on. When Michael says, "He's your first cousin," she replies, "Then I love him first." GROAN. And, ewwww. Was this acceptable back in the '70s? Is this an Italian thing? I don't get it! While he does say it's a no-no since they are cousins, he seems more concerned that it's too dangerous, you know, since Vincent has family connections. Vincent does agree to stop seeing Mary and when we see that scene, are we supposed to feel sad they're not going to be together? Cuz I sure as hell don't! I don't care that she's boo hoo hoo-ing and sad. Girl, go meet somebody who isn't related to you and shares your blood! Ewww! Seriously, if I were in a movie where my character was in love with her first cousin, I would tell the director (especially if it was my own dad!), "Uh, you sure about this?"

Anyway...as with any Godfather movie, there are one or two (or three or four) death scenes, but some of them are way over the top. One of the earlier ones feels like it came out of a Die Hard movie. Michael is in a fancy conference room with other mob bosses and a helicopter starts gunning them down from the ceiling...its quite ridiculous. One idiot dies cuz he's trying to get his lucky coat off a hook. Don't think that coat is lucky anymore. Of course the only people who get out alive are the two main characters. There's also an assassination attempt on Michael when the whole family (including Kay) are in Sicily to see Anthony (their son, remember) perform at an opera. Anthony has decided to be an opera singer for whatever reason. The opera is called Cavalleria Rusticana and it looks like the most boring opera ever. It looks very religious and long and weird and boring. Seriously, I wish someone would shoot me if I were watching that! It's not until after the opera when everyone is outside that Michael is shot at, but his shoulder is grazed and instead Mary gets hit in the chest and falls on the stairs. This is when Sofia has her best scene: when she's lying dead on the steps, not breathing. (Heh, I told you it was mean!) Michael gives a chilling reaction to his daughter's death. He later dies as an old man. Okay, the more I think about it, the more this movie isn't that great and I take back what I said about it being not as bad as I thought it was. It is pretty bad. Except for the one Al Pacino line I like.

So yes, while Part III brings the overall score of the Godfather movies down a peg, the first two movies are quite a cinematic achievement and I have to wonder what it would be like to see it in the theaters when it was released. 

Going to the Chapel

Father of the Bride

Director: Charles Shyer

Cast: Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Martin Short, Kimberly Williams, George Newbern, Kieran Culkin, BD Wong

Released: December 20, 1991

I remember seeing this in the theater and liking it well enough, but after watching it again recently, I found it to be very saccharine. I also didn't understand why the father, George Banks (Steve Martin), was freaking out so much that his daughter was getting married. I can understand he thinks it's pretty soon since she announces she met someone when she was living abroad in Italy and they've only met six months ago, but he seems to be having a hard time of letting his "little girl" go. I feel like most fathers would be happy if their daughters met someone they loved and it would be an added bonus if the guy was financially stable (and this guy was more than enough financially stable!).

So it's funny that when I first saw this I had no idea who Diane Keaton was (I was barely eleven, how was I suppose to know who she was?!) and when I saw that her name was behind Steve Martin's (I DID know who he was!) in all the promotional posters, I just assumed she was the actress playing the bride. Makes sense to me: the movie is called Father of the Bride, therefore the two title characters must be the two first billed actors! I don't know how long it took for me to realize my mistake. Of course, Diane Keaton plays Nina, the wife to George. The bride, Annie, is played by Kimberly Williams (now Kimberly Williams-Paisley) and this was her first movie role at the age of twenty. I mean, that's pretty cool to act with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton in your first movie. 

After Annie announces she's getting married to a man she met when she was in Italy, her mother is happy for her, but her father immediately starts asking her questions such as what does he do (he's a computer programmer who's very good at his job and very rich), how they met, how long they've known each other, etc. I can understand where the guy is coming from. It would be one thing if Annie came home and said she met a really great guy and they're dating and things are getting serious, but she comes home and drops the bombshell that she's getting MARRIED! So I can understand why he was a little concerned, but even after meeting Annie's fiancé, Brian (George Newbern), and seeing he's a stand up guy and cares for Annie, George is still resigned about his daughter getting married. 

The entire movie is about planning the wedding and George's reluctance about it. I can't really blame him when he learns how much this thing is going to cost. Even though the Banks live in a nice house (although it's not a huge mansion like the new in-laws live in!) and drives a super nice car, he acts like they are poor and can't pay for the wedding. However, this wedding seems like it's going to drain them of their life savings so he goes about making some cut backs, such as cutting the original 500 people invited to the wedding to no more than 150. Which makes sense to me...who needs 500 people at their wedding? Who even knows 500 people? The Banks have the reception at their house and the wedding planner, Frank (Fraaaanc) and his assistant (played by Martin Short and BD Wong) insist on the most ridiculous things. They're going to build a tulip garden and a pond for swans; they start sawing away the ceiling in the house to make room for more light. I would most certainly not want people coming into my house and start messing around in it, just hacking away at the structure! George does not understand why the cake (pronounced a totally different way by Franc!) has to be $1200. And I agree. I love weddings; I've been to a few amazing ones in my life, but I don't understand why people spend a fortune just for one day! It's completely ridiculous! 

Speaking of ridiculous things, there's a scene where George and Nina go to meet Brian's parents (without Annie and Brian there, which I thought was really weird) and they live in Beverly Hills in the biggest mansion on the block. When George uses the bathroom, he sneaks into an office and starts looking at a checkbook sitting on a desk, only to find he's trapped because one of the three dobermans who live there is growling at him and he has to crawl out the window and Nina is the only one who sees him when he's climbing down, so she has to distract Brian's parents. Then somehow, George still has the checkbook in his hand (I don't know why he didn't leave it on the desk!) and it somehow gets thrown into the pool and he has to try to reach for it and while he's doing that, two dogs from each side of him attack him and he falls into the water. It's completely ridiculous and we never hear the repercussion of what happened! The only thing we hear about it is when Annie and Brian have had a fight and she tells her father that Brian told her this crazy story about what happened and of course it's all true. Annie seems a little high strung because she was about to end her engagement with Brian just because he bought her a blender for their kitchen. She thought it meant he wanted her to be his little housewife and she's all about being an independent woman, but as Brian explained to George, he knew Annie liked a banana smoothie and just wanted to buy her a blender just in case she ever wanted to make one. I mean, if you were willing to end your engagement over THAT, there's no way that couple is going to last! But of course, George talks to Annie and she forgives Brian and the wedding is still on. Ha, if I were her dad, I would be like, You're damn sure the wedding is still on....do you know how much I've already spent and all the construction work they've done on the house? 

The wedding at the church is very nice and one of the last moments George shares with his daughter when he walks her down the aisle because at the reception at the Banks' he can't seem to get a chance to talk to her. At the reception, their house is crowded with people and for some reason when they're about to eat, he has to stand in line...you think they would let him go to the front of the line since he's the freaking father of the bride! His wife seemed to be able to get her food pretty fast. Then, since there are so many people, the cops come to tell them they need to have all these cars removed from the premise because they don't have a permit to double and triple park all these cars on the street. You would think they would have realized this BEFORE the day of the reception and gotten on that. So George gets his young son, Matty (Kieran Culkin), and his little friend to move all the cars onto lawns. 

It's announced Annie is about to throw her bouquet before she and and her new husband are to leave for their honeymoon. George tries taking a short cut, but he just misses her by moments. She does, however, call him from the airport...from a pay phone, haha, oh, 1991! She calls to tell him thank you and that she loves him. Aww, how sweet, but seriously, she couldn't find him at the wedding to say these things? 

This movie has some humorous moment and some sweet moment (like when George plays basketball one on one with Annie while the song "My Girl" is playing), but overall, I found it a little flat.