2012 Post-Oscar Thoughts!

Once again I kept a notes while I watched the Oscars. Yes, I live in the Stone Age!

I had to work on Sunday and I got home like literally seconds before the show started, so I was very happy I didn't miss any of it (although towards the middle, I started to check my Facebook and Twitter and my computer is in my room, so for awhile I was listening, rather than watching, the Oscars.)

I liked the opening with Billy Crystal inserted in the different clips from the nominated movies. It's a shtick he always does, but I always think it's fun. I thought the transition from The Help where he's just eaten that special pie to Bridesmaids where he enters the restroom and warns them not to eat the pie was funny and clever.

It was hard to hear what Billy Crystal was singing about the nine nominated movies because the music was so loud.

Have you noticed they always show the same movies during these movie montages? Did they include Twilight in that montage? WTF? I think there should be a rule that only movies that have been nominated for Oscars can be included in these montages. Leave Twilight for the MTV Awards....god knows they already dominate those!

I HATED Jennifer Lopez's dress. Ewwwwww. She and Cameron Diaz were so stupid with their let's turn around routine. What morons!

Sandra Bullock was funny and charming as always and I was impressed by her Mandarin, but her dress is a little on the boring side.

It's weird that Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won Best Editing because that usually goes to a movie that's nominated for Best Picture.

Cirque du Soleil was impressive, but what did it have to do with movies?

Robert Downey Jr's and Gwyneth Paltrow's "documentary" intro was funny at first, but perhaps went on a little too long.

I thought Emma Stone was hilarious, how she was acting all ditzy. Wasn't crazy about her dress and that huge bow growing out of the side of her neck. That's gotta be annoying!

LOL - Angelina Jolie looked like a proud mom when Christopher Plummer won. He is only two years younger than the Oscars! He is now the oldest Oscar winner at 82; I wonder who was the oldest before him?

Awwww - Uggie in the audience wearing a bowtie was the cutest thing I have ever seen at the Oscars. Maybe even the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life! (For those of you who don't know, Uggie is the dog from The Artist).

Penelope Cruz always looks pretty.

I loved Will Ferrel and Zach Galifanakis with the cymbals. Why can't they host? I think the best laugh of the night came when Zach said his name like jibber jabber hahahahahahahahahahahaha that was soooo funny. Then I loved how Will said they were going to announce the winner for Best Song and "how it would join the ranking of (names a bunch of classic songs everyone knows and loves) and "It's Hard Out There For a Pimp." LOL! I still think they should have nominated "Life's a Happy Song" - that was the best song from The Muppets!

Omaha got a shoutout at the Oscars when Alexander Payne won for Best Adapted Screenplay and mentioned his mom from Omaha was in the audience. Whoo!

I liked Colin Firth reminiscing about Mama Mia with Meryl Streep.

There really weren't any surprises with the acting winners, but I really thought Viola Davis would win Best Actress. I know it's been 30 years since Meryl won her last (and second) Oscar, and you can't help but like her. I still have no desire to see The Iron Lady and I don't know, but there's something about that role that screams GIVE ME AN OSCAR!!! Sometimes I like the showy performances, but most times I prefer the understated roles like the one Davis played in The Help...ah, well I'm sure she'll win a makeup Supporting Oscar in a few years.... Maybe this means Meryl will finally stop getting nominated for everything? We can only hope.

Now it's time for fashion!

Best dressed: Milla Jovovich

Worst dressed: Jennifer Lopez

2012 Pre-Oscars Post! Rankings! Predix!

The Oscars are this Sunday, so I'm cutting it close with my predictions and ranking of the nine films that were nominated. I just saw the ninth movie tonight so I am ready to rank all the movies nominated for a Best Picture Oscar from my favorite to least favorite:

1. The Help - It was hard to rank the first three movies because I probably liked them all about the same and they all had really great casts and they all kept me entertained. But I'll give the #1 spot to The Help because I also loved the book it's adapted from and it was pretty cool to see all those amazing actresses in one movie and it's nice to know that a movie with a mostly female cast can make lots of money and not just be about shopping, relationships, fashion, and other frivolous stupid things Hollywood seems to think women like in their movies. This movie made me both laugh and cry and I am still wondering to this day (and this has actually been brought up in a couple of conversations I've had with people): how the hell did Minnie make that pie and Hilly not even notice what she put in it? I mean, she kept eating it! How could she not taste THAT? I mean you think you would be able to taste that even if there was also chocolate in there...

2. Midnight in Paris - What a delightful, charming movie! I can see why it was nominated for an Oscar. You know, this is only the third Wood Allen movie I've seen (Annie Hall and Match Point being the other two) because he is such a prolific director that I guess I just assume his movies can't be that good because he makes so many of them...plus I can't keep up with them, but now I will have to check out his higher-rated movies. It stars Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams as a couple about to get married joining McAdam's parents on a trip to Paris. Wilson plays a screenwriter who is struggling to write a novel. While they're there, they run into an old male friend of McAdam's who she used to have a crush on and who Wilson calls a "pseudo-intellect" because he's obnoxious the way he's always sprouting out facts and acts like a know-it-all all the time. One evening, at midnight, while Wilson is walking around the city to get inspiration, an old-fashioned car from the 1920s with a bunch of laughing and smoking people come up to him and pick him up to take him to a party where he meets people such as the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso and realizes he's time traveled back to the 1920s and does this every night at midnight where he gives his manuscript to Gertrude Stein to read. He goes back and fourth from the 1920s and present day and falls in love with a free-spirited French woman (Marion Cotillard) while he and his bride-to-be are having problems back in the present day. I can see why this is Allen's highest-grossing movie to date. It won't win Best Picture but I think it has a very good chance of winning Best Original Screenplay.

3. The Artist - A black and white silent movie made in 2011? Call me crazy, but I actually thought it was pretty good! There were scenes that made me smile like the one where Peppy Miller is getting close to George Valentine's coat. And Uggie has to be the cutest dog onscreen since Verdell from As Good as it Gets.

4. Moneyball - I hate sports and I hate math, so I was all prepared to hate this movie which is all about baseball and trading players and money and statistics and other fun things with numbers that should have bored me to tears, but the script did a good job of explaining things and kept everything interesting. Brad Pitt as Oakland A's manager Billy Beane is good as is Jonah Hill, the young kid from Yale  he hires who has a method for choosing players. I just saw this movie tonight so maybe I'm feeling charitable placing it so high. If I'm being honest, numbers 4-6 I probably liked about the same.

5. Hugo - I hate 3-D, but this movie does it well and the entire look of the film is absolutely gorgeous. It is a lovely tribute to the Golden Age of cinema even though it does get a little eye roll inducing at times. A fine movie, but I thought The Artist was the better "love letter" to old cinema.

6. The Descendants - Like I mentioned in my review for it, this is my favorite Alexander Payne movie and George Clooney is great in it and if he won the Oscar for Best Actor, it would be fully deserved. It may seem a little low to rank it at #6, but I guess that means I liked most of the movies that were nominated for Oscars because I thought this was a pretty good movie....just liked five others a little better!

7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - I probably like this one and War Horse about the same. They weren't bad, but there were some problems. This one, for instance, I didn't understand why this kid went all over the city to talk to people to find out about this mystery key he found in his dad's closet after his dad died on 9/11. It was stated earlier that the kid had a hard time talking to strangers and now he's just talking to so many people a day and then all he had to do....well I don't want to spoil the ending, but it made me go, "Really?" Well, there were things I did like about this movie and I thought it was touching and it made me cry so it did touch me.

8. War Horse - Pretty movie and it made me cry (I cry at pretty much every movie, so that really doesn't mean anything!) Not Speilberg's best and dragged a bit at times. Still, a decent enough movie.

9. Tree of Life - Oh, God. Okay. I know a lot of critics and people (mostly those who are huge movie buffs) LOVED this movie and are all talking about how it changed their life. I can respect that if you are one of those people. However, I could not get into this movie. At all. I like the occasional movie that makes me think and would like to think I am a philosophical person - you would be surprised at some of the things I have pondered, but I do not think I am spiritual enough to "get" this movie. I think another thing it had going against it was that it had Terrance Malick as its director. Dear God, I have never been able to get through one of his movies...this is the first one of his I've watched all the way through. His films just bore me. I don't mind movies that aren't always in the traditional linear storyline, but this one just seemed to be all over the place. There's this whole segment about the creation of earth that's put in towards the beginning of the movie. If I wanted to see how the earth was created, I would watch a documentary about it on the Discovery Channel and hopefully it would be narrated (by Morgan Freeman with any luck) so I would know what was going on and learn something. There are dinosaurs in this movie. It was cool to see dinosaurs but I couldn't help thinking that they were probably thinking, "Uh, we ain't  in Jurassic Park!" Yes, I know computer animations don't think; that's how bored I was! The main plot revolves around a family in Texas with Brad Pitt as the stern father to three young boys; one of whom grows up to be Sean Penn who is in a few scenes. Even Sean Penn has said he doesn't know what this movie is about and he's one of the most pretentious douches in Hollywood! My DVD came with a message before the movie started saying that I should have my volume all the way up to get the maximum effect or something like that. I didn't do that, but I kind of understood why they had that. There's barely any dialogue in the movie and when there is, it's almost like you're being dropped into the middle of a conversation and sometimes the person's voice is really low or a whisper, so it's hard to hear. There is no soundtrack to this movie...when music is played, it's usually a record or a piano that the characters are also hearing, but other than that you just hear the sounds of nature in the background. The ending was just a big WTF. Like, it did not end at all. I really can't blame people for walking out of this, but at the same time, they should have educated themselves and have seen what the movie was going to be like before they went to it. I know some people don't like watching trailers or reading reviews because they might be spoiled, but I always make sure I know what a movie is going to be like before I go see it. It doesn't always mean I'll love it, but I only have myself to blame if I don't like it. My parents saw this movie when it came out in the theaters and I was shocked when my mom told me this because I, being the educated film nerd (haha) knew the response this movie was getting and how critics loved it, but it was polarizing for audiences. My parents aren't huge movie nerds so I have no idea what possessed them to see this one. She said she and my dad were either going to see this one or Midnight in Paris, which is way more up their alley. Needless to say they thought the movie was weird and didn't like it that much. I told them the next time they're not sure about a movie, they need to call me and I can tell them a little about it and probably predict if they will like it or not! If there's anything positive I can say about this movie it's that it did have some beautiful images and it does provoke discussion!

Now it's time for my predictions!

Best Picture:
The Artist
The Descendants
Hugo
War Horse
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help


I really wish the Academy would go back to five pictures instead of this new "at least five but no more than ten" non-sense. You know, it they had just nominated The Dark Knight back in 2009, none of this would have happened! It's kind of a pain having to watch all these movies! Anyway, I would be shocked if The Artist didn't win. It already won the Bafta and GG for Best Musical/Comedy and it's the clear frontrunner.

Best Director:
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Michael Hazanavicius, The Artist
Terrance Malick, The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorses, Hugo


This reminds me of the category last year when you had a bunch of seasoned directors and one newcomer and the newbie won. Now here you have four seasoned directors and one (fairly) new director (Hazanavicius) and like with Tom Hooper winning for The King's Speech last year, Hazanavicius (I feel like I am always spelling his name wrong) will win this year. You can't deny the DGA he's already won; whoever wins that always wins Best Director Oscar. I can't even think of a time when that didn't happen. I am secretly rooting for fellow Omaha native Alexander Payne to take it though, but hopefully he can win a Best Screenplay Oscar!

Best Actor: 

George Clooney, The Descendants

Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Damian Bichir, A Better Life

It's hard to believe this is Gary Oldman's FIRST oscar nomination! I have not seen his or Bichir's movies. All signs point to Dujardin winning this - he's already won the Golden Globe (comedy), Bafta, and SAG. His Oscar win would be very deserving; however I wouldn't be totally surprised if George Clooney won. He may already have an (undeserved, IMO) Oscar for Best Supporting Oscar for Syriana back in 2006, but he is George Clooney and Hollywood likes to kiss ass. I'm going to predict Dujadin (because the Oscars are always predictable), but won't be totally surprised if Clooney sneaks in a win. I hope if Dujardin wins, he jumps all over the seats just like the last European man to win one of these!

Best Actress: 

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs

Meryl Strep, The Iron Lady

Viola Davis, The Help

Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

You know, even if Meryl Streep was a sure thing to win the Oscar, I still wouldn't want to see The Iron Lady because that movie looks SO boring to me! I also haven't seen Albert Nobbs or My Week with Marilyn. I like Meryl Streep, but I feel like she is nominated for everything she's in. I have no doubt she's good as Margaret Thatcher, but should she really have been nominated for Julie and Julia? The Devil Wears Prada? The Music of Our Hearts or whatever that one was called? It's like stop already! Meryl may be 60 something but she's still got plenty of time to win another Oscar. Look at Christopher Plummer .... he's 82 and he's going to win his first Oscar tomorow! Why don't we wait ten or so more years before we give Meryl another Oscar, okay? Meryl may have won the Golden Globe (but she always wins those - she's Meryl freaking Streep!) and the Bafta (well they are the British Oscars and she did play a famous British person in her movie!), but I think (well, hope anyway) that Viola Davis (who won the SAG) will end up victorious this Sunday. As much as I love Octavia Spencer in that movie as well, if only one person could win an Oscar from that movie, I would want it to be Viola.

Best Supporting Actor:

Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn

Jonah Hill, Moneyball

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Max Von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Nick Nolte, Warrior

That nomination for Nick Nolte came out of nowhere, didn't it? Well, it doesn't matter because Christopher Plummer is winning this one. He's the one that's a sure bet. The supporting actor category is mostly reserved for elderly actors that the Academy want to recognize before they die. Of course there are exceptions. Poor Max von Sydow; I think he's the same age as Plummer, but Plummer has the edge because he's more well known and more beloved. I have seen his, Von Sydow's, and Hill's movies.

Best Supporting Actress:

Octavia Spencer, The Help

Jessica Chastain, The Help

Berenice Bejo, The Artist

Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

The only nominee in this group I haven't seen is McTeer. I think everyone was really good and while it would be really cool for Melissa McCarthy to win - because you never see a comedic performance win an Oscar - it is going to be Octavia Spencer. Hey, she may not have done THAT in a sink, but she did make a very special pie! 

Weekly Movie #7

The Descendants
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Matthew Lillard, Judy Greer
Released: December 9, 2011
Viewed in theaters: February 16, 2012

Oscar nominations:
Best Picture (lost to The Artist)
Best Director - Alexander Payne (lost to Michel Hazanavicus for The Artist)
Best Actor - George Clooney (lost to Jean Dujardin for The Artist)
Best Adapted Screenplay - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash (won)
Best Editing (lost to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

Living in Omaha I know I should be a huge fan of Alexander Payne and while it's cool that some of his movies have been set in my - and his - hometown (like Election and About Schmidt), I'm not a really big fan of his movies. They're by no means awful, just not my particular cup of tea. However, I have to say I really liked The Descendants and can say with absolute certainty that it is my favorite Alexander Payne movie.

Instead of taking place in Nebraska, like most Payne movies, this place take in Hawaii and while they do show the beautiful (and required) shots of gorgeous sunsets and photographic beaches, they also show the everyday life of Hawaii and what probably most residents of the 50th (or is Alaska the 50th?...hmmm.....) state are accustomed to. Hawaiians: they're just like us! (Except they have palm trees and nicer weather!)

George Clooney plays Matt King, a father of two girls who describes himself as the "back up parent". His wife is the one who takes care of their daughters while he is busy with work. His family owns quite a big percentage of land and he has to decide if he's going to keep or sell it. When his wife is in a bad boating accident and is told she most likely won't wake up from her coma, he has to learn how to be a parent again to 17 year old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley - she played Felicity in one of those American Girl TV movies! I had the Felicity doll!) and her little sister, Scottie (some annoying actress). Alexandra has been living in a boarding school because she's had problems with drugs and little Scottie is just annoying and a brat.

Matt never had a good relationship with his wife to begin with, so it's not a total surprise to the audience when we find out - along with him - that his wife had been having an affair with some guy Alex saw her mom with. Haha, when I first saw the guy I was thinking how much he looked like Matthew Lillard and it turned out it was him, duh. No offense to Lillard, but if you were married to George Clooney, why would you be having an affair with Matthew Lillard. That just does not make any sense! Well, at any rate, Matt finds out who the guy is and where to find him and confronts him about how he knows but is discreet about it because the other guy is married with two young boys.

I think this movie's strongest contenders for winning an Oscar are Best Adapted Screenplay and possibly Best Actor. So far Jean Dujardin has been winning most of the awards, but I wouldn't be totally surprised if Clooney came away with a win. His performance in this is much better than when he won in 2005 for Best Supporting Actor for Syriana.  His Oscar would feel deserved and it wouldn't feel like they were giving it to him because he's George Clooney (which is what I felt when he won back then).

Stay tuned for my upcoming posts where I'll rank the nine Best Picture nominees and post my predictions for the Oscars!

Weekly Movie #6

The Artist
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Released: November 23, 2011
Viewed in theaters: February 8, 2012

Oscar nominations:
Best Picture (won)
Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius (won)
Best Actor - Jean Dujardin (won)
Best Supporting Actress - Berenice Bejo (lost to Octavia Spencer for The Help)
Best Original Screenplay - Michel Hazanavicius (lost to Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris)
Best Score - Ludovic Bource  (won)
Best Art Direction (lost to Hugo)
Best Cinematography (lost to Hugo)
Best Costume Design (won)
Best Editing (lost to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

The Artist is not only a black and white movie, it's also a silent film. It looks like it belongs in the nineteen-twenties rather than in the twenty-first century. I've never seen a silent movie and I can only think of a handful of black and white movies I've seen, so this was a first for me. Many critics have been describing The Artist as a love letter to the Golden Age of cinema and it's easy to see why. Jean Dujardin (super famous in his native France; I had never heard of him before) and Berenice Bejo (she was in A Knight's Tale! She played Shannyn Sassafrass's hand maiden!) are 39 and 35 respectively, but they look like they could be stars in the 1920s.

Dujardin (which means "of the garden"; thanks high school French!) plays silent film star George Valentine whose co-star in every movie is a cute terrier named Uggie. He needs a new leading lady and that's where newcomer Peppy Miller (Bejo) steps in. Pretty soon she becomes just as big a star as he is, if not bigger and even though he is with another woman, the two become quite close. When Valentine's manager (John Goodman) tells him that talkies are going to be the next big thing in cinema, Valentine refuses to leave the silent film medium even though Peppy has already started starring in talkies.

This movie may have no sound, but it is still easy to follow what's going on in the story. There are title cards and even when there's not, all the actors faces are so full of expression it's easy to understand what they're emoting. For the majority of the movie, the only sound is the score. Even when they show people applauding, you do not hear any clapping sound. There is one dream sequence where you can hear sound effects and is there any talking at all in the movie? Well, you will have to go and see (hear?) for yourself!

Going to the movies in the twenties must have been a much difference experience than it is now! At the beginning of the movie, one of George Valentine's films is playing at a lavish theater (complete with a balcony) and all the seats are filled and the entire audience is dressed up to the nines. These days when I go to a theater, unless it's a really popular movie on opening night, it's usually not that full and everyone just wears their everyday clothes. And there's certainly no balcony! (Although I have once been to a theater that had a balcony). The movie going experience has certainly changed in the last 90 years!

The Artist will most likely (okay, who are we kidding, of course it will!) win the Oscar for Best Picture this Sunday and it will be well deserved.

Weekly Movie #5

Hugo
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley Chloe Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee
Released: November 23, 2011
Viewed in theaters: February 1, 2012

Oscar nominations:
Best Picture (lost to The Artist)
Best Director - Martin Scorsese (lost to Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist)
Best Adapted Screenplay - John Logan (lost to Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash for The Descendants)
Best Art Direction (won)
Best Cinematography (won)
Best Editing (lost to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Best  Costume Design (lost to The Artist)
Best Sound Editing (won)
Best Sound Mixing (won)
Best Visual Effects (won)

Despite having a bad viewing experience (at least for the first hour) and despite it being in 3-D (which I loathe) and despite the self-importance with all the "movies are great!" mantra embedded in this film, I actually did enjoy Hugo for the most part.

Let me explain each of these points.

Since this movie had been out for a good two months I wasn't at all surprised when I was the only one in the theater...until these two guys came in and sat in the back (I was seated in the middle) and proceeded to talk in Spanish throughout the movie. During the loud parts I couldn't hear them (and maybe they weren't talking during those parts), but I could hear them talking (in a regular speaking voice) when there were two characters onscreen talking to each other. It was highly distracting and really irritating. Thank God, though, they left one hour into the movie (I know because I checked my phone) and I could enjoy the movie in silence! I don't know why they would pay ten and a quarter to watch a movie they (presumably) couldn't understand only to walk out an hour later, but I was glad when they left. A quick public announcement: SHUT YOUR MOUTHS DURING MOVIES!!!

As for the 3-D, yes it was impressive, but I think the movie would have been just as fine in 2-D. I really hate wearing those glasses because your peripheral vision is blocked and it's really weird when you take off the glasses and see Ben Kingsley with four pair of eyes. Yes, I realize I shouldn't take off the glasses in the middle of viewing a 3-D movie, but it is a bad habit I have. I think 3-D is a passing gimmick and it doesn't add anything to the movie and I will try at all costs to avoid it, but sometimes you can't like with this film and the upcoming re-release of Titanic (which I will see hell or high water!) But I will admit the 3-D was top notch.

Being that Hugo is a love letter to the very first movies in cinema, it does get a little heavy-handed in its "movies are the best thing ever!"It reminds me when singers (mostly rappers) sing, er, rap about how awesome and rich they are. It's just so self-indulgent. I love watching movies, but when movies have to tell me how great movies are, it makes me roll my eyes. Show don't tell!

So despite those three things, I did like this movie. It's a beautiful movie to look at, even more beautiful than War Horse. It's about a boy named Hugo (Butterfield), as you may have guessed, an orphan who lives in a train station in Paris where he winds the big clock. Since he has no money he's always stealing food and other little knick knacks and a toy shopkeeper (Ben Kingsley) catches him and makes him empty his pockets and give all his possessions to him. This includes a notebook that is very dear to Hugo's heart because before his dad (Jude Law in one scene) died, they were working on a project together and the notebook has all the notes and sketches for the project. Hugo follows the toykeeper home after he threatens to burn the notebook and asks his granddaughter (Moretz) to make sure her grandfather doesn't burn the notebook and she promises she will look after it.

They get into a discussion about movies and the girl tells Hugo that her grandfather doesn't allow her to watch movies. We later find out that her grandfather is Georges Melies, a French magician who became one of cinema's first and famous directors. He had a love for movies and made many of them but once the war started he had to give up his dream because nobody had time for fantasy anymore. Hugo and his granddaughter find out about his past and persuade him not to hide who he is and be proud of all his accomplishments. A very nice tribute to the Golden Age of cinema even if it does become a little heavy-handed at times.

Weekly Movie #4

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Director: Stephen Daldry
Cast: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bulluck, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis
Released: December 25, 2011
Viewed in theaters: January 26, 2012

Oscar nominations:
Best Picture (lost to The Artist)
Best Supporting Actor - Max von Sydow (lost to Christopher Plummer for Beginners)

This movie's title is extremely long and incredibly confusing. The movie itself is extremely depressing and incredibly sad. Okay, I'll stop. If you are huge fans of Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock and are thinking of seeing this movie only for them, they are both supporting characters as the young boy's parents and are really only in a few scenes. The film is centered around nine-year-old Oskar Schell, (played by Thomas Horn in his first movie role; apparently he was on kids' Jeopardy! and that was how he was discovered) an odd kid who has a different way of how he looks at the world and is extremely smart, but can also be incredibly annoying. (Whoops! I did it again!)

Oskar's world comes tumbling down when his father, who was in the World Trade Center for a meeting, is killed on 9/11. It's clear that he was closer to his father, who encouraged him to learn new experiences and talk to new people, the latter Oskar had a difficult time with. In a heartbreaking scene, he even tells his mother he wished that she had been the one who had died and instead of being angry with him, she agrees with him.

Oskar finds a key in his dad's closet in an envelop with the name "Black" written on it and is convinced that they key opens something where a message from his father is waiting and whoever this person is can help them. Of course there are many people with the last name Black listed in the phone book and he estimates it will take three years to go through all of them. The kid is very precise. He's mapped out all the addresses and how much time he plans to spend with each person. He's joined by the old man who's known as the renter (Von Sydrow) his grandmother is renting a room to. Due to a traumatic event in his life, he doesn't speak, just writes on paper and has "yes" written on one palm and "no" on the other to answer simple questions. We discover something about him that's pretty obvious from the beginning.

Poor Oskar has been living with a secret for over a year about how he was home when his dad called from the World Trade Center on that day, but he never picked up the phone and he was too ashamed to admit this to anyone. Bring your tissues for this one, folks!

Weekly Movie #3

War Horse
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Wastson, David Thewlis
Released: December 25, 2011
Viewed in theaters: January 17, 2012

Oscar nominations:
Best Picture (lost to The Artist)
Best Score - John Williams (lost to Ludovic Bource for The Artist)
Best Art Direction (lost to Hugo)
Best Cinematography (lost to Hugo)
Best Sound Editing (lost to Hugo)
Best Sound Mixing (lost to Hugo)

I don't see War Horse galloping (haha) in the direction of the likes of Jaws, E.T., or Jurassic Park where it will become one of Spielberg's classic blockbusters. More likely it will trot (haha) along the lines of Catch Me If You Can or The Terminal, you know those movies where when somebody brings them up, you're like, "Oh, yeah, that was a good movie. Spielberg directed that? I forgot about that!" However, unlike those two movies, War Horse is the kind of movie that benefits from being seen on the big screen. With its lush cinematography, swelling music, and gorgeous camera work, this is one beautiful movie. It's just pretty to look at.

The plot is pretty straightforward: a teen boy named Albert trains the horse his father bought (I wasn't really clear why he bought the horse in the first place because the family wasn't exactly rich) and names him Joey. Even though he teaches Joey to plow his family's farm land, they're still not getting enough money and his father ends up selling Joey into World War I. Albert is too young to enlist in the war and has to wait another four years before he can. We really don't see much of him after Joey is taken away from him.

We do see what happens to Joey on his journey and he ends up in many places and meets many people along the way. I would be lying if I said I didn't cry while watching this.

Weekly Movie #2

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright, Joely Richardson
Released: December 20, 2011
Viewed in theaters: January 10, 2012

Oscar nominations:
Best Actress - Rooney Mara (lost to Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady)
Best Cinematography (lost to Hugo)
Best Editing (won)
Best Sound Editing (lost to Hugo)
Best Sound Mixing (lost to Hugo)

This movie is a far cry from my first weekly movie (New Year's Eve).  You don't have to see either movie to know what I'm talking about! I was a little reluctant to see this because I wasn't a huge fan of the book which I read last spring. I still haven't been enthused to read "The Girl Who Played with Fire" which I have in my possession. If I look to my left, I can see it in my bookshelf between "Watership Down" and "The Help" (both books I loved). My problem with the book is that it is SO SLOW for the first 100 pages. Nothing happens. At all. Once we find out about the mystery of the young girl who went missing back in the sixties, it gets much more interesting. I still found the book to be extremely overrated when I was done reading it, though.

So I wasn't terribly excited for the movie, but I was curious to see what Fincher was going to do with it, being the stylish kind of director he is. I read all the boring stuff that deals with Blomkvist's magazine is dealt with in just a matter of minutes and doesn't consume the entire movie the way it felt like it did in the book.

You've probably already guessed I've never seen the original Swedish movie so I have no idea if it's better or just different than the American version. When I heard that an American adaptation was going to be made, my first though was they were going to set it in the U.S. in a cold climate like Alaska, but I'm glad they kept the setting of Sweden. Everyone has a slight hint of a Swedish accent, but none of them are that strong to be distracting.

As much as I didn't care for the book, I am glad I read it before I saw the movie. Not because I would've been lost - the movie is quite straghtfoward: Blomkvist is hired by the young girl's great uncle to find out what happened to her and he is aided with the help of computer hacker Lisbeth Salandar (the girl who indeed has a dragon tattoo). Not to brag or anything, (and slight spoilers here), but I totally knew who was sending the old man those pressed flowers, especially when he tells Blomkvist, "Nobody knows about these! Except Harriet, the police, and the killer!" I mean, duh. It's kind of obvious who's sending them. But the main reason I'm glad I read the book beforehand was that I knew what was coming so I could be prepared for it. This is a really dark movie and a lot of bad things happen to people....and a poor cat. As the owner of the sweetest cat in the world, I really hated that part in the book and was dreading it in the movie and had to cover my eyes when they showed it. Rape scene? Although uncomfortable and brutal, I could handle it better because I knew Lisbeth was going to get her revenge Oh, and she does. "I've never done this before and there will be blood!"

I'd like to thank this movie for reminding me that "Orinoco Flow" by Enya still exits. I had kind of forgotten about that song and I love it. It was an odd choice of song to play while the bad guy was torturing Blomkvist, though. Speaking of songs, I do love "The Immigration Song" by Karen O and Trent Renzor that is played during the amazing beginning credits. The first time I ever became aware of that song was when Jack Black sang it in School of Rock!


The movie follows the book pretty faithfully (and takes out all the boring parts!), but the ending dealing with what happened to Harriet is tweaked just a little. I actually preferred the movie's ending. The literal final scene is anti-climatic but you know that there will be two more movies so it wasn't really the final ending of the story.

I hardly say this, but I believe in this case the movie was better than the book.

Weekly Movie #1

For my (extremely lame) New Year's resolution, I decided to see at least one movie a week in the theaters. Who knows how long this will last as none of my resolutions never do. But for now, every time I see my weekly theater movie I will post a review on it, whether it be short and sweet or long and convoluted. It might be a written or video review. So we'll start with the first one, which I saw on the first day of 2012...

New Year's Eve
Director: Garry Marshall
Cast: Everyone in Hollywood
Released: December 9, 2011
Viewed in theaters: January 1, 2012

This is the type of movie I would rent than see in the theaters, but I saw it with my friend Cameron after we had a delicious dinner of sushi and I ate some hot pepper that nearly set my mouth on fire! We saw New Year's Eve on New Year's Day, heh. This is from the same director as Valentine's Day and is the same idea as that movie and even features two actors who were in that movie (Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Biel), but it is not a sequel to that movie. I liked this movie a tad better, probably because I like the holiday better, even though I could care less about the New Year.

Basically if you've seen Valentine's Day, you know how this movie works. Just change the actors and the day. Hilary Swank is in charge of the ball dropping in Times Square, but it gets stuck and she has to call on Marshall's requisite actor Hector Elizondo to fix it. Halle Berry is a nurse caring for a dying Robert De Niro whose last wish is to see the ball drop at midnight. Michelle Pfeiffer is a dowdy woman who wants to cross everything off her resolution list she made for 2011 before midnight and gets help from Zac Efron. I seriously thought we were going to get a Mrs. Robinson romance going on there...but don't count on it. Sarah Jessica Parker has her doubts about letting her daughter, Abigail Breslin, go to Times Square by herself. We also find out that she and Zac are siblings. Zac and SJP, that is. There is no way in hell that could happen - she is old enough to be his mother! Ashton Kutcher and Lea Michele find themselves stuck in an elevator...and of course fall in love! Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers play a couple about to have a baby and they find out from another pregnant couple that the first woman to give birth in 2012 wins $25 grand. Josh Duhamel is out to meet a woman he met last New Year's Eve and there a lot of fakeouts about who it might be. I won't say who it is because I don't want to spoil it. ;-) At one point, Cameron said to me, "I bet it's Fergie!" LOL, it was not Fergie. There's some stupid storyline between Katherine Heigl and Bon Jovi (who plays a rock star!) that nobody cares about. The best thing about her storyline was Sofia Vergara who is hilarious. And looks good even when wearing a chef's coat.

I think I covered all the storylines. It's a cute movie, but forgettable. The funniest scene in the movie is John Lithgow playing Angry Birds.  I would say wait to rent it.

Game Night

Jumanji
Director: Joe Johnston
Cast: Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bonnie Hunt, Bradley Pierce
Released: December 15, 1995

Zathura
Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart, Tim Robbins
Released: November 11, 2005

Zathura is not a sequel or prequel to Jumanji, but both films are connected as they are both based on books written by Chris Van Allsburg (who also wrote The Polar Express) and both are about board games that come to life. However, besides that, the two movies are not connected.

Jumanji's journey begins all the way back in the 1860s where we see two adolescent boys looking scared and burying a wooden box that is emitting a steady banging sound. Fast forward one hundred years later where we see young Alan, who will grow up to be Robin Williams, but is now played by Little Man Tate. He's about twelve years old and gets beat up by the bullies at his school because he's been hanging out with one of the bullies' girlfriend, Sarah, who will grow up to be Bonnie Hunt, but is now played by the girl who will go on to play the lead in Legally Blonde on Broadway. His dad is really strict with him and wants him to attend an all-boy's private school. Fun fact: his mom is played by Patricia Clarkson.

Alan hears the drumming sound when he's walking home from school one day and finds the wooden board game. (Evidently, those two boys from the 1860s didn't bury it so well as it only takes him a couple of minutes to dig it up). He brings it home and just as he's about to start playing, Sarah stops by to apologize for her boyfriend for beating him up. He invites her to play, but she says she hasn't played board games since she was a little girl, but is intrigued by it, so she stays and plays with him.

The game has wooden pieces that move themselves after the player has rolled the dice. When they have landed on a square, they receive a card that has a rhyme on it and literally does what it says. Because of this, Alan is sucked into the game and will stay there until another player rolls a five or an eight. This of course traumatizes Sarah and she runs screaming out.

Fast forward to the present. Or, at least, to 1995.

Before she was T-T-T-Torrance, Kirsten Dunst was the young blonde girl with braids named Judy. She and her younger brother, Peter (Bradley Pierce who is probably most well known for voicing Chip in Beauty and the Beast) move in with their aunt (Bebe Neuwirth) in Alan's big and creepy old house. Before they are about to leave for school, they both hear a loud drumming sound coming from the attic. Their aunt doesn't seem to hear it and they both tell her they can wait for the bus without her and when she leaves, they both race upstairs and find the game and start playing. Neither of them are too freaked out when they find monkeys terrorizing the kitchen or when a lion suddenly appears in the same room as them. Judy thinks it's part of the game, that what they're seeing is just a special effect.

Speaking of special effects, I remember being amazed at them when I first saw this movie in the theaters, but they haven't aged very well. They're impressive for their time, but now they look pretty antiquated.

Peter rolls a five and Alan (now Robin Williams as it's been awhile) appears with a beard and ragged clothes. He's been living in the jungle and is elated when he finds out he's home. He seems to think he's still a kid as he runs around the house trying to look for his parents. He finally understand what's going on and tells Judy and Peter the only way to make all of this stop is to finish the game, but they need Sarah to do this. They find her and have to force her to play with them. She's become sort of a recluse as everyone thinks she's crazy since she told the police what really happened to Alan.

The four of them continue to play the game throughout the movie and have to endure a stampede of wild animals (probably one of the most iconic scenes from the film); vines growing all over the house; quicksand; a monsoon (indoors, nonetheless); and a hunter named Van Pelt who is trying to kill Alan. I didn't realize this until now, but the same actor plays both Van Pelt and Alan's father.

Of course Alan wins in the end, just after Van Pelt has taken a shot at him and he and his gun and bullet get sucked back into the game along with all the wild animals and natural disasters that has occurred. There's a bit of time travel because Alan and Sarah are suddenly their younger selfs and are back at his house the night they started the game. They remember everything that has happened and when we return to 1995 again, they are married and meet Judy and Peter and their parents who have not yet died in the car crash yet and they convince them not to go to Canada which is where the accident occurred.

While Jumanji had a jungle theme, Zathura had a space theme. The movie is confined to one location while the characters in Jumanji were all over the town. We meet Walter and Danny (Hutcherson and Bobo (that poor kid with a last name like that!)) brothers who don't exactly get along. Their dad (Robbins) has a meeting to go to and gets their older sister (a pre-zombie, oops, I mean Twilight, Kristen Steward) to watch them. She says she will, but goes back to sleep.

Danny, the younger one, finds a big rectangular box in the basement and brings it up to reveal the game of Zathura. While Jumanji was made out of wood, Zathura is made out of plastic. He asks Walter if he wants to play, but his older brother is more interested in watching TV, so Danny decides to play by himself. Instead of dice, the player has to crank a dial and the arrow points to a number which is how many spaces the spaceship game piece passes. A card shoots out and like Jumanji, it has a little rhyme and whatever it says on the card literally happens.

Their house becomes a spaceship, so thus the reason for the confined space. They have to fight an evil robot and other space monsters and meet an astronaut (Shepard). They go through some pretty perilous things, and like Jumanji, there's also a bit of time-traveling in this one, but it's more complicated and doesn't make any sense. It turns out that the astronaut is actually Walter as an adult. Back when he played the game with his brother, he got a Shooting Star card which meant he could wish for anything he wanted and he wished for his brother to never be born. If that's the case, then how is younger Walter playing the game with his brother. It didn't make any sense.

You know what game-come-to-life movie they should make next? FIREBALL ISLAND! Now I know Jumanji and Zathura weren't based on actual games (duh), but I know they made a game into Jumanji after the movie (how disappointed do you think the kids who received that were?!), but Fireball Island would make an awesome movie if it were done in the same vein as Jumanji or Zathura. 

For those of you not familiar with Fireball Island, the point was pretty much to get your guy from start to finish without being knocked over by a fireball (i.e. a red marble). I forgot what triggered the fireballs, I think it was if you stepped on a certain colored stone or picked a certain card. But that was always my favorite part: to see the fireball knock someone down. It was also great when someone was standing on one of the bridges and the marble would knock them into the water, haha. I just know it would make a really exciting movie! Hmm, maybe I should start writing the screenplay!

FIREBALL ISLAND!! 

Breaking Dawn book review

I've finished reading "Breaking Dawn" which means I've finished reading the entire series of "Twilight!" Please help me celebrate by viewing my videos! I even brought the champagne and Aqua music!

Okay, at 1:07, I say that Edwards thinks Jacob will listen to Bella. Well, I meant that Edward thinks Bella will listen to Jacob. I probably had too much champagne at that point! 

Childhood Christmas Classic

Home Alone
Director: Chris Columbus
Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, John Candy
Released: November 16, 1990

Oscar nominations: (I had no idea this movie was nominated for any Oscars; probably because I didn't start watching the Oscars until 1995-ish).
Best Score - John Williams (lost to John Barry for Dances with Wolves)
Best Song - "Somewhere in My Memory" by John Williams (lost to "Sooner or Later I Always Get My Man" by Stephen Sondheim from Dick Tracy)

I'm going to try to make it a tradition to review at least one holiday movie around this time of year. Two years ago I reviewed Elf, last year I reviewed Love, Actually and this year I opted for a favorite of mine from my childhood. I remember seeing Home Alone in the theaters and just thinking it was the funniest thing ever. I still think it's pretty funny (the whole gag with the statue outside the house always falling down when it's hit by the airpot shuttle or pizza delivery car never fails to make me giggle and I love the scene with the pizza delivery boy and the video. "Well, sir, you have to pay for your pizza!"). I have to wonder, though, if I would still like this movie if it came out in this day and age. It came out when I was in fourth grade, so of course I was the target audience for it. Obviously the entire cast would be changed as they would all be too old and there would be little changes made to make it more current. It's funny because I was watching the commentary with Chris Columbus and Macaulay Culkin (which they recorded about five years ago) and they sort of joked that if the movie were made today, it would be over right before the family gets to the airport because with all the security measurements they would never make it on the plane, especially if they just had minutes to spare. Not to mention that they would all have cell phones to contact Kevin. Macaulay also joked that he wouldn't be in it because he was 26, unless he was living in his parents' basement and they forgot him on their trip to Paris. Who knew Macaulay Culkin was so funny?

How bad of a mother is Catherine O'Hara in this? I mean, who forgets their own child when leaving for a trip? I do think the movie does a good job of making it as realistic as possible. Yes, most mothers would not forget their own child, but for the sake of the movie, they do set it up as you can see why they just forget about him. First, there was fifteen people in that house (which looked like it could hold about 100 - that is a really nice house). Then we have it set up where Kevin gets in trouble (and I can totally empathize with him for having an older provoking brother) and has to sleep upstairs in the attic alone. Then there's a storm and the power goes out and everyone wakes up late and is in a mad dash to the airport. And of course we have Kevin's neighbor friend come over and he is accidentally counted as Kevin. (I loved that kid - "Does this van get good gas mileage? Does it have four-wheel drive? Does it have automatic transmission? How much horse power does it have?") So I can see how it's possible they would forget about him. The one thing that didn't really make any sense was after Kevin's mom lands in Paris and gets in touch with the police back home and they send an officer over to check on him. It didn't make any sense that he didn't say he was the police and didn't go in and check to see if the kid was hurt or something. But I guess if that had happened, the movie would be over.

I mentioned earlier how funny I thought this movie was when I was a kid and it still makes me laugh but it's only now watching it as someone older and wiser do I realize what a warped little kid Kevin was. (Maybe it was watching Angels with Filthy Souls.) Some of the things Harry and Marv have to endure when they attempt to rob Kevin's house are almost things Jack Bauer would think of to torture terrorists! The blowtorch to the head, the hand touching the hot knob, the hot iron in the face, the bare foot on the nail (oh, that scene always makes me cringe), and the bare feet stepping on those glass ornaments. Not to mention both of them falling down the icy steps.

I don't know how Kevin cleaned up the house because his mother (and the rest of the family) arrived home the next morning. He must have been up all night - or maybe he called a cleaning service! I always get a little teary-eyed when Kevin is reunited with his mother and well as when he sees his scary neighbor reunited with his family and when he's walking outside and sees a happy family together at Christmas and he's all alone. It's so sad!

I think Chris Columbus is a little clueless. Here is a funny exchange between him and Macaulay during the commentary. (And remember, the commentary was filmed around 2006-07).
Columbus: I think he went on to be in a popular kids' show (referring to Kevin's red-headed brother, Jeff).
Culkin: Yeah, The Adventures of Pete and Pete.
Columbus: Is that still on the air?
Culkin: Uh.....no.

Is Pete and Pete still on the air? Is he serious? Dude, Michelle Trachtenberg was on that show before she was on Buffy and she first joined that cast in 2001! Trust me, it's been awhile since Pete and Pete has been on the air. (It ran from '93-'96 according to IMDb). That just made me laugh.

To go back and answer my own question about whether I would like this movie if it came out in this day and age? Probably not. It wouldn't have the nostalgic factor!

It's Time To Meet the Muppets

The Muppets
Director: James Bobin
Cast: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, Rashida Jones, Jack Black, The Muppets
Released: November 23, 2011
Viewed in theaters: November 28, 2011

This is my history with the Muppets. When The Muppet Show was on air, I wasn't even born when it premiered and way too young to watch it when it ended. I have seen episodes either from re-runs or videos, but even then it's been awhile. I am very familiar (and love) the theme song because I have it on my iPod. It's a very catch song (and they do play it in the movie). How can you not love it?

I remember watching the animated series Muppet Babies, which thinking back now, doesn't make any sense because the Muppets are puppets and puppets can't be cartoons. But I digress. And of course I'm sure I've seen many movies the Muppets have starred in, but the only one I can remember seeing is A Muppet Christmas Carol which I saw in the theater nineteen (!!!!) years ago. Oh, and of course I watched Sesame Street when I was a kid and Kermit was on that show often if I remember correctly. I go back and forth on who my favorite Muppet is, but I have a soft spot for Rowlf. He's really adorable AND he's a piano playing dog! You guys, I totally want a piano playing dog. But I do love Kermit. And Gonzo. And Beaker. And Animal! ANIMAL!

At the beginning of the movie, we are introduced to brothers Gary and Walter. Gary is played by Jason Segel, who also co-wrote the movie. Walter is played...by a muppet. Don't ask me how they're brothers. We never meet the parents, but it did make me wonder how that would work. It's like when I read Harry Potter and wondered how Hagrid's father could be a human and his mother a giant. And these are for kids! I didn't know why they didn't make Gary and Walter best friends, but it was funny when they did a montage of them growing older, Gary would keep getting taller and taller and Walter would stay the same height.

"Maniacal laugh! Maniacal laugh!"

Being that Walter is a muppet, he is a fan of the Muppets. He's ecstatic when Gary invites him along to the trip to Los Angeles he's planned with his longtime girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams, who doesn't have much to do besides be adorable). They go on a tour of the Muppet Studio but find it's abandoned and dusty and while hiding, Walter overhears an evil oil tycoon (aptly named Tex Richman (played by Chris Cooper)) telling his cronies his plans for tearing the entire studio down because there's oil underneath. If you've ever wanted to hear Chris Cooper rap, this is the movie for you! Yes, you read that right!

Walter relays the news to Gary and Mary and they find Kermit and convince him to get the Muppets together to try to save their studio. The entire gang (Fozzie! Miss Piggy! Gonzo! Rowlf! Animal! Scooter! Beaker! Dr. Bunsen! Swedish Chef! The two old dudes from the balcony! And the others!) reunite and put on a telethon to help raise money. The show is reminiscent  of The Muppet Show, only it's called The Muppet Telethon. My favorite moment of the telethon was when the chickens squawked Cee Lo's F--- You (Cluck You?) Now I will never be able to listen to that song without hearing a bunch of chickens clucking.

It's a sweet movie, but not overly saccharine. There's plenty of laugh out loud moments that don't resort to stupid and juvenile jokes, but not all the jokes work all the time, especially the meta jokes. The only meta joke that did make me laugh was when they were going across the country finding all the Muppets and after they had picked up three or four of them, one of them suggested to Gary that they do a montage to make it go faster. There's also an ongoing gag with Kermit's butler, '80s Robot. I loved how everyone calls Kermit "Mr. The Frog."

I really didn't care about our human leads that much, but since they were there they had to have a plot. It's just Mary thinks Gary is finally going to propose to her, but he becomes so busy with helping the Muppets with their Telethon that he forgets that it's their anniversary. Their story coincides with Kermit and Miss Piggy who have been separated for awhile (Miss Piggy was found in Paris as the editor of a fashion magazine where she became like the Meryl Streep character in The Devil Wears Prada, in fact Emily Blunt plays her assistant), but they reconcile in the end.

There's plenty of celebrity cameos, but not as many as I thought there would be. There's your Whoopi Goldberg for the older folks and Selena Gomez for the youn'uns. I don't think Jack Black would be counted as a cameo. Even though he plays himself he has a big role in the movie as the Muppets kidnap him because they need a celebrity host for their show.

I forgot to mention this is a musical, but you probably already knew that. Of course a movie about the Muppets wouldn't be complete if "The Rainbow Connection" and "Mah Na Mah Na" weren't sung. I may have been too young to watch The Muppet Show, but even I'm familiar with those songs. The main song of the movie is called "Life's a Happy Song" and it's just as cute and jovial as you would think it is. I also loved Amy Adams rocking out to "Me Party". ("I'm having a me party! A party by myself! Me party! I don't need nobody else!) Kermit singing "Pictures in My Head" almost got me choked up. Okay, I'll admit it: even though I didn't cry, I did get a little choked up a few times during the movie.

Obviously if you're a fan of the Muppets or grew up with them, I definitely recommend this movie. It is really cute and brought back memories of my childhood. I kind of want to see it again!