Away We Go

Last night I went to see Away We Go with my friend Erika. I loved this movie - I thought it was funny and touching and had a perfect ending. This has nothing to do with the fact that my brilliant cousin, Anne Yvette, worked on this movie. I think I would have loved it anyway, because, well, she also works on Law & Order and I don't watch that, ever.

It's apparently not in wide release yet, because my sister Leslie told me it's not playing near her, but if it's playing near you, go see it!

One to avoid.

Last night I went to a screening of Nights in Rodanthe, the new movie based on a book by Nicholas Sparks. I don't read his books, but I liked the movie of The Notebook, so I thought, why not.

This movie was AWFUL. I mean, really, really bad. The parts that were supposed to be romantic had people rolling in the aisles with laughter. I decided it was one of the top three worst movies I've seen all year, and I said if someone threatened me with an extremely sadistic form of torture and made me chose one of the three to watch again, it wouldn't be this one for sure. (The other two? Sex Drive and 10,000 B.C., if that tells you anything about how bad this one is.)

Possibly the worst part, though, was that Nicholas Sparks was there, and he did a question and answer afterwards. I think he was trying to be funny, but he came across as super full of himself. For example, someone said, "How do you feel about being a man who writes romance novels?" and he said, "I don't write romance novels; I write Greek tragedies." And then compared himself to Hemmingway and Shakespeare.

We had to sneak out during his talk as I couldn't take it anymore!

What's the worst movie you've seen all year?

Movie Poll!

I'm going to California this weekend to visit Amy and baby Aidan! As usual, I have some weird netflix choices. I've already seen Prince Caspian, but you can vote for it anyway... it's the movie being shown by Delta.

What movie should I watch on my flights?
	Maid of Honor
	Leolo
	The Boys
	Ballykissangel: Series 3
	Charmed: Season 8
	Prince Caspian
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Movie Poll!

I'm going to Phoenix this weekend to visit my friends Matt & Angela. It's a long flight... pretty much the same distance as flying to London from Washington. They show one movie on the flight, but the one for the way there is Seabiscuit, which I've already seen. So I didn't include it in the poll.

What movies should I watch on my flights this weekend?
	Charmed Seasons 7 & 8 (only one episode left in season 7 for me!)
	Veronica Mars season 1
	Down to Earth
	The Notebook
	The Great Debaters
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Flying Time

Yesterday I had the strangest flight back to Washington. There were two women, one seated in row 1, and one in row 3, who were traveling together. I was in row three, next to one of them. The one in row 1 first asked the girl next to her to change places with her friend, but she said no because her leg was broken and she wanted the extra space in the front row. Then she asked me to trade. I said no because I don't like the front row. You have to put all your bags in the overhead bin and I like keeping one under the seat in front of me.

The woman then explained to the flight attendant that she wanted to sit with her friend. He said the flight was overbooked, so he wouldn't be able to reseat them together. She then said, "well, can you make the girl sitting next to my friend trade seats with me?" That would be me. The flight attendant, luckily, looked at her as if she were crazy and said, "um. No."

And now, in a truly shocking turn of events, I have another movie poll for you guys! I leave on Thursday for Argentina. It's a very long flight, but I'm going to hope I can sleep. I'll watch one movie for sure, maybe two, depending on the whole sleeping thing. I took out the movies I've already seen (August Rush and Juno) and added a few of my netflix choices.

What movie should I watch on my flight to Argentina?
	Dan in Real Life
	Ira and Abby
	Martian Child
	Reservation Road
	The Gift
	Spy Kids 2
	Veronica Mars: Season 1
	Charmed: Season 7
Free polls from Pollhost.com

On this weekend's flights, I first watched part of Charmed: Season 7 (I am addicted to this show! I never watched it on tv but somehow on dvd I love it) and Into the Wild on yesterday's flight. Into the Wild was very good and moving but sad.

I went to Denmark this weekend.

And it poured down rain and was really really windy. I still made the trek out to see the Little Mermaid statue. With my umbrella being turned inside out. But I survived. Overall I liked Copenhagen a lot, and I would love to go back when the weather is better and I am less tired from various weekend jaunts all over Northern Europe.

I was thwarted once again in my attempts to learn about the Vikings, though. I went to the Danish National History Museum, as I was promised an entire floor about Viking history. I got there, and discovered that whole floor was closed for renovations. I'm beginning to sense a conspiracy...

On the flight there, I watched Across the Universe as the winner of the poll. Now, overall I liked it, but I don't know that I would say it was an actual movie per say. More of a 2 hour long music video dedicated to other people singing various Beatles songs. Not much of a story. If that's not your bag, then I don't recommend this movie.

Click here for more photos.

Movie Poll!

(Note: I took out the movies I'd already seen - December Boys and Elizabeth: The Golden Age)

What movie should I watch on my flight?
	Bee Movie
	The Game Plan
	Gone Baby Gone
	Michael Clayton
	Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Free polls from Pollhost.com

The Golden Compass

Yesterday, I went with djlicious and The Roommate and Erika to see The Golden Compass. Now, I really liked the movie. I thought the CG stuff was well done and I liked the story. I have not read the book so I don't know how it compares.

What we didn't like? They never turned the lights all the way out! They were dimmed, but you know how they normally go totally out after the previews? It didn't happen. The dj complained to the manager and we all got free passes for a future movie. Thanks, dj!

In other exciting news? I finally finished knitting something. Seriously, it has been forever. And if you are either my parents or Reuss and you are thinking, "I think she was working on that at my house, oh, like, MONTHS ago?" You'd be correct.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The other night, I went to a screening of In the Valley of Elah. (Side note: it was really good, but seriously depressing.) Anyway. About halfway through the movie, I started hearing this weird noise. I finally decided it was someone snoring.

Snoring! In a movie! Really loudly!

I turned to Alison and whispered, "Is someone snoring?"

Alison nodded.

Hum. I puzzled. The guy was clearly no where near me, and the theatre was fairly large. I would not be able to figure out who it was. And, I mean, I've fallen asleep in movies before, but I've never snored in them!

The guy got progressively louder. Finally, someone yelled out "Could someone PLEASE wake that guy up?"

Everyone laughed. I could hear someone hitting and/or kicking the back of his chair.

The snoring continued.

Someone said, "Hey, buddy! Time to get up!" Which I guess worked, because we stopped hearing the snoring.

But he didn't get up and leave. Pretty amazing, considering he'd probably missed some key parts to the movie, and also, if I were him, I would have been really embarrassed.

Is this better or worse than other movie theatre offenses, like ringing phones, babies in R rated movies, and/or carrying on your own conversation during the film? Please discuss.

My Best Friend

I went last night to a last minute screening of the French movie My Best Friend. This was a very sweet movie and my friends and I all liked it a lot.

A couple of observations, though. First, the two people sitting directly behind me and Alison got up and left after about 2 minutes of the movie. Now, considering the one sitting behind me was kicking the back of my seat, and the one sitting behind Alison was chattering away during the opening credits, I was not at all sorry to see them go. But they got up, loudly, and said, "This is in FRENCH!" Um. OK. It shouldn't be a surprise. No one else walked out so I think everyone else was prepared to read and also liked the movie.

The second observation? The subtitles! Sometimes they leave things out. Sometimes they are just flat out wrong. For example:

Characters in the movie say:

Francois: Do you have plans tonight?
Catherine: I'm meeting friends for dinner.

Subtitles say:

Francois: Are you eating tonight?
Catherine: Yes, with friends.

WHY did they change that? It made absoultely no difference to the storyline! How weird.

Let's Go to the Movies!

I went to the movies again last night, this time to see Ocean's 13. (which was entertaining, as was Shrek 3 last week.) In last week's comments, Amie asked whether the movie was in English, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to explain the differences and similarities between the movies in the States and the movies in Belgium. (or France, as I've been to the movies a lot in France as well!)

First off, to answer Amie's question, both movies I saw were in English. They were subtitled in both French and Dutch. Sometimes, especially with bigger movies, you will have a choice of dubbed or subtitled. If you are reading a movie schedule, the ones that are dubbed will have a little VF next to the title, meaning version francais. The ones that are subtitled will have a VO next to the title, meaning version originale. In Belgium, it will also say VOstBIL, meaning subtitled bilingual, VOstFR, meaning subtitled in French because the audio is in Dutch, or VOstNL, meaning subtitled in Dutch because the audio is in French.

In smaller towns in France or Belgium, you often won't have a choice. The movies will be dubbed. And a lot of times for kids' movies, you won't have a choice, they will be dubbed. But in big cities like Brussels and Paris, you will have a choice and even kids' movies will be offered in their original languages.

Another thing that is different is the snack selection. People do eat popcorn, but a lot of French people prefer sugar, not salt, on their popcorn. So you do have a choice of sugar or salt (sucre or sale) popcorn, but it's not generally made fresh at the theatre. Other snacks often on offer include nachos, ice cream, candy, and chips, just like at home. One thing I like a lot is in bigger theatres they often have someone walk through with a basket of snacks you can buy from your seat before the show.

Another thing they do here that I like a lot and I wish we had at home is you can subscribe to the movies. It's a monthly pass. You pay 14 euro 90 here in Brussels per month and you get a little card that allows you to go to the movies whenever you like, as many times per month as you like. Considering one ticket is 9 or 10 euro, you only need to go to 2 movies per month for it to be worthwhile.

The one thing I hate about the movies in Brussels is that they charge you to use the bathroom. It's only 30 eurocents, but still. This is not something I remember from Paris.

And finally, the movies in Brussels are ALWAYS crowded. Last night was a Tuesday. Ocean's 13 has been out for a while. It wasn't jam packed, but it was a lot more crowded than I expected and a lot more full than an 8:30 on a Tuesday night showing would have been at home.

There's your cultural education for the day! Any questions?

Movie Review

I went to a movie screening last night, for Gray Matters. This movie was terrible. Awful. Don't go see it.

The story idea is actually fairly cute. A brother & sister are best friends. The brother meets a girl and falls in love. The sister falls in love, too, also with the brother's girl. The sister realizes she might be a lesbian.

It's just so poorly made, it felt like a made-for-cable movie. Not even good enough for the Sunday night CBS movie of the week slot, you know? Heather Graham played the sister, and she was terrible. When we left, my friend Mandy asked me if Heather Graham is always that bad. Some of the scenes just went on way too long. There are too many coincidences.

All this horrible-ness, and it's only 90 minutes long. Felt like 3 hours. I did see some people walk out. But I think for the most part, the audience actually maybe liked it! People clapped when it was over.

Don't see this movie. If you do, don't say I didn't warn you!

Movie Review

OK, the other day, an anonymous commenter asked for a review of the movie I saw on Tuesday. So here it is.

We actually didn't see one movie, but a whole bunch of movies, because what we saw were the Oscar nominated animated shorts. We saw the winner, The Danish Poet, which was very sweet but for some reason, none of us could figure out what made it any more special than the others. We all three liked the one starring that squirrel from Ice Age - I think it was called Time for Nuts or something. They also showed the films that were considered but not nominated. One was a story of love among rats, and the animation was really well done. The subway trains didn't even look animated!

I'd like to see the live action shorts, too, but I don't know if I'll have time.

In other news, my cousin Katie had a baby yesterday! Yay, I have a new cousin. His name is Michael.

In additional other news, I am so mad at the phone company it's beginning to affect the rest of my life. I didn't sleep well last night because I kept thinking of all the things I need to say to them. I mean, I haven't had a home phone since Monday, despite my repeated calls, requests to speak to supervisors, and scheduled-but-not-kept service appointments.

Oscars... Yawn... What Was I Saying?

It snowed here yesterday. Which meant that although I was supposed to go to an Oscars party, I didn't, because we were afraid it would ice over while we were out. So I watched the show from the comfort of my apartment.

I'm actually glad it happened this way, despite the fact that I lost the $15 I had used to pre-paid my ticket for the party. I put on my pyjamas. Made some macaroni and cheese. And sat down for the Main Event.

However. From the beginning, the show just wasn't holding my interest. I don't know what it was. I love Ellen DeGeneres! But halfway through the monologue, I got up and started cleaning the apartment. I kept right on cleaning, checking in periodically for updates, until around 10:45 when I got in bed. By 11:30, when it seemed like the show was going to go on and on and on forever, and we didn't even know who the best actor/actress/director was yet, I turned it off and went to sleep.

I know this show takes place in California, but please, throw us East Coasters a bone. Let's start at 7:30 next year if it's going to go on this long!

Thanks for the ideas!

Thanks, guys, for the ideas... I think I'll start with Amie's suggestion, because I did go to a movie screening last night, but I'll try to get to the other suggestions as well. Especially yours, Amanda-my-favorite-baby-sister. (You better hope my other sister doesn't want your title; Papa apparently thinks she could have it as well, even though I explained I have 1 baby sister and 1 little sister, not 2 baby sisters.)

So. Last night I went to a screening of Zodiac, which is about the Zodiac killer in San Francisco in the 70s. Apparently based on a true story, but I didn't know anything about it before I saw the movie. This guy, the Zodiac, was a serial killer, and he sent letters and cryptograms to the San Francisco Chronicle detailing his plans. At the same time, the newspaper's cartoonist, Robert Graysmith, was obsessed with figuring out the Zodiac's identity.

This movie was good. Really good, in fact. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to think much of it, because I'm not overly fond of serial killers. But the story is very compelling and it draws you in. Jake Gyllenhaal, as the cartoonist, does a great job.

The movie is not really all that violent, considering it's about a serial killer. There were a couple scenes that I had to hide behind my coat, but that's about it. It was definitely suspenseful, though! At one point, I was so nervous for poor Jake Gyllenhaal. Apparently, so was everyone else, because someone in the audience yelled out "RUN!" I don't think he even knew he had spoken out loud - everyone was so into the story! My friend, Mandy, who came with me to the screening, didn't even hear the guy yell out run, that's how in to the story she was.

The downside of the movie is it is long. 2 hours and 40 minutes long. I am not overly fond of long movies, but as Mandy pointed out, "it didn't feel, like, Lord of the Rings long. Just long enough to tell the story." So we hardly even noticed it was nearly 3 hours long.

Recommended!

Let's Go to the Movies

So, I was all set to write about how I saw a zillion movies over the weekend, when I realized, I really only saw 2 and a quarter. And one was only 45 minutes long!

That said, I will tell you about my 2 (and a quarter) movies. First, I went to a screening of an IMAX movie, Sharks 3D. They gave us a free gift, even! (a little box, sort of like a viewmaster, with a 3D shark inside.) (not a real shark. A photo of a shark.) Anyway, the movie was interesting, but definitely not the best IMAX movie I've ever seen.

Then, I went to see The Holiday. This movie was cute and a lot better than I thought it was going to be! I liked the Kate Winslet storyline better than the Cameron Diaz storyline. If you're looking for something to do one night, this one is worth seeing.

My quarter of a movie was the Japanese (original) version of Shall We Dance?. I put the dvd on and got in to bed. Then I realized the tv in my bedroom is only 13" big and I was having a bit of trouble reading the subtitles whilst laying in bed. But what I saw looked good! I will watch the rest of it this week.

Also... has anyone not been able to sign up for blogger beta? There was a link on my dashboard, but when I tried to sign up, it told me I couldn't!

Marie Antoinette

I saw the movie last night. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I wanted to love it, I promise I did. I just found parts of it a wee bit slow.

Pretty, though, it was. Pretty pretty clothes. Pretty pretty buildings. Pretty pretty skies.

Pretty pretty shoes. Is it OK to be jealous of a movie portrayal of a dead queen's shoe collection? 'Cause I am.

My problem, though, was that I felt like they didn't explain enough. They never said she was 14 when she got married. They made it clear she had, um, problems in the bedroom, but they didn't make it clear that it was 7 years before her marriage was consummated. They showed her getting dressed in front of an audience, having dinner in front of an audience, giving birth in front of an audience, but they never really showed how much that bothered her.

Overall, I'd recommend it, but unless you're like me, dying to see it, I'd say it can wait for DVD.

And I got more pressies!

I can't get spell check to open. Hope I don't have any mistakes here!

The Funkybunch

They are filming a movie outside of my office today. Well, actually, most of the filming appears to be going on at the FBI building, which is right next door.

I made my co-worker come with me and we took a walk to see what we could see.

What we could see was Mark Wahlberg. He's the one in the white button down shirt and khaki pants. (well, you can see his backside here.)

Craig left feeling pleased - he's taller than Marky Mark.