Nothing like a western to throw in the mix of girly movies. That is the nice part of having the movies in alphabetical order, never know what's next. I wasn't sure how to file this because of the colon, so it is three hundred ten. Whatever.

This film rocks my world. I actually watched it twice and all of the special features prior to writing this entry. To make a good western is not easy. It has to be believable bad guys, good guys, an old fashioned shoot out at the coral and a good woman or two. The plot line in the movie is always simple but the characters, well that's what determines the western's worthiness... at least to me. This movie has all of that and more.

The characters relationships are developed from the first scene of a child coughing due to tuberculousis and his big brother who reads dime novels about outlaws. There are relationships of fathers and their sons, honor, decency, poverty, marriage, loyalty, down right rotteness that makes todays thugs look like chumps and through out it all, a strange twisted friendship between a murderer and a rancher.

The costumes are specific and elaborate. The bad guys wear what they can find and have a mixture of business men's vests and hats to civil war coats of leather. The guns are six shooters and double barrel shot guns, even a gatlin machine gun is used. The scenery is real to is point of abuse to the actors themselves. At one point we can see how the wait of the dress keeps Dan's wife, Alice, in a constant state of sweat due to the Arizona desert mixed with the layers in a woman's clothing. The music is always pensive and encourages the audience to stay with Dan on his quest to put Ben Wade on the train.

This movie is well acted, well directed, well produced. The characters change and grow with the interaction of each other allowing the audience to recognize that bad guys aren't all bad, good guys are all good and weaklings die in the old west.

I love this movie. Mostly for personal reasons. It has reality, humor, tragedy, self discovery. Sandra Bullock plays a drunk trying to get sober in a 28 day rehab center. She has a beau who is also a drunk and the epitome of who she was before she made a decision to get sober and a "friend" who is in the same situation she is, where sobriety seems to be a possibility. There is some romance added in for flavor, but not in a sense of the boy meets girl movies. This light hearted look at addiction addresses some real issues of addicts such as relapse, jails, and death. The characters who she goes to treatment with are a mix of rich, poor, smart, young, old, not so smart, jocks, and goths. This is a good cross section of people that gives the ensemble a lot to work with for their characters, but also allows the audience to see that addiction affects everyone. The movie draws you in through a fast past sequence of events in Gwen's (Sandra Bullock)drinking into the slower paced life of rehabilitation. There is a crisis point when in rehab where Gwen has to decide for herself if she really wants to be sober or not. Through Sandra Bullocks acting, we are emotional tied to her decisions, we recognize her pain and confusion and the audience member is swayed into the movie. From that point on, we fall into the movie easily.

I would watch this movie over and over and over. I did not see it in the movie theaters because it came out while I was in rehab, but I would have and own it and watch it regularly when I need a little encouragement. Watch it! You'll love Gwen and wish her the best of luck in her journey.

I am a huge Grey's Anatomy fan. Every time they showed the trailor for this film in Grey's, it made me want to see it. Then it came and went and never saw it in the theatre. Then it came and went and never rented it. Then out of no where, it was in the $5 bin at Walmart and I bought it. I watched it. And then I realized why I never saw it in the theatre or rented it! I love Kathryn Heigl. She is so good on Grey's. Her transition to film is a take what you can get kinda thing. This movie is like a "hey I am in movies now" kinda piece. Don't get me wrong, it is cute, but predictable. She does her work well, it is just a silly movie. I think what I dislike the most is that the costuming was horrible. They put this beautiful tall supermodel in Meg Ryan clothes. She doesn't fit in Meg Ryan clothes. She is TALL. What's worse is that she was taller than her love interest. Over and over it was aweful. Her humor is great. Her acting is the part she play in Grey's which is what most people want to see. But the movie, not so much. It is a once in a while watch. Maybe close to a one time is enough. At least I made it all the way through. Some movies don't even make it that far! It does have a feel good notion to it. Girl meets boy, doesn't like boy, is the obvious choice for her. Girl finally gets it that he is the boy for her. Woohoo. Feel good. That's about all there is to it. Is it worth $5? Yeah, I guess so. I will probably watch it again one day, just not any time soon.

You should be forewarned: I have a soft spot for a teeny bop. Teeny bop qualifies as a movie that has little to no adults in it and the teens do whatever, whenever. The genre's bar was raised as a result of my favorite teens, Dawson Creek. This was good because it meant you had to know a thing or two in order to watch it. It became a requirement to be educated otherwise there was no following the dialogue. 10 Things I Hate About You, meets this bar and raises it again.

This movie is a wonderful rendition of Shakespear's Taming of the Shrew. With the cast loaded in star power, Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles take top bill as the lead of Patrick Verona and Kat Stratford. The set is at Padua High so as to include cliques, teenage insecurities and of course, gym class. In keeping with the tradition of the teeny's films, there is lots of rock music to an almost music video style. However, constant references and puns for Shakespear give the cast high humor to play along with mixing in some of the slap stick of youth. This twist of being teens thrown into the world of the dear William turns out for a delightful, well thought out romantic comedy.

This movie falls in my rentable and buy at the $9 or less range. This is a very watchable, funny, interesting, well played, well written movie. It won an MTV award for best breakthrough performance by an actress (Julia Stiles). It is very teeny bop. It is an excellent film to show in highschool on those days when there is nothing left to do for seniors other than sign yearbooks. It is also a good date movie for those who are renting dvds and popping popcorn at home.

ps this is the first time I have ever written a review and am not sure what I am doing yet. So maybe it will get better with more practice.

I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, this weekend with my husband. The reasons I like movies is because they make me think, evoke emotion, or are sometimes just plain art worthy of taking note. The question that was raised from Benjamin Button was not about birth or death, time or age, but right at the end, he talks about because some people are mothers, swimmers, lovers, daughters...etc,etc. It made me think what am I? I like to try to be a musician on my good days. It is something that my Mom & Dad have instilled in me, but it is more them than me. I like to be a Daughter of the King, except when I go crazy, it vanishes. I like to be scrap-booker, but I recognize that I am only a novice who likes crafts, much like every other ten year old in America. I think I have finally figured out what I do, what I am. I watch movies.


I am a movie watcher. I watch them on dvd, whether owned, rented or netflixed. I watch them on the big screen. I categorize them in an odd fashion of, rentable, buyable, see when in the theatre, see is in the theatre the day it comes out and of course there is any combination of these levels. The super-duper-omg-zowee is when I have to see it the day it comes out, rent it until it until you can buy it, buy it for $22 when it comes out and get the soundtrack for gosh sakes! There are not many of those.


This is something too that my Mom & Dad have given me, that has ended up being more mine than theirs. I have 152 dvds currently. I watch a movie almost everyday. Some people do facebook, others alcohol, others are swimmers, lovers and mothers, I am really, really a movie watcher. I thought about having everything tallied to impress you at the number of Golden Globes and Oscars I have, but that is a bigger task and will be issued at a later date. So far I have 32 Oscars and 18 Golden Globes and that is not even to the first 50 movies. I like a good movie.

For a long time I have been teased by friends about my movie watching. They are always trying to catch a flick I haven't seen. It is pretty hard.

I even have movie friends, such as Debbie. We ditch the boys and go see movies all the time together.

The thing that I don't watch a lot of is comedy. Not romantic comedy (duh, I am a girl) but that awful new form of comedy that assumes we must be stupid, sarcastic and down right horrifically appealing to the masses. Unfortunately, I do have stepsons who buy my husband that stuph, so we actually own a copy of the 40-Year Old Virgin, which is not in my count of 152 movies.

All this being said, every blog has a theme, my theme will be movies because it is what I do more than anything else outside of God. I have alphabetized my movies. I will watch them starting at the beginning with 10 Things I Hate About You and go through Yoga. I will review, give each movie a rating, talk about their Oscars or lack their of, will talk about the reason I like it or don't. This will give some focus to this blog. Although I will say on occasion I will still set out on the emotion isms that just need to be blogged about so watch out for that every once in a while. And with that, I am going to watch a movie!

Resolutions:

To be more watchful for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear.
To grow in my prayer and meditation.
To be helpful where no one else can.

GROW UP...some more.