More Movies

We saw a few more movies over the long weekend.

The first was The Notebook from our Blockbuster queue. Guess it got in front of the rest of the Oscar movies. I knew this was a girly, sappy romance going into it but in all fairness it wasn’t really that bad. Transparent and totally predicable, yes. But still entertaining enough. The two lead actors were easy to watch and while the story is as old as time, the ending is still sweet each time. But I’m not sure it’s one I’d want for our personal collection as I don’t think I’d really watch it over and over (à la Clueless or Sliding Doors, each of which I’ve watched 20+ times, easily. And Benny and Joon is probably up there too.)

Second movie of the weekend was Enchanted. We went to the first show on Saturday and managed to avoid big crowds, excessive amounts of children, and the higher non-matinee ticket prices. Of course we blew all our savings on the tickets by visiting the concession stand. Oh well, what are you going to do? Anyway, I had heard great things about this film and Amy Adams had been on "Rachael Ray" earlier in the week so I was excited to see this movie. My sister categorizes it as unforgettable. I don’t know about that. I’ve had those songs stuck in my head ever since. It’s classic Disney in some aspects, but it seems to be making fun of itself for most of the film. Which I think is great. Anyway, an innocent romp with a princess through New York complete with a mass stage production in what I assume was Central Park. This is one I may consider purchasing when it comes out on DVD.

The third movie of the weekend was Deck the Halls. Once again Blockbuster was out of Ocean’s Thirteen so we had to pick something else. We had intended to see this one in the theaters last year but never quite got around to it. Adam fell asleep about 2/3rds of the way through but I don’t think he really missed that much. It’s a cute holiday-themed movie without a lot of substance. Typical feuding neighbor story with a hug and kisses ending. I can’t get enough of Kristin Chenoweth though. I’d watch just about any movie she’s in. Or musical either, as the case may be. She was on "Conan" a while back and just blew me away.

The fourth (and final) movie of the weekend was the elusive Ocean’s Thirteen. But Martha, you might say, you just said Blockbuster was fresh out of copies of this DVD. True, I’d say, but we have digital cable with Movies on Demand. So rather than spend the next few weeks in the seemingly futile chase for a DVD copy we decided to push a few buttons on the remote and watch it that way. It’s a little more annoying than a hard copy because when you pause the movie and then hit play again it rewinds itself by like five minutes, but it works. The third in this series is as quirky and smart as the first two. There’s a definite lack of female star power in this one though, Ellen Barkin being the only female role I can recall. And she spends the whole film in a skin-tight, cleavage-bearing, red dress running after Al Pacino. Not too women’s lib there. Wonder who the target audience could be? Anyway, the whole gang sets out for revenge when Pacino’s character, Willie Bank, dupes their pal Reuben into losing pretty much everything - including consciousness when he has a heart attack and winds up catatonic in the hospital. They plan to ruin the opening of Bank’s latest hotel, having a little fun along the way. There are digs at France, plenty of stupid jokes, and the continued barrage of insults toward Matt Damon’s Linus. It’s easy to see why the guys have so much fun making these films. It’s a good group of actors and they make entertaining films.