From The Past: February 1, 2009

You could refer to January as the month of slow movies. Some of these were downright painful, but my favorite was Little Miss Sunshine. I have seen it twice now and know I will definitely see it again. If you live in Winchester, you can rent it from the library free of charge. I know they have several copies because this is where I rented my copy.

1-1-09 Burn After Reading – A woman who works at a gym wants plastic surgery, however her insurance company refuses to pay the fees. When she finds a computer disk which she believes contains important information, she tries to blackmail the owner of the disk for money. This was one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen. I wasted 96 minutes of my day. I was actually shocked by how dull it was because there were so many big names such as George Clooney, John Malkovich, and Brad Pitt to name a few. Brad Pitt offered the only comedy and that was only because he played a nut.

1-2-09 Baby Mama – A woman desperately wants to have a baby, but finds herself to be infertile. Through an agency, she discovers a surrogate mother who is a little uncivilized. This was a cute, though predictable, comedy, but I am glad I watched it once.

1-4-09 Eagle Eye – Phone calls are made to two different people by a strange woman who gives them orders to do things they wouldn’t do in their ordinary lives. Action packed from start to finish, this was a good story.

1-7-09 Pineapple Express – I am embarrassed to admit to watching this “movie”. Andrew rented it thinking it was about a bank robbery. It turns out, it was far from it. “Pineapple Express” is actually a type of marijuana. The entire movie was a lot of violence and pot smoking. I wouldn’t want anyone to sit through this one.

1-10-09 Bangkok Dangerous – Nicolas Cage plays a hitman who has four jobs he must pull off in Bangkok. There was a lot of violence as expected.

1-15-09 Little Miss Sunshine – First off, if you’re going to watch this movie, you have to get past the foul language. The bad language wasn’t used as frequently as in Pineapple Express, but it was peppered throughout. Little Miss Sunshine is one of these children’s pageant’s you see on TV; one of those pageant’s where the four-year-old girls look to be eighteen – yep, one of those. Anyway, a little girl is given the chance to compete in this pageant, but for reason’s you find out in the movie, her parents must drive her there in their VW bus. The family lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the pageant is in California. Along the way one thing after another happens. I laughed even when it was clearly inappropriate to laugh. This is a good movie. It is slow-moving and more drama then comedy, but I will have to watch it again with Kevin.

1-15-09 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – When Miss Pettigrew is fired from her third governess position, she suddenly finds herself with the job of social secretary to a want-to-be famous actress. Set in 1939 London, this movie has terrific music if you enjoy Big Band (which I do). There is minimal cursing, some sexual innuendo and brief nudity thus the PG-13 rating.

1-16-09 Best in Show – This film was about five dog owners and their quest for their dogs to become “Best in Show”. I truly believe this was a fair representation of a lot of competitive dog owners. This was laugh-out-loud funny and one of those where you ask, “Did he really just say that?” It reminded me of the reality show Showdog Moms & Dads. Since the movie Best in Show was created in 2000 and Showdog Moms & Dads wasn’t filmed until 2005, you know there’s accuracy in there – lots of exactness. I loved that show and wish BRAVO would film another season.

1-16-07 Little Miss Sunshine – Kevin and I watched this movie together. I, once again, laughed and loved it. Kevin enjoyed it and laughed out loud a few times. He says, “You will enjoy it especially if you have a quirky sense of humor – like Tami does.”

1-17-09 Lars and the Real Girl – Lars Lindstrom is a man who, instead of having a conventional relationship with a real woman, buys a doll on the Internet and passes her off to his family and community as his new girlfriend. This movie was interesting, but a one-time film for me. It was very slow, but brought forth some surprising emotions.

1-17-09 In Her Shoes – Two sisters are torn apart when one, who mooches and boozes her way between men, sleeps with her sister’s boyfriend. This was a good movie and I enjoyed it, but it was another one-time only film.

1-18-09 The Crucible – This film is set in Salem and deals very loosely with the witch trials. It was incredibly slow and I would not recommend it. I find the Salem Witch Trials very interesting, so for me to say I did not like this is a big deal. That means it was boring as boring gets.

1-18-09 Children of Men – The year is 2027 and women can no longer have babies. The youngest person on earth is eighteen years old. When a woman is found to be pregnant after all these years, one man has to help transport her to place where she and her baby will be safe. This was a good action movie.

1-18-09 Timeline – A group of archaeology students must travel back in time to France in order to bring their Professor back home. This was a good movie, but could just as well have been made-for-TV.

1-19-09 An Ideal Husband – A very affluent, successful man who works for the government has a secret about how he earned his wealth. Someone tries to blackmail him by saying they know his secret and will reveal it to the government and his wife if he doesn’t do exactly what they want.

1-19-09 The Heartbreak Kid – A man gets married after only having known the woman six weeks. Once their honeymoon begins, he finds that she is much different than what he thought he knew. There were very few enjoyable moments. I would not recommend this film.

1-20-09 The Big Chill – College friends are brought together again to attend the funeral of another friend who committed suicide. The best thing about this movie is its terrific soundtrack.

1-20-09 The Bridges of Madison County – The setting was beautiful and the acting wonderful in this film from 1995, however I cannot recommend it. It is about a woman who commits adultery over a four day period in her life. I will not give the ending away, but I will say that they really try to pull at your heartstrings and make you feel sorry for this housewife. Their tactics didn’t work on me; I cannot feel sorry for her because she should have never gotten herself in the position to begin with.

1-21-09 All About Eve – This film is from 1950 and is in black and white. It was about a stage actress who comes to know a woman named Eve. Eve adores the actress and covets everything she has. She manages to befriend the actress and all the important people in the stage world. There is much more to this story, but I won’t give it away in case you decide to watch it.

1-23-09 Snow Falling on Cedars – A Japanese-American man is accused of killing an American man in the 1950’s. This wasn’t a bad movie; it was just extremely slow-moving. I mean SLOW! I would not spend two hours of my time to watch it again. I don’t believe it is worth your time either.

1-25-09 High Crimes – In this film, a high powered lawyer has to defend her own husband who is a Marine. This is a good drama. It may surprise you to know that the man who plays the part of the husband/Marine, also played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.

1-27-09 Away from Her – Flowing gray hair and all – Julie Christie is beautiful in this film which shows how Alzheimer’s disease affects a married couple. This is a bittersweet movie about enduring love.

1-27-09 Smart People – A slow, but interesting movie about a widowed professor who doesn’t really communicate well with people about anything other than things to do with himself. When someone brings this character flaw to his attention, he tries his best to rectify his problem.

1-28-09 Silk – This was the painfully slow story of a man who travels to Japan in order to obtain silkworms for his own town in France. It was a love story, but one that I would not recommend.

1-28-09 Then She Found Me – A schoolteacher is thrown for a loop when her husband leaves her just because he is so immature and doesn’t want to lead an adult lifestyle. Immediately after his leaving, her adoptive mother dies. The woman is really thrown when her biological mother finds her and wants to make contact. This movie was very slow and a one-time viewing was enough for me.

1-28-09 Mrs Henderson Presents – Mrs. Henderson, who is widowed when the film begins, has to find something to do to keep herself occupied now that her husband is no longer alive. On a leap of faith, she opens a theatre in London which thrives.

1-30-09 Spencer’s Mountain – This movie depicts the day-to-day life of a large family. It was based on the same novel the TV show, The Waltons was based on. I am, clearly, very partial to the TV show.