Sunday Stealing: Movie Challenge

Play along here.

1. Last movie you watched: Hustlers, starring Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. I liked it more than I thought I would.
2. Last movie you watched in a theater: 1917
3. Film you've always wanted to watch, but haven't: Citizen Kane.
4. Favorite movie soundtrack: The Lost Boys.

5. Your favorite movie duo: Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Loved them in The Odd Couple and Grumpy Old Men.

6. Movie you like because of its story: Victoria & Abdul.

7. A film that disappointed you: American Hustle. I still don't get the hype.
8. Favorite scene from a movie: The scene from Sense and Sensibility when Elinor Dashwood finds out that Edward Ferrars is not married to Lucy Steele.

9. Your guilty pleasure movie: White Chicks.

10. A movie you keep going back to: The Harry Potter series, especially Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. I don't understand why Chamber of Secrets gets so much hate.
11. A quote you admire from your favorite movie: "You win some, you lose some. But you live, you live to fight another day." (Friday)
12. A movie based on a true story: Radio. Seabiscuit.
13. Your favorite actor/actress: Keanu Reeves. Elijah Wood. Tom Hiddleston. Drew Barrymore. Rose Byrne. Cate Blanchett. Julianne Moore. Richard Armitage. Benedict Cumberbatch. Viola Davis. Eddie Murphy.
14. A sequel you're not a fan of: Grease 2. Just awful.
15. A film you know by heart: Friday
16. Your favorite opening scene: The Lion King.

17. A film that was based on a book and executed well: The Secret Life of Bees
18. A comedy film: The Nutty Professor (the one with Eddie Murphy). It doesn't matter how many times I see it, the dinner scene with the Klump family makes me laugh until my stomach hurts. "Hercules! Hercules! Hercules!"

19. TV series you're binging on now: Dead Still on Acorn TV. It's about a post mortem photographer in Victorian Ireland.

20. A TV series you think is underrated: Freaks and Geeks. It's a shame that it was never renewed after the first season. It captured perfectly what it was like to be a teen in the early 80s.

Tengo Cuarenta Y Tres Años

Today is my birthday. I'm officially old.

I didn't have to work because of the Abraham Lincoln birthday holiday (happy 203rd, Mr. President!), so my best friend and her husband treated me to a matinee of The Woman In Black. Is it pathetic that the ancient toys in the film scared me more than The Woman herself? It's embarrassing to admit, but toy monkeys playing maracas and cymbals are a thousand times creepier than any ghost. Daniel Radcliffe did an excellent job as the young lawyer Arthur Kipps, but I have to admit there were times when all I could picture was him as Harry Potter. I heard an older woman in our row say to her friend, "I just can't get used to seeing Harry Potter drink alcohol!", so at least I'm not the only one.

Other than the movie, I have no additional plans for the day. It's cold and snowing right now, so perhaps I'll have a little nap. Naps are good.

At The Movies: One For The Money

This past Friday evening, I went to see One For The Money with my friends/ co-workers Kelly, Marie, Nancy, and Jen. We're all huge fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels, so we were anxiously anticipating the big screen adaptation of the first book in the series.

Some random observations:

1. When this movie was first cast, I had a hard time picturing the blonde, elegant Katherine Heigl as the accident prone, half-Italian/half-Hungarian Stephanie Plum, but the New Jersey accent and the brown hair dye helped make her transformation into the novice bounty hunter more believable.
2. Sherri Shepard was okay as the larger than life ex-ho Lula, but I still think comedienne Loni Love would have been a better choice.
   
3. Why was an Irish actor cast as Italian cop Joe Morelli? Don't get me wrong, Jason O'Mara is a nice enough looking man, but he looks about as Italian as I do.
4. Ranger is supposed to be the strong, silent type, so why does he have so much dialogue?
   

Our mutual casting complaints aside, my friends and I enjoyed the movie, which pretty much followed the book. We hope Two For The Dough is in the works!

Nerdgasm Alert!

Oh, Middle Earth, it's been too damn long.

Cowboys And Aliens

Just a few notes...

1. I thought Cowboys and Aliens was going to be completely stupid (in fact, I shot Diet Pepsi out of my nose from laughing when I saw the trailer earlier this year) and wasn't planning on seeing it, but my mom, who has had a horrible couple of weeks, really wanted to see it, so I went for her. To my surprise, the movie wasn't that bad. Yeah, the concept of cowboys fighting aliens is bizarre and "out there", but the action is top notch, especially during the scene where the cowboys ambush the aliens at their home base to rescue their captured townsfolk.
2. The aliens in this film are a thousand times scarier than the alien in Super 8. They're sure to give the kids in the theater nightmares.
   
3. Is it me, or has Harrison Ford played a cantankerous old fart in every recent movie he's been in? Don't get me wrong, I still love him...I just wish he'd get the chance to play someone who actually smiles. Smiley Harrison Ford= lust.
4. Mom and I are convinced that our bodies give off some kind of pheromone that entices the most obnoxious people in the theater to sit behind, in front of, or next to us. This time around, we got Mr. and Mrs. Obvious, who felt compelled to share with everyone what was happening on the big screen, as if we couldn't see it for ourselves (ex. "He just shot that guy!", "Here come the aliens", "He can't get the wristband off"). Why us, Lord, why?
   

Thinking

The members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who voted for Melissa Leo over Hailee Steinfeld in the Supporting Actress category were either drunk and/or high. No disrespect to Leo and her performance in The Fighter, but Steinfeld's performance in True Grit was more deserving of the Oscar. Her portrayal of Mattie Ross projects so much strength, wisdom, and maturity that it's easy to forget she's only 14 years old. It takes talent to pull that off.

Easter Weekend Recap

How was your Easter weekend? Did you save any Cadbury Mini Eggs for moi?

I had Good Friday off and was hoping that the weather would be decent so I could start the monumental task of searching the storage shed for my spring/summer clothes. Of course, it was cold and rainy all day, so there went that plan. After lounging around the house most of the day, my mom and I went to the local AMC theater and caught a matinee of Madea's Big Happy Family. Hands down, Big Happy Family is the best Madea movie to date. We laughed, we cried, we both enjoyed the crazy antics of Madea, Mr.Brown, and the eccentric, pot smoking Aunt Bam.

The weather cleared up Saturday, but instead of doing the things around the house that needed to be done, I went shopping. Bought capris and a couple of shirts at Kohls, and then stopped by Bath and Body Works to stock up on Wallflower refills. I ended the day at my best friend Kelly's house, where we helped Nathaniel dye eggs and then watched the delicious Ben Barnes in Dorian Gray.

I was invited to an Easter Sunday luncheon at my dad's house. My step-mom and sister went all out with the food: ham, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, sweet potatoes, and (my absolute fave) homemade red velvet cake. The highlight of the day was watching my nieces and my step-cousin Leeann's three children participate in a chaotic Easter egg hunt. I forgot how much fun it is to watch little kids run around after ingesting shitloads of sugar.

I just wish that my brother and my two nephews could've spent the holiday with us. It costs my brother around $100 to fill up his truck, so he decided to stay home this year. Thanks a lot, greedy oil company bastages.