"The one constant through all the years has been baseball...

America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again."
-------------------------------

The Olympics are over and I have no more Curling to watch, so I guess I should get back to my movies :o)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was good but I was not blown away by it. I think I am just over the X-Men movies. Enough is enough. There were lots of plot twists, but i was not really shocked by any of them. It was kinda like, "Okay that make sense that he was being deceived, I am not surprised" :o) The action sequences were cool, I just think if they are going to keep making these movies, they need to be better. Let's hope that Ryan Reynold's Deadpool does just that.

Rachel Getting Married has been sitting on top of my blu-ray player for about a month and a half now. My mom saw it in the theater and said it was pretty depressing, so I just have not been in the mood to watch it yet.

I have also been really bad about watching all my Oscar movies, so I tried to cram a lot in this week. Thank you Bryn Mawr Film Institute for playing all the nominated films that I had not yet seen!

A Single Man was a beautiful movie. Colin Firth was amazing. He played a man, dealing with the sudden death of his partner of sixteen years and, not really knowing how to live without him. When it started, I thought it was going to be way too artsy for my taste, but I loved it. It was sad without being depressing and it was very visually pleasing. Nicholas Hoult was also excellent. I did not even recognize him at first until I got home and checked imdb.com to discover he was the little boy from About A Boy all grown up. This is definitely a movie that everyone should see.

Crazy Heart was good, but not amazing. I thought Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal were excellent, but they are both good actors, so that was not a surprise. Maybe my expectations were too high? Jeff Bridges has been getting all this Oscar buzz that I guess I just expected to be totally blown away by his performance, and I was not. He is a good singer, but this just felt like a country version of The Dude to me. I thought Jeremy Renner and Colin Firth were much more impressive in The Hurt Locker and A Single Man respectively.

I could not get through District 9. It was weird and I just could not get into it. I only watched about forty-five minutes of it, maybe it got better, I guess I will never know.

Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to see An Education. It is a bit of a long shot for any Oscars and I just did not have the time to get to the theater again this week. It did get really good reviews though, so I plan to see it next week :o)

To sum up my Oscar prep this year, of the ten Best Picture nominees, I recommend seeing the following (in no particular order): Avatar, The Hurt Locker, The Blind Side, A Single Man, Precious and Up In The Air. And I will give you my winner predictions soon, probably Sunday afternoon. I am having my annual Oscar Party and I do not want to give my friends any tips :o)

In non-movie-related news, Spring Training is officially underway, which makes me ridiculously happy! It also means that the Phillies road to the 2010 World Series is underway. You can even follow Jayson Werth's Beard on twitter! So, to put you in the baseball spirit, and since I just watched this movie on TV, I leave you with Tom Hanks...



xoxo
c

Haiti, and now unfortunately, Chile need our help. Please give what you can:
Hope For Haiti Now (H)
Stiller Strong (H)
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (H&C)
UNICEF (H&C)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The difference is, I'm in the mood to kick a little ass"

In honor of the Winter Olympics, I give you this clip:



I have been watching some of the olympic coverage but do not usually watch as much of Winter as I do the Summer Olympics. My favorite Winter Olympics movies would be The Cutting Edge, Cool Runnings and Miracle, in case you were wondering :o)

The last week has been a little crazy. The passing of a friend's father, the East Coast being up to its eyeballs in snow and traveling to Ohio to help my best friend with wedding stuff and celebrating her completion of grad school, to name a few. I did get some movie watching in before the craziness hit and to take my mind of things, so here we go...

Forest Whitaker totally deserved the Best Actor Oscar for The Last King of Scotland. Whoa. If you did not see this movie when it came out in 2006, as I neglected to do, you must see it now. It was intense and sometimes a little too graphic for my taste, but excellent none-the-less. Whitaker usually plays such a gentle and kind man that it made him even scarier as the military dictator and President of Uganda, Idi Amin. That was definitely the last year I neglected to watch a movie that people were raving about during Oscar season.

In my continuing preparation for this year's Oscars on March 7, I watched The Hurt Locker and it was phenomenal. Another very intense movie, but still phenomenal. It is about a unit of soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq. My favorite scene is where one soldier is trying to figure out why another soldier enjoys what they do so much, when the rest of them are just trying to survive:

Sergeant JT Sanborn: I'm ready to die, James.
Staff Sergeant William James: Well, you're not gonna die out here, bro.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: Another two inches, shrapnel zings by; slices my throat- I bleed out like a pig in the sand. Nobody'll give a shit. I mean my parents- they care- but they don't count, man. Who else? I don't even have a son.
Staff Sergeant William James: Well, you're gonna have plenty of time for that, amigo.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: Naw, man. I'm done. I want a son. I want a little boy, Will. I mean, how do you do it, you know? Take the risk?
Staff Sergeant William James: I don't know. I guess I don't think about it.
Sergeant JT Sanborn: But you realize every time you suit up, every time we go out, it's life or death. You roll the dice, and you deal with it. You recognize that don't you?
Staff Sergeant William James: Yea... Yea, I do. But I don't know why.[sighs] I don't know, JT. You know why I'm that way?
Sergeant JT Sanborn: No, I don't.

I can definitely say that seeing it one time was enough, but is definitely worth seeing. At least see it so that you fully understand what our soldiers are doing for us, because it truly is amazing.

Now onto more lighter fare...

I watched the movie Class with Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy and Jacqueline Bisset. And, of course, no 80's movie would be complete without supporting roles from John Cusack and Alan Ruck :o) It was pretty good and one of those 80's movies that I felt I needed to see, but was rather predictable. I guess when you have seen as many movies as I have though, not many things surprise you anymore. However, my one question is, how is it fair that Rob Lowe looks exactly the same today as he did in 1983?! Seriously!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen did not get very good reviews, but I saw the first one, so I thought I should watch the second one. And it was not very good. Don't watch it. For those of you who did actually see it, does anyone else think that the location of the Matrix of Leadership looked an awful lot like the place where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail? I'm just sayin'.

I also saw Valentine's Day with my best friend on Valentine's Day and it was just as cheesy as we expected it to be. My main complaint was that there were just too many characters and too much going on to really get invested in any of the people's lives. I felt that it was trying too hard to be Love Actually, especially with the cute little boy who is in love. And, as much as I love Taylor Swift, I felt like they could have taken out both high schooler storylines and the movie would have been much better. It was cute, but you probably should not spend your money seeing it at the theater and just wait for it to come out on DVD. I probably would not have gone, but my future husband, Bradley Cooper, was in it, so of course it was a must see for me :o)

I would like to see Crazy Heart and A Single Man this week, but I will probably only get to one. I also have District 9 from Netflix. When it gets closer to the Oscars, I will give you my winner predictions.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you in the comments section below. I hope all you East Coasters survived the snow!

xoxo
c

If you want to help Haiti, here are my suggested places to donate:
Hope For Haiti Now
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
UNICEF
Stiller Strong

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's because they sat there that they were able to do it."

The good news is, I found a job. The bad news is, it is only part-time and is not in the field I want to be in, so it is not permanent. It also means I have less time for movie and TV watching :o) If only Bradley Cooper would realize that I am the girl for him, then we could get married and I would not have to work and I could just watch movies all day. Until then, my job search continues...


I saw When In Rome Friday afternoon and I thought it was super cute. Going in, knowing that it was a Disney movie, I was not expecting anything spectucular and it was a little cheesy, but overall I liked it. Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel were really funny and I liked their chemistry. I also thought Dax Shepherd's character was funny, however, the other characters played by Jon Heder, Will Arnett and Danny DeVito were a little cheesy/creepy. It was worth seeing, but definitely not the best romantic comedy that I have seen.

The latest news on the Veronica Mars movie is that creator Rob Thomas has pitched his idea to Warner Brothers but they do not feel that a movie would do well at this time. Kristen Bell has been saying in interviews and on twitter (@IMKristenBell) that if When In Rome does well it will hopefully show the studio that she can carry a movie. I also feel like since Veronica Mars has been cancelled, it has gained a lot of fans and that the already existing fan base would make it a huge hit. I am a little biased as I would LOVE a VM movie, but still, sometimes I think the studios are out of touch with their audience.

I FINALLY saw Up In The Air, which was excellent. It is a movie about a guy who spends 250 days of the year travelling around the country firing people. There is obviously more to it than that, but as someone who was recently let go from her job, that aspect of the movie was a little surreal. My favorite part is actually when George Clooney is telling Anna Kendrick the fastest way to get through airport security. He says, "Never get behind old people. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left. Bingo, Asians. They pack light, travel efficiently, and they have a thing for slip on shoes. Gotta love 'em."

This is not that scene, but it is another good one:


The whole movie was very well done and George Clooney was amazing, as usual. I also have to say that, Anna Kendrick's acting skills are definitely not getting put to good use in the Twilight movies. She should be playing a much bigger role than just one of Bella's high school friends. She should have been Bella. If it were not for Mo'nique's amazing performance in Precious, I would say Anna should win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

I also finally got Angels & Demons from Netflix. I saw The DaVinci Code in theaters, but was unimpressed so I was not in a big hurry to see Angels & Demons. Although, I had read the book, so I did want to see it eventually. As a person of faith, I always found Angels & Demons to be a more interesting read than The DaVinci Code. Apparently that is also true of the movies because I did not think that The DaVinci Code movie was very good at all. I thought that Angels & Demons was very well done and much easier to follow than its prequel. Interestingly, the book Angels & Demons was written after The DaVinci Code, but chronologically took place before. In the movie though, they implied at the beginning that Angels & Demons took place after the occurrences in The DaVinci Code. Anyways, if you too did not see the second movie because you did not like the first, then I suggest you give it a try because it was much, much better.

I also had no interest in seeing Bright Star in the theater, but it was getting such good reviews that I thought I should watch it. However, I thought it was just alright. The story of writer John Keats and his three-year romance with Fanny Brawne was interesting and the acting was good, but there was something about the movie that threw me off. For instance, there was never any indication of time. By that I mean, some times it went day-to-day and sometimes many days or months would pass and you never knew when that happened. It just felt kind of abrupt and choppy at times.

Last on my list for this posting is Wonder Boys. Although, it was not quite what I was expecting, I thought that it was pretty good. I was expecting it to be more about a professor who is having trouble writing his second novel and forms and odd relationship with one of his students. And while, that was, I suppose, the main plot of the movie, it had more to do with the crazy circumstances that happen over a few days. Michael Douglas is the pot smoking professor who is having an affair with the dean's wife, and Topher Grace plays the quirky student. It also stars Robert Downey, Jr. who was hilarious as a gay, book editor who shows up with a transvesite that he picked up on the plane. Like I said, it was not really what I was expecting, so it took me a while to get into the movie, but I eventually found it to be quite entertaining.

Also this week, Oscar nominations were announced. There were not really any surprises, except that Up was nominated for Best Picture. Which was not really a surpise so much as, I just disagree with the choice. I have already expressed my feelings on that movie. Here is the full list for your viewing pleasure: http://oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees

I hope that everyone is staying warm and that if you live in the east coast you have a few good movies at home to watch when we all get snowed in this weekend :o)

xoxo
c

ps. Haiti still needs our help, so if you have not done so already, please consider donating. Here are some of my choices:

Hope For Haiti Now
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
UNICEF
StillerStrong

out of chaos, hope

The past two weeks, I have not been as productive in my movie watching as I would have liked, but this is what I have been up to...

I finally watched Up and, while Carl Fredricksen and the tennis balls on his cane reminded me of my six years life-guarding all the old people at the Green Hill Condominiums' Outdoor Pool, I was mostly unimpressed by this movie. The animation was as good, as it usually is with Pixar, but the story left something to be desired for me. First of all, parts of it were very traumatizing. Of course, I still cry at the end of The Little Mermaid, but I just thought it was too depressing for a children's movie. I definitely do not think it was the best animated movie this year (or I guess, technically, last year :o).

I also got Fame from Netflix. I have never seen the original movie or the TV show, so I do not have anything to compare this to, but it was just alright. I felt like they tried to focus on too many characters and because it spanned over four years, none of those characters were fully developed. However, I did enjoy the music and the dancing, which is all I really expected to get from this movie. I usually hope for a little more from my cheesy dance movies.

I saw Invictus in the theater but was also not incredibly impressed. The political aspect of it was interesting, to see how Nelson Mandela wanted to bring the people of his country together and decided that rugby was the way to do that. It was just not a good sports movie, which is what I was expecting. I guess that is more the fault of whoever made the trailer though.

It also did not help that I do not really understand rugby at all. All I kept thinking about was the episode of Friends where Ross is trying to play rugby to impress his British girlfriend, Emily. Joey is trying to teach him the rules while watching a match on TV and he says, "Hey, Ross, look-look-look-look-look, right here, it's called a scrum. Okay, it's kind of like a huddle" to which Ross responds, "And is a hum kind of like a scruddle?"



:o)

Yesterday, a new show called The Deep End started on ABC before Grey's Anatomy. I love Matt Long, I love Tina Majorino and I love Rachelle Lefevre, so giving this show a chance was a no-brainer for me. I do feel like they tried to cram too much into the first episode, but I think it definitely has potential to be a great show. It was funny and genuinely entertaining. I look forward to seeing what else happens to these first-year lawyers.

And finally, these are my two cents about the whole Conan v. Leno situation: "I'm with Coco" :o) While I do not think that Jay Leno is to blame for what happened, I do think that since he had FIVE years to figure out what he was going to do after The Tonight Show, he could have found something that did not affect Conan. I also think that NBC is run by idiots and should have given Conan a smidgen of a chance before making this kind of decision. Tonight is Conan's last show and, if the rest of this week has been any indication, tonight should be hilarious. I highly recommend tuning in or setting your DVRs. Also, you should go to this website: http://imwithcoco.com

But, like Conan has been saying all week, there are more important things going on in the world right now.

I am writing this as I watch Hope For Haiti Now and if you want to help, please go to one of the following sites to donate:
Hope For Haiti Now
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
UNICEF
StillerStrong

Before the earthquake, Haiti was one of the most poverty stricken countries in the world. George Clooney is telling me right now that 80% of Haiti's people live on less than $2/day, that it's 3 million people go without clean water and that 1 in 3 Haitian children die before the age of five. These people needed our help before the earthquake and they will need our help long after the world loses interest in their story. We should not care because George Clooney tells us to care, we should care because no one should have to live like that. What happens one year from now, two years, five years, when we have shifted our focus to the next natural disaster and the people of Haiti still need our help?! The attention span of our country boggles my mind. Do not get me wrong, I want you to go to one of those sites and donate, I just want you to remember that once we get the Haitians past this current crisis we need to continue to help them, as we should have been all along.

Michael Muhney (@michaelmuhney) just tweeted: "I don't care how big of a star you are, we all need food, shelter, water, medical attention and a place to lay down. Human is human."

xoxo
c