"With all do respect, sir, I have done battle every single day of my life and many men have underestimated me before."

The big movies in theaters this weekend are: Contraband, Joyful Noise,  and The Iron Lady.

The Iron Lady takes a look at the life of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. She was the first and only woman to hold the position of Prime Minister in the United Kingdom and the film focuses on the price she paid for this power. Thatcher is played by Meryl Streep and the rest of the cast includes Anthony Head, Iain Glen, Harry Lloyd, Olivia Colman, Nick Dunning, Susan Brown and Jim Broadbent.

Trailer #2
The Iron Lady at MOVIECLIPS.com

And the Oscar goes to...

Okay, here they are, my Academy Award predictions and, in some cases, my preferred winners:

Best Actor:
My choice - Jeremy Renner or Colin Firth
Probable winner - Jeff Bridges

Best Actress:
My choice - Sandra Bullock
Probable winner - Sandra Bullock

Supporting Actor:
My choice - Stanley Tucci
Probably winner - Christoph Waltz

Supporting Actress:
My choice - Mo'nique or Anna Kendrick
Probable winner - Mo'nique

Best Animated:
My choice - Fantastic Mr. Fox
Probable winner - Up

Best Director:
My choice - Kathryn Bigelow
Probable winner - Kathryn Bigelow

Best Picture:
My choice - The Hurt Locker
Probable winner - The Hurt Locker

xoxo
c
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"I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love, above all....

...Not the artful, postures of love, but love that over-throws life. Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture. Love as there has never been in a play."
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I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Mine was good. Santa brought me Julie & Julia, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and The Proposal. I also got a couple Border's gift cards so that I can buy myself some more movies :o)

Over the past couple weeks, I have watched a lot of movies, some were bad and some very good.

Scotland, PA and How To Be were both so boring that I could not get past the first half hour of either of them. So, that is all I will say about that.

In my ongoing quest to see everything Bradley Cooper, I watched All About Steve, even though it got horrible reviews. I would not say it was the worst movie I have ever seen, but it was not good. Parts of it were funny and I did get through the whole thing, but it was just...stupid. There really is no other word for it. It makes me a little sad when good actors, like Cooper and Sandra Bullock, make crappy movies.

I also watched Duplicity, which was not horrible but was not very good either. It jumped around a lot and was one of those movies where you do not know who is deceiving whom until the very end. Julia Roberts was just nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for this movie and I do not really understand why. Like I said, it was not a bad movie, but I think she has been better in other movies.

Inglourious Basterds is another movie I did not really enjoy. I mean, it was fine, it was not horrible, but I was just really unimpressed by the whole thing. And, I know it was Quentin Tarantino, but I really do not need to see people being scalped.

So those were the bad movies, now onto the good movies...

Last Monday, I finally saw Fantastic Mr. Fox and it was everything I hoped it would be. It was my favorite Roald Dahl book as a kid and I was so excited to see this movie before it even came out. The animation was awesome and the story was just as good as I remembered. George Clooney and Meryl Streep as Mr. and Mrs. Fox and Jason Schwartzman as their son Ash were great and I just thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. I highly recommend that everyone see this movie.

I also went to a screening of It's Complicated at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute on Monday and I thought that it was HILARIOUS. I laughed so hard I cried. Meryl Streep is amazing. To go from being Julia Child to Mrs. Fox to Jane, a woman divorced for 10 years having a secret affair with her ex-husband, all in one year...she is amazing. It did not get great reviews and it was a little long, but at no point was I not being entertained. And I got to stare at Hunter Parrish a lot, so that was a bonus!

And finally, Saturday night, I saw Sherlock Holmes with my brother, his fiancee and our friends. It was definitely entertaining and I enjoyed it, but it was not as amazing as I was hoping it would be. I also found it hard to understand Robert Downey Jr's British accent at times. However, the action sequences were fun and the relationship between Downey's Holmes and Jude Law's Dr. Watson made me laugh a lot, so overall, I will say I liked it.

Golden Globe and SAG Nominations have also come out in the past couple weeks (links are at the bottom). I usually try to see at least all of the Best Picture nominees, so I still need to see Up In The Air, Nine, The Hurt Locker, Avatar and An Education. I loved Precious and you already know how I feel about Inglourious Basterds. I also still really want to see The Messenger, Me and Orson Welles, Brothers, The Young Victoria, A Single Man and Invictus. Think I can do it before the end of the month? :o)

The empty TV schedule lately has clearly given me lots of free time to watch all these movies.

It has also made it a little easier to be single during the holidays. I have tried really hard to stay positive this season, but it is hard when you are surrounded by couples. I have been single for a very long time, but I do know that I can be very picky. What do you expect when you are constantly comparing prospects to Dr. Pomatter, Jack Bourdain or Noah Calhoun? And I realize that none of these characters are perfect men, but it definitely does not help the situation.

I watch too many movies and TV shows, I know this. I want my life to be a fairytale and it is most definitely not. So I will keep getting lost in these other worlds until it becomes one. Maybe I have set my standards and expectations too high. Maybe it is unrealistic. But why shouldn't I get everything I have ever dreamed of? I can wait.

Anyways....

I hope that everyone has enjoyed their 2009 and has an even more FABulous 2010! Happy New Year and Happy Movie Watching!

xoxo
c


Golden Globe Nominations:
http://www.goldenglobes.org/news/id/159

SAG Nominations:
http://www.sagawards.org/nominations
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Cordelia: I personally don't think it's possible to come up with a crazier plan.

Oz: We attack the Mayor with hummus

Cordelia: I stand corrected
Oz: Just keeping things in perspective
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I went with my mom the other night to see Julie & Julia. If you have not yet seen it, you definitely should. Meryl Streep is, of course, amazing in any role that she takes on, and she is hilarious as Julia Child.

But that's not my focus today.

Part of the movie is based on the real life story of Julie Powell and her blog about cooking her way through Julia Child's cookbook and it made me think about my own blog. Her goal was too make all 500+ recipes in 365 days and she wrote about each one. Considering this, I feel like I need more focus and direction. I have no problem writing aimlessly about random thoughts I have about movies and actors and whatnot, but I now have a new plan.

I've talked a lot about my Netflix queue and how I'm slowly trying to work down from 230 movies - yes, that number has gone up since I last mentioned it - and now you get to go through that journey with me. That may not interest you at all, but like I said before, if you don't like it, don't read it.

Once the regular fall TV schedule starts up again, I might throw in some comments on current shows, and I'll comment on current movies as I deem necessary.

I feel better now that I have more direction :o)

As I am currently on my Bradley Cooper kick, I have been working my way through the entire Alias series. Although, he was only in the first two seasons, with a couple guest appearances later in the series. I did not watch Alias when it was on TV, mostly because none of my friends did - that I know of - and no one ever really told me that I should be watching it. So far, I have finished the first two seasons.

The first season was alright. I felt like I could not pay attention to the actual missions Jennifer Garner's character, Sydney, was sent on and still understand what was going on. The relationships were more interesting to me than the actual plot of the overall show. However, the second season was much more engaging, if only because Merrin Dungey's Francie had more to do than just constantly ask Sydney why she was traveling so much when she worked for a bank.

I find that, often, shows of this nature either have an amazing first, maybe second season, and then go down hill (ie. Lost, Heroes) or they have a mediocre first season and don't hit their stride until the next season (ie. Buffy, hopefully Dollhouse). The problem with that second scenario is that studios have no patience anymore and want shows to be a hit right away, so they end up canceling really good shows too soon that just have not found their audience yet.

The only thing that seriously bothers me about Alias is that, no matter how many hairstyles or different outfits Jennifer Garner's characters put on while undercover, her face always looks the same. You'd think as high-tech as these operations are, they could give her a prosthetic nose or something! Especially since she's usually trying to get information from the same people and several times has been recognized. I mean, come on, if I can figure that out, certainly the CIA should be able to!

Other than that I find the series interesting enough to keep watching. I'm not totally obsessed, but it's pretty entertaining. Mostly, I just hope that Greg Grunberg has more lines like this to Michael Vartan: "Well, something's going on. No man naturally smells as good as you do right now." :o)

Alias, season three, here I come.

I would love to hear your thoughts on anything I've said, even if you disagree with me, so feel free to take full advantage of the comments section below. Thanks for reading and spread the word to friends and family so that I can become famous, meet Ryan Gosling and have him fall madly in love with me.

A girl can dream.

xoxo
c

# of dvds in queue: 230

dvds at home: Alias - Season 3 - discs 1-3