Looks like Darth Maul has become a real American hero.

Ohhhh snap. Christian Bale's going to have a stake in a summer blockbuster two years in a row.



I'm already looking forward to next year's summer blockbusters and the goodness that 2008 has in store hasn't even begun yet.

Since the girls are sleeping at my mom's house tonight, Chrissy and I got to have date night. (Two weeks in a row!)

We went to La Dolce Vida on Hertel. It's a nice little bistro-type place with very good eats. I started out with a tomato cheddar soup and had a great chicken parm (it's actually been quite some time since I had one -- used to get them all the time). The price was pretty reasonable and I highly recommend it; especially if you manage to get in before the dinner rush (as we did, around 5:45).

After some consideration, we decided to go see No Country for Old Men. It was either that or 27 Dresses -- I think we made the right choice.

First let me say I am a HUGE Coen Bros. fan. Raising Arizona, O Brother Whereart Thou, and Intolerable Cruelty are three of my top favorite movies. Funny stuff.

No Country for Old Men is not a funny movie, though. But it definitely has a Coen Bros. feel. They use mostly the same crew for each flick they put out, especially the cinematographer. And the off-beat one-scene characters that they use so frequently definitely measure up to the standards established by most, if not all, of their previous endeavours.

Javier Bardem does a great job as... well, basically the Terminator. And Josh Brolin's great as a crafty cowboy hick who gets in over his head pretty quickly.

I'm not going to officially recommend this movie though because it is somewhat nonconventional and genre-busting and I don't want anyone hating me after they see it. But I will say *I* personally enjoyed it and will be rooting for it later this month when the Oscars are held.

Now I wanna see There Will be Blood. I like Daniel Day Lewis and definitely P.T. Anderson (the movie Magnolia is freaking fantastic). And it seems like Best Picture is probably going to go to one of these two.

Chrissy and I used to cram in as many nominated films as we could before the Oscars but bambinos definitely altered our ability to do that now. But it is still a worthy trade-off, by far.

Took my brother to go see it tonight. Still awesome.

You all still need to go see it if you haven't yet.

Do yourself a favor and go in as ignorant about it as pssoible.

EDIT: ...aaaand back in time for the Apprentice. Bonus!

I just got back from seeing Cloverfield. I don't want to ruin it for anyone that hasn't seen it and plans to, but all I can say is if you like sci-fi and/or disaster movies and didn't hurl when you saw Blair Witch then this movie is for you.

Personally, my opinion... Freaking awesome. I went into it knowing very little about it, only that it was all HandyCam and that there was some kind of disaster element to it. I am sooo glad I had a blank canvas as to what to expect -- talk about a pleasant surprise! I find it hard to imagine that I'm going to see a better thriller/sci-fi movie this year. Do yourself a favor and see it before someone blurts everything out and ruins it for you. I have to admit I'm struggling not to right now.

Anyway, I'll bet even (e:enknot) the Film Snob will enjoy it. ;)

For some reason I allowed myself to get caught up in the buzz about the Sci Fi Channel's "Tin Man" mini-series that began tonight.

So not worth the time. It's a "reinterpretation" of the Wizard of Oz. Reinterpreted as another lousy Sci Fi Channel made for TV movie.

It's pretty lame, B list stars or not. Every science fiction cliche that's been done has found its way into this flick. They even threw in the Harry Potter Death Eater kiss of death thing.

Whatever, I'm not falling for this again; I've no desire to catch parts 2 and 3...

So we all left work early to go see Beowulf at the Transit Imax in 3D. And it was quite a site to behold until the Imax's power failed halfway through. They said it was due to the high winds and that they weren't able to get it back online.

They offered us re-admission tickets to come back and see it at a later date. But I mean come on, we left work to go see this and it's not like I have a plethora of time available to me where I'll be able to swing by in the next 2 weeks to catch this. Plus, it's a cool story and I don't really want to wait to see it resolved.

So instead I asked if I could go see the rest of the movie in a normal theatre (they have another in 3D but just not Imax).

I'm in the theatre now (have to watch it from the beginning) and yeah it's a totally different experience; I guess that's why they invented Imax to begin with.

As I've stated in the past, I've become quite the connoisseur of children's movies over the past 4 years or so. A large portion of my life is either Disney Princesses or Shrek. That's just how we roll in the Reid household I guess.

Anyway, last Friday we took the girls to go see Enchanted and if everyone will allow me to gush for a moment, I would just like to say it was soooo good. Disney took the entire fantasy formula they've put together over the past 70 years or so and did a great job of poking fun at it while still implementing it at the same time. When we walked out of the theater I turned to Chrissy and said something to the effect of "I could easily sit down and watch that movie start to finish again right now."

The music was great (composed by Alan Menken, the guy who has done most if not all of the scores for their films over the past 10 or 20 years, at least). I even bought the soundtrack on iTunes yesterday so the kids can sing along with what are some of the most addictive "stuck in your head" songs I've experienced in a while.

Amy Adams, the "Hot Girl" from the Office in season 1 (the one selling the purses) was the literal embodiment of a Disney princess. She just oozed the sugary optimism and goody-goodiness that those types of characters usually do. I've already read some reviews saying she should get an Oscar. Take that and do with it what you will...

I accidentally outed myself at work today as a lover of musicals and showtunes so I guess I just might as well accept the reality and wear it on my sleeve. ::sigh:: Though even now I'm feeling ashamed for admitting it right here on the interweb.

I can't do it all the time though... In fact I'm off to blast some Norma Jean or Underoath or something just to make sure I get a little balance. Listening to Les Mis and Rent at work today and then following it up with a Disney chaser with the kids tonight isn't necessarily a healthy indulgence in terms of sanity.

One "feature" of having a preschooler is the amount of kid-oriented tv and movies you take in.

In the past few years I've seen every Pixar, Dreamworks, and Disney flick that's been put out (yes, I know Disney owns Pixar but there *is* a difference between the two -- Meet the Robinsons isn't even in the same conversation as Ratatouille). And not only have I seen these movies, I've lived them. No exaggeration: I've seen Shrek and Shrek 2 about 50 times each, I'll bet.

So, not to break convention, I took my 4 year-old to the Regal on Elmwood to see Jerry Seinfeld's new "Bee Movie" today. It was decent - one of those movies where there's a plot only because the producers felt that after spending all this cash on animation and voice acting (this was one of those with TONS of familiar voices) that well, hey we probably should throw the audience a bone and string all these scenes together.

Overall it was pretty average but if you're a fan of Jerry Seinfeld and his numerous vocal inflections then it's probably worth the Bit Torrent download. ;) Otherwise, watch the trailer since it contained about 90% of the most memorable scenes anyway.

...Is by FAR the worst song in The Sound of Music. I'm thinking Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote that one last and just "mailed it in."

I'm just saying.