Happy Hour at Chez Animal Hair Can I get you a drink?

The Shape of Things (2003)
Directed by Neil LaBute
Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz

This was a weird one. For some reason I was under the impression this was a romantic comedy. It was neither romantic nor a comedy. It had some funny moments, but was actually just plain weird. OK I’ll admit, I rented it because Paul Rudd was in it. I think he’s cute.

It was girl movie night. That is, I am in the process of seeing films that Greg wouldn’t watch if he were tied to a chair and had his eyes propped open with toothpicks. So Jody came over.

He plays a dorky, overweight guy who meets a beautiful artist (Rachel Weisz) and she attempts to make him over. That’s about all I can tell you without gibing too much away. It was a bit predictable, I mean, we know she’s a nut job so you can guess what happens. Or maybe I’ve seen too many movies.

Anyway, it was only OK. I don’t even know if I’d say I “liked�? it. I’m thinking it might only get 2 stars.

Posted under Movie Reviews

Enduring Love (2004)
Directed by Roger Michell
Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton, Rhys Ifans

I had high hopes for this. It looked like a good thriller. This is the one about the hot air balloon accident and what follows is one of the survivors (rescuers, more like) becomes obsessed with another one and starts stalking him.

I will say that I have not been so grossed out in a long time. There is a scene in which one of the men who is trying to help gets lifted up when they lose hold of the balloon and goes up higher and higher with the balloon. He’s hanging by a rope as the balloon takes off. I don’t know why he didn’t just crawl up the rope, but he finally lets go and falls to his death. When the two men (the above mentioned two) go to find the body they find him sitting upright on the ground and his legs are crushed under him. They’re just shattered. It looks like he’s been planted in the ground up to the waist (kind of was). It was very disturbing and I’m lucky I didn’t have nightmares.

Very predictable. Guy tells people this guy is stalking him, no one believes him. They actually feel sorry for the stalker thinking he’s just a sad sack (which he is, but is also psychotic). Stalker then goes after normal Joe’s (god, I just realized the character’s name IS Joe) girlfriend and well, I won’t ruin anything else (not that you couldn’t guess it).

It was OK and just OK. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. Eh. Greg didn’t even watch this one with me. He preferred to paint the kitchen.

2 stars

Posted under Movie Reviews

The Aviator (2004)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett

I’ve never been a Leo fan. I guess I’m still not. But I had no interest in seeing this because I still think he looks like he’s eleven years old and to see him playing a man (in the previews) looked like he was a little boy playing dress up with Daddy’s clothes.

Kudos to him for making me believe he was really an adult and Howard Hughs to boot. That loon. Wow. An interesting psychological experience for sure.

I liked this much better than I thought I would. That plane crash scene freaked me out.

4 stars

Posted under Drama, Movie Reviews

No of course she doesn’t. But in my dream she did. And NO, it was not that kind of dream.

I think I was still delirious from realizing I’d been in Hartnett’s house and my subconscious just ran with it. So I dreamed that she was my next-door neighbor (not in the house we currently live in, in our old neighborhood, actually) and she was coming over to ask if she could mow our lawn. She was also damn sure she owed us $.50 (cents) but we kept telling her to forget it. We couldn’t figure out what she might owe us for. So we let her mow the lawn. The fucked up thing is that I ended the dream by saying to Greg, “I can’t wait to write about this in my blog!�

Posted under Dreams

OK not while he was home…not even while he was living there.

His home was the ASID house a few years ago and we toured it (along with half the city). It was really pretty. I knew he lived in the area, but didn’t know which house was his until last week. We had a neighborhood happy hour and our neighbor told us which house it was.

I think that’s cool, but I’m a celebrity slut, as you know.

Posted under celebrity news/gossip

Hi everyone
I decided to give you three movie reviews today because I need to get through them. I have so many!

Just watched “The Notebook” last night. My eyes are still puffy…seriously. I’m not even kidding.

Greg comes home from Detroit in a few hours. Not much else is new.

Anyone else have anything interesting? Jody you were just on vacation with the family, I’m sure you have some stories to tell. Did everyone make it out alive?

Anyone want to comment on the films?

Posted under Movie Reviews

National Treasure
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger (I know, who? But she’s pretty good!)

Check your brain at the door, make some popcorn and have fun, but don’t ask any questions. At one point they were planning the theft of the Declaration of Independence. I asked Greg how they knew that the document would be in this certain place (not it’s usual place) at this certain time because they didn’t explain that. I thought I missed something (not unusual) and he said, “Shhhh, you’re not supposed to ask questions about the plot holes that you can drive a 747 through.�?

That particular question was answered later, though it should have been handled right then. There were a few more. But it was still a fun movie. Nicholas Cage is still quite the charmer. In a word, fun.

3 stars

Posted under Action/Adventure, Movie Reviews

Finding Neverland
Directed by Marc Forster
Starring: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet

I love Johnny Depp. He’s beautiful and perfect. I haven’t cried so much during a movie since…well, OK it wasn’t that long ago. I cried all through “I am Sam�?. The whole damn thing.

This is a stunningly beautiful movie. I don’t just mean Johnny Depp either. The art direction is perfect.

The story is very engaging, well directed, the acting is excellent. Little Freddie Highmore had better not do the old Hollywood Teen Drug Out thing and ruin himself and his career, because he’s one talented little dude. The Bench Scene? Pu-leese! Everytime I think of that his gorgeous eyes filling up with tears mine do too. Ugh, heartbreaking.

Did I mention Johnny Depp? Also excellent.

Greg decided to put Kate Winslet on his “list�? but she’s been on mine since “Eternal Sunshine…�?

Great movie. One of the best I’ve seen in years.

5 stars.

Posted under Drama, Movie Reviews

The Machinist
Directed by Brad Anderson
Starring Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Well, saw this one because of my crush on Christian Bale. I’ll say that the crush took a little hiatus during the viewing of this film. I mean, I’ve always had a thing for skinny pasty guys, but this was a bit extreme. He is so grotesquely skinny that it’s hard to look at. Oh I’d still go out with him, but I’d cook for him and make him eat something!

Once you get over the heebie jeebies from looking at him, the movie takes hold of you and is really quite good. Another visually interesting film. But much more artsy and classy than “Hide & Seek�?. It’s very dark. You have to watch it in a room with the lights off or you can’t tell what’s going on.

The story is complex and reminds me a lot of another movie in both tone and storyline, but I can’t tell you which one or it will give away the plot, which is very good.

Christian Bale is an acting god and I love him in everything he does (if you want to see more of him, and I mean MORE, rent “Metroland�? uh-huh).

This was a great movie. Distrurbing, sad, a little scary, but very good.

4 stars

Posted under Drama, Movie Reviews, Mystery/Suspense

Hide & Seek (2005)
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Dakota Fanning
Directed: John Polson

This was a thriller that involved a mysterious character. If you’ve seen the previews you know that Dakota Fanning’s character keeps telling her father (Robert DeNiro) that “Charlie did it!�? Well, when we actually find out what the hell she’s talking about (because you KNOW it’s not that she’s actually crazy, right?) the “reveal�? would have been really cool if I had not guessed Charlie’s identity a good half hour before it was revealed. And if I had more faith in my own ideas and less in the filmmakers’ I would have called it in the first 5 minutes.

Something in the very opening happened that I found hard to believe and said so. But then I thought, well, there must be a reason so I’ll let it go. Well, there was a reason, and if I’d just stuck with my disbelief I would have known the “answer�? before the opening credits even rolled.

That said, I found it enjoyable to watch. It was well acted. Interesting, visually. The house they lived in was gorgeous. The setting, and one scene in particular, made me think of another (much better) movie and it was that recollection that gave the “ending�? away to me.

See it only if you want to see how fast you can figure it out and if you just like horror movies that you can make fun of, ala Mystery Science Theater 3000. Otherwise, don’t bother.

2 stars (of 5)

PS: I just looked on imdb.com for the photo, and found this bit of trivia which I find hilarious:

For the first time in 70 years, 20th Century Fox shipped prints of Hide and Seek (2005), without the final reel, which would be shipped separately. This was done as a security measure as so people wouldn’t be able to reveal the final ending. To further ensure the safety of protecting the film’s ending, security guards would hand-deliver the reel to theaters showing the film. Fox had individually numbered each reel as well as a final security measure. Fox executive VP and sales manager Richard Myerson stated it was “to ensure everyone’s enjoyment of the film and to prevent ‘spoilers’, we’ve instituted extraordinary measures. We think it’s worth the effort.”

Nice try. They should have put that much effort into filming the story so as not to give it away in the first seven seconds!

Posted under Movie Reviews, Mystery/Suspense