Waterloo! I was defeated, you won the war!

Whoa! It’s a lunchtime blog!

So Mom and I went to see Mamma Mia last night. In a summer where most of the movies feature comic book characters, assassins, murders, ass-kickings* and caricatures of women, it was a pleasure to FINALLY see a light-hearted movie!

The plot was contrived, the singing was inconsistent (Oh, Pierce Brosnan…you are SUCH a Trooper. A “super” Trooper. Bwah!) and I loved it!

I sang along in my head the entire movie. It helps that I’ve loved ABBA for years thanks to a cassette tape that was always played when I was young. I even got weepy in the middle, but I have issues.

And I know the characters of Donna (Meryl Streep) and her friends are purely fictional…but darned if I didn’t feel inspired to grow my hair long again, to stop being afraid of growing older, and to walk as if there is a mile-long line of Greek women singing and dancing behind me.

After the movie ended - half the women in the ladies’ room stalls were singing “Waterloo.”

Anyway, we loved loved loved it and I definitely want to see it again when it comes out on DVD.

*Even Kung Fu Panda, though light-hearted, had tons of ass-kickings. I haven’t seen WALL-E yet. I’m tired of “humans suck and are lazy and ruin EVERYTHING” storylines.

***
Tonight we’re off to GGs restaurant in Mt. Laurel to celebrate a cousin’s birthday. I’m getting cheaper in my old age, but at $19.00 for pasta marinara, there’d better be someone feeding it to me.

Posted at: 1:45 pm in Family/Friends, General, Movies | Permanent Link | 1 Comment - add yours! »
Tags: mamma mia, Movies

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

RSS/Newsfeed reader: I have spoilers at the bottom of this post and I don’t think the white-font-on-white-background trick works in Feed Readers. Be warned!

Wandering Minstrel is a HUGE Indiana Jones fan. I say this as I sit to blog after he left for work wearing the brown fedora he wears every day. There’s an Indiana Jones brown bullwhip on the wall with a Mickey Mouse Indiana Jones beanie sitting inside the loops. The Indiana Jones theme song is his ringtone. It’s my ringtone for him. And basically, WM was first inspired to be a history teacher by Indiana Jones.

And for his birthday last week, I got him this little guy from an Etsy store.

So yeah, he likes Indiana Jones. And when I found out that our local theater was showing the movie at 12:01 am this morning on four separate screens, I knew what I had to do. So for his birthday, he also got a pair of tickets to the flick.

We arrived at the theater at 10:45pm hoping to beat the crowds. We did - they weren’t as thick or as freaky as we thought. There were fedoras a-plenty there, though. Oddly enough, WM left his home. When you’re genuine enough to wear a brown fedora every day, you don’t need to prove your fanhood by wearing it to the flick. And I couldn’t pull my Short Round costume together in time any way.

After sitting through 15 minutes of preview trailers and only laughing at Kung Fu Panda, the movie started. And despite my fatigue from doing nothing for an hour and a half and my disdain for movies in general, this was a VERY fun movie.

I thought that the character of Mutt Williams — Indiana Jones’ son (that’s not a spoiler…we’ve all known that since Shia LaBeouf was cast) — could have been a really stupid move. But it was well-written, well-played and not at all treacly. I also enjoyed the interplay between Indy and Marion. I’m just glad they didn’t recast the role with a 35-year-old. Or Calista Flockhart.

This was my first midnight movie ever. Despite the fact that this morning I want to hiss at anyone who looks at me I had a great time. You know that at 12:01am on a weeknight you’re getting real fans of the movie franchise who are happy and excited and not on cellphones the whole time. You’re also getting an adult audience, which you never see anymore, even at Rated R flicks.

The plot? A big bunch of loopy fun with jungles and waterfalls and tombs and everything you’d expect from an Indiana Jones flick. Just swap in Communist Russians (the 1957 kind) for evil Germans and you’re good to go.

My beef with the plot? Highlight the lines below with your mouse…spoilers..

It was established at the beginning that the FBI considered Indy a “person of interest” because of Mac’s dealings with the Russians. They ransacked Indy’s office at work, which forced the University to force Indy to go on a (paid!) leave of absence. He was headed to New York en route to London when Mutt found him and told him about Oxley. Then they go off on their adventures. When all is settled (and really people, ALIENS?) Indy comes back to a new title as Dean of Students and no mention is made of the FBI? Were suspicions cleared while Indy was adventuring? The stuff he did in w/r/t the skull wasn’t patriotically redeeming. I’d have liked one more scene where the FBI clears Indy’s name. Then he punches the agents as his military buddies laugh.

And kudos to Cate Blanchett for her work as the knowledge-obsessed Russian official. She was just over-the-top enough to make the character enjoyable without turning into Natasha Fatale.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Posted at: 7:45 am in Family/Friends, Movies, Play | Permanent Link | 5 Comments - add yours! »
Tags: indianajones, indianajonesandthekingdomofthecrystalskull, Movies

Would you believe…?

Sexism. Ageism. Hollywood. It all goes together. But since movies are fantasy, I never got my knickers in a knot about the May/December couplings in movies. Well…it never bothered me until now, when I saw the preview for the Get Smart Movie.

Don Adams was 42 years old when the Get Smart television series began in 1965.
Steve Carell was 44 years old when the Get Smart movie began shooting in March, 2007.

Barbara Feldon was 33 years old when the Get Smart television series began in 1965.
Anne Hathaway was 24 years old when the Get Smart movie began shooting in March, 2007.

So we go from having nine years difference between Smart and Agent 99 to TWENTY years difference?

Come on, Hollywood! You couldn’t find a 35 year old actress to be Agent 99? Are Jennifer Garner, Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow too old and busted?

I guess they’re only available to leading men 55 and over.

Posted at: 10:21 pm in General, Movies, Play | Permanent Link | 4 Comments - add yours! »
Tags: hollywood, Movies