Movies & Television

Re-Visiting The Princess Bride

Daily Dose, Day to Day, Movies & Television /

I love The Princess Bride (who doesn’t, right?) I’ve seen it a trillion times (who hasn’t, right?) So I hesitated about ordering tickets to see The Princess Bride at the Hollywood Palms theater in that stupid suburb that I hate to go to.

But when TW wandered over there and mentioned that it was playing, I thought what the hell. It will be fun. And, they make a really awesome lemon sorbet martini. (I know, you’re shocked.) The tickets were super inexpensive, when you look at how much a movie ticket normally costs, so that was an added bonus.

After a rough couple of days at work, I was totally ready for this particular date night movie. It was even cooler than expected because we got to watch the movie in the special screening room that has like 12 small leather couches instead of the computer desk type chairs. Much more comfortable and intimate. Really nice.

We ordered more drinks and a ton of food (though not as much food as last time) and sat back to watch.

And that’s when I realized, I haven’t really seen The Princess Bride a trillion times. I mean I have, but not all of the way through from start to finish without working while watching or getting distracted by kids or pets or other people. And, I’ve never seen it on the big screen.

If you have the chance to see it in a theater this way, I highly recommend it — even if you’ve seen it a trillion times. It’s totally worth it.

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Dinner and a Movie

Daily Dose, Day to Day, Movies & Television /

I took TW to Hollywood Palms for date night yesterday. It turned into date afternoon because there was lightning so we couldn’t take the dogs to the dog park as previously planned and it seemed like a better idea to head out early rather than wait and risk really bad weather.

So, we made it to Naperville (an hour darn drive) shortly before 1pm. We both ordered drinks — TW got some Kahlua mocha frappe thingy and I got a lime sorbet martini. We wandered around the lobby which was full of kids because they were having a couple of special kid events – a Rio 2 day so there were a bunch of birds there that the kids could look at and hold and they had the Easter Bunny in another corner of the lobby.

We took our drinks into the theater at around 1:15, looked at the food menu and ordered ALL OF THE FOOD, which was delivered throughout the movie. The best of all the food we ordered was the Grinch Dip. Yum.

Divergent was ok. But I kept wanting to yell, “Look! A person of color!”

We had a good time — the servers were excellent, the cocktails were good (and I NEVER drink, ever but definitely enjoyed the two martinis I had), the food was fine and I enjoyed the nice rolling computer desk chair (though I did slam my knee into a metal poll right after the movie star but that was my own fault and not the theater/chair’s fault.)

We’ll go again someday, though not often because it’s expensive, lol — and a really long drive just to have food/drinks delivered to you during a movie.

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I’m Thankful for Netflix and Dawson’s Creek

2 Comments / Movies & Television /

Seriously. Is there anything better than Netflix? I spent a very nice two days off of work watching Dawson’s Creek and working on JMP’s stocking — when Buster wasn’t ripping it out of my hands and racing toward the back door with it (or the thread or my scissors or the pattern, sigh.)

I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoyed the music in every episode. I’d almost forgotten all of that teen angst and how much I loved Michelle Williams even though I sure hated Jenn in the beginning. And now Andie and Jack have arrived to mix things up even more.

Thank goodness for Netflix. It was a great mini vacation at home with the Capeside kids.

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Beautiful Creatures — The Movie

1 Comment / Books in Bed, Movies & Television /

I forced TW to watch Beautiful Creatures last night (playing catch up with my Book to Movie challenge) and… it wasn’t as bad as I was afraid it would be.

I had two big YOU DIDN’T moments…. the housekeeper and the librarian are NOT the same darn people. I didn’t like them being the same darn people. HMPH and… the end. Oh boy. The end. Really?

I try to be understanding of the problems involved with taking a very long book and turning it into a not super long movie (though I think this one was more than 2 hours) — which is why I’m not complaining about the missing “Aunts” and the fact that we didn’t see Ethan’s dad at all. Or Linc’s band. Or the birthday party.

I get it, you have to cut some of the things and you have to figure out ways to tell the story after cutting out those things.

But really? Those two things were kind of big, in my opinion….

Darn it.

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I Am Number Four (The Movie)

2013, Books in Bed, Movies & Television /

Finally — a movie for my Book to Movie Challenge.

I Am Number Four (the movie), which I read last month, was not as good as the book.

Duh, right?

Except that if you remember what I said about the book, or click the link, you’ll see that I wondered if I might like the book better. So darn. I was wrong.

The relationship between John and Henri was completely different in the movie. The relationship between John and Sarah and John and Sam was different as well. Not enough character development. Not enough character, in general. They needed another 30 minutes of film to show to allow the characters to develop so that we cared about any of them.

The only thing that worked was Bernie Kosar.

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A Year of Mockumentaries? Err, I Mean Documentaries?

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Movies & Television /

For years I’ve been padding my non-fiction reading lists with books from Zandria’s year end “This is what I read” list. (She reads non-fiction almost exclusively.) Non-fiction can be so hit or miss that it’s always nice to have someone you know and trust read one first and tell you what she thought. (She’s also been very nice and elaborated on some of your opinions on books via email so that I was sure I was getting what I thought I’d be getting.)

This year, she also posted a “This is what I watched” post full of documentaries. Ohhhh boy! One of my personal favorite things about having the ROKU has been watching the occasional documentary, just because I felt like it. Unfortunately, the girls tend to monopolize the ROKU on the weekends and I haven’t watched as many as I’d like. I also was never sure what I should watch — there are so darn many, after all.

I sat down on Sunday and added a ton of documentaries from her list to my Netflix queue and in the process added some more that she hadn’t watched but caught my eye.

I figured this would be a good way to force myself to work on JMP’s Christmas stocking — watch some documentaries and work on this thing at the same time. Win/win! So on Sunday, I picked a short one that I wasn’t sure TW would be interested in, since she was working in the bedroom but before a few minutes had passed, she wandered out to join me in watching. Prince J watched along for awhile too.

We watched “Between the Folds” — super interesting! The art, the history, the science of paper folding. (Oh, I actually watched this on Amazon Instant because Netflix was grouchy. Too many kids in the house watching other things on MY Netflix account, probably, lol.)

Then, because we enjoyed that so much, we moved over to Netflix and watched Vegucated. A vegan in NY recruited (via Craigslist) three people to go vegan. Pretty much what you’d expect. They watched videos about animal farming/meat production, wandered into a farm and saw things they didn’t want to see, struggled with friends/family who don’t understand the vegan thing, missed cheese (mmm cheese) and they all lost weight, improved cholesterol and blood pressure — as expected.

While we were watching these, alienbody was watching documentaries from Zan’s list too, heh. (Zandria is becoming a legend!) Alienbody coined the phrase “mockumentary” and oh how I look forward to mocking some documentaries this year. It’s gonna be funnnnnnnn. And interesting.

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Cake Boss

Daily Dose, Movies & Television /

We don’t watch very much TV… Survivor and Extreme Couponing and that’s it. The only time we ever watch anything else is when we travel and then we watch TLC. Since I’m sort of traveling, and it’s very quiet here, I figured a little TLC was in order.

I watched a little bit of Say Yes to the Dress, a couple of days ago.

Last night was some weird show about murders that I didn’t really enjoy but didn’t turn off either.

Today – it’s been Cake Boss.

I have a love/hate thing with Cake Boss. I like families that snark at each other. I understand those people but sometimes Buddy’s family can make me tired with all of the yelling.

Right now, I’m watching an episode where Buddy has to make a cake so large that it will have to be assembled AT Penn Station. Fascinating. And very very cool.  Look at it: Train Day Cake

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

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Princess Bride and Prairie Dogs

1 Comment / Family Funk, Kid Talk, Movies & Television /

Many years ago, I discovered that TW had never seen The Princess Bride. Which means the small children had not seen the Princess Bride. I forced the entire group to watch. TW rolled her eyes and complained about what a horrible movie it was.

I almost moved out.

The children, however, at least the older and younger, immediately understood the awesomeness. The middle child came around, eventually. And TW, well, she appears to have grown into The Princess Bride. (Thankfully.)

This morning, Prince J (and I, by extension) learned that TW’s mother has never seen The Princess Bride. There may have been gasping. There was certainly appalled disbelief. Nobody can live in Denise’s house who has not seen The Princess Bride at least once but preferably dozens of times. You must be able to quote the movie extensively.

This afternoon, TW’s mom asked Prince J to put in the movie. TW and Prince J declined to do so because you cannot watch The Princess Bride alone – not for the first time. She she must wait until someone is home to watch with her.

TW’s mom said “I don’t stay up that late.”

Prince J said “Well you can’t watch it alone.”

TW said “Inconceivable!”

And I said, “Damn, I’m impressed that you’ve learned to use the movie quotes properly.”

TW said “As you wish.”

Prince J walked over to the #prairiedogs and said “You are cute little rodents of unusual size, aren’t you?”

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

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WTH is a Chick Flick?

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Family Funk, Kid Talk, Movies & Television /

TW and I were in the bedroom reading. TW’s mom was in the family room watching TV. The kids were in their rooms doing whatever it is that kids do on a lazy Sunday morning. RJ wandered into the family room and TW and I eavesdropped on this conversation:

TW’s Mom: Rebecca, can you find me a good chick flick to watch?

RJ: A chick flick? Sure! What do you like?

(RJ wanders over to the cabinet with the movies….)

TW’s Mom: I don’t like violence, so a chick flick would be great.

RJ: Have you seen Lion King?

TW’s Mom: No, I haven’t seen that.

RJ: (Rambling about how great Lion King is…) How about Aristocats, have you seen that?

TW’s Mom: No, I haven’t seen that.

RJ: (Rambling about how great Aristocats is…) Or Lady & the Tramp?

TW’s Mom: No, I don’t think I’ve seen that either.

(TW and I are laughing our asses off….)

Elly (yelling from Prince J’s room): The Sisterhood of the Traveling pants is a great chick flick, it’s a light romance!

TW’s Mom: Sisterhood of what?

Elly: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

TW’s Mom: Rebecca a chick flick is a movie that girls want to watch but boys usually do not.              

RJ: Oh! Like Twilight. Would you like to watch Twilight.

TW’s Mom: Some mumbled response that TW and I could not hear because we were laughing our asses off.

Elly (now in the family room, trying to take control of the situation): We should watch Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, it’s a great chick flick. You’ll love it.

TW’s Mom: We’ll watch Lion King first and that Pants thing second.

(TW’s mom’s phone rings…. She answers and says “I can’t talk right now, I’m watching a chick flick with Rebecca…”)

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

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