Bandwagoneer

A list of the top grossing movies over 2007. Of interest to me is the fact that I either purchased tickets or the DVD to see every single one except 300* and Wild Hogs. Who says I don't follow the crowd?

* Currently on Netflix account...will arrive someday.

To Do List

The family had a terrific Christmas yesterday. The kiddies were very excited Christmas Eve and were awake by 4am Christmas morning! Coffee, needless to say, was mandatory. Stepson was with us from Monday till noon on Christmas before he went to his dad’s. Once there he called after a couple hours and asked for us to bring over some of his gifts – he was bored. All I could think was, yes!

Wife, Daughter and I went to see a movie as well. We saw The Water Horse which was an OK kids movie. Daughter really liked it, but it had some weird parts where I thought, that's a little dark for a kids movie...but whatever. It was nice though, to get out of the house in the evening. Wife feels that Christmas evening is always a bit anticlimactic, especially since we don't have anyone we spend it with, and getting out of the house shakes things up a bit.

So I wish that I could relax today, but here is a small list of the items that I realized I have to accomplish by the end of this week (or maybe next week):

1) Register my car. I would like to avoid getting a ticket for expired registration by one day - like what happened last year - on the way to my first day of a rotation. I can use $140 for better things than citations.
2) Take Daughter to her doctor’s office. She has been sick for over a week now and I can no longer convince myself that it’s simply a viral URI. Especially since she started to complain about her ear hurting and, upon inspection, I found it to be angry, bulging, and red looking. Amoxicillin, 60-80 mg/kg bid-tid for 5-7 days, if I remember correctly.
3) Order copies of my birth certificate and have it express mailed. I was looking at my driver’s license the other day and realized that after 8 years without having to obtain a new one this expires in 2 weeks. Unfortunately in this state I have to have my first renewal at the DMV (bastards!) and can’t just get a mail-it-in renewal. I also realized that I can’t dawdle on this since I have to fly to a few more interviews in January, with one being the 6th-8th, and an expired license will no longer be accepted as identification! Crap.
4) Hang out with freaks at the DMV…see above.
5) Find out if my next rotation starts next week or the week after. An e-mail sent out last week stated we were starting 5 days later than the scheduled by the school. I’ll be out of town on that date and don't want them cutting me out of the class if I don't show the first few days.
6) Plan Wife’s birthday party and get reservations for dinner.

So as you can see…a few things to do. Some more important than others, but all important.

Weekend Laziness

I have a confession: I was one of the millions who went to see the Chipmunks movie on opening day. There, I said it.

Actually I was one of those parents who, being a very loving parent, takes their kids to some crappy movie just to make them happy. Because it was crappy. Really crappy. There was such an abundance of crapitude in the movie that I began wondering who else wanted their soda to be spiked with hard liquor to ease the cerebral pain. A couple things that I just couldn’t get over, amongst the plethora of issues (would you say I have a plethora – sorry, just had to), were these items:

First: Dave got way to comfy with having talking Chipmunks in his house. Just like, eh whatever, lil’ dudes. Make me money! In fact, everyone was a little too comfy with talking rodents.

Second: I feel bad saying this, as I’m a big fan of Jason Lee’s, but he did not get the Alvin yell down – at all. It sounded completely phony and forced. Like he wasn’t actually yelling at anything (you know, like there wasn’t an actual talking chipmunk causing chaos in front of him). I guess some people are just better at pretending they're interacting with something that will be added later while others are stiff. Lee was stiff.

Another movie I saw over the weekend (yes, productive) was ‘I am Legend’. Good movie overall, lots of suspense, superb acting by Will Smith, and a post-apocalyptic/ zombie background – awesome. I do have one thing I’d like to say, though. Even though this was a movie I’d definitely want to see again, I wish movie makers would realize that not seeing every detail actually makes creatures scarier. At the end you’ve seen the zombies so much that you’re no longer jumping at them and actually laugh a couple times.

Oh yeah, I also got much needed maintenance done on my car. Like belts replaced, new tranie fluid, brakes, etc. So it wasn’t a completely wasted weekend. What did you do with your time?

Ever Curious

I’m going to write a review of one of my movies I’ve recently viewed - Eastern Promises - because I’ve got to ask something.

Usually I think that Viggo Mortensen does a great job and Naomi Watts has been quite good in some recent films. However, despite the movie being pretty interesting I’m wondering where we’re going with R rated flicks.

This is based on the high degree of nudity, sexually explicit scenes, and description of rape that the movie seemed to center around. I honestly felt like I was watching soft-core porn at sometimes and the pseudo-homoerotic naked steam-room fight sequence was a little more than I wanted to see. Beyond these troubling scenes I felt the movie was quite well done and could have garnered a 4 or 5 rating, but the overtly X-rated feel that encompassed a great deal of the film forced me to lower it down to 3/5. I just can't overlook the feelings I got watching.

So, with that being said I'd like to ask: are we getting to the point where R will soon by X? Is it necessary to show such extremes when trying to make a statement about criminal behaviors? For whatever the reason I think that some filmmakers are pushing the limits on what should be shown. I wasn’t prepared for what was shown at points and it sure as hell wasn’t comfortable watching that with Wife.

Oh Yeah

Forgot on the last post...I SAW THE FUCKING SIMPSON'S MOVIE YESTERDAY!!!!

If you're a fan of the show it's worth the money. Some very funny parts, some lame, but all in all a great way to decompress. Homer is my hero.