Well, Well, Well...

...Look what the cat dragged in.

That would be me.

I've been in a funk lately.  I have lost my knitting mojo...I have not seen as many movies as I've wanted to...but I have seen some.

First, on DVD:
Choke is a really dumb movie about a guy who pretends to choke in restaurants to raise money to pay for his mother’s boarding fees at a skilled nursing facility. He has issues and he self medicates with sex. Did I mention how dumb this movie is?

Synecdoche, NY is a dumb movie without point. Some really good people are in it, such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Emma Watson, Samantha Morton, Dianne Wiest and Hope Davis, but what a waste! This guy spends his whole life making a movie about his life, and he can’t seem to get it perfect enough. Dumb.

I have seen some that I've liked:
Michelle Williams (Wendy) stars in Wendy and Lucy about a girl and her dog (Lucy). They are making the trek from Indiana to Alaska where Wendy will try to find work. She makes it to a little town in Oregon before her car breaks down. It’s just the beginning of the obstacles that detain them from making it to Alaska. It was pretty good.

Where the Wild Things Are is a good adaptation of the book. It is much more involved, of course, because one can zip through the book in about five minutes. I think it is better suited for older children (than younger children), but it is very entertaining.

Alice in Wonderland, with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasakowska, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and many more, is an interesting adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic story of a girl who visits a magical place. Wasikowska plays 19 year-old Alice, who follows a white rabbit with a pocket watch down a hole to Underland. The Red Queen (Bonham Carter) has taken the land hostage and chops off the head of anyone who disagrees with her. The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) tries to help Alice find the weapon that can kill the Jabberwocky, allowing the White Queen (Hathaway) to take over the throne. It was quirky, as all of Tim Burton's movies are, and pretty entertaining.

I've seen some good movies in the theater:
Sex and the City 2 starring the usual subjects is an entertaining movie that is great if you are a fan of the tee vee show. I liked it. It was fun.

The Secret in Their Eyes was Argentina’s entry this year for Best Foreign Picture. It won. It deserved it. It has mystery, romance, drama, suspense and good acting. The movie is set in Argentina (duh!), from the 1970s to the turn of the century. A retired investigator is haunted by the case he never really closed, even though he solved it. It was really good...one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while.

Julianna Margulies, Andy Garcia, Emily Mortimer and Alan Arkin star in City Island, a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family. Each member has a secret that is screaming to get out. It was good.

Eclipse is the third installment of the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer. It was pretty good, despite the fact that the acting isn’t. The movie is definitely for the fans. I really liked the books and I liked the movie.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is a biographical documentary about the legendary comedienne and her constant struggle to be out there and working. Joan is a complicated woman. She is funny, although her liberal use of the f-word and the c-word makes my ears hurt. I abhor the c-word…Anyway, it is interesting to see just how insecure Joan remains, despite the fact that she has achieved hard-won success throughout her life. I liked it.


MK out.