80s movie challenge starts tomorrow!

Young Adult

Drunken Movie Night!

A Thousand Words (2012)

Part of the reason why I like watching the previews at the beginning of movies is that I find out about movies I may not have heard about otherwise. That was the case with this movie. as soon as I saw the trailer, I knew I'd like it. I love Eddie Murphy and Kerry Washington, and I like movies where an asshole learns to be less of an asshole and to care more about life and the people in it, and this is one of those movies. Jack McCall (Murphy) isn't really that bad of a guy, he's just a busy executive who is known for his flattery and who is used to getting ahead by spinning flattery. He's all style and no substance.

Jack has a wife who loves him but wishes he showed that he cared more. for all his fluttery words, he doesn't take much time to tell her that he cares, and even when he says the right things, his actions show otherwise. For instance, they are still living in the house that was his bachelor pad before he met her, even though they have a baby son now, and he is unwilling to move or even to take steps to baby-proof the house to make it safer for his growing family. It's almost like he's trying to hold onto his old life so that if his new life falls apart somehow, like if his wife leaves him, he'll still have something familiar and safe to fall back on. After all, Jack is used to people leaving. His father walked out on him when he was young, and his mother, though she loves him, has Alzheimer's and is stuck in the past, waiting for her husband to come back. She often thinks that Jack is his father when he comes to visit her, which irks him to no end, because the last thing he wants to be in life is his father.

The events of the movie take a supernatural turn when Jack tries to sign a book deal with a spiritual guru, and in the process, Jack encounters a tree that seems to have a spiritual connection to him. Before he knows what hit him, the tree has followed him to his own backyard (in a particularly funny scene) and Jack soon realizes that the spiritual connection with this tree could be deadly: for every word Jack speaks, leaf falls from the tree, and once all the leaves fall, he will die. Watching Jack , the man of many words, try to get through life while speaking as little as possible, is the running joke of the movie, but I give credit to the writers for managing to keep playing on the same joke without making it seem old and tired. One scene where Jack handles a conference call without speaking had me practically rolling on the floor with laughter.

Jack's assistant, played by Clark Duke, does tend to get a little on the ridiculous side with the running jokes about what a doofus he is, but I let that slide, and he does have some genuinely funny moments. Allison Janney is great in a small part as Jack's boss. Overall, I found this to be a very enjoyable movie, and it's one I wouldn't mind watching again.

Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit the Third Year

Law & Order: the Eighth Year (1997-1998)

Damn I love this show. I forgot how good some of these episodes are. Of course, now that I've started watching it, it's like crack and I can't stop.

Gone (2012)

Supernatural Season 3

Reign Over Me

80s Movie Challenge August 1-31, 2012

Ice Age: The Meltdown

I really love this series. I watched the first one when I was in college, not expecting much, and of course it had me sniveling like a baby, and this one was no exception. I like Ray Romano and Dennis Leary and John Leguizamo, so I love listening to them doing their voice acting here (Dennis Leary as Diego is probably my favorite). Queen Latifah is great in this movie too as Ellie. It was really cute and a fun watch.

The Breakfast Club

This is one of those movies that came out when I was a kid, and it was a teen movie, so I wasn't allowed to watch it for years, and then when I could have watched it, somehow it always got pushed onto a back burner. I finally watched it tonight and really enjoyed it. I would have quoted the HELL out of this movie if I'd seen it when I was younger.

The Twilight saga: Breaking Dawn part 1

I rebelled against seeing this in theaters or pre-ordering the DVD like I did with the other three movies in this series, because I'm poor and I have serious aversions to paying $20 for HALF A MOVIE. I waited until I could rent it, and I'll wait to buy it on DVD until I can buy the second part, too. Boo. But I did enjoy this movie. There are things I think it did very well and then there are things I think the book did better (something I never thought I'd say, since I was so pissed off by the book). I'll be interested to see what they do with the second movie.

Free Stuffs

Hey everyone. Presto's Pizza is offering a free apron (and the possibility for a free oven mitt, too, if you spread the word about their offer) here: Click Here!

This is a cool offer, so I thought I'd share it. If this link doesn't work or is expired by the time you click on it, please don't scream at me and argue with me for 36 posts like certain people do on Facebook. These offers go fast and you have to click it right away sometimes or you might miss out. This offer was still working when I clicked it, but I make no promises that it will still be working however long from now you might happen to click the link. It's a FREE offer, you lose nothing by clicking on it, and posting to shriek at me because my free stuff link didn't work for you is kind of catty and definitely unnecessary. Just leave the house and go buy an apron if the stress of not getting one for free will be too much for you. Thanks. Hope the link works for you.