Valentine’s Day At Home

Family Movie Night

by Karyn Bowman

By this time next week, there will be Valentine cards strewn about. I know that my house will have little cards all over after a great rush to get them written out by one child.

Some might take advantage of the weekend to carve out quality time with their sweetie, a stay-at-home couples night if you will.

Image from IMDb.com

My first choice of movies in the romantic genre is Return To Me starring Minnie Driver and David Duchoveny. I love the Chicago locations, the musical selections, and the performances by the cast. It is one of the few movies that I find to be near perfection.

I asked my husband for his opinion, what did he think was a good movie for couples.  Perhaps this shows our age but his immediate response was When Harry Met Sally, the holy grail of romantic comedy perfection. It is one of the wordiest movies but for English majors it is extraordinary how it shows love moving through the hearts of two people destined for each other.

Image from IMDb.com

I would say the same about Sleepless In Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. Note that all three of these star Meg Ryan who knows how to put together cute and quirky in one package.

For those wanting an action packed romance, there is always Mr. and Mrs. Smith starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a married couple who are both spies and must take each other out. There are many sequences that seem far-fetched but I found the movie to be very enjoyable.

For those who are movie buffs, I have an oldie but goodie to suggest. The Enchanted Cottage stars Robert Young and  Dorothy McGuire. He is a war hero left scarred from his military career while she is a homely girl.

They meet at the honeymoon cottage where she works and fall in love. But something strange happens to them. They see something that others do not and somehow this only strengthens their love for each other. Finding this movie might be difficult as I have not seen it released on DVD as of yet.

Image from IMDb.com.

Finally, I know that there are some people out there who are suffering broken hearts. Perhaps the person left or you left them. I think the lead character in Bridemaids as portrayed by Kristen Wiig can certainly relate. While this is not a movie for kids or to watch with someone who would make you wince inside, it is a funny movie.

The story is about a woman who was dumped by her boyfriend and lost her bakery business but must make the best of things when her best friend announces her engagement. Further more, Wiig is asked to be the maid of honor. Complicate that with another woman who wants to take charge of everything and get all of the credit.

 How does one fight against another woman who is taking away your best friend and besting you at every turn when you are broke and she is super rich?

To me the best scene is when Melissa McCarthy lets Wiig know she is always there for her with a physical fight. Some may call this the ‘female’ Hangover movie but I call it something much better than that.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Until next year, see you in the rental aisle.

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How Long Till Spring Training Camp?

Family Movie Night

by Karyn Bowman

Just because we have gotten our first snow fall of the season does not mean we cannot look forward to the four most beautiful words one can hear during winter.

Pitchers and catchers report.

Poster Image from IMDb.com

I thought about that last night when I stopped at our little grocery store and saw Moneyball on the dvd rental shelves.

This is one movie I meant to see in the theater and never got around to. The story follows a baseball executive who decides to try something different to find players to make his professional team better without spending money he does not have.

It is a wild idea and he does it with the help of a statistics geek by looking for players who do the little things right.

Crazy, I know.

The movie takes place ten years ago and what Billy Beane was doing at that time was cause for derision. But he was able to take his $37 million team to the play-offs and has repeated that feat several times. These days, Sabermetrics is used all over the league in one form or another.  

Another reason to see this movie is that there is Oscar talk around Brad Pitt and his performance. Jonah Hill is beginning to blossom as an actor as he keeps getting better and better parts. What Hill and Pitt do is make a discussion about math and baseball interesting and relevant.

So what other baseball movies should you see, if you count yourself a true movie and baseball fan?

Poster Image from IMDb.com

Absolutely, you have to have seen Field of Dreams and Bull Durham . Both star Kevin Costner about a man who has baseball as in integral part of his life. The former is about a farmer in Iowa who hears a voice telling him to ‘build it and they will come.’ So he builds a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield and one night Shoeless Joe Jackson comes out of the cornfield to play catch.

This is only the first part of a wild and crazy adventure that leads to Boston and Minnesota . There are men who cry only with this movie and for one specific scene. This movie talks about why we love baseball and gets it right.

So why Bull Durham ?

I find it to be one of the best movies about the life. Costner plays an aging catcher brought on to train an up-and-coming pitcher with a unreliable rocket thrower for an arm. Tim Robbins makes a big splash as Lash Larue. Then there is Susan Sarrandon as the fan who trains one player each season. This movie is definitely made for adults and not for kiddie viewing at all.

Poster Image from IMDb.com

The best kid movie about baseball that I know is The Sandlot. The story is about a boy who moves to a new town when his mother remarries. He finds himself drawn to a group of boys who play baseball in an empty sandlot every day. The kid is eventually accepted by the other despite being a deplorable player and they go on to have several memorable adventures.

It is a great movie.

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

Discovering An Adult Movie By Quentin Tarentino.

Most of the time, I write about movies that the whole family can see together. In fact, I can tell you exactly what our family watched this last week.

If you have not seen the 2003 version of Peter Pan, you really must. It is beautifully photographed and fully realized emotionally. Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook is a vision to behold and his acting is superb. Jeremy Sumpter makes a fine Peter.

But that is not the movie I am talking about this week. There are times that adults want to watch a movie that is meant for adults.

I am not talking about ‘X’ rated flicks but movies that have adult storylines, context, language and violence. This week, my inner adult wanted to watch Inglourious Basterds directed by Quentin Tarantino. The misspelling is all Tarantino’s work, who refuses to divulge why he did it.

This “R” rated flick is one I would consider a fantasy in which the bad guys get what we always wanted to do to them. The Nazis are perhaps the easiest villains to portray without offending anyone, their particular brand of malevolence being the most vile in all of history.

The story is set in Nazi-occupied France. We are first shown a French farmhouse where a family is interrogated about Jewish families in the area. The interrogator is Col. Hans Landa, the Jew hunter. He says he is doing a job for Hitler but like anyone else he wants to be the best at his work.

Then there are the Basterds, a group of Jewish-American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine. His commission is to get rid of Nazis, anyway possible. Because Raine is of Apache heritage, he wants scalps of every German his unit takes out. His goal is 100 scalps. The unit becomes feared and well-known in a short manner of time.

Years pass and one young German soldier has attained fame for his record number of kills as a sharpshooter. Goebbals has filmed a movie about his exploits and plans a big Paris premiere. The Basterds are aware and make plans to take out the leaders of the Third Reich, including Hitler. What none of them know about is the owner of the cinema and her own plans.

This is not an easy movie to watch. There is disturbing violence, gun battles and swearing. Brad Pitts and Christopher Waltz put in brilliant performances. Both men have a cause, both men believe they are right. But it is a movie that rankles.

There is constant tension as people try to weigh what they say so that they do not rile anyone and lose their life in the process. It is the act of always being on a highwire.

That is life under occupation by the enemy, is it not?

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle. Let the world, or at least St. Anne, know your family’s recent selection by dropping a line to momgoestothemovies@sbcglobal.net. You can also ‘friend’ me on Facebook.