From Prada to Nada

PG-13 (2011)
Brief drug use and a sexual situation

In the newest adaptation of Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility, two sisters raised in the lap of luxury are in for a rude awakening when their father's death is swiftly followed by the revelation that their father was bankrupt. Now the only place left for them to go is to live with their aunt, in the poor part of town.

4.5 out of 5
(Marijuana use and one scene that implies sex has happened, should be safe for most teenagers)

Camilla Belle has long been one of my favorite actresses and I would be lying if I said that I chose to watch this movie for any other reason. When I realized that what I was watching was actually Sense and Sensibility (about thirty seconds into the opening titles when it told me so) I got pretty excited.
This particular modern take was well done. It was updated enough that any changes were appropriate. At the same time it hit all the major points and followed the book so well that no one in this household was disappointed (and in this Jane Austin loving home that is saying something).

Julie & Julia

PG-13 (2009)
Brief strong language and some sensuality

The stories of Julia Child and Julie Powell are intertwined in this dual memoir of the two women. Julie is an unsatisfied cubical worker who challenges herself to cook every recipe in Julia Child's recipe book in 365 days and shares her experiences in her blog.

5 out of 5
(Fairly safe movie for any audience)

To be finished later...


Random movie fact #2:  The film has Judith Jones stand Julie Powell up due to bad weather. Jones told the Boston Globe in August 2009 that, in fact, she had wanted to meet Julie "because I wasn't sure how you put a blog together and I also wanted to talk about recipe rights", but canceled because "Julia Child looked at her blog and didn't think Julie was a serious cook. There were all these four-letter words - that isn't how you describe food if you care and if you're a good writer. Julia thought we shouldn't have anything to do with it." (Info care of IMDB)

The Darjeeling Limited

R (2007)
Language
 
A year after their father's death three brothers go on a trip to India together.

1 out of 5
(The rating for this movie only mentions language, but there was also an implied sex scene and the short movie, Hotel Chevalier, which is on the DVD with The Darjeeling Limited, has a fairly racy sex scene)


Um... yeah. I did not get this movie at all. There was just enough of a storyline, and what I thought might be potential, to keep me watching (plus the obligation I have to you to watch even the crappy movies). I hoped Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody would make for a good movie, but I was wrong.
I read a couple of favorable reviews of the movie after watching it, and they all seemed to say that it was about the journey. To me, it was all about making it to the credits awake and alive.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

PG-13 (2011)
Sequences of intense action and violence
 
IMF is shut down after they are blamed for a bombing at the Kremlin. Now the team must work together, without backup, to stop the real bomber and clear the organization of the blame.

4.5 out of 5

After all the reboots that have come out over the past few years, I was a little hesitant to see this movie. That's probably why someone else had to pay for me to see it.
Well, you know what, I went right out and blew $1.20 at Redbox so that I could show it to someone else.
Great movie. Bombing the Kremlin was an interesting decision to make, but then again it's been so long since anyone went there it was actually kind of refreshing to avoid the middle east completely.
Perhaps my favorite thing about his movie is that not everything went perfectly. Impossible stunts, yes, but the fact that some of them almost went very wrong was fun to watch.

The Three Musketeers

PG-13 (2011)
Sequences of adventure action violence
 
The age old story is back in this new twist on the tale.
D'Artagnan travels from Gascony to Paris with his father's sword to become a Musketeer. His first day in Paris he manages to set up duels with the three best swordsmen in all of France, former Musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis. When Cardinal Richelieu's guard show up to arrest them for illegal dueling they work together to defeat the guards. 
Now they must work together to defeat Buckingham and Cardinal Richelieu before two manage to start war between England and France.

3 out of 5

I had a hard time with this movie. I am a HUGE fan of the 1948 movie by the same name and that made the storyline changes hard for me to reconcile.
Things I liked about this movie:

• The swordfights... uh-maz-ing.
• Casting choices: all three Musketeers where good choices, as where Richelieu, Rochefort and Milady.
• Cinematography: this movie was very well filmed. Good sweeping views, smooth transitions, and none of the shaky, vomit inducing Blaire Witch camera crap. 

Things I didn't like about this movie:

• Storyline! Not only is this a story everyone already knows, but it is based in history. There are things that can be tweaked, and there are things that cannot. They went to far.
• D'Artagnan. That is all.
• Costuming.
• Airships?!?! Seriously. No, seriously.

Ok, I know I just complained a lot about this movie, and I really do have some major problems with it, but I didn't hate it. I even kind of liked it.
I watched it a second time on purpose, hoping that if I knew what to expect I would be able to see the good in it. I did enjoy it more the second time through, but some I was still really turned off by inaccuracies and inconsistencies.
If you have never seen one of the older versions (I don't think the 1993 will affect anything here, it had it's own issues) I think that this is a movie you can really enjoy. Action movie fans may even be thrilled by the update.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

PG (1985)

Janie is the new girl in town. She and her new best friend Lynne are obsessed with Dance TV. When they find out that there are going to be tryouts, they do everything they can to make it on the show.

4.5 out of 5

I don't remember exactly how I first came in contact with this movie, but I am pretty dang sure that I had no idea what it was about. It was the chance to see the three actresses on the cover in a 80's teen flick together that made me watch it the first time. It is now one of my stand-by background movies (I am always happy to watch it, but I have seen it often enough I can still do other tasks while it is on).
The storyline is familiar, and the characters aren't too terribly fleshed out... but Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt dancing, how could it not be fun to watch? (Despite the fact that she appears on the movie cover, Shannen Doherty actually plays a smallish, though amusing, supporting role.)
All in all Girls Just Want to Have Fun is a clean, wholesome movie you can feel good about watching with all of your family, including Grandma... she will wonder why you are making her watch such a silly movie though.



Edit: Just noticed, Netflix lists this under the category "Movies for ages 11 to 12"... Guess we just learned something about my maturity level.

Also - as I have just given away, I am often to lazy too walk all the way around the couch to my own movie collection... so I use Netflix to watch movies I own.

Gran Torino

R (2008)
Language and violence

Korean war veteran Walt Kowalski is as bigoted and hateful as it gets, until his Hmong neighbor tries to steal his Gran Torino as a gang initiation.

4 out of 5

A friend loaned me this movie, told me it was really good, and I ignored them. I'm not a Clint Eastwood fan, though I have enjoyed a few of his more recent movies (most of which he has also directed), this one didn't appeal to me. Finally, under pressure to return it, I put it in the player. I'm so glad I did. I'm not going to lie, there was a LOT of language, most of it racial slurs, but it was real... it was the character, not just gratuitous use of words.
It isn't often a movie touches me the way this one did. What starts out as trying to keep gang members off of his property grows into teaching his young neighbor how to be a real man. But the real changes are those that are happening to Walt.

My Movies

Generally when I go through my 'fix the movies' phase, I hop on the computer, fire up my Movie List Excel file, and start plugging in my new movies. When I run out of new movies I add new information to the older movies. This time around I couldn't do that, the computer that has my most current movie list also only has an expired trial version of Excel.

So I did what any smart-phone owner would do in my situation. I looked for an App. After a little searching, and trial and error, I found one I really like. My Movies for iPhone. I can scan in my collection by barcode or type in the name. It has almost all of the information I like to keep track of, and I can filter the list by almost any of that information. One of my favorite features is the "shake to open random". Shake the phone and a movie from your list pops up. I use it to pick movies when I don't know what I am in the mood for.

For the next little while it might also be how I pick the movie to post about. So far all of my ratings  for movies have been on the high end. At first I thought I just liked all movies and I was being to kind in my ratings. Then I realized, I've been writing about the movies I've been watching. I generally only watch the movies I like the most. So for you, dear reader, I will watch the crap again (I might skip a few... some of my movies are really dumb...).

And to really look out for your interests, I might even have to go see a few theater new releases (I hope, but ticket prices are so stinking high).