By Sue Millinocket
This year my family took a vacation. We ate at restaurants, went hiking and watched movies. It was fun.
Okay, that’s as long as I can maintain the grade school essay format. Now on to what we saw and whether we liked it. In an unusual turn of events, I only saw one of the movies my family watched all the way through. Go figure. But I can tell you what I think from what I saw and tell you what they thought. Movie #1:
Mr. Bean’s Vacation (original title: Mr. Bean’s Holiday)
Yeah, I know. I want to go on record as not having chosen this title. We told the kids no R rated movies and they decided that Mr. Bean was the best they could do. Sometimes I think they hate us. However…they all liked it. All of them including an adult. I did not watch this illustrious title, I was busy playing Puzzle Quest 2 on my new DSi (I think we can all agree that my priorities are right in line, here). But all three of my family members Led OL many times. I don’t understand it either, but I guess when you’re in the mood for nonsensical slapstick, Mr. Bean just might be your man. Either that or the thin mountain air was affecting their ability to think straight. I think that might have been it… On to Movie #2:
Avatar
We saw this because it was free. I still think James Cameron is a jerk. Now, I do believe all the people who were blown away by the visuals when they saw this film in the theater, but it translated horribly to the small screen (which may well be why they are re-releasing it in theaters, the DVD is a dud). I never forgot I was watching cartoon people and CGI, the story completely, totally and unequivocally sucked and the thing is about 18 hours long. I fell asleep for about 45 minutes and I swear, nothing had happened. It was like a soap opera, I caught up in 14 seconds. If you haven’t already seen this, skip it on DVD unless you have a full-sized movie theater screen at home. It’s all style (snort) and no substance that relies on everyone being dazzled by the pretty pictures. And now for Movie#3:
Yay, I both paid attention and stayed awake through a whole movie! I’m so proud. I didn’t have super high expectations for this one, having read mixed reviews while it was still in theaters, but I liked it. Actually, I liked it a lot. Maybe you need to be a veteran of the Married With Children stage of life to appreciate the initial premise. You definitely need to be a fan of Tina Fey and Steve Carell to enjoy any of it. It’s completely worth a try, no matter what you’ve heard. It comes out on Netflix on September 7th – definitely a rent instead of a purchase. You can read my full review here.
Some nights are perfect for Family Game Night (the nights when we all are in the mood to get annoyed with each other), some are perfect for eating mass quantities of good food (well, that’s every night on vacation) and some are perfect for smooshing all of us onto the sofa with blankets and watching movies. Of the three, I only recommend Date Night for the sane, the others are best either viewed when intoxicated in some way or on the big screen.
Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.
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