Wednesday, March 2, 2011

What Emily's Been Watching, February Edition

I am pretty proud of myself for getting this done so fast.
I think I actually watched The Social Network in January. Eh.


The Social Network (2010) [PG-13] Drama. This was another at home date night. What can I say- it's a good movie. I'm really starting to like this Jesse Eisenburg fella. I really liked the manner in which he portrayed Mark Z. Very convincing, even if he doesn't act exactly like Mark does -I have no idea either way-. My love for Jess Eisenburg is helped along with the fact that he was in Zombieland (GREAT GREAT movie) go watch that right now if you've never seen it. Anyway, I enjoyed The Social Network very much. Heck- I even thought Justin Timberlake was excellent in his role (he plays Sean Somethingruther the dude that founded Napster. I remember seeing him present an award during the whole Napster downfall and he came on stage wearing a Metallica t-shirt and I remember thinking, "that dude is cocky and a bit of a bad A". Wow this a a rambling and very uninformed review. Eh, I would guess you've all seen this movie anyway. Rob thought perhaps it was talked up a bit too much and I reckon it would have been more exciting if I had not read the book last year, since it followed it so closely. Can't say I didn't really enjoy it though. Rob liked it too. Emily recommends this movie very highly, but don't read the book first. You can read the book after, but I don't see a real compelling reason to do that. (It's called The Accidental Billionaires, in case you wanted to know that).

Seriously good trailer.
Cyrus (2010) [R] Drama/Comedy/Romance (and they all work). This is the story of a washed up divorced dude who happens to meet a dream come true (yet secretive) woman at a party. They start a relationship and he soon discovers the reason for her secrecy- her adult son, Cyrus. I think he's 22 and still lives at home, and he and his mom are very, very close. Funny dynamics and confrontations abound. This movie is well acted and well written and has a small budget feel to it (I mean that in a good way). One thing I will say about this is that it just was a movie that I had little to relate to it. There is just nothing in my life now or ever I could relate the situations to. This is definitely not the movie's problem, so I am not holding anything against it. I just mean that I simply couldn't relate to it and I find that in most movies, being able to relate to the situation or characters enhances your experience. But John C. Rielly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill -yeah, you bet. Check it out. Jonah Hill particularly impressed with his ability to really BE that kind of person. I mean, he seriously owned that character. Emily recommends this movie to anyone, but she really recommends it to anyone that has been divorced (then single a long time), has an adult son living with them that they breast fed until about oh......7 I'd say, single moms, and conniving minded sons who will go a long ways to keep your mama to yourself. You might also like this movie if you enjoy electronic keyboard sounds as music.


The Decent (2005) [R]
Horror. Matt and I watched this late one night when we were in the mood for a really sucky horror movie and I happen to have an abundance of them available free on Comcast Xfinity. We carefully looked at all the candidates and ended up with this, thanks to the description, which I just tried to look up and write down here, but the movie isn't available anymore. Bummer. It was something about "Six hot girls explore a cave and meet the most frightening creatures known to man". Something pathetically lame like that. Now come on, who wouldn't have pick that one? Bottom line is that is was lame, girls were not hot, but frankly- it actually creeped us out a little and gave us at least one good scare. Don't get me wrong- it was bad, but not nearly as bad as we were pulling for it to be. I also cruised IMDB just now and it sounds like it's a lot deeper then Matt and I noticed or gave it credit for. I'm not buying that much, it still was pretty dang lame no matter what the director was trying to do. I am not going to waste my time filling this part out.


Bringing Up Baby (1938) [NR] Comedy. A classic favorite of mine. Who doesn't need a good screwball comedy containing Cary Grant and/or Katherine Hepburn once in a while? Love this movie. I've seen it perhaps a million times or so in my day. Some classic scenes and lines ("cause I just went gay all of a sudden!" and "he likes George, he loves George, he thinks George is a wonderful dog"). Also the ripping coat and dress scene at that restaurant and he keeps putting his top hat on her bum. GOOD STUFF! Makes me want to have a Cary Grant marathon. Any favorite Cary Grant movies out there? Emily recommends this movie to anyone that hasn't seen it and understands the charm of a good black and white screwball comedy.


Toy Story 3 (2010) [G] Adventure/Comedy. Great ending to a great trilogy. I don't see a lot of cartoon movies (very, very few actually), but I always make it a point to see the Toy Story ones. They really are entertaining and well made. Pixar is so good and professional, I am always impressed. I watched this with Scout on a Sunday night and it got a little intense for her at the end there, and we had a good cry together a few times at the end.
The baby doll really disturbed her. For those of you that have seen it, towards the end, when they are standing on the dumpster, the purple bear pokes the baby doll rudely and it falls down with a cry- Scout burst into tears and threw herself off the couch. I will admit that it's baby factor made it extra sad when it was sad, but I was surprised that it being poked upset her so incredibly much. Kind of felt bad I put her through that. Eh. She hasn't mentioned it much since, so no harm done. Emily thinks that it would be really lame not to see this movie, especially if you saw the other two. If you haven't, well- I don't know what to say.



Hitch (2005) [PG-13] Romantic Comedy. Through a series of fortunate events, Rob and I ended up watching this Sunday afternoon. First, it was featured like last week on my family's favorite movie game "What the Bip?" and I mentioned I hadn't seen it (therefore I surely did not win that week). Like a day later, it came on the tv, so I promptly DVR'ed it. Rob and I stayed home from church with a very fussy Little Little (my bets are on teething canine teeth) and a coughing Beantown Monkey. We lamented about how lame Sunday afternoon tv was until I remembered that I had that movie recorded and we had ample time to watch it before the Oscar's started. It proved to be a formidable way to spend a cooped up, boring day. My only complaint would be the Eva Mendez character- she was a little too much of what she was. Kevin James was super great and Will Smith- well, he was Will Smith. Emily can recommend this romantic comedy as being fairly watchable. (Romantic comedies are a genre that I would lump way more on the crappy list then good list and I have no problem listing this on the less crowded good side.)


Mother (2009) [R] Crime Thriller. This was my very first Koren Thriller. You can hardly listen to a movie review show this year without this movie coming up again and again. When that happens, I feel it my duty to check it out. It definitely leaves it's impression. It was a beautifully shot film- very atmospheric, so they say. It was interesting, disturbing, the mystery whodunit element was REALLY good, and it left you with some puzzling puzzles to try to work out. There was a disturbing and ambiguous question they left you with that I would love to discuss with anyone that may or wants to see it. Let me know--. Oh, yeah- you probably don't know what it's about. It is about the mother of a 20 something mentally challenged kid that gets accused of a murder and put in jail. Mom is very protective of her son and takes solving the case into her own hands and this mild little woman will go to any length to make things right. Emily recommends this movie to the thriller crowd that likes a thriller that is a bit outside of the box. Some language (in Koren) and some sexuality- wasn't too bad.

Fun fact: Murder and Mother use the same characters when written in Korean.


I also watched harry potter and about a boy whilst doing laundry and the like, but don't feel like that's something I really need to get into.

Picked some pretty good ones this month for the most part. Want to see more Oscar movies this year, now that the awards are out. Ahem....The King's Speech.

10 comments:

Matt said...

Man... Hitch was great you freak. Lighten up Frances.

Emily said...

I gave Hitch a favorable review thank you very much.

Dan W said...

"Yay, she liked it, she really liked it! Hey Mikey!" Okay, she liked it for a rom-com, but still I'm glad since I offered it for our WTB game. Now, if she'd only like ________ (insert one of several musical artists here--Em knows which ones)...

Dan W said...

Oh, yeah. Definitely planning to see Cyrus. Thanks for the extra push on that!

Matt Wright said...

"fairly watchable"? hehe. I don't care if you liked it or not. And I like people that don't get overly excited about things and keep it real. But still, I hate most romantic comedies but this one kept me laughing and very interested. Plus, it seemed like most of your review of it was trying to make excuses for why you watched it... which is weird.
Sorry. Bad mood. Oh, and I'm glad you watched and liked Social Network. I loved it. Made me think about money, and using your brain a little more and that is probably a good thing for me :)

Pops said...

Hitch Lives!

Emily said...

I must clear up that I never claim "What Emily's Been Watching" to be a post of movie reviews. Basically, they are the semi-coherent ramblings of whatever comes to my mind about the movies I watched this month. Sometimes they resemble a review- if I feel inclined to do that. But I do always state if I recommend that particular movie or not at the end. When it came to Hitch, the fact that was foremost on my mind was the coincidence that it happened to be on TV a few days after I was talked into watching it by the fam.

Sue said...

I just watched Mother. I had been meaning to watch it for awhile now. In fact I rented it from Blockbuster as soon as it came out, but didn't get a chance to watch it before I had to take it back. I hate it when that happens. I won't have to worry about that anymore now that I have Netflix.

Anyway, I loved it. The woman who played her mother was fantastic. I thought the film was beautiful too. I loved that opening scene with her dancing in the field. Kind of creepy.

So, let's discuss. Should we do it over FB messaging in case of spoilers? Or just do a spoiler alert here and let people know they shouldn't read on if they are planning on seeing this movie. Which I highly recommend this movie. I will be watching it again.

Emily said...

Yay Sue saw it! Let's discuss here but with
**SPOILER WARNING FOR MOTHER**

I also really liked the dance scene at the beginning- totally strange and kind of set a weird tone for her. You just didn't know what to expect from her the rest of the movie. I also really really liked how they ended it and what she did on the bus.
I thought the scene where she visits the "other" boy in the asylum or wherever he was, was very moving and sad and it was kind of nice to see that she was so affected by what she did. If they didn't add that scene, the movie and her character would have had a different feel to it.
Sooooooooo what about the ambiguous question they threw at us throughout the movie? Do they or don't they? I am inclined to believe they don't, but maybe just because my mind does not want to go there, it's too disturbing.

Sue said...

That scene in the asylum was very moving. Do you think if that boy in the asylum did have a mother that loved him, she would have told the police that he was innocent and that it was her son that did it? I just keep thinking about that. I think she was willing to let that boy take the blame because he was alone in the world and at least he would be taken care of. She definitely felt guilty about it, but I think that is where her mind was.

As for your "do they or don't they"? I don't think so. Now, I do think they have a mother/son relationship that makes Jonah Hill's and Marisa Tormei's in Cyrus look pretty dang normal and healthy, but I don't think they took it there.

I think he slept in the same bed as her because he pretty much had the mentality of about a 6 or 7 year old? Maybe a little older, but not much. He probably shared a bed with her when he was young, and it just never stopped. I think she allowed it because she is so fiercely protective of him. I kind of think she likes the idea that he has the mentality that he has. His body is growing, but his mind is not. She still has control that way. Even with that one night when he falls asleep with his hand on her breast. I really think that was just a comfort thing to him like thumb sucking is to some kids. They were so poor, she probably breast fed him until he was 4 or 5 and they just represent comfort to him. It was definitely thrown in there to get you thinking.

I also kind of think that when he was talking to his friend about wanting to sleep with a girl and then after he got drunk and attempted to flirt with that girl, that he didn't really know exactly what was meant by "sleeping with him". I think he literally thought of sleeping. I don't think he would tell people that he sleeps with his mom if he knew there was another meaning to that.

I just remembered that scene when he is peeing against the wall and his mother looks around and stares at him doing that. I forgot about that, I'll have to think about that one for a minute.

That's all I got for now.

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