In Good Company

After a few weeks of DVDs, we finally went to see our first theater movie of the year with our friends Sam and Nat. We had originally thought this movie was more of a "chick flick" but it wasn't - it was more of just an overall dramatic comedy with a little romance thrown in.

It worked, tho. Maybe I can somewhat relate since I'm close in age to the lead character, who is put in charge of an Ad Sales department at 26, which demotes the current 51-year old man in the head spot. So basically, like me taking over my father-in-law's job and becoming his boss.

I like Topher Grace, and he's a perfect fit for this movie, and of course Scarlett Johansson is always entertaining. Dennis Quaid is the quintessential good, hardworking father who doesn't let his career get in the way of his family.

Overall, a very fun movie. Humourous, but also "feel-good." Worth a look-see.

A Day Without a Mexican

This was a fun little movie. The premise of the movie is sort of a rapture-like disappearance of all the "Mexicans" in California (of course, all Latinos disappear, but everyone lumps them into the Mexican category). A fog surrounds the state, and there is no way in or out - and no Mexicans.

It's a quirky little movie, but it's fun. Not brilliant, but fun. My favorite parts are the little factoids sprinkled throughout the movie when the remaining ignorant white folk say something stereotypical.

The Perfect Score

Ok, after the last couple of independent type movies, we decided to go a little more mainstream on this one. Plus, Meleah and I were both tired and hungry, so we didn't want to put all the much mental energy into picking it. Mel had been thinking of seeing this one for a while, but it was never enticing enough to win out over anything else.

To be honest, I was a little leary at first - being that it was an MTV studios production, I was kind of putting it in the "Road Trip" or "Jackass" type category in my head of "stupid, crude humour." Which isn't really fair, since they've actually put out some good ones, including the recent hit "Napolean Dynamite."

Well, this one wasn't that good, but it wasn't bad either. Nothing too terribly exciting, but an overall entertaining film. In fact, I couldn't really pick out anything special about the movie, but I enjoyed watching it. So if you're in the mood for something fun, but not hugely mentally stimulating, this movie wouldn't be a bad choice.

Code 46

Well, we're 0/2 so far in 2005. This time I went to the store, after we looked through some titles online and came up with a list of some that looked interesting. We wanted something somewhat thought-provoking, so we were again looking in the independently released movies.

Code 46 looked like it might be fun. Kind of Gattaca like, with Tim Robbins and the girl who played Agatha in Minority Report. And it certainly didn't feel quite as long as Japanese Story, but I think it may actually have been more pointless, which is what turned me off. I hate it when a movie doesn't have a purpose.

There were some interesting parts about the futuristic aspects - for example, they have a unified language that is a combination of all languages (but really ends up being English with a few familiar spanish words like "coche" and "papel" swapped in). But all that was relatively minor.

My wife fell asleep 15 minutes into, and didn't miss a thing.

Japanese Story

My wife picked this up at the store for us to watch since I wasn't feeling well. We both had high hopes - it was set in Australia, which we both love, and it had won numerous awards there.

Things started off ok, if not a little slow. Independent and foriegn films usually don't have a lot of flash at the beginning like a Hollywood Blockbuster, and my wife and I like that. We recently enjoyed Garden State and I Heart Huckabees quite a bit.

Unfortunately, this movie never picked up speed. In fact, it slowed down. Wayyyy down. To an almost maddening non-speed. I mean, how long can we look at a close-up of Toni Collete making subtle emotional faces? Apparently not as long as foreigners, because the original international cut has even MORE boring-ness.

I debated whether or not to include a spoiler describing a major plotline that they drag out FOREVER, especially since I wouldn't really encourage anyone to rent this particular movie, but I figured I shouldn't start my first movie blog post like that. But take it from me, this movie was long.

Corgis at the Movies?

Ok, I admit that I blatantly stole the title for this blog from my wife's site, Knitting Corgis. And I have no idea how much it will actually be used, but hey, it's free. So if you want to see what our humble little family thinks of the movies we see, this is the place.

For example, my wife and I recently saw Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Meleah was... well, less than impressed.

I'm not promising we'll comment on everything - if you want a comprehensive list of the movies that I've seen, that's on my other boring blog. We may not comment on anything. Who knows? Only time will tell.