DVD Voice

An evening with a romantic comedy. Life as We Know It is about a single guy, Josh Dumel, and a single girl, Katherine Heigl, who are set up together on a blind date by mutual friends. They don’t work. But their friends get married and involve each of them in their life. They eventually have a baby and Eric Messer or “Messer” (Josh) and Holly (Heidi) become even more involved. When the couple is killed in a car crash Messer and Holly discover they’ve been named mutual guardians of the baby.

Can these two make it work. Will they sacrifice their goals and aspirations as singles to build a life for the child? Or are these two things mutually exclusive?

I guess the premise of the movie is more about “Life as we know it” changing. Are you good with that happening? And if not, why not? You know when you were in elementary school “Life as you knew it” changed when you moved to high school. And “Life as you knew it” changes again when you get to college. And again when you find jobs. And when you change jobs. And when you buy a house. Life changes all the time based on where you find yourself, where you are, and where you want to go. So why not just embrace the present around you and live every day as best you can and extract as much love and joy from the world around you.

But the movie itself has a strange sort of charm. Even for people who aren’t baby people – that’d be me. Strange to see some guy so non-baby and yet go for it so much. And how, while yes this is scripted, he didn’t let these things ruin his life or life as he knew it (haha). So even if no one has just willed you a baby, you can take a lesson from this – he’s laid back and going with it. Making the best of it all. Picking up chicks in the grocery store with the help of the baby (funny scene!).

You can chose a worse film for the evening. If you have a date and need a chick flick, this one isn’t horrid. Josh’s character, Messer, is a technical director for the Atlanta hawks so you’ll see sports references peppered throughout the film. Also if you happen to live in Atlanta you can find all the Atlanta scenery.

Things learned from this movie:

1. Babies have their uses.
2. Smart cars are tiny.
3. New motorcycle drivers should listen to the instructions fully.
4. Look at yourself in the mirror before going downstairs to greet guest.
5. Hash brownies shouldn’t be left out for the social services worker to find.
6. Someone willing you a house is a great thing!
7. If you’ve had a ball cap since high school, be careful who you let borrow it.
8. Teenaged bouncy castle set-up crew can be busted and you could score some weed.
9. Cabbies do not a nanny make!
10. If you have kids, find yourself a baby whisperer!

Rated PG-13. 115 minutes (1 hour 55 minutes). Swearing. Baby butts.

So, the Uma Thurmond movie, Motherhood, which came out in 2009 and holds the distinction of earning $9 (1 ticket sale) the first night of its release – seemed like an interesting choice to see.

It’s about a family in New York City, whose mother, Uma, is juggling two kids as a stay at home mother in Greenwich Village.

The plot. She and her distracted husband have two apartments, the one their elderly mother / mother-in-law / something lives in and they care for her. The next day will be her oldest daughter’s 6th birthday. (Where does time go, she laments). She’s planning a birthday party. She writes a blog. She sees an ad for a competition to find a freelance writer for a paper or online magazine that would pay $3,000 per month. She wants to enter the contest. So now she has to juggle everything else including writing the article which is due the next day as well.

Compound life, as it must happen in New York, as a movie shoot takes over their street and tows their car. As going to the store for groceries and party supplies results in flat tires on the bicycle. Couriers bring letters. Friends have disagreements. Sample sales happen. Cake decorations are mispelled. Etc.

It’s just a slice of life. That’s it. Funny at times, not so funny at times. Probably more poignant, and “I get that” for you mothers out there. (How you ever manage!). If you have an hour and a half and want something that is easy to watch and doesn’t demand much of you, this could be your ticket. Then again, there is better stuff out there!

Things learned from this movie:

1. Mothers have a hard job!
2. Blog posts get read and replied to while you sit there – after you push “publish” kind of like instant messaging. Blog authors always reply.
3. Mothers have a hard job!
4. Random strangers you meet on the street know your blog, have read it, and would know about it by name. Even if they don’t like it.
5. Sample sales look crazy.
6. Paying people for their parking places actually works.
7. Mothers leaving town will turn around dangerously to go back to “rescue” their kids.
8. Books can have amazing value! Actually, books add a lot to your life – read one.
9. Jodie Foster, and other celebs, can be seen walking the streets in New York and taking kids to the playground.

Rated PG-13. 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes). Mainly for the mild language, sexual references.

You know, Netflix sent this out to me and it got here on Friday. This is an HBO TV movie, starring Claire Danes, Catherine O’Hara, Julia Ormond, and David Strathairn, and is about an autistic girl. When I got it, it was a Friday night and I just didn’t feel like watching it! I mean, a biography — about a autistic girl?

But, I went ahead and put it in on Sunday to see how it was. First, it was well made and rather captivating and soon I found myself wondering how this girl was going to cope when everything in the world (it seems) is stacked against her and people are not understanding.

As the movie goes along you learn about Temple and some of her background and how he learns to cope. How a squeeze box that she designs and builds helps to calm her down when things feel (to her) like they are out of control.

One of the neater things was the way they showed how Temple saw things in pictures — images of things versus words or ideas or feelings — I guess I should say “see things” because she is still alive. I thought it would be really cool to be able to see images like that and to have that photographic mind to recall things you’ve seen before, such as pages out of a book — man that would have been a cool skill in school!

Temple graduates from school and eventually makes it through graduating with a doctorate. She graduated with a bachelors in Psychology — which is kind of mind boggling given that she would have a tougher time with some of the concepts. She then did her master’s in animal handling and wrote articles and designed systems for the cattle industry. All in all it is amazing what she accomplished and I can’t help but compare that to myself in some ways at how I should have achieved so much more than I actually have (or rather haven’t!).

One profound thing is that as the film goes on she talks about how she realized how precious life if, and that is true … we all need to be aware of how much life means and how we should live it to its fullest. Are you?

Now that I’ve seen this, I’m glad I took the time to watch it. This was better than the other movie this weekend (Sister’s Keeper).

Things I learned from this movie:

1. People are special.
2. Everyone is different, just because someone is different or autistic doesn’t mean they are a lesser human than you — they might actually be better.
3. Being yourself is always ok. Be real.
4. Whatever you want to do or achieve, aim for it, you can do it.

Rated TV. There might be some minor profanity. And bull testicles/balls are tossed about (literally) and discussed. And of course cattle slaughterhouses come into play.

For a nice evening of friendly family fun you can delve into the Tooth Fairy, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He’s playing a hockey star who is a “big thing” in the minor leagues, as he hits people so hard he knocks teeth out. But, he’s also a hurt man who has had his dreams crushed (through injury at the least) and feels its ok to stomp on the dreams of others — vividly shown in the beginning when he tells a little league hockey player to give up on dreams, they’ll only make him sad and dissapointed.

Because of this and other similar actions, he’s summoned to Fairy Land, ruled by Julie Andrews, where he is sentenced to be an actual tooth fairy for a couple of weeks. There’s plenty of lame jokes, and special effects as he goes about trying to live his life and do his new “job”.

The main message of this film isn’t about how he goes about doing his job and making sure newly toothless kids find a dollar bill under their pillow but instead how he learns to realize the importance of dreaming, how letting go of your dreams and visions and imagination isn’t a good thing to be realistic, but it kills a part of your spirit. Learning how to say “what if” is very important in life.

And it is truly important! You have to believe in yourself, realize that you are just as good as anyone else, that if you have a dream you should try for it. Go ahead, take the risk and believe and do. And above all, don’t give up hope on your own dreams and for goodness sake, don’t destroy other people’s dreams. It’s really sad here to look at some of these kids in this movie and see how hurt and damaged they are when they dreams and fantasies are destroyed. And you have to ask yourself, was there someone who did that for you, ruined your dreams? Or was there someone who believed in you and encouraged you to continue to have faith in yourself that you can do and accomplish?

Things learned from this movie:

1. If you buy black-market fairy products they don’t work right.
2. Becoming invisible is a cool way to play tricks on people.
3. Fairies can live through being flushed.
4. Tutus make mens butts look big.
5. Tooth Fairies now days do not give coins, they give dollars right under your pillow!

Rated PG. 101 minutes (1 hour 41 minutes). Some sports violence, but that’s about it. It is rated PG, by the way.

This little movie Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was surprisingly good! This is based on the book by Rick Riordan and was directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone 2, and the first two Harry Potter movies – Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets). You have Logan Lerman playing the title role of Percy Jackson, who unknown to him he is a demi-god and the son of Poseidon played by Kevin McKidd. Someone, it seems has stolen Zues’s (Sean Bean of the Lord of the Rings) lightning bolt and everyone thinks Percy has it. The gods will have a war if it isn’t returned in two weeks and this war would mean the end of the world … and I reckon this is the 2012 thing the Mayans were predicting.

Anyway, Percy finds out he is a demi-god, his mother (Catherine Keener) is taken off to the underworld as a bargaining chip for the lightning bolt – actually a weapon and Zeus’s special power. So he sets off on a journey to get his mother and find the lightning bolt to return it to Zeus. Along the way little things like a three headed Hydra and Medusa (by the appealing Uma Thurman) her special effects snake head is cool!

Not to give anything away if you haven’t seen or read the books, but on the recommendation of a friend I watched this and was pleasantly surprised because I thought it was a kids movie. There was several good little jokes poked in there, some jokes slid in for the adults and the CGI is well-done. It is interesting that the young Percy and his fellow demi-gods all pretty much despise their god parent (no pun intended) even though they have been told how they can’t be around them – isn’t permitted. I mean, if I just found out I was adopted and my real dad had all these powers and I’d have a few of them too, well – cool!

Things you learn:

1. If you are a demi-god you can go onto the casino floor even though you are underage.
2. If you eat the lotus flowers no one cares if you have goat’s legs – in fact women love you for it.
3. The entrance to hades and the underworld is in Hollywood!
4. It doesn’t take long to drive from Nashville to Las Vegas.
5. Maserati’s are way cool!
6. Even demi-gods love to play games and video games.
7. Swords never go out of style!
8. Apple iPods make great Medusa hunting and killing tools.

Rated PG. 118 minutes (1 hour 58 minutes). Action violence. There is a lot of fighting and the teenagers are playing with real swords and trying to cut.

The Maid, or La Nana, is a one and a half hour picture about the ever fascinating life of a maid. You’ll get to follow Catalina Saavedra, as Raquel, around the house as she cooks, cleans, washes, takes her shower, serves breakfast in bed, and more. The trouble starts when the family hires a second maid, despite Raquel’s insistence that she can still do all the work – she’s been there for over 20 years.

Raquel responds to these new maids with hostility – locking them out when they go outside, not letting them back in, disinfecting anything the other maid uses, and so on. Why some of this would be troubling, well, I guess I’ve never been in that situation.

The problem for me with this movie is that it is in Spanish. I don’t speak it. So, I had to read subtitles. It’s hard to put on a movie from Netflix that maybe you are only mildly interested in when you have to stare at the screen the entire time. I mean I usually do that, but having to read subtitles wears on you after a while!

The movie was interesting if you look at it from the perspective of how do you treat those who you consider to be beneath you. For instance, perhaps the janitors at work or school.

Things learned from this movie: If you lock other help out of the house and scrub the shower after they’ve used it, they will eventually quit. As soon as you get to like someone they will also quit. If you get locked outside its ok to take off all your clothes and sunbathe. If your dad has spent a year working on a tiny sailing ship model, you can glue it back together in a few hours and he won’t notice – unless he gets home earlier than you expect.

Not Rated. 94 minutes (1 hour 34 minutes). Mild profanity, if any. Non-violent. Nudity, you get to see all the maids (except one, thank you!) nude or topless in the shower or sunning. The “man” of the house also is surprised like a deer in the headlights and stands momentarily spread-eagle like totally nude — avert your eyes! Another man’s butt makes an appearance.

Tonight’s feature was Hachiko: A Dog’s Story, starring Richard Gere, Joan Allen, and Jason Alexander. But the real actor was the Akita dog! This movie is based off a true story in Japan about a dog who who meet his owner at the train station each evening and even after the owner’s death the dog would still wait for him. Read about it here on Wikipedia. And now that I’ve just spoiled the story… LOL.

I really enjoyed this thing. I’m not much for sappy stories, and this one there really isn’t much that happens. It just underlines for us the importance of love and loyalty. That the people in your life are very important and should not be overlooked but instead valued and treated as they deserve, or better. It is a touching story and especially sad when you realize the part about how if you love someone sometimes you have to let them go, that trying to hold on doesn’t help.

That is one cute puppy! Expressive dog that can’t help but pull on your emotions.

Rated G. It’s very rated G. I didn’t know what this was rated before I started watching and I wonder how long it has been since I’ve seen a G movie. It may upset the little kids, still.

Planet 51 is a Pixar-like animated movie. It is about a planet full of “aliens” living an idyllic 1950s-like life when a NASA astronaut sets down and plants Old Glory in one of their front lawns. The inhabitants are full of pop culture (like our 1950s space movies) of aliens coming to eat their brains, and naturally are scared of the astronaut who really wants to just get home.

A band of local kids, led by the jr assistant manager of the planetarium (when he’s not in school) help reunite him with his spacecraft so he can return to Earth.

It’s fun, and funny – though arguably not as funny as Finding Nemo, or Toy Story. This one stars Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Justin Long, Jessica Biel, John Cleese, and Gary Oldman. Highly well done graphics, fun to watch, you’ll enjoy the evening just like you were one of the kids.

Watch for references to other pop-culture stuff, such as Back to the Future, 2001, E.T., etc. Look for the intresting things like floating food, well everything pretty much floats!

Good time to be had by anyone who lets themselves be taking away by this film.

Rated PG. 91 minutes (1 hour 31 minutes). Violence – cartoon violence with army weapons and threats of brains being eaten.

This is the big movie version of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. Everyone on the planet has probably read this book — except me. I didn’t really know what to expect it to be about besides it was a little boy’s imagination. I just finished watching it and maybe it’s one of those kind of movies where you need to let it sink in for a while before you really know what you think. I don’t know what I think of it.

As I got into it I thought it would be an imaginative child’s world – and it is – but I didn’t really expect at the heart of it to be about relationships. Honestly. Relationships and how we do little things or say things or don’t say things that someone else doesn’t quite understand what we really feel and so they get upset and want to leave. It was through Max’s eyes and you can see how as child he doesn’t entirely understand what is going on either, but as King he’s supposed to make it better. And I felt for the guy .. honestly, because here I am, pretty old (too old actually) and I don’t understand relationships either! How do you genuinely let someone know you really care and yet not come off as wimpy, or needy/clingy, or any of the other negatively implied attitudes? And then I saw the one character who was smart, Goat, but who no one listened to what he said or wanted to include him – they just treated him like he would always be there because he wanted to be around them. I feel like that, a lot … how should he remedy that? And then there are lots of times that the characters make you feel alone with them. And that gnawing loneliness that saps the joy out of living. I know its important to be ok with being alone, but as social creatures we aren’t supposed to perpetually be alone. So this opens a whole bucketload of questions, and they just remain unanswered. (Yes, you aren’t supposed to let movies answer life’s questions for you, I know). But the whole movie really left me feeling sad. I understand where Max was coming from, I had in some ways a similar childhood experience, I just didn’t run as wild as he did. Which, I guess means I was more easily overlooked.

James Gandolfini, Max Records, Cahterine Keener, and Catherine O’Hara all do a very good job with the voices. The suits that the big giant monster puppets wear are very well done – they look like monsters! The movie is visually stunning and fun to watch. Worth repeated viewings. After I got done I so wished I’d picked up the bluray from Blockbuster instead.

What do you think? If you read the book does it follow it well? Do you get any meanings or messages from this film?

Rated PG. 101 minutes (1 hour 41 minutes). Violence of a kind.

Tonight I needed a break, and Ponyo fit the bill very well! This is a Japanese cartoon, it is distributed here in the US by Walt Disney, but it is a animation by Hayao Miyazaki (of Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, etc). The drawings were top-notch. Very beautiful to see and the story was simple and pleasing.

Great for kids – and since I’m not really much of a grown-up (I’m a waste of age) I enjoyed it! The voice cast for the English dubbed version was very good, easy to listen to. Tina Fey played one of the main characters and her husband was voiced by Matt Damon – even though he wasn’t in much of the movie.

The movie is about the underwater keeper of the seas. His daughter escapes and sees a little boy and she decides that she wants to be human. Because she uses a little bit of magic to turn herself human and escape the ocean, it messes up the balance and the world is on the verge of being destroyed. Unless they can pass the test.

If you are a kid, or just a kid at heart, this is an enjoyable evening. Just throw out any ideas before you watch, and don’t make yourself think you have to only watch grown-up movies. Get some popcorn and live a little!

Rated G. 101 minutes (1 hour 41 minutes).