My movie watching challenge

Who is your favorite actor/actress?

Have you seen all their movies?  I mean every single one?  The crap ones they made before they were famous? 

How many people say oh, I love so and so.  I've seen all their movies.  But when you take the time to look you really haven't.

Anyway, where am I going with this? 

Well over the years there's been many actors/actresses that I've decided I liked and realized I've only seen a small portion of the work they've done.  So I thought it would be fun to pick one out and work through their list of movies.

I had run it past my mom and she thought it was a cool idea so we decided to do it together. 

Our first pick?  Sandra Bullock

Speed was on the other night and that's when I brought it up to her so who better to start with then, right? 

Keanu Reeves will have to be next ;)

Would you believe in a list of over 40 movies and some TV appearances there are only 3 that we have both seen? 

So we started with "Two Weeks Notice" since it happened to already be on my netflix cue.  One down 40 to go!  This could take a while!

Who would you start with?

Getting ready for Eclipse

Last night Skowt and her friends made tshirts to wear to the midnight showing of Eclipse.  I think she did a great job!

Even though she is Team Jacob!


There's about 20 of going, it should be fun!  Now Tiger is jealous and wants to make a shirt too

A night at the Movies: Remember Me

Warning for those who have not seen the movie: This post contains some spoilers.  I tried not to be too specific but it will still spoil the ending to a point.

I don't get to see many movies in the theater.  For a few reasons...time issues, cost issues and finding someone to go with.  Either no one wants to see the same movie or we just can't work out the timing.  I am not one to go by myself.  So many times I just wait until they hit DVD and add them to the Netflix cue and who know how long before I actually get to see it! 

But once in a while there's a movie that I try to make a point of going to see right away because there is just something about it that makes me not want to wait.  Remember Me was one of those movies.  I'd been waiting to see it since I found out about it and had hoped to go opening weekend but that didn't work out.  I finally got the chance this past Saturday night.  A friend and I went down to the casino for a couple hours and when we decided we had lost enough money we thought we'd go see it. 

I wanted to go because......well OK, mainly for this man right here....

*sigh*

I know he's a little on the young side for me but I try not to think about that!  Seeing him as Edward Cullen got me hooked and I really wanted to see what else he could do.  I was not disappointed!  My friend kept saying she saw Edward in Tyler (his character in RM) in the previews.  And she mentioned it a few time during the movie.  I admit yeah, there were some things that were the same but I don't think it's as much Edward as it is just Rob.

My thoughts.....I don't care how great an actor you are, there are just some habits or mannerisms you have that are just part of who you are and no matter what role you are playing those are going to peak through a bit. 

Anyway, like I said I was not disappointed.  I really like it and so did my friend!  I think Rob and Emilie had great chemistry and did a wonderful job.  I also loved the roommate.  One thing that really struck me funny was his use of the word matriculate!  I had never heard it until it was used by Edward in the Twilight movie......and here it is again in another Rob Pattinson movie! 

I had an idea of what the movie was about or at least how it ended.  I had read a few comments online but tried to stop before I read exactly what happened.  But putting two and two together I was able to figure it out.  I was concerned that I wouldn't like it because of the outcome and wondered how they would recreate it on screen. 

They didn't try to recreate anything.  They left it all to your imagination....or recollection of what happened and I think that worked.  It's definately a sad and emotional ending.  It's left me an emotional wreck and weepy for days.  Putting "faces" to the events.....though fictional....and making you think about your own life and how you live it, how you treat those closest to you. 
What you would do if you lost someone important in you life unexpectedly.  Would it take losing someone to make you realize what you've got? 

{Insert catchy title here}

We went to see the new Harry Potter movie on Sunday. Skowt finally finished reading it on Saturday so we all decided to go see it on Sunday. Loved it! I think it's probably my favorite so far. But that could just be because it's fresh and new. I also liked that there was a bit more humor in this one and a little hint at romance too! I don't want to say too much and spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.............but what are you waiting for if you haven't?

We aren't really taking any type of family vacation this summer, just doing some day trips here and there. Though with my hubby working overtime we haven't done much of that either. We are planning a trip down to Six Flags Great America in IL on Saturday. We haven't been there in forever. I can't wait. Gotta get some roller coaster time in! Hope the weather cooperates.

I've decided I don't want August to arrive just yet. I was looking over all the stuff for the kids school registration and figured out that it is going to cost us about $900 just to get them going and registered for school. That's rental for 2 saxophones, 5th grade fees for Tiger, Freshman fees and the athletic fee for Skowt. Then on top of that don't forget school supplies and new clothes!

And that coincides perfectly with the fact that as of next week hubby will no longer be working his second part time job with the post office! So much for putting in all those years working toward a full time route and being at the top of the list as far as seniority goes for the next opening. First they closed a nearby office and brought two carriers over who bumped him back to 3rd in line. Now they are getting rid of the route he subs for and combining it with another route so they really don't have a position for him anymore. It bothers me but he seems to be OK with it. He's been debating lately which job he was going to stick with permanently and this kind of helped with the decision. Plus he has problems with his shoulders and casing the mail all morning makes it worse some days so in the long run I guess it will be a good thing.

So many movies....

So little time. Yeah, just look at the 74 titles on my Netflix queue (about 15 of those are tv series with multiple discs per season), but it's still a lot. I bet I could add more too, I've been trying to keep it under control because I can't keep up. The good part is, I always have something around to watch if I'm up for a movie.

We watched quite a few movies while on winter break, but now we have 3 that have been just sitting here for the last week, along with this blog I've been ignoring. No wonder I don't have many readers!

What did you watch you ask? Or not. So I'm asking for you.

1. A Christmas Story: What's Christmas without watching Ralphie dress up like a deranged Easter Bunny and then shoot his eye out?! Not hard to miss with the 24 hour marathon.

2. Elf: Not a favorite but again, when it's on for 24 hours in a row you can't help but see part of it.

3. Return to Me: I liked it. It was kind of sad the way their situation came about but still cute.

4. Journey to the Center of the Earth: We saw this once in the theater but the kids loved it so we got it again.

5. Mummy Returns: Brendan Fraser again. I think this was on tv right after we watched Journey so that was weird. That seems to happen a lot to me. We'll watch a DVD and then within hours or days another movie with the same actor will pop up on tv.

6. Star Wars - Attack of the Clones: With my hubby in the house you can't not turn on any of the Star Wars movies if they're on.

7. Iron Man: I started watching but it just didn't hold my interest. I know it was pretty popular but I didn't really care for it. Or maybe I just wasn't in a movie mood.

8. Definitely Maybe: This was OK. I remember wanting to see it when it first came out and saw previews. I guess it wasn't exactly what I expected.

9. 21: I really liked this. Hubby and I are moving to Vegas to become professional gamblers!!

10. Twilight: Um, I may or may not have seen this one another time or two during the past few weeks. (im)patiently waiting for the release of the DVD.

11. Bedtime Stories: Took the kids to see this one afternoon. Pretty cute movie. I normally don't like Adam Sandler, but he kind of toned it down for this one so it wasn't half bad.

I'm finished!

Four books. Fifty-seven days. Less than two months. That's some kind of world record for me considering one of the books is over 700 pages.

I'm talking about the Twilight series. I know there are people who read them all in less than a week. I don't know how they did it. I'm amazed at how fast I read them myself. Technically it was a little faster, there was a period of about two weeks where I didn't start the second book, while on my cruise and also waiting for my daughter to finish up the first so we could go to the movie.

It's my new obsession. I loved them and am a bit sad that I'm done.
While searching for info online I found out we had actually been to one of the locations they used for filming in the movie. The waterfall in the baseball scenes in Multnomah Falls in Oregon. We visited the falls in July of 2007 while there to see family. How cool to find out you've been to a place you've seen in a movie, especially one you really like. The kids were excited and Skowt's friends were pretty impressed! Here's my favorite shot I took the day we visited..

I know I posted this back then but here it is again for anyone who didn't see it. I'd love to to back there again someday. Not just because the movie was filmed there (and to try to find some of the other locations) but because I really liked the falls. I even had mentioned while there that it would be cool to live nearby to come back and photograph it during different seasons.

Maybe someday.

Sparkly Vampires and Super Hero Dogs

So after a super long wait of a whole week and a half, I finally got to go see Twilight today. Skowt and I went to see it this afternoon because it was an early release day at school. Tiger went to see Bolt with my mom. I feel like I saw two movies because Tiger recounted the entire movie to me on the car ride to the restaurant and during dinner.

We loved it! I was a little concerned (as I always am seeing a movie based on a book I liked) about whether I would enjoy it or not. But I was not disappointed at all. Yeah, there were some differences between the movie and the book, but nothing that really affects or changes the flow of the story of Bella and Edward. Skowt actually got up during the most exciting part to go to the bathroom. Huh? you wanna go now? I found out later it was cuz she was feeling a little queasy seeing blood.

Now I can continue reading the rest of the series. Not that I couldn't before but I finished this book so close to the release of the movie that I just wanted to wait and see it before continuing. I'm just weird that way. I didn't want to start confusing the the two. Like with Harry Potter, whenever I discuss it I have to stop and think about what happened in what book. I think the Twilight series is going to become another big favorite of mine just like the HP books and movies.

I must admit that I'm a little worried that I won't like the rest of the series or should I say the outcome of them. From the very few spoilerish things I've let myself read online I'm wondering how the story is played out. The fact that a "team Jacob" even exists scares me!

Yes, I'm becoming obsessed with a series originally geared toward teenage girls. I'm such a dork. I'm totally a 14 year old stuck in a 39 year old's body.

The good thing about that though, is that I can give myself permission to do things that my mom wouldn't let me do! So there!

I'm on vacation!!

I don't actually leave until Wednesday but I'm off of work for at least 18 whole days!! The schedule is up through the 28th and I'm not on it! Oh yeah!

Tonight is family movie night. We have College Road Trip in from Netflix so hubby wants to get it watched before we go so he can get some of his own movies from the list to watch while we are gone.

Better go, I'm getting complaints about making typing noises in the movie theater!

Movie Night

I'm such a bad blogger! Here it is Wednesday and I'm just talking about the movie we watched on Saturday! It was the first night in a while that we were all home and my hubby wasn't working overtime. So we had some snacks and popped some popcorn and all watched a movie together. We had a little scuffle right before the movie, but I smoothed that over and we all had a nice night together.

The flick for the night was "Night At The Museum". For some reason I had it in my head that it was going to be a little scary and kept asking if it was gonna be OK for the kids to watch. It wasn't scary at all. In fact it was quite funny, a very cute movie. But then it was Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson! I don't think I've seen a movie with the two of them that wasn't funny. The kids both loved it. Two thumbs up from them. In fact the next day they were asking when they could watch again. We got it from Netflix and still have it, so we plan to pop it in one more time before returning it.

We've gotten another snow fall since I blogged about shoveling. Just great! Our snow blower is dead so we're going to get a ton of snow now. And it's not bad enough that I have to shovel at home, I have to do it at work too. Remind me why I live in Wisconsin! I don't know if we're going to be able to get the Christmas lights up anytime soon with all the snow in the way now.

St. Nick comes tonight. My daughter put stockings out for the fish and the hermit crab. What the heck is he gonna leave for them??

Wax on, wax off

So we watched the Karate Kid over the weekend with the kids. They love to "play karate" with their dad and anytime he'd say some of the lines from the movie they'd look at him weird. So I said that he needed to show them what he was talking about.

Well, I guess the movie didn't really translate well to their generation because although they watched the whole thing, they were sitting there looking bored out of their skulls! Plus there was a lot more swearing than I remember but I think they were a lot more lenient with the ratings back then.

I still don't think the younger one got the point of how he was being taught. She just kept saying "he's not learning karate, he's just doing a bunch of chores". So of course my husband tried to tell her that that's why we have her do chores.......she is learning karate. She didn't buy that!

Calgon, Take me Away!!

I'm going crazy! I'm sitting here trying to organize all our recent medical bills. Yuck. They just keep coming. Just when you think you have them all you get another for some other doctor in some lab who read one test result and wants his share too!

Let's see, we went to the pumpkin farm this weekend. I'll share pics of that shortly in another post. I just needed to get away from the bills for a second.

Hubby has had a couple Netflix movies waiting to be watched for the past week or two. He's been working tons of hours and hasn't been able to get to them. We finally sat and watched Troy last night. Long movie, pretty good but a little too much on the fighting scenes for my taste. Yeah, I know that's what the whole story of Troy is about. It's amazing how much of it I remembered from reading it in college or whenever the heck that was. At least it had Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in it, both in fine form which made the fighting scenes bearable (how do you spell that? Even with spellcheck that just doesn't look right). Whatever!

Later~

Addicted to Netflix

I've only got 60 titles on my Netflix cue. What do you think? A little excessive? lol Actually, many of them are TV series with multiple discs per season.

I just started watching the first season of Friday Night Lights. My mom has been raving about how good the show is. I never started watching last year because I had something else going that night I think. So since the first season is on DVD and the second doesn't start until Oct 5, I thought I'd add it to my list.

Netflix is great though. Choose your movies or tv shows and they come in the mail within a couple days. You can keep them as long as you want, then just stick them back in the envelope and send them back. Before you know it you're next one is here. The turn around time is super quick. Usually when we return a movie, it gets there the next day, another is sent out the same day and we get it on the third day. Not too shabby. Beats taking the time to go to the rental store and not being able to find anything because of limited selection or all the good stuff is out.

Harry Potter

Well, we finally got a chance to go see Harry Potter on Wednesday. Great movie. But of course you knew I'd say that. I've loved all the book and the movies. Now I just need to get reading so I can get to the last book. I'm in the middle of re-reading book 4 right now....The Goblet of Fire. I just might skip re-reading the other two and go right to the new one. I can't wait any longer! I want to find out what happens and who dies :( I can't believe it's been, what? 10 years since she started the series and now it's come to and end. Looking forward to the last two films also. They better get moving, the actors are starting to get too old for the characters they play! lol

The only bad part was sitting near people who couldn't be quiet! The woman behind us made comments on all the previews and throughout the movie. Even was imitating the sound of the water horse in the preview for that new movie. Then this guy started belching. Not a small "accidental" burp or anything. A full on, I know it's coming belch!! And a few times. Gross!

Anyway, heading out to dinner and gambling tonight. Wish me luck!

Summer movies

Went to see Ratatouille with my kids, my mom, my niece, and brother yesterday afternoon. Wasn't my first choice for a movie to see but it was the only one we could agree on that was also appropriate for my 8 year old daughter and 7 year old niece. I usually like the animated kids movies anyway. This one was OK, wouldn't add it to my favorites list. But at least now I know what Ratatouille is!! A french stewed vegetable dish.........made by rats (well in the movie).

My choices for movies to see this summer (though I know I won't see them all and will end up putting them on my netflix list when they come to DVD):
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix This is my number one choice. I've seen all the others and read all the books and I can't believe it's been out for 3 weeks now and I haven't gone yet. Been way too busy.
I'm in the process of re-reading all the books right now because I wanted to refresh my memory on everything before I read the last book. My mom is currently reading it and will be finished way before I'm ready. I am only on book 4 right now. I better get a move on!! I know she is dying to tell me some stuff that has happened and I've been trying not to read any reviews on the new book.

License to Wed I absolutely love John Krasinski from the Office so I really want to see this one, even if only to check him out!

Hairspray I just wanna see John Travolta in drag! I did hear the movie was good though, we'll see.

And the two that aren't really in theaters anymore, except a few value cinemas that are not very close to us,
Pirates: At Worlds End I know it's a really long one, but I've seen all the others and wanted to continue.
Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer For some reason I like the first one, not sure why so was interested in this one too.