Monday, August 17, 2009

Movie Mania!

So brother Bug was in town this weekend and what we like to do when we get together is go to movies. He really came down because we have tickets to The Scarlet Pimpernel musical at Hale for tonight and we figured he may as well make a weekend of it. We've had a theater movie marathon a couple of times before, depending on having a free day when we happen to see each other and depending on there being several movies out at the same time that we are interested in seeing. Our previous full day movie-going goals had never before been as lofty as they were this weekend... and they may never be again.

On Friday night we drove down to Provo because Bug has been staying at our brother Logan and his new wife Sara's house down there. I will henceforth be referring to them as 'Logra,' to save time, whether they like it or not. (I rather think they do not, but I like it and I think it sounds like a name from Thundercats or something, which makes it extra cool). So we met up with Logra in Provo and grilled burgers and then went to the GI Joe movie. Yeah, we all went into it assuming the absolute worst, and decided to just have a sense of humor about it. We had to go though, for sentimental reasons, because as kids we were HUGE into the cartoon and had a bunch of the action figures and would role play on the trampoline. The movie was, well, it wasn't Batman & Robin level of unbearable or anything, but it was pretty bad. Not only was there hokey CGI and action sequences, but even worse, it was full of hokey dialogue. It was almost so bad it was good though- I haven't laughed that hard in a movie for a while. After the first few minutes of goofy dialogue and awkwardness, we were pretty much gone ;) They set it up for a sequel and part of me almost hopes for it, just to see what other silliness will ensue. After the movie we went back to Logra's and had a slumber party. We watched Condorman. Oh. My. Classic ;)

For Saturday Bug and I started out with great aspirations to hit four (and if we could handle it, get really crazy and try for five) movies. We had a whole schedule planned out. We left Logra's at about 9:15am aiming to hit a 10:10am movie in Jordan, which should have gotten us there in plenty of time, but because of stormy weather and, surprise, surprise, road construction, we didn't get to the Jordan exit until 10:30am. Original plan aborted. So, we quickly reworked our plans, thinking we could still work it all in, just on a tighter schedule, and we headed to Century 16 to see an 11:25am showing of (500) Days of Summer. Twenty-five minutes into the movie, I kid you not, a telephone pole right outside the theater split in half and the power went out. We all stood in a long line and received coupons good to come back whenever. Plan foiled again.

Things went smoother after this. We headed up to the Gateway for a double feature, starting with a 1:40pm viewing of The Time Traveler's Wife, a trailer that I posted when I raved about the book that the movie is based on: I read the book fairly recently, which isn't usually a good idea right before you go to a movie, but I thought they did a beautiful job and did the story justice. Everything that was in the movie pretty much really does happen in the book as well, they just had to cut a lot out because the book is pretty long. There is just so much more in the novel that I would still very much recommend reading it. The movie was very good though- very emotional. I totally bawled, and when I wasn't, I felt on the verge. Some sad tears, some sweet tears, some frustrated tears. I hope this isn't talking you out of it ;) Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana are both so great.

After that we went straight into a 3:45pm viewing of Julie & Julia, the movie that jumps back and forth between the true stories of famous chef Julia Childs (played by Meryl Streep) and Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams), the bored woman who decided to cook all of the recipes in Childs' book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, blogged about it, became hugely popular, and got a book deal- Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: I had heard good things about this movie before I went to it, from reviews and friends alike, and I wasn't disappointed. It was charmingly filmed and Meryl Streep was amazing and very funny.




After watching all of that beautiful food it was a good thing that it was time for dinner! We went to Mimi's Cafe, which I love. Everything there is good and is artistically prepared and they have the best spinach and artichoke dip ever- its really cheesy and has sun dried tomatoes in it. Mmmmmm.

Then, at long last, we went back to Century 16 to use our coupons and made our second, and much more successful, attempt to see (500) Days of Summer starring Zooey Deschanel & Joseph Gordon Levitt: First of all, it had an awesome soundtrack which Zooey sings a song on and that is a little reminiscent of the soundtrack from last summer's Indie darling Juno. As I said, I have been waiting for this movie for a while and went into it knowing that it wasn't going to be a traditional RomCom like a Sleepless in Seattle or Runaway Bride or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days happily-ever-after kind of a movie. I'm so okay with that. I didn't love it as much as I wanted too- a little too much crassness, but I did really like it a lot. I love the unconventional perspective of a romance and they did some very creative things filming-wise.

After this we technically would have had time to go to one more, but it had been a pretty long day. The other one we wanted to go to is called Paper Heart, which is only playing at the artsy Broadway Cinemas downtown. This is another movie, like (500) Days of Summer, that Bug and I wanted to go and see at Sundance last February but couldn't work it in. It's sort of a half documentary/half fictional movie starring real-life couple comedians Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi: The story is basically Yi, who doesn't believe in love, going around and interviewing people about what they think about love, and falling for Cera in the process. The story is very simple, but looks very funny and very adorable.




Well, my next crazy movie adventure will be Sundance if Bug comes up for that again. Always a good time ;)

1 comment:

Amy said...

Holy cow! At least you started with GI Joe to get THAT out of your system. :) I need to go see the good ones!