Movies

On average, I go to two movies a year - one at Christmas and one when my family comes to visit me in Arizona. Last year I saw Charlie Parker's War and Becoming Jane.

This year was a banner year for movies for me! I doubled my usual movie intake by October. I saw Juno in January when we had a rare free night. When my mom and sister came to visit in the spring, we saw Smart People because I liked that Ellen Page so much in Juno. In September we saw Burn After Reading on our anniversary. Then in October I went with a group of my agility friends to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. (It's okay - I am laughing at me, too.)

Last weekend when Pat took Craig to the play, I went to see Four Christmases with Jamie. And it was then that I decided that since I was already way ahead of my usual movie tally, I would try to crush the record. So on Saturday night I went with my boys to see Seven Pounds. Then on Sunday, Pat and I had a date night and went to see Slumdog Millionaire. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the movie we saw with my parents while I was home. Count 'em up! That's EIGHT movies in one year! And four movies in one week!

And because I've become such a movie aficionado, I feel compelled to rank the movies from best to worst.

1. Juno - that Ellen Page is so cute and the movie was hilarious
2. Slumdog Millionaire - very interesting, very visually stimulating, good soundtrack. The scene during the credits was awesome and caused this movie to steal the #2 spot.
3. Burn After Reading - I really enjoy the Coen brothers' sense of humor
4. Curious Case of Benjamin Button - interesting, but kind of long. Bonus credit for best use of lightning.
   
5. Four Christmases - cute and funny. It would have ranked #4 if the ending didn't ruin the whole movie.
6. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - Yes, it was stupid but I liked it. I'm not ashamed to admit it.
7. Seven Pounds - great story but sooooo slow. And for some reason Will Smith wasn't in it but Barak Obama was.
8. Smart People - horrible

I also saw (I use that verb loosely) two movies at home while I was in Springfield. One night we watched 3:10 to Yuma. I don't like brown movies and I'm not thrilled about Westerns, but I was missing Arizona and I'm always up for a trip to Yuma so I agreed to watch it. Alas, it was too brown and too boring so I gave up on it halfway through. It turns out that they don't actually get to Yuma, so I didn't miss anything. We also watched No Country For Old Men. We didn't get to see the last 20 minutes because of some really bad timing, but so far it's getting two thumbs up.

Hmmm...I have no plans tomorrow night...maybe I'll go for NINE!

(Post-posting note: I did not go see another movie that night. We finished watching No Country For Old Men instead. And yep - still 2 thumbs up. So, my movie record holds at eight. We'll see how 2009 goes.)