It’s no big secret to people who know me that I’m a huge movie fan. I’ve seen far more than I could enumerate, but if you asked me if I saw something, I’ll know.
Last weekend, I went home to see my girlfriend, Kristen, who I started dating a few weeks ago, while I was home for Fall break. Do you know what we did? We watched movies. It was blissful sweetness.
When I got into town, we had dinner at one of the local places in Sherman, City Limits, because I can’t get that food anywhere else, and it’s delicious. Afterward, we decided to go see 30 Days of Night. We had some time to kill, so we played some Guitar Hero 3 for a while, and man. I suck at that game. I mean, I really suck. As bad as I am, if any of you ever see me with a real guitar, head for the hills because the Dept. of Homeland Security will be swooping in to stop that flagrant act of terrorism.
Ahem.
Anyway, 30 Days of Night was, as could be reasonably suspected, quite terrible. There were some good arm clutching jump scenes, but by and large, what a terrible film.
The next day, we picked up a couple of movies from Hastings: Ushpizin and Reign Over Me.
Ushpizin is a Hebrew film, following a man who has reached the dregs of life, and the things that transpire during Succoth. It was really a great film, and I’d recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind reading subtitles. Or, I guess, if you do mind reading subtitles, but you can speak Hebrew, that’d be OK too.
Reign Over Me, with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle, was the second movie we watched. I really liked this one too. It took a look at post-traumatic stress disorder in a man who lost his family in the 9/11 attacks. It, like Ushpizin, is the story of a man clawing his way out from the despair, but this one ends a bit differently, but I’ll let you watch it to see how things work out.
All in all, just getting to sit around, relaxing, watching some movies with Kristen was just what I was needing. I didn’t have to worry about school, or Cranium Calamity, or anything else. Of course, I’m back to the grind now, but I can always mentally escape to movies and carefree relaxation, right? Right.
I’m curious. What are some cinematic favorites for you all? Let me know in the comments!
NaBloPoMo Entry #6.
top 5 in no particular order:
kill bill 1 and 2
chasing amy
monty python and the holy grail
shaun of the dead
good ones I’ve seen lately (for the first time or just recently):
across the universe
reign over me
the machinist
l4yer cake
I’m glad you had such a good time. There’s no more relaxed blissfulness than hanging out with your honey watching movies.
I haven’t seen 30 Days of Night (and perhaps now I won’t) but did get to see some cool scary movies at the After Dark Festival in T.O. My sister was covering it for her movie blog. We saw an American zombie film, a Russian epic fantasy film and a really scary movie from Thailand. So much fun!
Jake: The only one of those I haven’t seen is L4yer Cake. I really lined The Machinist, but MAN was Christian Bale looking starved! Have you seen True Romance? If not, you should. It’s a bit different than Tarantino’s other stuff, but it’s still good.
Jamie: If you like scary movies, have you seen Nochnoy Dozor? Maybe that’s the Russian film you saw. It also goes by “Nightwatch.” If you haven’t, I’d highly recommend it! Also, it’s not really scary in the supernatural or jumpy sense, but Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a pretty creepy film.
yeah. he was freaky as hell. they didn’t do any special effects on him either. it’s amazing he didn’t hurt himself losing all that weight for the film. I’ve got true romance but I haven’t watched it yet. gonna get to it someday. l4yer cake is awesome. truly in the vein of snatch and lock stock and two smoking barrels. as it should be (directed by the guy that produced those movies…)
LOTR. Duh.
Jake: No joke, man. But what a great movie that was.
Rachelskirts: I already knew yours. Also, I’d make suggestions, but I think I’ve already told you about all the Elijah Wood movies that I know.