My Week In Movies - Oh, Anna Faris

What's Your Number? (2011) Anna Faris takes center stage in this romantic comedy about a young lady attempting to revisit all of her 20 past sexual partners in the hopes of finding Mr. Right among them. What has to be one of the stupidest set-ups for a movie ever, just rolls completely out of control downhill the further the movie goes on. As always in a romcom, it's pretty darn obvious who's going to end up together fairly early on in the film...especially when the first two names in the credits are a male and a female. This lame brain flick attempts to trick us the whole way along about who's Faris is going to end up with. By the time she meets up with ex-sex partner #5, this movie is cruising on cruise control like I've seen no other romantic comedy before it. It's downright painful to watch the predictable plot points come one after the other. Anna Faris is funny, very funny. But as I've said before, when you let a lame plot take over the movie - it's not usually good news.

The Stupids (1996) I was excited to see this Tom Arnold vehicle appear on Netflix Instant. This was just about the end of Arnold's brief "name above the credits" phase of his career. I saw this in the theatre way back and enjoyed it, and I had a feeling my kids would get a kick out of it. They did. As you can guess, any movie where humans have cartoon pets is a-ok in my book. The story involves The Stupids, who are very stupid, thinking they are wrapped up in some plot to overtake the world. They aren't but in the process end up actually foiling a plan to take over the world. Bob Keeshan, who played Captain Kangaroo on TV, appears in his only film credit as does legendary director Robert Wise. It's neat to see both of them having fun in a picture and it's fun to watch this good natured silly movie with your kids.

License To Drive (1988) Another recent addition to Netflix Instant is this teen semi-classic from the 80's. I used to love this movie, and recall watching it several times in my youth. I'm afraid it's one I'm not going to have to take off my list of fondly remembered movies. It was pretty stale and boring this revisit. The whole "sneak out of the house for ultimate date and everything in the world goes wrong" plot has been done so many times, this one just doesn't have enough steam to keep my interested. There are some decent performances by the Corey's (I can't believe I just said that) and a very young and beautiful Heather Graham but otherwise, pretty lame.

The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2012 - Animation (2012) I wrote about this collection now showing in theatres the other day. The package we saw featured 8 shorts, 4 of this year's nominated animated shorts and 4 other critically acclaimed shorts from years past. The best one of this year's nominees is probably "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore." which packs the look and feel of a feature length film into about 15 minutes. My favorite, though, had to be "A Morning Stroll" which not only utilizes several different styles of animation, it also made a statement about the attention span of people today. The one short nominated for the Oscar this year that is not included is "La Luna" supposedly a masterpiece from Pixar. I'm not sure why it was not on the bill where I saw the show, as reviews for this package universally include it. I couldn't help feel a little let down that I didn't get to see this new Pixar short, but over all the 8 cartoons are a fun night at the movies.

Heavy Petting (1989) Not as lewd as it sounds, this is a brief 75 minutes of clips from old sex education films interspersed with interviews from various famous and not so famous people about the sexual morals and expectations of the 1950's. I'm always down for a good retro trip down Memory Lane (even if they're not my memories) and this is a fun, breezy documentary that is always fun around Valentine's Day.

Trailer Tuesday - Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984)

Skylight by David Bass

This is a great little animated short that I caught the other night along with the Oscar Nominated shorts, If you've got 4 1/2 minutes take a look. It's very funny.

2012 Oscar Nominated Shorts - Animation: A Quick Parent's Guide

Just wanted to do a quick post regarding the package of animated shorts that is playing in theaters this week. For years I've wanted to see the annual collection of Oscar worthy toons and take my kids to expose them to different styles of animation. And year after year, I can never find any information regarding the content of the short films. Just because they are cartoons doesn't mean they aren't chock full of sex, violence and profanity. I've stayed away from the toon feat in the past but this year I made a somewhat more aggressive attempt to find out if the Oscar package was child friendly.

The studio was nice enough to quickly answer my query on Facebook and said it was "family friendly and full of laughs". So I took the kids last night and found the proceedings to be the equivalent of a PG rating.

There's actually very little dialogue in the 8 shorts featured and besides one use of "hell" there is no objectionable language. What you will find is an old man flipping the middle finger, another guy mooning the old man - pressing his butt cheeks up against a car window, and a cute fish getting his head chopped off. There is a startling scene where a zombie jumps out at the camera and a brief chase leads to a small bloodbath. My 6 year old was very off put by the zombie and spent the rest of the night worrying that there would be more scary parts.

But in the end, the kids and I greatly enjoyed the eight films. Only one of them is very dry and drags on a bit. The rest are a mix of charming, funny and thought provoking.

My Week In Movies - That's Fishy!

Dolphin Tale (2011) There's a difference between making a film for children and just making a bad movie. Just because a movie is directed at a young audience doesn't give a filmmaker the right to omit things like rationale, reason or logic. There's very little going on in this tale except that a dolphin gets a fake tail. They don't ever really explain why this particular dolphin has people going out of their way to save it's life and they never explain who pays for all this work. Winter the Dolphin is held up at a rundown, broke Aquarium. Morgan Freeman plays a doctor who decides to help create the dolphin tale. He's just a crazy old man with a heart of gold and we know this because when we first meet the good doctor, he cuts off Ashley Judd to tell her he's having a greasy hamburger for lunch. And it's the best damn hamburger in the world...he says. There's also a scene where completely unnecessary graphics fill the screen and then fly around for two or three minutes to justify the hiked up 3D ticket prices the half dozen people who saw this in the theatre paid. The end of this "true story" has such a tacky Hollywood ending, it's been lifted directly out of 39 other sports movies. Yes, I said sports movie. Also at the very end of the movie, It appears the boy has romantic relations with the dolphin.

Oh, God! (1977) This is one of those flicks that I used to watch all the time as a kid. I haven't seen it in quite some time and now that I'm older and oh-so-wiser I gotta say I really enjoy the philosophical side of the movie. In the picture, God appears to grocery store manager John Denver and tells him to spread the good word of the Lord or else the world will come to an end. God appears to JD in the form of an old man, in particular George Burns. It's good stuff. If you've never seen it, I suggest a rental.

Yes Man (2008) My Jim Carrey-obsessed son has been begging me to let him watch this title for quite sometime now. We taped it off TBS hoping to bring the PG-13 down to a PG. I also checked up on CommonSenseMedia.com, which is a great website that breaks down potentially objectionable material in movies for parents. With my finger on the fast forward button, I successfully navigated past the oral sex gag without the kids even noticing. What's left in the movie is a really sweet tale about opening yourself up to new experiences in life. It's actually quite a feel-good message at the heart of this movie, and it lets Jim Carrey be Jim Carrey complete with all his silly faces, screaming and mugging for the camera. A really good return to form for Mr. Carrey.

Trailer Tuesday - Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980)

edTunes - Strong (What Doesn't Kill You)

My Week In Movies - Scusi!

Super 8 (2011) This is supposed to be an affectionate love letter to the Steven Spielberg films of the late 70's - early 80's, but there's just way too much CG shenanigns to really put me into the the whole atmosphere they were trying to recreate. I could totally relate to the kids spending their whole summer trying to make a movie (been there, done that - except I was in my 20's) and some of the action is pretty intense. But the ending, which kind comes out of left field, is supposed to be a tribute to E.T. but it's more like a half baked ending to an otherwise action packed film.

That's Entertainment, Part 2 (1976) I really enjoyed the first clip-filled documentary in this series, but this second instalment is basically just a bunch of random old film clips slapped together with some fairly not-to-entertaining new footage of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. It's not a complete waste of time, but it's also not the history lesson in Hollywood lore that the first film was.

101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2002) I've always been a big supporter of the Disney Direct-To-DVD movies. Sure, none of them are near as good as the originals - but as films on their own some of them are pretty darn good. I'd honestly have to put this sequel to 1960's 101 Dalmatians near the top of the list of Mickey's hack job cartoon pics. The story is pretty solid, there are plenty of references and allusions to the first film (without being too obvious) and the animation is top notch. The very 60's style of the classic movie is recreated faithfully and the brisk running time wraps things up before there's a chance to yawn. I was really impressed with this production and rather enjoyed it too.

Eurotrip (2004) Saw this when it first came out and didn't think much of it, but rewatched it and laughed my head off. A bare bones plot about a high school graduate going to Germany to meet his pen pal/girl of his dreams is just an excuse to move the guy and his buddies through various adventures through Europe. There's a nude beach, an over the top sex club in Amsterdam, and a probably offensive visit to the Vatican - but it's all in fun. Good solid silly sex comedy that still holds up. It's airing on HBO this month.

January Movie Count: 22
Best New Movie: The Help
Best Rewatch: Beauty & The Beast
Worst Movie: Monte Carlo

Trailer Tuesday - Johnny Dangerously (1984)

My Week In Movies - Did You Hear the One About the Tramp and the Fat Kid?

Dirty Girl (2011) It's rare that I see a trailer for a film on a DVD and then end up watching that movie a week or so later, but such is the case with Dirty Girl. I thought the trailer looked pretty cool and it just so happened that it was released to DVD on that same week. I popped it on my Netflix queue and it was in my mailbox the next week. And I'm glad it was because I really enjoyed it. It's the 1980's and the class slut gets paired up with the class fat kid to do one of those projects where they have to pretend to be married and take care of a sack of flower. I always thought that was a cool project, and they did it in the 8th grade at my school...except the year I was in the 8th grade they decided to take a break from it. So, I never got fake married. But I was the class fat kid and I would have been all about being fake married to the class slut. So perhaps in a way, this is kind of a fantasy piece for me - but the movie is really good besides that point. There's a great 80's soundtrack and some genuinely funny and touching moments as these two kids from opposite ends of the high school hierarchy become good friends. I'm always a sucker for a happy film with an upbeat pace, and I'm always a sucker for movies about friendship...and sluts.

(500) Days of Summer (2009) I also loved this odd romantic comedy that actually manages to break the conventions of a romantic comedy. Zooey Deschanel is perfectly cast as the beautiful new girl in the office, Summer. Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes a liking to Summer and she likes him, but she is quick to point out that she's not interested in a relationship. Eventually, the two arrive at a crossroads where one wants more than the other. The story is told out of sequence, but not in a confusing way. There are several clever scenes that play with the audience's expectations of storytelling. It's all a really fun movie and well done all around. I could not have enjoyed it more.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) OK, I love this movie...I think we all know that. It's easily in my top 5 favorite Disney films of all time, possibly in the top 3. I've been super jazzed about seeing it in 3D but alas with one kid afraid of 3D movies and a busy schedule between my wife and I, it just worked out better that I took the kids to see it at a theatre in the next town over that had one 2D showing a day. And you know what, I don't think I need the 3D...even though it would be cool to see the ballroom scene in three dimensions. When my buddies and I were young animation geeks, the computer generated chandelier in the ballroom scene just about literally made our jaws drop! I've seen Beauty and the Beast in the theatre 5 times now, not to mention an additional time on the IMAX screen back in 2001. Plus I've seen the Broadway production, the Ice Show, the Walt Disney World stage version...I've seen this story in many mediums, but you just can't beat seeing on the big screen - 3D glasses or not!

The Hangover Part Two (2011) By now you've probably heard that this follow up wasn't that good. It's pretty darn funny, almost as funny as the original. The real problem is that the story is EXACTLY the same as the first movie. Sure, the guys get into different wacky misadventures but the story structure is just a retread of the first film as the same three guys go back and try to piece together the drug induced antics of the night before. Same story, different town (Bangkok this time) and equal laughs, but just not a good sequel.



Cindy and Donna (1970) Another drive-in "classic" that I was thrilled to get a chance to see. Yet again, this trashy drive-in flick is just about completely unwatchable except that the ending is so great. I'll give it away because I'm sure no one reading this is ever going to see it. Cindy and Donna are stepsisters, Donna is slutty and Cindy is just discovering her womanhood. Cindy watches her sister get it on with everyone from her boyfriend, her boyfriend's friends and yes, even Cindy's father. Cindy's father is also having an affair with a teenage prostitute, that storyline literally goes nowhere but I thought I'd mention it. So then Cindy decides she is ready to make the big move into adulthood and it turns out Donna's boyfriend is more than happy to help out. While they are getting it on on the sofa, Donna walks in and sees them. Donna's boyfriend takes a moment from having sex with her sister to pick Donna up and violently toss her outside. Donna cries and runs into the street where she is promptly hit by a car and dies. Cut to Cindy riding on a swing, for one last panty shot...THE END. It's profound, people!

Cinderella (1950) Simply put, a masterpiece of film making and the epitome of everything that a Disney animated film should be!

Class (1983) This flick doesn't know if it wants to be a raunchy teenage comedy or a mid-life crisis drama. It's neither, as Andrew McCarthy unknowingly has an affair with his roommate's (Rob Lowe) mother. There's no point to this movie although I suspect to 1983 audiences seeing Jacqueline Bisset's naked body roll around in the sheets with a guy half her age was a point worthy enough of a ticket price.

Classic Commercial Sunday - A Day At The Park

Trailer Tuesday - License to Drive (1988)

Sonic Meets Flo

For whatever reason, the kids and I are big fans of Flo the Progressive Insurance Gal. We're always excited when we catch a new chapter in her never ending adventures in some sort of weird insurance store where you buy insurance off a shelf. Anywho, the latest commercial from the insurance company features Sonic the Hedgehog (of video game fame!)

Classic Commercial Sunday - Seriously, How Fun Is The Kennedy Airport?

Useless Movie Watching Trends From 2011

This is utterly pointless, but since I've kept track of every movie that I watched in 2011 - I was curious to see how my viewing habits broke down as far as movie ratings and the age of the films I've been watching. Who cares, right? This is just the kind of thing I like to do...

Decades; movies from
the 1930's - 2
the 1940's - 11
the 1950's - 12
the 1960's - 19
the 1970's - 20
the 1980's - 31
the 1990's - 14
the 2000's - 17
recent years 2010 & 2011: 80

For a movie buff, it's kind of lame that I watched so many more recent flicks than older ones, but I really burn through the Netflix discs and my wife and I have finally started watching a lot more movies together. She's not quite as interested in the older fare as I am, but I'll jump at the chance to watch a film with her - and I can stomach romantic comedies so we don't have a hard time finding things to watch.

Ratings:
G - 30
PG - 46
PG-13 - 26
R - 56
made for TV movies - 7

Honestly, I'm really surprised I watched that many R rated films. My tastes in film run rather immature but I did get into a big streak of watching 80's teen comedies and 70's drive-in flicks, so I guess that explains that high number. Since I have kids, I get a pass at seeing 30 G rated flicks but let's be honest - the number would probably be around the same even if I were not a father.

Trailer Tuesday - Dirty Girl (2011)

My Week In Movies - You Shouldn't Hang Me On a Hook, Johnny. My Father Hung Me on a Hook Once. Once!

Johnny Dangerously (1984) As far as comedies go, this has got to be one of the all-time most unsung hilarious pictures ever made. A great cast led by Michael Keaton along with Marilu Henner, Joe Piscopo, Peter Boyle, Griffin Dunne and Dom Deluise...just to name a few...spoof 1930's gangster pictures. Now, most of us ain't really seen enough 1930's gangster picture to spot a good parody of one - but this movie is chock full of solid gags from beginning to end. As the film opens up we see a city street from the past. The subtitle at the bottom of the screen tells us it's 1935...and then a car in traffic runs over the subtitle causing it to crumble in the street. That's the first joke in the movie! The first time I saw it, I knew I was going to be hooked on the whole movie from minute one. I used to watch this great flick every chance I got on HBO back in the day. I hadn't seen it in a while, so it was great to revisit it and laugh myself silly. Look it up on Netflix Instant if you ain't ever seen it - or if you just need a good laugh.

An Extremely Goofy Movie (1999) Another under rated gem, the direct-to-video sequel to the also under rated A Goofy Movie from 1995, finds Goofy's son Max off the college where he butts heads with the big fraternity on campus. Goofy finds himself also on campus as a new student and falls in love with the school librarian. This is really a solid animated film, with no singing but plenty of groovy disco tunes take make up a pretty awesome soundtrack.

Winnie The Pooh (2011) Bob Howdy, this is a really good movie. I was excited to see it again as my theatrical screening last summer was severely dampened by a very obnoxious child in the row in front of us with even more obnoxious parents. I really enjoyed it a second time around and my kids once again laughed themselves uncontrollably. Afterwards Elias declared the movie "Hilarious" which is an honor he has only also bestowed upon "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs"...which he's seen 1 million times. Pooh's latest movie has a running time of 63 minutes, the actual movie itself wraps up at 57 minutes with the remainder of the time dedicated to a very creative credits sequence. It's honestly, a perfectly paced film. In some of the DVD bonus features, there are deleted scenes which the director said were cut because of pacing problems. If he put out a 63 minute movie, and removed stuff due to pacing...he should be in charge of editing every Hollywood movie from now on! Good stuff all around! See it.

The Tigger Movie (2000) So then we revisited Pooh's initial return to the big screen which I loved when it came out and I've seen it several times since. It's still a really good movie, the first time the Hundred Acre Wood gang was treated to a full-length narrative instead of shorter stories tied together. The problem with The Tigger Movie now, is that the 2011 Winnie The Pooh did such a perfect job of creating a newer version of Pooh and Co. that this older flim seems a little less sparkly than it did 12 years ago. Still, it's alot of fun with a pretty good story and an exciting climax plus original songs from Disney's original songwriting team, The Sherman Bros.

The Last Starfighter (1984) I borrowed the VHS of this flick from my buddy Joey Carwash about 15 years ago and have never watched it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I sold the tape at a yard sale somewhere along the line. Not to worry, Joey has the DVD now. I didn't watch his tape, and I hadn't watched it off my TiVo since I recorded it over a year ago. I finally broke down and watched it this week. It's one of those movies that really isn't very creative or interesting, but it just has a certain charm about it that makes it watchable and memorable. If nothing else, this movie is notable for being the last screen credit of the original Music Man himself, Robert Preston. It was also one of the first movies to deal with video games which was such a big deal back in the early 80's. I know I had first seen this when it came to HBO in `85, didn't think much of it then and quite honestly not that big of a fan now either.

The Smurfs (2011) There are chunks of this movie that are so dumb and have nothing to do with Smurfs, it's still kind of irritating that this is the best they could conjure up for iconic characters like Papa Smurf and the gang. Yet, there are some fun moments sprinkled throughout the picture and it has it's heart in the right place so for a PG rated family-friendly comedy, it's ok.

Classic Commercial Sunday - #83

My Week In Movies - Happy New Year

So nice to start off the New Year with a handful of wonderful films...

The Help (2011) I really, really enjoyed this movie. Emma Stone is awesome along with a whole bunch of other great actresses whose names I don't know off-hand. Stone exposes the hypocrisy of the way southerners treated their hired help back in the 1960's. This story is told with humor, drama and wonderful characters - an overall really good movie worth seeking out. It's in the movie rental boxes now.

Our Idiot Brother (2011) Superb ensemble cast including Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, T. J. Miller and Zooey Deschanel. The title is a bit misleading, as you think you're getting one of those super silly Judd Apatow-style films but even though there are some goofy moments this is a nice story about unconditional love and the innocence of good hearted people. It take a while to find it's grove, but the film has a very satisfying ending. Good stuff.

Midnight In Paris (2011) There's alot of positive press surrounding Woody Allen's latest film. I believe it turned out to be his highest grossing movie yet and once again there is quite the Oscar buzz linked to this picture. I guess with all the hype going on, and being such a Woody Allen fan I was expecting to be blown out of the water but the story of Owen Wilson somehow going back in time each night to 1920's Paris just didn't manage to live up to it's hype. Still, it's a good film and filled with all the charm of wit of most of Woody's pictures.

The Onion Movie (2003/2008) This sketch movie based on the popular humorous newspaper was apparently filmed in 2003 and then shelved for most of the decade only to finally surface unceremoniously on DVD in 2008. As you should know by now, I'm a big fan of the sketch film genre, a rarely visited style of film making these days. The Onion Movie, in my opinion, is one of the better ones. The fact that they try to give the film a little bit of a plot and structure, but then it still veers off in many different directions just makes the randomness of this movie all the more fun. There's plenty of running gags throughout including Steven Segal as himself staring in a new movie called ****Puncher. That's good comedy.

Monte Carlo (2011) Dear Self, Stop watching movies just because there's an attractive girl in the lead, especially when the movie is aimed at the sleepover set. You're wasting your time watching silly movies like this, with thread bare storylines, minimal humor and zero creativity. Sure, Selena Gomez is pleasing on the eyes but you don't need to spend two hours of your life watching her and her friends parade around Europe. Honestly, there isn't any ground that wasn't covered 10 times better in The Lizzie McGuire Movie (Now that was a good flick!)

Trailer Tuesday - The Missouri Breaks (1976)

edTunes - Mr. Saxobeat

Classic Commercial Sunday - #82

This was only 25 years ago! Can you imagine them even attempting to do this today...?

Can You Guess Why I'm Going To Watch This Season of Celebrity Apprentice?

One question: What's an Aubrey O'Day?

My Week In Movies - The Rest of 2011

The Bishop's Wife (1947) I saw this holiday classic for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. I was glad that I revisited it again this year. Not only did I not get around to many other B&W Christmas goodies, this is just a really good Christmas movie. You can't go wrong with Cary Grant - and in a whimsical role as an angel sent to bring a couple back together - it's just one of the great classic films of all time. There's plenty of Holiday Cheer on hand including a terrific ice skating sequence, plenty of footage of old department stores and some nice caroling. A great holiday flick that I look forward to watching again next Christmas.

Deck The Halls (2006) It's hard to imagine there was a time as recently as 2006 that Danny DeVito and Mather Brodrick were allowed to headline a major studio film, but such was the case in this oft-aired Holiday tragedy of film making. DeVito and Brodrick play rival neighbors who argue over Christmas decorations. It starts out funny enough, but looses steam about 15 minutes in and then just meanders on forever with endless sequences of runaway sleighs, explosions and pratfalls. This is not a Christmas movie I will feel the need to revisit ever again.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) I'm gonna admit, I didn't really want to watch this because there was so many other Christmas movies that I wanted to get to, but my kids really wanted to watch it and I'm not one to deny them Muppets. And after about 2 minutes into the film, I remembered how awesome this movie is. It's not in the same league as the first three Muppet movies, but it's a darn good Muppet production nonetheless!

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) Basically the first movie, just reshuffled and with a different bad guy but in the end it worked. With a few solid laughs, some awesome action sequences and a breezy pace this silly sequel turned out to ultimately be satisfying.

Three Amigos! (1987) I always forget how much I love this movie. My kids saw it for the first time and they totally got it. It was a proud night of parenthood.

That's Entertainment (1974) Part film history lesson, part 70's time capsule; this is an ultra-entertaining look at the MGM Musical of Hollywood's Golden Age and it reminds you once again that "They just don't make `em like they used to!"

Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas (2011) Yes, again. It was on Christmas Eve night and I ended up sitting on the floor with my wife and watching the entire thing again. I wasn't as productive as I should have been, hours before Santa's arrival, but I did laugh a dozen or so times again at this well done TV movie. I think I'll buy the DVD if it ever comes out.

December Movie Count: 14
Best New Movie: That's Entertainment
Best Rewatch: Ernest Saves Christmas
Worst Movie: Deck The Halls

Final 2011 Movie Count: 203 Movies!!!

Seasons Greetings!

Toy Tinkers (1949)

Do you remember a few years ago I told you about Sweden's Christmas Eve tradition with Donald Duck? No!? Well, you should click here and read it! Anywho, here's a Donald Duck Christmas Cartoon to make your spirits bright...

Best Friends

This one is on the PG-13 side:

My Week In Movies - Put It Over There, Greaseball

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) After Ernest, this is my second favorite Christmas movie! Last year, I shared the TV edit with my oldest son and he liked it. My younger son, Tanner, seems to have a better crafted sense of humor already so I was eager to show it to him too. He laughed alot and at all the right parts a 6 year old should laugh at. This is a movie that has seemed to pop up on just about every channel for the holidays. I have the DVD, but the TV-version basically cuts out the cursing and a couple of off-color jokes and then it's pretty ok for a family to sit down and watch. I taped it off CMT first, and even though it was in HD, the picture was only centered in the middle of the screen. TV Land shows a full screen version, but we don't get TV Land in HD. We finally went with ABC Family, which is showing a nice widescreen HD print with the curse words simply muted and a few minor snips around PG-13 jokes.

Friends With Benefits (2011) Justin Timberlake is such a talented fella. He's not only a good actor, he's a gifted comedic actor and he shines here in this tale of no strings attached sex with a friend. My major beef with this flick is that it pretends to mock all the contrivances and cliches of romantic comedies and then go ahead and follows the exact same path of 300 romcoms before it. Still, the cast is quite good and the film moves along at a brisk pace. The highlight of the movie in my book is a film-within-the film; a dead on parody of a romantic comedy that is seen on TV a few times staring Jason Segal and Rashida Jones. This would have made a much more interesting feature film.

March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934) Here's an ancient production of the classic Babes in Toyland story, this one most notable for featuring Laurel & Hardy. While the film is all around pretty good, when Laurel & Hardy aren't on screen the film quickly sags. There is also a depiction of the Three Little Pigs played by midgets in pig costumes and it's pretty terrifying, as is a monkey in a Mickey Mouse costume.

Christmas Commercial Sunday

My kids love this...

Christmas Macarena

I've always wondered how close we were to getting a Macarena movie. That song was huge and then instantly hated by anyone who didn't like fun in their ears. Well, we never got a Macarena movie...which I hope would have involved a young group of kids saving their local youth center by holding the world's largest Macarena Dance Off to raise funds...but we did get this great spin-off holiday song to cherish for years to come:

Yogi's Home Up North

Here's (what appears to be) a promotional photo of the Hanna-Barbera gang outside of the Yogi's Cave attraction at Canada's Wonderland, a sister park to Kings Dominion. I swiped the picture from the amazing Flickr feed of user Mr. Flintstone. Canada's Wonderland opened in 1981 in Ontario and featured similar attractions to those found at KD and Kings Island. By the time I made it to Wonderland in 1986, Yogi's Cave had been transformed into Smurf Cave. Of course, at the time, that was OK with me! Here's the write up about the Smurf attraction from Wikipedia:

A funhouse-like cave building that featured scenes of Smurfs in their "natural" habitat. This attraction was actually converted from Yogi's Cave in Yogi's Forest (1981–1983) before the area was changed to Smurf Forest for the 1984 season. Also featured near the end of the cave was a section of Gargamel's house where Gargamel would be playing his organ. Gargamel's house was formerly the Ranger's Cabin during its use in Yogi's Cave. Smurf Village was removed and replaced by an arcade until 1998 where it housed Meet-and-Greets with the Rugrats. Currently it functions as a gift shop and mini-arcade in the Zoom Zone area.

He-Man + She-Ra + Christmas = Awesome

One of the crown jewels of my VHS collection has always been He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special, which I taped one random Saturday afternoon off Baltimore's WBFF 45 long after He-Man & She-Ra were a thing on any kid's radar. I was more than stoked to find this great Christmas special released to DVD and sitting on the shelf for me at Wal-Mart for a mere $7.50! Of course I picked it up and now it will be a treasured keepsake of Christmas memories for our family to share for generations to come!

If you've never witnessed the pure holiday magic of He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special...it's about 40 minutes of the muscle-bound duo fighting creatively named creatures like The Snow Beast, The Beast Monster, and the Manchines. He-Man tosses off his one liners which aren't really puns, he just kind of says things with the delivery of a joke, even though there is no joke to be had. I'm not sure how She-Ra managed to fight so many bad guys in her show and this special seeing as how her outfit is skimpier than stripper. I spent hours watching the She-Ra show when I was a kid and perhaps that is why later in life I developed an affinity for strippers....but anyhow...Orko ends up getting beamed to Earth and then he brings back two kids who share the traditions of Christmas with everyone on Eternia. Nasty ol' Horde Prime doesn't like Christmas so he sends Skelator and Hordack to find the kids. When the kids end up with Skeletor..what happens is possibly the greatest couple of minutes in all of filmed Christmas entertainment history...You gotta click here to see it!

My Week In Movies - I Like Christmas

Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas (2011) I find the Disney Channel's Good Luck Charlie to be the most tolerable of their kiddie sitcom stable. This feature length Xmas outing is even more tolerable without an audience screaming with forced laughter after ever other line. The made-for-TV movie find the show's family split up at the start of a trip from Chicago to Palm Springs. The dad and the boys end up at Grandma's by plane while the oldest daughter and mom travel much slowly by a variety of ground methods. This ain't a holiday classic, but it's a pretty good TV movie with some holiday cheer and a few solid laughs. It's easily accessible for anyone not familiar with the show and for anyone with Disney Channel as I'm sure it's running just about every day between now and December 25.


30 Minutes of Less (2011) Solid comedy with a solid cast including the always fantastic Danny McBride, underrated Nick Swardson and Parks & Recreation's Aziz Anzari along with Jesse Eisenberg; all tied up in a crazy heist involving a bomb strapped to Eisenberg's chest and he has 10 hours to rob a bank for the bad guys or they'll blow him up. With a nice breezy run time of under 90 minutes, this comedy is action packed and pretty darn funny.

Ernest Saves Christmas (1988) Seriously, I could not love this movie an ounce more! Easily my favorite Christmas movie, it's also gotta go on my list as one of my all-time favorite films. I've written about it at least twice before. Once, two years ago when I first shared it with my kids and there is also this lengthier, nerdier article I wrote back in 2006.

Scrooged (1988) This is another one of those movies - beloved by America - that I just don't get. Released to theatres less than two weeks after Ernest Saves Christmas, I've just never got this modern Bill Murray take on A Christmas Carol. I saw it way back on either VHS or HBO and didn't care for it all. The last couple of years I've been meaning to take another look at it and I gotta say I was actually pretty bored with it. There's an impressive cast but it just doesn't do anything for me. Murray's speech to the camera at the tail end was pretty impressive but other than that I found it to just be an awful bore.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945) I always wonder how uptight people really were back in the black and white days or if it's just the rose-colored lens of the cinema. When an old woman sees an unmarried man and woman walk into a bedroom at 11:00 at night and then she goes totally nuts and quits her job because of it...well, it's hard to follow along with a movie like that. There's some pretty silly stuff that happens in this flick, but all in all you can't really beat classic Hollywood's depiction of post-wartime Christmas.

Good iGrief

This is one of those things where I would seriously consider buying an iPad just so I can experience this...

Walking In A Dutch Winter Wonderland

In December, Dutch Wonderland transforms itself into Dutch Winter Wonderland. Not only is the park decorated with lights and other such Christmasy stuff but there's a few new attractions as well. The Christmas time park is open for the next two weekends and then also the week after Christmas. At $12.99, it really is a good bargain for a Christmas attraction! The admission price is fair just to get in and see the park's main attraction: The Royal Light Show. The Light Show is a display of thousands of Christmas lights blinking and twinkling to the rhythm of seasonal music. The show just about literally envelopes the audience. When seated in the viewing area, the lights dance not only in front of you but on every side of you including behind and above. It's a great spectacle and nothing like the neighbor down the street who has a couple of lighted trees synced to Manheim Steamroller. This is good stuff! As if that wasn't enough...

...my kids LOVED the new Polar Playground attraction. A semi-outdoor pizza joint in the park has been turned into a wonderland inside a wonderland. The walls depict Arctic scenes of penguin life while hundreds are soft foam "ice cubes" are waiting for kids to play with, build and use their imagination. Elias and Tanner easily killed 45 minutes having a blast inside this seasonal setup. They loved it. We ended up going back to it two more times through out the night. The park did a real nice job of transforming an existing space into something completely different.

Santa's Reindeer-In-Training are also on display in the area usually reserved for pony rides. I guess it has been a while since we've been to an attraction with real live reindeer because my boys flipped when they were standing face to face with Santa's real reindeer. We even got to see a little reindeer scuffle!

Entertainment options during the Christmas season include the live show "Jingle Bell Rock." This is a simple 10 minute show with two very talented dancers knocking out a few Christmas tunes and a few bad jokes. Unlike other shows at DW, this one appeared to be lip-synced however the dancing was a couple of levels above the summer shows. Either way, I can never seem to make it to the Radio City Music Hall Spectacular so this will have to do for me for now.

In the large Mill Stream Eatery in the back of the park, they have set up a Train Display and Gingerbread Houses. You can vote on your favorite Gingerbread House, which were all designed by local kids and organizations. This Smurf Village was one of the more elaborate displays and got a vote from all three of us! The Mill Stream is also open for business as usual adding Baked Potatoes with Chili and Cheese on top! Didn't try one, but if I make it back this season I just might have one!

Another neat little touch were there little houses set up in nooks and crannies of the park, each depicting a little Christmas scene inside. Nothing too elaborate, but it reminded me of the kind of things shopping centers used to do at the holidays when I was a kid.

Duke and The Princess were both decked out in their gayest apparel. Neither of my boys will go anywhere near the Princess if I've got a camera on hand, but Elias did cooperate for a snapshot with Santa Duke. In addition to all the Christmas fun, the park also has a dozen or so of their rides open. There's a list of the available rides on the park's website, but we were very happy to find a lot more that weren't on the list open for business. The kids were delighted to take another spin on the Turtle Whirl, and we took unplanned voyages on the Astroliner and the VR Voyager. Again, a nice little bonus touch DW!

Of course, this trip didn't cost us a dime (except for some Kettle Corn and a round of Shooting Gallery) as DW includes the Halloween time and Christmas event with their season passes. We're hoping to hit up the park one last time before our passes expire on December 30. Even if you're not a season pass holder, Dutch Winter Wonderland is a top notch Christmas attraction worth every penny.

Marshmallow World

Trailer Tuesday - Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

The Christmas Song

My Month In Movies - November

As you may have noticed (but probably didn't) the My Week In Movies feature has not been seen as of late. It's been a busy month here at the WWoB offices and the updating has fallen behind. Not to worry! I've been keeping track of all the movies I've seen and now I'm here to report to you in one giant swoop for the whole month of November. Here's the quick rundown...


The Muppets (2011) A
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2011) A
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011) A
Halloween (1978) A
Taladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2005) A-
Bad Teacher (2011) A-
The Man Called Flintstone (1966) A-
Spy Kids: All The Time In The World (2011) B
Exporting Raymond (2010) B
Machete Maidens Unveiled (2010) B
Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer (2011) B-
The Muppets Wizard Of Oz (1995) C
The Teacher (1974) C-
Captain America The First Avenger (2011) C-
Turtle: The Incredible Journey (2010) C-
Tomboy (1985) D
Pick Up (1975) F

November Movie Count: 17
2011 Movie Count: 189
My goal for the year has been 200 movies. I think I can make it!

The Chipmunk Song

Ringing of the Bells

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cartoon Network Bumper from 1997


Cartoon Network Fred Flintstone Thanksgiving... by 90sCartoonNetworkFan

Trailer Tuesday - Rainbow Bright and the Star Stealer (1985)

Muppet Monday - Ideal Toy Commercial (1966)

Alf Promos

Because I'm a dork...

Rock-Afire Explosion Lives

If you don't remember The Rock-Afire Explosion, there were the band that played at Showbiz Pizza Place before Chuck E. Cheese and pals moved in and took over. This video of the band is not simply somebody playing a modern song over old footage of the show, this is a whole new show programed by a dude in Georgia who bought an entire unused show from the original manufacturer and set it up in a garage in his backyard. There's a documentary about him, the band and the entire Showbiz Pizza Place operation now available on Netflix simply called The Rock-Afire Explosion. It could not be an ounce more fascinating!

Trailer Tuesday - Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988)

The first of the series to feature a plot...

Trailer Tuesday - Rome Adventure (1962)

This was one of my mom's favorite movies that she spoke of often...

My Week In Movies - October Week 4

Zookeeper (2011) Is this movie funny? If you like Kevin James then yes, it is funny. Is this movie good? It's good along the line of Kevin James falling down, talking to animals, getting shot in the face with porcupine quills, and more falling down kind of way. The thing with this movie is this: If you're going to do a film with a bunch of talking animals, the animals should be a little more a part of the action of the story. The various zoo animals help Zookeeper James win the girl of his dreams by giving him advice on how to do well with the ladies. That's all they pretty much do, give advice. They just talk. There's not much else the animals are given to do. The only animal costar who gets any real screen time is a gorilla who does have a pretty hilarious scene when Kevin James takes him to a T.G.I.Friday's. But that's the thing, if the other animals were all given something funny to do besides telling their buddy that the best way to sweep a female off her feet is to pee on a tree...this might be a much better film.

The Freebie (2010) I really enjoy actress Kate Aselton on FX's The League. So when I heard that she not only stared in a movie but she also directed it, I was in. It's a pretty captivating tale about a very happy young couple who decide to both take one night off from being married and go have a meaningless fling. The story unfolds out of order, which can be a confusing device but it is handled well here. This is an independent film, with some shakey camera work, mello soundtrack, lots of talking and a pretty surprising ending. Netflix Streaming

V.I. Warshawski (1991) For some reason, this movie is entertaining as all get out. It's probably the same reason people slow down to see a car accident. This detective picture is a wreck of a film. Kathleen Turner made took on the role of private detective Warshawski at the height of her career, hoping to turn this into a franchise for herself. Instead, it tanked her entire career. In 1991 she was the biggest female box office draw and this flick single handily ruined her career. I remember loving it when it came out, I even saw it at the theatre. It was a little tough to get through now, but like I said - it's weirdly entertaining.

Student Bodies (1981) Before Scream or Scary Movie, this unassuming flick was the first movie to really parody the (then-new) slasher film genre. The Breather is going around killing any high school kids who are about to have sex. He uses the standard weapons for his murders: paper clip, rubber chicken, eggplant. It's obviously sillier than it is witty, but the jokes come one after the other and there are more hits than misses. There's actually zero gore, nudity or sex but there is one scene which they point out in the movie was only added to get the coveted R rating. This is good stuff worth seeking out. I have a really old VHS copy of it, but Netflix has the DVD in their library.

It Happened At The World's Fair (1962) I arrived at this movie hoping to see some glorious footage of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. There is some neat documentation of the event, but it's all wrapped up inside one of the slightest plots I've ever seen in a movie. We start off with Elvis flying a plane. Way up there in the sky, he spots two attractive girls driving a car so he zooms his plane down to the road to meet them. They turn him down, so he walks down the road to a girl's house, sings to her - makes out with her and then her father comes home and literally tries to shoot him. Elvis flees the scene and gets into a fight with some thugs trying to steal his friends money. They beat the crap out of the bad guys and take off in the plane. When they land, the sheriff takes their plane away because they owe money on it. So the boys hitchhike. An old Chinese man and his 6 year old granddaughter pick them up. They are headed to Seattle. So Elvis, his buddy and the 6 year old pile into the back of the pickup truck, sing a few songs and arrive in Seattle. The King of Rock and Roll ends up taking the little girl all around the World's Fair. Elvis meets a nurse and fakes being sick to get her attention. The little girl runs away. They beat up a mobster and then Elvis leads a marching band through the fair. All in a day's work for The King!

Everything Must Go (2011) When Will Ferrel uses his comedic senses as back seat to dramatics, it works. This is a pretty good tale of a fella who looses it all (job, wife, car, dignity) within a few days. It doesn't take place in the 70's, and it's not about sports so it just might be Ferrel's most original film yet.

Beetlejuice (1988) I saw Beetlejuice the day it hit theatres 23 years ago and didn't really care for it. I was only 15 at the time, but I didn't understand the story at all, I thought Beetlejuice was not in it enough and I actually found it quite vulgar for a PG rated movie. Well, my oldest fancies himself a Tim Burton fan (he did make Batman after all) and has been wanting to see Beetlejuice so we settled in to watch it the other night, with the stipulation that I reserved the right to turn it off at any point if it was inappropriate. Well, most of the vulgarity is over kids heads (except for an only-in-the-80's use of the F word in a PG rated flick) and I actually enjoyed it this time around. The stellar cast and the creepy feel, plus even if he's not in it enough - Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice is as fantastic as comedic performances come.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) I know this is a modern classic that has legions of fans, but I still don't get this movie. In fact, I find it down right boring. The opening number is great and then it just looses my interest very quickly. I know I'm alone on this, but a real snoozer!

October Movie Count: 17

Best New Movie: Bridesmaids

Best Rewatch: Serial Mom

Worst Movie: Village of Giants

2011 Movie Count: 172

Muppet Monday - All Depends On You (1977)

By the way, this 2 1/2 minutes of video is more entertaining than all of the last 20 years of television combined!

edTunes - I Wanna Go

I love this Britney song, it's been getting heavy rotation on my iPod. I just saw the video for the first time yesterday and it's really good. First of all, it has a great sense of humor that most music videos don't dare have. She's got some comedy chops. Second, it doesn't hurt that Brit-Brit looks fantastic in it!

Trailer Tuesday - The Van (1977)

Classic Commercial Sunday - #81

edTunes - Time Warp

In my opinion, the first half hour or so of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is pretty brilliant and then the rest of the film is a gosh-awful mess of a waste of time. I do love this song though. I made sure this was a staple at every high school dance my senior year...

My Week In Movies - Last Week: Caught Up!

Bridesmaids (2011) As you are probably already aware, this is a top notch comedy with a stellar comedic cast. Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Melissa McCarthy all found perfect roles to jump start their film careers. The film does have a story and some heart, it also has well developed characters. There's some stretches where the film isn't that funny and pays more attention to the storyline, but there are many scenes that are comic masterpieces that make the film as a whole an instant classic.

Serial Mom (1993) John Waters' take on true-crime dramas has got to be way up there on my list of all-time favorite movies. It had been a while since I'd seen it, but was thrilled to find it in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart recently on a 4 film Dark Comedy Set. (The other three flicks in the pack are worthless.) Kathleen Turner plays a Maryland suburban housewife who just happens to get a thrill out of killing. She goes on quite a killing spree, knocking off anyone who upsets her or members of her family. There's some gross-out humor and grizzly deaths but the gore and violence is kept to a minimum. The movie's sense of humor is "dead on" perfect. I easily find this to be one of John Waters' best movies. One of the fun things about watching a movie filmed around where you grew up is the sense of familiarity in all the settings. In fact, one of the scenes takes place in a shopping center parking lot across the street from the theatre I saw the film for a second time.

Jack and the Beanstalk (2010) What starts out as a clever twist on the classic fairy tale soon drags on and on and reminds me of why we don't watch direct-to-dvd flicks all that often. There's a handful of stars to be had in this family film, including the great Chevy Chase - whose name is on publicity material but only pops up in one scene in the film. Gilbert Gotfried has a big part as a goose turned into a human. It's fun to see him in a lead role for once. There's also Christopher Lloyd as the teacher at a school for nursery rhyme & fairy tale characters. On the black board behind Lloyd you can see the plans for the Flux Capacitor. Good times!?

Trailer Tuesday - Night of the Creeps (1986)

Whenever this announcer was used in a trailer, you knew 95% of the cast was going to end up dead...

My Week In Movies - October Week 2

Still playing catchup...

Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) I'm a big fan of the Gidget franchise and this is probably my favorite entry. James Darren returns as Moondoggie but the cast rest of the characters are recast. The ultra-adorable Deborah Walley takes over the title role, and comedy legend Carl Reiner steps in as her father. The second film is a more polished affair than the first, with some fairly elaborate musical set pieces. My favorite thing about this film is when a vicious rumor about Gidget starts to spread through her circle of friends. Somebody starts making up lies that Gidget is sleeping around with several guys. Even though the word "sex" is used a few times earlier in the film, they never come right out and say "Gidget is sleeping around." Instead they skirt around the issue by using phrases like, "had an unfortunate incident" or "spent time with boys that way." Pretty funny how innocently they would handle a situation like that 50 some years ago.

Murderball (2005) Here's another film I saw on the "50 Docs To See Before You Die" program and decided to check it out. It's about full contact Rugby at the Paralympic Games. These athletes strap themselves into souped-up wheelchairs and beat the hell out of each other on the court. It's a pretty intense sport and the film makes it all more intense by making the players human and showing them all beyond the game. It's an in-depth, unflinching look at the life of a paraplegic on and off the playing field.

My Week In Movies - October Week 1

I'm way backed up on updating this feature. It's been a busy couple of weeks here at WWoB headquarters.

Munster, Go Home! (1966) I wouldn't consider myself a giant Munsters fan, I enjoy the show well enough but never a rabid fan of the series. I am however a serious lover of all movies derived from TV shows, especially when they star the original cast. It was a little more common back in the 60's for TV casts to make the leap to the big screen. This full color feature film reunited the cast (minus Marilyn) and debuted in cinemas just a month after the black and white series went off the air. The story takes Herman Munster and his family to England where Herman is heir to a family fortune and mansion. I don't think a frame of this movie was actually filmed in jolly ol' England, but it's still a lot of fun.


Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man (1951) A pretty solid entry for the boys as they play detectives who help a boxer clear his name of murder. To hide from the cops, the accused man takes a potion that turns him invisible. There's some connection to the original story of The Invisible Man, but this flick is mostly an excuse for Lou to scream and yell at spooky invisible things happening all around him. It's good stuff, I tell you!


Village of the Giants (1965) Here's how this terrible movie goes: Dancing, mud wrestling, giant ducks, more dancing, giant duck BBQ, yet more dancing, giants, giants dancing, tension-free battle with giants, and midgets. Horrible, horrible teenage sci-fi flick from the Beach Party era.

Doug's First Movie (1999) I "dug" this movie when it first came out but watching it now with my kids it plays pretty much like the Saturday Morning cartoon that it is. The animation is television grade but the story does pan out comfortably into 70 minutes. Doug and his buddy discover a monster living in a nearby lake and in the process of trying to protect him they uncover a plot to pollute the town's water supply. OK, never mind...this flick is pretty good. The kids like it, and that's what's important.

Trailer Tuesday - Star Crash (1979)

Trailer Tuesday - Mayor Cupcake (2011)

Classic Commercial Sunday - #80

I love the voices in this one...

My Week In Movies - In a Train or In a Bed

Cedar Rapids (2011) I wasn't expecting much from this office place comedy but I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I'm naming this the best new movie I saw this month. The film follows the antics at a regional insurance convention. Sounds fun, don't it?! The cast is great with Ed Helms as a guy who is uncomfortable leaving his hometown to go to the convention in the big city. You just can't seem to go wrong with John C. Reilly as a crazy loud mouth associate who actually has quite a loyal heart. I was most surprised with Anne Heche, who I usually find to be somewhat of a talentless hack who's been riding off Ellen DeGeneres's gay coattails for the entire duration of her career. Heche is funny, sweet and sincere in this role as another convention attend who has more than one side to her personality. The other lead character is played by Isiah Whitlock Jr. who I'm not familiar with but was apparently in the HBO series The Wire. He's very funny in this picture too. Together, the ensemble make great friends and the film's story of friendship is a refreshing overtone to this cute, funny movie.

One Day In September (1999) There was a show on Current TV (yes, that's a real thing) that was counting down the 50 Documentaries You Should See Before You Die. I made it through all 5 hours of the show and had pleasantly seen a good number of the films featured on the show. There was also a list of films that I wasn't familiar with that looked really good. This was one of them. The Oscar winner for Best Documentary of it's year, this edge of your seat doc takes a look at the hostage situation that played out over the course of less than 24 hours at the 1970 Munich, Germany Olympic Games. I thought the film itself was a little disjointed and hard to follow at points, but the true life story itself could not be more gripping. The style of the film shifts from journalistic to cinematic at strange times and looses some of it's momentum in the process. But this is an excellent documentation of the horrible incident that occurred on that day and it's as action packed and intense as any cop drama you'll ever find.

Barely Legal (2011) With Netflix Streaming, I'll click on random movies and give them 5 minutes of my time to see if they can win me over. Usually, these modern day sex comedies are all horrible - shot on video and filling large portions of their run time with gratuitous shots of semi-pretty girls in various stages of undress. Barely Legal won me over in the first couple of minutes with a script that indicated there was someone with a sense of humor sitting behind the keyboard. Three female friends who all share a birthday decide they are all going to loose their virginity on their upcoming 18th birthday. While this is kind of a tired plot, it's the first time I've seen it done with the girls as the heroes of the movie. They throw a party and spend the next 90 minutes running into all sorts of problems that stand between them and the sheets. It's technically a bad movie. The production values are very low, the acting is not very good at times and the whole movie takes place inside one house. But there is some clever dialogue, a couple of really good visual gags and a good sense of humor that keeps things rolling along smoothly. If you're interested in seeing a Wii controller inadvertently used as a marital aide, then this is the film for you. This is the closest I've seen somebody nail the vibe of an old school 80's T&A flick in quite some time.

The Train Robbers (1973) There's a few names from classic Hollywood that will bring me to a picture without knowing much else about the movie. Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant and John Wayne to name a few. So, when I saw that John Wayne co stared with my current classic movie crush Ann-Margret, I was on board. Even though Wayne didn't really make comedies, he's such a fun presence on the screen. I especially love his movies from the 1970's where they have a touch of classic Hollywood mixed with modern cinema. The Train Robbers is great and has an old fashioned feel to it, even for 1973. Wayne and his buddies escort Ann-Margret to the hiding place of stolen gold which her dead husband was responsible for. She plans to turn the gold in to clear her hubby's name and The Duke and Co. split the reward money. Along the way, there is some good old fashioned shoot-outs, chummy cowboy banter and the star attraction: the beautiful Mrs. Ann-Margret.

Carnal Knowledge (1971) So then the following night, I followed up The Train Robbers with another Ann-Margret picture, Carnal Knowledge. This is a tale of two buddies played by Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel. The film follows them through four different stages of their lives. Starting in college and ending after each of the guys is divorced, the segments of the film represent the different stages of love throughout one's life. Candice Bergen plays a love interest in their college years. I've always loved her in Murphy Brown and other movies I've seen her in young or old. She's great here. Later on in life, Nicholson meets up with Ann-Margret who at first is supposed to be older than him but quickly she looks as lovely as ever. There's a bit of nudity on the part of Mrs. Margret here which I wasn't expecting...but I can't say I'm complaining either. The film is slow at times. It actually reminds me of some of Woody Allen's more serious pictures as far as style and pacing. It feels very influenced by Annie Hall and Manhattan, except that Carnal Knowledge was made many years before those two.

Vanishing of the Bees (2009) My wife seemed disappointed in me that I invested an evening watching a documentary about honey bees. Little does she know the effects of the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder. A few years ago, beekeepers started discovering empty beehives with no trace of dead bees to be found. Not much is known about the disorder but there are many theories most of them leading to the way mankind has treated this planet. Cinematically, there's not much to BEE had in this documentary, but the information here will have you BUZZING with anger and alarm. vanishingbees.com

September Movie Count: 24
Best New Movie: Cedar Rapids
Best Rewatch: The Muppet Movie
Worst Movie: Paul
2011 Movie Count: 155

Trailer Tuesday - Charlie McCarthy, Detective (1939)

Coolest Mini Golf Hole Ever!!!

Don't ya hate when you plop down your hard earned bucks to play a round of mini golf and then the course is totally uncreative? I mean, if you don't have at least a windmill and a loop-de-loop hole, I think people are entitled to their money back! Lilliputt Mini Golf in Grand Lake, CO. would not hear a complaint from me. Feast your eyes on this super elaborate hole which is worth the price of admission alone:

Classic Commercial Sunday - #79

This one is airing now and I think it's great...

Photo: Ke$ha at Walt Disney World

Ke$ha at Disney World
( GENE DUNCAN, THE WALT DISNEY CO. / April 21, 2011 )
Pop singer Kesha Sebert, known professionally as Ke$ha, poses with the White Rabbit from "Alice in Wonderland" at Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista.