Meet Me in St. Louis

I had watched a few hard-core movies lately, and needed something light and with music. Meet Me in St. Louis seemed like a good choice for two reasons. One, I had never seen it before. (*gasp!*) Two, I love flowy skirts.

Aside from the annoying and yet catchy song "Meet Me in St. Louis" I really enjoyed the movie. Predictable? Yes, certainly. Annoying children as comic relief? Of course! Father who believes he is in charge yet Mum is running the show? What family doesn't have that dynamic? I particularly enjoyed the scene in which Ester is beating up her "crush." You know the show will end on a happy note when there is cat-scratching abuse going on.

I wouldn't purchase the movie, but I'd watch it on a lazy weekend.

3 out of 5 stars. (One star automatically taken away because of that horrible song)

Lord, Save Me from your Followers

Because we have Netflix, we have a seemingly endless supply of documentaries. I absolutely love them and watch them often. I 'liked' the movie Lord, Save Me From Your Followers without really knowing what it was about. It was one of those vulnerable times on Facebook where you like anything that might be funny or catchy. It turns out that Dan Merchant (the director of the flick) is a marketing genius by trade and I learned a lot more about his movie. Finally I found it on Netflix and watched it over the weekend.

The movie is about how American Christians are generally not very Christ-like. Now, to be fair, none of us can be too Christ-like because Christ is perfect and we aren't. But American Christians have a reputation for being jerks....seriously. There are a lot of Christians around here that ostracize others, put people down, tell people they're going to hell, etc. A lot of Christians focus on the money, not on living in a Christ-like manner. While that is human nature, people really need to get it together and BE NICE to others. Not because we want people to come to church, but rather because that's what God wants us to do.

Overall I find this a good movie. I think it is inspirational and entertaining. It is funny and has all sorts of interesting statistics. You see some hostility from people that aren't Christian, but generally the people interviewed are willing to participate and are kind (even if they aren't Christian - gasp!) I think it would be a good movie for a youth group to watch.

Planet 51

Animated movie about a human arriving on a distant planet, only to discover that this planet is a lot like Earth. The characters are cute, the music is good, and it has some good ol' McCarthy paranoia for good measure. Nothing profound in this movie, but it could be a useful lesson for kids in acceptance. Good clean fun!

3 stars

Surrogate

Saturday afternoon movie time. Just what the doctor ordered!

First we watched Surrogate. It has Bruce Willis and the robot version of Bruce Willis. He distracted me a bit in this role because he is not as spry and delicious anymore. (Sorry Bruce!) He's still hot but not immediate eye candy. And the robot him had odd hair. Of course, all the robots did, but *my* favorite Bruce 'do is bald. He is a sexy man.

*clears throat* Take 2!

Surrogate is set in the future and is about these robots that people control remotely with their minds. Most middle and upper class folks use them instead of walking around and being themselves out in the real world. Bruce and wife has some marital drama on the side, but really it is about how people aren't going out in the world any more. The robots reminded me of The Sims, which was amusing. There are people that refuse to live around the robots, preferring to live in slums. There is drama involved, and enough of it to keep me interested, but the robots are the main focus of the movie.

Would I watch it again? Yes. Would I buy it? Nope. If someone bought it for me would I return it? Naw, but I'm also pretty lazy.

2 1/2 starts

Julie and Julia

(I've been trying to sit, and watching movies seems to help me keep my ass connected to the couch. Please excuse the rampant movie-watching.)

I've been wanting to watch this movie for quite a while, simply because Julia Child was part of the movie plot. My mom was a checker at a grocery store while Dad went to Harvard. Julia Child went through Mom's lane. She was apparently tall and nice. And, since she was famous and still was nice to the check out girl, I like her.

The movie started out with a fast enough plot to keep my attention, but then soon began to drag. I suppose, to be fair, it would be difficult to write a quick-paced action-y sort of movie about cooking, and the writers did the best that they could. Meryl Streep was a wonderful Julia Child. I wonder if they modified the sets to make her look taller. (I bet they did). All the rest of the acting was good, but with nobody to compare to it, was not remarkable. The food, however, looked delicious.

Both Julie and Julia talked a lot whilst their husbands patiently listened. Reminded me a lot of my own marriage. After discussing it for about 15 minutes with my husband, all the while he was listening intently, he said he was going to bed. I can't imagine staying quiet that long. Good thing he found me to listen to or he'd be terribly bored.

All in all, 3 1/2 out of 5. I would buy the movie if it were cheap enough, but I wouldn't pay full price. And I want a string of pearls to wear while cooking dinner.

Sit Down! (again)

In the never-ending healing after a total hip replacement, I've been ordered to sit. Again. Apparently I am doing "too much," which may not be entirely accurate. The doctor and nurse think they know more about artificial joints than I. I think they're used to talking to 70 year olds that don't have children to carry, houses to keep, play dates to play at, or YMCA classes to do. So, I am trying to take it easy for a bit, and pretend to be old.

So, to the couch I go, watching copious amounts of television, and letting my bone grow around my leg.

I'm also taking 9-ish Motrin a day.

And Mom is back, carrying the baby and taking care of things.

I'm so glad to have the help (Thanks Mom, I owe you one!...or three!) but I like living my life. I'm not 70 and don't do well acting as though I am. I am tragically bored. But I do have a few little goals to keep me occupied.

#1. Netflixs Wii. All movies, all the time. Some of them are horrible, but I'm willing to try anything once. I prefer this movie rental method over Blockbuster.com, which is amazing as I am an avid Blockbuster fan.

#2. Logic puzzles. I suck at them. I want to get better. So I am going to buy a book of them and practice until I get one right.

#3. VBS. Ok, this one isn't really for me. My son loves church, because there are kids there, so he is going to three VBS's this summer. Pretty good for the child of a mixed marriage (one Christian, one Atheist - never telling which one is which.)

#4. Getting caught up on "Weeds." See #1 for more specifics.

Grow bone grow!!!

Legion - movie review

David really wanted to see this movie, and I'm up for anything, so we watched it last night. I don't care for religious-based movies, but I liked this one. The budget for it was tiny, no big actors or great special effects, but the movie had a good plot. The premise is that God gets tired of humans acting naughty and sinful, so he sends angels to kill off the humans. And, for the record, human-killing angels are mean and scary!

This movie could have been so much more with a better budget. Some of the writing was a bit silly and the acting wasn't great. But really, folks, let's face it, you watch those movies for the scare factor and blood, not for the supreme acting anyhow.

3 1/2 stars.

The rules

So now that I've started a blog, I've been thinking about what I want to write in said blog. I'm at a cross-roads of sorts and I have a lot of time to think, and narrowing down my options has been difficult. Therefore, I think I will write about anything and everything I think I want to write about. Today may be politics, tomorrow might be celery stalks. I'd love to write every day, but we'll have to see about that. I'm not holding myself to any goals right now, given the state of affairs in my life. Cross roads can be difficult to navigate.

I suppose, to be fair to anyone who might stumble upon this blog, that I should explain a few things. So, for the sake of simplicity, I'll write a biography just for you. I won't update it, and obviously the facts will change as time goes on, but you'll just have to continue to read other posts to get the juicy details as life progresses.

My name is Aubrey. I live in Dallas with my husband, son, daughter, dog, and cat. We are obnoxiously stereotypically normal: husband works, I stay at home, son is 4, daughter is 4 months. Dog and cat even get along. We go to playdates and play in the playplaces at McDonalds. While I wish it were different, my kids will probably end up in public schools. They eat gluten and hotdogs, and we don't go to church every Sunday. They could make a sitcom out of our boring lives, although nobody would watch it because it looks just like everyone elses' lives.

But there's more to it than that. For one, I just got my hip replaced. I'm disabled - wow, that sounds so weird. I use a walker for now, but will soon graduate to a cane, then to nothing. It is the cross-roads you've heard about. In a few months it will be over. Right now it is a miserable sort of thing to go through. I wouldn't suggest it just for fun.

I think, dear readers, that's all I'd like to share for now. Stay tuned, I'm more dynamic than one might think. I have things to say, and I won't shut up.

P.S. I will also review movies on here, especially since I get to watch a lot of movies right now. The title of the blog will indicate the movie reviewed. No other musings will be in the movie review, so you can skip them and not miss out on any big secrets.