Day Three Recap Memorial Day Weekend Movie Marathon

 Alrighty, here's the final installment from the movie marathon weekend. I only added two more movies on that Sunday since I was kind of burnt out by that afternoon. Here we go...

Casino Royale: The idea of Daniel Craig as James Bond never really thrilled me. I mean a blond Bond? The horror! Not that I dislike Daniel Craig at all. I actually like him. Just never thought of him as the James Bond type. Additionally I've never been much of James Bond fan (although I say Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan were the two best). The movie was alright but far too long for my taste. Overall score: C+.

In Bruges: Although it has some funny quotes and parts of it totally amused me I think generally speaking this movie is overrated. I'm not saying it's bad. Maybe, like some other films, it needs to be seen more than once to really appreciate it. Can't say I'm a big fan of Colin Farrell, with the exception of his role in Horrible Bosses. Overall rating: C.

That's it for now. About to watch the next movie on the list and I may try to watch a few tomorrow as well.

Recap of Day Two of the Movie Marathon

 On the second day of my marathon I had much more time to watch movies. I started in the early afternoon after wrangling my poor pug to the groomers to get a dreaded nail trim/grinding. In total I managed to scratch four more films off of the poster. Here are my thoughts...

The Goonies: I'm sure there are plenty of you thinking how is it possible that I have not seen this movie yet, considering I was old enough to have watched it when it came out. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure of the answer. For some reason I had some pre-conceived notion that I would hate it (kind of like why I never saw The Princess Bride until 2008 or 2009...but to the dismay of a great many people I actually did hate that one). With The Goonies I found myself wondering why I had resisted watching it for so long. I enjoyed the movie, however, I'm still not a fan of Corey Feldman. Never really was. Overall rating: B+.

Little Miss Sunshine: Didn't have an opinion of this movie prior to watching. I'm not sure I had ever heard of it prior to looking at the poster. I like Greg Kinnear and Steve Carrell most of the time. It was definitely a cute movie...and I was surprised by the ending. I think my overall rating for this one is an A-. Could have been better in some places...but worth watching. 

Wall-E: Disclaimer prior to my review...I haven't watched many animated movies (Disney or otherwise) since about 1994 (after The Lion King). I'm not a fan of most of the offerings since that time. There are some exceptions but Wall-E is not one of them. I liked the main character generally speaking, however, I thought he was a poor imitation of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. I just could not get into it and the repetitive underlying message about the dangers of climate change kind of annoyed me. It's a good message in small doses but they really hit you over the head with it in this movie. The animation itself was pretty good...no issue with that. Overall rating D+. I expect better from Disney Pixar.

Casablanca: A true Hollywood classic. My only true critique of this movie was the overuse of its most famous quote. I was under the impression it was only said once not several times in rapid succession. I liked the characters and the storyline. In some ways it kind of reminds me of another film (probably unknown to a great many people) The Battle of Algiers. But since I'm fairly certain Casablanca came first I will make the assumption that perhaps it was an inspiration for Franz Fanon (or maybe not, not like I can ask the guy). Overall rating: A.

Coming up next will be the review of the final two movies I watched that weekend. After 8 I kind of got burnt out and couldn't watch anymore.  

Night One Recap from Memorial Day Weekend Movie Marathon

 Hi all! I'm back. Should have written these next three entries sooner but I got distracted with vacation and work stuff. Another 3 day weekend so I'll catch up on the entries and try to knock a few more off of the list. 

The first day of the movie marathon (well night since I worked on Friday during the day) resulted in two movies being scratched off. I enjoyed both of them. Now for the reviews...

Dr. Strangelove: It got off to a bit of a slow start and I was questioning my judgment a bit for selecting this as the first film. However, once the basics of the story were established I found the movie pretty dang funny. Topping it off as a pleasant surprise was seeing a very young James Earl Jones in the cast. I've always liked George C. Scott. Overall rating probably a B+ (the slow start keeps it from getting an A).

Monty Python's Life of Brian: My first foray into Monty Python came many, many years ago with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Admittedly I didn't quite get the humor the first couple of times I watched it. Not a huge shock since it's often said that British humor can be an acquired taste. But once I did "get it" I loved it. I kind of expected Life of Brian to be the same sort of acquired taste. Much to my surprise I "got it" pretty much from the start and found the movie hysterical. Overall rating: A.

Next post will review day two of the marathon.