Movies with a Friend

Finally someone took me up on my offer to come over and watch some of my screeners. My friend Jen drove up from the Anaheim area to spend the day with me. We ate some yummy pizza, buffalo wings and chocolate truffles and watched Bridesmaids, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, A Dangerous Method, attempted Carnage and finally ended with The Adventures of Tin Tin.

We started with Bridesmaids which I never saw in theaters but heard how great it was. It's funny, extremely raunchy and had a nice story. It's unusual to have such a raunchy "chick" flick but man some scenes were hilarious.. Jen and I would look at each other and say.. OMG.. did they just do that... it was awesome. We kept saying.. well this must be rock bottom for the main character.. but nope she would drop further down. I was introduced to a new actor who I just adore Chris O'Dowd. I loved his character of Officer Rhodes and it doesn't hurt that he has an Irish accent. Overall a fun movie, could I watch it over and over again.. probably not but once in a while when I need to laugh.. for sure. I give this movie a solid B+

Next up was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Of course I heard all the buzz but I wasn't interested in seeing this movie, but I'm glad Jen choose this one. I've been watching so many sci fi/fantasy and occasional comedies that I forgot that there are some other genre films that should be checked out. This is one of them. A murder mystery isn't my cup of tea but I really enjoyed this film. There were moments when the actor on screen would look at a picture or something and then get a look on their face like.. yes.. I figured it out. And I would look over at Jen and say.. did you see something and she'd be like.. nope I didn't see anything. Maybe we weren't suppose to see it but they did that a few to many times for my taste. Over all it was a good movie and I'm happy that I saw it. I wouldn't watch it again, one time is plenty for me. I'd give it a B-

We then moved on to A Dangerous Method which I had heard nothing about. It's a look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis. Would not interest me at all but again I'm glad Jen requested this one as it was a solid movie. Some great acting, the best was Keira Knightley towards the beginning of the movie. Jen turned to me and said if she doesn't get an Oscar nod for this role then there is something wrong with the system. I agree, Keira's acting in the first 20 minutes of this film is incredible. Watching this movie took me back to my collage class on Psychology and all the Jung/Freud stuff I had to read. Like Dragon Tattoo, I won't ever see this again but I'm glad I saw it once. I'd give it a C+

For our final movie of the night we wanted to pick something lighthearted after two very dramatic and depressing movies. I had heard that Carnage was a comedy, but that's all I knew about it. We knew it had some big stars like Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and John C Riley and we found out that it was co-written and directed by Roman Polanski . Well here's a quick synopsis "Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the evening into chaos." And that is basically what it's about.. four people in a living talking for 80 minutes. We got through 15 minutes before Jen and I looked at each other and said.. OMG they are going to stay in that living room the entire movie... and sure enough we fast forward though the movie and they never left or cut away from the living room. It's based on a play and you can tell. It just wasn't what Jen and I wanted to end the night with so we turned it off.. I can't rate it.

So instead we put on The Adventures of Tin Tin, which I already saw but I knew it was a fun ride and a good way to end our movie marathon. I'm glad Jen enjoyed it and was just as impressed with the animation as I was.

After Tin Tin Jen planned to head home, it was now 10:45pm and she has an hour plus drive home, but instead we talked till 1am.. it was AWESOME!! Got to know a little bit more about each other. It was a fantastic day. If anyone else wants to have a movie marathon just let me know.. I'm out of work and free at the moment.