Toys, Friends and Movies

First I want to wish my Dad a very Happy Father's Day.

This morning I went through my closet looking for several action figures that I knew I had and that I must have put into one of my office boxes by mistake. Well I did find the figures but I also found two big boxes of various other action figures. I mean I'm happy I found them but I have no room in their section of the wall to display them. I assumed that I had everything and moved onto the next subject. So now I have the task of trying to rework or squeeze them into the their sections on the wall or put them somewhere else apart from the bulk of the others which will make me crazy as I'm very anal about things like this.

Frustrated I gave up on trying to figure out what I was going to do so instead I took a break and watched a movie. I started with a movie that I had heard of when I saw it's remake called "Delivery Man" last year. The original French-Candidan movie is called Starbuck and came out a year prior to Delivery Man. Here's a quick synopsis: As his lover announces her pregnancy, a fortysomething slacker receives other life-changing news: 142 people, all of them the result of artificial insemination, have filed a class action lawsuit against him, their biological father.

Starbuck is almost shot for shot identical to Delivery Man (I guess that would be vice versa since Starbuck came out first, but you know what I mean). You can read my review of Delivery Man HERE...

Starbuck, like with Delivery Man was fantastic. It was funny, sweet and had so much charm. I didn't know any of the actors but they were all perfect for their roles. I found this movie very heartwarming and it brought me to tears several times. It is in French and there are English subtitles but that didn't take away any of the charm of the movie. I think it actually helped me that I had seen the U.S. remake first because if I missed a subtitle I still knew what was going on. I give Starbuck the same grade as I did Delivery Man.. B+

In the afternoon my friends Dave and Kevin paid me a visit. They were married yesterday (read previous blog post) and are heading back to Florida tomorrow so I was happy that we were able to hang out for a few hours and catch up. I haven't seen these guys in eight years so we had a lot to catch up on. One of our main topics of discussion is the fact that both of these guys are part of the 501st... which is awesome. We hung out and chatted for about 2 hours before they had to get going. Hopefully it won't be another 8 years before I see them again.

After the guys left I continued with my movie watching. Next up was a documentary called We Were Here. Here's a brief synopsis: A deep and reflective look at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco and how individuals rose to the occasion during the first years of this unimaginable crisis.

As expected it was heartwrenching and upsetting. I was brought to tears many times while watching.  All of these poor men were dying and not knowing why. People shunning them, saying they should be separated from the populaces. But with all the heart ache you have the savors, the volunteers and a community who stepped up to support these men in their time a need.

I'm so thankful that I missed this epidemic, I was only 10 when the first cases of AIDS started sprouting in the US. I didn't come out of the closet until 17 years later (age 27) so by then we were well aware of the disease and what caused it. I often wonder what my life would be like if I had come out at 15/16 and was sexually active then.

We Were Here is a very interesting and educational documentary.

My final movie of the night was Christopher and His Kind. Christopher and His Kind is a 2011 BBC television film. In 1931 budding author Christopher Isherwood goes to Berlin at the invitation of his friend W. H. Auden for the gay sex that abounds in the city. Whilst working as an English teacher his housemates include bewigged old queen Gerald Hamilton and would-be actress Jean Ross,who sings tunelessly in a seedy cabaret club. They and others he meets get put into his stories.

It was interesting seeing Matt Smith in a different role other then The Doctor. When I watched this I didn't realized it was a British TV movie. I enjoyed the story, it was interesting seeing Berlin before Hitler from an outsiders perspective. I enjoyed all the interesting characters that crossed his path. Lots of very cute boys, got to see some skin. The acting was great, I knew Smith had some acting chops from his role on Doctor Who but they really shined here. I give Christopher and His Kind a nice B.