Lifetime Movie Reviews with Sammy

My husband has recently become enamored with Lifetime movies.  It all began when he was channel surfing during the holidays and stumbled upon a gem called Christmas on the Bayou.  Lifetime offered the following summary of this made for television original:

When successful New York marketing executive Katherine discovers her workaholic ways are taking a toll on her eight-year-old son, Zac, she decides to spend Christmas with him and her mother, Lilly in her home town on the bayou. When Caleb tries to rekindle a childhood romance and convince her to move back home, Katherine is torn between the bright lights of the big city and the quiet, gentler rhythms of her Southern roots. Only a Christmas miracle orchestrated by Papa Noel can steer her heart to her true home.

"Well this sounds fun!" said Sam, and thus we watched it.  I thought it was pretty lame.  Here is Sam's review for Christmas on the Bayou:

"An instant holiday classic! A treatise on the rise of urban capitalism and the decline of small town values and family.  Money can't buy you happiness!  Felt like I was on the bayou with them.  C'est si bon!

I liked that the romance was a slow burner and you weren't even sure they'd get together, and that they both vacillated in their feelings.  Realistic.

And then there's the happy marriage of Boo Radley and Santa Claus in the character of Papa Noel!

I didn't like the kid.  But I did like that even after Papa Noel gave him the courage to sing at the concert in front of everyone, he didn't magically become a good singer.  He was still terrible.  He was awful.

This is my favorite Lifetime movie!"

He says that cause we've watched quite a few since then... more Sam thoughts to come.

How was your Halloween?

My Halloween was great fun! Sydney and I dressed up as characters from the movie Heathers. We thought we looked awesome:


Unfortunately, not very many folks seemed to get who we were supposed to be. For example, I just got this email from Syd:

I talked to my mother last night. She said she liked our costumes, even though she didn't know what Heathers were. I was like, "you liked it on facebook! what did you think we were?" And she said, "Croquet playing nannies!"

Here is a funny video

HAY GURL!



Via Dlisted

Have you seen Harry Potter yet?

I have not, but I am a very big Harry Potter fan and while I can't wait to see the final film, I am also dreading the end of the franchise. Luckily some intrepid souls on Twitter have been playing a little game called #GrownUpHarryPotterBooks. Buzzfeed collected their faves:


HA! The comments had more gems:

Harry Potter Realizes he has Become Uncle Vernon

Harry Potter Gets Excited About his New Septic System

Harry Potter Refinances

Crabbe and Goyle Make More Money than Harry Potter

Harry Potter Needs a Gastroenterologist

Harry Potter Wonders if This is All There Is

Yes, Harry. With the end of your books and movies, this is pretty much all there is.

Zardoz Update! We have Pete to thank.

I was leaving the gym yesterday and got this text from Pete:

"I was the one that told you about Zardoz!!!!!!!!!!!"

He was not pleased that I had forgotten! He forwarded me a Gchat from March 2010 as proof:

10:17 PM Pete:



10:19 PM Amelia: hahaha what the eff is this
10:20 PM Pete: sean connerey movie
Amelia: i'm kind of in love with this
Pete: isn't it great?
10:21 PM Amelia: it's like garbage day times 1 million
10:22 PM omg he just netted a bitch
Pete: who?
Amelia: zardoz
Pete: ZARDOZ!!!
10:23 PM Amelia: haha
i'm loving the graphics
Pete: it's so good
i have another great one
Pete:



10:24 PM no connery but it's great
10:25 PM Amelia: MONA THE WOOLY MONKEY
dying
dead
wow
also, i love that mars is so flaming
10:26 PM Pete: but scientifically accurate
Amelia: i love that mona gets top billing
10:27 PM i love everything!
Pete: she's a fox
Amelia: where did you find these
Pete: youtube
Amelia: well duh
but how
10:28 PM Pete: i saw a website with the posters from these movies
they're great
Amelia: how do you have time to discover such treasures?
you're in law school!
you are truly a man for all seasons
10:29 PM Pete: thats me

A movie I love - Zardoz

I've never actually seen Zardoz, but it is one of my favorite movies. I can't remember how I found out about it, but I know I saw the trailer for this 1974 insta-classic on some blog, at some time, and fell immediately in love:



I had forgotten all about Zardoz, though, until I saw this post on Best Week Ever that puts it right back in the spotlight where it belongs.


ZARDOZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A celebrity connection!

So last night was the premiere of The Hangover II. That first movie was a hoot, was it not? I hope the sequel can live up to the promise of its predecessor. It might, cause this time... there's a monkey! And the monkey came to the premiere looking FLY AS HELL:


So glam! Turns out my good friend Leah has an aunt who is a costume designer, and said aunt made this monkey's red carpet dress! I love close encounters with famous people.

The Ophelia Movie?

If a buddy romp comedy was made about my life, I think it would definitely be called Dude, Where's My Corkscrew?

A great moment in cinematic history

...thanks to Whitney for calling this to my attention. You tell 'em, Dawson!

Fun fact about the West Virginia school system

"When I was in high school," office mate Cassie just shared, "my health teacher made us watch The Breakfast Club, and then we had to have a discussion about how smoking pot did not give you the ability to do gymnastics."

Excellent marketing idea

From a gym in New Jersey:


Seriously, though, we are all in agreement now that Mel Gibson is the worst, right? And we will never pay to go see one of his movies again, and we will resist the temptation to watch Mad Max when it comes on basic cable late at night, right? Okay, good. Just making sure we are all on the same page.

Movie Review from Mama

"Just saw worst movie ever - IRON MAN 2. It gets a b for bad, an s for stupid, and an l for loud."
-Submitted via text message

Eat, Pray, Lovett

My blogger crush (nerd alert! object of my vague and not too serious affection is a damn BLOGGER!)Gabe from Videogum did a really nice thing by volunteering to fix the poster for upcoming movie Eat, Pray, Love. Good job, Gabe! Very funny - and the commenters versions are hilarious as well. However, I prefer the version created by my brilliant coworker Cassie:


Now THAT is a movie I'd pay good money to see!

A Post for a Different Friend

My very dear friend Peter is about to finish his first year of law school! I'm so proud, I could cry! But instead, I shall honor him with a post about a movie line that, back in the day, irked the bejesus out of him.

Remember Garden State? That movie about Zach Braff having the sads because his upper middle class upbringing hadn't really paid off like he'd hoped, and also he killed his mom with the dishwasher? (Ed. note - whoops! Spoiler alert!) There was a line in that movie that really rubbed old Pete the wrong way! It happens when Zach Braff has just encountered Manic Pixie Dream Girl Natalie Portman for the first time, and he asks her what she is listening to. She replies that she's listening to The Shins... and then comes THE LINE:

"You gotta hear this one... it'll change your life."

Well, that just about made Pete lay an egg! "NO ONE WOULD EVER SAY THAT!" he bellowed. "THE SHINS ARE KIND OF CATCHY, BUT THEY ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE ANYONE'S LIFE!"

Pete, I beg to differ. I've just gotten some breaking news from a trusted source about one Jesse Sandoval. He has recently opened a new business in Portland, selling Mexican food.

I think it's safe to say that The Shins changed his life, because he used to be their drummer, and now he sells sopapillas from a cart.


On the bright side, he seems pretty jazzed about it!