Good weekend, bad movies

Okay, I am sure you read the last post and thought that I was really full of myself. Well, sometimes that happens. I appologize to you who might have been bothered, but I was having a moment. If you can't blog moments like that on a blog, what's the point in having a blog? I am feeling less full of myself today. :-)

I had a pretty mild weekend. I watched a "Vera Cruz", starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster. Sure, some of it was very 1954, with the dialogue, action and women wearing pointy over the shoulder boulder holders (to quote Bette Midler). But some of the dialogue and story were pretty good. I think I liked the scarcasm from sassy Burt. I think I was going through a Gary Cooper thing in my Netflix.


I also saw "The Stranger" which starred the great Orson Welles, fab Edward G. Robinson and the over acting Loretta Young. I am just not a big fan of Loretta. Never have been. Now Orson plays a mysterious small town professor who kills off (right near the beginning) a man from his past. There is a little anti-Nazi thing going on in this 1946 flick. For some reason (probably Orson or the price of about $.99 I bought that at Target on one of my Sherri trips. Well, we knew from the beginning he was a bad man. And we just wanted Loretta to figure it out. Boy, was she willing to risk her whole life on that killer. Sheesh! She hadn't even known him all that long, from what I could gather. I think the store owner, who also seemed to be the town crier, should have figured something was wrong with the Orson Welles character, Professor Charles Rankin. The dude kills his old friend just HOURS before his wedding to Mary! AND he kills the dog (poison) because the dog knew where the body was. I think I will mail this one to my parents. Maybe they will like it.

Saturday was also filled with sunshine. I didn't spend the entire weekend watching movies or tv. When I went to WW, I met up with Terri, who is a woman I have seen at WW knitting. I had asked her last week if she could teach me to knit and so we met up a little early for instruction. I had learned ages ago, but it never went anywhere. With the winter weather not so far off, I figure learning how to knit would be a good supplement to crocheting. Look out world, here come more scarves! After WW, I thought about going home and sulking (yes, another weight gain) but I didn't. One of the other gals and I made a committment to each other to stick with the program. Between that promise and my Five in August from Gail, I knew I needed to get off my butt and do SOMETHING. So, I walked myself down to the waterfront and found a nice swing and read. I am still working on "The Screwtape Letters" but picked up two other books to read in-between - "The Snows of Kilamanjaro", by Ernest Hemingway (a classic short story!) and "A Child Called It" by a man who lived the story of his abuse as a youn child. The Hemingway short story was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck. I borrowed both the book and the movie from my brother because it is considered a classic on both ends. It was a very painful experience. Not because the subject matter was upsetting to read, but because it was BORING. VERY BORING. It was hard to get through. I think I sped read it just to get through it. I still had the movie to watch, which I had hoped would be a better thing.

As for "A Child Called It", that was a quick and compelling read. It is amazing to me that the author's mother did the things she did to a child, HER child. Horrible. It was the 3rd worst case of child abuse in California history. The author, David, has come out of it amazingly well. He wrote two sequels which I am interested in reading.



I sat and watched the boats and read. Then I hiked up the small hill towards downtown, where I went to see a romantic comedy starring John Cusack - "Must Love Dogs" . At the theater, they gave away passes for a future screeing (just not on the same day.) I couldn't be more thrilled. Though I like John Cusack, this film wasn't all that great. Of course Diane Lane meets a great guy online, even though it isn't the first guy she meets on the Internet. It encourages people to lie to get more dates, even if the lies might catch up with you. And it also emphasises that the beautiful people always get the beautiful people. Nice and honest look at online dating, eh? I had a delightful stroll home through downtown (Church Street) and to my casa. Saturday night was tackling the Hemingway-into-film. Again, I found I was speeding through it. There were times when it had the same dialogue as the book, which I was impressed by. It followed the basic story, but changed the ending. So Hollywood, to change a perfectly sad ending to a happy one. I have to say that I did prefer the ending of the book to the one in the movie. I don't feel it was one of Gregory Peck's shining moments. Plus, the print was in really poor shape, probably due to natural deterioration. I can't even say I am glad I saw it. I guess I am, as it is suppose to be a classic.

SUNDAY
After church, I went to see a movie with the free pass I got when I was there Saturday. This time, I wasn't sure what to see - penguins or more human relationships? I went for the humans. Another mistake. I saw "You, Me and Everybody We Know," starring no names. I am all about supporting the independent films. I like movies where I don't know the stars. But I thought this one sucked. I thought the main woman in the story (who also wrote and directed) was so kooky it was creepy and not interesting. I was tempted to walk out several times, yet I was also enjoying the air conditioning and popcorn, which kept me firmly in my seat. I am glad it was free. It was a good waste of my time otherwise. I went home and ended up watching "Strictly Ballroom" to purify my mind. Bleechh. That other film was awful. I am curious to hear what you who might have seen it think about it. As for Strictly Ballroom, I love that movie. I am really glad it was one of the movies I brought with me.

All in all, it was a good weekend. Not smashingly crazy and busy. Nice and calm. Lovely weather. Some good books and good movie watching. I give it a "thumb's up." to quote Roger Ebert.