Juno

I've sort of been putting this off all day because I'm not really sure what to say that will do this movie justice. Except that I loved it.

I'd never even seen a preview for it, just the picture of a very pregnant Juno and her friend sitting in the trophy case eating lunch. I knew what it was about, and I'd heard how much people liked it. And of course, the Oscar noms. (Best Picture, Best Actress.)

I thought I would like it for being different, quirky. I did. But I LOVED it for making me so emotionally involved. That's what makes me love a movie, by the way. If it makes me feel.

I loved Ellen Page, who of course, stole the whole movie. She's gorgeous, the natural kind of gorgeous, even though Juno could care less about her looks. (Her wardrobe is awesome. Very thrift store chic.) She was amazing at playing a quirky, care-free teenager who didn't care what anyone thought of her, but still showed that underneath it all, she did care. About a lot.

I loved that I had no idea going into it that there was any sort of romance involved. The sweet love story between her and the father (her best friend) made my heart ache. The scene in the hospital after she gave birth will be forever on my list of all-time favorite movie scenes.

I loved that Paulie (Bleeker, the father), was a great guy desperately in love, masquerading as a geeky kid that no one took seriously.

I loved the crazy vocabulary and hilarious one-liners of mainly Juno, but also her step-mom and some other supporting characters. I was going to post my favorites, but there are WAY too many and they aren't all appropriate for my G-rated blog.

I loved that the movie showed how wonderful adoption can be and the emotions involved.

I could go on and on, and I really want to, but I don't want to rob anyone else of their viewing experience. This is one movie you have to experience first-hand.

So after reading this, I had to Google myself. I could not believe what I found.

SOMEONE IS WRITING A NOVEL ABOUT ME!!!

Okay, maybe not actually about me, but about a girl with my EXACT NAME (pre-marriage), spelling and everything. I know it isn't that uncommon of a name, but it's still freaky.

BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT FREAKED ME OUT.

Not only is this novel about a girl with my exact name, but, minus a few details, this story could be about me (or at least, the high school me). I mean, the description of the person. Not the physical description, the personality. Click here to see what I'm talking about.

STILL NOT WHAT FREAKED ME OUT.

I came across another chapter of the book (this one had some F-Bombs, so I'm not going to link to it. If you really want to read it you can go searching.) and couldn't believe my eyes. Except for the juvenile dialogue and horrible writing skills, this chapter seriously could have been a near-replica of a chapter I wrote last week for my novel. (If any of you do go searching, please, PLEASE know that my writing is a whole.lot.better.)

I WAS FLOORED.

I think the only thing that could have shocked me more when Googling my own name would have been to see my face as a child on a milk carton and find out I'd been kidnapped long ago and the people that raised me weren't really my parents. But this was by far a close second.

Snow Day

CHURCH IS CANCELLED DUE TO

MASS AMOUNTS OF SNOW

What to do?

Maybe not the best Sabbath Day Activity, but when you spent close to $50 on snow clothes a month ago and feared they would never get used, you sort of jump at the chance to send your kids out into the snow.

I AM LOVING ALL THE SNOW!!!

I Smell Rotten Tomatoes

I've made it! I'm a true, honest to goodness movie critic. Complete with angry backlash from the public and everything! Karen and Nicole, you can try and disguise your voices all you want, but I know those death threat phone calls came from you guys.

I just had a few things to say to back myself up and maybe help explain my dislike of the movie that was previously discussed:

1. I am not a crier. Never have been, never will be. I have cried in a movie maybe three times in my entire life, and we're talking a solitary tear making its lonely way down my cheek. I don't get all warm and fuzzy when I see puppies and I absolutely despise those forwards with the teddy bear's arms wide open saying "You've been hugged." I am a deeply emotional person, but at things that I find real. Things that I can relate to. In real life, if something moves me, I fight back the tears. On the big screen (or little), with actors that I know are playing a role, not real life, me no cry. I may get a little emotional if it happens to touch a personal nerve with me, but that's as far as it gets. For someone who suffers from depression/anxiety, real-life tears are plentiful enough without crying over fictional things. I'd be constantly dehydrated.

2. I was born a movie critic. I LOVE movies, but so do the movie critics that are constantly slamming flicks, right and left. It's because we love movies so much that we truly appreciate the good ones and have very strong feelings about the ones that just don't feel right to us. Okay, I'm going to drop the plural, because I feel really stupid grouping myself in with actual movie critics. I am such a natural movie critic that even in my very favorite movies there is stuff I don't like, that bugs me. (Case in point: Titanic. Still one of my all-time favorites. However, when Leonardo and Kate are in the elevator and yell "Shut Up!" in sync, it's the equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard and someone chewing loudly in your ear to me.) I believe this is why I can't nail down one favorite movie. I guess what I'm saying is, there are certain things in movies that I personally can't stand, no matter what movie it is. So if I'm watching a movie and it has these things, I know instantly it will never be in Alicia's Movie Hall of Fame.

To get to the point, and bring my last two points together, I'll say my last words on P.S. I Love You. You all were absolutely right: I did go into it expecting much, much more. BUT that is not at all why I didn't like it. I have thought through this carefully (as every good critic should) and pictured what I think would have happened if I'd gone to it expecting nothing, or even a crap movie. My opinion may have been slightly better, but I still would not have left liking it because of the two things I said above: I am just not that kind of girl that tears up at these romances. Having said that, if it was (in my humble opinion) a good, real, relate-able romance that I really felt to the core, I probably would have been bawling like a baby. So I stand by my review (as all good critics should) and state that I maintain my opinion (because of course that's all this is) that it could have been better done with some better writing and actors.

Now, to finish, I'll say that we are all entitled to our opinions. I LOVE the feedback I have gotten and the discussion that ensued because of my review. Those of you who loved this movie have every right to love it, and that's great. I don't, and there's no "right" or "wrong" here. Just personal taste. I will continue to do my movie reviews, good and bad, and hopefully we'll have more discussions just like this because people, MOVIES ROCK!

P.S. I Love You

WARNING: IF YOU LOVED THIS MOVIE AND CRIED THROUGH IT, OR IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET AND DON'T WANT TO BE TAINTED, STOP READING NOW. MAJOR SPOILERS AND STRONG OPINIONS TO FOLLOW.

As I walked out of the theater last night with two of my very favorite people in the world (thanks gals, had a blast!!), I felt a little ill. Not because I ate an entire box of Buncha Crunch with my Cherry Coke, but because I had no idea how I could come home and do a review for this movie today, feeling the way I did about it. Everyone I have talked to has LOVED this movie, and I, well....not so much. But my girls convinced me to go ahead with my review. After all, movie critics don't just review the movies they love, and honestly, I've been wanting to do a review of a movie that I didn't really like, you know, to test out my "critic" abilities and even things out after all the four star reviews. So out come the claws.


For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the storyline is this: A young widow (Hilary Swank, who is an amazing actress in everything but this movie...and The Next Karate Kid), devastated by the loss of her recently deceased husband (Gerard Butler), begins receiving letters from him that he wrote before he died, knowing the end was near (he died of a brain tumor.) Cue sappy music, grab the Kleenex. The idea is sweet and had possibility, but the filmmakers had no shame in doing whatever they could think of to tug on those heartstrings. I felt like they wanted me to cry so badly, that the rebel in me refused. Not a tear shed from this gal. Okay, maybe one.

I didn't completely hate the movie for one reason: Gerard Butler. I fell in love with him as the Phantom and was a little too excited to watch him in something where his face wasn't either half-covered by a mask or horribly disfigured. He was the movie's only redeeming quality. He could have stood there in head-to-toe plaid polyester and not said a word the entire time and still been the best part of the movie (hello, the face) but then you add his fun, goofy, chronically happy personality and that divine Irish accent and....well, you got me sitting impatiently through the scenes he's not in.

Hilary Swank, however, seemed horribly miscast. She just didn't seem right for this part and I kept putting other actresses in her place that I thought would have been much better. It didn't help that I really didn't like her character very much. Once again there was a stupid girl who had no earthly business being with the perfect, amazing guy that she had and totally didn't appreciate. At all. What is Hollywood's obsession with this? It makes me crazy. The whole movie I sat there trying to figure out what would have made Gerry (Gerard) love Holly (Hilary) so much. I never did figure it out.

Here are just some of the other things that rubbed me the wrong way:

~Were they in Ireland? Were they in New York? It only took me halfway through the movie (after mass confusion) to figure this out, thanks to some help from my viewing buddies.

~Um, what the heck kind of funeral was that? Besides a few tears from the widow, it seemed more like a birthday party. I sat there waiting for a twist, that it actually wasn't his funeral. No. It was.

~Harry Connick Jr. I don't even know what to say here. Just...weird.

~The supporting characters were very much "characters". Not believable, not relate-able. Besides a couple of laughs from Lisa Kudrow, there wasn't much else there. Especially Holly's very weird, badly-dyed-blonde sister. What was she on?

~Holly's family showed up to her apartment a week after the funeral to find her rotting in her misery, then proceed to chastise her for not being over it yet. She continues to get flack from different people throughout the movie for not having moved on yet. Um, seriously? You gotta be kidding me.

Okay, because I want to end on a positive note, here is what I liked about the movie:

~ Mr. Butler (duh)

~ the fact that it was a movie about a married couple...how rare is that? It really did make me appreciate my husband more.

~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who didn't do all that much for me on Grey's Anatomy, was gorgeous and actually believable as an Irishman. (I am wary of fake accents and he actually had us all wondering if he is really from Ireland. Nope. Seattle!)

~ the hospital scene after Holly's karaoke mishap. Each time the camera got closer and revealed another wound, we laughed harder and louder. We were still laughing five minutes later.

So was this long enough? I seriously could have made it ten times longer (what does that say about me, that my negative reviews come so much easier to me? hmmm...) but I'm sure you were all ready for me to shut up about three minutes ago.

To sum up: Great company, great night, great friends, not-so-great movie.

(Is anyone else having serious problems drafting and publishing posts?)

GIRLS' NIGHT OUT!!

I know this is short notice, the three day weekend threw me off, but I am going to see P.S. I Love You tonight, the 9:35 showing, at the mall, and I would LOVE as much company as possible.
COME and watch a good, sappy romance with some gal pals!
You know you need a night out. I do.
Let me know if you wanna come, or just show up!
Hope to see you there!

D-Qwon's Dance Grooves

*This is not a set-up in any way. I had hidden the camera, he had no idea he was being recorded. Ignore the messy family room, and don't laugh at my toes.