Big Comfy Armchair Critic.....

Well, this time its movies. My family and I didn't do much other than kick back and relax this holiday weekend. For the most part the weather cooperated.....a far cry from the weather we usually get on Memorial Day. Its almost always very cold and raining. But this year was beautiful and backyard picnics were abundant.

A bargain bin find, the first movie is Identity with John Cusack. The stage for a perfect thriller movie is set.....run down motel in the middle of the Nevada desert...its raining cats and dogs which has caused flooding and all the roads to civilization have been washed out. Its raining through-out the movie. Its night through-out the movie. Cell phone availability is not available and of course the landline telephone wires are down. Several people from different walks of life end up here because of car trouble or because of the roads being washed out. Enter into the mix a cop who is transporting a very dangerous mentally insane criminal to a last ditch meeting in an attempt to keep him from being executed for butchering several people and everything is there for a nail-biting night. Of course the mental patient/criminal escapes and of course the police car radio doesn't work either. One by one they are being murdered. I would be lying if I said it wasn't holding our interest....but the ENDING.....the ending was just so weird and disconnected that we all just sat there with dumb looks on our faces....looking at one another in utter confusion. Its almost like the writer just got bored with the whole thing and ended it like this because he couldn't think of any way to tie the plot up to make any sense. Later on as I was lying in bed just before sleep claimed me....I was thinking....how would you feel if you found out that all the blogs you read were written by just one person with multiple personality disorder. This is the road that this movie takes you down....a very strange and twisted road. My advice on viewing it....don't bother with it unless you plan on getting drunk while watching....then it won't matter anyway.

The second one is an oldie and I bought this mainly for my granddaughter....who is CRAZY about animals.....all animals. She is only 6 so we do have to be careful what she watches. Supposedly The Bear won all kinds of awards and I saw a tiny preview and it looked great. It mainly focused on an orphaned baby bear. It was amazing to me how they managed to film something like this; to get wild animals to do things that went along with the story line. The movie WAS great but not for small children. I know its nature but kids just don't understand why a grizzly would attack and kill horses or dogs. I am sooooo glad that I previewed this movie first before we looked at it with the 6 year old. Needless to say, she will have to wait about 8 more years to view this one. The movie, however, does deliver a powerful message at the end and you come away being glad that you watched it.

Another movie I watched was Seven Pounds with Will Smith. Now I really do like Will Smith....I think he's a fine actor....but this movie kind of threw me. Its my own fault. I didn't really read what it was about.....I just ASSUMED that by the name of it, it was about a baby. You have to be in the right kind of mood to watch this movie or it will surely leave you depressed even though it changes the lives of 7 people for the better forever. I have mixed emotions over it.....I can't say that it was a bad movie but I can't say that I really enjoyed it. It was just so morose. The ending was truly bittersweet.

Finally the last movie we watched was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
This movie was very good and very long at 2 hours and 46 minutes. But it was interesting and quite amazing how they were able to make Brad Pitt look so young toward the end....he looked like a 16 year old kid.....a very good looking 16 year old. Its not a movie for everyone because its kind of slow moving in spots but I enjoyed it and so did my daughter. My teenage grandson wanted more action and I think he entirely missed the emotions that were involved here. The characters are warm and you care about them.....except the character, Daisy. She ticked me off more than once and I found her to be rather cold and overly vain until she entered old age herself....then she acted like she actually had a heart. But maybe that's just how I took it. Its a good movie and worth the time to watch it unless you're into shoot 'em ups.