Chick Flick Marathon

I LOVE movies. LOVE them. LURVES THEM. I used to tell my friends, "Don't rent it, I own it," so they could just come and borrow, and I had an extensive collection for a while.

And then I married and had kids and my love of movies, while still existing, definitely got tempered with reality (and fiscal responsibility, which is a BEAR, I tell you, to learn when you are an adult, but very worthwhile). ANYWAY, thanks to the lovely Redbox and McDonald's free dvd rental offer on their large beverages (which happen to come on lovely large plastic cups which feed right into my own strange addiction/collection...you can see where this is going), while Super J was away, I caught two movies and had another on deck the evening he came home. We watched (well, kind of) that one together.

There's a word in Library Land for finding a book that applies to some life situation, allowing the librarian to recommend to a reader a unique opportunity to maybe glean some insight into their own lives, as well as enjoy the book for entertainment: bibliotherapy. It's one reason why you might read a book and ABSOLUTELY LURVES IT, but a friend might not have as profound an experience, or how you can read something and be like, "Man, that was a piece of garbage," and not understand why it's made the best seller list (case in point: "Eat, Pray, Love" did NOTHING for me but disappoint, and yet many many others have really embraced it).

I probably watch movies much like I read books--looking for that Aha or Ohhhhhinteresting moment...very rarely do I let myself get carried away in sheer cinematic waves of entertainment (unless it's something epic like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, which completely took me away). Does that makes sense?

The three movies I rented were TOTALLY in the chick flick genre and since they are all fairly new releases, I'm not going to retell what each is about. I just wanted to give you my overall impressions of them:

27 Dresses (PG-13): This was the first movie that I watched, and I gotta say was probably my favorite of the three. Perhaps because I married when I was in my 30's and attended many many weddings prior to being the bride, or perhaps because I, too, have difficulties saying, "no," or perhaps because I have my "I *am* the self-absorbed little sister" moments...I really related to this movie. It made me laugh and even cry (thus totally qualifying it for "chick flick" status); overall, it was VERY fluffy and nothing new to behold, but I definitely liked it and I didn't find anything too offensive about it. B+

No Reservations (PG):This movie was a little slow, but I tell you...it's nice to be able to watch a movie with my girls in the same room and not worry about it (too much...Miss A was very concerned about the little girl in the movie, whose mother had died, and she wanted me to rewind it to that part so she could watch it. Um...no, honey). LOVED watching the inner kitchen scenes, as the chefs and everyone was getting the meals together. Man, that is a job I would not want, though I love to cook. As I said, the plot was kinda slow moving, but overall, I really liked it and the message it had. Solid B. Might want to re-watch with Super J.

Definitely, Maybe (PG-13): The final flick of my marathon, Super J was home to watch it with me. Out of all the movies, it was definitely the S.L.O.W.E.S.T. moving one and we were not as charmed by it as the critics were. In fact, Super J was downright offended by the idea that this dad was telling his daughter all about his "romances" with three women, which basically was all about sex and stuff. His daughter, by the way, was supposed to be 11-ish. Ohhhhhhhkay. Anyway, remember how I said that one persons treasure can be another persons trash? This is the case with this movie. Super J HATED it. In fact, we buzzed to the end because he was so un-enchanted with this "Tool of Satan" (deemed as such because it blatantly was showing a lifestyle that really can't make anyone happy, but tried to play it off as a great way of life), but I wanted to see the ending. Now, we skipped probably 2/3rds of the movie (I'm so glad it was a free rental!), so maybe we missed some great life altering moments, but we didn't want to waste any more time on it.

Overall, *I* probably didn't dislike it as much as Super J, but once again I was frustrated by the fact that it played into the stereotype of a young precocious daughter so wanting her parent to be happy that she basically "parents" the clueless Parent into said happiness, which is NOT HER RESPONSIBILITY. But as with Super J's point, people who see this get lulled into believing that such expectations (whether they are moral or not) are okay. No wonder we, as a society in general (or, in my personal case, um...me, in general) have such issues with stuff like this (see above where I have a hard time saying "No."). So, I don't recommend it. The critics liked it, but we didn't. Definitely, Maybe NOT.

ANYWAY, there you have it. "Cinematherapy" at it's finest with some interesting examples. I think that maybe the beverages from McDonald's still may have been my favorite part of the whole DVD experience. ha!