BeBa

We saw Knocked Up today – it was very funny, and for all the crudeness, it was still surprisingly intelligent and authentic. I really went into it with low expectations – just looking for something light and fun. (Scott went mainly to appease his preggo wife). We were both surprised to find that we liked it better than we thought we would.

Retrospectively, I checked out the Pajiba review and even they liked it. I'm glad I didn't read that before I saw the movie, though. I love going to a movie with low expectations and finding myself surprised with the quality.

But if I may rant for a moment – what is WITH taking a 9 year old to this movie??? I couldn't believe it when I saw a family walk in – mom, dad, teenage boy and looked like a 9 or 10 year old boy. First of all, it's rated freaking RRRRRRRR for a reason, people.

Sex, drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, profanity – you name it, it was in there. I can't sit through quite a number of PG-13 movies with my teenage stepson. When so many PG-13 movies are so much on that edge of being too uncomfortable to watch with your kids, what are people THINKING taking an under-13-year-old to a rated R movie???? It seriously took me half the movie let go of the fact that there was a kid in the theater watching this stuff at the same time I was. I kept waiting for the family to walk out but they never did. UGH.

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The Golden Compass trailer

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Amityville Horror

Video: What was the first R-rated movie you saw (or were allowed to see)?
Submitted by Lisa.

When I was 11 or 12, my best friend and I saw Amityville Horror (1979) (I read the book, too). I don't know what our parents were thinking. That movie scared the crap out of me, because, you know, it's a true story.

I freaked myself out for years afterwards whenever I had the misfortune of waking up randomly in the middle of the night at 3:15 am. And the slime oozing out of the walls and the glowing red pig demon eyes in the window. Shudder. That movie really traumatized me. (So much so that even today, I could only watch 58 seconds of the 2:32 trailer below!)

Oh, and I could NEVER live in a house with creepy pie wedge windows; the glowing red ones at 112 Ocean Avenue has forever ruined that architectural element for me.

Haunting or hoax, the true story of the DeFeo murders is horrifying enough.

The Amityville Horror (1979) Trailer

Speaking of murder (redrum REDRUM), then, when I was 13, I saw The Shining. More trauma. I don't watch scary movies anymore. One recent exception was The Sixth Sense and I could barely handle it.

The Shining

Here's a "trailer" I WAS able to watch all the way through.

The Shining recut as romantic comedy

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We have very little TV time. We watch so little TV in our house, in fact, that we canceled our cable in favor of a housecleaning service (yeah!). What TV we do watch is TIVO'd, but mostly during our little bit of boobtube time, we watch movies.

It's been awhile since we've watched a movie! A combination of not having anything all that tempting on hand (we finally just sent back the movies that had been collecting dust for a couple months) and all the American Idol we've just had to keep up with.

So last night, we finally had a movie night for the first time in ages – Stranger than Fiction. I loved it! The Maggie Gyllenhall character was just a little too sappy/corny for me, but she sure is cute. Will Farrell was the best I've ever seen him. And I just adore Emma Thompson – what a perfect narrator. I could listen to her voice all day. I also enjoyed the performances by Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah.

The whole package was tight. And the story Emma Thompson narrated was quite exceptionally written. The whole screenplay, too – but to pull off this artistic, literary-quality story-within-a-story was quite a feat. I even wonder if that was a completely different writer for that part?

Scott was more lukewarm – the lack of Harold Crick's free will made him feel all itchy.

Not the best movie ever, but a very, very enjoyable diversion. So much to love. I cried at the end. That's always good.

Pajiba liked it, too. In fact, I think that review nails exactly what I liked so much about this film.

I rated it

Stranger Than Fiction Movie Trailer

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