Ok you guys.  This is a must see.  One of the funnest and funniest movies.  It’s all about Star Trek fans and the conventions that they go to and the way they incorporate Star Trek into their lives.  If you haven’t watched the trailer, please, watch it.  And if you have, that’s right, the Dentist does make his staff wear Star Trek Uniforms.  The lady did wear her Star Trek uniform for jury duty in a court of law (you should see the rest of her piece).  And the guy at the beginning would change his ears to look like a Volcan.

I used to watch The Next Generation when my grandma was alive but since she’s not around anymore I haven’t given Star Trek a second thought.  This movie makes me want to get into it.  Not go to McDonald’s dressed as a Klingon kind of get into it but I think I would enjoy watching the show.

Now I know the trailer for Trekkies 2 was on there but I can’t recommend that yet because I haven’t seen it.  I will definitely let you know when I see it though.  Has anyone seen Trekkies 2 to give me their opinion?

I am so glad this was on the telly so I could finally watch it.  I have heard such great things about this movie so it was nice to experience it myself.  Now before you freak out on me, yes, this movie is rated R.  The only reason I watched it is because it was edited for TV.  I would not recommend checking this out from Netflix in it’s full R rated glory but it’s a fabulous find if it’s on the tube.  So keep an eye out for it.

Love Actually’s job is to show you that love actually exists in this messed up world we live in.  And it does just that.  It follows the lives of several groups of people, some married, some dating, some trying to find their way back to the top of the music charts and helps us see how love is working in their lives.  It’s really touching and at times hilarious like when one of the guys ends up in Wisconsin.  I hope the Brits really don’t think we’re like that!

This is one of my new favorite movies.  I’m going to have to figure out a way to get it from Tivo onto a disk so I can have it forever.  Please check out this movie if it comes on again.  Didn’t you love the way everyone was connected?  I thought that was a really fun touch.

I missed the first ten minutes of this movie because I didn’t know it was on but luckily caught the rest of it.  This is the most recent Pan experience I believe.  It’s a live action movie and shows the story of how Peter takes Wendy and her brothers to Neverland where they have to fight Captain Hook.  It has all the basic story but does it in a fairy tale manner rather than a Disney manner.  It’s a little dark.  I liked that about it.  I wont be showing it to my kids but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it myself.

The little kids are absolutely beautiful and I felt they acted their parts quite well.  I loved the depth of color in the movie too.  It was stunning to watch.  I would definitely watch this again if it were on.

Did anyone else catch this the other day?

Now it’s obvious by now that I love Twilight but is it as obvious that I absolutely adore Harry Potter?  Well, I do and I try to share my obsession with my kids.  My 7 year old has been watching Harry Potter since the first movie came out.  I would watch it with him before he even learned how to sit down and watch a movie.  He’s grown up with it and same with my 5 and 4 year olds.  The first two movies that is.  I made the mistake of taking the older one to see the third one in the theater.  Not pretty.

I’ve also been reading the books to them.  We got about halfway through the third when they started to revolt and wanted to read something different.  I’m sorry to say, that made me mad.  How dare they not want to know what happens to Harry and Sirius Black!  Shame on them.  So we’ve been in a Harry Potter hiatus for a while now.  I’m letting them get a little bit older so hopefully they can appreciate it more.

Then you wont believe what happened.  My baby.  My 4 year old little angel brought me the case for HP and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  He picked it out of all the videos and brought it to me to watch.  My heart swelled inside me.  I can honestly say that I loved him a little bit more at that moment.

He watched the movie and the next day he brought me HP and the Chamber of Secrets to watch.  He was actually enjoying the movies!  The day after that he wanted to watch the one with the dragon.  I told him that was number one when Hagrid gets a dragon egg.  He watched it and complained because he wanted to see the one with the big dragon.  What a great memory!!  He’s only seen that in commercials but he still remembers it!  Oh, I am so proud.  Just busting at the seams.

With all this great progress I decided it was time to try HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban again.  This is the one I took my oldest to when he was really young.  So I turn the movie on and wait for the kids to come running scared into my room.  The oldest one did.  He didn’t like the movie at all and in fact he has had nightmares about it.  So major bummer there.  I had no intention of scaring him so bad.  But the other two.  The other two loved it.  In fact the little one is watching it right now as I type.  The 5 year old asks to watch it every chance he gets so I got 2 out of 3.  That’s not so bad.  In fact, it’s pretty darn good.

Now I wont let them watch the latest movies because they are PG-13 but I don’t mind reading them the books if they ever want to get back into them.  And they better.  It’s just so fun to have something I love be something they are interested in too.  Do you guys have a book like that?  That you  want so badly to share with your kids that you’re probably pushing it on them a little too hard?

So the story goes that the Krank’s only daughter has gone off with the Peace Corp to Peru.  Mr. Krank has the bright idea of bagging Christmas altogether and going on a cruise.  So the Kranks go about pretty much making enemies of every one they come in contact with because they refuse to participate in anything having to do with the holiday.

Then, oh no, their daughter calls and she’s bringing her boyfriend home for Christmas.  She wants the whole deal.  The lights, the party, everything.  Are the Krank’s going to be able to pull it off in time?  They have no one to help them since they’ve ostracized themselves.  How are they going to make this happen? You’ll have to see for yourself ‘cuz I’m not telling.  

I can’t say this is a great movie and I wont even tell you to rent it but if it happens to be on next year and you have nothing to do it’s kind of cute.

Thank heavens for the holidays and tons of random movies on the tube.  I never would have rented this movie but thought I’d give it a whirl on the old tv and didn’t like it the first go round.  It’s like I was talking about before with expectations, my expectations weren’t set right so the movie didn’t sit right with me.  I hadn’t taken into account that Tim Burton was the director so everything was going to be beautiful but slightly to moderately to very weird.  I also didn’t take into account that Willy Wonka was going to be completely different and the Oompa Loompas were going to be a different kind of strange.  I didn’t prepare myself for the back story on Wonka and the Oompa Loompas either.  I just plain and simply did not prepare myself appropriately for this movie.

Luckily, Scott wanted to watch it so I watched it with him again and thoroughly enjoyed it the second time around.  I understood why Wonka spoke and looked the way he did.  I thought the Oompa Loompa songs were funny (though I understood very little of what they said).  I continued to be in love with Charlie and his family and especially loved his dilapidated house.

I definitely recommend this movie but I give the warning that it is very, very different from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  Same basic story but told oh so differently.   Go into to it with an open mind and a clear understanding of how Burton does things and you’ll enjoy it.  

All I know is I’m on a Tim Burton kick now.  I got my Netflix cue set up with all his films that I can think of.  This should be fun.  Are you guys Tim Burton fans?

White Christmas has to be my all time favorite Christmas movie.  In this movie two musical army veterans played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye team up with two sisters, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, and head to Vermont to put on a show.  When they get to the lodge they find it’s run by their old army general who is in financial trouble.  They work together to try to help him and in turn end up running around in circles of misunderstanding and love.  I bought this last year so that I could watch it every Christmas.  Scott has even agreed to watch it with me so it will be so much merrier.  When they sing White Christmas at the end and everything has wrapped up it might as well be snowing outside my window for how warm and fuzzy I feel.  If you haven’t seen this I highly recommend checking it out.  It’s a real feel good holiday movie. – Alisa

Miracle on 34th Street is my favorite.  I love the black and white 1947 version.  There’s something about that judge with all those letters that keep piling up all around him, that makes me smile very time.  I love that the story is about simple faith, and that you just gotta keep believing “even when common sense tells you not too.”  Beautiful, heartwarming, and fun movie. -Laura

If you didn’t catch this movie when it first came out you should definitely rent it now.  This is one of my favorite Christmas movies.  Will Farrell was a little baby who was adopted and raised by elves in the North Pole but he finds that he needs to leave and tries to find his birth father in New York.  This is Will Farrell at his cleanest and it works so well.  Laugh out loud funny.  ”We elves like to stick to the four main food groups:  candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.”  I don’t watch this movie with my kids not because it’s inappropriate but because I want to save it for a few years until they can really appreciate it.  Seriously funny, joyful movie.

You a fan of Elf?

Today is my ninth wedding anniversary and to commemorate it I’m sharing my favorite love song and the movie that goes with it.  Moulin Rouge is an absolute visual masterpiece.  Eye candy.  Baz Lurhmann made this world breath takingly beautiful.  The colors pop the music is spectacular.  Nicole Kidman and Ewan MacGregor are just made for their roles.  I can not say nice enough things about this movie.

So the story goes that a young writer falls in love with a courtesan while trying to get backers for his play.  The man who decides to front the play insists on having the courtesan all to himself.  It gets scary as the writer and the courtesan try to hide their love.

Now as you can imagine if you know anything about the Moulin Rouge there is some sexual content in this movie but it’s very mild and mostly it’s funny.  This is simultaneously a heartwarming and a heartbreaking love story.  It has given me one of the most meaningful love songs in my life.  Correction.  When I think of love songs I think of this song.  When I imagine dancing at my 50th wedding anniversary, it’s to this song.  If I had any singing aspirations at all it would be to record this song with Scott.  It speaks so deep inside of me. It says, “I will love you until my dying day,” which may seem unromatic but I look at it a different way.  We never truly die.  There is no end to us.  No final moment where we cease to exist so to me what they are saying is I will love you for always.  There will never come a day when I do not love you for I will never cease to exist.  ”Until the end of time.”

I know there have to be some of you who’ve seen this movie.  What did you think?

This is by far one of the greatest movies I’ve seen in a long time.  The whole movie is about a guy named Steve who has decided to beat the Donkey Kong World Record which is currently held by Billy Mitchell.  I know that probably doesn’t sound that interesting but 

you’d be surprised the intrigue that happens when Billy’s record is challenged.  I think my favorite part of the movie is how supportive Steve’s friends and family, especially his wife, are.  And if you have kids you will laugh out loud at the tape Steve sends in to try to gain the record.  Hilarious.

You guys, these are uber classic video game geeks at their best.  At their beautiful, glorified best.  I LOVE this movie.  Love it.  The best part is if you have Netflix you can watch it right now with their Play It Now feature.  You don’t even have to wait for the DVD in the mail.  I highly recommend this movie.  It is fabulous.

Anyone seen it?

This probably isn’t news to most of you but for those few of you like me who weren’t on their computers this weekend Summit has announced the new director for New Moon.  Chris Weitz directed American Pie, About a Boy, and The Golden Compass.  I’ve seen About a Boy but honestly it was so long ago that I don’t remember anything about it.  I’ll probably check it out to remind myself.  The commercials for The Golden Compass looked amazing but I didn’t see it because I’ve read the books and know how the series ends and it royally pissed me off.  I didn’t want to get into the movies knowing full well where they would take me.  So basically what I’m saying is that I don’t have any feelings about Weitz.  Good or bad.  I enjoyed Hardwicke’s work but there was so much room for improvement.  Hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

There’s a message from Stephenie and a note from Weitz to check out for more information.  Have you seen his work?  How do you think he’s going to do?

I bought this for my daughter, thinking I was going to save it for Christmas, and then yesterday happened (in all it’s crazy glory) and by noon I was ripping open the wrapping paper and shoving this into the dvd player for some respite from my children. Jordyn is a HUGE Dr. Seuss fan, and I’ve probably read this story to her a hundred times. It’s really difficult to mess up Seuss, the sillier it gets the more fun it is. It’s no exception with this movie- I thought it was very age appropriate, with just enough gross silly for older kids too(like this great one liner- “in my world everyone’s a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflys”). I don’t necessarily think my husband would have loved it, if anything because of some of the political undertones so apparent in the movie(the kangaroo who “pouch-schools” her joey- totally reminds me of someone I know, which was laugh out loud for me). I actually giggled in quite a few spots, and my daughter was laughing in a few more. I was a little afraid this would be more along the “Shrek” vein(inappropriate humor aimed at adults), because of some of the talent they have in the cast (Steve Carell, Jim Carrey) but it just never went there for me. So in summation, fun watch for little ones, but you won’t be bored either.

Ben and I finally got around to being in the same place long enough to watch this last night.  I was a little skeptical at first- the first five minutes consist of a little boy calling the Will Smith character(Hancock) an a**hole, and then a one night stand with a chick Hancock picks up in a bar.  Not really a good start to movies I like to watch, so thank goodness it got better after that.  Ben had heard more about the movie then I had, so I spent some of the movie confused.  Here’s the basic premise for those that think they may want to see it.  A man(Hancock) with superhero powers, has psychological issues with his abandonment and solidarity(he believes he’s the only one like this in the world).  He meets a PR man, on a mission to save the world,  who is married to the super hot Charlize Theron- and there’s some weird chemistry going on there with Hancock.   The PR man convinces Hancock to change his life around, and what results from that is what really makes the movie.  That’s all I’m going to say so I won’t spoil it for you.

It feels weird that I’m reviewing it, since it was a total Alisa movie for me(see her previous movie posts if you don’t believe me).  Superheros helping to save us from ourselves.  I can get down with that though, and because it was a Will Smith flick there were still the occasional funny bits mixed in with all the gunfights.  I was cracking up when Hancock was confronted by all the men he put in prison- while he spends some time in there himself.  Funny Stuff.  I wouldn’t recommend buying this one, but it’s a definite rental to enjoy yourself- while scoring some hubby points.

Good news today from Summit.  There will be a new director for the film version of New Moon.  As you know I get most of my film info from Stephenie’s site so I was really excited to see this.  I thought the movie was fun and I loved it for that but I think these movies can be great and I’m hoping we’re taking a step in that direction (no pun intended).  Every time they switch up the Harry Potter directors we get a fun new take on the books and I hope that’s what happens here.  Looks like a late 2009 early 2010 release date.  Should I start the countdown now?

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I actually liked this movie.  Maybe it’s the expectations thing I was talking about earlier.  I thought this movie was going to suck and was pleasantly surprised by it.  I’m not saying this is phenomenal and you should run out an buy it, I’m just saying if you were ever curious about it, rent it.  The story goes that while on a trip to Finland, Trevor and his nephew Sean pick up a trail guide Hannah and go searching for some scientific instruments.  Turns out after getting trapped in a cave they find that Jules Verne’s novel is in fact non-fiction.  They’ve found the center of the Earth chock full of man eating plants and dinosaurs.  The real question is how they are going to get out.

This was made as a 3-D movie so it’s fun to watch all the effects they’ve put in and imagine what that would look like.  I didn’t watch this with my kids but I think they would be fine if they saw it.  It might scare the 3-year old a little but I think he’d get over it pretty quick.

Did any of your kids watch it?  What did they think?

Scott and I watched this together last night and I’m sorry to say, I did not enjoy it.  The story opens with Will picking up his daughter Maya from school.  Turns out they had sex ed that day so for some reason all the kids are screaming and crying and yelling at their parents.  I didn’t get that at all.  So this leads Maya to ask her dad some serious questions.  Turns out Will and Maya’s mom are getting a divorce.  Maya wants to know how they met.  Will doesn’t want to tell her but then goes into great detail about the surroundings of their meeting.

Sounds cute but as Will is telling his 11 year old daughter the story he’s giving her details about smoking, drinking and at one point Maya calls Will a slut because he’s had so many girlfriends.  It wasn’t a bad story but it kept going back to this little girl and it really creeped me out.  My gosh, when you tell a child a story you should leave certain details out.

I also had a problem with the divorce.  Will and his very recent ex-wife Emily are on fabulous terms.  I know that happens every once in a while but it makes me sick to see on the screen.  Here are these happily divorced people with no issues.  Give me a break.  Can you tell I’m the product of divorce?  

I’m not saying this was a bad movie.  It wouldn’t surprise me if some of you liked it and by all means, speak up so everyone else can see your perspective.  I just couldn’t get past the little girl knowing too much about the real world and divorce being such a happy occasion.

Have you seen the movie?  What did you think?

So yes, Julianne and Laura and I went to see the movie again today.  To quote a friend “We’re single handedly trying to keep the movie in the theaters.”  I am at least.  You remember going into this I didn’t think the movie would be good but then I was pleasantly surprised after the first viewing.  I went back again with my husband because he wanted to know what the heck all of this was about and liked it even more.  It was nice knowing what was coming up so I could focus my attention in the right places at the right times.  I focused more on the supporting characters this time.  I really love them.  Rosalie, Esme, Jasper, Carlisle, Emmett and Alice.  The friends at school.  Charlie.  The bad vamps. Love them all.  

Especially Jasper.  He’s my guy.  I’ve read several blogs where people are making fun of him and to them I say, you just don’t know him well enough.  When he looks pained it’s because he is in pain.  The man wants to butcher every single person around him.  Cut the guy some slack.  He’s probably holding his breath the whole time too.  He’s very troubled and I guess that would come out in his expression.  Totally plausible to me that his face would show the anguish he was in.  Say what you will, I love him.

He’s not the only one I love.  I love Victoria.  She’s so dangerously beautiful.  I don’t know if I’m the only one who feels this way but I think she looks a lot like Stephenie Meyer.  Every time she comes on screen I think of Stephenie.  It’s like a little reminder of how this all started.  I’m so glad she’ll be in the next two movies.  Well maybe not the next one so much but for sure Eclipse.

It’s official.  I love this movie.  If anyone wants to see it again let me know and I’ll try to sneak out of the house.  I’ll make up some excuse like helping the poor or spreading Christmas joy to the needy.  I think Scott would kill me if I actually planned a trip to see this again.

Did you like the movie better or worse the more you saw it?

Now this is a kids movie I can sink my teeth into.  I love Wall-E.  We were so excited for it to come out on DVD.  This is a story of the last little robot on Earth working to clean up the huge mess that humans have made.  We’ve made such a mess in fact that we are currently living on a space ship billions of miles away waiting for the day that a living thing can be found in the Earth’s soil.  The mother space ship sends an Eva robot down to Earth every once in a while to check for living things.  The story really picks up when Eva finds something living and Wall-E tags along when she goes back to the mother ship.

This is a beautiful story about friendship and love.  A telling tale about taking care of our planet.  Scott and I love this movie and the kids love this movie.  Absolutely stunning.  I highly recommend Wall-E.

Do you love this movie?

We saw this movie over Thanksgiving weekend and enjoyed it.  Unfortunately it didn’t quite captivate Scott and I as much as it did the kids.  I thought it was a cute story but just wasn’t sucked in like I am with so many Pixar movies.  Was it entertaining?  Yes.  Was it mind blowing?  No.

The movie is about a dog named Bolt who has grown up believing he is a super hero.  He has powers such as laser vision and a super bark which are all special effects but he doesn’t know that.  He thinks his human has been abducted and ends up across the country looking for her.  He makes some friends along the way that help him discover the truth about him self and learn to accept who he is.

This does have a PG rating and I guess it could be considered a little more intense than The Incredibles because a lot of “bad guys” get blown away in the beginning of the movie.  We took all three boys to it and none of them had problems (ages 3-7).

I would recommend this movie but more as a good family activity and less as and “OMG this was a great kid movie!”  Have you seen it?  I’ve talked to some of you and I know you loved it.  Tell me why?

Lord of the Rings was my first experience with a book I loved turned into a movie.  Hard to believe, I know, but I have only recently become a reader.  I wanted to know what the story was about before I saw the movie so I picked up the books while on vacation and absolutely fell in love.  I mean head over heels in love with these books.  I would imagine myself on the journey with Frodo through the dense woods to Tom Bombadil’s house.  Meeting Galadriel in her treetop palace in Lothlorien.  It was so vivid to me and real.  I felt like if I could just go to England I could find these places.  Well, turns out you have to go to New Zealand but I’m still willing to make the trip.  My point here is, I had everything laid out in my head when the first movie came out.  And you know what, when I left the movie theater I was totally mixed.  I loved it because it was so beautiful and portrayed so much of the book well, but I was mad because some characters were left out (Tom – but how on Earth are you really going to film him, right?) and some were changed (Arwen had a much bigger part than she did in the book).  But, like I always do, I took a few days and let it all sink in and came to LOVE the movies.

Now, my second book to movie was Harry Potter.  This has a little different ending because just like LOTR I was head over heels and had the whole book already playing in my head.  I knew how Harry acted and talked and exactly what he looked like.  I had Hogwarts mapped out in my head and when I went to see the first movie I was really disappointed.  It came on the heels of LOTR so I expected it to be the same quality.  But it wasn’t.  It was definitely lower budget and poor Daniel Radcliff just didn’t pull it off for me.  At all.  Sure he kind of had the look, but he didn’t act like my Harry.  Same with the second film.  It was just OK.  Fun to see with my kids but not a breathtaking experience.  Then the Prisoner of Azkaban came out and I was as giddy as a schoolgirl.   That was a great flick.  I still Have issues with Mr. Radcliffe so I just ignore him and pay attention to everything else going on on the screen.  Harry is still my Harry not his.  I think the difference is they didn’t stick as closely to the books and they just made a great movie.  They put some money into it and got a great Director and had fun.  I think the last two movies have been great but not on the same level as the third.  So Harry Potter started off rocky and has really captured my heart since.

I think enjoying a movie that has been adapted from a book you love has a lot to do with expectations.  If you go into it expecting it to be like LOTR you’re probably going to be disappointed.  If you think to yourself something like, “You know Harry Potter wasn’t that great but they worked the kinks out, and I bet this movie will be like that” you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised when they get even one scene right.  Then again, you could hate it all the way through.

I had this happen to me with Dracula.  I read it and absolutely loved it.  Not head over heels but I did get into it and was really surprised by how tame it was.  I wasn’t scared at any point in the book.  At all.  So then I get the BBC version of the book.  I’ve seen their work with Austen.  It’s amazing what they do and how much effort they put into capturing the nuances of her books.  I love watching them because I feel like they are pulled right from the pages of the books.  Not the case with Dracula.  Like I said, expectations.  They left one key character out completely and totally changed another key relationship just to get more drama.  Now if this had been anyone other than BBC I would cut them some slack but this is totally inexcusable.  Now, can I detach myself and say it was a good film, I’m not there yet.  I just had my expectations set too high and now I can’t see clearly.

That brings us to Twilight.  I went into Twilight with even lower than Harry Potter expectations.  I thought the movie was going to suck big time.  But, I’m a huge Twilight fan so I was always planning on seeing it.  As you read in my review I liked it.  I can not stand Kristen Stewart as Bella but as long as I ignored her I was generally happy with the movie.  Do I think they can improve for the next one?  Oh, heck yeah.  But I had such low expectations going into it that I came out pleasantly surprised.  And this was the first film in the series.  They’ve got some kinks to work out before it gets really good.  Now, I have friends that hated this movie.  With passion and vehemence they hated this movie.  So it’s my Dracula for them.  What can you do?  I’ve seen the movie twice and we’re planning on seeing it again so obviously I’m good with it’s shortcomings.

Bottom line is, the movie is never as good as the book.  Never.  A movie is never going to perfectly capture what the author penned and what you’ve already envisioned in your head.  But, it can be fun sometimes.  Whether they hit it almost perfect like LOTR, or get it kind of right like Harry Potter and Twilight, or miserably fail like Dracula, I still like that they’re trying.  Here’s to trying!

What have your book to movie experiences been?