Husband and I took the kids to see Fantastic Mr. Fox and let’s just go ahead and get it out of the way: it was fantastic. It really was. I knew from the get-go I was going to love the movie, but Husband wasn’t as confident in the movie’s ability to deliver. I felt really triumphant when we left the theatre and he said it was one of the best movies he’d seen in a while. Admittedly, Fantastic Mr. Fox didn’t have much competition. The last three movies we went to the theatre for were movies you’d expect parents of a 5 and 6 year old to have seen: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (absurd but I laughed), Planet 41 (I stayed at home while Husband took one for the team), and Where the Wild Things Are (the great sound and beautiful scenery were not enough to make up for watching the magic of a beautiful kids tale die a slow, slow death).

Why adults will like Fantastic Mr. Fox:

Deadpan humor. If you like humor where half the amusement comes from the fact that the lines were said with a straight face, then you will like Fantastic Mr. Fox. With Wes Anderson at the helm, George Clooney in the lead, and Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray in supporting roles, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a veritable smorgasbord of deadpan comedians. All I can say is, bandit hat.

Nostalgic. We all grew up watching Rankin Bass films from the wonderful Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to the creepy one where Santa joins the immortals, and I continue to watch them every Christmas, and sometimes Halloween (Mad Monster Party, anyone?). For all the love I have for Pixar, stop action animation has its place. It’s time it made a comeback.

Timeless. You’ll be able to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox ten years from now and it will still be as funny then as it is now. Unlike the beginning half of Eddie Murphy’s Delirious, you won’t be saying to yourself, “Wow, you can tell this came out in the early 80s.”

Why kids will like it:

Exciting and new. This is likely the first time any of our kids will see a stop-action animated film on the big screen. How cool is that?
For love of the fur. They’re animals! What kids don’t like animals? And these animals are taking on the man! With laced blueberries, flaming pinecones, and a mini motorcycle for two! Huzzah!

A history of classics. Fantastic Mr. Fox was written by Roald Dahl, one of my favorite authors, the man whose dark imagination brought us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda. Is the movie different from the book? Sure. But it is a reasonable adaptation? Yes. And since this movie is based on a book, now you have another reason to entice your kids to go to the library and read something new. They can read this book and go on to read the rest of Roald Dahl’s works.

So there you have it. My completely subjective, give-it-all-the-love-I-have review of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Go see it. And enjoy. And if you don’t like, sorry about your sense of humor.

The Plan for the Weekend:

Drive to Orange County on Saturday. See family and friends. Spend night at friend’s house. Attend baby shower on Sunday. Enjoy food and conversation at restaurant. Drive home.

The Reality:

It’s never good when your car starts to sound like a lawnmower, I suppose. It also isn’t comforting when the speedometer swings back and forth between 0 and 120 like it’s been possessed. Least exciting of all is when these two things happen simultaneously and you are precisely halfway between home and your destination with no friends or family nearby, nor anything besides a stretch of interstate going through the heart of California ag country (ie, middle of nowhere).

I called AAA for a tow which cost me $4 a mile after the first seven miles, and when your starting point is BFE, you go well over that free seven miles (to the tune of $84 – that’ll teach me for not buying the premier membership).

After dropping my car off, I went to the airport where the only open car rental places in Bakersfield were located. They refused to rent a car to me. I didn’t have a major credit card. I had a credit/debit card. Using a debit/credit card required an additional $200-400 deposit (depending on the car rental place), but that money wasn’t on the card because it was in my wallet. Did that help? No. You remember that old song by Wu Tang Clan where they say “cash rules everything around me”? Well, I don’t think car rental places thought much of those lyrics. Three separate car rental places told me they didn’t accept or handle cash. I had two people (husband, mother in law) willing to give their credit card over the phone and receive and sign and fax back an agreement to them, but no, that’s not acceptable either. Talk about uber-lame.

The tow guy gave me a ride to a hotel which had no problem using my debit card and I suddenly found myself with a free night to myself. Hey, a silver lining! I was looking for that! I spent my free-for-a-night evening vegging out and watching The Express and Sex in the City on HBO. I also discovered a TV show on MTV called America’s Best Dance Crew hosted by the guy on Saved By the Bell (the one whose character dated the girl who went on to star in Showgirls) which was entertaining for about 15 minutes before I got irritated by all the commercials.

This morning, I woke up, enjoyed my free breakfast, went swimming, and watched a lot of CNN talk about health care coverage – can I just say that I love James Carville and Mary Matalin?

Husband and the kids drove 3 hours to pick me up and when we neared home, the kids asked to go to the movies, and I thought to myself, why not. Guess what we saw? G-Force. Guess what else? I laughed. On a weekend like this one, you have to take the laughs that come to you.

Funnier than you’d expect. Assuming you expected it to be stupid.

I watched Atonement the other day and refrained from writing an immediate review, because it would have only said, PISS OFF YOU WRETCHED MOVIE!!!!!!!!! BAH!!!!!!!

Instead, I sent a venting email to Brassy Girl in which I described the movie as Cold Mountain without Renee Zellweger, and with World War II instead of the Civil War, and a storyline that is ten times more irritating. That’s actually a pretty weak comparison now that I think about it because I would watch Cold Mountain *repeatedly* before watching Atonement ONE MORE MIND-BOGGLING TIME!!!!!! The main reason I thought of Cold Mountain were the plotlines of we’re-in-love-because-we-shared-a-”moment”-couple as well as we’re-in-love-but-have-to-wait-out-this-war-thing (I believe the line “come back to me” may be in both movies).

It doesn’t help that I watched Atonement just after watching Last King of Scotland, which also co-starred James McAvoy, alongside the stellar supporting cast of dirty meat hook one and dirty meat hook two. Not to say that Last King of Scotland wasn’t good, because Forrest Whitaker was excellent. But still, I could have done without that hook scene. I still shudder over it. As well as the dismemberment scene, but enough about Ugandan massacres.

Back to Atonement — I would still read the book. In fact, I’m fascinated by the book because I understand the author’s role in the tale really pushes/crosses the line of the author-reader relationship. Obviously, that never would have adapted well to screen.

Things I liked:

1. Ron’s expression when Lavender draws the heart in the glass is all time.

2. Ron and Lavender in general.

3. “She has nice skin.”

4. I want a poster of Luna wearing the lion’s head.

5. Helena Bonham Carter is a little too good at doing the crazy.

6. Dave Legeno appropriately gives me the heebie jeebies.

7. I had no idea Jim Broadbent was going to be Slughorn. What a pleasant surprise!

8. Cormac McLaggen was hilarious. He called Hermione a minx. Ha!

Things I missed:

9. What, no memories from the House of Gaunt? I was looking forward to hearing parseltongue.

10. While I do generally like Alan Rickman and his portrayal of Severus Snape, does anyone else feel he’s just a little too subdued at times? Like, say, when Harry calls him a coward?

11. I wish the birds had actually attacked Ron. Why bother changing that?

12. Feeling a tad ripped off there was no fight sequence at Hogwarts at the end, esp with no Fleur and Bill. I rather liked the part in the book where Fleur snaps at Mrs. Weasley after Bill’s been attacked by Fenrir.

Odd Man Out:

13. What was with Slughorn’s fish/flower story anyway?

***

This post contributed to Thursday 13.

I saw Persepolis not too long ago, but it’s been on my mind lately with all this news footage of Iran. Persepolis is a French animated film about the life of Marjane Satrapi. She wrote Persepolis as an autobiographical graphic novel, and it was made into a film in 2007. While it is a story about a woman growing up in Iran, it’s also a coming-of-age story, about identity, how we start off learning about the identities other people assign to us and how we ultimately learn to define ourselves based on what we stand for.

(warning: spoilers ahead) What I admire so much about this movie is how subtly it depicts hard subjects like politically motivated crimes against humanity, rape, murder, and the mistreatment of women. You laugh when Marjane mouths off to the teachers at school but the laughs sort of dry up when her mother admonishes her, and you find out what they do to virgins before they execute them. It’s entertaining when Marjane bargains with street urchins selling bootleg tapes of Iron Maiden, but less so when loud music brings the police to a co-ed party and results in a guy preferring to jump from one building rooftop to another lest he get caught. Then there’s the bread swan, the quirky gift to Marjane from her beloved Uncle Anoosh, who is thrown in prison and executed.

When Marjane moves to Vienna at the behest of her parents, she sees a different way of life, one she’s not sure is even better despite its lack of the atmosphere of war. It’s a moment that really puts things into perspective, her choice to return to Iran. Of course, everyone knows you can never go back. She returns to a life that is no longer what it used to be, even if her mom is making her favorite breakfast just like she used to. Marjane ultimately leaves Iran again, leaving you reflective as the closing credits come on: does life ever have complete resolution? Or is life, ultimately, about moving on, continuing, enduring? As God points out in the movie, “Yeah, yeah, the struggle goes on.”

I was at a friend’s house jonesing for a movie to watch and gave me these two movies: Little Women and Eight Below.

We may exaggerate, but we’re still better than Little Women.

This is a movie that is about an 8-dog sled team (six Huskies and two Malamutes, all gorgeous) who are abandoned in Antarctica during one of the worst winters ever. Their owner, upset over the abandonment, spends the next half a year or so figuring out a way to get back to Antarctica to find his precious dogs – whether they will be alive or he will have to bury them, he knows not, but he must find out, with a little help from his friends – the romantic interest, the comic relief (the American Pie guy), and a scientist who was saved by the dogs while on expedition (he fell through the ice and one of the dogs tread upon broken ice to rope him and then the dogs together pulled him out of the water — very cool scene).

Now, this is a Disney movie, so we already know there is a happy ending. There are sad moments, of course, and not all the beautiful doggies make it (two, to be exact), but otherwise, we get to see them live life on their own in Antarctica, a March of the Dogs if you will. They hunt birds, they play in the southern lights, they look out for one another, they follow their leader. It’s like watching a Jack London story come to life, only much better than when Disney actually did bring a Jack London story to life:

Book? There’s a book?

The dogs also battle a leopard seal, though with better luck than penguins. The scene was scary enough to give The Boy nightmares about a leopard seal attacking, so be warned (SPOILER): the leopard seal shows up by surprise when Max finds the dead whale. Other than that, everyone in the family really liked this movie. Unfortunately, I can never let a good thing run its course, and had to go and look up the “inspired by a true story” part of the movie and RUIN ALL THE FUN. The true story is that in 1958, a Japanese expedition left their team of fifteen dogs in Antarctica. Two of them lived. Depressing story of thirteen dead dogs or inspirational tale about the survival of two? You can decide by watching the Japanese 1983 film, Nankyoku Monogatari:

Good for them. Bad for the other dogs.

Wow wow, Wubbzy
Wubbzy Wubbzy, wow wow!

Those of you who nodded along while reading those words know what show I’m talking about and those of you who wondered what I just wrote need an explanation…

Wubbzy is a Nick Jr. show that my children adore. I said before that I don’t have any television service in the house, but I do have the Internet and my kids have exhausted its collection Wubbzy shows, not to mention all the Wubbzy activities on the Wubbzy site – please, Wubbzy people, give us more coloring pages. As her name suggests, Little No Limit has no limit when it comes to coloring.

I was incredibly stoked when MomCentral announced that they had some copies of the Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! Pirate Treasure DVD available for review. I was blessed to receive a copy even though I’m now inundated with this question (imagine repeating this video 4-5 times in a row 4-5 times a day):

So since The Boy is such a fan, I thought I’d interview him for his thoughts on Wubbzy:

What kind of animal is Wubbzy?

He’s not an animal. He’s a guy.

Who are his friends?

Widget and Walden.

Who is your favorite?

Lola and Lolo.

That’s nice but Lola and Lolo aren’t on the show (they’re his grandparents). So what happens on the show?

Widget and Walden get up and tell Wubbzy there isn’t any treasure. And Wubbzy says “You got to believe!”

Do you believe?

Yes! I have to go Mom.

Off he runs to watch Wubbzy.

There you have it. Wubbzy is a hit in this house.

Bromance?

What is a bromance exactly? It’s defined on Urban Dictionary as the complicated love and affection between two heterosexual men, but I think any tight relationship between men will also suffice, complications notwithstanding. I just finished watching Pineapple Express, and its reviews have had the term bromance thrown around a lot, so in honor of the amusement that is Pineapple Express, here’s 13 bromances (other lists of 13 here):

1. Pineapple Express – James Franco, guys, James Franco. I already liked him from his Harry Osbourne/Green Goblin stint but his role as the pot dealer who loves his bubby is not only utterly hilarious but an exact replica of my friend’s college boyfriend. Ah, memories.

2. Swingers – frankly, I hated this movie, except for the opening “Double Down” sequence, but I acknowledge that it belongs on a bromance list.

3. 25th Hour – I initially had Rounders on my bromance list but decided to replace it with 25th Hour since I can only put so many Edward Norton movies on one list. I view the bromance between Edward Norton and his two friends as an interesting take on the long term friendship, the equivalent of the college friends you always wondered about how/why they became friends only to discover that they met when they lived together in the dorms. There are certain things that bring people together, and it’s interesting to see them looking out for each other to the very end.

4. Top Gun – I know, I know, Take My Breath Away, Kelly McGillis, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling… you’d think this was a regular ‘ol romance, but as Quentin Tarantino puts it so eloquently at the end of Sleep With Me, Top Gun is about the dudes.

5. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle – Not only a movie about friendship between two guys, but Neil Patrick Harris at his finest. Also the only movie I’ve ever seen where two guys ride a cheetah.

6. Superbad – Here’s a bromance between two high school boys (and kind of between those two cops and McLovin) on a crazy adventure to bring alcohol to a party to impress two certain girls. I think this movie may have been too built up for me because I was expecting something much more spectacular than what I saw, though I admit to laughing at every scene involving McLovin and the “These Eyes” singing sequence (side story: I went to The Guess Who concert at Boomtown casino in New Orleans because my friend won tickets on a radio show that asked the question, “What is Homer Simpson’s middle name?” – it was my first trip to a casino and I won $75 on a slot machine). I just don’t feel the need to buy this movie and watch it over and over, which is my ultimate determination for what brings a movie from good to great.

7. City Slickers – This is a movie overflowing with bromance. Jack Palance and Billy Crystal, Billy Crystal and his friends, the ice cream guys, and, I don’t know, something about being out in the wild. Can you imagine the jokes if this movie had come out after Brokeback Mountain?

8. Flight of the Conchords – I know this isn’t a movie, but one can wish.

9. Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny – Total bromance, TOTAL BROMANCE. Also, a Guitarance, which is something that occurs daily in my house.

10. Several Will Ferrell flicks, in order of Most Bromantic to Least Bromantic: Stepbrothers, Night at the Roxbury, Talladega Nights, Anchorman, and Old School. And my most oft-quoted phrases from these movies, respective to the previous list: “fancy sauce”; “EMILIOOOOOOOOO!”; “Shake and bake!”; “I’m kind of a big deal”; “We’re going to Home Depot, maybe Bed Bath and Beyond.”

11. Tropic Thunder, and pretty much all other war movies – I find war movies all converge towards creating one big Bromance, because they’re often about the relationships between men that develop when they’re at war. A better example of a war movie bromance would probably have been Gallipoli with Mel Gibson and Mark Lee or the 1930 film, All Quiet on the Western Front. I choose Tropic Thunder mainly because it’s the latest one I’ve seen and (clearly) most ridiculous. I think the only other funny war movies I’ve seen are MASH and Life is Beautiful (really, how many war comedies are out there?).

12. Highlander: Endgame – yes, of course I have to include this movie. Duncan! Connor! Together! (For a while, sniff sniff.)

13. Hot Fuzz – So if you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, you’ll probably like Hot Fuzz, a buddy cop film about a tough cop and a cop who emulates the heroes of Bad Boys II and Point Break. If that isn’t enough, they encounter strange things afoot in their little town and it turns out to be problems of the occult kind. ‘Nuff said.

So there’s my list. I considered adding The Hustler in place of one of the others because I just watched it the other night and after getting over the fact that Piper Laurie creeps me out as a young and beautiful drunk cripple as much as she creeps me out as an older Bible thumping freak mom in Carrie, I decided there was a lot to be said about Paul Newman’s relationship with his original partner in crime that he kicks to the curbside halfway through the movie. But it seemed just too ridiculous to have The Hustler on a list that also included Harold and Kumar, even for me…

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I am currently reading The View From Mount Joy for book club and I’m still in the early pages of attending high school with Joe. Joe works for the school paper and during a staff meeting, one of the guys suggests an interview with the school’s exchange student, whose name is Gisele, and the editor replies, “Go ahead, Myers. But don’t try to wangle a date out of it.”

What is it about exchange students? They are often portrayed to be hotties that everyone wants to get with, or completely out of touch with all the ways of American high school and therefore subject to ridicule.

My mother, as a side job, used to help with finding exchange students placement in American homes, and I’ve interacted with countless exchange students. I’ve lived with several of them. Admittedly, there are a couple notable (and one smelly – seriously, it was a problem) exceptions, but for the most part, exchange students fit right in with the space-time-high school continuum. Nothing like these guys:

American Pie. Everyone’s favorite exchange student, Shannon Elizabeth catapulted to stardom after she got naked and pleasured herself in Jason Biggs’ bedroom. I’m SO SURE that happens all the time.

Can’t Hardly Wait. No idea what that exchange student’s name is but he says “Would you like to touch my penis?” to a lovelorn Ethan Embry at a very opportune moment.

Sixteen Candles. Long Duc Dong, baby. Long. Duc. Dong. Sure, it’s funny when he says “That you?” (Yeah, that me.) but what really cracks me up about Long Duc Dong is the way Grandma and Grandpa clap at him to get his attention. “Dong! Dong! Grandpa is talking to you!”

Better Off Dead. Exchange student meets girl next door. Cute, sweet, skis well. AND can fix cars. Is Monique a keeper? All signs point to YES!

Not Another Teen Movie. That forgettable spoof with Areola, the naked exchange student from an ambiguous country. Her whole purpose was… um… did I already say she was naked?

With exception to last one, I still recommend those movies. They’re funny. But when it comes to exchange student portrayals, I’m going to have to give props to non-American films. Try these two:

Linda Linda Linda. This is a Japanese flick wherein three Japanese high schoolers draft the school’s Korean exchange student to be the lead singer in their punk rock band after getting into a fight with the original lead singer, and they have to two days to rehearse for their performance in the school variety show. Honestly, this is what I imagine it feels like to be an exchange student. Doo-na Bae is the exchange student, and she wins my heart in the scene where she meets the guitarist’s ex-boyfriend. Here’s the preview (the preview isn’t in English, but it’s pretty self-explanatory):

l’Auberge Espagnole. In this one, they’re ALL exchange students! Seven college students from different European countries participate in a study abroad program in Barcelona, where they live together in an apartment. The universal language of hilarity ensues. And just wait until you see how they portray the American. (Although, really, I think the British got it worse with the visit from the brother.) Here’s the preview:

So, what about you? Any movie exchange students you thought were superb or superbly ridiculous?

Dear Husband,

First and foremost, let me thank you for watching the movie 27 Dresses with me. I know it wasn’t exactly what you had in mind when you said, “Did we get anything new from Netflix?”

Secondly, thank you for resisting the urge to groan, an urge I’m sure was particularly hard to resist during any of the following moments:

a) The Benny and the Jets sing-a-long at the bar
b) c) The entire bridesmaid dress montage
d) The line, “Get over here.”
e) The line, “I cried like a baby.”

I’m sure you had the urge to groan through pretty much the whole movie except the line “Bridezilla’s on the loose!”, when I distinctly heard you laugh. I know this movie was a more painful experience for you than 13 Going on 30 or even How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. In the future, I’ll make sure to no longer subject you to movies with a number in the title, unless that number is II, III, IV, V, VI or 300.

Lastly, I feel obligated to tell you something:

When you asked me what we had received from Netflix, I neglected to inform you that in addition to receiving 27 Dresses, we had also received Iron Man. I’m not proud of what I did, but I knew what your answer would be if I gave you both choices.

To make up for it, I hereby suggest a compromise.

I will watch any of the following movies with you:

a) Any Rambo film
b) Any western starring Clint Eastwood, even High Plains Drifter
c) Any film starring Jean Claude Van Damme

I hope this makes amends.

Sincerely,

Your Loving Wife