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The Christmas Cottage
Bait Shop
Happily N’Ever After 2: Snow White
Shaun the Sheep: Off the Baa!

The story is the same that’s been told before; character is cold and remote but through embarrassing scenarios, kindness from others and a love interest opens up to be the warm, tenderhearted all humans truly are deep inside. Blah! But this movie showed Lucy’s transformation very well. If I didn’t hate her by the end of the movie then you know they did a good job. One scene in particular, when Blanche, who I’ll talk about in a second, gives her some homemade Christmas gifts and Lucy is obviously touched.

There is comedy, the token butt injury is in here as well but I was so distracted by everything else in the scene that it came as much a surprise to me as the poor character filled with buckshot. The chemistry between Lucy and Ted is great at times; fiery, tentative and smoldering they were a good match up. Although anyone would be a good match up with Harry Connick, Jr.

The secondary characters was really what got me through the beginning. Especially Blanche, the executive assistant and Stu the foreman of the plant.  Blanche is what keeps the pudding together. Not only can she do amazing things with skim milk but her warmth and generosity really made me want to become a scrapper. Too bad my human has banned me from sharp instruments. Stu, the rough around the edges foremen is all man; ice-fishing, beer drinking and making animals out of wood.

Bottom line would I watch this one again? Yep.

Quotes:

“You know you’re not so bad when you’re unconscious.”
“[On freezing to death] Especially the stupid ones. It’s natures way of thinning out the herd if you ask me.”
“Oh for crying in the beer-cheese soup.”

Bring it On:  Fight to the Finish-  Scary
State of Play-  Have it.
Mamma Mia
Fighting-  On Blockbuster Bargains list

Commercials:
Universal Studios Hi-Def.
Tobacco Free Ad
Psych Season 3-  Sweet

The romantic action spy/not a spy movie starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen has a cool, slick feel to it.  Too bad cool environments put my human to sleep.   Watching it later when HT was mostly awake we bickered over many points of the movie-

“Shocker.”

Thank you, HT for that interruption.   However we did agree on a few things as well.  Clive Owen plays a mean Artorius.

“That was from King Arthur.”

Whatever, here is my take on Duplicity.

It opens in 2003, Dubai.  In a nutshell; they meet, they shag, they steal things.  Sounds like a Jason Mraz album huh?  Meanwhile, two corporate columorantes get into a brawl at an airport.  The fight between Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson with only James Bond-esque music playing was… amazing.

Five years later, the story begins or does it?  Claire and Ray meet again, this time working for the same team.  As corporate spies working for Paul Giamatti they confound each other and everyone else with their double talk.

The whole movie jumps around chronologically.  2003, 2008, 2006, 2008, 18 months earlier, 2008, 14 months earlier… you get the idea.  It is pretty quiet but I really enjoyed it.  It reminded me of HT’s cooking, once you think you know what it is you realized you haven’t got a clue.

The cinematography was crisp and highly polished just like the acting.  If you want to watch a unique take on building trusting relationships or just enjoy the droll back and forth of two brilliant characters then you should read this blog… I mean watch this movie.

HT’s thoughts:

“The scene when Julia interviews conned female employee that got frisky with her man was great.  She was so still and scary- impressive.

Plus, I really liked the dialogue in this film.  Sometimes repetitive (with cause), sometimes concise but always adding a rich layer to the story.  I liked it much better the second time around.”

That is because you slept through it the first time.

Quotes:

“I own you.”
“I swear to you on all things good and true.”
“That woman knows who I am and loves me anyways.”

Touted as a romantic comedy based on the novel by Diane Johnson three chicks, one being my Human, sat down to enjoy French scenery, food and wine.  First thing my human noticed on the DVD, no previews.  Since I was busy playing with my new robotic ant I asked Human later if it was any good.  This was her take on it.

The story begins with smooth music and Isabel (Kate Hudson) arriving in Paris to visit her pregnant sister (Naomi Watts) unknowingly entering as Roxy’s husband was leaving her.  The movie meanders down the path of le divorce and Isabel passes the time by becoming involved with an older, sophisticated Frenchman who happens to be a relative of the absent husband.

The painting on Roxy’s wall is practically a character itself and plays a huge role in many  lives. Surprise twists, interesting characters and decadent dishes kept me interested when unpleasant character developments made me cringe but lean forward to see what would happen next.

With quite a cast including;  Glen Close, Stephen Fry as a Christie’s employee and Matthew Modine a grieving and tortured husband, the cast was superb.  Isabel’s character was fresh and likeable until she became romantically entangled with the wrong man and was very unsympathetic for most of the movie but you got to know her and redeemed herself by the end.  Of course.

Afterwards, I told her that didn’t tell me if she liked it or not and she didn’t seem to know either.  If you don’t want to read spoilers then skip down to the quote and trailers. Next, I wanted to know what the other chicks thought.

Chick 1:  “Annoying, frustrating because of the lifestyle differences but glad he got his just desserts in the end- but didn’t expect that he’d be killed.  If it wasn’t for the fact that they killed him I would have hated that movie.”

Chick 2: “Crappy, upsetting because didn’t like main character and thought she was disloyal to sister.”

Quotes:

“Of course.”
“Now we must decide if you will be my mistress.”

Did you see this movie? Or read the book?
This was a Blockbuster Bargain. Check the list for the other movie’s we got super cheap.

Mutant Chronicles (John Malkovich stars)
Big Man Japan(It looks like someone fell asleep watching Godzilla after oding on Skittles)
Food, Inc (Makes you want to grow your own food just to stick it to the man)

The story is simple, Buck Howard has a few tricks up his sleeve that he believes will revamp his entertainment career and possibly get him back on the Late Night Show.  With a recent college drop out as his new on road manager and a pessimistic publiscist his star power reawakens but that is not what truly makes him or this movie great.  It follows the journey of life when knowing yourself is the best “effect” you can learn.  Watching John Malkovich and the rest of the cast put on a great show I realized that Buck Howard- mesmerized me.

Here are some Buck Howard quotes.

“George (Takei), may the force be with you.”
“That man is Satan and Buck Howard does not work with Satan.” (Referring to Jay Leno)
“I love this town.”

I love this movie.

Did you see this movie? Or read the book?
This was a Blockbuster Bargain. Check the list for the other movie’s we got super cheap.

Sadly our local Blockbuster closed its doors last month and before you scoff, “you still go to the video store”, my human uses Blockbuster Online and loved returning the mailers to get a free movie.  What can I say, she’s cheap.  So cheap that she carefully selected the used movies she bought from the closing store, that is until they went down to a dollar a piece.  Then she lost all self-control.  Here are a few of the movies, I shudder to tell you how many she really got.

1. Mostly Martha
2. Inkheart
3. The Maiden Heist
4. Vantage Point
5. Italian Job (1969)
6. The Spirit
7. Le Divorce
8. Mozart and the Whale
9. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
10. The Great Buck Howard
11. Transporter 3
12. Rescue Dawn
13. The Marc Rease Experience
14. The Accidental Husband
15. New in Town
16. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
17. Music and Lyrics
18. Duplicity

Well, do you think any of them were worth a dollar?  Here are two bonus movies she got for 4.99 each.

19.  Steamboy
20. Star Trek

Which ones would you have scooped up too?  I think we may have to do a marathon.

Human where’s the popcorn?