One for the Money, Jane Eyre 2011, Snow White,The Hiding Place, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

I am finally updating on the movies I've seen.

I watched The Accidental Husband a while ago.  It has Uma Thurman, Colin Firth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in it. It's about this radio talk show host, Emma Lloyd, (Uma Thurman) who gives advice about love.  Emma tells a lady who calls that she should break up with her fiance. The lady does and the ex-fiance (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) seeks revenge on Emma and trouble ensues.  It's a romantic comedy. There were some funny parts, but for the most part it was okay.  I don't think I would watch it again.

I saw One For the Money with Kathryn Heigl and Jason O'Mara.  Stephanie Plum (Kathryn Heigl) is unemployed and newly divorced.  She is offered a job in the bail bond business through a family connection. One of her assignments, that she must capture and bring in to be arrested, is an old flame (Jason O'Mara).  The job ends up being much more dangerous than Stephanie originally thought and she must keep herself safe and try to put the pieces of the case together quickly before anyone else gets killed.  It was also only okay for me. It didn't do much for me. 

I love Jane Eyre. I have read the book (although it has been a long time).  I have seen a couple of versions of the movie, but I had not seen the newest version from 2011 until a couple of weeks ago.  I liked it.  It was pretty good.  I need to read the book again to remember.

I watched Snow White and the Huntsman.  It was a twist on the original fairy tale. I didn't like it all that much. The evil queen was a bit too scary to me.  The actors didn't have much chemistry in my opinion.

Since I recently read The Hiding Place, I decided to watch the movie with the same title.  First of all, in order to understand the movie you must read the book.  They don't give much background information in the movie and at some points it was a little confusing even after having just read the book. (There were some people there that had never read the book and they had no idea what was going on.)  Second of all, it was a little slow, but I thought it was a well made movie. (From the trailers I thought it would be much cheesier) Third of all it misses some important parts of the book (I do realize they can't put everything in the movie otherwise it would be forever long)  Overall, I liked the movie.  I am glad I watched it and at the end the real Corrie ten Boom comes onto screen and talks for a few minutes.

The last movie I've seen recently is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  Watching it really made me want to visit India.  It is such a beautiful, dirty, different, exotic place.  The movie is about a group of retirees that are enticed by a hotel in India aimed at elderly people.  The cost of living is cheaper and it is a new and exciting place to live.  It goes through the trials and adventures of the people as they get settled and get used to the culture of their new place.  I must say that there was a  bit of sexual content in there but they don't ever show anything.  The show had potential to be awesome.  I did love all of the scenes of India.

Peaches and Shakespeare and Dickens and stuff

First the books.

2) James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. We did this as a read-aloud on a family camping trip last weekend. It was perfect for all five kids--as well as parents. This is a classic, but it's one I'd never read. My all-time favorite kids' book is The Twits, so I don't know what took me so long to read this. I love the magic, but when it began, I'll have to admit I was a bit dismayed. "You could go any direction with this, Mr. Dahl, and you go with giant talking insects," I sighed. However, the end product was a lot of fun, and the humor kept the masses laughing out loud all the way to the mountains and back.

3) Juliet by Anne Fortier. Have I ever loved a book this much? Possibly not. I sighed, laughed, squealed, gasped (at least ten times at the shocking twists), worried, and just marveled at the sheer genius of this book. It's a double plot, one in modern day Siena and another in 1340 Siena. I won't spoil anything, but it involves two Juliets, one now and the other Shakespeare's source-Juliet. It's woven with grace and incredible tension in both the plot elements and the relationships. I've never been a huge Romeo & Juliet devotee, but by the end of this I was in love with Romeo. And I almost never fall in love with heroes of books. Seriously. The. Best. Many thanks to my friend Colleen for telling me about this book.

And now for the movies:

2) Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer. This was a family movie night. Judy wants to have the best summer with her friends, but they have to leave town, so she's bummed. Her aunt comes to stay, and things liven up. There's a Bigfoot sighting and some tightrope walking. I haven't read the books, but the script wasn't cliche, and it was great for the kids. I'm easily entertained, and this one wasn't hard to enjoy.

3) One For the Money. Oh, my, how I loved this movie. Janet Evanovich created these characters, and it's easy to see why Stephanie Plum is so popular. The ditzy, desperate bounty hunter and her cocky, desperate quarry? I loved them. I loved the seedy setting, the cars, the side characters, the costumes, all of it. I'd watch this again. In the theater. For $18.

4) Oliver! Okay. I have a vague recollection of seeing this movie in about 1977, but I don't think I'll count it since I was five. Is that legal for this 50/50 thing? I'm saying yes. But I'm saying NO to Oliver! What a dreary mess. How can they put so many excellent songs into such a grim story? I don't think Dickens's tale was this much of a downer. Again, we did this for family movie night, but I have to echo my 7 yo daughter's assessment: "Ugh! This started out as a great movie, but it ended up as a killing movie!" Pretty much. And worse, I went on imdb and read up on the lives of the child stars. Never do that. It's grimmer than Dickens.

5) Something Borrowed This was a chick-lit book turned into a movie. As such, it doesn't fit a genre. It's not a comedy (too much relationship drama for that). It's not a romance, really. The characters are all so flawed that there's almost no one to root for. The basic plot is Girl A falls for Guy B during law school, but doesn't think he could like her back. Her BFF (self-absorbed snot) accidentally steals guy B, and now it's 6 years down the road and BFF and B are engaged and Girl A is the maid of honor, and all that. But Girl A spends a lot of time figuring out that she's still in love with Guy B and he might be in love back, and they spend a hot, lovey night together, which creates all kinds of tension. By the end there's been so much betrayal that no one deserves a happily ever after. My husband despised this movie. Haha, I thought it was quite chicky, but again, I'm easily entertained and found it interesting, as the BFF reminded me of someone I knew and it was fascinating to see her on screen portrayal.

Pretty much, yeah. I watch twice as many movies as I read books. I'll be done with 50 movies by March.