Gene Siskel, I'm Not

I was at a drama meeting the other night and my fellow members were talking about movies they'd seen recently. Pretty much the only movies I see are on DVD and have Disney somewhere in the title. I may never be up on the latest releases (you might recall the last non-kid movie I saw in the theater was Titanic), but I will happily provide you with reviews of really old movies right here on Because I Said So. If you like to watch movies before they're 10 years old, you might want to skip this. If you live in a cave like me and only see movies when they come out on DVD and feature things like animated cucumbers, this is for you.

We recently watched National Treasure Two: Book of Secrets. The older kids and I all really liked it. Of course, we loved the first one too. I don't think little kids would get into it, but it's a good one for the family. Besides, it has Nicholas Cage and Justin Bartha who are, you know - cute.

LET'S ALL GO TO THE LOBBY...

Orville Redenbacher sent me some popcorn. Oh, wait a minute. Orville himself didn't send it to me. Is THE Orville Redenbacher still alive? I'm thinking no. If he is, I doubt he'd think of sending me popcorn in the hopes that I'd talk about it on my blog. Actually, it was the folks who do promoting type stuff for Con Agra who sent it to me. Just wanted to clear that up.

Anyway, so I got this popcorn and we had it for movie night. I actually do use my hot air popper to make popcorn for the kids pretty often. It's inexpensive and it's far healthier than a lot of packaged snacks. When my kids have friends over after school, they always ask for popcorn as a snack. In all fairness, I generally buy Orville Redenbacher popcorn because I bought some generic kind once and I couldn't believe how small the kernals popped. Remember those old commercials, "My gourmet popping corn pops up lighter and fluffier...."? Well, it's true.

But check this out - Natural Popcorn - they now have microwave popcorn without the artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives. It comes in lots of yummy flavors too! Cool, huh?

Ok, so back to movies. We also watched The Spiderwick Chronicles. Soon after we started the movie, we realized it was a little too scary for small kids. We sent Clay and Lex to bed because I didn't want to get up 50 times during the night to listen to their nightmares them to have bad dreams. The movie was pretty good. Kinda predictable, but worth renting. Savannah liked the books better.

This had the kid from Willy Wonka in it. But not the good Willy Wonka with Gene Wilder; the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp looking and acting especially creepy and strange. And my kids looked at me like I was an idiot because I didn't believe them when they said that kid was playing both brothers in the movie. Actually it was dark in the room because we always have to turn off all the lights and drag out every pillow and blanket when we watch movies for some reason. But if the lights had been on and I'd been able to actually see, I know they would've looked at me like I was an idiot.

Let's see, after the next batch of kids went to bed, we watched Jumper. It's about this guy who can teleport to different locations just by thinking about it. Meanwhile, another guy tries to chase him down and kill him because he believes that no one but God should have the power to be in all places like that.

At first he uses this power to rob banks and travel the world. OK, he's just a kid; he'll learn, I thought. I kept waiting for him to realize that he had this gift and should use it for good. You know, he sees a live broadcast on the news of a person standing on a building waiting to jump and he teleports there and rescues him. That kind of thing. But it never happens. He never changes. When it was over, I kept thinking, "What's the point? That was stupid." Joe liked it though. Then again, Joe and I almost never agree on movies or TV shows because I have taste and the stuff he likes is asinine.

With my awesome powers of perception, I was able to figure out that the guy in this movie is the same guy who played Darth Vader. Or maybe not so much Darth Vader, but Anakin. Anakin? That's his name, right? Well, he played some guy in Star Wars. And it only took me like 45 minutes to realize this. How 'bout that for astounding talent?

Another couple movies I recently watched were Flywheel and Facing the Giants. These DVDs were sent to me by Provident Films. Flywheel was a little slow moving at first and you could tell it wasn't some big budget Hollywood film. Despite that, it drew me in and I attentively watched the entire picture. Not only that, but I teared up a couple times during the movie too! The movie itself is an obvious message of God's love and turning your life over to Him. But what intrigued me most about this movie is that it was shot with a $20,000 budget of unsolicited donations! Not only that, but the cast and crew was solely comprised of volunteer members of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA. The Kendrick brothers (one of whom also stars in the movie) got the idea to make the film after seeing the results of a survery which said "movies and television shows are more influential in American culture than the church." You can read more about that HERE.

Then I watched their second movie, Facing the Giants. I really enjoyed this picture. It was your typical "underdog football team turns around and wins big in the end" kind of movie, but with a Christian twist. This picture also stars Alex Kendrick; this time as coach Grant Taylor. He's the coach of a losing football team, his car is falling apart, money is tight, he and wife are having problems with infertility, and he is close to being fired from his coaching job. At this point, he starts praying and changes his focus and good things start to happen. His team changes, their playing changes, their attitudes change, the small kicker gains confidence, and disrespectful kid has a change of heart and apologizes to his father. They start winning games, the coach gets a raise and unexpected gift of a new car.

I've got to warn you though - have a box of tissues nearby. You'll definitely tear up over this one. But there are well timed moments of humor throughout the movie too. The banter between the assistant coaches made me laugh out loud. I'm looking forward to seeing their new film, Fireproof, that will be in theaters this September.

And finally, I got to escape for an evening last week and see Sex and the City with my friend, Jen. I don't get HBO and had just watched some of the cut reruns of the TV show so I wasn't sure I'd really like the movie, but hey, it was a night out of the house! I actually really, really liked it! I laughed, I cried, I left the theater and wanted to move to New York with my four best friends. I just love the way they show the incredible friendship between these four girls.

So, there you have it. Mediocre reviews on a couple movies that have been out for months. You can't get this kind of quality at those other blogs.

Remember also, that you have until Monday, July 7th, to answer the questions on yesterday's quiz. Just please leave your comment on yesterday's post so I don't have to search all over for entries. Thank you! Oh and if you saw the post when I first wrote it and were overwhelmed with the TWENTY hard questions I had, never you fear. I modified it a bit and now it's only 10 multiple choice questions. I don't expect anyone to remember everything and know the answers to all the questions, but have fun with it and take a guess! I've got some awesome prizes donated by some awesome people for you to win!