Ahira's Hangar

My hub and I finally watched Team America World Police and found parts of it to be so funny we nearly peed ourselves (the parts in Paris and Cairo...)...but other parts were just wrong. Unfortunately, the theme song (with a lot of curse words) is very catching, so I've been wandering through life lately singing "America - F**k YEAH!.

I watched a little dvd I got from Netflix tonight. I ordered it as a stress reducer to help me relax. It worked quite well. It is called Kittens and was about an hour of darling kittens playing and looking adorable.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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My younger son and I just watched a very good documentary called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill about a flock of wild parrots living on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. The birds were both beautiful and sometimes funny, their lives interesting and sometimes touching. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Watched Stay, based on Cail's recommendation, with Ewan MacGregor, Ryan Gosling and Naomi Watts. Weird and intriguing flux-piece...that I'm still trying to figure out. The acting was incredibly sincere, Gosling was wild and I still can't forget Bob Hoskins' first sceen. Music: outstanding. For some reason this reminds me of K-Pax, The Lathe of Heaven, In Dreams and The Sixth Sense with a dash of Jacob's Ladder thrown in here and there. Definately worth your while. *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

Merry Christmas is a French movie in French, German, and Scottish-English. It was about the WW1 Christmas truce. Was pretty good, my wife and I enjoyed it. Have you hugged your cat today?<i></i>

Yes, Joyeaux Noel (spelling?) was a very enjoyable movie. I loved the part where the opera singer sang "Silent Night" into the cold night...beautiful, just beautiful... <i></i>

One of my friends was horrified by the fact that I had never seen Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and lent me her copy with strict orders to watch it.

So I did watch it, this afternoon.

I thought it was rather odd, but quite enjoyable. It is a very loose retelling of Homer's Odyssey set in the Mississippi back in the Great Deperssion. Ratherthan Odysseus and his men, we have a trio of escaped convicts (the leader of which is named Ulysses).

I also watched a classic Hepburn/Spencer movie, Desk Set. You would never know by looking at it, but it turned out to be a Christmas movie, or at least a movie with a Christmas setting. Hepburn is in charge of the research department at a large national network. Spencer is the man brought in to computerize her department. Seeing the 1950's thoughts on computers was pretty interesting. And Spencer and Hepburn together is always a treat.

I think that next weekend I am going to have a Superman marathon. I will get Superman, Superman II, and Superman Returns from netflix, and try to watch them over 1-2 days. I have not seen the first two movies since they were released a million years ago, and have not seen the third one yet. Since the new one is supposed to be the sequel to the first two, I will actually know what is going on in the new one that way.

Two movies we watched this evening that were hits with all three of us was the old classic Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper as the great Lou Gehrig. The second old classic baseball movie we watched was The Stratton Story starring Jimmy Stewart as the young White Sox All Star pitcher who lost his leg in a hunting accident and came back to have a long minor league pitching career. Both wre old black and white movies from the 1940's.

Luckily my younger son does not mind black and white movies. You would be surprised. My older son does not mind them either, but had a couple of friends who were very snotty about older movies not in color. <i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 12/10/06 9:27 pm
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Duchess and all,
Desk Set among the ten or so Hepburn/Tracy collaborations is a film oft forgotten or neglected, and is not as well known as Woman of the Year, Adam's Rib, or Guess who's coming to Dinner, etc. Of course it's more of an ensemble piece relying more on the supporting cast than those other movies; IIRC, this movie and GwctD are the only two in color. Not to nitpick, but Hepburn's character works at a NYC newspaper. And the classic scene most typical of the movie is an early scene when Hepburn takes Tracy on the roof of the newspaper's building and he gives her his research quiz. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Buffy fans Chicago
my livej<i></i>

Superman Returns was fun and corny. Spacey always keeps you guessing...had it's low points, Bosworth didn't impress as Lois Lane. But, as Tam says, great "eye-candy"! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

We watched the two first legs of our Superman marathon tonight!

Calibaby had never seen either of them!

I had actually forgotten how good Superman is. I do not think I have seen it all the way through since I was a kid. Christopher Reeves was just...adorable. I do not know what other word could sum up his performance so well. There is a nice chemistry between him and Margot Kidder. The special affects are a bit cheesy at times, but certainly no worse than the original Star Wars films.

And the film score literally blew me away. The composer did a first rate job with the music for this film.

Superman II was also enjoyable. It did not age quite as well as the first movie, but it was still pretty cool. We watched the new version that was just released - recut by the original director who left during the filming. The thing is - I have not seen the whole thing in so long, I do not know how it actually differs from the original theatrical version.

I know Christopher Reeves would go on to have tragedy in his life; didn't Margot Kidder have some serious problems as well?

Tomorrow night if we have time we will watch Superman Returns.

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Tonight we had a Christmas show marathon.

Charlie Brown Christmas (best Christmas show EVER)
A Christmas Story (cute and very funny movie about a kid who wants a BB gun for Christmas more than anything in the world)
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (original animated version, which is a close second to Charlie Brown)
We're No Angels (old classic Christmas movie starring Humphrey Bogart as a convict on Devil's Island)
A Christmas Carol (the George C. Scott version, which ROCKS) ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Watched Invincible last night. Greg Kinnear very convincing as Coach Dick Vermiel. I didn't realize Papaulu played with the Eagles for 3 years. Very uplifting movie! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

Your post just got me to bump that movie up to the top of my Netflix list. I think my younger son and hub might like that one.

Last night I watched the second Pirates of the Carribean movie. It was dumb, but somewhat entertaining, with decent special effects. Good way to spend a mindless evening at home, but I am glad I didn't spend the money to see it at the theater, either. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Watched one of the weirder movies I have seen tonight - The Story of the Weeping Camel. It took me awhile to get into it, but I liked it once I did. It is this odd little documentary from Mongolia (the Gobi looks almost exactly like the San Luis Valley in Colorado - my mouth dropped open!!) about this mother camel who rejects her newborn baby. The shepherds do everything they can think of to bring the two together, but nothing works. They finally send their little boys on camelback across the desert to go find a musician to perform a special ceremenony... ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Pan's Labyrinth is awesome and everyone should see it, now! Watched it on Superbowl Sunday.

On the same day I watched Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank. I liked it alot, I'm sure many would say this movie over romanticizes and over simplifies the trials and serious issues of teaching at risk students; furthermore, many would find this movie overly maudlin and emotional. Co-produced by MTV films. This movie is very similar to the the movie that was out about twenty years ago Stand and Deliver, this movie uses the vehicle of creative writing and not AP Calculus.

FWIW, a friend of mine in California kept telling me that these types of movies were not realistic because students as described in FW and SaD cannot be brought to excellance through the techniques described in the movie. Her opinion never wavered regardless these movies might be based on true stories. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Buffy fans Chicago
my livej<i></i>

Saw Casino Royale 'bout a week ago. It was good. My reservation, is not really knowing how I feel about this reinventing of the character, since CR presumes the other movies are non-existing. (and there's always; IMO, the only real Bond is Sean Connery).