I had the chance to catch some movies or parts of movies over the last few weeks.

Last weekend, I had an evening to myself and finally saw a movie that was hogging up a lot of space on our DVR, Eat Pray Love. I remember that it didn’t get great reviews and after watching it, I have to throw in my own “meh.”  I should mention I haven’t read the book. I’m interested in reading it now because I’d like to see why it resonated so much with (women) readers. But watching it, I sort of felt unmoved by the fact that Liz was suffering so much because she had asked her husband for a divorce or “given up on her marriage.” I think most women have had relationships that ended badly, most of us don’t have the resources to travel around the world for the year to “get over it.” I really didn’t find myself feeling sorry for her. I did appreciate James Franco’s and Javier Bardem’s appearances though!

This weekend, I ended up watching the last half of Titanic (after the ship hit the iceberg) with mr. strivingcynic and his daughter (sc teen). I find that certain things really strike me. The first is how brutal the last half is…watching people trying to get off the ship and then hanging on for dear life as it sinks, watching them in the water, and the merciless cold. The second thought is how freaking young Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were when they were in Titanic (early 20s). It’s hard to believe that movie is almost 15 years old. Also, watching it this time, I realized that April will be the 100th anniversary of the trip.

On another note, sc teen had mentioned earlier that day she didn’t know who Celine Dion (who she came across in a crossword puzzle) is.  I was surprised at how surprised I was that she didn’t know Celine Dion [I suspect this might be the state of 14-year-olds today] and, yep, Titanic is older than she is. So, I pointed out that all the warbling going on at the end as young Rose is rescued and old Rose goes back to Titanic was Celine.

Staying with the water theme, last night I caught the end of Finding Nemo. Aside from the fact there was a commercial break every five minutes, it was fun to see this again (I’d only seen it once). Gotta love Nemo.

And today, an *authentic* movie experience, my first since seeing Bridesmaids months ago. I went to see Moneyball with the sc’s. Although I wouldn’t say “If you see one movie this year, see Moneyball” (nope, see Bridesmaids!), this was a really good movie. I’m not a baseball fan and have no memory of the events in this movie taking place, but I found it pretty compelling. The movie portrays how the General Manager (Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt) of the Oakland A’s forms a winning baseball team when he doesn’t have the funds to compete with the big big leagues. One of the aspects I found so interesting was the aspect of how the element of “romance” was pitted against math…how the people Billy worked with wanted to believe that there were elements of chance and gut feelings in finding good players and melding them into a team and how they felt threatened by the idea that it could all be boiled down to numbers. I suspect I wouldn’t want to see parts my own life, with the things I think of as fate, chance, or luck,  mapped to mathematical formulas either (even if Brad Pitt were somehow involved).

Do you have any thoughts to share about any of these movies? Which of Celine Dion’s songs would you mention first to describe her?

not related to this post in any way, but flowers *are* wedding-y...

Usually, when I hear about a movie, or see an ad on tv for a movie I think I might want to see, I usually just say, “I’ll catch it on on demand/cable/netflix [before I cancelled my subscription].” When I lived alone, I never went to the movies. Mr. strivingcynic and sc teen are more into movies, so in the last year, I’ve gone with them a few times, usually on their initiation. This week, after all the ads, discussion, and feeling that I was missing out on something really good, I asked mr. sc if he’d like to see Bridesmaids this weekend. I’m happy to say if I was going to initiate a movie excursion, this was the right one to pick.

Bridesmaids was (to me) pure fun. It was a Saturday night show, so the theater was pretty full with people who seemed to be enjoying themselves (oh, and there were previews for two movies that looked pretty funny Horrible Bosses [mr. sc did not recognize Jennifer Aniston, who looks amazing as a brunette), and The Change Up [both with Jason Bateman, no less]). I don’t remember laughing so hard at a movie for a really long time (if ever).

I’m not going to get too into the plot (if you’ve seen it, you know it, if you haven’t…well, go see it!), but I felt I could relate to Annie (Kristen Wiig) so well, since until relatively recently, I was always the late 30something “singleton” at weddings and other events. I’ve only ever been a bridesmaid once (which is plenty in my book…). I found her character really empathetic (if a bit self-centered) as she watched her best friend moving on to another life she didn’t necessarily have a place in. And the 80s nostalgia was perfect for me!

And, I’m calling it now…I think Melissa McCarthy needs to be nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Golden Globe, etc.) for her work in this movie. Her tough, no-nonsense character, Megan, had me laughing until I had to wipe tears away. Gilmore Girls was one of my favorite shows ever (two fictional tv towns I’ve wanted to live in are Cicely, Alaska, and Stars Hollow, Connecticut), and I could not believe that this was the same woman who played the sweet, kitchen accident-prone Sookie. She was unbelievable! I would love for Kristen Wiig to get some nominations too, but McCarthy just really stood out in her role.

Again, if you’ve seen it, or read the reviews, you know the movie has some raunchy/gross out moments (all the “this is the female Hangover” talk), which is true. I suppose in part it’s to draw in the male audience, but I’m not going to deny finding them hysterical myself (and, women can be raunchy and most of us have had some less-than-pretty moment in our lives).

Have you seen Bridesmaids and what did you think? If you have, what do you think about award nomination possibilities? Have you ever bridesmaided?

So far Spring is taking its time arriving…we had freezing rain this morning!

So, on Saturday I continued my streak of actually going to the movies. I went to see Limitless.

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It was really good…the premise is that an average guy (the oh-so-not-average Bradley Cooper) gets his hands on some….performance enhancing drugs….well, mental performance. He starts doing incredible things…and then starts having some not-so-incredible consequences. Got some ewwwwwwwwwwwww moments and the camerawork might make you feel a bit unsettled at times…but I would actually recommend this one.

Of course, this has made me think about what I would do if I suddenly was superduper smart (I probably wouldn’t use expressions like superduper for one thing…). I like to think I would use it for good….curing diseases, figuring out how to alleviate problems and afflictions, but like Eddie (Cooper’s character), I’d probably also do some things on the “what’s in it for me?” front. Like him, I’d want to make a lot of money (and again, I’d do some good with it, but I’d definitely buy myself some fun things…).

I suppose the other train of thought I had was, “what would I want to learn?” (yeah…he has to learn/study or at least be exposed to these things and draw from his knowledge). Definitely languages….I think I’d probably want to learn more about human behavior since I find I’m often baffled by how people behave (like when you encounter people who are rude from the first second you talk to them….why would you start an interaction with rudeness?). And I’d love to actually make sense of the information that’s out there about nutrition so that I would really know what to eat to keep me feeling satisfied, energetic, happy (between magazines and blogs, I get so much of this info, but I’m often at a loss regarding what I should eat). Oh…and I would actually learn enough medicine so that I wouldn’t do my usual hypochondriac thing and diagnose myself with something awful every time I catch a cold or have a minor ailment!

And of course, some animal behavior so that maybe one day I’d understand what this guy is trying to tell me

strivingcynic cat thinks deep thoughts (photo by mr. strivingcynic)

So, if you could be, like really really smart…..what would you do with what you learned?

What would you study up on and why?

the (un)patron saint of the really really smart

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