Maybe the happy ending is… just moving on.

Whatever your initial feelings were about He’s Just Not That Into You, you need to let them go. This movie is good eatins’ and it wasn’t until I saw it the second time that I realized that fact. The movie, which has the most amazing cast ever, follows the romantic travails of the following women:

• Mary (Drew Barrymore): A writer who finds difficulty with dating in the age of modern conveniences such as MySpace, texting, email, and caller ID.
• Beth (Jennifer Aniston): A woman who has been in a long-term relationship with a guy who loves her but claims that he does not want to get married. Ever.
• Anna (Scarlett Johansson): A gorgeous and trampy girl who falls for a married guy (Bradley Cooper–delicious) and commences an affair, confident that he might be “the one” and will leave his wife for her.
• Janine (Jennifer Connelly): The wife whose absolutely perfect husband who would never do a dang thing wrong, noted above, has an affair, and the best friend/horrible advice giver/moral supporter of…
• Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin): The hopeless romantic who gave me the line for the subject of today’s blog. My favorite character, Gigi dates and dates and dates and never loses hope that she will find her guy, regardless of all the dating trash she goes through. Love her story line.

So there you have it. I admit that the first time I ever saw this movie, I hated it. I had just gotten divorced, had just been on a string of dates with a few guys who seemed to really like me, but ultimately did not call. I had been broken up with (twice) via text message, and the guy I had been pining after for a pathetic several months made out with me (which was the most unpleasant NCMO ever, FYI), took my rice cooker, and disappeared.

Despite all of these things, however, I was hopeful, and it took this movie to teach me that it wasn’t happening. I was angry that the movie hit on so much that was going on for me personally at the time that I vowed I would never see it again.

Then I got over it. Then I watched the movie again. And then I loved it so much I purchased it and watched it three times in a row. I was still not in a good place as far as relationships are concerned. I still pretty much hated guys, but the difference was I had done what Gigi never does in the movie. I had given up. I had decided to just play the field the way guys do. I went on a bunch of dates. I made guys feel like I really liked them and then splat! Cut it off. Phased them out. Whatever.

So when I saw the movie again, I felt like I was seeing it from both sides. Some men are just lame. Some men are just clueless. But if they aren’t making an effort, it’s probably for the best. But that doesn’t mean we need to sit and gripe about how awful life is because we’re not with someone. (A good friend of mine just said, “The only thing I’m missing out on by not being married is sex.” She travels, has an extensive education, and a great job. Love this quote/her!) The most rewarding and satisfying point in my life was the point that I realized that being in a relationship with someone because you feel like you need to is never a good idea.

If you’re going to be in a relationship, go ahead and be in a relationship, but make it a conscious decision. Be in a relationship because you and that person have something to offer each other and you are happy with your(single)self, and not because being around them makes you feel the inner num-nums. I think that being in a relationship just to make yourself feel good is the worst reason to be in a relationship ever. And so selfish. Which brings me to my next point (I promise the soapbox portion of this blog is over.)

My favorite part of this movie is the very end. The skeezy guy who cheats on his wife never learns his lesson, and his wife goes on to grow from the experience and discover who she is, and I can only guess comes to love who she is as a one woman show. The long-term relationship but no commitment folks get married. The girl who fell for the skeezer pursues her dreams on her own, and the chronically-dumped-via-MySpace meets someone face to face in a coffee shop. Then there is Gigi. Gigi, poor hopeless little Gigi who dates exactly the same way that I do and doesn’t compromise herself to be someone she’s not just so someone will like her, finds someone who can appreciate her horrible dating ways and it’s all happy and tied up nicely, a la Hollywood.

So if you are one of the millions (I’m sure there are that many) women who saw this movie and wrote it off as being the worst movie ever, I might suggest that perhaps it was the worst movie ever because it was so gosh darn awful and you RELATED to it. I didn’t like it either… until I acknowledged that my faults in the dating world were mine to own up to. When I watched it the second time, I had gotten to a point where I knew I had a lot to learn, and guess what? I did. It’s the perfect wakeup call for the chronically bad dater (such as myself).

And that’s that.

You will definitely want to stay tuned for the next review. Stephen has to watch High School Musical and write a glowing review. It’s going to be so good, I’m looking forward to it like it’s Christmas.

Now I’ve tasted chocolate and I’m never going back!

Hairspray has all of the elements of a movie that I love: random cameos, drag, bright colors, spontaneous musical numbers, strong women defying the odds, flashers… I have absolutely no complaints about this movie.

For a brief synopsis, this movie tells the tale of a girl named Tracy Turnblad who dreams of dancing on a local dance TV show (reminds you of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, right?) and finally gets her chance right in the midst of the segregation nonsense that went on in the 60s. Tracy uses her newfound celebrity to change the minds of all the people of Baltimore and discovers what is truly important in life (hint: it’s not dancing!). Now for all the things I love about this movie.

Random Cameos

A couple characters from the original Hairspray (circa 1988) appeared in this movie as well. Jerry Stiller appears as Wilbur in the original Hairspray too. Besides Hairspray of 2007 fame, Hairspray of 1988 fame is the best movie ever made. I love when remakes bring back the original characters. It’s like a reunion. Ugh. Love.

Drag

I think it is so funny (read: PERFECT) that John Travolta actually plays the role of Edna, Tracy Turnblad’s obese laundress of a mother. I told Steve you kind of forget that Edna is actually John Travolta, the same macho guy you see on Be Cool, Get Shorty, and Pulp Fiction. I don’t know if he did though. He seemed more concerned over the possibility of Travolta kissing Christopher Walken, who plays Edna’s husband, Wilbur. Oh yeah, and I am in love with Christopher Walken, but everyone knows that.

Bright Colors

This movie is so much fun to watch. They bring color into even the most “dull” of scenes. The costumes are all bright, even the floors and walls are either yellow or turquoise or orange. Other than that, the music is all so bright and catchy. Steve said he didn’t like the movie so much because all the music was pretty much the same–just really quick and loud and all the singers sang at the top of their lungs. For the record, that is exactly what I loved about it. Everyone used the full power of their voice. And Queen Latifah does that really, really well, and I have a voice crush on her.

Spontaneous Musical Numbers

This movie is one musical number after another, with very little dialogue between, it seems. The result is like a Broadway-style assault on your eyes and ears that I am pretty much in love with.

Strong Women Defying the Odds

I guess I’m kind of a feminist in the sense that the primary reason I dislike Jane Austen movies and Disney movies as much as I do is because they almost never have strong women in them. They have lots of women who live in fear of not finding a man  to fulfill and enrich their lives. The movies always end with the girl getting the guy and living happily ever after as soon as that happens, and not a second sooner. They have bratty little girls who disrespect their parents, evil stepmothers, and witches. Basically, they put women in positions of weakness or villainry in almost every circumstance. So when a movie comes out about a fat girl who saves a town from racial destruction, I’m going to be all sorts of in love with it. (Although the only two real villains in the movie are women. My point is valid.)

Flashers

My favorite lyrics in the whole movie is in “Good Morning Baltimore” at the beginning of the movie when Tracy is singing about the awesome things in Baltimore, and mentions just briefly, “There’s the flasher who lives next door.” Fun fact. The flasher is played by John Waters, who wrote and directed the original Hairspray.

So in essence, I love this movie and that’s about all I have to say about it. When I first chanced upon it in my Netflix queue several years ago, I watched it about four times, one right after the other. I love movies, but very rarely do I love them quite that much. (The other movie I remember doing that was My Big Fat Greek Wedding – cannot wait. YAY!) But this one I do. It is everything a movie should be.

Don’t throw a mental, Dad!

Yep, the blog is back. Who knows for how long this time? We did watch Ghost Town, but Steve is taking his precious time blogging about it, so for now, I took it upon myself to do my part for the blog and blog about the next movie. For this particular blog entry, I have compiled a brief list of some things that I love:

• 80s music (particularly love songs)
• Movies with dancing
• Movies with dancing that include several dance montages set to 80s music
• Sarah Jessica Parker
• Awesome headbands

You add all of these things together, and you know what you get? Girls Just Want to Have Fun, the 1985 hit that got a not surprising (however much I love it) 5.5 out of 10 stars on IMDB starring Sarah Jessica Parker, a young Shannon Doherty, and another character famous in LDS acting circles. (I’m not giving anything away, but if you want to see Satan get his groove on, you should probably watch this movie.) And oh yeah. This is my favorite movie on our current movie list.

The plot is as follows: A military brat moves to the big city of Chicago, dreaming of becoming a star on Dance TV, which is about what it sounds like. A TV show where people just dance for like, an hour straight or whatever. My dream come true too, Sarah J. Her colonel dad will not allow her to even audition so with the help of her friend, played by a younger and more awesome Helen Hunt, she auditions, meets the high school boy of her high school dreams, and watches her wildest dreams come true. And oh yeah, she’s mostly wearing a neon-colored leotard the whole time, and her hair is as puffy as you would hope an 80s hairdo would be.

I just don’t know what else to say about this movie. Girls is a timeless classic that I cannot in good conscience endorse anyone to go throughout his or her entire lifetime without seeing it at least once. I am positive that Stephen, who gave me questioning glances and kept stuffing socks down his throat throughout the entire film liked it on some level. He did get pretty excited when Helen Hunt made her appearance, wearing a headband replete with toy stegosauruses hot glued to the top of it. Don’t say you didn’t, Stephen. I want to be her.

It is really hard to pick a favorite part of this movie as I am filled with utter adulation from the opening to the closing credits, but I would have to say my very favorite part is when Sarah J. and her posse make one hundred and fifty (it’s the way she says it) copies of an invitation to their archenemy’s debutante ball and travel the city inviting hoodlums, “punks,” and dancers from across the land, who all come and create havoc and madness at the event. This is one of the best dance montages in all 80s movies dance montages that I have ever seen. (Footloose still does a pretty good one in the Lehi Roller Mills, but this one may top it.) I was going to post a link to it, but I can’t seem to find it on YouTube. I even looked under the “Most Viewed” videos, but it wasn’t even there. Depressed.

Anyway, go watch this movie. You can borrow my copy, but you have to bring it back. I need it for my next slumber party. Ohhhhhhhhh yeah!

pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich

I don’t know how to tell you I feel about this movie. I hate watching Forrest Gump because it seems so long. I was dreading watching it, to be honest, but once I watch it, I almost always cry through the whole thing. If you were to ask me if I like this movie, I would say no. But if you were to make me sit down and watch it, as we did last night, I would laugh and cry and shake my fist and shake my head and my dog just fell off the couch and that was awesome to watch!

Synopsis: Forrest Gump is a couple saucers short of a full serving set. He meets Jenny on a school bus and they’s like peas and carrots. Forrest overcomes his disability and achieves fantastic things. He meets the president, he uncovers the Watergate scandal, and he runs across the country something like 31 times. Jenny, on the other hand, gets hit a lot and has sex. A lot. She gets AIDS, Forrest and Jenny get married, and then she dies. Sorry if I gave something away, but who hasn’t seen this movie at least once in the past ten years, when it has shown on the TV every Sunday night? That’s what I thought. I’ll go on.

So I love this movie and I hate it, and this blog shall serve as the medium through which I will sort it out.

Things to not love about Forrest Gump:

• I am not all too concerned about the circumstances under which Jenny grew up. It’s true that she was super, super good to Forrest, but whatever. She was a tramp, and I find it vile that she had sex with all those yucky people, then had a baby with Forrest, and didn’t even bother to get tested for all of the STD’s that she indubitably had at this point. Movies about tramps that defy the odds are not cool.
• I cannot get over Tom Hanks in this role. He pulls it off masterfully well, but I think that might be part of the problem. I don’t know. There’s just something about it that bothers me. I see him as Forrest Gump, and it is just incredibly off-putting to me.

Things to love about Forrest Gump:

• The film score is amazing. Probably my favorite film score of all time, second to The Last of the Mohicans. It seems almost cliche, I know, but The Last of the Mohicans score is just good. But as far as film scores go, it’s too trendy. So good music at the top of the pros list.
• The soundtrack is awesome. This is different from the Forrest Gump theme, so I am counting it separately. This soundtrack is one that you could watch the movie just for the music if you wanted to. I guess probably because it covers several decades (the best decades in music–which is to say nothing in the past 20 years or so) and the best music from each. Several times the Bear and I burst into song. They should have a singalong version of Forrest Gump. That’s all I’m saying.
• So many life lessons. Don’t do drugs. Don’t join the Black Panthers. Hippies do lots of drugs. Stupid is as stupid does, and as it turns out, life really is like a box of chocolates. Forrest could not have known, especially in his limited capacity, that he was going to coin the phrase “Shit Happens,” that being wounded in the buttocks was going to bring him worldwide acclaim as a ping pong champion, or that there were so many different ways to cook shrimp.

So I guess I love this movie. And I guess the reason why I might love this movie is because I really do love movies about people who overcome their circumstances and do incredible things (I’m talking about Forrest, not Jenny. Ho.). And I love movies that make me cry.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

what we must

I love Becoming Jane. I love Jane Austen. I am not, however, one of those girls that likes Jane Austen because her books and movies are all cute and romantic and make you feel fuzzy. I love Jane Austen because her novels and the movies based on those novels incite the worst kind of anger in me. (And yes, I love that. Anger is a much stronger emotion than happiness. I like to feel things when I watch movies. I’m a dork.)

This anger-inciting thread common in all Jane Austen novels and movies: It sucks to be female. At least it did during that time period. How would it be to have to have a man to validate your existence? To not be worth anything if you didn’t have money? To have to be pretty and proper all the time? I know that there are still lots of (really young) girls who still feel that way. Let the records show that I do not.

That’s why I love Jane Austen. I love movies about self-discovery. I love people who are true to themselves no matter what the consequences. Certainly Jane knew that turning down multiple marriage proposals to wealthy men she didn’t love would lead to a life of being alone (please note I did not say loneliness). She never just settled. She might have been happy in one of those marriages. But a marriage without love, even with everything else she would ever want, was not good enough for good ol’ Jane.

I have nothing funny to say. I’m afraid my half of these blog posts is going to be incredibly boring. I guess my favorite part of this movie is that it doesn’t end in the typical Hollywood-type fashion of being all wrapped up nice and pretty. I know it sounds like the dumbest thing in the universe but I like movies with real stories in them. I think of The Painted Veil, which I can’t wait to get to. I love movies where people die at the end and there is that unresolved mess of what their loved ones will do after the end credits roll.

I like to think that they sit around and eat cheese.

And because everyone was throwing a fit… here are the pictures you have all been waiting for:

BEFORE: Brittany edition. I am equally excited about Becoming Jane and the best salad dressing EVER.

BEFORE: Steve edition. He is skeptical.

AFTER: Steve being angry over the very non-Hollywood ending. He didn't cry but he was close.

AFTER: I am not sleeping! I am expressing my contentment with the sad ending and Steve crying! (Almost.)