Weekend Movie Review

Friday night - From my hugemongus Netflix queue, I watched Les Choristes (2004). The Chorus turned out to be my 5.75 star of the weekend. A washed out, middle-aged musician arrives at a severely run boys correctional school, ready to start his new job as school administrator. He finds the dismal atmosphere of mutual distrust and anger is shared by the boys and the administration equally. After he finds his students have made up a rude song about him, he decides to teach them some real music. Their voices married to his music begins to change the vibe of the school. Everyone is a little happier, more civil to one another. Of course there are those who cannot be rehabilitated and so the story unfolds. Click here to watch a preview.

The music is beautiful. The story is life affirming. Please add this one to your queue if you've never seen it.

Saturday night - Dinner and a movie. My friend and I went in search of a relaxing evening. First, we had supper at our favorite Mediterranean restaurant, ordering our usual Greek salads with the house Ranch dressing. The vegetables were the freshest and tastiest I've had this season, the olives, delicious. Their Ranch is so good we agree we would have been happy slurping it up with the breadsticks alone. Next, My Life in Ruins, starring Nia Vardalos, Sadly the movie won't find the success of her previous hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. But with that said, I also didn't finish the movie thinking that I had wasted my $9.50. I give it a solid 2.99 stars...it won't win any awards. But, in the future it will end up on Lifetime and various other cable channels as a chick flick. The one thing that will not disappoint is the hunky Greek god who drives the tour bus, Alexis Georgoulis.

Sunday night - Again from Netflix, Defiance starring Daniel Craig, Lieb Schreiber and Jamie Bell as the Bielski brothers, three men who together saved 1200 of their fellow Jews from extermination by the Nazis. They lived together in the forest for three years until this German held portion of Poland (modern day Belarus) was liberated by the Russian army. This intense movie is based on the true account of those three years. I liked it and give it a 3.95 star rating. Worth seeing for sure.

Three nights - three movies.