Monday, June 8, 2009

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.

13 comments:

  1. seen the last two. are your ratings out of 5 or 10? haven't sen a good movie for ages, too busy blogging and atcing.

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  2. Husband loved Defiance ..

    Recco for you .. do you read Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley books? Well, the BBC made a series of them .. at least 6 of her books have been used and then they did some original stories featuring Lynley and his Sgt Havers .. NetFlix has 'em and I highly recommend them

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  3. I figured the Ruins movie would be that because I have seen little or no advertising for it. Sad really.

    Defiance is definitely on my list and I will add the others. Thanks for the great reviews.

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  4. Not heard of this movie, but I trust your judgement! I will have to check it out. =)

    PS Hope you can join us all tomorrow on the INCH by INCH art. Theme is "changing".

    **hugs**

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  5. Les Choristes is a marvelous film! I liked it so much I had to buy myself a copy for my DVD library.

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  6. That sounds like a very fun weekend! I haven't watched a movie in months! I should plan a movie night for The Mister and me. :)

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  7. Thanks for the reviews! I've been wanting to see My Life In Ruins.

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  8. I want to go see My Life in Ruins, because the weather here is so miserable, one day sunshine three days of showers! The movie looks so bright and cheerful! Well, what I have seen of the clips. 2.99 out of 5, that is about what I have thought about most of the movies I have seen lately. So I think I will like it.
    Thanks
    denise

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  9. I enjoyed fat Greek wedding...but read so-so reviews for Ruins. Still, I'd like to see it. For the Greek scenery and I'm not just talking the architectural kind. Thanks for the heads up!

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  10. a movie weekend! what fun. i could use one of those!

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  11. Happy Friday my beautiful friend! Thanks for the garage sale tips this week on my post - we are ready for the weekend now.

    I lurve movies too and this one sounds like a keeper, I'll be putting it in my queue too.

    Today is the last day of school and I'm as excited as the kids. ha ha Have a great weekend!

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  12. Thanks for the movie recommendations! My daughter gave my husband and I a Net Flicks subscription for our birthdays. We saw "Slum Dog Millionaire" and "Doubt" so far -- both were very good.

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I'm glad you stopped by and I look forward to your comments. As Dr. Fraser Crane would say, "Hello, I'm listening."