Movie Night Roundup

It’s Day 7 of being furloughed with no end in sight. Looks like Congress will be granting us back pay whenever we do return to work, which means this may be a paid vacation. (And I’m actually in North Carolina this week on a previously scheduled vacation anyway. Except now I’m getting paid and NOT having to use my vacation time. Because THAT makes sense.)

Seriously, if we’re going to be back paid, wouldn’t it be better for the government to just be open?? But what do I know…

On to more fun things. It probably goes without saying that I don’t get out to the movies much lately. Jose and I have yet to make the effort of finding a regular babysitter, which means that our time alone together is limited — and we usually don’t want to “waste” it by going somewhere where we can’t actually interact with each other.

So a few weeks ago, we decided to start “Saturday Movie Night” courtesy of dear old Netflix and Redbox. Sure, we don’t get to see the new releases, but we have plenty to catch up on anyway. Saturday Movie Night (and that fact that I also watch movies on my iPad while I run on the treadmill) has meant that I’ve actually seen quite a few flicks lately, even if they’re old. I thought it’d be fun to share mini-reviews.

The Avengers
4/5

I actually did see this in the theater since it came out pre-Emma, but it was the first thing that popped up when I was browsing movies available for streaming, so I watched it again. I’m not a comic book aficionado by any means, but this one fits my definition of a good action movie — fast-paced and fun to watch. The cast is great, which also helps.

The Hunger Games
4/5

I saw this when it came out as well, and remember having mixed feelings about it since I had just finished the books and enjoyed them so much. I just didn’t think that the movie quite hit the mark (though I admit that is a very tall order). Now that time has passed since I read them, I found that I liked the movie a bit more upon second viewing. I’m interested to see how Jennifer Lawrence develops Katniss from here on, and I’m super excited for the second movie to come out in November.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting
2/5

Enh. It was watchable and had a few good moments, but overall it was just a movie full of totally predictable pregnancy stereotypes. (This was a treadmill movie. I would not have subjected Jose to this for movie night!)

Friends With Kids
2/5

Another treadmill movie, and it was a weird one. I’m tempted to describe it as a modern day twist on When Harry Met Sally…but that’s giving it too much credit. There were a few scenes that I liked but other parts that just seemed really contrived.

Argo
5/5

We chose this for our first Saturday Movie Night and it didn’t disappoint. Even though Ben Affleck displayed only a single deadpan expression the whole time, I was still on the edge of my seat. Making me feel anxious and keeping me in suspense even when the story is based on a historical occurrence so I know what will happen in the end? That’s pretty good.

Zero Dark Thirty
3/5

I have trouble making sense of this one, because it felt like two separate movies that got crammed together — a who-knows-how-accurate story of how the CIA found Bin Laden which then switches somewhat jarringly into action movie mode for the raid that captured and killed him. I can see why Jessica Chastain got an Oscar nomination, and I did enjoy it, but I didn’t think the movie was as good as I’d been led to believe.

Now You See Me
4/5

The cast list was impressive, and the movie was surprisingly entertaining. It’s about magicians — so you know there are going to be a lot of “gotcha” twists. Maybe they were predictable and maybe they weren’t, but I didn’t bother trying to anticipate what was going to happen and instead just enjoyed watching the story develop.

Seen any good movies lately? What should we watch next?