UPDATED: About the movies I watched, whatever they were

I love watching movies. But there are so many movies, so little time.

On an Ohio visit, time expands a little, and I might get to watch a couple.

This weekend, it was A League of their Own (again), Kiss Me Kate (first time), Outsourced (also new), Ten Commandments (part of), The Sound of Music (part of) and ... another one. That I'm forgetting.

Oh GOD that I'm forgetting.

We watched one late Friday afternoon, before Outsourcing (our evening movie), and I cannot remember for anything what it was.

What is wrong with my memory that I can't recall such a little thing? Or maybe that's it--it's a little thing, and my brain in its, ah, maturity, let's call it, tends to just dispose of any bit of knowledge not necessary to function.

I have gone to great lengths to find out what it was. I've searched several TV schedules (I can't even remember what CHANNEL it was on), searched through the newspaper TV listings, tried to look on Netflix (had to log in but have cancelled my membership), and tried to clear my mind of all distractions.

Gah.

Still no memory of that movie.

Oh, I really should tell you this. I'd also forgotten the late-evening movie, the one we watched AFTER Outsourcing. I was racking my brains over that one on the way home, listening to NPR and trying to distract myself. When, between news segments, the music was ... Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Which then reminded me ... of just what I needed.

I am holding on to my ace in the hole.

I can call my dad. I know he'll remember.

But the thought of calling an almost 86-year-old man for something I'VE forgotten is just ... embarrassing.

But if I go crazy enough trying to remember, I'm going to have to make that call. Before HE forgets.

UPDATE: I remembered.

My Cousin Vinny.

About Beowulf

The other day we were sitting around watching football, and a trailer for the new movie about Beowulf came on.
"Beowulf!" I cried. "WHY would they make a movie nowadays about BEOWULF? Who besides me (and other English majors) have had to read Beowulf!?"
"I did," said Tony.
"Me too," said Angela. "Mrs. Bloom made us. Some people had to read that Dante thing instead, though."
Mrs. Bloom was their high school English teacher, and a long-time friend of mine in book club. I should have known a careful English teacher would have assigned this (especially with the high standards of academics in their high school).
Okay, I stood corrected about my own children having read Beowulf. And I let Mrs. Bloom know her teaching had not been forgotten at our last book meeting. It was her opinion that having an excellent monster such as Grendel was the impetus for a Hollywood production of such an epic poem.
After reading about Angelina Jolie's part in the movie, I kind of think this was the reason, but I'm jaded.
Just in case you've never read Beowulf, hop over to Beowulf the Hypertext where you can view both the Old English version:

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

5

monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra

And the translation:

LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!

Beowulf might be a little heavy for Sunday!

Well, how about you? Will you be heading out to see a virtually nude Angelina Jolie?

About Dora the Explorer

When you have little girls in your life, it's kind of hard to avoid Dora and her merry band of helpers. If you're not familiar with her, just go here to discover more than you probably really want to know.

Last night, while babysitting the grandpeeps for a bit, we had a Dora movie on. I'm not sure what the name of the movie is, but it revolved around Dora and her merry band trying to rescue a magic crown for a mermaid.

The mermaid's underwater home had some bad problems, most of which revolved around garbage. It seems some unknown entity was dumping its garbage right on top of the coral castles where this princess and her mermaids/mermen friends lived.

How the magic crown would solve the garbage problems I didn't quiet catch, but it seemed essential to the task.

Now, Dora cannot solve these problems on her own. No, she has her map, which talks -- sings, even -- and changes as episodes require. Oh, and I did I mention that all these folks are bilingual?

Dora also has her nemesis, Swiper, a foxy-looking creature who wears an bandanna over his eyes and has a nasty habit of steeling the very thing Dora is looking for. Because Dora's always looking for something.

Now, in the movie last night, Swiper's stealing habit actually was used to the good, because he was used to swipe the crown away from the bad garbage guy.

But Dora's number one friend is Backpack. (Could the show creators think up no better name than THAT?) Backpack goes everywhere with Dora, on her back, and of course, he talks. (In English and Spanish.) But what struck me last night was Backpack's scary resemblance to another character I had seen in a movie last week....

I had re-watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And remember in the climactic scene ... when Quirrell begins unwrapping his head scarf ... and there's Voldemort talking on the back of Quirrell's head!?

That was all I could think of when watching Backpack yakking away last night on Dora's back.

Coincidence? I certainly hope so, or otherwise, Dora's no better than Quirrell, or even Ginny Weasley--taken over by Voldemort. Stay tuned.

Well, how about you? What weird movie connections have you found yourself makin'?

About The Last King of Scotland

No more baseball 'til March. I know the months will fly.
So that meant it was Monday Night Football on TV last night, and the Brett Favre love fest--er, sorry, the Packers/Broncos game--just failed to capture my interest.
(Although, the almost manic hype of the upcoming Colts/Patriots game was mildly interesting, if only because 1) we are Colts fans, and 2) as an example of how sports media can make a plain, old, regular-season football game [as Tony Dungy calmly, and rightly, pointed out] can become the apocalypse of the season. Until the next big game.)
So I grabbed the Blockbuster DVD that had been sitting on a shelf for way too many weeks (part of my online membership, it wasn't late!) and threw it in the laptop and put my headphones on.
I rarely manage to see all the Oscar movies BEFORE the Oscars, but I try to see them at some point...and you can see how long that takes me.
I knew The Last King of Scotland contained Forest Whitaker's Academy Award-winning performance, and I also knew it contained, as the warnings say, "gruesome violence." So I should have known better than to watch it just before bed.
Oh well--thank God for the fast-forward feature.
It was really, really well done. I loved the scenes that set the atmosphere of Uganda--the people, the music, the stunning country.
And Whitaker was excellent--his physical resemblance to Amin striking, too.
The actor who played the Scottish doctor gave an excellence performance; his character, however, is terribly flawed (as flawed as Amin?) -- he just makes one weak moral mistake after the other. And, just talking movie-wise for a minute, it was pretty dang obvious that nothing good was going to come of sleeping with the dictator's wife. That's just never a good idea.
I did a little research to discover what parts of the movie were real and what parts made up--Wikipedia tells about that in its entry on the novel, here»
Unfortunately, the worst parts are not made up. 300,000 died in Uganda under Amin's regime.
So I went to bed and I woke up thinkin': How do we save the world from despots?