Let's All Go to the Movies

I spent the first part of the day watching the Sunday news shows (I'm a news/political junkie), then ran a bunch of errands.

The afternoon was devoted to working on a short story for another anthology. I thought I had more time for this one, but I realized the deadline is right on top of me. I made good progress and will hopefully finish it up tomorrow.

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Yes, my Bengals will be watching the Super Bowl from home again this year. You know who'll be sitting on the couch with them? That's right...the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

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When I was on vacation we spent most of the time watching movies in a post-holiday stupor. Here's a nearly complete list of our viewing selections:

Superbad: *** out of ****. Raunchy and very funny.

The Reaping: **1/2 of ****. It was better than I'd expected. Hilary Swank did a great job.

Knocked Up: *** of ****. Gross, funny and warm. The first hybrid guy-chick flick. My wife loved it (and she also loved Superbad.)

Live Free or Die Hard: **** of ****. The best Die Hard since the original.

Waitress: **** of ****. An Oscar-worthy turn from Keri Russell in a quirky indie comedy, made poignant by the post-production murder of writer-director Adrienne Shelly.

Hairspray: * of **** if you hate musicals. **** of **** if you like them. It gets bonus points for casting Christopher Walken.

The Simpsons Movie: The same scoring system applies. If you like The Simpsons you'll love it. If you don't, you'll be wishing you were watching HGTV or something.

Equilibrium: **1/2 of ****. Christian Bale in a future where anyone displaying emotions gets executed. Sort of what the planet Vulcan be like if Stalin ran things. Gotta love that mad Gun Kata.

Eastern Promises: Viggo Mortenson is so badass he can put a beatdown on two Russian mobsters in a steam bath while unarmed and naked. *** of ****.

Flyboys: ** of ****. Corny, predictable and historically inaccurate. But it gets an extra star for those awesome dogfights (the aerial kind, not the Michael Vick kind).

Oceans 13: ** of ****. Same as it ever was.

A History of Violence: **** of ****. One of my favorite movies. I finally got Norma to watch it. And it turns out that she despises realistic violence. She prefers the Die Hard type. I know I'm a pig, yet I still have to say: Maria Bello naked. Mmmmmmmm.

Rush Hour 3: * of ****. Worse than it ever was.

Halloween: *1/2 of ****. I saw it in the theater and my opinion hasn't changed. If there had never been a John Carpenter Halloween, this would have been okay. The comparison just kills it.

Transformers: ** of ****. I was too old for the 80s Transformers craze, so I had zero expectations. I thought the SFX were amazing. Michael Bay knows when to drop in the stirring score. My wife bailed halfway through. "It's robots turning into trucks," she said. "Whoopie."