DVR recorded movie ratings #30

I can't believe that I have been on vacation for the past 5 days and all I have managed to watch are 2 movies. With our 2 year anniversary and Christmas here and preparing for them, I don't know how the time just flew by. We didn't do anything big; it was just my hubby and me. oh, by the way...

MERRY CHRISTMAS or uhm HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

It is Christmas morning right now and we are going to the movies today to watch American Hustle, but for now here are reviews from my DVR:

• Beasts of the Southern Wild: This little girl, starring in this movie... I can see how she was nominated. She was GOOD and cute. Her dad, who is verbally abusive and Hushpuppy live in a rundown bayou along with other people. They make do with what they have, which isn't much. Dad gets sick and disappears for days, but then comes back and still verbally abuses her. Hushpuppy , although basically alone in this world, has neighbors that care for her, and at some point we also see dad taking interest in her, is radiant and sees the positive in what she has. She wants to find her mom, but only goes so far before returning to the bayou and the life she knows. I keep calling this movie by the wrong name (sorry), and I wasn't expected to like it as much as I did, but I give this movie 5 daisy-girls. 
• Heaven: I don't really like the way this movie is described in some sites. It stars Cate Blanchett and Goivanni Ribisi. The movie starts out in Italian, and mixes in English throughout the movie. Cate puts a bomb in a building to kill a drug lord that she says is responsible for her husbands death (drug overdose), except, she ends up killing 4 innocent people. Why she would think the drug lord would be the only one killed/hurt in this big building where she placed the bomb is unbeknownst to me. I mean you put a bomb in a building, you know other people work there! Anyway, she gets arrested and since she wants to be tried in her native language (English), Giovanni (a police officer) becomes the interpreter.The police think that she works for an organized crime business or is a terrorist. He ends up falling in love with her (even though he just met her) and decides to help her escape. She also happened to be his younger brother's teacher. Giovanni ends up confessing his love to her and she is hesitant, but then also says she loves him. They both shave their heads and his dad gives them money so they can leave the country. It gets a bit wild in the end, but it was a pretty "huh, how did that happen" ending. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• Revolutionary Road: Movie stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo De Caprio as a married couple in the 1950's. He works at a job, which he despises and she is a stay-home mother of two. They are both bored with their everyday lives, until she gets this brilliant idea of moving the family to France, where she will get a  secretarial job in an embassy. He is hesitant about the idea of this major move, but he gets talked into it and although he has a good job and is about to get promoted, he could care less about it. There is a lot of arguing with the couple and affairs happen. She gets pregnant by her husband and doesn't tell him. As soon as he finds some abortion paraphernalia, they argue some more and he tells her that they are not moving. She tries to convince him that it is for the best of the whole family, but more arguing ensues. Lots of shouting matches between the two, great acting. In the end, after another argument, she ends up aborting after all, but she doesn't do it properly and calls an ambulance. We see the husband sitting at a hospital and he is told that she didn't make it. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls. Took me a while to actually watch this movie, and it was worth it. 

DVR recorded movie ratings #29

     It is 4:30am and I am wide awake for some unknown reason. I haven't really liked Sundays for the past 5 years. I can say 5 years because I never recall this happening back in L.A. I wake up just to check the time and mind starts to fill up with things I have to do for work on Monday or things that need to get done on Sunday. So, anyway, here I am wee early in the morning, wide awake, typing reviews for all of my own followers.

• This Is 40: This movie stars Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd. They play a couple with two daughters and they are both turning 40. Leslie has a hard time dealing with it and Paul is just accepting to it as his next cupcake. It is a longish movie, but it has some parts ANYONE can relate to, no matter what age. I guess I can relate to it age-wise, other than that not really. Not a mom, don't own my own business, no mortgage, DEFINITELY do not have a body like hers. Like I said, it has it's moments and never a bore. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• Valentine Road: Documentary about 14 year-old Larry who was shot by his classmate Brandon in 2008. Larry was a homosexual who wore it loud and proud on his sleeve and heart. He wore heels and make-up to school and flaunted it toward the straight boys. He was made fun of and bullied. He liked Brandon and had been telling others that Brandon and he were a couple (which was not true), Larry also had told his friends that he was going to invite Brandon to the school dance. Brandon got fed up with it all and turned on Larry. Teachers, friends, family were interviewed during the documentary. Some say that it was Brandon who was bullied by Larry, and others vice versa. As of now, Brandon is in jail, and a tree that a friend had planted on school grounds is not able to be dedicated to Larry, even as of now. It's quite a ripping documentary and after hearing both sides, one can still be torn of who caused what to happen. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• Pitch Perfect: This was one of the movies that was shown on HBO during the free preview over Thanksgiving weekend. It was an okay movie. Lots of singing (obviously), reminded me of Glee (even though I have only seen 2 episodes). Ga wants to become a music producer, works at school radio station, has a love/hate relationship with a guy, dad disapproves of what she wants to do. Decides to give school a chance (thanks to dad bribing her to give it a year and he will fund her dream to come true), gets into a A Capella group and competes with other groups, finally wins at the end. I give this movie 3 Daisy- girls.
• In Their Skin:  This movie could have been a lot better, more could have been done. A couple and their son go to their remote cottage up in the mountains, hills, forest and meet a couple with a son who give off a bad vibe. Strange couple ask strange questions and we soon learn that this strange couple want the other couples life because they see it as perfect. It is known that the couple had lost their daughter in a car accident. Well, there is not a big struggle or fight with the bad couple, kind of just blah. Not a total loss of a movie, but it could have been better. I give this movie 2 Daisy-girls.
• Grace: Didn't catch the first 15 minutes f this movie, but husband dies in an accident and a new mom is forced to raise her daughter (which was stillborn due to the accident and has miraculously came back from the dead). Mom realizes something is up with the baby, not wanting to accept her breast milk. baby knaws on mom's boob til it bleeds and mom realizes that THIS is what the baby wants. Mom goes to the market, buys meat and drains the blood. Soon a doctor comes to see how she is doing and mom ends up killing him and giving is blood to the baby. Mom struggles with grandma and kills her, then it's shown that time has passed and mom's boob is pretty much shredded because the baby  is now teething. This movie is a bit gruesome, not much is told and we never find out what the fuck is going on with Grace (the baby), is she a vampire, demonic, just wants blood since she came back to life? Which is it? I feel there could have been more. I give this movie 3 Daisy-girls.

DVR recorded movie ratings #28

     For some reason from my last post to this one, it seems much longer than a month ago. Perhaps, it's because there is so much going on. I'm not talking about shopping, which we avoided the day of Thanksgiving, BUT we did go out on Black Friday and it was pretty dead. I was referring more to actually working. Yes, I may work very close to our home, but I've been busting my ass with trying to clean (yes clean) my classroom, getting some curriculum going on in the class (instead of having handwritten sheets of stuff for the students to do), and just plain trying to organize the classroom. I'm not quite completely done with how I want everything to be, but for now, what I have done will do.
     We've also been pretty busy with the community events that are going on in and around Austin (we love it!). So, now that I've had numerous days off due to Thanksgiving, I figured I should watch some movies, that and HBO/Cinemax  were free for 4 days. Go DVR Go!

• Drive: Okay, so I must admit, this was a movie I recorded, but not from a movie channel. It was playing on the Esquire Network and I'm quite sure that I missed a lot from the movie. I'll still review it and it was pretty good. Lots of names: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, and many others. Ryan plays a mechanic/Hollywood stunt car driver/ getaway driver. He gets involved with Carey, and her hubby who just got released from jail. Things go wrong and there is a death count which involves almost everyone. The movie is a bit quiet, not a lot of dialogue, especially between Ryan and Carey, but it works. If it ever comes out on a movie channel without commercials or it being cut, I would watch it again. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls.
• Identity Thief: I love me some Jason Bateman, ever since Valerie's Family/ The Hogan Family. He is turning mighty nice looking for an everyday looking type of man. Once this movie was over, I told my Hubby that this was a  good free-type movie. As in, I would not rent this movie, or go watch this at the movie. It showed on HBO or Cinemax, one of the two and I recorded it. It was pretty okay, I've seen WAY worse, but it just seemed so long. I managed to do a load and a half of laundry, eat popcorn and ice cream (not together and I am on vacation man!), go online, read info on movies, download some music and the damn movie was still on. Guess I'm not used to comedy movies being 2 hours long. Anyway, it stars Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. It's pretty easy to see what this movie is about due to the title. She not only steals his identity, but a lot of identities. So much that she even has a credit card machine maker. Lots of fouls and comedic scenes, but just too long. I give this movie 2 Daisy-girls.
• Little Voice: This movie was hilarious. It's about a gal (Jane Horrocks) who hardly talks and rarely ever leaves her house, which she shares with her mom (Brenda Blethyn) above their record store. Dad died some years ago and the only way this gal feels close to him is by listening to this old records (old as in 1930's and such). Anyway, the gal sings along at times and mom's date (Michael Cane) heard her and wanted in on how much he can get at his lounge for the cash cow. The mom is funny, I don't know if it has to do with her yelling, her actions, or just her attitude, but even my Hubby was laughing his ass off. So much that he even turned off the speakers on the computer while he was playing a game so he could hear the movie as I was watching it. The movie stars Ewan McGregor (yum), but he hardly has much of a role. Jane singing is all her own and she is magnificent! This movie came as quite a surprise and from time to time you need movies like that. Something to break the usual barrier of whether a movie will be good or bad. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls.
• Mama: I don't know if I have ever mentioned this, but every time there is a Spanish movie (not really from Spain, but Mexico and South America) playing in the theater or a movie channel, I am ALL for it. This movie, when it came out in the theater, I had been wanting to watch. It's also been on my watchlist from the time I saw the preview. I thought this was one of those oh-let's-take-a-foreign-movie-and-remake-it-with-American-actors, but it wasn't. The preview that I had seen (which caught my attention) was a very short clip of a movie that was in the making. The movie is basically about two little sisters who were abandoned by their dad (heh ya, abandoned) and were raised for the next five years by an unknown entity. The girls became feral during that time and when they were found (thanks to their uncle not giving up a search for the girls), they went to go live with the uncle and girlfriend after the court decided this would be the best choice for them. Strange stuff happens, the younger girl hardly talks, but is quick to say, "Mama." Well, it turns out that "Mama" the entity that raised the girls in the abandoned cabin in the woods, decided to invite herself along to moving in with the uncle too. Uncle gets hurt, so now the girlfriend has to raise and protect the girls from this entity that has become more violent, because she fears that the girlfriend would take the girls away from her (shown in past scenes, the entity had given birth, but her baby had been taken away from her at the nunnery. She then escapes with her baby and leaps off a cliff. Only thing is, the mom dies in the water, and the baby had hit a tree branch and died). So, she thought it was happening again. The ending gets a little iffy, but it was still a good movie. Reading more about it afterwards made it more haunting, especially the actor playing the entity/Mama and the rehearsal footage is creepy as fuck! I thought the girls were fantastic actors, the ones from the beginning of the movie (younger versions) to the girls who played the characters five years later. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls. Almost 5, but not quite there.
• The Condemned (Los Condenados): I saw this movie late at night when the Hubby was already asleep. I figured okay, once this movie creeps me out, I will put it on Animal Planet for a few minutes before falling asleep. That didn't happen and I watched the whole movie. Not worth the time. This movie is also Spanish, but it failed in the scary department for me. I've read about it and some reviews actually like it. I just felt there wasn't much there. There was a nice twist at the end, but other than that it didn't budge me from how I was sitting at all. Sure, the walls moved and such and you saw some shadows moving about, but nothing major. Girl takes her ailing dad back to the mansion where dad used to be a doctor caring for cancer kids. She wants to make a museum and everyone in the town does not want to take part in it. There are flashback scenes in which the doctor is talking to some moms saying that if we treat your child with this new radiation treatment, there may be side effects, but we are willing to pay you every month for the next 25 years. Of course, the parents went for it, seeing as it was in a kind of poverty area. Twist turns out that the "daughter" is not the young one we had been seeing throughout the movie, but she was an aged daughter who had repressed her memory into thinking otherwise. She had blocked off the idea that she had helped her dad (doctor) out and had been a nurse and was assisting him with the cancer kids. I give this movie 2 Daisy-girls. There wasn't much there for me.