DVR recorded movie ratings #26

 For some reason, I haven't been wanting to do these movie reviews. It's not that I don't care to do it anymore or I find it boring or that I don't know what to say about the movies, it's more of I've been feeling blah and don't really care to want to do anything I normally want to do. But regardless, if I'm watching movies, I should write about them.

• Detachment: This movie stars Adrien Brody as a substitute teacher that is pretty much emotionally detached from everyone around him. He is dealing with his mother's tragic suicide from years ago, and his grandfather being on his death bed in the hospital. In one of the classes he substitutes, he meets a female student who has pretty much given up on herself due to a bad life at home and being bullied at school. He somewhat sympathizes with her, but is quick to pull back. It's too late, the student sees him as a someone to look up to and someone to confide in. He also comes across a teen prostitute who he feels bad for and has her come over to stay at his place. He feels as if he should help her out, but at the same time, he doesn't want any involvement in her life. The movie is pretty somber and quiet. It's a downer of a movie, but we can see why, with so much negativity going on around him. He wants to be engaged with people, but is also afraid to do so in the long run. After some time, he finally gives in that these people need him as much as he needs them, but before too long, there is a tragedy with the female student. He ends up helping the teen prostitute and in the end there is happiness and satisfaction for him. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls.
• Oz The Great And Powerful: This movie stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, and Rachel Weisz, among others. This movie was really pretty with all the colors and it did kind of resemble The Wizard of Oz as far as scenery goes. Let it be known, that I was watching this movie in bed with my hubby sleeping next to me and I had to put the captions on because the movie goes from being quiet to REALLY FUCKEN LOUD. Especially when the flying monkeys (who looked with a cross between monkeys and rabid wolves) came on the scene or the Wicked Witch was screaming at Oz. But, regardless of that, the movie wasn't too bad and it was pretty entertaining. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• The Perks Of Being A Wallflower: My best friend had given me this book as a gift years ago. I remember reading it and loving it. So, when word got out that a movie was being made based on the book, I felt a joy of glee. Then the fact that it was being made by the author of the book made it even more special. The movie stars Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, and Logan Lerman as Charlie, the main character. Charlie has gone through a lot in his short life. He goes back to school, but is shunned out by almost everyone and the fact that he has been in a hospital for quite sometime doesn't help him much. He has an older sister, but she is too busy with her boyfriend, who beats her up a few times. Charlie befriends Ezra and Emma's characters and a friendship develops. They are pretty much close in every aspect and everything seems fine and dandy except for a few teenage dilemmas. Such as Ezra being gay and having a closeted affair with a football player ( a big no-no in the athlete's life), and Emma who has had to deal with a bad reputation at such a young age for sleeping with older men. YES...MEN. Charlie then forms a bigger circle thanks to Ezra and Emma's long time friends but there is a struggle for a bit. Before long, the three best buddies are close again, thanks to Charlie beating the shit out of some football players. We see the dark side of Charlie and we also see how Charlie came to be the person he is (told in flashback mode) due to the guilt and "over-loving" coming from his best aunt who was killed in a car accident. Charlie got admitted to the hospital once again, but this time he was able to open up to the psych and there was a breakthrough in his thought process. In the end, Ezra and Emma leave for college (they are 3 years older than Charlie), but come back during the breaks to see and hang out with him. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls. Nice to know who your true friends are.

DVR recorded movie ratings #25

Okay, for some reason I recorded a movie which I thought I hadn't seen. I knew what the movie was about after seeing the name and jumped on it. After watching the first five minutes, it seemed somehow familiar. After 10 minutes passed, even my hubby had said something to the same note. Then I went on to summarize the movie and I came to my blog and noticed that I had not reviewed it. Very few times has that occurred and it's quite upsetting because I really want to keep track of movies I've watched at home on my DVR. I've watched a few other movies that weren't recorded and most I don't blog about because it's simply not worth it at all. But anyway here goes...

• Red State: This was the movie I was referring to when I said that I had seen it. This movie was done by Kevin Smith and SO not like his other movies. Some dumbass teenagers want to get their fuck on and they go to a trailer where some haggard older lady lives. Ya, three teenage idiots are planning on fuckin this one lady, cause you know, it's a fuck and nothing else. Well, they get more than they bargain for. Get knocked out and one awakes to find out he is inside a cage and taped/tied up. Someone pulls the cover off the cage and he sees his friend nailed to a cross and about to be crucified for some religious thing. Somehow, the caged boy manages to break free and run away only to get caught again and tortured for a bit. The movie goes on with him struggling and trying to escape. I thought the movie was okay, sadly there was this one actor who I don't really like and he kinda killed it for me. I give this movie 3 Daisy-girls and don't go out through some gravel/dirt road to a nasty looking trailer to fuck an old haggard lady. Unless you REALLY want to.
• The Innkeepers: This was not a recorded movie  and I kind of got caught up in it. Not because it was all interesting and shit. Well, it kind of was, but I was waiting to see what would happen. It turns out that there are 2 innkeepers who are asked to stay to work for a few days and since staff is low and the inn is about to close soon, they agree to work and sleep there. It is somewhat known that the inn is haunted and the guy innkeeper has a site about it. He tells the girl innkeeper about it and they even have a microphone to record noises they may happen to hear. Well, the girl starts to experience some of that scary shit and tells the guy about it. He kind of plays it off and tells her to just relax and go with it. They decide to get drunk and she happens to get the idea of going down to the basement (where some lady hung herself) to see if they find anything creepy. It's a fucken maze down there and no fucken way would I ever go down there. Anyway, They sit RIGHT where she killed herself and the girl calls out to the lady. They feel a tingly sensation and the girl feels the lady. The guy just sits there with the recorder. She then says that the dead lady is right in back of the guy, he gets creeped out and runs out of the basement. Fuck that, I would have too. When back at the inn, he tells her he made shit up on the site and that he has never experienced anything of that sort whatsoever. He decides to leave and the girl is there by herself, except for 2 customers. She then goes to find shit on her own and she goes back down to the basement when the door closes behind her and she runs over to the doors that go to the side of the house. Those doors are chained and the next scene is of an ambulance and the guy talking to the cops. He told the cops he left after hearing scary shit and that the girl stayed. There is no explanation of how she died, but the guy was holding her asthma inhaler. I've read a few reviews of this movie and a lot of people didn't like it. I thought it was okay. I guess her death was more of leaving it up to the viewers. My guess is she either died of an asthma attack or the fucken ghosts/spirits/whatever killed her somehow. I give this movie 3 Daisy-girls.
• Somewhere: Ooooh Stephen Dorff is aging very nicely. He plays an actor who is pretty much burnt out with being a celebrity (even though he is an up and coming actor), but still embraces it. He has the cash, the car, stays at a nice hotel in Beverly Hills, and has girls around him at all times (of course, he pays them). He gets a wake-up call when his 11-year old daughter shows up saying that mom had to go do something. He doesn't know what to do at first and still has women coming over at night while the daughter is sleeping, but is there having breakfast with them the  next morning. He takes her to wherever he is going to be making an appearance or working locations and soon becomes close to her. She makes nice meals for them and he states he hasn't had that in quite some time. The father-daughter relationship grows more and more and time passes by and he is loving it, but in the back of his mind he knows that it will not last and isn't sure if he is fit to be a full-time dad. In the end, she goes away to a summer camp and you can see how it affects him and her. This is a Sofia Coppola movie and her movies tend to be surreal and quite making the scenery speak for itself. I loved it. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls. 
• The Brothers Bloom: This movie was on while I was getting ready for a job interview. I saw that it had just stared and decided to record it because it looked pretty amusing. It stars Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz, and Rinko Kikuchi. Adrien and Mark are con brothers, they've been that way since they were young. They come across Rachel, who has mega bucks and want it on it. She is a kooky character who had been raised indoors because she was allergic to so many things. But that wasn't really the case, and she was allergic to the aluminum that was used on the syringes. Moving on, she realizes it's a con but goes along with it since her life has pretty much been blah. So, she decides to go along with it. But this con has ups and downs, kooky turns and such. It was a very amusing movie and I wasn't expecting much, but I got a lot. Rinko was hilarious as Bang-Bang and only spoke about 5 words in the whole movie. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls.

DVR recorded movie ratings #24

My time had been consumed by a show that I didn't really think I would get hooked on. People had told me it was an addicting show, and I didn't deny it or accept it, I merely took it for what it was worth. Last week, for three straight days, I saw nothing but the Breaking Bad marathon. Ya, I didn't watch the news, or other shows we recorded. If I was home, the tv was on AMC. Sure, I didn't catch all the episodes (I think I missed about 8 of them), it was either too late (4am) or too early (8am) and I was sleeping. Someone had told me why didn't I record those episodes. Well, I didn't record them because then I would probably had seen the finale sometime within the past 2 days or so. Instead, I opted not not see some episodes and somehow fill in the blanks of what was happening with the shows I did watch. Anyway, even my hubby (who didn't watch as much as I did) was swept away with what he did watch. The ending was great and sad. Never again will I do a marathon of watching a show leading up to the finale. It didn't drain me, it consumed my time and I grew to love the characters that by the time the last episode ended, I was positive there were going to be other episodes to follow. How could I not think that seeing as I had watched all 6 seasons with a 4 day span? I was used to non-stop Breaking Bad shows and when it ended, I was sad.
Then I slowly started getting into my daily routine of watching movies and watching other shows.

• Argo: I wanted to see this movie to see why it was a big deal and won awards ( some movies that have won awards, I don't see why or how that was possible, sure some were good, but others that were nominated could have won in my opinion). It was actually a pretty decent movie. Better than I had expected. Not much of a Ben Affleck fan, but it was good. Great cast too with Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston, Victor Garbo, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, among others. Set in 1980 during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran, there were 6 Americans hiding. A CIA agent plots a plan to get them out of the country safe and sound by saying that they are scouting grounds to film a movie. They had to make it seem realistic that a movie was going to happen. So, the had to make a script, have some background workers, illustrations, movie posters, ads in magazines. It was a close call, but they did it. I give this movie 4 Daisy- girls.
• Frances: Okay, when I first heard of Francis Farmer, for some reason I thought she was a fictional person. Like from a story book, you know related to Old McDonald, the one that has a farm. Little did I know this was an actress from the 1930's who lead a horrible life. All she wanted to do was act (either on Broadway or movies) and be taken seriously for her acting. But when Hollywood got a hold of her, she got rolls based on her looks. During the time she had a contract with a movie studio, she decided to take a break and go back to New York to act on stage, which she had missed. She refused and when she was threatened, she went back to Hollywood, but was treated as an outcast and she had finally had enough. She ended up slapping some lady and walked out of the set. She  was then arrested and was in court for slapping the lady. Francis wasn't putting up with that shit and through a fit in the courtroom. Then she was sent to be analyzed. And you know back then what that meant. She was stuck there for quite some time and she was drugged and given shock therapy. After a while she was released, but had to go live with her mom who had hold of how Frances ran her life. After some time, she runs away, but is caught and is sent back to her mom. Not putting up with that, mom calls the hospital, Francis and mom get into an argument and Francis walks out  to the orderlies and gets in the van. Once again, she is put through the ringer, only it got worse. She was not only drugged or given shock therapy, orderlies were raping her, or letting in military men  rape her as the orderlies held her down ( I guess anything to fuck a supposed crazy ex-starlet). There were stories that she even went through that horrendous "ice-pick" lobotomy, but supposedly there are no records of it. After about 6 years or so, she was declared sane and was released. She didn't really go back to acting, but had a show or appeared in some shows. After all this misfortune, she ended up dying of esophageal cancer in 1970. Such a sad life. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls.
• Roman Polanksi: Odd Man Out: This is more of a documentary and it has to do with the infamous director, writer, producer, actor, who in the 1970's drugged and raped an underage girl, then he moved to Switzerland to avoid being extradited back to the U.S. This was also the director that was married to Sharon Tate, ya the one that was murdered by the Manson people. This documentary is about him and leading up to his arrest when he decided to go to an award show in Switzerland and all the hoopla surrounding it. Everyone involved was pretty much interviewed for this, except Polanski, even the 13 year old girl (who is obviously an adult by now), her mom, and other people who knew Polanski. It was pretty detailed and well thought out. It was also very informative and no matter what he was in the wrong and he knows it. Even the girl (now woman) has asked if he can be pardoned by the president, but I don't think that happened. He shelled out money to keep her shut about it, some say he bought her out. She said it happened to her so she can do what she wants with her story, which is true. But her forgiving him for what he's done to her is different from the court deciding whether or not he is a pedophile and has to register as so is SOOOOO not the same. In the end, Switzerland decided not to send him back to the U.S. and he continues to make movies and live his life like a free man. I give this documentary 5 Daisy-girls.

DVR recorded movie ratings #23

Had a busy weekend, so not much for watching movies. Saturday we went to the Celtic Music Festival and Highland Games. It was a nice outing seeing as we hadn't done that in quite some time. Since it had rained on Friday, the weather was very nice over the weekend. On Sunday, it was Free Museum Day and we went to the Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farm not too far from us. It's a living history park and once again the weather was very nice, which made it fun for the amount of walking we did. The best part, seeing a lady spinning some yarn from freshly picked cotton, and petting and feeding the donkeys. But before I get all childish-mode on you on how excited I was about the donkeys, I will stop now and do my movie reviews. If you ever get the chance to ask, PLEASE do!

• Stranger Than Fiction: I had seen this movie playing a few times over the past few months, but never really checked it out. I'm not much of a Will Farrell fan, especially his comedy movies. this was not one of them. Will plays a guy who lives his ordinary life from day to day, only after some time, he hears a voice narrating his everyday life. Not predicting it, but describing things he is doing at that exact same moment he is doing them. Then you have Emma Thompson who plays a writer suffering from writer's block. Her stuff is much more gruesome, imagining herself getting killed or dying in a horrific way. Well, it turns out that she is in fact writing about Will's life, unbeknownst to her that he is an actual person. Only problem is, she kills all her main characters in all her books. When confronted with this, she has a hard time wrapping her head around all this and must either decide if she should kill this new-found stranger or keep killing her main character as she has in her previous books. Maggie Gyllenhall, Dustin Hoffman, and Queen Latifah also star in this movie. I really liked this movie, I give it 5 Daisy-girls.
• Play Misty For Me: Ya, I know this movie is old and I have never seen it. This was playing late last night and we were fully awake, so why not watch it. I didn't catch the first ten minutes, so I hope nothing MAJOR happened. This movie was Clint Eastwoods first directorial debut. He also produced and starred in it. This is the movie that a lot of other movies are influenced by. He plays a radio DJ and some lady calls requesting him to play Misty. Well he ends up meeting this lady at his local restaurant, only he doesn't know it's her right away. He ends up giving her a ride home and she tells him who she is. They end up sleeping together, then she becomes obsessed with him. Following him everywhere he goes, mingling in his personal life, bothering his friends. I mean she goes fucken psycho, more than Glenn Close's Fatal Attraction character. This lady tries to kill Clint, his girlfriend, housekeeper, friends, anyone that is close to Clint. She is taken to an asylum, but is soon then released and while he is working he gets a request to play the song Misty. He freaks out, but she assures him she is moving and won't be bothering him. She ends up taking an ad for a roommate and it turns out that it is Clint's girlfriend who had posted the ad. She ends up his friend, and wanting to kill him. There is a lot of stabbing motions, lots of struggling and then she falls out the window and down a cliff into the ocean. Very interesting movie. I give it 5 Daisy-girls.
• Smashed: This is about an alcoholic couple who love each other, but I'm pretty sure they loooooooooove to drink more. She is a teacher, he is a writer who reviews bands. She ends up barfing in front of the students and they ask if she is pregnant, she says yes, and the lies start to escalate from there. Then one night she leaves the bar and this girl who is outside takes it upon herself to get a ride from her. She asks the drunk girl if she can smoke and she says ok, then she whips out a crack pipe, she offers the drunk girl some and she is hesitant at first but then does it. She ends up waking up in an undisclosed location and she freaks out. Goes home and tells her hubby what happened and she wants to stop drinking. At first he is not supportive and asks if he has to stop to, she said she just needs some support. At work, the principal thinks she is pregnant, but after some time the drunk girl confesses that she never was pregnant, she just had a hangover. The principal, feeling as she was taken advantage of, feels disgusted and ashamed for believing otherwise and she ends up firing the drunk girl, even though she has been sober for quite some time. She ends up relapsing, goes home and her husband is not supportive of her wanting to He's trying to drink. He tries to understand whys he would start to drink again and she tells him she got fired. Even though he wasn't really supportive of her being sober, he realizes now (that she is drunk) that she was really dedicated to her sobriety and she turned to drinking because of her losing her job, not drinking for fun as they had before. This movie is very emotional, and very real. This was another movie on my IMDb.com watchlist and I loved it. Not very enjoyable (seeing as it is a movie about alcoholics), but a very interesting one indeed. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls.

DVR recorded movie ratings #22

So, I guess I should have looked at my last post to see when I had done it. It seems to me as if I have watched a lot of movies lately....once again. So here goes, reviews and ratings for seven, yes 7 movies.

• Life Of Pi: I remember what a big deal this movie was when it came out in theaters, how the effects looked, how the story was told, blah, blah blah. It won some awards and stuff. Ya stuff. What kind of stuff? I don't know, that's why I call it stuff. It has to do with a family owning a zoo, but after some time, they have to let it go, but the animals are theirs. So they pack themselves and the animals up on some boat to go somewhere else, except a big storm came. The boat went down and the only survivors, for the time being, were the guy, a tiger, a hyena, and a zebra. Well, the zebra died due to the hyena attacking it, and the hyena died due to the tiger killing it. It was about survival. The tiger took over the boat and the guy had to do a make-shift boat roped to the main boat. He was writing a diary about all this until it got blown away during another storm. He somehow manages to train the tiger to a certain extent that they are both able to live on the boat. Some magical stuff happens ( I think he was delusional and was hallucinating). There are three times I felt sad in this movie. One had to do when the guy killed a fish and he was very apologetic (he's a vegetarian), so I felt his pain, but I understand if you're ever in survival mode, anything is up for eating. The second one was the prairie dog island (that apparently doesn't exist according to other people). They were everywhere, so cute too. Third, was when the tiger left the guy (after reaching some Mexican beach). The guy felt as if he was abandoned by the tiger. It was a movie about self discovery and survival. I didn't care for the underwater lights and such, but it was a decent movie. I give this movie 3 Daisy-girls.
• The Frankenstein Syndrome/The Prometheus Project: Some doctors were doing illegal stem-cell research to find a cure for anything relating to stem cells. They have these girls who are then impregnated and tested on, but every test they do fails. One girl dies, and one of the genius doctors decides, "hey, let's shoot this runaway girl up with this serum and see what happens, after all, we made a heart start beating again." Well, ya, it all went fine and dandy, but don't play God. This girl goes on a rampage and starts attacking everyone. The lock her up in a cage, yes a cage and then kill her. One of the guards does some type of cage fighting and he soon dies and once again, playing God, is resurrected by the doctors. He seems to be more tamed seeing as the doctors actually measured the injection instead of just shooting as much as the first girl got shot. Mom doctor (that's what I call her because she worked with the guard to learn simple tasks) has control over him, but sooner than later the guard starts to attack the doctors and everyone around him. He has visions of the dead girl (she was pregnant by him and the doctors aborted it thinking it was one of their test pregnancies) who he had become close to. Soon enough, the mom doctor sees him behind a glass door and he calms down enough to call her mom and walk away. Mom is relieved. Another doctor, who lived to tell the FBI about all this and is wearing a creepy looking mask throughout the movie in the present time, gets mauled by the guard before he dies. At the end of the movie, she is looking at herself in the mirror, removes the mask and her face is fucked up big time. We didn't expect much from this movie and it got pretty bad reviews, but we actually thought it was pretty decent for a 1am movie. My hubby had input in this review, so WE are giving this movie 3 Daisy-girls.
• Love, Marilyn: There is something about famous people that die young which intrigues me. Especially ones that are too hard to believe. My theory on why Marilyn Monroe died has to do with the movie company. As in, they owned her and they decided what she can and cannot do. So I figure that either they told her to do something and she refused, or they were tired of her trying to take over her own life and do what she wanted. Either way, I think the company pressured her and she was forced to take the pills because they threatened her one way or another. OR she felt pressured by the company and decided to show them who is boss by killing herself while still in the limelight. But anyway, enough of my theory, this is more of a documentary about some diaries she wrote that were discovered in some attic. I liked that we were reading her words, how she felt, how she was doing, how she managed things in her life even though she agreed or disagreed with things going on around her. What I didn't like was all these celebrities who were reading her words. They added to it as if they knew how Marilyn Monroe felt at the time. It sounded too much like spoken word sessions instead of what it should have been. The actors walking around, rubbing their arms, as if they felt her pain and her remorse. If you're going to read someone elses words and you weren't there, then just read as is, we don't need your input of stuff that happened to someone in real life. That set aside, I give this documentary 3 Daisy-girls.
• The Gingerbread Man: Hmm this movie, well my review might go all over the place. I started to watch it, lost interest so I started doing something else while it was playing in the background, then something happened and I became interested again. Some divorced man fucks a caterer girl and soon enough he is entangled in her life about her crazy dad. He wants to institutionalize dad because from time to time he stalks the caterer gal. Dad goes to a hospital, but then his hillbilly, yes hillbilly, friends come, cut the fence with wire cutters and break him out. Then it's a cat and mouse chase. The guy and girl are followed by an unknown person his kids are threatened that he takes them out of school, and lots of wtf do we do shit happens. Well, after some time, they decide to confront dad at his hillbilly cabin and the guy shoots dad (because he thinks the dad kidnapped the kids) and he dies. After it turns out that he didn't have the kids and the kids are now save somewhere. Later on, when he is trying to put the puzzle pieces together, he is told that the dad had a will and he leaves everything to his daughter, the caterer girl. Well, this land is worth  A LOT of $$$ cause it has black walnut trees in it. After some time, the man realizes that he has been played by the caterer girl and her supposed ex-husband (who are still married). Thing is, they wanted the dad dead so they can get the land and do whatever they wanted with it. It's a bit confusing and slow at first. It took time to get interested in it, but overall it was okay. I give this movie 2 Daisy-girls.
• We Own The Night: Joaquin Phoenix is a club owner and is doing illegal shit with the mob. Robert Duvall is the Chief of Police and Mark Wahlberg is his son who becomes a cop. Oh and Eva Mendes is in it as Joaquin's girlfriend. I also forgot to mention that Joaquin is Robert's other son too. Ya, this plays for a story, doesn't it? Mark builds a task force to bring the mob down, but needs an informant, so he calls on to his brother Joaquin. Only he doesn't want to get involved because he could lose everything, including his life. Things get messy, lots of chasing and shootings, arguments, and losses. It was good, the beginning is good with Blondie music and Eva getting finger fucked by Joaquin. Hahaha. Anyway, I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Old English people go retire to an exotic hotel. That was what they thought, but as time went by, they learned to love and appreciate this beaten down hotel and grew to like it. Starring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith, Bill Nye and a a few other older actors. It was a nice and charming movie. I can see why this won awards ( I think, I hope so!) and these actors were recognized for this movie. I just read a few days ago that they are making a sequel to this and the actors all want to come back. Sorry Tom Wilkinson, you're not invited, and if you see this movie, you will know why.  *sniffle*. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• The Sessions:  This is the movie, in which I think Helen Hunt got an award, or got nominated for being a surrogate sex therapist. This is also the movie in which she bares it all, multiple times. Not oops, you turn away and you missed it, no, full blown front and back nakedness. A 39 year old man in an iron lung is a virgin and wishes to be devirginized. That's where Helen comes in for 6 sessions, 2 hours a session. He can't move but he is able to get an erection and climax. The sessions start a wee bit slow (about 5 min of small talk, she is stripping) and move on toward only 4 sessions. Which by this time they have had full penetration and they both have climaxed. She grows close to him, but realizes it is her job and it was done. The guy had three loves in his live. One was an attendant of his who was fairly young and she left after he told her he loved her. The second was Helen's character. The third was a volunteer who he met at the hospital after the power had gone off where he lived and he had to go to the ER. He was with her for 5 years claiming she was the love of his life. All 3 women and friends showed up at his funeral where the volunteer lady read a poem he liked, which was the same poem he had mailed Helen while they were doing their sessions. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.

DVR recorded movie ratings #21

Wow, I have no idea how I went from hardly watching any movies in a week to watching six since my last posting. Having a free HBO and Cinemax weekend, how can I not go through the schedule and see what movies are playing so I can record them? Sometimes these are great weekends, but most times they are a bummer only because when these premium channels are free for the weekend, they end up showing cheesy old movies mixed in with new stuff. Not all the movies listed are from the free preview channels.

• History Of The Eagles: I've had this recorded for quite some time and let me tell you, I am kicking my own ass as to why the fuck did I take so long to watch this music documentary. It was great, it was informative it was fun and sad, and it was 3 hours long. The first 90 minutes has to do with how the band came to be and old interviews entwined with new interviews from the band members and other people who became involved with the Eagles (thank you Linda Ronstadt!). The other 90 minutes had to do with them getting back together after being apart for 11 years for the Hell Freezes Over concert tour. I hadn't realized how long ago that tour was until I saw this documentary. As a birthday gift, I took my dad to that concert and he had the time of his life. There we were swaying ( a bit) and singing along to a band that has always made my dad have a smile on his face and the look of nostalgia upon him was priceless. So, as I was watching this documentary I thought of my dad and how much fun we had that night. he was mesmerized and I was enjoying every minute of seeing my dad so happy. I wanted to call him up and tell him what I was watching, but what was he going to get out of it? Nothing, he doesn't have cable. So, I went to Amazon.com/HistoryoftheEagles and I put that on my shopping list for future use. This documentary has an advantage because it is close to my heart, I give this 5 Daisy-girls. Great band, great music, great times.
• Restless: This movie is going to sound way more depressing than what it seems like. A teen whose parents died in a car crash likes to draw chalk outlines of his body on the ground also likes to attend strangers funerals meets a girl who is dying of cancer. These two form a friendship and soon start to fall for each other. She gets the bad news that she doesn't have much longer to live and has accepted that she will die sooner than later. He doesn't really want to acknowledge the fact that she will die and tries to make the most of what little time they have left. It is a sweet movie and sad at times, but overall, it is a movie in which you wish you were a part of their bonding friendship. I give this movie 5 Daisy-girls.
• Broken Embraces: For me to not really like Penelope Cruz much, I sure end up watching more of her movies than I ever cared for. But, as I've mentioned before, I don't like her acting in English movies, but I love her in Spanish movies. This movie is about a blind man who is affected by the death of someone from his past. Told in flashbacks, he (wasn't blind at the time) is a director and falls in love with Penelope's character, only she is married to an older man her used to be her boss and helped her out financially when her father was dying. So, she feels that she needs to stay with him as a payback of everything that he has done. Only, her husband realizes that there is something going on with his wife and the director. So he hires a guy who records Penelope and the director every time they get together. The husband also hires a lady who reads lips and she translates to him what the two are talking about in the recordings. He realizes that she has slipped away and in order to keep her to himself, he "accidentally" (lightly) pushes her off the staircase. She then feels compelled to stay with him and tells her lover director that she can't leave her husband or else he will bash the movie (because after all, the husband is the producer). So she decides to stay with him until the movie is complete and the director has finished in the cutting room. Except, that doesn't happen. She shows up at his place all beat up and they both decide to go away together. After some time, they read reviews of how bad the movie was (the husband fucked with the final production to sabotage the movie) and how it was a good thing that the director and actress did not show up to the movie premiere. This angers the director and decide to go back into town and clear some things. Someone follows them in another car and soon you see a crash. Penelope dies and the director becomes blind. His assistant final confesses that she had something to do with the bashing of the movie (under the orders of the producer) and also mentions that he is the dad of her kid (who is now in his 20's and who the director has been telling this flashback story to). This sounds a bit more complicated than how the movie was. The movie was an easy flow to follow, I don't know why I feel my explanation is all over the place. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• Desert Flower: Okay, this movie is a sad and depressing one. Another foreign film that has to do with a Somalian girl who was circumsized (AKA Female Genitalia Mutilation) at the age of 3, sold to marriage at age 13, ran away from Africa to go to England, and later the United States (became a supermodel), and finally retired to become a UN spokeswoman for female genitalia mutilation (FGM). My husband watched bits of this with me and he commented on how and why could I watch fucked up movies. At times, I know what kind of movie I'm getting myself into, but other times I don't and this was one of them. I thought she just grew up poor, was discovered and became a supermodel. When I've never heard of a movie, I rarely go read further information about it until after I've seen it. I don't care for spoilers, I actually love them, but a part of me doesn't want to watch a movie and know little bits of information that make the movie much more touching. So, I just tend to read the little snippet of information the guide gives me and if it sounds good I record it. A few times, this movie was hard to watch, especially when she was a little girl and when she showed her roommate in England her mutilation. They don't show it, but the looks on their faces say it all. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• Phil Spector: I did not like this movie. I didn't really know what I was expecting. Maybe a backup story as to what led to the event of Lana Clarkson being shot dead in his house. Maybe how Phil Spector came to be one of the most influential and famous record producers, songwriters... we will ever see. This movie had to do with his defense team and leading up to the trial. There was great music being played, but that was about it Helen Mirren played his sick lawyer and Al Pacino played Phil Spector. The only thing I got out of it was that Lana was shot in close range (gun inside her mouth) and that Phil had pin-drop blood splatter in only 3 places on his clothes. The jury can't reach a decision and there is a mistrial. He gets retried again and is sentenced for 19 years to life. I wish there were bands, singers, someone who would say otherwise. The few people from his past ( a few ladies, so it seems) complained that he was  a little off, but no one really came to his defense. I wonder why. I guess this is something I need to read into. On the other hand, now I feel like listening to oldies. I give this movie 1 Daisy-girl.
• Ted:  Stars Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Giovanni Ribisi, and the voice of Seth MacFarlane as Ted. As a little kid, Mark gets a teddy bear and he names his Teddy. One night he wishes Teddy could talk and he does. Everyone panics, but is fascinated by it. Teddy goes on talk shows and becomes famous. Years later, Mark is now 35 and in a relationship with Mila. Also, Ted's voice has also matured. Mark and Ted like to smoke pot, watch tv and pretty much bum it. He has a job as a rental car agent, but doesn't work much. Mila on the other hand has a job in downtown (what she does exactly, I don't recall). It comes to the point where she tells Mark that he needs to choose between Ted and her, and he picks her. Ted moves out to his own place and parties like a bachelor. Mark tries to stay away, but since Ted is his best friend since age 8, he feels he can't live without Ted. So, Mila dumps Mark. Giovanni (who I love, love love, but looks creepy as fuck in this movie, except where he dances to Tiffany, and gets all cuuuuute again) has been wanting Ted for a long time, he is obsessed with him, so much that he kidnaps Ted for his own kid. Ted calls Mark (who is trying to reconcile with Mila) and tells him that he is in danger. Mila and Mark go and try to find Ted and they end up in a baseball field, where Giovanni is climbing up  after Ted. He manages to pull Ted's leg and ted rips apart in half. Mila and Mark take Ted home and they try to sew him up to see if Ted comes back. He doesn't, til the next morning. Mila wished Ted would come back to life and when Mark sees this, he instantly purposes to her. They get married. This movie was a bit better than I had thought. I give this 4 Daisy-girls.

DVR recorded movie ratings #20

Once again, it has been quite a while since the last review. I didn't have much time to watch movies and write reviews since starting a new job. But, here I am once again, ready to go for it and see how much can be done.

• People Like Us: When I saw the previews for this movie, I could have cared less to watch it. Even as I saw it constantly being played on cable, then I read the synopsis and it seemed pretty interesting. It even had a 3 star rating, so I decided to give this movie a chance. It was pretty good actually. Stars Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Michael Hall D' Addario. Chris' dad dies and he returns home for a while. When he is told about the will, he learns that he has a sister. Instead of either forgetting about it and keeping the money to himself (cause he needs it), he goes and stalks his sister. He goes to her recovery meetings and befriends his nephew. Soon, all 3 of them become buddies and star hanging out and having a good time. Until the sister tries to make a move and he stops her and tells her he is her brother. She beats the shit out of him and kicks him out of the apartment. He decides to go back to New York until the nephew goes to his uncle's house and meets step-grandma. He writes the guy a note saying they moved and gives him the new address. After the guy talks to mom, she gives him a movie reel and tells him he needs to watch this. As he does, he is surprised at what he sees and goes over to his sister's house. She wants nothing to do with him and drives off, but then comes back. She said that although she didn't want anything to do with the now deceased dad (he abandoned her and her mom), she decided to keep the money and make a better life for her kid (who sure likes to get in trouble and has anger issues). The guy tells her if he can show her something and she finally agrees. In the old footage, there we see a young dad who is sitting in his car and video taping the guy (young boy) at a park. Then dad pans over to a girl and a lady sitting down having a picnic. It turns out the lady is his first wife and the little girl is the sister of the guy. Thing is, dad had the guy and the girl both at the park and at some time, you can see both siblings playing together on the jungle jim. They had met each other once before when they were small, but never realized it because they thought they were just kids at a playground playing together. It's a bit of a sappy story towards the end, but I liked the movie anyway. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.
• Compliance: Hmm, this movie. It's a movie that I had been wanting to watch for quite sometime and it's been on my imdb.com list since I first read about it. I can't even really comment if this is a good movie. I didn't hate it, but I did not enjoy watching it, yet I did. I've watched some fucked up shit before and some that would make people, including myself, uncomfortable, but not like this one. This is based on the incidents that occurred throughout America on stupid fucked up people crank calling fast food restaurants and having managers strip search (usually) a female employee due to a supposed complaint of a non-existent customer who claims the employee stole from them. This case happened in a small town (of course) and the employee was accused of stealing money from a customer right at the counter during a very busy shift. The manager calls the employee to her office and the manager is instructed to search the employee and to strip search her. The employee is refusing, but soon enough gives in. During the time she is in the back office only covered by an apron, the manager calls upon other employees to keep an eye on this supposed thief while she manages the restaurant. During these times, the caller (who claims he is a cop) tells these other employees (usually a male) how to handle the supposed thief. The male employees want no part of this and the manager decides it is best if she calls her fiance and keep an eye on her. At this time, he is left in the back office alone with the employee girl and the "cop" tells him that she needs to do certain things to make sure she didn't hide the money she supposedly stole. The employee talks back and the "cop" tells the guy that she has been bad and needs to be punished, so he orders the guy to spank her. It goes on for quite some time (in real life it went on for 10 minutes), she also has to perform oral sex on him and by the time the manager comes back it is all over and the fiance says he needs to leave and doesn't come back. In the car, he calls a friend and asks if he can go over cause he did a really bad thing. At this time, the restaurant custodian comes in and the manager tells him he needs to keep his eye on the employee in the back. When he picks up the phone, the "cop" tells him to perform the same acts he had told the fiance to do and he finds it very disturbing. He tells the manager what the "cop" is telling to do and the manager finally calls her boss and he is not aware of what the fuck had been happening (the caller "cop" had said that he had been talking to the district manager all this time, when in fact the district manager had been sick in bed all day). It ends in the girl being walked out to the police car and the manager looking very distraught. The manager gets interviewed by a TV show and she claims she felt bad at what happened to the poor girl, but then denies incidents that occurred right in front of her even though the tapes showed exactly what was happening. This prank went on for over 10 years and in 30 states. When I read about it, at the time, I had only read about 2 of these incidents. It's hard to rate this movie because I didn't hate it, but it wasn't enjoying to watch. I say it was a good depiction of what happened, although reading about the real incident, this movie was pretty mellowed out and I can see why. 4 Daisy-girls.
• Rabbit- Proof Fence: True Story. Takes place in the 1930's Western Australia. During this time, mostly white men were putting up 3 fences to enclose rabbits and they would often sleep with these Aboriginal women. 3 Aboriginal girls were taken from their mothers after it was found out that they were half-caste. This was a government policy, to "save them from themselves", whatever the fuck that means. They are taken 1,500 miles away from their home to a camp where there are other half-caste girls. Soon enough, Molly, Daisy, and Grace run away and follow the fence to go back home. During this time, the girls run into generous people and not so generous people. They also have to hide from the guys who work at the camp and will take them back there. After some time of constant walking and little food, they run into a man who tells them that they are following the wrong fence. In fact, there are 3 fences, he tells them how instead of walking back, they can cut across. More walking continues and one of the girls decides that the way they've been walking is the wrong way and decides to go on her own. Eventually, the two sisters see the cousin and are motioning her to join them back in their journey, when the men from the camp show up and take her away once again. The two sisters continue on their journey and make it home to their mom. They tell their aunt that the cousin didn't make it and the men took her back to the camp. These two girls, ages 14 and 8 walked 1,500 miles to go back home, most of the journey emancipated and barefoot (I know they aren't used to shoes, but that is a LONG way to travel without having anything on your feet and having to step on a lot of uncomfortable things). The epilogue shows that Gracie (the cousin) died and never returned home. Molly had two daughters and were taken from her, but she managed to escape with one daughter, walking along the fence back to her home. But, the saved daughter was taken away once more when she was 3 and Molly never saw her again. It was a pretty sad movie, I can't imagine reading the book. I give this movie 4 Daisy-girls.