Up

Today The Misers went to the movies, a matinee showing of "Up". The price was right: bargain tickets for Sparky and I, and Bee was free. It was good to get out and get rid of the June Gloom Blues for a bit. Plus, the movie was very enjoyable - we laughed, we cried, and talked a little bit to the screen (that would be Bee, who pointed out various things to Sparky and I as we were watching the movie. Luckily, the theatre was practically empty.) We did this as a test run to see if Bee could sit still that long in a movie theatre. She could and she did, and the three of us will be back this summer to see more films. Sparky and I used to always go to the movies pre Bee and pre this dang New Depression the country has been mired in. Dinner and a movie, that was our preferred date of choice. We saw everything and it was great. Now we usually watch Netflixed movies from the comfort of our own home after Bee has gone to bed. Which is not a bad thing, but it does mean that we have to wait forever before seeing a film we really want to see. No more going to opening weekends like we used to do. But the up side of all of this is that I'm really tired of big Hollywood movies anyway. We saw "Doubt" last week and I was not impressed with it. How on earth did it garner an Oscar Nomination? Meryl Streep's accent was very strange, and we spent most of the movie trying to figure it out. Was she supposed to be from Minnesota? Boston? No wait, was she Eastern European? I think she was trying to do a Bronx accent, but it didn't sound like it. It was more like a combination of all the accents she has done over the years, a sort of hodge-podge accent. But her acting made me realized how much I really hate Hollywood big budget movies anymore. They suck. Sparky and I talked about the movies that we have enjoyed the most recently, and they have all been either independent, foreign, or smaller pictures. For example, Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino", which we saw the other night. I have always loved Clint Eastwood (although I could have done without the Orangutan movies), and I liked his directing style in this film. It was spare and awkward and you could tell that most of the scenes were done in one take, which gave it an immediacy. It did not have a huge budget, big time actors (besides him) or special effects. And an added bonus was that he sings over the end credits. He sings a song about a Gran Torino! 

Sleeford was a huge movie buff, but he eschewed Big Time Hollywood pictures. And now I agree with him. I'll go and see some BTH movies, (like "Up") but for the most part  Sparky and I are on an Anti-Hollywood movie spree. There are a lot of great movies out there that don't come from the Hollywood Machine. See "I've Loved You So Long"  and "Happy-Go-Lucky" if you haven't already. Both are brilliant.