MOVIE FREAK

[Edwin]

We just finished watching Season Eight of "Murder She Wrote!" I have never been a fan of murder mysteries either books or movies, but these are quite interesting the way the cases are solved. Angela Lansbury I think is the name of the actress of both the above and below movies.

Some time ago we watched "Mrs. Arrys Goes to Paris," also staring the same actress, and it is a good story of an English lady who wanted a dress made by a famous French dress designer. They didn't want to do the dress for her, because she was a no body, and these dresses were only made for high society women. It is a very nice movie, and you all would enjoy watching it if you get the chance.

[red]

i watched The Iron lady, nice one. I didn't know about Margaret Thatcher as the first woman to be prime minister. I did'nt know that in History lol. And Madea's Witness Protection. Don't like some of the words in it but there is a lesson to learn.

[Edwin]

We in the last couple of days have watched 2 movies that are on one DVD. One side has "Charades" on it, and the other side has "All About Charlie." They are actually the same movie made many years apart. Charades has Cary Grand and Hepburn in it, and it is Carol's favorite of the two, because it is quiter, has more humor, and has less violence. They are about these 4 people who stole some expensive diamonds which belonged to the US government. One is a government agent who is on a secret mission, the young lady is innocent, not knowing anything about what it all means, and the others are crooks!

[Edwin]

Our youngest daughter for my Christmas present got me some "Ma and Pa Kettle" movies. I found more of them at Walmart, so we have 10 of their shows altogether. The movies are based on a family who has 14 kids, and they are hillbillies who have a small farm on the coast in NorthWestern Washington State. Pa is lazy, and has a couple of Indians from a local tribe from off the Indian Reservation to do his work for him. Ma is very industrious, and works hard to care for the children and keep Pa in line. They have lots of adventures, and things get really crazy for them periodically! Margorie Main is Ma, and she is a wonderful actress! She in real life was a minister's daughter, and she changed her name when she got into acting so that she would not damage her father's reputation as a minister. Pa Kettle in real life was Percy Kilbride, and they said that he was in real life an unassuming man who was humble, and would not agree to work for more than he thought he was worth or less than he thought he was worth. They did a show in Hawaii, and Kilbride's health broke, so he didn't do much with the movie after that. Carol is not fond of the movie they made in Hawaii, and for the last movie they found another person to play Pa Kettle, and many people feel like the last movie was not as good because no one could take Percy Kilbride's place, and Carol doesn't even want to watch it. All the movies that had Margorie Main and Percy Kilbride in them were wonderful, full of good humor, and had nothing bad in them, and are worth watching!

[Edwin]

We watched a couple of movies today which were both downers. They were both good movies, and one was a Hallmark movie, "Cate and Cupid." That movie was a downer because the mother died of alcholism, which happens in life, and the Dad who was bitter and one of his several daughters were constantly fighting, because the daughter blamed the father for what happened to the mother. After a lot of fighting and yelling at the dinner table they finally made peace and settled all their differences, but it was demorizing to watch them having all their troubles. The new husband of the one daughter had blood cancer, and the movie ended without us knowing whether he lived or how long he lived, after having a baby.

Other movie was "The Pianist" which was a very good movie, but pretty sad as the Nazi Germans in Warsaw, Poland commited atrocities agaist the Jewish people. The movie was based on the experience of the Pianist in Poland as people were force moved into gettos. It was also based on the experiences of Roman Polanski, who had similar experiences with the Nazis as they persecuted his family. The Pianist was the only one who surived out of his family, but running and hiding. Close to the end of the war he was treated kindly by a Nazi high ranking army official, who listened to the pianist play, and brought him food as well as giving him his coat, which just about got him killed as he was mistaken for a Nazi because of the coat he was wearing, which was mearly an act of kindness from the Nazi official! Good movie, really life story, but very sad, and traumatic watching people being abused, whipped, and executed. Carol said that she didn't want to watch that movie very often. It has some great piano playing in it. The person acting the part of the pianist said that although he knew how to play the piano, he was not that good, and he had to take lessons and practice to get his skill level up, so that he would be beleivable in that part!

[red]

We saw movies The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey and Mama.The Hobbit is Very awesome it was a lot of adventure. I like those kind of movies like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Narnia type movies. Mama on the other hand is horror..I am a horror freak but I am picky of what I want to see. Mama has drama in it. Me and my little girl cried by the tail end because a mother has undying love but then being selfish type of love is not a good one.

[Edwin]

Our granddaughter sent us home with a colleciton of 4 of Hugh Grant's movies. Some of his movies are fun, and we just watched one that was not a very good movie, lots in it that went against Christian principles. We watched "Micky Blue Eyes," which seemed to be a pretty good, funny romantic movie. We then watched "An Awfully Big Adventure," which was a downer, with lots of people being drunk, and stuff about underaged sex, and just not a very nice movie. We have "Music and Lyrics," and "Two Weeks Notice." We have seen "Two Weeks Notice," before and it seems like it is okay, if I remember correctly. I imagine "Music and Lyrics" is okay, but I don't think I have seen that one before.

[Edwin]

We have watched several movies by PBS where they had experimental scenes where real people moved back in time, and lived like people had lived in those times and places. One was of an early 1900s situation where a castle, or very large house was supported by servants, so there were some masters, some servants, and some who were even below the servant status. The ones who were on the lower end of the social spectrum tended to be over worked, under paid, and they had a very hard time with their attitude, some of them even walking off their job. This was in England.

We watched another one of these types where people were taken back to 1900, and lived like they did back then. They had a lot of trouble making the coal cooking stove work correctly. They considered dressing like the people of that day to be a heavy burden as well as having to work so hard to do things that we now have modern conviniences to help us with. It was difficult for them to keep as clean as they wanted to. They hired a maid, as middle class people in England often did, but they fired her again because they were not comfortable having her in their house all the time.

We watched another of life in England during the war when people had to cover their windows to try not to be seen by the German bombers. They had to use rations as they did during the war, and they couldn't have as much as they needed for eating and keeping things clean.

We watched another of homesteading days in Montana, where people had to come in and in most cases build a house, take care of animals, and get ready for winter, which was not easy, and the ones in the experiment would not have survived the winter.

We watched one also of when the pilgrims came, built houses to live in, and get ready to try to survive the winter on the East Coast USA. One person usually the governor, or the minister, sometimes the govenor was the minister, and he was the boss of everyone. They had pretty strict rules and punished people for missing church attendance. All of these movies were interesting to watch, and almost universally people had trouble moving from modern living to living tghe way people did back in those times.

[Edwin]

We have watched some pretty good movies lately. Some pretty interesting movies have been make of the Amish ways of life. Some of them are quite serious, while there are some pretty funny comedies made about them as well. We just finished watching "The Adventures of the Swiss Robinson Family." It was interesting to watch Richard Thomas as the father of the family shipwreched trying to sail to China, instead of the oldest son of John Walton, John Boy Walton. We also watched "The Sign Of the Beaver," which was a family traveling and putting down roots in various places with lots of adventure, both sorrow and joys. The setting was 1773, and this family left a 13 year old boy to hold down the homestead until they got there.The kid had experiences with bad people as well as the Indians helping him. It is a good movie!

[Edwin]

For any of you filipina's married to western guys living in the USA, the lending library system is a wonderful source for borrowing lots of interesting materials. Often they have a large selection of movies that you can borrow, watch them, and return them. Our library is North Central Washington, and you can borrow using the email or the telephone. They let you check out a lot of books and keep them a long time. They only let you borrow 3 dvds at a time and keep them for one week. They send the movies in a little canvas bag, and it is post paid so that you can return them as well. It is definately worth looking into!