Movies!
Well, as usual, I didn't get out to many movies that didn't feature talking animals and such, though, to be fair, the kids are aging out of that kind of movie and have hit that awkward stage where they're too young for most adult movies, too old for most kids movies.
However, I did catch Meet The Robinsons with one or two of the kids (can't remember which ones). It was a really good, not incredibly formulaic time travel adventure that is still being unfairly derided in a bunch of end-of-year movie wrapups. I honestly don't get what people hated about this movie. I actually liked it better than Ratatouille, which made a lot of ten best lists. (And which was also good, but not, in my opinion, light years better than Meet The Robinsons).
We all enjoyed Mr. Bean's Holiday. Well, actually, I enjoyed it more than anybody else. Rowan Atkinson's inherently funny face, slapstick comedy, and a storyline that was sweet without being saccharine. I don't get why this wasn't a bigger hit. People always claim to want family films that don't suck, but then one comes along and few people go to see it.
I thought maybe Grindhouse was going to be the best movie ever until Death Proof started. Robert Rodriguez is fortunate that Planet Terror got de-linked from Tarantino's Folly for the DVD release. Don't know if both have the trailers or what, but Planet Terror plus the trailers is close to two hours of awesome movie entertainment. And Death Proof can languish on the shelves where it belongs.
The boy and I caught Transformers, and it was big and dumb and loud and too long and we both loved it. I said at the time that anyone who is now or who has ever been a ten year old boy should see this movie. I mean, sometimes you go to the movies for some kind of transcendent artistic experience (well, I don't, but some people do), and sometimes, like in the heat of the summer, you want to go and have a great time watching giant robots duke it out and stuff blowing up. It was top-notch summer fun.
My Lovely Wife and I managed to sneak away from the children (The dog's crate is surprisingly roomy! Who needs babysitters?) a couple of times and saw Knocked Up and Superbad. Both were hilarious and touching, but I'll give the edge to Superbad because it was funnier and because it had Michael Cera. Still, both movies were great.
