Kim's Thoughts

Saturday was an amazing day – weather-wise.  It was pleasantly warm with a gorgeous, clear sky.  It set the mood for a lovely day – one that I enjoyed thoroughly!  I did some things around the house and played with the girls in the morning, went to see a matinée, and got my groceries.  I managed to be semi-productive and do it in a totally easy-going sort of way.  I drank in the day and it was perfect!

One thing that made the day so enjoyable was deciding to see Morning Glory during my matinée outing.  It was one of three choices that I debated about while puttering around the house in the morning.  The choices were all very different in nature – Morning Glory, Red, and Unstoppable – so, I had to be sure I picked the right one to support my mood and how I wanted to feel for the rest of the day.  I wanted it to be a relaxed, stress-free day, so the tense Unstoppable was crossed off the mental list.  I wanted to laugh and feel good all day – both of the remaining two would have made me laugh, but I decided a romantic comedy would fit the total bill better than an action comedy…….so, Morning Glory it was!  I still want to see the other two, but another day.

The cast – can’t go wrong with Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, and Rachel McAdams at the helm!  I adore Harrison Ford – a wonderful, well-rounded actor who can do adventure, comedy, and drama with equal ease.  Diane Keaton is definitely more than a “little” quirky, but I love what she does with the characters she portrays.  Rachel McAdams is an actress who brings funny and delightful to life.  And then there is Jeff Goldblum – another quirky actor who always makes even the smallest role stand out – and the yummy Patick Wilson – enough said – in supporting roles that add much more than “support” to the success of the film! 

The plot – Becky Fuller (McAdams), a perky, energetic, workaholic TV producer, is fired from a small local morning show in the beginning of the movie.  She sends out resumes, revised resumes, and updated revised resumes to all the networks and local stations around the NYC/NJ area and hounds them with follow-up calls until Jerry Barnes (Goldblum) of national network IBS calls her to fill the Executive Producer position for Day Break – their morning show that is fourth in the ratings and on the brink of cancellation.  Becky is charged with revitalizing the ratings or the network execs will pull the plug on the show.  She soon finds out that it isn’t going to be an easy task.  On her first day, she fires the male co-host – a diva with a foot-fetish that refuses to attend the morning staff meetings or do anything that makes him get up out of the desk chair on the show.  Colleen Peck (Keaton) is the female co-host – a former beauty pageant queen with an attitude.  There is NO budget for the show and everything and everyone is unraveling.  In her search for a new co-host, she discovers that Mike Pomeroy (Ford) is under contract with the network, but not utilized – the multi-award winning news anchor has been banished from nightly news and is essentially just being paid out his contract because he, as another producer (Wilson) at the network describes him, is “the third worst person in the world”!  She excitedly offers the co-host job to him while reminding him that his contract stipulates that if an offer is extended that he refuses, the network can drop his contract and not continue paying the multi-million dollar balance.  Of course, he reluctantly accepts the offer, but makes it abundantly clear to everyone that he feels it is FAR beneath him by only doing what is absolutely necessary and being totally uncooperative, grumpy, and disagreeable.  As a side note, Becky starts a relationship with dreamy producer Adam Bennett (Wilson), but is far too busy saving her job, the show, her reputation, and her self-esteem to focus on the relationship, so it too, starts to fall apart.

The movie is funny, light, and delightful.  The characters are fun and mesh well together.  The story is interesting and enjoyable.  Put it all together and you have a winner!  The only part that didn’t quite set right with me was Harrison Ford’s deep, raspy, Clint Eastwood-ish voice – I enjoyed his gruff, grisly character, but I thought the voice was a little much.  I’m not sure if his voice is actually getting that raspy (possible) or if he was putting it on, but I was a little put off by it.  Not so much that it took away from the character or the movie – just enough that it was unpleasantly noticeable.

Overall, I loved it!  I give it an A- and highly recommend it for anyone looking for an enjoyable couple of hours.

The previews of Matt Damon’s new movie, “Hereafter“, sent me mixed messages.  At first, I thought it was a thriller of some kind and my reaction was, “no way”!  Then, the more I saw and heard of it, the more I was intrigued by it.  You see, I have a curiosity about the after life and angels and whether or not our loved ones continue to surround us with love and guidance after they have gone.  So, once it was obvious it was more about that sort of thing and less about something that was intended to shock or scare me, I really wanted to see it……a LOT!!!  I hoped for a story that would give me more to think about and perhaps enhance or validate some of my beliefs.  Yeah, I knew it would be “just a movie” and that it wouldn’t offer any scientific proof, but, come on — if writers (who hopefully did some research to provide some substance to their fiction) tell stories that align with my beliefs, then I can’t be alone in believing in them!  Right?  I really hoped this movie would give me some of that — I really wanted to like it and to leave with my head filled with thoughts and questions and wonder!!!!

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen!  Oh, the story was good, but it was really quite ordinary……and extremely S…L…O…W!  The opening scenes where the French reporter is caught up in a tsunami and experiences death before she is revived and the English boy whose twin is killed are the only scenes that had any life to them at all (pardon the play on words).  But, that isn’t what I wanted to experience!  The rest of the movie was how they reacted to their experience…..and it was mostly boring!!!  Matt Damon’s character goes through the entire movie avoiding his abilities, calling them a curse, and not talking about his experiences other than to say that it was a burden and that he had no desire to put himself through it anymore.  Aside from the French reporter having visions of shadowy people all around her while she was unconscious and the English boy having an incident where losing his hat causes him to avoid being on a subway that blows up (you know right off that it must have been the brother who knocked the hat off, but are supposed to be surprised when it is revealed later in a reading), there is no more insight into the hereafter — just how those who briefly experienced it felt about it.

On the other hand, it was a good story and a good ending!  If I hadn’t gone in with such a specific idea of what I wanted to get out of it and such a high expectation, maybe I would have liked it……except for the slow, low-keyed way it was told.  I don’t know…….thinking back on it, I am really not sure if I let my expectations spoil it for me or if I would have had the same BLAH attitude even without the disappointment.  I am torn.

So — I did raise the point value for the basic story that was told — it was good and had the potential to be interesting, if it had been told better.  But, the boring nature of the way it was told really weighed heavily on my rating – as did the disappointment I felt about it not delivering what I really wanted to get out of it.  I give it a C overall.  Save it for Neflix!

A friend and I made plans to see a movie on Saturday and we chose “Life As We Know It“.  We debated a couple different options, but settled on this one.  And we were both glad we did!  It made for an enjoyable girl time….and it didn’t hurt to top it off with dinner at The Steele Pig after the matinée!

The movie stars Katherine Heigl as Holly Berensen and Josh Duhamel as Eric Messer (who prefers to be called just “Messer”).  Holly and Messer’s best friends set them up on a blind date that does not go well at all – they never make it beyond getting in the car in front of Holly’s house!  When the best friends get married to each other, Holly and Messer are thrown into occasion after occasion and situation after situation together – always at their total dismay!  Then, the friends are killed in an automobile accident and leave their infant child, Sophie, to Holly and Messer, who are  Sophie’s Godparents – together!  The will leaves the house, an account to pay the mortgage, the SUV, and, of course, Sophie, to them so that they will have all they need to bring Sophie up in her own surroundings.  Comedy ensues as they try to make it work for Sophie’s sake in the midst of still not really liking each other all that much……….until the inevitable happens and they start to warm up to each other.

Like I said, we both really enjoyed this movie — it was fun, lively, touching, heartwarming, and well done.  I laughed and cried and left feeling good — my requirements for a successful romantic comedy!

Katherine Heigl — LOVED her in “Grey’s Anatomy” and am very sad that she left the show!  In her film career, so far, I’ve like her in all of her characters, but she hasn’t done a good job of picking good movies, with the exception of “27 Dresses” and now this one.  She is funny and usually is the best part of the movies she stars in.  She has finally picked a winning flick and I hope she keeps it up — she has the potential to bring a lot to the screen, if she can get some roles in films that don’t fall flat.

Josh Duhamel — enough said!!!  I cried like a baby when All My Children killed off Leo du Pres – not just because I loved the character, but also because I adored Josh Duhamel!!!  He was charming and funny and absolutely perfect in the role of Messer in this film!  He stole scene after scene!

Josh Lucas — as if having Josh Duhamel in the film wasn’t delicious enough, they threw in Josh Lucas, too!!!!  Be still my heart………

The three rounded out a superb cast that really made the movie!  The story was cute and fun.  The movie was put together well, didn’t have any boring holes, and didn’t leave me hanging.  It was well done and totally enjoyable!

I rate this one a solid A and recommend it for all romantic comedy lovers!