What Did I Just Watch?

Time for another round of movie and television dvd quick reviews.

Calendar Girls - I could have sworn that I saw this in the theater but my mom insisted that we hadn't and it just wasn't familliar enough for me to be sure. The movie is about a group of middle aged women who pose for a nude calendar to raise money for a cancer charity. I really liked it. I love Julie Walters (Who doesn't love Mrs. Weasley?) The story is sweet and funny even when dealing with death or family problems. Definitely worth checking out.

Dear Frankie - Man, I find some of the best movies and tv shows from England and Scotland on Netflix and this is one of the best. The story is about a woman who lies to her son and tells him his father is a sailor and then answers the letters that he writes to his dad. She ends up having to hire a stranger to pretend to be his father to keep up the charade. But it's such a good movie. If you're only going to watch one movie that I recommend, make it this one. I promise that it's worth it.

Hamish MacBeth season 2 - This is the last season. I loved the show and am heartbroken that it's over. But I'm okay with the way that they ended it. I'm glad that they added Jean and Frankie to the show and wish there could have been more seasons to explore their places in the Lochdubh society.

Ordinary People - Wow. Have I ever told you how much I love Timothy Hutton? I'm sure I have but I just can't say it enough. This man is definitely underrated as an actor. This movie is about a family trying to cope and heal after a son dies and the other (Hutton) attempts suicide. I am confused about why Hutton was nominated (and won) the supporting actor Oscar. I got the feeling, and not just from my love for him, that this was his movie. And by the way, Mary Tyler Moore is AMAZING. I just can't gush about this movie and the actors in it enough.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - The best part of this movie is hands down the scenes where Sherlock is riding the pony. Freaking hilarious. I don't love this Sherlock Holmes series (I like the Benedict Cumberbatch show better) but I do like them. I don't know how closely these movies follow the original books because I haven't read them (yet) so I can't say how a purist would feel, but I liked it and was entertained.

Nero Wolfe season 2 - Another show that only lasted two seasons. Ugh. Television execs are idiots. I'm only about halfway through the season but just like the first, I love it. Did I tell you earlier that I love Timothy Hutton? I did. Well it's worth repeating: I LOVE Timothy Hutton. And Kari Matchett. She's a genius on this show.

Lucky Seven - Oh my god. Patrick Dempsey, why? WHYYYYYYYYY did you make this horrible movie? He's a better actor than this. It's just... a mess from beginning to end.

and last but not least...

Magic Mike - Confession: I only got this movie because it has Matthew Bomer and Channing Tatum. I knew ahead of time that I wasn't going to love the movie and was probably going to end up fast forwarding through a large portion of it because I admit it, I'm a bit of a prude when it comes to sex scenes. But this movie is just bad. And that's so sad because it had the potential to be good. My first issue is that the story felt like it was just there to fill times between sex scenes and stripping scenes. I think Channing Tatum got sick of people asking him about his being a male stripper and wrote this but didn't really know what he was doing with it. The two stories that had the potential to make a great movie (or even two) were that of the experience stripper who wants out of that life but just keeps getting shit on by the people around him and that of the young guy who gets thrown into the life and just goes crazy with all the excesses that are there. It's just sad all the way around. Matt Bomer, Channing Tatum and even Matthew McConaughey are all better actors than this movie. This movie is just so confusing (which the post title).

Man this week was definitely peaks and valleys in dvd watching. The good ones were great and the bad things were just horrible.