Cin’s Movie Critiques

The hot days of summer have arrived, temps lately have been close to 100 here in the Salt Lake Valley. We have spent a lot of time at the swimming pool in our apartment complex. It has been many years since I’ve sat around in a lounge chair, soaking up sunrays, and I have to admit, I’m lovin’ every minute of it!

Also very entertaining are the games we play in the pool. Splashing each other with that cool, clear water; throwing the beach ball back and forth; doing underwater handstands; seeing who can make the biggest splash; and seeing who can hold their breath the longest.

It was during one of these breath-holding contests that I remembered a particular movie that really is NOT about a swimming pool, but I pondered it nonetheless. Do you remember the part in Minority Report where Tom Cruise is holding his breath underwater and someone kidnaps his son? Creepy.

Minority Report

Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell. Rated PG-13 for violence, brief language, some sexuality and drug content. 2002, Science Fiction/Action. Cin’s Critique:

I haven’t seen this movie since it came out five years ago. I had forgotten how futuristic it was. I also forgot that Colin Farrell was in it, this is one of the first movies that helped him climb the ladder to fame. In fact, except the very basic concept of the film, I had forgotten most everything.

In the year 2054, murder has been eliminated in the Washington DC area thanks to an elite law enforcement unit called Precrime. It is a system involving three beings that foresee murders that haven’t occurred yet, and stops the crime before it is actually committed. However, when the chief officer, John Anderton, sees that in 36 hours he will murder a man he has never met, he questions the system, and sets out to prove his innocence, all the while running from the law.

The extremes to which Anderton must go to hide from his pursuers and to prove to himself that he is not a murderer take the viewer for a wild ride in the future. Based on the short story by Philip K. Dick, Minority Report is a must see!

June 1, 2007 was my parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary. It really was wonderful to be with them to celebrate, and to be surrounded by my entire family. It’s not very often that all of us can get together in the same place at the same time.

I helped my mom make the invitations, we sent out a picture of her and my dad on their wedding day. They looked so different then. I wish I could have seen them that day, I wish I knew what they were like before five children drained all their energy away!

Anyway, I’ve been in the mood to watch another wedding movie, and lucked out yesterday when My Best Friend’s Wedding came on TV. If you haven’t seen this one, put it on your list, it’s one of my favorite romantic comedies.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney. Rated PG-13 for one use of strong language and brief sex-related humor. 1997, Romantic Comedy. Cin’s Critique:

Julianne and Michael have a pact. If they haven’t found true love by the time they turn 28, they will marry each other. They have been best friends for years and seen each other through everything. Just before Julianne turns 28, Michael tells her he is getting married. It is then that she realizes just how much she loves him, and sets out to break up his engagement.

Even though Julia Roberts is essentially a villain in this movie, the audience is on her side, hoping that she can successfully break up the happy couple and claim Michael for herself. Full of humor, and even a few tears, this one has a happy ending, even if it may not be the ending you’ve been rooting for the entire movie.

I’ve been house-sitting for two different houses. I must emanate a trustworthy vibe. Muu-haa-haa-haaaaa. (That’s supposed to be a dark and sinister chuckle.) So, I gather mail, water lawns, feed animals, and empty drip buckets. I also eat their goodies, drink their pop, help myself to their DVD’s! (That’s how I stumbled across House.) I got to thinking about that old movie with Goldie Hawn. So I rented it, and came to realize that the movie has absolutely nothing to do with house-sitting, how very misleading!

HouseSitter

Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn. Rated PG for mild sensuality and language. 1992, Romantic Comedy. Cin’s Critique:

An architect builds a magnificent house for his girlfriend and proposes to her, only to be turned down. In his misery he has a one-night stand with a woman who turns out to be a con artist. She moves into his empty home in the small town he grew up in and poses as his wife. That works fine, until he comes back to try to sell the house and half the town congratulates him on his marriage, including his own parents. Steve and Goldie work out a plan to end this fake marriage and win back his old girlfriend. Their relationship built upon lies of course turns out to be true love.

So, a few days after Colton got his stitches, we had a big family get together for my parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary. Colton was very excited to show off how tough he was and displayed to every cousin, aunt and uncle the seven stitches on his middle finger, simultaneously flipping off every member of my family several times over the weekend! They all laughed and thought it was cute, and I was secretly jealous that he was effectively giving the bird to a few people I personally would have liked to flip off! (Um…if you’re reading this, then uh…no, you aren’t one of those people…)

House

Hugh Laurie as Dr. House. Cin’s Critique:

This is another great TV series I’ve recently become addicted to. It is unique because the main character is such a jerk! It took several episodes to actually like him. It also took several episodes for the producers to figure out what hooks an audience. Although each episode presented a new, unique, bizarre case for House and his team to figure out, the series didn’t become interesting to me until I started getting tidbits of the personal lives of the doctors, to guarantee that I watched the next episode, hungry for more.

Gregory House heads the department of Diagnostic Medicine. He and his team are presented with patients that have illnesses so complicated that the other doctors cannot figure out what is wrong with them. House is technical and complex, and is focused on the medical stories much more than the personal lives of the doctors. If you like medical dramas, give it a try.

I recently took Colton to the emergency room for stitches. Seven, in his finger, after he sliced it to the bone on his scooter. (Parents, check your children’s bikes and scooters for bar ends!) I’m sure, given the nature of my child, this will be the first ER visit of many to come. In fact, I’m a little surprised he made it over four years without stitches.

What is it about ER doctors? Is there a requirement that they be incredibly handsome? Maybe they do that so you don’t mind being there for five or six hours. Anyway, our doctor really liked Colton, and gave him the nicest compliment I think he has ever received.

He said, “I don’t have any kids, but if I knew I’d get one like him, I’d put in my papers today.”

If I hadn’t been so weak in the knees (and a complete chicken) I would have replied, “The application process begins with taking his mother out to dinner!”

Aaahhh…he was a true McDreamy. Those of you that have watched Grey’s Anatomy know that Patrick Dempsey’s character is nicknamed McDreamy. Those of you that haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it.

Grey’s Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey. Cin’s Critique:

The pilot episode began with Meredith Grey waking up in morning next to the man she picked up at the bar last night. She tells him to leave, then gets ready for the first day at her new job as a surgical intern at Seattle Grace Hospital. When she meets her new boss, guess who it is?? Yep, McDreamy himself, the man from her fling last night.

What a way to start off a new series! Sound a little steamy? Well, it is. It’s a guilty pleasure aired prime time. Grey’s Anatomy really is about Meredith Grey and the personal lives of her and the surgeons she works with more than about the actual medical emergencies that happen on the show. This is what I like about the series, it’s about the people. Yes, there are plenty of episodes where people are jumping into broom closets, but to me, it’s about life. In fact, Meredith’s voice over in each episode kind of reminds me of what we all do in our own heads. We try to make sense of what goes on around us and within us. So, while some of you may not enjoy this series because of the soap opera feel, I loved every minute of it and watched two entire seasons in less than a week, and haven’t missed an episode on TV since.

I woke up in the middle of the night, listening intently for the subtle sound that had grasped me from my sleep with an invisible, yet very firm grip. Drip…drip… And with each drip, a tiny splash erupting from the puddle on my sleeping bag and landing on my face. I was soaking wet. I groped for the flashlight and turned it on, illuminating my frosted breath in the black night. Everyone else in the tent was asleep, and dry. I shuffled to another spot, and shivered while listening to the now splashless drip that was quickly soaking the blanket I had placed under it. Finally, I decided to try to fix the rain fly. Unzipping the flap I was shocked that it wasn’t rain, but snow that was causing the problem! It was four inches deep, and so heavy that the tent was sagging, and obviously, dripping. I shook the snow off and decided I’d be happier in the back of my Jeep.

Yes, a freak blizzard at the beginning of June! Okay, okay, maybe not so freak considering the 10,000-foot elevation I was camping at, but still…it makes a great movie comparison!

The Day After Tomorrow

Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal. Rated PG-13 for intense situations of peril. 2004, Adventure/Natural Disaster. Cin’s Critique:

A climatologist tries to save his son after the world is thrown into the next ice age as a result of global warming and the greenhouse effect. This is a big-budget film with lots of special effects that are fun to watch, such as freak blizzards, tornadoes, lightning storms, and floods. The story kind of drags, but I’d say it was worth watching once.

Okay, on with my chronicles of real life adventures compared to the movies I see:

After visiting Lehman Caves, we traversed up the mountain to camp at 9,986 feet above sea level in the shadow of Wheeler Peak, which towers at 13, 063 feet. It was very cool there, getting into the 30’s at night, in JUNE! It was great fun roasting marshmallows, pitching tents, and smelling like campfire smoke.

Hunter, Colton and I hiked to the Bristlecone Pine Forest to walk among trees that were over 3,000 years old. They were twisted, yet beautiful, just like my sister. We did this while the above-mentioned sister, my brother, and my nephews hiked to the summit of Wheeler Peak.

Usually a very enjoyable jaunt, this time the wind was howling and pummeling snow and ice in their faces. They didn’t get to enjoy the highlight of the trip, the 2,000 foot cliff that you can stand on the edge of and gaze out at the world. Or rather, you can crawl on your belly to the edge, and hope the person holding your legs is trustworthy! Listening to their tale of mountain climbing adversity reminded me of one of my favorite adventure movies:

Cliffhanger

Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow. Rated R for violence and language. 1993, Action/Adventure. Cin’s Critique:

A year after losing his friend in a tragic climbing accident, a mountain guide is asked to help in a search and rescue in the Rocky Mountains. The rescue team receives a call after a plane crash, but what they don’t know is that the plane crashed as the result of a mid-air bank robbery of a US Treasury airplane gone awry. Now the thieves plan on forcing the rescue team to recover the cases of stolen money that have been scattered across the miles of wreckage. The rescuers have to think and move quickly to save their own lives.

The filmmakers did an excellent job of showing height, which made it thrilling to watch the climbing/jumping/falling scenes. With an interesting and believable story line, if you enjoy adventure movies, give this one a try.

Swimming…it’s a new hobby for me, and I’m surprised I love it so much. I’ve built up my endurance a little and am swimming about ½ mile each time I go, quite an improvement to the four laps I floundered through at the beginning of April. I know I’m getting better because the Polynesian guy I see there quite often came up to me the other day and sternly asked:

“How was your swim?”

“It was good,” I answered, “I’m getting better.”

His firm reply: “I can tell.”

(I decided to take that as a compliment!)

The Guardian

Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action/peril, brief strong language and some sensuality. 2006, Action/Drama. Cin’s Critique:

After his team is killed in a horrific rescue mission, a rescue swimmer takes a teaching position at the US Coast Guards “A” school. There he deals with his troubles, as well as helping a promising student overcome his own past, and they both learn lessons about life, love, loss, and self-sacrifice.

I could watch this movie ten times a day and never get tired of it. The intensity of the rescue scenes had me on the edge of my seat. The tenderness and complexity of everyday human life was captured with bits of humor, shock, and tears throughout the film. While this was a big budget movie, it wasn’t too over the top, and I thought it was magnificent. Swimmer or not, you’ll probably enjoy The Guardian.

Today I reread one of my favorite short stories of all time. Reading the story that was actually inspired by Lehman Caves was even more of an experience after just being in the hollows of the earth. If you haven’t read this Round 6 Winner from Whitehole.net, do so immediately!

The Devil’s Throat

Short story written by Rocky Keele. 2006, Adventure/Horror. Cin’s Critique:

Enter the deep, dark depths not of a cave…but of Rocky’s incredible and somewhat disturbing imagination in The Devil’s Throat. Without a doubt, this story produced more fear than either cave movie that I watched.

Follow Dennis Carlow on a rescue mission a thousand feet below the earth’s surface. Two days after a group of researchers are due back from the cave, Dennis and a colleague are sent down to search for the missing party. What they discover between vast caverns, claustrophobic stomach crawls, and sixty-foot cliff faces is sixteen pages of heart pounding reading that you cannot put down!

In my online cave wandering I have found a very cool site: http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/ . It includes some absolutely amazing photography and descriptions of cave formations. My desire to spelunk has increased dramatically the last few days! However, don’t bother watching the following movie to satisfy your exploring urges…

The Descent

Shauna Macdonald. Rated R for language and strong violence/gore. 2006, Horror. Cin’s Critique: 1 *

After the entrance collapses, a group of adventurous women are trapped in a cave. And surprise, surprise…things get worse when a strange cave predator hunts them.

This is one of the worst movies I’ve seen yet. You know, maybe it’s just the genre, I hate horror movies. They are so fake, predictable, and incredibly boring from beginning to end. Honestly, the only reason I rented this one is because I wanted to watch another cave movie. If you’re into this genre, you might actually like The Descent, it won several awards for Best Horror Film.