catching up

The 84th Annual Academy Awards show is just one week away. Those of you who know me know that the Oscars are sacred to me. At this time last year, Ron and I were spending every minute we could watching the nominated movies and performances so that we could knowingly watch the show and make our picks. Kinda silly when you think about it since neither one of us are members of the Academy. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have not been able to keep up with the movies this year. We have also been less than enthusiastic about seeing some of the nominated films.

In the meantime, we have seen a few movies that have come and gone and are now on pay per view or on HBO or Showtime. For instance...

The Big Year A movie with Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black about bird watching? Really? Yes, really! What a charming little film about 3 guys that are absolutely passionate about birds! Each of them decide to do a "big year" which means a bird watcher tries to see and identify more bird species than any other bird watcher in the span of a single year. At the end of the year the winner is announced in Bird Watcher Magazine. The film follows these 3 men and everything they go through to achieve this goal. The actors are all very good in this movie – even Owen Wilson (I’m not a fan of his). Definitely put this in your queue on Netflix.

Win Win Who doesn’t love Paul Giamati? He is so good in anything he does. Recently he has been acknowledged for his work in John Adams and Too Big to Fail among many others. This time around he plays a lawyer whose practice in a small town in New Jersey is barely surviving. He is also the coach of a winless local high school wrestling team. He’s a nice guy, but does some dishonest maneuvers with an elderly client and his law practice to keep from financially going under. The troubled grandson of this elderly client shows up and changes everyone’s lives around him. Another great little film to put in your queue – I loved it.

Bottle Shock Alan Rickman is so much more than Severus Snape. He was one of my favorite actors long before he starred in the Harry Potter movies. I have to admit that part of it has to do with the accent – yes, I love English actors for their accents. Anyway, this little film is the true story of a British wine snob who decides to hold a blind tasting between French wines and the emerging California wines of Napa Valley in 1976. The outcome is obvious, but it’s a good history lesson and reality check for people that think French wines are superior to American Wines.

The Vow It’s been a long time since we had seen a movie in the theater – well, a long time by our standards. Instead of seeing something that we should have in preparation for the Oscars, we opted to see The Vow starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. Here is another movie inspired by real events. The actors are young and beautiful and the story is sad and touching, but ultimately hopeful. It’s definitely romantic and could be considered a “chick flick” although I did see quite a few guys in the theater without girlfriends. The story is about a young married couple who suffer the loss of their relationship after a car accident robs the wife of her memory of her husband. It’s a story worth telling, but I was hoping for a little more romance or drama or something. My bottom line – go see it if nothing else in theaters appeals to you, but you can wait til it comes out as a DVD or it hits Netflix.

That's all for now -  maybe we'll see a couple more movies before next Sunday.