Weekend Update and Monday Movie Reviews

I guess a Weekend Update is actually supposed to be on the weekend, but whatever. It was kind of a busy weekend considering half the family was gone.

Friday was kind of hectic with an early visit to the chiropractor, and then we got practically no schoolwork done as we had to leave early for co-op where TMax got to dissect a shark and the Pipster got to look at one already dissected. We left early to go to the one daytime football game of Hitch and Madden. It was cold and raining! And they were having a tough time out there on the field.

TMax had to go back to St. Ben's to go camping with his Boy Scout Troop, so we left w/ the Little Princess at Half-time. Pipster stayed with Dad for the second half because they were doing their own Cub Scout camping. Master of the World noted that the 3 times we've been camping this year, it has rained. Obviously, our family doesn't camp enough, because if we went camping more often this extremely severe drought would end!

TMax, LP, and I stopped for fun dinner items (egg rolls!) and movies for the night. We ended up having a little picnic on the floor and watching The Shaggy Dog. Mercifully, we didn't have to drive down to The School to pick up the football players because another mom---Who Is A Saint---had half the football team sleep over at her house!

Movie Review: We enjoyed The Shaggy Dog w/ Tim Allen. It was funny and I don't recall anything that offended me. It was interesting that it was about animal research that involved mixing animal DNA and the results of that. Even though the animals were freaky, like the bulldog/frog or the snake w/ a dog's tail, they were characterized as friendly, not evil. But it was clear that this type of experimentation was wrong.

After The Shaggy Dog, LP and I watched Crusoe on TV. I really enjoy that show; this was the second episode. It's kind of fun and Indiana Jones-ish. Since we watched Crusoe, I didn't watch the movie I had gotten for myself which was The Ultimate Gift. It was rated PG, so we decided to watch it together Saturday morning.
Movie Review: The Ultimate Gift is the story of a young man estranged from his very wealthy grandfather who dies at the beginning of the movie. The whole family is a mess of greedy people who care about nothing but money. Grandpa's money, at that. Jason is the same way, a self-centered rich kid who does nothing but party all the time. His inheritance is a series of questionable "gifts" that turn his life upside down. His grandfather obviously regretted their estrangement and thought that this was a way to change the path his grandson was on, and to keep him from turning out like the rest of the family. I thought it was wonderful and well-done. I've seen some Christian movies that were too preachy and obvious with dialog that was completely unrealistic. It was a little over Princess's head, but I think it's a great family movie, especially for ages 8 & up.

So, the rest of Saturday involved ho-hum exercise, picking up football players, grocery shopping, housecleaning. Then we all went to Mass together because I was scheduled to cantor. Later, Little Princess went to a halloween party at a neighbor's house and Hitch and I watched a movie.
Movie Review: He talked me into renting There Will Be Blood which is rated R, but he said it was really given a PG-13 rating by the MPAA and the director sent it back asking for an R. Most directors would have put in some R-rated material to help it along, but this one didn't. There was remarkably little blood until the very end and you didn't even see the act. It was sort of old-fashioned movie violence where you see the perpetrator and you know exactly what he's doing, but you don't see the contact. Psycho-creepy. The score, which Hitch loved, added a lot of tension to the film. To me, it seemed to be disjointed; it implied dreadful things were coming, but they didn't usually come to pass. What's it about, you ask? Daniel Day Lewis plays an oil man around the turn of the century (aside: can you say that anymore? Which century? It was the early 1900's). It's all about his quest for oil and success. I'm not sure he cared about the money, just the success. Hitch loved it, and it was very well-made: great cinematography, acting, score(?). I just didn't get the point, but that's just me. I like my movies to be entertaining (Shaggy Dog) or virtuous (The Ultimate Gift), not just stressful. I was not satisfied with the ending. Brainier types, like Hitch, might be.

Sunday was spent at Mass again because the choir sang. The other boys came home and I spent the beautiful day doing their laundry.

What did you watch this weekend???

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Stay tuned for tomorrow's (I hope!) post on projects I'm working on.