Movies in October

Oh dear, with the lateness. It's time to post my November wrapups, and I still have this October one left.

OK, first off we watched more Marx Brothers: A Day at the Races, Go West, The Big Store, Room Service and At the Circus. I've got too much to say about the Marx Brothers to possibly cover it here; I'll have to do a whole other post just on them. (Watch for it!). In the meantime, I dug up this clip on YouTube of Harpo's one "speaking" role... in a silent film. It's the comments here that amuse me. I'm not the only one who thinks Harpo is a little hottie.


I saw two films I can put in the category of irreverance: Bill Maher's Religulous and Year One. Religulous was entertaining. Bill Maher talks to a wide range of people from different religious backgrounds. I was afraid I would find this too mocking, but Bill pretty much stepped back and let them make fools of themselves. Year One was funny in a more family friendly way; the boys sure enjoyed it. I was impressed with the look of the film; the costumes and sets were fantastic. I'm hoping for a Year Two, but only if it's as funny.

I watched a slew of Bollywood films, namely Sangdil Sanam, Jaagruti, Bandhan, Baaghi, Sanam Bewafa and Paheli. Some I enjoyed more than others, but they all sort of blend in my head now.

Inkheart I enjoyed, particularly Andy Serkis. I have this book; I'm totally going to read it someday.


We saw Where the Wild Things Are in the theater. It was well worth it. Most films for children that deal with empathy oversimplify it horribly. I particularly appreciated how the wild things are not 1:1 correspondences with the main character's mother, sister, etc. They share some characteristics with them (and with him), and some of the situations are similar, but nothing is a direct metaphor. The boy learns from interacting with all these different personalities and watching them interact with each other. Getting along with others is a messy business, and often hard work. Outside of that, the special effects are wonderful. There is no "uncanny valley" between the boy and the monsters; they both look real from every angle.

TV on DVD: I caught up with How I Met Your Mother season 4 and Two and a Half Men season 6. How I Met Your Mother is still going strong, I think, but Two and a Half Men is getting repetitious. But the jokes are still funny; I'll probably be back again for season 7.


Lastly is the miniseries Torchwood: Children of Earth. With the team down to just Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto I was expecting lots of naked hide and seek highjinks. So the darker tone caught me off guard, but this was an excellent finish to a show I've enjoyed. The characters had to make some hideously hard choices that had consequences. I'm sorry this is the end of Torchwood, but at least it ended with a bang.