Movie update 2007

I saw two fabulous movies this weekend, kiddos. First up, on Friday night, Scottie and I saw "I am Legend" with Will Smith. Here's the deal. I would go to see a Will Smith movie if it was a movie about him sitting in a closet reading a magazine all day. I'm not kidding. I LOVE Will Smith. In fact, I usually veer right away from anything indicating "horror movie". And this had it's scary movie elements, with these creepy, bloodsucking ex-human zombie vampires (not to put too fine a point on it). There are plenty of scenes where these CGI-fabulous creatures pop out at you in a very creepy manner. But it stars Will Smith, so off I went to see it. The movie actually gets less scary as it goes along, and it's designed to. It starts out like "Cast Away", turns into "25 Days Later" (or whatever that zombie movie is...Scott is going to be irritated that I don't know that for sure!), and ends up like "Independence Day", except cooler. There are plenty of touching moments in it, and I cried like a baby at some parts. CRIED. LIKE A BABY. Anyway, it totally made me want to get a German Shepherd, which is totally unrealistic in my life at this particular point, but it did. I left the movie talking nonstop about the dog that accompanies Will on his many lonely exploits. I LOVED the dog. And it made me miss Gerda, my German Shepherd-Husky mix dog from high school. Sniff. Anyway, go see it. Will Smith is fabulous. Acting is hard work when you're the only person on screen most of the time. And he does a great job of it. And ladies--there's a shot of him doing chinups with his shirt off that totally outdoes his running scene from "Bad Boys". You know what I'm talking about... :) I LOVE WILL SMITH. I need to get that on a t-shirt. Though with an opening weekend take of 76 million dollars, I'm definitely not the only one. It's no surprise to this girl that Will Smith is the number one box office draw worldwide, bar none. He's the coolest.

Speaking of cool, the second movie of this weekend was seen on Sunday night with Scott, Jake and Katherine, the indie flick "Juno." A movie about a witty teenager who gets pregnant and decides to give her baby up for adoption, written by a part-time stripper. C'mon. I can't make this stuff up!!! Anyway, the movie is cute, Ellen Page (who plays the titular character, Juno) is fantastic, and deserves all the accolades that will inevitably come her way, and JK Simmons and Allison Janney are hysterical as her parents. And don't miss Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman flexing their acting muscles as the potential adoptive parents. Could be their best performances to date (though Jason Bateman is hysterical in Arrested Development, and it's hard to top that). Michael Cera, known from Arrested Development, and more recently, Superbad, was touching and awkward and perfectly played, but was essentially a minor character to Juno's perfectly played out quirkiness.

There's a rash of good movies out there, people. I've still got 3 or 4 that I want to see in the movie theaters right now. Darn holidays all getting in the way...kidding, kidding. It's the time of year where we spend our time with the loved ones we cherish most, celebrate the coming of Christ and open presents--yay! But if you've got a couple of extra bucks laying around and a couple of hours to spare, head to your local cineplex, and try to catch these fun movies. Nothing says "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus" like some good teenage motherhood hijinks and blood-sucking zombie vampires. Okay, lots of things could. And should. But after that, go see a movie.