Super Size Me!

I was going through the McDonald's drive through this weekend to get something to drink on my long journey to Santa Fe, and noticed that one can now supersize breakfast! I asked the employee at the cash register what that meant. She said that if someone supersizes breakfast, they get two hash browns and a larger drink.

Sounds like Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me hasn't given McDonald's a conscience. If you haven't seen this documentary yet, I encourage you to rent it. It is an easy movie to watch, funny in places, shocking in others, and visually and musically appealing.

Sequels

I noticed that a sequel to the Sandra Bullock film Miss Congeniality is coming out soon. I am a big fan of that film, and I think it is Ms. Bullock's best film. But I am concerned lest this sequel go the way of what happened when Reese Witherspoon did a sequel to Legally Blonde. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde failed because there were too many repeats of jokes which were really funny in the original film, but just tired by the time they appeared in the second film.

Perhaps it is easier to come up with a great sequel to a drama or action film, as we witnessed last year with Spider-Man 2 and Bourne Supremacy. Both of those were excellent sequels; the characters continued to develop and not just be a stagnant repeat of what they were in the first great movie.

I'll get back to you on what Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous does for me.

Buffalo Dreams

I had the pleasure of watching Buffalo Dreams tonight on the Disney channel. What a sweet, hopeful movie! Try to see it when it reruns over the next few days. It is made with young adults in mind, but is a great film for all of us to watch. It's about an Anglo boy and a Navajo boy, and how they become friends, and meet some challenges along the way.

There is what I at first thought was a rip-off of Breaking Away, another coming of age film from many years ago, but then I simply thought of it as a tribute to the earlier film about bike racing. The film is supposed to take place in New Mexico, although I read it was filmed in Utah. The scenery is beautiful, mountains, desert wildflowers, storms, and the beautiful Navajo ways. I hope you get to see it.

Foreign films

I was talking to someone last night about the film Maria Full of Grace. It features the best actress nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno and is about a young woman in Colombia. It is in Spanish with subtitles. I don't want to give away what it is about, but I encourage you to see it on my recommendation. I was fascinated by what was depicted in the film about life in Colombia, and later in the U.S.

I know subtitles scare off some people, but I have rarely seen a subtitled film from any country that did not fascinate me and illuminate something about another culture for me. What are your favorite foreign films?

Super Size Me!

One of the nominated documentary features this year was Super Size Me. It documents the filmmaker's one month gig of gorging on McDonald's food, and his subsequent ill health from eating all that fat and sugar.

Ironically, the filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock, is engaged to a vegan chef. I could be a vegan and live quite happily, as long as I had a personal chef in the house to prepare the food for me! But getting back to the film, it is really very well done, and I learned alot about the state of nutrition in our schools, and what all those lab tests at the doctor's mean.

Austin Powers and Dr. Evil

Austin Powers in Goldmember was on TBS tonight, so I tuned in. I had not seen it since it first came out in theaters almost two years ago. My opinion is that the first two Austin Powers movies are the best ones of the three. True, Goldmember has some fun cameo appearances and an interesting twist at the end, but the first two I think are just funnier.

And to Marianne, if you watch An Affair to Remember and Sleepless in Seattle over and over again, I would say you are a romantic at heart.

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Sue

A movie to rent

Last night I noticed that the movie Dave was being shown on TV. I remembered how much I enjoyed this film when it first came out. It stars Kevin Kline as the man who bears an uncanny likeness to the President of the U.S., who then "fills in" for him, and Sigourney Weaver, as the wife of the real President who has become seriously ill. It always leaves me thinking, "Why can't our presidents be more like Dave?"

If you're looking for a good, lighthearted movie to rent, put this one on your list. Even if you've seen it already. Which leads to my question to you, "What movies do you watch again and again?"

Adapted Screenplay

I like to try to see as many of the nominees for best screenplay as I can before the awards. This year I looked to rent a video called Before Sunset. When I read the description of the film, I noticed it was a sequel to a film made around nine years ago called Before Sunrise. So of course I rented both of them.

What a treat! These two films break the rules about writing a screenplay. They are 99% about two characters, and most of it is dialogue, but what rich dialogue! I highly recommend these two romances. It is understandable why Before Sunset was nominated for an award. Plus they take place in Vienna, and the second one in Paris, so the background is very intriguing too.