Day 11--Heartburn (1986)

As you can tell by now...I'm not very good at keeping up with this.

Heartburn stars a young Meryl Steep as Rachel and an already old as fudge Jack Nicholson as Mark. The story is an autobiographical account of Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron's marriage, something I didn't know until I read it on IMDB and then promptly didn't care.

The story follows these two meeting, getting married, having a kid,  and then Rachel finds out her husband is cheating on her.  That bastard. They try to make it work while Rachel is about to explode with another baby.  Eventually, Rachel figures out things won't ever be the same between her and Mark and she finally decides to leave him. End of Story.

I got a kick seeing Meryl Streep and Jeff Daniels so young but other than that all the characters were pretentious New York elite snobs that I could care less about.  And really a movie with Jack Nicholson can't be that romantic. 




   ♥ ♥ ♥

Day 10--A Little Bit of Heaven (2011)

This one stars Kate Hudson as a fun loving gal that finds out she has terminal cancer.  In the mean time she falls in love with her doctor played by the very handsome and wonderful Gael Garcia Bernal.

This movie has it all....big name actors, a midget, Whoopi Goldberg as God, the whole cancer thing, and falling in love.

Rotten tomatoes gave this movie a whopping 4%.

While I did cry...I mean come on the movie revolves around terminal cancer how could I not cry, the only thing that kept me watching was the superb and beautiful Gael Garcia Bernal.

I'm pretty sure  the best scenes of the movie are the ones with the amazing and talented Gael Garcia Bernal. 

This gets the three hearts for having Mr. Gael Garcia Bernal.

   ♥ ♥ ♥

Day 9--The Giant Mechanical Man (2012)

I kept seeing this pop up on the Netflix but nothing in the short description really moved me to want to watch it.  I thought it was going to be one of those super indie films with the really dry humor that yes I enjoy watching after a while but is never my first choice to start watching.  But I was in for a treat when this film was everything that I look for in a good romantic funny movie.  It starred Jenna Fischer, a young woman kind of lost in knowing what she wants in life, drifting from temp job to temp job she becomes fascinated by a street performer as a giant mechanical man.  Chris Messina plays the mechanical man and another lost soul that just wants to make people happy.  Break ups, getting evicted, and applying for a job at the local zoo brings these two lost people together. 

And as an extra treat, Topher Grace is a long haired self-help guru that is annoying as you'd expect him to be.  

All in all it’s a very simple movie that made me cry and got everything right.


     ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Day 8--The African Queen (1951)

I've always known that this classic was out there but never watched it until now.  And I always knew that this movie had some big name actors in it. What I didn't know was the story.  My version of the story went like this-Young beautiful woman is stuck in Africa, perhaps part of some royal missionary trip or something.  While deep in the Serengeti the young woman is separated from her companions and is taken in by a local tribe.  The tribe takes to her and she is somehow elevated to queen status and then the rescue mission comes in and the dashing headstrong young man comes to save her.  But by this point she doesn't need any saving and while trying to resist being saved they fall in love with each other, get married, stay with the tribe as queen and king and have kids. The end.

What really happened was Old Maid Katherine Hepburn is a missionary along with her brother in some African town.  World War I has started and the Germans invade the African town which ultimately kills Hepburn's brother.  Humphrey Bogart is a good natured man but rather rude in his mannerisms.  Charlie (Bogart) runs The African Queen,  a boat, and somehow Rose (Hepburn) manages to make her way on it with a crazy plan to launch handmade torpedoes into the Queen Louisa (a German vessel). The rest of the movie is the adventure Rose and Charlie have getting out to the lake where they can launch the torpedoes.

Now this movie was more like it.  While Bogart and Hepburn were older in age they were pros and what they did.  Hepburn pulls off the spinster old maid role while Bogart plays the rough and tough captain well.  The scenes of politeness and modesty towards each other is amusing but when things get hot between the two well things get hot in a very modest 1950's type of way.  My favorite part was Charlie calling Rose "my old girl".  Now what lady would like to be called old girl!  The only thing missing was me crying like a baby. 


   ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ and a half

Day 7--White on Rice (2009)

The first question I asked Mr. Katohater was if this was one of those foreign films where I have to read and actually pay attention.  Reading subtitles means I can't look at all those funny cat and dog pics on the internets.

He told me it was in English so I said "ok fine...put it on".  Opening scene subtitles...what!  While the movie had subtitles on and off throughout the movie it really was a funny movie and yes I paid attention to it. 

The movie centers around 40 year old divorcee named Jimmy.  He lives with his sister, sleeps on the top bunk of his nephew's bed and he tries to hit on his brother in law's niece.   Jimmy thinks he's in love with this girl and fails miserably trying to get her attention.  In the end, he finally realizes he has to go on with his life and then he meets a girl (that he actually ignored earlier in the movie) that will tolerate his weirdness.

While it was a good movie I didn't like that this poor schmuck only has eyes for his brother in law's niece.  Kind of creepy and gross.  The girl that is actually interested in him is another 20 something and all I could think of is why would this girl want a 40 year old schmuck.


   ♥ ♥ ♥ AND A 1/2

Day 6--Mad Dog and Glory (1993)

I am way too sleepy to actually pay attention to this movie.  Mad Dog is played by Robert DeNiro and he plays a quiet/shy cop that saves  mob boss Bill Murray from getting killed.  To return the favor Bill sends one of his girls to "be friends" with DeNiro.

David Caruso plays buddy cop and isn't annoying in this movie like he is in CSI: Miami. Bill Murray is kind of a bad ass as a mob boss.

Not a bad movie but not girly enough for me.


   ♥ ♥ ♥

Day 5--Playing by Heart (1998)

This is one of those films that has a bunch of little stories that turns out every story is connected one way or another.  You have everyone from Jon Stewart to Angelina Jolie.  You have the classic story-lines of people cheating on each other to a man that is dying from AIDS.  

All stories are heart wrenching and I almost cried.

This movie brought back how big of a storyline AIDS was back then.  I instantly remembered how for the longest time every dramatic movie had someone dying of AIDS, every other commercial was about protecting oneself from HIV and AIDS and then somewhere along the way that all disappeared.  I just thought it was weird that I thought of that.

I kind of didn't expect the ending when everything gets tied up and you figure out all the connections so that was a pleasant surprise. The only thing is that this movie left me confused.  I'm pretty sure I didn't hear some of the things Ryan Phillipe or Sean Connery said so I think I added some extra drama to their story lines in my head.

I give it a better than average rating.  It was a better movie than the romcoms I adore but it was kind of depressing.  I didn't quite agree that it was Seductively Funny or Hilarious....


   ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥