F: Is for films galore

Though I love movies I realized this year I had seen very few, or so I thought. Then I tried to count them and realized it was more than most people see but for me the number was still small. This weekend, I made up for every film I had wanted to see. HBO, Encore, Showtime and all the other pay for view channels were showing films for free and I completely indulged. Netflicks has made seeing movies easy but when I subscribed I found out that I was addicted and accomplished very little. The joy of watching this weekend was I got rest which I really needed and films I thought I wanted to see, I found out if I had paid for them, I would of been disappointed. An example of these is "X-Men the Last Stand" and "Eragon". I read Eragon and loved it. When I heard it was being made into a film I was so excited and then life happened and I missed it. Let me tell you I didn't miss seeing it on the big screen. It was a huge disappointment. Another film "The Holiday" I didn't want to see because of the actor Jack Black's pairing with Kate Winslet. I was wrong. What a great film. Romantic, well written and a definite chick flick and well, I'm a chick. M. Night. Shyamalan's sci-fi film "The Lady in the Water" was billed as a horror film and though the preview was interesting I'm not a big fan of that type of genre. It is amazingly light. Tender and sweet, like a comforting hand on the shoulder, it is a perceptive analysis of where the world is at today. A complete feel good movie for our time.
So you would think after all this I'd be sick of films however on Thanksgiving night I went with my friend to the movies. I wanted to see "Lions for Lambs" but it wasn't showing for another hour and a half. We decided to see "Beowulf" and then see the flick we wanted. Once "Beowulf" started our feelings were changed. This film is God awful. I couldn't wait to leave so we decided to try "Enchanted". Neither of us thought we wanted to see this. I had worked on it and I rarely go see the ones I am in and It just looked to cute. This weekend it earned over 50 million and I can tell you I know why. This movie is fun. The songs by musical legends Alan Menkin and Stephen Swartz are funny. If you are a New Yorker you are bound to love this this romp. The best parts are the chipmunk and the elderly men and women. Needless to say we never made it to the other film.

The point of this column is you never know what film will be good or bad. The hype is always misleading. I can not wait for "Sweeney Todd" and see if it even does justice to the Broadway show. I will never know though till I check it out and that's a F.A.C.T.