A weekend of movies...

As the shows we regularly watch are wrapping up their seasons, and just as the summer movie season is beginning, we had a chance to watch THREE movies this weekend! That's quite a bit for us! Ok, two of them were Netflix movies that Brett wasn't too excited about, so rather than us watching our Netflix stuff within a couple days of their arrival (so we can get them back out in the mail ASAP to get the best deal for our money!), these two have been sitting here for perhaps a week or more?

So Friday nite we settled down with one I've really wanted to see since it came out, but due to all the bad reviews, I just hadn't been too eager to get it. Sometimes, if you know pulling off the bandaid's gonna hurt, you leave it alone a little longer to put it off... (at least that's the theory)



Unfortunately, The X-Files: I Want To Believe lived up to the lack of hype. It pretty much sucked. Now I was an X-Files fanatic - I had a ballcap and a t-shirt, I had people over on Friday nights to watch the show and do dinner when the series was at it's height, etc... LOOOOOVED it!!

So it's quite a few years later, and the writers figured they couldn't go back to the big alien conspiracy storyline. Either it had been wrapped up enough, or it'd been too long, or there was no way you could make a good story for a single movie without dredging up all that old content...I don't know, but I kinda get it.

But even when they weren't dealing with the alien conspiracy storylines, they still had some great freak-of-the-week episodes. I still remember Tooms - the guy who could stretch a bit, becoming disjointed, and would eat human livers. That was some seriously good stuff - and nice and creepy!

Instead we had a very vague storyline about some sort of Frankenstein experiment to save some Russian guy's life, while Mulder and Scully had to deal with the lack of excitement in their lives these days. Sure, they touched on whatever happened to their kid, and whether or not they're in a relationship now, but even those answers weren't really all that clear.

If you loved X-Files, and yet you still haven't seen this movie, I'd honestly say pass - keep the good memories and don't let them be tainted by this movie.

Saturday we popped the X-Files DVD in the mail to send it back to Netflix and headed out for some errands and to see the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. Now I have to say 1) Brett wasn't super enthusiastic about the movie, and 2) online reviews were TANKING it (thanks to a leaked copy weeks ago!). The fanboys just weren't liking it. In fact, for the most part they haaaaaated it!


Now I have to admit I really only know Wolverine's history from reading X-Men on and off over the years (going waaaaay back), and also from working in a comic shop years ago - so I was in on the introduction of the Weapon X plot line, etc. But I don't know all the backstory that's been introduced for the character, I don't know all of his love interests, former team mates that aren't in the X-Men, etc. From what I've read online about the various characters he's interacted with, and seeing how they were changed for the movie, I honestly get why many folks might be disappointed because they're not the same. But hello, this movie takes place in the X-universe set up in the other movies, NOT the universe of the comic books. It's BASED on those, but it's different.

To be honest, we both REALLY enjoyed the movie. Yeah, sure, it would've been nice to have some of the secondary characters fleshed out a bit more, but what we did see, we really liked! The action scenes were great, as were the special effects. The acting wasn't all that bad. Hugh Jackman's done some seriously amazing work on his body (and did you know he's running around butt-naked for a bit of the movie?! Bonus!) (I haven't checked to see if he had a naked-butt double...who cares).

Was this movie as action-packed AND as funny as Iron Man? Nah, not really. But it was a different movie for a different kind of character. I definitely recommend seeing it - it's a good one!!!

And then, after the long weekend of yard work, gardening, errands, getting in a bit of a date for just the two of us Saturday, etc...it was time to settle down Sunday evening with our other Netflix movie - one I'd heard a lot of good things about, and was interested in seeing, but one Brett admitted he wasn't excited about. Oh well - we gave it a shot...

We both REALLLLLLY enjoyed Juno! What a fun movie!! Ellen Page, the girl who played Juno (and, since we're talking about X-Men, she played Kitty Pryde in those movies!), is an amazing actress! Very talented and very amusing!!! Jason Bateman's character seemed really cool but then got a tad creepy, but I think that was intended... All the fun witty comments kept us laughing, and appreciating all the cultural references - "Thundercats GOOOOOOOO!". LOL

I don't have as much to say about Juno. I kinda figure we're the last people on the planet to have seen it. I DEFINITELY recommend you check it out if you haven't - what a great movie about a touchy subject!