Lisa's Movie Corner

So this morning, when I popped into Huffingtonpost.com, there's a picture of Meryl Streep, doing as, what a I, a former Jr. High cheerleader can call, a russian. (Enough commas for ya?)

The London Daily Mail says she's doing the splits. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the russian, though damn impressive, is no splits. But I digress. This person went on to further remark at how amazed they were the Meryl Streep could sing. Hello! Did anyone see Prairie Home Companion, the movie? Didn't I just recently name her a Rockin' Woman? What more do they need to know?

Lately my movie theater viewing falls into two categories; really good kid movies and chick flicks.

Now really good kid movies can be a generous category. Am I so glad that I'm not bored silly, that I'll call it good? So lately, when I tell someone a children's book or movie is really good, I have to temper that with, "Do they really have to care?" But kid movie genius is Emma Thompson. She makes a movie set in England (appealing to all us folks who adore english accents), uses warts and disgusting make up (appealing to little boys who think all things disgusting are funny), has a nice little love story for the girls and brings in Colin Firth for the frosting. I was sold with Emma Thompson and all of the adorable english children, but Colin Firth! That was too much.

Then there are the girlfriend movies. They can be funny, artsy or heavy(Ok, easy on the heavy. I'll never watch Million Dollar Baby again.) We can bust a gut at 40 year old Virgin, or Knocked Up. Feel pleased with ourselves for watching foreign films with subtitles. But essentially, we'll watch anything, as long as it's proceeded by dinner at Taste of Saigon.

Girlfriend Movies involve complicated and friendly carpools. Often times there are cars in the ditch, flat tires, new friends and people who look familiar from the grocery store. You defer to the experts on food ordering and bill splitting. All of the moms can sit back and have people order for them and write the check out for the amount they're told. How nice is that? The movie, and the discussion afterward, that's just a bonus.

I realized recently, that I'm into movies, a lot more than your average person. I read Roger Ebert's reviews every Friday. I surf IMDB to figure out the name of the actor who stared in a movie with that other actor. I read the news from Cannes, Sundance and the Toronto Film Festival. Even if I haven't seen a movie, I usually know more about it then the people who've seen it. Kind of pathetic, huh.

Oh, well. Such is my plight.

Anyway, I'm so excited for Mama Mia to come out on July 18th! Did I mention Colin Firth is in it?