I will share a few thoughts about the movies I watched over this midwinter and Christmas break, but first I will attempt to combine all of the movie titles and a few of the characters in one crazy paragraph.
My Enchanted Avatar flew Up in the Air and found that Love Actually is all around. Elf had The Hangover of a lifetime after having way too many drunken candy canes with the Ghost of Christmas Present. Sherlock helped Julie solve the mystery of Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon just before he attended a rugby match with Nelson Mandela. The lobsters, octopi and goats that were obviously all present at the birth of Jesus wrote a Proposal requesting that all copies of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice be destroyed or deported to Canada. They included the poem Invictus to help explain their feelings after being forced to watch all 300 minutes.
My Enchanted Avatar flew Up in the Air and found that Love Actually is all around. Elf had The Hangover of a lifetime after having way too many drunken candy canes with the Ghost of Christmas Present. Sherlock helped Julie solve the mystery of Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon just before he attended a rugby match with Nelson Mandela. The lobsters, octopi and goats that were obviously all present at the birth of Jesus wrote a Proposal requesting that all copies of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice be destroyed or deported to Canada. They included the poem Invictus to help explain their feelings after being forced to watch all 300 minutes.
Avatar
Avatar is a beautifully executed tale of intergalactic and inter-specie adventuring with a very green message. It's about humans from the future who fly around in space ships and then genetically disguise themselves as tall blue people in order to obtain some unobtanium from planet Pandora. In the future they have not abolished greedy people who like to blow things up. One of the humans, Jake, learns the ways of the tall blue tree people, the Omaticaya clan of the Na'vi, and decides it's a better way of life. When he arrived and met some of the Na'vi, he was allowed to live and learn the ways of the Omaticaya, because Neytiri was given a sign from Eywa via the Tree of Souls, the most sacred of all the trees. Neytiri was about to kill him when he was covered by the seeds of the Tree of Souls. Jake learns how to tame a banshee and then mates in the forest with Neytiri under the magical ancestral Tree of Voices. Soon the greedy people destroy Hometree. Jake's loyalties are questioned. Jake tames the most dominant banshee of all the banshees to show how mighty he is and then unites all the tribes and clans of Pandora. He asks for some help from Eywa at the Tree of Souls. The greedy people are defeated by the Na'vi in an epic battle scene. Eywa decides to help. Jake is allowed to stay and he becomes fully Na'vi.Moral of the story: Pandora is where music comes from. I like Neytiri's passion and hunting and forest skills. People say it's just like Ferngully. I only have vague memories of Ferngully, but I agree.
Up in the Air
George Clooney plays a traveling businessman who flies around the country firing and laying off people. He remains as detached as possible from any sort of meaningful relationships in which he isn't calling the shots and he even teaches seminars on how to live this non-committal lifestyle. He wins an award for reaching 10 million frequent flier miles, but by this point in the film he starts longing for real connections with people and his lifetime goal of reaching 10 million miles is not as thrilling as he had hoped.Enchanted
Moral of the story: True love's kiss is the most powerful thing in the world. It can even defeat a jealous step mother's rage. Happily ever after does exist, but it may be with someone different than you had expected. And going to a ball wearing a beautiful dress is an excellent way to move the plot forward. Be ware of very shiny red apples and evil step mothers who can transform themselves into old ladies and dragons.Sherlock Holmes
I thought it was going to be a musical. I'm not sure where I got that idea. I was waiting for the opening musical number with Robert Downey Jr., but it never happened. There were lots of bloody fight scenes and dark magic scenes. They didn't make time for even one song. It would have been much better as a musical. Nevertheless, Mr. Downey made an excellent Sherlock Holmes. And Jude Law, as Watson, was dashing as always. The real bad guy who was behind the scenes, Professor Moriarty, was alive at the end of the film which means we should expect a sequel and if they know what they are doing, they should replace all of the really bloody fight scenes with singing and dancing.Pride and Prejudice - the long version
My roommate and I tried watching this. We could only take about 15 minutes of it. It's terrible and the actors are very unattractive. I won't post a picture for this film. Almost all of the lines are delivered poorly. The cinematography is insipid. No one should ever watch the 1995 BBC version. It should be banned. If a viewing of Pride and Prejudice is attempted, one must watch the 2005 version with Keira Knightly.
The Proposal
Basically, it's an updated, yet refreshing, remake of While You Were Sleeping. Sandra Bullock has a knack for finding herself in awkward, false engagements that somehow turn into true love. Sandra plays a successful Canadienne living in New York. She blackmails her very cute male assistant to marry her so that she will not be deported to Canadia. While visiting his family in Alaska, they fall in love for real. It's really quite funny and cute.Julie and Julia
After I watched this I was briefly inspired to make an extremely complicated French dish like the Boeuf Bourguignon, a souffle or maybe even Ile Flottante. Meryl Streep proves once again that she can play any character.Moral: Butter makes everything better. It's true.
Invictus
The violent sport of rugby helps unite a nation. As I watched the rugby scenes I decided that if I'm ever on Inside the Actors Studio and James Lipton asks me "What profession would you least like to attempt?" I would say "Rugby."The title is taken from the poem by William Ernest Henley that helped Nelson Mandela get through the tough times in prison. The poem is clearly about the perils of rugby.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
The Hangover
I only watched this in part. It was really stupid. Sometimes it was so strange and stupid it became funny. Still, not a proud moment for humanity, though it had its moments.Love Actually
This was a sort of collage of 8 love stories. It claims to be the ultimate romantic comedy. Maybe. Not sure about that. It certainly has a great quantity of love stories, each one unique. The relationships are interconnected in a very complicated way, as depicted here in the official Love Actually flow chart. The opening thesis statement of the film "Love actually is all around" seems to be true. I'm not sure why the film made the argument that there were lobsters and octopi at the birth of Jesus, but it was really funny. I will have to think about the deeper hidden metaphor. This was probably meant to show the universality of Romans 8:19. That's most of the movies I saw over the last 10 days or so. I also watched Elf, The Muppets Christmas Carol, White Christmas, The Wizard of Oz, Annie and Father of the Bride. Why watch so many movies? The verb is watch. I didn't actually do anything. Well, I did do some things, but I could have done more. I feel a little guilty. I feel like it means my life is not engaging enough as it is, so I have to escape to the movies. See Don Miller's thoughts somewhere in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. He talks about living a good story and not just watching them in movies and on tv. If I were truly doing the things I should be doing and living a good story, then I wouldn't have to watch movies. Of course, taking in stories is not exactly anti-productive, but reading is a much better mental activity. Still, if I have time to watch so many movies, I probably have time to read more, practice an instrument, help people, learn or re-learn a language, learn how to write more interesting sentences and stuff. Still, goin
g into the Christmas break, my plan was to watch a lot of movies, catch up on sleep, organize my closet and workout. I did these things, but if someone were to make a movie about it, it probably would not be very exciting. They do have shows about organizing closets and people do watch those shows. I also learned how to make goat cheese this week. This is something I was curious about because I use it all the time now. I did not actually make goat cheese, but now I have the general idea if I ever feel so inspired to buy a goat, be a shepherdess and live on goat cheese time.
g into the Christmas break, my plan was to watch a lot of movies, catch up on sleep, organize my closet and workout. I did these things, but if someone were to make a movie about it, it probably would not be very exciting. They do have shows about organizing closets and people do watch those shows. I also learned how to make goat cheese this week. This is something I was curious about because I use it all the time now. I did not actually make goat cheese, but now I have the general idea if I ever feel so inspired to buy a goat, be a shepherdess and live on goat cheese time. 
