Comedy, 95 Minutes, 1983
[My daughter recently discovered that all her Jewish friends go the movies on Christmas day. She came up with the idea of watching a movie for each night of Hanukkah. This is number seven! Apparently we’re perfectly fine celebrating Hanukkah by watching a Christmas classic.]
Adventure, 100 Minutes, 1991
[My daughter recently discovered that all her Jewish friends go the movies on Christmas day. She came up with the idea of watching a movie for each night of Hanukkah. Also, by accident, we’ve apparently watched them in chronological order. This is number six!]
Adventure, 100 Minutes, 1991
[My daughter recently discovered that all her Jewish friends go the movies on Christmas day. She came up with the idea of watching a movie for each night of Hanukkah. This is number five!]
Fantasy/Horror, 96 Minutes, 1990
[My daughter recently discovered that all her Jewish friends go the movies on Christmas day. She came up with the idea of watching a movie for each night of Hanukkah. This is number four!]
“Beetlejuice” (Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!) on IMDB
Fantasy, 116 Minutes, 1988
[My daughter recently discovered that all her Jewish friends go the movies on Christmas day. She came up with the idea of watching a movie for each night of Hanukkah. This is number three!]
“What to Expect When You’re Expecting” on IMDB
Comedy, 110 Minutes, 2012
In the vein of “Parenthood” [IMDB] or “Love Actually” [IMDB] this movie follows a large cast of loosely connected people going through similar experiences; in this case, pregnancy. While this doesn’t reach the quality of those films, it’s a respectable effort.
Comedy, 109 Minutes, 2012
Like most men of class and distinction I was raised on The Stooges. They tend to be an acquired taste – most often, in my experience, something handed down from father to son. I have fond memories spent in front of the TV on Sunday mornings watching them on a giant, wooden console TV with a small screen on the local UHF station. They’d play five or six of the classics in a row and we’d sitting on the (bright) orange shag carpet and eat cereal off the coffee table.
Family Drama, 124 Minutes, 2011
Benjamin has recently lost his wife, the love of his life, to illness. Dylan, his teenage son, is a moody, artistic teenager who’s pulling away from him and having trouble at school. Rosie, his seven-year old daughter, is insanely cute, totally precocious and straight from the Hollywood breeding tanks. When Dylan is expelled the family decides to try for a new start and, almost accidentally, falls into buying a run-down zoo on the verge of losing its license.
Fantasy, 106 Minutes, 2012
This is a funny movie. Funny in that old “a teddy bear just said ‘fuck’ and mimed fellatio!” way. There’s also some of that “a teddy bear just said ‘fuck’ and smoked some weed!” and a little “hey, a teddy bear just said ‘fuck’ and gave somebody the finger!” stuff. So if you like any of those then you’ll probably like this.
“She’s Out of My League” on IMDB
Comedy, 104 Minutes, 2010
I criticize romantic comedies a lot. Sometimes I fear that I’m too harsh. Then I remember how utterly shitty most of them are and I worry that I’ve been too forgiving. The thing that most of them forget about is that falling in love is supposed to be a good thing. It also has to be the main thing. Opposites attracting are nice; fishes all up and out of water can be interesting and the fine line between love and hate can lead to some entertaining situations. Most rom-coms pluck one of these tropes off the shelf, spend all their time on it and sleep-walk through the rest.
