Weekend Movie Review

WHEN: March 27, 2010
WHERE: A theater near you!

I have resigned myself to movie "reviews". Apparently nothing noteworthy is happening in our lives for the time being! Although these movies are (I believe) worth mentioning, surely there is no need to blog about them if anything remotely interesting has happened lately. Not to mention I haven't even seen any of these four movies.

The only thing going on around here is an unwanted and unusually cold weekend, consisting mostly of running errands, cleaning the apartment, paying bills, and otherwise preparing to be home in Iowa for 10 days starting next Friday.

So, grab your popcorn, turn the lights off, put on some dirty socks (for the smell effect), invite 4 dozen adolescent couples over (plus a couple out-of-control children), and push play! It's a free ticket to the movies from me to you.

Lights...camera...action!

(all contained videos are available in HD)

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE
Rated: R
Length: 100 minutes
Released: March 26, 2010

All I have to say about this movie (based on the one trailer I've seen for it) is that it should win the Oscar for Best Marketing, 2010. It is advertised as "See the first 2-D movie of the year!"

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID
Rated: PG
Length: 93 minutes
Released: March 19, 2010

I don't know that I would ever really care to see this movie but there is one line in this movie that has made me laugh over and over...and over and over again. Stace could not be more annoyed with me, especially when I make her watch the line over and over with me :) Pay attention to seconds 1:19-1:21 and see what your humor maturity level is.

This video can not be embedded in the blog but is available here.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Rated: PG
Length: 109 minutes
Released: March 5, 2010

I can't help it. I'm a sell-out for cartoons and fantasy adventures...and now they're becoming available in 3D!! If you were unable to see A Christmas Carol 3D in theaters this past Christmas, you have truly missed a great experience. Even if you wait until Thanksgiving (when it comes out on Blue-Ray/DVD) and purchase a 3D-ready TV, there is no substitute for the experience on a 75ft theater screen with a bazillion watts of sound thumping through the speakers. I tried hard to get Stace (and our families) to go again but to no avail. I'm just glad I had the experience once. We even went to Avatar in 3D in January and, personally, that still was not as rewarding as A Christmas Carol. Plus how can you beat Jim Carrey as Scrooge (or any character for that matter)?? Needless to say, I WILL be going out at midnight the day that movie is released to buy it!

So, even though I have not yet seen Alice In Wonderland, I know it will become one of my favorites; just like every other movie Disney or Pixar has put out (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, A Christmas Carol, etc.). Family members: any takers on this movie while we're home in Iowa??


THE LAST SONG
Rated: PG-13
Length: 107 minutes
Released: March 31, 2010

I have saved the best for last. No, I'm not a Miley Cyrus fan but I have become a fan of Nicholas Sparks. Stacie was a fan long before me and has read all of his books and owns at least 5 of them. The Last Song is the latest film based on one of his books; the film's namesake.

Nicholas Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1965 but has lived and went to school in many other states. Since the mid-90's, Sparks and his family have lived in New Bern, NC; a town of about 25,000 that Stace & I were less than an hour from when we lived in Greenville, NC. It is also the town where Pepsi was first concocted back in the 1890's and home to the world's oldest living married couple (85 years). We passed through the town on numerous trips to the beach while we lived in North Carolina. I remember our first drive to the beach and Stace mentioning all the signs with names of North Carolina landmarks and regions that she had seen referenced in his books she had been reading over the previous years.

At that point, the only movie I had seen based on Nicholas Sparks' books was The Notebook (2004). Two movies had been released prior to The Notebook that were based on his novels that I had not seen (Message In A Bottle, 1999 and A Walk To Remember, 2001). I liked The Notebook, mostly because it was sweet (not just a "chick flick"), well written, and had good acting; the components that make most movies great and people want to see them. But I have since developed a new affinity for his movies that goes beyond scripts and acting.

At least since The Notebook, all of his novels (and therefore movies) have been set in the Carolinas. This became very apparent in his next movie entitled, Nights In Rodanthe (2008). Rodanthe is a small village in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and much of the movie was filmed in the Outer Banks, including a landmark house in Rodanthe. I had first seen and photographed this castle-of-a-house in May of 2008 (seen below), a couple months before the movie was released and before I had seen any advertisement of the movie. You can imagine the interest it piqued in me when I saw this house in the movie trailers weeks later. Stace and I went to see it in the theater in September 2008. We were amazed to see signs and landmarks of the Outer Banks in the movie that we ourselves had seen living there for just a year. Perhaps best of all was a typical green highway sign with three North Carolina cities and their distances listed. One of these cities read: Greenville, NC - the very city we lived and were watching the movie in!

The house Nights In Rodanthe was filmed at (seen May 2008).

Just last month, Stace and I went to the most recent Nicholas Sparks movie Dear John. The novel was based and the movie was filmed in Charleston, SC. We both love the charm of Charleston; that natural charm the Carolinas have and that is especially potent on the "Carolina Shore". There's something special, undefinable about the Carolina coasts and culture that is unlike any other place. I love a beach ANYWHERE, don't get me wrong, and a lot of my time on the beach in North Carolina was spent doing hard labor. Still, images of the wave-beaten beaches, the expanses of open marsh and tidal flats, the crowded palmettos and towering loblolly pines, dunes crowded in sea oats, the unique southern architecture, and Spanish moss hanging from live oaks...hold a special place in my heart. There are few places on the North Carolina coast I have not been to. Not living there anymore makes images and movies like The Last Song even more sentimental to me. Look out Steve, I'm getting in touch with my feminine side ;)

Carolina On My Mind

Crashing Waves

WHEN: 12/16/07 WHERE: Oregon Inlet, NC - - - - - WHEN: 7/24/08 WHERE: Ocracoke Island, NC


Marshes and Tidal Flats

WHEN: 6/18/08 WHERE: Hammocks Beach, NC (CENTER)
(LEFT)WHEN: 5/26/08 WHERE: South Nags Head, NC - - - - - WHEN: 7/9/08 WHERE: Wrightsville Beach, NC (RIGHT)





Palmettos

WHEN: 11/19/07 WHERE: Charleston, SC - - - - - WHEN: 4/5/09 WHERE: Charleston, SC

Loblolly and Longleaf Pines

WHEN: 2/10/08 WHERE: East Carolina University, Greenville, NC - - - - - WHEN: 6/18/08 WHERE: Carteret County, NC

Sand Dunes and Sea Oats

WHEN: 8/8/07 WHERE: Fort Macon, NC - - - - - WHEN: 9/29/07 WHERE: Coquina Beach, NC

Southern Architecture

WHEN: 4/6/09 WHERE: Charleston, SC - - - - - WHEN: 4/6/09 WHERE: Mt. Pleasant, SC

The building on the right is the Boone Hall Plantation just outside Charleston. It appears in the movie The Notebook and is the most photographed plantation in the country.

Live Oaks and Spanish Moss

WHEN: 4/6/09 WHERE: Boone Hall Plantation, SC

This is the 3/4-mile driveway leading up to the planatation. The live oaks lining the driveway were planted by the first owner back in the mid-1700's. I'm convinced it appears in the movie's video trailer (below).

On the heals of Dear John is now the latest movie by Nicholas Sparks called The Last Song and it is coming to theaters this Wednesday. Even though I have not yet seen this movie I imagine it will be my favorite of his yet. Why? Because the novel is set in Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington, NC. Wrightsville Beach is the site of my thesis study area - the place on the North Carolina coast to which I am most closely attached and familiar with. I first visited Wrightsville Beach in 2004 over spring break with Stacie's family (while Steph and Travis lived in NC). I returned there many, many times over the 2 years we lived there and could not believe this movie was based there.

Stace and I at Wrightsville Beach in May 2009.

VERY sadly, however, the filming of the movie had an unfortunate lot. To make a long story short, the state of Georgia beat out North Carolina for the film rights to the movie (at the LAST minute - ironic?) so the movie was filmed in Savannah, GA instead. It breaks my heart to know that a movie was to be set and filmed in my study area, only to be scrapped at the last minute. The film would have been littered with the sights of Wrightsville Beach that I have come to know so well. Even still, I know I will enjoy the movie and will likely own it some day, just like we do every other Nicholas Sparks movie. Below is the music video/trailer for the movie, The Last Song. If you don't want to see corny acting by Miley Cyrus you may not want to proceed. But if you want to see more charm of the "southern shores" then press play. Oh, and please turn off your cell phones. Thank you!