Julia Slaughter

It is a nasty habit that I have that during the holidays, everything suffers. I don’t read as much, I don’t see as many movies (though there seem to be plenty of movies to see), and clearly I don’t blog as much. (Though I am frustrated because I have been tweeting more frequently than my Twitter feed seems to indicate which means I’ve got to poke at that soon.) I will not make excuses, it’s life it happens and you really don’t want to read any excuses so let me instead get on with it…

I picked up some extra work days during the holidays, which means that I get to take a random day off later. I love having a holiday when everyone else is working – it feels decadent to me somehow. Frequently I use these days off to do one of the things I love to do best and I go to the movies early on a Friday.

Not surprisingly on one such Friday I saw Avatar again and I liked it even MORE the second time. I could regal you with charming details and other tidbits I’ve picked up about it since then but I won’t. Avatar has set records, has won some awards, and is nominated for plenty more. I am confident that you’ve heard of, if you’re here you probably know how I feel about it – I’ll spare you the rest.

The Book of Eli Poster

If you’re like I am you might have seen trailers for this, and felt like the trailers seemed interesting but perhaps not interesting enough to motivate you to actually go see it. I was motivated to see it because apparently the author of the material is a friend of my friend Kathryn. (Maybe I’ve found my link to Kevin Bacon?) Kathryn was adamant that I should go see and as she rarely leads me astray – off I went.

I was amused that there was a pair of tiny older Southern ladies sitting in front of me at the theater. (Okay, I admit that I wasn’t so amused when one turned to the other loudly and said “I don’t know why anyone would want to see that” LOUDLY during the Clash of the Titans trailer.) However about two minutes in when a cat gets shot for dinner and they physically recoiled – I was very amused.

I have been telling my friends that the movie is like Mad Max with soul. We’re in a post-apocalyptic world, where people are eating people for want of food (the people who have gone cannibal develop the shakes which identifies them as what they are) and there are people who are pulling together to try to rebuild some semblance of society, the good and bad parts of society are manifested in the various pockets of civilization that appear on the landscape. Eli is a nomad, making his way west, he carries a book and most trailers give you an indication as to what book it is, but I won’t spill the beans here.

I really enjoyed the movie, it was portrayed by a GREAT cast. In addition to Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, I was thrilled when Ray Stevenson flashed up on screen – I love him! I think he’s a tremendously talented actor. The plot has a twist at the end  that absolutely shocked me! It was something that I just never anticipated. However, I think that despite the sometimes grim and grisly scenes the movie brings in an unexpected audience because it has a powerful message.

I’ve seen a few other movies here and there, I went with a friend and her kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeekel (how the heck do you spell that?!?!). The next movie coming up that I am really excited about opens tomorrow Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – I’ll let you know how it goes.