Day 2: Last Movie I saw in the Theater

The last movie I saw was Thor. Hazards of being married into the comic book business, right? Although I missed out on Captain America and am not planning on going to Conan, either.

Thor was pretty good! I liked his character, I freaking LOVED the Rainbow Road (me and the Bestie that lives far, far away are wishing we had one so we could pop in and visit one another) and I thought the Frost Giants were pretty awesome. Natalie Portman was decent, the actor that played Thor was handsome and funny.

All in all, thumbs up.

Man, writing about movies on here makes me miss Bev (the little old lady I used to take to a movie every week). Do yourself a favor and click on the tag at the end of this post that says "movie reviews" to find out what Bev thought about Eclipse: The Twilight Saga and Dinner for Schmucks. She was so, so great. I miss her! She's dead, and if I weren't protecting her privacy, I'd link to her obituary - it's very, very sweet.

"Dinner For Schmucks", Reviewed By Bev

For some reason, the local theater changed their scheduling, greatly limiting today's choices for my movie date with Bev. It was down to Step Up 3D, Dinner for Schmucks, Toy Story 3, and Charlie St. Cloud. You can imagine why I was on pins and needles waiting to see which one she'd choose. I was pretty sure she'd rule out children's movies, and sad movies (thank God, I don't need to spend 2 hours crying and looking at Zac Efron).

As I described the choices to her, Bev said, "Well, I guess that leaves us with the Dinner Party one. What's a schmuck?"

Don't ask me how a Jewish woman from New York doesn't know what a schmuck is, but she was genuinely stumped.

"It means an idiot, a goofball, a buffoon."

"Oh!" she said, laughing already "What a crazy title! All right, Schmucks it is!"

Bev giggled throughout the movie, leaning over to me several times, saying "There's the schmucks!"

As we walked out of the theater, Bev was still laughing, and exclaimed, "Craziest picture I ever saw! And the wildest title, too! Schmucks! I'm going to call my daughter today and say, 'Jill, do you know what a schmuck is?' and see if she does. Funniest picture I've seen in a long time!"

"Bev, did you ever know anyone like that? Did you ever meet any schmucks?"

"Oh, no dear! Well, there was this one woman. She was an accquaintance, not a friend. She asked me what my name was, and I told her Beverly. She told me I could say Bev-IRE-lee and I said NO I cannot! She was kind of a schmuck."

"Oooh, you could be Bev-IRE-lee and I can be POLE-eyanna, and those can be our schmuck names, Bev!"

"That's a good word for it. Schmuck! Oh, that was the craziest picture! I hope we see another one like it next week."

"Me too, Bev."

Eclipse, reviewed by Bev

I have a new home care client by the name of Bev. Bev is over 90 (not sure how far over 90) and every Sunday, I pick her up, we go to a movie, and then I take her home to the assisted living facility she lives at. To meet her, you wouldn't think Bev is sneaking up on a century of life. She uses a walker, sure, but she carries a cute little purse that I'd bet money she bought in the teenager department, will only wear sandals because she hates real shoes, and has plenty of energy. She hires caregivers to take her out and about because she likes to stay very busy and her kids and grand kids don't keep her quite busy enough for her liking. Bev's a little Bubbe, complete with New York accent and hebrew plaques adorning her walls.

The first movie date we had, I wasn't at all sure what Bev would want to see. Turns out, she wanted to just pop over to the theater and go to the first movie that was starting when we arrived. She'd been hoping to see Salt, she confided, but the timing wasn't going to work out that day, so we saw Ramona and Beezus instead. This last weekend, I printed out the movie times for our local theater in big print, listing only the showings that fell within our 3 hour movie date parameters.

Bev ruled out all children's movies, and had already seen Salt ("it had a terrible ending - she dies!") and Inception ("just marvelous"). This left us with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. I warned Bev that it was about vampires and werewolves and tragic love, but she said "as long as the good guys win at the end, the rest is all right".

Bev and Eclipse got off to a rocky start, with her saying "I don't want to see this" during the opening vampire attack scene. However, a quick cut to sparkling love in a meadow saved it and we didn't have to leave the theater after all. She greatly enjoyed Bella awkwardly telling her father she is in fact, a virgin. As we left the movie, Bev broke it down for me:

"What was the name of that movie? Eclipse? What does that mean?"
"You know, Bev, like when the moon gets between us and the sun and it gets dark during the day."
"I know what the word means but how did it relate to the movie? Well anyway it was very unusual. Very well done. But very unusual!"
"Bev, did you ever punch anyone for kissing you, like Bella did?"
"Oh, no dear, I said 'more, more, more'!"

Bev's favorite parts of the movie included the Washington scenery, and the love story. She was neutral about all of the fighting, and greatly relieved that it wasn't sad enough to make her cry.

So see, sometimes my job is very easy! If Bev and I see any other standout films, I'll keep you all posted on her thoughts.