Amen to Pixar. We saw Cars yesterday, and Casper got a little bored and sleepy in the middle - as did I, really. The plot felt a little Disnified. But still a great film. My favorite parts (not spoilers for plot or anything, I'm whitefonting just to be careful, but you might want to read if you like to look for things while you watch) - catching the birds on the power line at the start of the drive west - they're the birds from the Pixar short - and after the end at the drive-in, with John Ratzenburger and the earlier movies re-done with cars. I am a sucker for Pixar in-jokes.

We own Bug's Life, Toy Story I and II, Nemo, Incredibles, and all the shorts. Casper has seen the first 3 and the shorts approximately 1 zillion times each, but has only now (at 2 and 3/4) been able to start getting Nemo, and has seen Incredibles once I think but it was over her head still. We rented Monsters Inc last month and had to spend the next fortnight of bedtimes having her beg, "Talk about Boo!"

We saw The Break-up last night. I highly recommend it; it is not at all like your typical romantic comedy. It goes back and forth from being funny to painful realistic through much of the movie.

Heh. O is now at the age where you will watch and rewatch those movies until you've memorized them. I think Emmett's seen both Toy Story movies about 40-50 times.

The good thing about most of the Pixar films is that I can watch them multiple times, too and not want to stick a hot poker into my eyes. Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo and Toy Story have so many adult-level jokes that I really don't get tired of them.

I just realized that two of the cast of Munich are in Finding Nemo--Eric Bana is the voice of one of the sharks (along with Gyro Captain, Bruce Spence) and Geoffrey Rush as Nigel the Pelican.

The good thing about most of the Pixar films is that I can watch them multiple times, too and not want to stick a hot poker into my eyes.

Me, too. Sara's been on a Monster's Inc. kick, and that's fine with me.

When Jake was her age (before DVDs!), his big movie was 101 Dalmations, which he called The Puppy Movie. We watched it probably once a day. I loved it, and still do, but there were times when "Cruella DeVil" was a constant, unpleasant earworm.

O is now at the age where you will watch and rewatch those movies until you've memorized them.

So...about 28, then?

Crap. I already have Finding Nemo and Toy Story memorized. And Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast.

This isn't going to make M's toddler years any more bearable, is it?

Saw "Cars" last night. I enjoyed it. Not as much as "Toy Story" or "The Incredibles" or "Finding Nemo", but more than I expected given that there are no people people in it. I liked Pixar in-jokes flea mentioned. A lot of kids in the theater were only fully into the film during the race scenes -- many of them were restless during the talking parts as I think some of it went over their heads. I would see it again.

I am warching Once Upon a Time in the West right now, AIFG. Evil Henry Fonda is filling me with glee.

You know that scene where Claudia Cardinale is making coffee for Jason Robards? I thought while watching it that it was reaching a Bernardo Bertolucci level of making me want to have what they were having. And then, at the end, I saw he was credited as a writer.

Uh, I don't know what the point of that story was.

In preparation for seeing X3 - which as a geekgirl I feel obligated to do - I'm watching X-Men and X2 back to back tonight. I saw X-Men at the theater, but it made little enough impression that all I remember is that Hugh Jackman is hot and Halle Berry can't act. I never saw X2.

So, now I've just finished X-Men. To sum up:

• Hugh Jackman is hot.
• Halle Berry can't act for shit.
• Anna Paquin is not a teenager.
• The CGI on Mystique was really good.
• Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen can act the hell out of anything.
• What's so darn great about Jean Grey that made Logan go all emo for her? I don't get it. I've seen Famke Janssen look way better, too.
• The dialog, plot, and phlebotinum weren't any worse than the usual scifi/fantasy movie, and the one really funny line was Joss Whedon's. ("Prove it." "You're a dick.")
• Cyclops is a dick.

I am neither disappointed nor particularly enthused about X2. Off to get popcorn and waste another 120 minutes of my life.

ETA: Having checked IMDB, apparently Anna Paquin was a teenager - 18 or 19 - when X-Men came out. I thought she was early 20's. Never mind. Sorry, Anna.

Saw An Inconvientent Truth yesterday. I was familiar with most all the science beforehand, but it was nice to see a science documentary done so well - I'd highly recommend it to folks who are not as familiar with the global warming stuff.

Then we saw Dr. Strangelove on DVD. This was the first time I've seen it in many years, and now I love this flick even more. Such a brilliant, funny move. Also watched the DVD extras - I didn't know that Peter Sellers was supposed to play the B-52 pilot (he was injured and couldn't do it). Also that the studio that did Strangelove sued the producers and/or studio behind Fail-Safe, claiming that the novel Fail-Safe was ripped off from the novel that Strangelove was based on. Strange. They have similar but not the same plots. (I've only read the book Fail-Safe. The DVD extras had the theatrical preview for Fail-Safe, which made we wanna see it.)

eta: And how did I miss before that the president's name was Merkin Muffley? I musta' not known what a merkin was the last time I saw it....