Recently in Drama Category

2005

Plot: A Memphis pimp experiencing a mid-life crisis has rap star aspirations.

Eric: Don’t watch this movie or that song will be in your head forever. Watch Gilligan’s Island reruns instead.

(3 paws)

Kelly: Did you know you can sing the words of Amazing Grace to the tune from Gilligan’s Island? Anyway, the movie was pretty good. They managed to make a pimp sympathetic, and that’s saying something. Evidently, it’s hard out there for a pimp. Oh, rats. Now I have that song in my head again.

(3 paws)

2009

Plot: Holmes pursues Lord Blackwood, a serial killer who comes back from the dead.

Eric: It is elementary, my dear Kelly: I was investigating evidence of a good movie, but I found no clues to prove my theory.

(2 paws)

Kelly: Get over yourself, my dear Eric. I thought the action was awesome, the story was fun and fast, and Rachel McAdams’ costumes kicked butt.

(4 paws)

2005

Plot: This movie had nothing to do with cetaceans, or crustaceans.

Eric: I can’t stand movies about boring academic, literary snobs. Those people are so out of touch….ick. Good thing Kelly and I are interesting, fun literary snobs.

(1 paws)

Kelly: These people are just mean—children and adults alike. I get that the father is a sad failure hiding behind a shield of mental superiority; I get that the mother wants more out of life; I get that the kids are confused. Who cares? There’s no excuse for the brutal, selfish way they all relate to each other.

(1 paws)

2005

Plot: A laid-off shipyard foreman decides he doesn’t need a boat to cross the English Channel, anyway.

Eric: This is a little gem of a movie, I highly recommend it. I appreciate the central character’s desire to accomplish a feat of physical prowess to overcome life-changing disappointments. I’ve been there.

(4 paws)

Kelly: Great movie! All of the characters were interesting, and who doesn’t love a movie where the little guy goes for a big dream?

(4 paws)

1999

Plot: A sixteen-year-old girl screams her way into history.

Eric: This is the second time Kelly has tried to rent the TV movie Joan of Arc from 1999. This movie is not that one, either. At least this was not a silent film…I wish it had been.

(2 paws)

Kelly: Two strikes. I hope the next one is the one I really wanted to see. This Joan was very annoying. I’m surprised anyone got behind her in battle.

(1 paws)

2001

Plot: A lonely literature professor dying of breast cancer tells her story in the first person.

Eric: This is my favorite Emma Thompson movie. I felt heartbroken that this woman had no family to care for her; but the compassion she receives in the end from her nurse blew me away. Get the Kleenex out when the woman's tough, old college professor visits her in her hospital room near the end.

(4 paws)

Kelly: Ditto. It was a four-Kleenex movie--and totally worth it.

(4 paws)

2002

Plot: An unemployed father fights the government to regain custody of his three children from church-run orphanages in 1950s Ireland.

Eric: It took me a while to believe Pierce Brosnan (James Bond) could be cast as a drunk, unemployed Irishman. But the movie is charming and so are his children, especially the young girl, Evelyn. I doubt it actually happened this way, but it's fun to consider that a young girl might have convinced the Irish supreme court to overturn cruel child custody laws.

(4 paws)

Kelly: I liked it. But then again, I'm a sucker for Pierce Brosnan . . . and smart little girls that tell off pompous judges.

(4 paws)

2006

Plot: Desperately lonely cat-lady school teacher manipulates a new, glamorous teacher at her school. Ick.

Eric: I haven’t squirmed this much since Fatal Attraction. Eeew.

Kelly: I haven’t squirmed this much since Silence of the Lambs. Ick.

2007

Plot: How many train wrecks can one movie have?

Eric: Screenwriters are so good at pulling the audience’s emotional strings AFTER the plot of a movie becomes unrealistic. However, it worked; I sniffed, I cried…I hugged my cats. Suspend your belief and enjoy the emotional journey the three main characters take.

Kelly: I cried, too…and hugged my knitting. (All four cats were consoling Eric.) The plot was pretty unrealistic, but the emotions were authentic.

2001

Plot: Retired detective spends his pension on a decrepit gas station just to stake out a child killer.

Eric: I didn’t like how this maverick cop used everyone he met just to sooth his warped conscience. Weird movie. The ending was classic Jack Nicholson, though, and seemed like poetic justice to me.

Kelly: A perfect example of what happens when a bunch of great actors get stuck in a really crappy, weird, senseless movie.