Movie watching is a sport

I love to watch movies, and lately we seem to have caught a bunch.  We watched quite a few on our trip to Pennsylvania, but the only one I liked was Volver, a Pedro Almodovar movie that we only caught the first half of.  The DVR didn't pick up the rest because they had it set up to record several other things.  I've GOT to find out what happens in the rest of it!  The worst movie was The Happening, an M. Night Shyamalan movie that started out with such an interesting plot and ended in a ridiculous shambles.  We were all so disappointed I don't think I'll ever watch one of his movies again, although we were all still talking about it the next day to tell how we would've ended it better.  Maybe that was his goal.  

I've been on a real old movie streak since Thanksgiving.  I'll check to see what's on Turner Movie Classics, and get hooked and watch the rest of whatever it is.  I found a great movie one night with Alec Guinness called The Captain's Paradise, in which he played a sea captain who had two different wives in the two ports he sailed back and forth to.  Also lately Jav and I have been catching David Lynch movies on IFC (I'm guessing he's one of the featured artists this month).  They're interesting enough to keep me curious, but in the end I don't know that I'm better off for watching such disturbing movies.  I'm hooked on a series on TMC called Elvis Mitchell, Under the Influence.  He is now a high-tone movie critic, but once was the critic for the little ole Star Telegram.  He basically sits with different actors for an hour discussing what movies and actors they were influenced by and how it's affected his or her career.  So far not one has been a disappointment, with some true surprises.  You could have knocked me over with a feather when Quentin Tarantino said one of his favorite movies is Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland (one of his greatest influences was the director, Vincent Minelli), and that he likes to show His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell to the young actors he's working with as an example of what great dialogue sounds like.  This made me like him much more as a person, but I doubt I'll be running out to see any of his movies soon.  

Jav and I had a great date night this past Saturday night and went to see Valkyrie (not a typical date movie, but it's the one we both wanted to see).  It was excellent.  I didn't know the story, so it was very suspenseful.  Plus all the actors are wonderful. 

Which leads me to another topic.  There are certain actors who just make movies better by being in them.  I've had this list going for awhile.  The newest addition is Tom Wilkinson, who blew me away in Michael Clayton and was great also in Valkyrie.  The others on my list are Judi Dench, Chris Cooper, Gary Oldman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney,  Robert Downey Jr., Javier Bardem and Maggie Gyllenhaal.  These are all people whose movies I won't miss, even if they just have a small part.