Movie: Robot and Frank

Robot and Frank (2012)

IMDB does a great job with their super simplified plot, so why re-write it?
“Set in the near future, an ex-jewel thief receives a gift from his son: a robot butler programmed to look after him. But soon the two companions try their luck as a heist team.” —IMDB

Let’s meet the main players:

Frank–A retired codger that wants to keep living in his old house. He tries to keep in touch with his two grown children who are off and away. He loves walking to the library for outdated printed material and to flirt with the local librarian. He hates the idea of needing any caretakers, either robots or nursing homes, but he is starting to forget things….

Hunter & Madison–I think someone tried to write these two characters as vastly different people, but they are siblings and children of Frank. They live busy lives and can’t take care of their aging father. Hunter buys dad a butler/in-home nursing robot as an alternative to committing him to an old folks home. Madison is played by the cherubic Liv Tyler and her character hates robots with AI.

Robot–I was disappointed he never got a name, but the title of the movie kinda tells you that. Robot is programmed to track Frank’s health and help him set up a routine to help him remember. He is not programmed to understand the immorality of theft.

Jennifer–Okay, I really had no clue that this character had a name. I love Susan Sarandon and she doesn’t disappoint. The librarian is trying to come to terms with the fact that her job, print materials,
and libraries as homes of quiet research are being phased out.

Her library is becoming a community center. She likes Frank.

Snarky or Insight of Some Sort

• The genre is a Comedy/Drama. I must say that the story was extremely well balanced. I warn you that there are some sad bits because apparently I am a sadness weenie.
• Please, please, please, give this movie a watch. The run-time is something like an hour and a half. It can be found on Netflix Instant.
• The acting was good but I found the two children not so lovable. Perhaps there had to be tension so they could explain some back story. Makes me worry how I will treat my parents if/when I must make decisions for them.

Lessons I learned from the movie: 

• I want a robot as a care-taker. Screw nursing homes and communities.
• Dementia runs in my family and still freaks me out.
• Story telling is an art. Witnessed.
• Liv Tyler always tricks me. She looks beautiful and casual all at the same time.

Would I recommend it to others?
YES, yes, yes, yes!!
What’s so great about it?
The character relationships. I never doubted that Frank was actually conversing with Robot. I completely got sucked into the story. Because the characters have such a pull I was cracking up laughing or on the edge of my seat whenever a twist in the story took place. There are also beautiful woodland scenes throughout.

I would blog more about this movie, but I don’t want to give all the fun parts away and I don’t want to waste your time. Go look it up or check it out and pop some popcorn!
I hope to find a copy of this to add to my collection.

~Kat~

Movie: Dead Snow

Dead Snow (2009)

Tagline: Ein! Zwei! Die!
“Død snø” (original title)
Comedy/Horror   Link to IMDB Movie Profile

For the horror movie buffs out there this may not be the best choice. I should say that if you’re a purist or snooty about the traditional zombie, you won’t like this flick as much. Comedy horror is definitely a good way to describe this movie. It has a good mix of spewing blood, zombies chasing and killing their prey, and characters making fun of people in horror movies.

Let’s begin with the basics. What’s the story:
Four guys and three women drive out to the country and hike up to a secluded cabin in the mountains for a wintry vacation. The characters get some spooky exposition from a local and their vacation gets interrupted by the Nazi zombies of lore buried in the mountains.

I really don’t know what to say about this movie that won’t give away something enjoyable, funny or nice and gory. So, I will just tell you, get on it! Either with Netflix Instant or some other movie watching program. Even if you must multitask or have the movie on while you’re fixing supper.

It’s really not overly necessary to meet the characters because there are so many of them and the story is easy enough to follow that they will remind you of the character name, if it is important.

The movie opens with classical music and a chase through the snow. We get our first kill in the first five minutes. Satisfying. Much like the rest of the movie. The next scene exhibits the banter of college students. We find out some character names and relationships they have to one another.

After the long drive, the characters load up their gear and begin hiking to the remote cabin in the mountains. There is a sweet line the characters spew towards their nerdy friend: “You won’t survive the weekend if you don’t keep your nerdiness in check.”
Once the college kids hike to a very remote lodge they officially start their vacation. I would love to be on a vacation with these people….At least during the first part of their vacation. They play twister & cards, drink beer, go sledding, have snowball fights, and zip around on their snowmobile. The editors made sure to show all the fun and none of the dripping noses and frostbitten fingers.

Like I said, I can’t say too much more without giving away super fun parts of the story. Again, I say, Go and watch the movie!
There are a couple of story choices I found fun though:

• The characters show a few instances of intelligence when they gather weapons to fight the evil.
• The zombies have wavering levels of intelligence too. They appear to, at times, make plans, listen/communicate, and use tools.
• There is one scene that had “Zombie-vision”. I was disappointed that it was the one and only time. Maybe it ended up being cut?

SPOILERS BELOW!!

BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU SCROLL DOWN!!

SPOILERS BELOW!!

SPOILERS

• Sara, the fourth girl to arrive at the cabin was the character who died at the very beginning of the film. It doesn’t take long for this huzzah to sink in.

• There is an outhouse at the cabin–As if you weren’t scared of them before. Female character spots something which turns out to be Mr. Exposition. He demands coffee and supplies approximately five minutes of exposition.

• There is a SWEET bloody tent kill of Mr. Exposition–which guarantees viewers that no more lengthy explanation will be included in this movie.

• College kids find box of gold in floor fridge. WHAT?! THEY HAVE A FLOOR FRIDGE?!?! Is this normal in Norway?? I want one now.
  

  Your smell turns me on

• Nerd girl, Chris, makes sexy-time with nerd guy, Erland, on outhouse toilet seat after Erland excuses himself for a #2 break. I’ll give you a minute to let that sink in. I have never been that horny.

• After the nerd-rendezvous in the outhouse Chris (girl) uses the toilet and falls into the toilet hole—the floor drops out and she climbs back up and out covered in feces and very likely, some sex juices.

• Erland’s head gets ripped apart and brain hits floor. The sarky relief of the group says something to the effect of “I told you we should have gone to the beach”
  

  Vegard finds a gun, supposedly up his ass

• There is a scene in which Vegard, the boyfriend looking for the dead hiker Sara uses zombie intestines as a lifeline while he dangles and battles for his life over a cliff. It is hysterical.

• Vegard sews his own neckhole closed (injury) and wraps duct tape around his neck. Surgical stitching in extreme situations is what they cover in the first year of medical school, right?

• Two of the doofuses light the cabin on fire with molotov cocktail when they fail to throw it out of the window. They ruin their one hope at a stronghold from evil.

• As I mentioned above, they are smart zombies and definitely have a mission. Viewers find out later on that they are trying to reclaim the gold stolen from them that was found in the floor fridge. floooooorrrrrr fridge….

• Everyone dies and the last death is very satisfying. Very enjoyable.
  

  Screw the gold–Give me the floor fridge

  Happy Halloween!!
  ~Kat~

Date Movie: Army of Darkness

Okay, maybe this isn’t the best date movie for every couple….Yes, it is.

Big shout out to my siblings, they were gracious enough to foot the bill for a late supper and the movies!! You guys rock!!
Bruce Campbell at his finest in this cult horror-comedy was being shown in the city as a midnight movie!
We both look a little raggedy in this picture because we were really exhausted. We tried and failed to both, nap mid afternoon and then chugg lots of caffeine as the night wore on. Even sleepy, we had a great time! It has been a few years since I have seen Army of Darkness so every line was a roll on the floor laugh again!

Apparently there was no mention of watching horror or any Halloween movies on my Fall Bucket List—SO I FIXED IT. I feel like it was very seasonable and a great excursion. I realize that there are people in the world who have not seen this film. Skip Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Big Lebowski. This is where it is at.

Hail to the King, baby

~Kat~

19 Netflix Instant Halloween Flicks

My hubbster and I have Netflix Instant and I like to watch a movie from time to time related to the holidays coming up. There are scores of horror movies and they are easy to find if you flip to the Horror/Thriller genre section. These are some movies that maybe are older, funny or flicks I will try to watch despite their scary. I am a scaredy-cat for the most part so I will be watching scary films in mute. I have tried to pick some funny or classic films which are typically a little less scary.
These movies were available for Instant view as of 10-13-2013. They are constantly removing films and adding more. It it by no means an exhaustive list.
Bold text means that I have seen the movie before.

1. Battle Royale (Japanese Hunger Games but way better, I’m told)
2. Cabin in the Woods (Joss Whedon’s horror pokes fun at horror film archetypes)
3. Carrie (Weird girl gets teased until she reaches her breaking point)
4. Dark Shadows (The old 1960s TV show is nothing like the movie apparently)
5. Dead Snow (Nazi zombies! Check out my Review!)
6. Dracula (1931 Lugosi classic, give it a watch–much more tame than modern versions)
7. Dumplings (A mysterious woman makes youth rejuvenating dumplings with a curious ingredient–not shockingly a foreign horror movie. Check out my Review!)
8. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (I am intrigued just because of her costume)
9. Ghostbusters (A group of goobers go ghost chasing)
   
10. House on Haunted Hill (1959 Vincent Price will pay 10K to anyone who can survive a night in the haunted house)
11. Nightmare Before Christmas (I’m really not sure if this counts–Claymation Halloween King tries to run Christmas for Santa)
12. The Mummy (1932–Again another not-so-scary classic, it moves really slowly)
13. Red State (It is Kevin Smith, I have to–Teens get invited to a sex filled night but find out they were lured by a crazed pastor)
14. Scary Movie (2000 Making fun of other movies)
15. Scream (1996 A masked killer returns for the daughter of his previous victim)
16. Session 9 (Asbestos cleaning crew has to clean an abandoned insane asylum)
17. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil (Starring Alan Tudyk! Hillbillies are mistaken for serial killers by a group of teens)
18. Vampires (A faux documentary in Belgium, this sounds interesting)
19. The Wolf Man (1941–I honestly can’t recall if I’ve seen this or not, this deserves a second watch)

If you watch one movie today you will have 18 movies and 18 more days to watch them in before Halloween. Get to watching!

There are many Halloween movies that I love, but that are not available on Netflix Instant. What are your favorite Halloween movies?

Happy Challenge

In the wake of the Government shutdown and the sort-of-launched Affordable Care Act, I have noticed that there is very little enjoyable things on the news feeds of any of my social network sites. Even hanging out with my friends eventually leads to the depressing topic of over 800K people out of work. Minus those 400K who are back to work….It still means that the livelihood of many people has been put on hold until some unannounced date.

This Happy Challenge should probably be something we do everyday. Especially now because everyone seems so unhappy with things–regardless of your side. Add something happy to your life each day. Whether it be in conversation or any social network you belong to. If you update your status message a few times a day or share links with friends let one of those shares be happy.
Restrictions on this Happy Challenge? Really not much. It has to be something that makes you happy. It could be pictures of animals too adorable for words such as those found on Cuteoverload.com.

It could be that hilarious video that had you snorting milk through your nose:

Or, perhaps you would like to share a new favorite recipe that is just to die for, like this recipe for Oven Fried Mushrooms I found on Cooking Tip Of the Day.

You can share personal stuff or just about anything. Make sure it is something that makes you happy and isn’t related to all this jacked up stuff that the news media is fully covering for us.

You’ve been challenged. Share something happy.

What made you happy today?
Please share with me, I do need more happy on my blog/facebook/tumblr/twitter/instagram/greader/reddit/inbox.

~Kat~