[Ghoulish Delight]

This was a busy weekend for us. Kid Stays in the Picture last night, the rest of the Sealab DVD yesterday and today...and we watched 2 more movies today.

First was Spirited Away. Absolutely beautiful film. So immaginiative and so well animated. Loved it loved it loved it. Clearly Alice in Wonderlandesque, but told in a very entertaining and unique way. I'm a sucker for good Anime anyway.

Then we went out, stuffed ourselves silly at an excellent BBQ place in Orange (where I unknowingly ordered a beer that came in a 1 quart jug!) and saw Sideways. Question 1, why is it called Sideways? Question 2, did I enjoy it? I gave it a resounding "meh". I didn't dislike it, but I really don't see what the big deal about it was. It had it's moments, but mostly it felt to me like it lurched along. I don't know if it was trying to be a funny film with poignant moments or a poignant film with funny moments. What I got instead was a film that went, "Now it's funny, now it's poignant, now it's funny, now it's poignant, now it's funny, now it's poignant..." The laughs weren't quite good or consistent enough, and the emmotions weren't quite deep enough. Don't get me wrong, I kind of enjoyed it, but I was far from blown away by it. I do applaud them for the little bit of a twist at the end, not doing the obvious and expected.