Posts filed under 'Movies'
10. Miracle on 34th Street (the 1947 original)
The 1994 remake was just so-so.
9. The Santa Clause
I know it’s pretty cheesy, but I still get a kick out of Tim Allen’s first Christmas movie. Stay away from the sequels, though
8. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (the 1970 TV special)
I love how it kind of answers all of the Santa Claus questions I had as a little kid.
7. Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (The Simpsons, Season 1, Episode 1)
The very first episode of the best TV show of all time just happens to be a Christmas special.
6. Frosty the Snowman
Watching this as an adult, I was a bit surprised that this is just a half hour show. As a kid, it didn’t seem like it was that short.
5. How the Grinch stole Christmas (the 1966 TV special)
The 2000 live-action movie was just O.K., even though it starred the wonderful Jim Carrey.
4. Marge Be Not Proud (The Simpsons, Season 7, Episode 11)
One of my favorite Simpsons episodes ever.
3. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Very old-school, but I still love watching these stop-motion characters.
2. A Charlie Brown Christmas
A wonderful story about the true meaning of Christmas.
1. A Christmas Story
The family and I just watched this movie over the week-end (an annual tradition). If you’ve never seen it, you NEED to rent this, or better yet, buy it; you’re gonna want to watch it over and over. I TRIPLE-dog-dare ya!
November 27th, 2006
We leave Saturday on our big road trip. We’ll be driving about 2100 miles in three days. Beaverton, Oregon to Cabool, Missouri. We’ll be visiting Kathy’s aunt and uncle, and staying with her cousin (their son). Then, another 2100 mile drive back home. It’s gonna be nuts.
I’m actually really looking forward to it. We drive to southern California all the time, generally about once a year. Until recently, all of our immediate family (with the exception of brother Gabe) lived somewhere in the L.A. area. My dad sold his house in Orange County a few years ago (for a very healthy profit) and moved to the Phoenix area. Last summer, we took a long road trip to see his new place there, then continued on to L.A., and finally back home.
Besides that, this is going to be the first long road trip we’ve ever taken, and the first one where we haven’t already seen the same scenery dozens of times before. We’re going to be just like the Griswolds, except I’ll never be nearly as cool as Clark is, and, you know, I’m real. Come to think of it, there are a few other scary parallels there:
- Our minivan is green, like the family truckster (I don’t think the airbags are made from Hefty bags, though).
- I’ve plotted our course on the computer just like Sparky did, except I used Google Earth’s satellite imaging, not some blocky early ’80s Apple II graphics. Plus, Billy didn’t use Pacman to eat the family car.
- We’ll be staying at cheap motels each night, but I swear I won’t be ordering any drinks from the “pool waitress”.
We’ve got the portable DVD player and a bunch of movies, and I’ve got the DC to AC inverter ready to go, so the boys can power their Playstation 2. I never had this kind of entertainment for road trips when I was a kid.
I’m such a geek, I’ve even researched free wi-fi hot spots near each night’s motel, so I can hopefully upload photos and update this site every day.
August 18th, 2005
So Kathy and I unexpectedly had a few days to ourselves last week-end. Lexi’s friend Ariel asked if Lexi could stay at her house Friday night for a sleepover, and about 10 minutes later, Billy and Matt’s friend Tony called to ask if they could stay over at his house. We found ourselves suddenly sans children until 9:00 the next morning. We haven’t been out together by ourselves in a long time, so we made the most of it by going out on a “dinner and a movie” date. We had already eaten dinner, though, so we settled for a movie and beer.
We went to the Bagdad Theater and ate nachos and shared a pitcher of ale while watching Ocean’s 12. The last time we were at the Bagdad, Batman Forever was playing. I love this theater, and I think the McMenamin brothers are geniuses.
We are so far removed from our pre-children party animal ways that we were back home and asleep by 11:00.
March 2nd, 2005
Kathy and I took the kids to see The Matrix: Reloaded tonight, and loved most of it. If you’ve not seen the first movie (yeah, right) and have no idea about the premise, you will probably be lost through most of this one. That shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the incredible car, motorcycle and semi-truck freeway chase scene, though, or the fight scene with Neo vs. 100-or-so Agent Smiths.
But a love scene? Did we really need to see that? I knew going into it that it was rated R, but so was the first movie, and I have no problem letting our five year old daughter Lexi watch that on DVD occasionally. She was probably the youngest person in the theater. It’s not too graphic, though; in fact, I don’t think there was any actual nudity (except for Neo’s bare rear from afar.)
May 17th, 2003