Category: Movies
My Birthday, Bennigan’s, and Movies
My birthday is on Saturday (the big 3-0), so I’ve been getting various offers e-mailed to me from restaurants where I’ve signed up for their birthday club. One of those was from Bennigan’s for a free entree with purchase of one, plus a free dessert, so after dropping the kids off at home, we went out to dinner. We ordered broccoli bites and hot wings for an appetizer. I was hoping their wings would be good so I could cross Hooters off my must-have list, but they weren’t that good at all. See, every year around my birthday I have to get the Hooters wings ever since I tried them during our trip to Ohio. The broccoli bites are awesome, however. I’ve loved them ever since I worked in Chicago years and years ago where the bus stop was right in front of the Bennigan’s on Michigan Avenue and I’d wander in there and get an appetizer to go. But I digress.
To my utter surprise and embarrassment, the Bennigan’s waiters sang Happy Birthday to me all loud and clappy in front of the entire world. Boy was my face red! Apparently there’s a catch to that free dessert. I always thought someone in your party had to ask them to do that, but apparently you’re fair game when they know it’s your birthday. But hell, I’ll do anything for a free dessert, especially one that was as good as the brownie bottom pie, even though by that point I was ready to puke from all the food I had eaten.
We rented The 40 Year Old Virgin and hooked up the new DVD player so we could check out the progressive scan. Damn, that picture is nice. Still need some home theatre sound, though! While I can appreciate the humor in the movie, I was expecting a little more from the various reviews other bloggers have posted. The movie was more fun to watch than The Fantastic Four, so I’ll give it that, and Catherine Keener was great as always, but it was missing something. I hope Grandma’s Boy is better since I plan on seeing that on my birthday.
Let’s just dub this Nicole’s Birthday Week: Celebrating All Week Long. Who knows, I might just have something besides my birthday to be celebrating soon. ;)
Trainspotting
Last night I made a bonehead move and forgot to wash a shirt I wanted to wear today. I had forgotten all about the shirt until I got upstairs at 11 pm which is late for me to begin with, so I was mad. I ran downstairs and quickly started a load of laundry to get it washed, cursing along the way (big surprise there).
The wash cycle didn’t take very long, but it took forever and a day for the shirt to dry. I kept changing settings hoping to speed up the process. I ended up watching an episode of Will & Grace and then stumbled on one of my favorite movies, Trainspotting.
The first time I saw this movie was at the 3 Penny on Chicago’s northside. The music in this movie is awesome, particularly Underworld’s “Dark Train” (played during Renton’s hallucinations in his bedroom). I think that was the first time I ever heard of Underworld, but it was certainly not the last.
Crappy tv & movies
I made the mistake of recording an episode of My So Called Life on the DVR last week. As cute as I think Claire Danes can be, that show was just way too much cheese for me to take. It was so After School Special-ish I wanted to gag. I can see now why it was cancelled, but I don’t understand why there was so much protesting when it happened. Maybe it’s one of those shows that seemed good at the time, but later on felt really dumb to be watching.
I have a few shows that I loved but would be embarrassed to watch now, like Party of Five, Knight Rider, Punky Brewster, or any of the Care Bear movies. I made the mistake of buying two Benji movies on dvd a few years ago only to realize Benji was only cool when I was a kid.
I felt obligated to watch the entire episode, though, because I can’t usually stop in the middle of something. I can stop reading a book that sucks, but not something I am watching.
Incidentally, don’t ever ever ever watch a movie called A Dirty Shame (not to be confused with A Low Down Dirty Shame). I am not a prude by any means, but the premise for the movie sounds a lot more interesting than the actual carrying out of the plot. Seeing as how I enjoyed Tracy Ullman in I Love You to Death, I was disappointed she did such an awful film. I was embarrassed for her, Selma Blair, Chris Isaak, and Johnny Knoxville as well for thinking it would be a good idea to star in this terrible terrible film.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, however, considering it was written and directed by John Waters, also known for the awful films Hairspray, Pecker and Cry-Baby. I’m sorry if you enjoy pointless films with cheesy acting that isn’t even funny but I don’t. I’d rather watch National Lampoons Dorm Daze, and Dorm Daze II when it comes out. At least their stupid plots are actually amusing.
March of the Penguins
Awww, I want to see this movie when it comes out. Of all the penguins, the Emperor has always been my favorite. I bet it would have been cool as an IMAX film. The official site has a lot of interesting information about the penguins and how the film was made.