Christy and I just had an amazing weekend thanks to my wonderful oldest daughter. She came over Saturday morning, picked up her two younger siblings and headed down to see their grandmother in Columbus for an overnight visit. And, while I positively adore both the little ones, they are always ‘on’ and, by the time you get them in bed at night you are simply exhausted.

So, it is with that new-found freedom that Christy and I gleefully set out to do… nothing! We didn’t know, and didn’t care what we were going to do. Just the fact that we could do whatever was half the reward. Ultimately, we grabbed a shower and a nap and then just laid around until we decided to catch a movie. Since we couldn’t decide which movie we wanted to see, we decided to catch more than one. So we went out and caught the early showing of “Bedtime Stories“, which both of us had been wanting to see, then went to Applebee’s for desert (we’d eaten a very late lunch) before catching a later showing of “Taken“. The Applebee’s menu had looked so good the first time, we went back there for a late dinner. The next morning we slept in, laid around some more, then decided to catch the afternoon showing of “Hes Just Not That Into You“, making popcorn our lunch. Oh, and then we went back home and laid around some more until the kids got home around 7:30.

What an amazingly refreshing weekend and, frankly, one that we really needed. Life has been so crazy lately that Christy and I have had scarce little time to spend together, much less alone together. From the time the kids left until they returned, she and I never got more than perhaps 6 feet from each other with the exception restroom visits. No, I’m not exaggerating. I’ve carefully thought through the weekend and I believe that to be accurate. Perhaps the walk around my truck to go to my side exceeded that, but it would be close and there was once that I walked back to the truck to grab her purse for her but that would be about it. In fact, I would go as far as to say that we were actually in physical contact with each other virtually the entire time, either holding hands or cuddled up together (isn’t it cool how the arms on theater seats fold up these days?). And we made a point not to let anything from the outside world in. No discussion of stuff going on at work or with her friends or anything else was allowed. We got shushed at two of the three movies for laughing too loud and, while people who have to be shushed at movies normally annoy me, I really didn’t care about it this time. I mean, it wasn’t intentional anyway and, besides, once was during a preview. =oP It was just what the doctor ordered.

As for the movies, well, that was a mixed bag. I was initially surprised that Bedtime Stories was hard to find still in a theater – it was only in one theater and as a matinee – until we saw it. It stank. It was a contrived storyline that was poorly executed, and that is the nicest thing I can think of to say about it. We both contemplated leaving midway through it and, in retrospect, we should have.

Taken, on the other hand kicked butt. Well, if you are into the Rambo – hold the cheese – bad to the bone good guy lays waste to the bad guys type movie – and I decidedly am – it is worth seeing. Moderate spoiler warning (but most of this is in the trailer) here so, if you think you might see it, skip to the next paragraph. The movie is about this guy (played by Liam Neeson) who was a former government operative of some sort (CIA was implied but never stated) that was obviously a very “hands-on” operator. His marriage had fallen apart and his wife remarried. He realized (at some point before we join the plot line) that he had missed his, now 17 year old, daughter growing up because of his work, and had retired and moved near her to try and make up whatever time he could. He is a very unassuming guy, not at all the tough guy persona that is more typical in these type movies. Anyway, his daughter goes to Paris for the summer with a rich girlfriend (who was 19) with his very reluctant agreement. She is talking to him shortly after she arrives in Paris when the daughter sees (from the other side of a courtyard in the apartment building) some guys grab her girlfriend and bodily drag her away. Daddy immediately drops into professional mode and directs her to the next room under the bed. He tells her that she will be taken but that he will come get her. He also tells her to shout out any details she sees about them while the phone is still connected. He is right, and after they’ve taken her one of the bad guys picks up the phone. The dad can hear that someone is there so he tells the guy that he has no money for ransom if that is what they want, but that he is not someone they want after them and if they let her go he’ll pretend it never happened. They wish him good luck and hang up. He’d recorded her conversation and the recording had snippets of someone talking on it. His former co-worker buddies do their magic with the tape and figure out who the bad guys are and that their m.o. is to kidnap young women traveling alone and force them to become prostitutes. That really happens, by the way, as scary as that is. So, predictably, daddy heads off to Paris to find his daughter. His buddies had told him that he more or less has a 96 hour window, after which she will likely be so far away he’ll never see her again. That precludes official channels so he goes off on his own. He does his spook stuff and lots of bad guys die for their trouble. Ultimately, he finds his daughter, of course, and just in time. I can tell you that I was completely choked up when he finally rescued her and she said “…you came for me…” like she couldn’t believe it. But, then, I’m just a big ole’ softy in my old age. =oP

While, what I’ve described sounds incredibly violent and graphic – and certainly parts of it were – it was largely handled with an eye more toward the story line and not toward shock value. You don’t see a bunch of bloody bodies all the time is what I’m saying. While not something I would take my kids to, I enjoyed it. Being a father of a daughter not far removed from that age I immediately empathized with the hero and know that I would do anything it took to get my daughter back in the same situation. I, of course, don’t have the mad spook skills the protagonist did so I would just succeed in getting myself killed, but that is quite beside the point.

The last movie we saw, He’s Just Not That Into You was also a very enjoyable movie with far more truth in it than any movie I’ve seen in a long time. The basic message could be applied to either gender equally, but it is basically “If they never call you back, quit making excuses. They probably just aren’t that into you. Move on.” Sage advice if I’ve ever heard any.

And now we come to the part of the post where I drag out my well worn soapbox. Both of the movies I actually liked had scenes in the that were either vulgar or overly graphic in some way, and that had nothing to do with the plot line. While, I certainly understand that the last movie we saw would necessarily have some adult-oriented content (you’d have to see it to completely understand what I mean) there was content that went beyond that while adding nothing to the movie. I believe there are subjects appropriate for kids, others appropriate for young adults and yet others that are strictly aimed at adults. Then there are the things I’m talking about here. I don’t need to go into any graphic detail, but if you’ve been to a non G rated movie lately you know what I mean. As I’ve said before, I am not a prude. I recognize that certain movies are going to have that junk in them and I simply avoid those movies, but putting it in in the manner it was in these movies are no better than scatalogical humor; it appeals to the juveniles (grown or not) but only cheapens the movie. On Friday I was discussing this very subject with a friend. This is just another example.

Both movies were rated PG-13 but, I promise you, if I found someone showing a 13 year old of mine some of the junk in those movies, it would not be pretty. I mean, even the plot appropriate stuff – even if entirely fine for an adult audience – was beyond what a 13 year old should be watching. I’m just not sure what the dummies in Hollywood are thinking. I can tell you this: I would never let a child of mine go on an outing if a member of the MPAA rating board was the chaperon. No telling what they would consider acceptable in person! sheesh.

/g