Letters to Juliet

I went to see this little movie in the middle of a very busy week. I took Annie with me and we LOVED it!
Amanda Seyfried is lovely, beautiful and enchanting.
Vanessa Redgrave is lovely, beautiful and the kind of old person I want to be.
THe blonde English guy, who I don't know, was great.
Gael Garcia Bernal plays a douche, so he is great! LOL!

Italy looks JUST as beautiful as it did to me in Under The Tuscan Sun.
I WANT TO GO TO ITALY!!!!

The one thing that stood out for me in this flick is that even tho Amanda's character works for the New Yorker, she isn't rich. It's Gael Garcia Bernal that takes her on the trip to Italy, he is getting ready to open a restaurant and needs to visit suppliers, etc. It's supposed to be a "pre-honeymoon" since his restaurant will be opening in 6 six weeks time (or something close to that) and they won't be able to go after they are married because of that.
First off, I like that, as it's realistic but still fantastical enough not to throw you out of the vibe from the get-go.
So once Sophie (Amanda) is in Italy she is sucked into doing Bernal's "to-do" list of visiting vineyards and cheese makers and pasta places. Now, I wouldn't think that the vineyard would be a bad thing, but of course, Bernal is too interested in his restaurant stuff to really notice that Sophie isn't having fun. SO Sophie offers an idea, Bernal can go to Livorno (120 km away) and she will sight see her stuff. As Bernal says repeatedly, a win-win! LOL!
Sophie then visits the home of Juliet (did I mention they are in Verona! LOL)
There she meets the secretaries of Juliet who write responses to the love-lorn that leave letter to Juliet on the wall at this ABSOLUTELY lovely little sitting garden.
As in true Hollywood Movie Fashion Sophie is invited to help out. After all, she is carrying a notebook so SURPRISE she MUST be a writer! LOL!
Alas, Sophie "discovers" a letter 50 years old. She answers it. Forget the fact that the Royal Mail is having issues at the moment, the letter gets there, to England, in record time and the people on the other end come to Italy, also, in record time!
Let's just forget all that tedious fact stuff! Let's just go with it!
Fast forward, Sophie, Clair and Clair's grandson start scouring the countryside, the AMAZING countryside, looking for Lorenzo Bertolinni, Clair's long lost love....
I will not spoil anything at this point, but know, this is a romantic movie.... awwww.
HAHAHHAH!
I give this movie 4 stars. It is not a stand-out in the movie literature arena, but it is entirely entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Leap Year

OMG! Let me start by saying don't waste your time nor your money.
I love Amy Adams. I think she is awesome.
I also think Hollywood doesn't know what to do with her.
She is 35. She will be 26 in August. Hollywood doesn't have a clue as to what to do with a woman in her 30s. The last time they handled that situation men all over the world cringed (Alex in Fatal Attraction.)

She has a movie coming up called The Fighter, with Christian Bale and Marky Mark, sorry I can't call him by his "real" name - he will always be Marky Mark.
(I'm lucky that I can recall ANY names!)
Let's hope it's a good one for her.
David O. Russell is the director and his resume isn't all that (to me) so I will keep my fingers crossed for her.

Okay, enough of how much I LOVE Amy Adams. Onto Leap Year.

Sigh, how to begin other than to say RUN!!!!! RUN AWAY!!!! FAST AND FAR!!!!!
This movie is crap. It's a rehash of crap we have seen before, over and over again. There are no cute quips. There are no realistic scenes. ALL the towns are straight out of the early 1900's casting. Well, wait, that isn't fair, the early 1900's casting town were FAR MORE MODERN!

Anna is a control freak who styles aparments for a living. She is good. We know this because in the montage she is having men move furniture and then getting a call that says the place sells in moments. OOOhhhh, yawn.
Of course her boyfriend is a Cardiologist. (they are always something where they make LOADS of money and have conventions all over the world to set up the rediculous plot.)
Thus, Mr. Heart Man is on his way to a convention/conference in Dublin, Ireland.
Anna, meeting her father, the FANTASTIC John Lithgow, for a beer we get the back story (aka the device) "Your Grandmother went to Ireland on Leap Day to ask your Grandfather to marry her since he waited so long... blah blah blah."
AND, by the way, that is all we see of John Lithgow.
WHAT????????????
John Lithgow! Winner of a Saturn Award (1984 Twilight Zone the movie), Winner of An american Comedy Award (1997 3rd Rock from the Sun), Emmy win 3rd rock from the sun 3 times. and one for Amazing Stories. Winner, Golden Globe 3rd Rock, and a bazillion nominations for various other roles, World According to Garp included in that!
This amazing actor, who will more than likely be winning ANOTHER Emmy this year for his portrayal of The Trinity Killer on Dexter, gets all of 7 minutes screen time. TO PUSH ALONG A PLOT THAT SUCKS ANYWAY!!!!
GGGGGGGAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

To get the idea about how BAD this movie is: The writer: Deborah Kaplan also wrote these gems of cinematic wisdom:
Made of Honor
Surviving Christmas
Josie & the Pussycats
The Flintstones, Viva Rock Vegas
Can't Hardly Wait
A Very Brady Sequel

OH
MY
GAWD!!!!!

Okay, Matthew Goode, I have to say is crap. I didn't even realize he is the guy from Watchmen. GOOD GRIEF!
He isn't anything special in this film.
No one is, actually.
Every plot device is contrived and so boring I could have fallen asleep.
The accents were crap.
The scenery was crap, it wasn't even the normal beautiful Ireland that we see in other movies.
It did rain alot. That was realistic, to a point.

Sigh, I just can't think of anything that I could call cute in that film.

MERDE!!!!!

That is the best word to describe this film and that word might be a mite too European for it.

SKIP THIS FILM!