Movie Monday...

The Clampetts are back!  Vacation is (sadly) over.  Great trip, and I'm sure more posts to come with vacay tidbits and pics... but now it's MONDAY (yea me, it really IS Monday!) and time for a little movie love.

We had movie night with the fam at the beach... Big kids went to a BIG kid movie, and little kids went to a kiddie flick.  How did we accomplish this amazing feat all at once, you ask?  Side-by-side theaters with showings 15 minutes apart and one VERY Sweet Son who took little sister and 2 happy cousins to...

Hallelujah!   I DID NOT HAVE TO SIT THROUGH THIS CUTE BLUE TORTURE.
Dear Daughter has been begging, and I kept S.T.A.L.L.I.N.G.  I don't think you even have to ask how much we heart Sweet Son for making this ultimate sacrifice.  So, this is mostly a guest review...

Almost 17 year old Sweet Son:  Uh... that movie was definitely NOT for me. NOT.FOR.ME.

Dear Daughter:  Great!  But I'm kinda sad that Smurfette did not get a boyfriend... the 3D was good, but it didn't, like, come out and grab you.  

Some dad next to us kept busting out laughing really loud 

when no one else was laughing... weird.

6 and 8 year old nieces:  AWESOME!  

BIG KIDS:  BEST movie we ever did NOT have to see!

And yes... we know we owe Sweet Son BIG time, like a big screen TV for his room kind of big time.

Now, to the good stuff...the BIG kid movie!

DISCLAIMER:  I was literally one half way through the book when we went to the movie.  Being a rather detailed person (I think some might say anal, but whatever), this drove me a little nuts... it was FRESH on my brain and when they chose to change/leave out/move around parts of the storyline (as they always do in movie adaptations) it annoyed me.  Maybe I should have finished the book first.

DESPITE my hang-ups, this was still a great movie.
Obviously, it's an important topic based in a critical time in our country's history... it is also superbly written and acted.  Oh, and be sure to bring your tissues.

As I have already mentioned in a previous Movie Monday, I am an Emma Stone fan.  I knew she was cast as Skeeter, but as I was reading the book, I was having a hard time picturing HER... she proved me so wrong.

Viola Davis (Doubt, Disturbia, Eat Pray Love)... SPOT ON as Aibileen.  Very rarely do I think the casting in a movie exactly matches the character I have in my head when I read a book... she IS Aibileen.

Octavia Spencer... BAM.  Lightning strikes twice... she IS Minny.  From my research she was mostly a bit part actor before, but I'm guessing her salary demands just went WAY up.

Cameo by Cicely Tyson as Constantine... heartbreaking and beautiful.

Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters... have you EVER seen Sissy when you didn't LOVE her?  Just sayin'.

Allison Janney as Skeeter's mom, Charlotte Phelan... love her but TOTALLY not how I pictured this character, not even close.

Bryce Dallas Howard (Opie's daughter... really, HOW did I not snap to this before?) as Hilly Holbrook was my FAVORITE of the entire movie.  She OOZES biotch.  In the book she is chubbier, probably not nearly as pretty, but she has the role of racist, snotty, close minded, elitist, spoiled Southern society witch down to a SCIENCE... not a single tiny little redeeming quality.  Delicious!

I feel the same way about this movie as I did about "The Color Purple"... if you read the book, see the movie... if you see the movie read the book.   They are different and the same and both excellent in their own right.

And just because it is Movie Monday... I watched one of the all time best movies EVER this morning (for the 3,458th time).

I don't even need to say anything, do I?

"She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen." 

-Lloyd Dobler