Movies 3, 4, and 5

This is was a good week for watching movies. I knocked three off my list this week. I think hitting 50 new movies this year won't be a problem, I've got quite the list in my library queue. And I haven't even touched my Netflix queue yet. Of course, that is full of TV series, so that won't help in this challenge, but I should still look to see what I've been putting off watching.

Last weekend, I watched two movies based on books my kids had read for school. The first was Tuck Everlastng. My daughter is reading the book for a book club her teacher started for kids who like to read. When she saw there was a movie, she wanted me to check it out of the library right away. I agreed, even though I haven't read the book, and I generally like to read the book before watching the movie. Not sure why I never read the book in grade school, but there you have it.

The movie was good. I'm not that familiar with the actors playing the kids, although I know I've seen them in other things, mostly TV, I think. The adults (William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, Ben Kingsley) were more identifiable, but the kids had to carry the show. They did a good job, and my daughter enjoyed it, even when it strayed from the book. Interesting premise that makes me want to read the book: if you could live forever, would you?

The other movie was The Mighty, based on the book Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. My middle school boys read this in class, but brought a copy home for me and my wife to read. They also watched the movie in class (and didn't really like it) but I decided to watch it anyway.

The book surprised me at the depth it had for a middle school book in exploring the friends' relationship. That depth wasn't as present in the movie. The kids (Kieran Caulkin and Elden Henson) were very good, but the characters didn't live up to my image from the books. Especially Henson's character, Max. And I'm not sure why Sharon Stone got top billing, her character (Freak's mother) wasn't that great. A good story about an unlikely childhood friendship, but you'll get more out of the book.

The third movie I watched with my wife. It was The Adjustment Bureau. I'll admit to being a fan of Matt Damon, and we have been wanting to watch another sci fi type thriller since we saw Inception last week. While not as good as Inception, this turned out to be a pretty good choice. I was a little suprised that it focused more on the romance, rather than the thriller/action, aspect of the story, but Damon and Emily Blunt worked well together. Fun story about fate and free will, too. Recommended.