Hysterical – John Travolta looks damn good as a bunny.  Uma Thurman – not so good.  Hat tip to David Beisel.

I just wasted two hours of my life.  At least I got to sit next to Amy and eat popcorn. 

As I’ve said in the past, we get two movies a week in Homer.  Friday morning comes with great anticipation as we drive past the theater marque (on the corner of Main Street and Pioneer – how fitting) to see what we get to enjoy next.  This week is War of the Worlds and Bewitched and I had low hopes for both of them.  Since we don’t have a TV here, this is all we are going to get this week (no – I haven’t broken down to watching movies on my laptop yet.) 

We gave War of the Worlds a shot tonight.  It was tragically awful.  Yeah – the special effects were good.  But H.G. Wells is screaming his head off wherever he is (or would be if you believe in an afterlife.)  The acting was marginal.  The plot was completely predictable. The Spielberg cute-heroic-screaming child did exactly what you’d expect.  The sullen teenager did exactly what you’d expect.  All the humans behaved poorly under pressure and the military was completely ineffective against the aliens. After 115 minutes of stupidity, the aliens and their machines fell over dead, humanity was saved, and the Morgan Freedman / God character got to make a stultifying speech. 

And – I’m still not entirely sure what actually happened.  Ugh – that was terrible.  Sadly, Bewitched may be the better movie of this week.

One of the treasures of Homer is our local movie theater.  It’s located on the corner of Pioneer and Main (how fitting) and is an old single seating theater.  We get two movies a week with three showings a day (3, 6, and 8:30).  The movies change every Friday so there’s a moment of excitement late Thursday night or early Friday when we drive (or run, or walk) by the marquis after the movie change.  The popcorn is fresh and parmesan cheese is 25 cents extra.

Last week’s movies were Star Wars III and The Longest Yard.  I punted Star Wars III since I’d already seen it in Boulder (and once was enough for this one – how disappointing) so Don and I went to The Longest Yard last night (gotta get it done by Thursday or you’re hosed).  The girls (Amy and Christine) had no interest so they stayed home and played with dolls or something.

Adam Sandler’s remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds original version was great.  It got predictably lousy reviews, but that’s just because the reviewers don’t appreciate the artistry of a repressed Jewish comedian in jail pretending that he is an ex-NFL superstar who got busted for shaving points, turned into a loser, and got tossed in jail for drunk driving. Sore stomach’s from 25 belly laughs and a pair of big smiles greeted Amy and Christine at Cafe Cups for dinner after the movie.

Tonight’s movie: Mr. & Mrs. Smith which we’ve already seen, but tonight is a 6pm movie night, so we’ll get to enjoy my namesake demonstrating some studly behavior while fantasizing about his girlfriend / movie-wife.

Star Wars 3 was technically beautiful, but thematically disappointing to me.  However, Seth emailed me a link to Store Wars (via his dad Randy).  You’ll have to decide whether or not you are on the dark side of the farm.  Worth a five minute break from your day.  Hang in there until the end – yogurt is delightful.

For all you 24 fans out there, Jason pointed me the 24: Season 4 Life Expectancy Chart.  Priceless.  Of course, if you aren’t a 24 fan YET, you can get started in – well – 24 hours – with 24 – Season One.  And – if you are a real masochist, try out 24 – Season Two and 24 – Season Three over Memorial Day weekend – you can take your time and watch 48 hours over three days.

To demonstrate how truly committed I am to the cause, I managed to convince Amy to let me change our flight time on Monday from Chicago to Washington DC so we could get there in time to watch the grand finale live.